TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Possessed by Paul James & Scott H. Biram

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Jan. 31, 2014

When you think of country-folk songwriters from Texas, you probably think of pickers and singers like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Flatlanders and Terry Allen. Not to mention Willie and Waylon and the boys.

Here's a couple of younger singer-songwriters from the Lone Star state whose music definitely is informed by all those greats, even though they don't sound much like your stereotypical Texas troubadours. Both these guys started out as "one-man bands," both are in their late 30s and I suspect they share a lot of the same fans. But they don't sound much like your typical one-man bands either. And come to think of it, they don't sound much like each other.

* There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely by Possessed by Paul James. Though he frequently sings like a man possessed, this singer's name isn't "Paul James." It's Konrad Wert, a preacher's son born and raised in a Mennonite family in Immokalee, Fla. “Paul James” is a combination of his father’s and grandfather’s names. Wert's day job is being a special education teacher in an elementary school.

Jeopardizing forever his standing with one-man band purists (I suppose there are some of those out there) Wert on this album is joined by by an ad hoc band on some cuts, including a couple of Texas heavyweights -- steel guitarist Lloyd Maines and harmonica honker Walter Daniels. Fortunately, the extra musicians only enhance and don't clutter Wert's sound.

Possessed fans immediately will know this record, released late last year on the Hillgrass Bluebilly label,  is a Possessed by Paul James album by the opening notes of the first song, "Hurricane." It's Wert's fiddle, screeching, but not quite abrasive, soon followed by foot-stomping and a stand-up bass, drums and well as excited yelps by Wert, perhaps an invocation to the swamp demons who haunt his music.

Wert's on the fiddle on the next tune, "Songs We Used to Sing," as well. It's upbeat with just a hint of pop in the melody, though you're not likely to hear this on commercial radio. Drummer Cary Ozanian gets a good workout on this one.

On "Heavy," Wert ditches the band and switches to banjo. "Oh this life can get heavy," he sings in the refrain. The words seem to underscore the pressure that seems to propel his soaring vocals. "Dragons," also featuring Wert on banjo, is a shambling roadhouse blues. Wert roars and growls as Daniels blows sweet riffs on his harmonica. (Wert cleverly sneaks the titles of some his earlier albums in some of the lyrics on these two. His previous record Feed the Family is referenced in the first verse of "Heavy," while in the song "Dragons" Wert sings, "You've left me Cold and Blind," a sly wink to the title of his 2008 album.)

The title song, preceded by a minute-long fiddle solo, features an even more-intense-than-usual Wert stomping, fiddling and pleading for love, even though he sees some rough times "when we cry ourselves to sleep." The darkest song here undoubtedly is the slow, minor-key "Pills Beneath Her Pillow." It's about reckless and weary lovers. The woman keeps pills under her pillow, while the man keeps guns under his.. Wert in the chorus sings "Everyone is searching for love, everyone is fighting for love, everyone is killing for love and baby, oh, I'm dying tonight ..."

My favorite song on There Will Nights at the moment is a lighter piece, a sweet love/lust tune called "38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress." With some honky-tonk steel from Maines, Wert sings, "On the golf course road down in Mexico, she's my beauty queen / She wears a pink bikini, drinks an appletini, oh she's quite the scene.

* Nothin' But Blood by Scott H. Biram. Now I doubt that Biram would ever sing the praises of a woman who drinks appletinis. He seems like he'd be more attracted to straight-whiskey types. In fact, "Only Whiskey" is the name of one of the rowdiest tunes on, this new album by gruff-voiced Biram. "Only whiskey can sleep in my bed," he growls over his distorted electric guitar. (The album is scheduled for release next week by Chicago's Bloodshot Records.)

Like the best of Biram's works, there are plenty of rip-roaring, blues-soaked, booze-fired songs on Nothin' But Blood. "Alcohol Blues," (an old Mance Lipscomb tune) with a guitar hook similar to that in Cream's version of "Crossroads" and a string of obscenities I won't even try to sneak past the editors, definitely is one. And "Around the Bend" and " Church Point Girls" might just be the first recorded one-man metal band tunes in human history. Biram on "Bend" even manages a pretty good parody of the lizard-demon voice you hear in so many death-metal bands.

While Biram sings lustily of drinking, drugging, sex and sin, there are plenty of salvation songs on Nothin' But Blood as well. "Gotta Get to Heaven" is a happy song about a guy who apparently has wrestled with his sinful ways and won. Plus, tacked on at the end of the album are three "gospel bonus tracks" including oft-covered classics like "Amazing Grace" (featuring Biram's harmonica and ambient rain sounds) a rousing "John the Revelator" and one called "When I Die," which is credited to Biram, though it sounds as if it could be a hymn from deep within the foggy realm of American folk traditions.

Speaking of cover songs Biram, performs more of them than usual on this record. Besides the ones mentioned above, he does versions of folk gems like "Jack of Diamonds," I'm Troubled," (which is credited to Doc Watson, though it sounds much older), and Willie Dixon's "Backdoor Man," which is closer to Howlin' Wolf's version than the one by The Doors.

Biram at Corazon, Santa Fe 2011

While Biram is known best for his rambunctious and sometimes raunchy material, he also is quite capable of slow, pretty acoustic songs as well. He's proved that before, of course on songs like "Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue" from Something's Wrong / Lost Forever (2009) and "Broke Ass" from 2011's Bad Ingredients. On the new album "Never Comin' Home" is a sturdy country weeper, while the minor-key "Slow and Easy" is slow, though the narrator, drinking his wine to get "that same old high" sounds anything but at ease.

But the real standout is one called "Nam Weed." It's a story of a Vietnam vet pining about the good old boys back during the war. "Long time, back in Vietnam / I had some friends that could give a damn / They'd roll 'em up and smoke 'em down / Good weed back in Vietnam ..." Here in the USA, however, the nostalgic narrator is doing time for some unspecified crime. "All my friends were over there," he laments.

Both Biram and Possessed by Paul James show that, in case anyone forgot, singer-songwriters don’t have to sound self-absorbed and that folksingers don’t have to be self-righteous And both of them also prove that Texas hasn’t stopped making top-notch troubadours.

Here's a couple of videos:

R.I.P. Pete Seeger

Anyone who knows me knows that I wasn't a big Pete Seeger fan. In fact, the very first article I ever wrote that evoked angry letters to the editor was a rather snide review of a Seeger concert at Paolo Soleri in 1980.

(An old acquaintance, Bob Stearns, reminded me of that just a few days ago. His late wife Rose Mary wrote one of those letters. We all got to be friendly not long afterward despite that disagreement.)

When it came to folk music, I always was more in the camp of rough 'n' rowdy types like Dave Van Ronk. But that's neither here nor there. I was saddened by Pete's passing.

But one thing I admired about Pete Seeger was the way he stood up to the communist witch-hunters during the McCarthy era -- even though it seriously hurt his ability to earn a living.

This from the New York Times obit for Seeger:

In 1955 he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In his testimony he said, “I feel that in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature.” He also stated: “I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.” 

Mr. Seeger offered to sing the songs mentioned by the congressmen who questioned him. The committee declined.

Mr. Seeger was indicted in 1957 on 10 counts of contempt of Congress. He was convicted in 1961 and sentenced to a year in prison, but the next year an appeals court dismissed the indictment as faulty.

Plus, I've always loved this song.


So rest in peace, Pete. You whipped a lot of old devils.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee by Sticks McGee

Bikini Girls With Machine Guns by The Cramps

The Anal Swipe by New Bomb Turks

Can't Take Em Off by Andre Williams & The New Orleans Hell Hounds

Burning Spear by Thee Oh Sees

Run Run Run by The Velvet Underground

The Fella With a Happy Heart by The Dot Wiggin Band

Church Point Girls by Scott H. Biram

Don't Look At The Hanged Man by Big Foot Chester 

Geraldine by Figures of Light

The Pissed Off Punk Rock Ex-Girlfriends Club by The Barbaraellatones

Enter/Looking Down by Lovestruck 

Voodoo Blues by Lightning Slim

Spreading the Love  Vibration by 27 Devils Joking

Blackout by Hank Haint

Sheik of Araby by Spike Jones & His City Slickers

This set feature songs from albums reviewed in Friday's Terrell's Terrell's Tuneup

The Second Generation Punks by Wild Billy Chyldish & CTMF 

You Disapprove by The Mobbs

Jukebox by Left Lane Cruiser

Cold Wind Blowin' by David Lynch

Take It Away by Pietra Wexstun & Hecate's Angels

Reverse Shark Attack by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin

And the Band Played On by Richard Thompson & Christine Collister

Louie Louie by The Flamin' Groovies
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson

La Nen La Bambele by The Pussywarmers

Drone Operator by Jon Langford
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Jan. 24, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
 OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos

All American Girl by Angry Johnny and the Killbillies

Pig Fork Jamboree by The Imperial Rooster

Georgia on a Fast Train by Billy Joe Shaver

Wang Dang Dula by Deke Dekerson & The Calvanes

Wreck on The Highway by The Waco Brothers

Reprimand by Joe West

Cuss in' in Tongues by Legendary Shack Shakers

You're Humbuggin' Me by Lefty Frizzell 

Sam Hall by Tex Ritter

Mother Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard

Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother by Cracker

The Low Road by Shooter Jennings

Pistol Pete by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Let The Jukebox Keep on Playing by Carl Perkins

38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress by Possessed-by Paul James

Jack of Diamonds by Scott H. Biram

Haley's Comet by Dave Alvin

The Beautiful Waitress by Terry Allen

Collins Cave by Phil Alvin

The 24th Hour by Ray Price

Don't You Think This Outlaw Thing Has Done Got Out of Hand by Waylon Jennings

Rumble of The Diesel by Les Claypool's Duo de Twang

Hippieville By Alvie Self

Be a Little Quiter by Porter Wagoner

Porter Wagoner's Grave by Marty Stuart

She Used to Love Me a Lot by Johnny Cash

This Town is Dead by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks

Roswell Town by Jack Clift & His Illuminati Assassination Orchestra
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP; Ones That Got Away -- Almost

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Jan. 24, 2014

Every year about this time I like to look back at some of the albums that I meant to review in this column over the past year but somehow never got around to it. There’s some good stuff here that doesn’t deserve to get left behind.

* The Big Dream by David Lynch. Back when I was becoming a fanatic for David Lynch films like Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, not to mention his pioneering TV series Twin Peaks, I never imagined that one day I’d be listening to his music. But there were hints even then that he would be responsible for some intense, crazy sounds. Julee Cruise’s mysterious and hauntingly beautiful 1989 debut, Floating Into the Night, is made up of songs composed by Angelo Badalamenti, Lynch’s soundtrack meister at the time, and lyrics by Lynch. But Lynch didn’t do a solo album until Crazy Clown Time in 2011. Though not quite as striking as that album, The Big Dream is a continuation of the shadowy, surreal electro/clunky techno of Crazy Clown Time. If anything, the new work shows more of a country influence. No, you won’t mistake it for Willie or Waylon, but Lynch’s Montana drawl makes him sound like some lost cowboy in the Black Lodge. You have to give him credit. He is one of the few performers I know who can make a lyric like “I went down to the ice-cream store” (in “We Rolled Together”) sound sinister. And, hey, Dylan completists, Lynch does a cover of “The Ballad of Hollis Brown.” It’s not hard to see how this song, based on a real murder/suicide on a South Dakota farm, would appeal to Lynch.

* All Our Forts Are With You by Wild Billy Chyldish & The CTMF. Billy Chyldish, formerly Billy Childish, formerly Steven John Hamper, proves that there’s a thin line between angry young man and grumpy old coot. The songs on this album, according to the Damaged Goods label’s website, have lyrics that go back to 1977, when Billy, then working as an apprentice stonemason in England’s Chatham dockyards, first decided that he wanted to be in a punk band. Many of the songs here seem to be dealing with the death of punk as opposed to its birth. “Three punk rockers, but the punks are dead,” Chyldish snarls in the opening song, “The Headless Flowerpot Girl.” There are songs blasting “The Second Generation Punks” as well as “The Musical Rogues,” which include Nick Cave and The Pogues. (Hey, lighten up, Billy, I like those guys!) And in the title song, Chyldish sings, “I knew you, baby, when you didn’t know punk. … I knew you baby, before the lies of coke.” In addition to the punk-history songs, Chyldish pays tribute to some spiritual mentors. “On Moonlit Heath”has lyrics by British poet A.E. Housman. Even better is a garage-rock attack on Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You.”

* All That Glitters by Pietra Wexstun & Hecate’s Angels. The third album by Hecate’s Angels is the most down-to-earth CD Pietra Wexstun has ever done — it’s not as otherworldly as Saints and Scoundrels (2004) and especially Hidden Persuader (2001). The emphasis here is on Wexstun’s warm vocals. (Unlike those previous albums, none of the 11 songs on Glitters are instrumentals.) When I say “down-to earth,” I’m speaking relatively. There are plenty of spooky atmospherics, mysterioso lyrics, and outright weirdness here. It’s easy to imagine strange little movies in your mind when listening to her songs. “When The Boys Come Out to Play,” with its ghostly background choruses, ominous melody, and what sounds like a sample of some radio preacher ranting in the background, could almost be the girl cousin of Brian Eno and David Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Wexstun goes from bossa nova (“Dragging Me Down”) to white funk in “She Done Him Right (Mae West Sutra).” On “Lonesome Stranger” she makes a hammer dulcimer sound like a Martian lyre. My favorite is the opening song, “Take It Away,” which might be described as “rock noir.” I bet Wexstun’s husband, Stan Ridgway (who plays guitar on the album), wishes he’d written this tune.

* Rock Them Back to Hell by Left Lane Cruiser. This is a two-man trash/blues/stompband from Indiana. Like the Black Keys before them, singer/guitarist Frederick Joe Evans IV and drummer/ harmonica honker Brenn Beck have worshipped at the altar of Mississippi hill-country bluesmen like T. Model Ford and R.L. Burnside. Unlike The Black Keys, Cruiser has retained its primitive raunch. Yet the band is not afraid to play it pretty every so often, such as on the sweet and soulful “Coley.”

* Stiff Upper Lip and Trousers to Match by The Mobbs. “Blast Off!!!” — the raucous first track on this album — immediately reminded me of The Hives at the height of their glory. That is, if The Hives had thick Northampton accents. Yes, the guitar/bass/drums garage/punk attack is nothing new. But these guys play it with enthusiasm and humor. They’ve got some fine songs, “The Devil Writhed In,” “Crule Britannia” (is this a nod to the Bonzo Dog Band?), and “A Damned Good Thrashing!” among them.



* The Beautiful Old: Turn of the Century Songs by various artists. This collection, with musical production by Gabriel Rhodes, consists of covers of great old parlor songs from America and the British Isles. The best of these are “The Band Played On”sung by Richard Thompson and Christine Collister. (How could anyone not love this tale of Casey and his strawberry blonde?); “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” by Graham Parker (I still like the version in the Popeye cartoon best, but Parker does a decent job. I never knew this song had so many verses.); and “After the Ball” by Dave Davies (the ex-Kink captures the heartache at the center of this song). By the way, Garth Hudson, former keyboardist of The Band, plays on all three of these plus several more on the album.

* Reverse Shark Attack by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin. If last year’s Segall album, Sleeper, was a little too soft and introspective for fans of his usual hopped-up lo-fi garage squall, this might be the perfect antidote. Originally released in 2009, the album was rereleased by the In the Red label early last year. With bassist/vocalist Cronin, Segall rips through eight songs with joyful fury. About half are less than two minutes long, but the final track, the title song, is a 10-minute adventure that alternates between quiet, loud, and louder. And if you missed my recent blog post about it, here’s some good news for local Segall fans. He’s playing at High Mayhem in Santa Fe on March 18 and at Albuquerque’s Launchpad the following night.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

U
Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

New Big Prinz by The Fall

Todo Lo Voy a Romper by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!

Sick Boys by Social Distortion 

Doctor Doctor by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin

I Hold My Breath by The Mobbs

Little Gold by The Copper Gamins

Overtaken by Left Lane Cruiser

Alcohol Blues by Scott H. Biram

Search and Destroy by Iggy Pop

Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys

Always Flying by Thee Oh Sees
Someone I Once Knew by Paul Westerberg

Go-Go Girls by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs 

Up Side by Question Mark & The Mysterians
What It's All About by The Goon Mat & Lord Bernardo

Riot on Sunset Strip by The Standells 
Goin' on Down to the BBQ by Drywall

Always Maybe by The Black Angels

Mean Heart by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

The Musical Rogues by Wild Billy Chyldish & CTMF 

Get Happy by Simon Stokes

Hully Gully by The Beach Boys

Blow Um Mau Mau by The Monsters

Rebecca Rodifer by The Gaunga Dyns

One Red Rose by The Blasters

Teenage Maniac by The Spook Lights

The Ballad of Hollis Brown by David Lynch

Floating by Julee Cruise

Dark, Dark Dark by The Mekons

God's Magic Finger by The Residents

When the Boys Come Out to Play by Pietra Wexstun 

La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaff

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Jan. 17, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
 OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Only Whiskey by Scott H. Biram

Bloody Mary Morning by Willie Nelson & Wynonna Judd

Only 13 by DM Bob & The Deficits

Hold the Phone by Hank Penny

Keep the Motor Hot by Sam Nichols & The Melody Rangers
Shake a Leg by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars

Tennessee by The Last Mile Ramblers

Tennessee By The Reigning Sound

Pink Pedal Pushers by Carl Perkins

The Better Half by Junior Brown
Don't Start Cryin' Now by Hasil Adkins

The Battle of New Orleans by Les Claypool's Duo de Twang

Easy Payment Blues by Roy Hogsed

My True Love by Mama Rosin

Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun by Dave Dudley

Perfect Mess by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Casey Caught the Cannonball by Jimbo Mathus

Let's Go to Lubbock on Vacation by Brennan Leigh & Noel McKay

Much Too Young for Love by Barney Burcham 
Champ of Champs by Jackie Fargo

Funky Tonk by Moby Grape

Might Crash by Boris McCutcheon & The Saltlicks

Shadows Where the Magic Was by James Hand
Hogtied Over You by Tennessee Ernie Ford & Ella Mae Morse

It's Music That Matters by Southern Culture on the Skids

I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugene Chadbourne 

Crazy Date by T. Tex Edwards

Chris Isaak by Lydia Loveless

Burn, Burn, Burn by Ronny Elliott

Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen

Busted by Wanda Jackson

Jack's Truck Stop & Cafe by Dale Watson

Songs We Used to Sing by Possessed by Paul James

Fare Thee Well ( Dink's Song) by Oscar Isaac & Marcus Mumford

Reckless Blues by Dave Van Ronk

Wish I Could by Marlee McLeod
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL's TUNE-UP: A Quarter Century of TUNE-UP

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Jan. 17 , 2014

People my age/They don’t do the things I do.
— Neil Young from “I’m the Ocean”

One day I took part in a focus-group exercise for Pasatiempo in a meeting room in a local hotel. People representing various communities of interest told us writers and editors what they thought about the publication, what we were doing right, what we were doing wrong, how we could improve, blah blah blah.

A young local musician was among the participants. She seemed a little nervous when she started to speak. “Uh, with all due respect to Steve, I think you should get another music writer, uh, in addition to Steve, who’s, uh, a little bit younger.”

That was in the early ’90s, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years ago.

Actually, I agreed with her that we needed a younger perspective as well as my codgerly insights. And Pasatiempo indeed has had some younger music writers since then. But they’ve yet to put the old one out to pasture.

And this month marks the 25th anniversary of this column, first published in these pages on Jan. 6, 1989.

OK, I normally hate first-person music articles in which a writer regales readers with fabulous tales of ME. But this is my 25th anniversary, so indulge me a little, and I promise not to do this again until my 50th.

"Come, little white boy, to the world
of rock 'n' roll ..."

Although I was hired at The New Mexican in 1987 to cover City Hall, I wrote an occasional music feature for the paper before “Tune-Up.” After all, I had begun my illustrious journalism career at The Santa Fe Reporter as a music writer. In fact, I decided I wanted to do this for a living after my first interview, when I got roaring drunk with folk monster Dave Van Ronk. I even wrote a few music stories during my three years at The Journal North, the high point of that period being meeting and interviewing Bo Diddley after I arranged for Mayor Louis Montano to make him an honorary Santa Fean.

But most important, I’ve been obsessed with rock ’n’ roll ever since I first heard the call of the wild — in my case The Coasters singing “Yakety Yak” — when I was 4 or 5. Normal American guys follow sports and watch games during their leisure hours. I’d rather seek out and listen to weird music. I’ve always been this way.

Right before “Tune-Up,” I wrote regular record reviews at this paper during my brief, unhappy stint as assistant city editor in 1988. My duties included putting together a features section and filling it with stories from news wires. We ran several national-wire album reviews, but after a few weeks I decided I could do better myself. (A big part of what I didn’t like about being an editor was that I really missed writing.)

So I took it upon myself to write a review of Brian Wilson, the first solo album by the genius behind The Beach Boys, produced by his Svengali/ shaman/shrink Dr. Eugene Landy. (Say what you want about the disgraced doc’s methods and ethics, I still think that was Wilson’s greatest solo work, at least until the re-created Smile album a few years ago.)

After I wrote several album reviews for my features section, Denise Kusel, editor of Pasatiempo at the time, asked if I would like my own album-review column in the magazine. Denise convinced me that a lot more people would see my work in Pasa. She was right.

My first column was a review of Fisherman’s Blues by a band called The Waterboys. The headline was “A Band to Watch.” (I watched, but The Waterboys didn’t do much remarkable after Fisherman’s Blues.)

The next week I reviewed I Am Kurious Oranj by The Fall. Now that’s a band I’m still watching. I’ve spilled a lot of ink over Mark E. Smith and his ever-changing lineup of Fall guys, most recently last June.

Technically, “Terrell’s Tune-Up” didn’t debut until a few weeks after I started writing my column for Pasa. Originally the column was called “Pandemonium Jukebox” (also the name of a song I wrote and an album I did in the early ’80s), but for reasons I still don’t understand, the managing editor of The New Mexican hated the name and said it had to change. (Strangely enough, when I first started doing a radio show at KSFR-FM in 1993, I wanted to call it “Pandemonium Jukebox,” but the station manager at the time vetoed that idea. What’s with these guys?)

So I came up with “Tune-Up,” and that’s what it’s been ever since. The joke at the time was that if I ever got sick of writing about music, I could make it an automotive-tips column. Fortunately that hasn’t happened yet, which is definitely a good thing, because I know nothing about auto mechanics.

Back in ’89, not much of the music I liked was being played on commercial radio and not many of the musicians I liked were ever seen on prime-time television. Of course, that’s all changed after 25 years. Now virtually none of the stuff I like ever gets played there. If I were a politician, my opponent would accuse me of being “out of the mainstream,” and I wouldn’t be able to deny it.

While occasionally I’ll review some new work by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, or Brian Wilson, I’ve always felt the main purpose of this column was to expose people to music that you don’t get spoon-fed by corporate radio. I often fantasize about a world in which the best-selling, most famous, and most popular musicians are those like Tom Waits, Swamp Dogg, Reverend Beat-Man, Thee Oh Sees, and Southern Culture on the Skids.

But then I think, naw … real art, real music thrives best in the underground. I wish my musical heroes made a little more money. But hell, I wish I made a little more money. It’s good to keep things on a human scale.

Learn your children well

That’s one reason you don’t read very many negative reviews in “Tune-Up.” I’d much rather turn readers on to music I love than waste precious time and column inches on stuff I can’t stand. The ultimate bad review, I’ve always figured, is no review at all.

So for me, this month is a time for joyous celebration. But instead of sending me presents (I’ve been leery of presents from readers ever since someone upset over a bad review of a Stevie Ray Vaughan album sent me a Fleet ready-to-use enema), find a young person in your life and expose himor her to some Howlin’ Wolf or Johnny Cash or The Pixies or Black Joe Lewis or Question Mark & The Mysterians. Or The Fall. Make sure they know the call of the wild.

Alvin Bros. with Terry Allen in Corrales, Ty Segall in SF & ABQ

Phil Alvin with Rev. Horton Heat and Los Lobos
July 4, 2009 Hootenanny Festival

I don't write about every concert that comes to town, but these two upcoming shows caught my eye.

Dave and Phil Alvin -- yes the brothers behind the original blasters -- are scheduled to do an April 26 show with Santa Fe's own Terry Allen at San Ysidro Church, 966 Old Church Rd. in Corrales.

Southwest Roots Music is describing the show as "an evening of acoustic song swapping, jabs, jokes, pokes, and a deep dive into the American roots music catalog."

I've seen all these guys play separately -- Phil with The Blasters at the 2009 Hootenanny Festival in southern California -- but never together. But come to think of it, one time at a Terry Allen at La Zona Rosa in Austin, I saw Dave Alvin in the audience. He looked like he was having a good time, but we all were.

Ty Segall with beloved TV star Ratso

Tickets to the Corrales show are $22 advance, $25 door. You can order online HERE.

Another show that sounds great is garagepunk hero Ty Segall, who apparently is playing the High Mayhem in Santa Fe (2811 Siler Lane) on Tuesday March 18 and the Launchpad in Albuquerque the next night.

I just stumbled on this a couple of days ago on Ty's website and don't have ticket prices or other details. (I haven't heard anything about this from High Mayhem)

1st BIG ENCHILADA of 2014

It's the first Big Enchilada Podcast episode of the year. Listen up and get those January Jitters! Shake it up!

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Are You Nervous by The Instrumentals )
Happy New Year by Spike Jones & His City Slickers
What You Need by Thee Oh Sees
Prostitution by Tiger Sex 
Rock 'n' Roll Victim by Death
Sand Surfin' by The Four Dimensions

(Background Music: Nervous Boogie by Paul Gayten)
I Should Have Been in Art School by Wild Billy Chyldish & CTMF
Hot Rod Man by Sexton Ming
Drop Dead Baby by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin
Too Much Love by Harlan T. Bobo
The Pissed-Off Punk Rock Ex-Girlfriend's Club by The Barbarellatones
Border Town Blues by Long John Hunter
Sputnik Hires a Band by Sputnik Monroe

(Background Music: Chi-Wa-Wa by The Fortunes)
Timothy by The Nervebreakers
Fruta Podrida by Way y Los Arrrghs!!!
Banana Bike by Dot Wiggin Band
King Rat by Night Beats
Woke Up in a Police Car by The Oblivians
Long Gone Sister by New Bomb Turks
Sun Can't Be Seen No More by David Lynch


Streamin' atcha, screamin' atcha below:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Drop Dead Baby by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin

Sweet n Sour by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

School is For Donkeys by Will Crum

Blue Cirque by The Bell Rays

Music Tribalist by Wild Billy Chyldish & CTMF 
50 Foot Queenie by PJ Harvey

Bite the Bed by Glambilly
Too Hot Blues by Heart Attack Alley

Politicians in My Eyes by Death

Working Man's Friend by Hickoids

Car Crash by Churchwood

Be So Fine by Left Lane Cruiser

Thunderbird Esq by The Gories

Cranked Up Really High by The Grannies

Sittin' Shotgun by Daddy Longlegs

Into the Primitive by The Future Primitives

Man in the Box by Les Claypool's Duo de Twang

Block of Ice by Thee Oh Sees

Gris by Holy Wave

I Want You by David Lynch

Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company

Border Town Blues by Long John Hunter

The Times They Are a Changin' by The Beach Boys

Obviously Five Believers by Big Foot Chester

Sho is Cold by Chuck E. Weiss

Those Four Walls by Irma Thomas

Divorce Decree by Doris Duke

The Gypsy by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs

Come on Up to the House by Tom Waits

True Love by Tiny Tim with Miss Sue

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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World Premier of "Satan's Bride"

This Friday night is the world premier of the thrilling music video for Gregg Turner's love song for the ages, "Satan's Bride."

Turner had too much fun at the wedding

The event, which starts 10:30 pm is at George R.R. Martin's Jean Cocteau Cinema. Admission is free (!)

It will feature a screening of the video, plus live musical performances by Turner and myself. (Because of my recent wrist ailment, my brother Jack Clift will be playing guitar for me.)

The lovely Kristina Pardue as The Bride, Turner as himself and me, making my music video debut, as The Man Downstairs himself.

Following our little show, the Cocteau's midnight movie is Ed Woods' 1953 classic Glen or Glenda.

Be there!

(Hear Turner's song below. Memorize the lyrics so you can sing along Friday night)






UPDATE: Here's the video


Satan's Bride by Gregg Turner from Jim Snowden on Vimeo.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Happy New Year by Spike Jones & His City Slickers
Laugh it Off by The Fleshtones

He Looks Like a Psycho by The Electric Mess

Automatic Schmuck by The Hives

Voodoo Moonshine by Deadbolt
The Price of Love by The Plimsouls

Licking the Frog by Manby's Head
Bennie and The Jets by Hickoids
As You Want by Night Beats

23rd and Stout by Chuck E. Weiss

Satan's Bride by Gregg Turner

Young Girls by Black Joe Lewis
Zombie Blocked by Left Lane Cruiser

Jesus' Chariot by Neil Young & Crazy Horse 

Drugband Blues by Holy Wave

Laugh at Me by The Devil Dogs

The Collector by The Everly Brothers

Tell Me Again by The Flamin' Groovies

Mystery Plane by The Cramps

Star Dream Girl by David Lynch 

Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson

Deputy Dog by The Great Gaylord & The Friggs

Okie, Arkie  and Tex by Billy Joe Winghead 

Speed Limit by Dot Wiggin Band

A Damn Good Thrashing by The Mobbs 

NoOne Cares by Gaunga Dyns

The Ballad of Dwight Fry Alice Cooper

I Kissed Your Face by Swamp Dogg

Ha Ha (Laughing Song) by Z.Z. Hill

You're the Dog by Irma Thomas

Unfriendly World by Iggy & The Stooges

There's No Other Like My Baby by The Beach Boys

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Jan. 3, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
 OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos

Busted by Two Tons of Steel

Booze Farm by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks

Idiot's Revenge by The Bottle Rockets

Shotgun Boogie by Sleepy LaBeef

Hard Lesson to Learn by Shooter Jennings

Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus by Jessi Colter

Overture: Dirtweed by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers

Hillbilly Hippie by Homer & Jethro

Hang Me, Oh Hang Me by Oscar Isaac

Ace in the Hole by Dave Van Ronk

Okie From Muskogee by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugene Chadbourne 
SLC by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Swampblood  by Legendary Shack Shakers
Moonshine and Dope by Wink Keziah

Lovin' Ducky Daddy by Carolina Cotten 
Miss Froggy by Warren Smith

R.I.P. Phil Everly

All songs by The Everly Brothers except where noted

Kentucky

Ebony Eyes

Take a Message to Mary by Bob Dylan

Born Yesterday

Love Hurts by. Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris

The Price of Love by Buddy Miller

I'm Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail 

Gone Gone Gone by Robert Plant & Allison Krauss

Bowling Green

I'm Barely Hangin' On by. Johnny Paycheck

She Even Woke Me Up to Day Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis

Another Lonely Heart by Eleni Mandell

Cheater's World by Amy Allison & The Maudlins 

Woodpecker by The Handsome Family

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BEST OF 2013

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 27, 2013

I recently read a funny article on Cracked.com titled “4 Common Music Arguments and What They Really Mean.” The very first argument struck me as I was compiling my annual best-albums list: “There Is No Good Music Anymore.” According to Cracked, what people who say this are really saying is “I don’t know how to use a computer.”

“Look, thanks to the Internet, there is good everything available pretty much everywhere,” Cracked contributor Adam Tod Brown writes. “And nothing is easier to find than new music. … It’s not rocket science. You can find anything on the Internet, and bands making music you enjoy are no exception.”

I’m aware that most people haven’t heard the music on this list or even heard of many of the artists I enjoyed in 2013. And sadly, record stores are scarce in these parts these days. So get yourself to a computer and check out any of my of my selections that sound interesting. And if you like any of them, buy the darn things.

Top 10 in 2013

John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees
in Albuquerque

* Floating Coffin by Thee Oh Sees. This one’s a rocker, and I knew right away that it would end up high on my year-end list. It became the benchmark against which I measured all contenders.
Most of the songs have happy, catchy melodies that make you want to sing along. However, just below the surface there seems to be something sinister lurking. Just look at the cover. There’s a bunch of ripe red strawberries — delicious looking, except for vampire teeth and eyeballs peering out. Singer/guitarist/frontman John Dwyer has said, “These songs occur in the mind-set of a world that’s perpetually war-ridden. Overall, it’s pretty dark.”

Thee Oh Sees came to Albuquerque in November and performed a mighty show. But as I began preparing this list there came some bad news: The band is going on an “indefinite hiatus.” Dwyer is moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, while keyboardist and vocalist Brigid Dawson is leaving for Santa Cruz. The one spot of good news is that Thee Oh Sees will be releasing a new album — hopefully not their final one — early next year.

* Vanishing Point by Mudhoney. Sometimes I wish it would have been Mudhoney instead of Nirvana to carry the banner back in the days when the flannel flew. I’d argue that Steve Turner is a better guitarist than Kurt Cobain was. Mark Arm’s lyrics have lots more humor than those of Cobain. Musically, Mudhoney drew far more from garage, psychedelic rock, and The Stooges than Nirvana did. Two decades after the glory days of grunge, Mudhoney has recorded one of its finest albums ever.

Black Joe in Santa Fe

* Electric Slave by Black Joe Lewis. This is the hardest-edged record so far in Lewis’ short but thrilling catalog. Electric Slave is raw, punk-infused electric blues rock — less jive and more wallop. Unlike his earlier records, this one was released under Lewis’ name alone, not with his band The Honeybears. While the Honeybear horn section is still here, the soul and funk elements of Lewis’ early work are less apparent.

* Merles Just Want to Have Fun by Bryan & the Haggards with Dr. Eugene Chadbourne. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Merle Haggard fans who came across this album went away thinking that these guys were making fun of ol’ Hag considering some of the off-key horns and Bizarro World solos. But that’s not true. Eugene Chadbourne, an avant-garde guitarist, and sax maniac Bryan Murray just want to have fun. And even though Hag didn’t do it this a-way, this is a sincere tribute done with smiles on faces and love in hearts.

Barrence in Santa Fe 2009

* Dig Thy Savage Soul by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. After a powerful comeback album (Savage Kings) a couple of years ago, Boston’s — perhaps the world’s — greatest R & B/punk-rock band shows the savagery continues. Once again the group gives us a near-perfect collection of songs for those who like a little garage rock in their soul music or a lot of soul in their garage.

* Desperation by The Oblivians. The first studio album by this Memphis trio in 16 years isfull of humor, passion, and lo-fi crazy slop, with echoes of soul, blues, rockabilly, and of course, wild, unfettered garage rock. There are even a few somewhat melodious tunes that almost suggest a certain tenderness.

* Pura Vida Conspiracy by Gogol Bordello. “Borders are scars on the face of the planet,” frontman Eugene Hütz sings in his thick Ukrainian accent on “We Rise Again,” the opening song. And where better to make such a proclamation than in El Paso, a real live border town? That’s where this New York-based multinational group recorded this rousing album.

* Wilderness by The Handsome Family. Once again Brett and Rennie Sparks have made a mysterious, dark, and alluring album. We wouldn’t expect any less from them. The melodies are mostly pretty, sentimental, and frequently sad, with sweet harmonies. Most tunes remind me of old folk songs or parlor music from some century gone by. But when you allow the lyrics to sink in, you realize there’s a lot more going on here than sweet nostalgia.

* Sonic Bloom by Night Beats. Here’s the psychedelic album of the year, a good-time rock ’n’ roll journey to the center of the mind. The Night Beats’ sound has several discernible DNA strands in addition to psychedelia. You’ll hear bits of T. Rex as well as The Velvet Underground and even echoes of 1960s soul music.

Hickoids in Austin this week

* Hairy Chafin’ Ape Suit by The Hickoids. Mamas don’t let your little babies grow up to be cowpunks. This record is a raw, trashy gas, a drunken joy ride down Thunder Road all the way to Armageddon.

Honorable mention:

* Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-blooey by The Dirtbombs
* Gone Away Backward by Robbie Fulks
* Old World’s Ocean by The Calamity Cubes!
* Haunted Head by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
* Divided & United: Songs of the Civil War by various artists
* Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels
* The Dinosaur Truckers (self-titled)
* Re-Mit by The Fall
* Bottom of the World by Terry Allen
* El Valiente by Piñata Protest (This might have landed in the Top 10 had it been a full album, not just a 15-minute EP.)

Reissues/archival releases of the year:

* The South Side of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles, 1967-1976 by various artists
* Honky Tonk Man: Buck Sings Country Classics by Buck Owens
* Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) by Bob Dylan
* Los Nuggetz: ’60s Garage & Psych From Latin America by various artists.
* I’m a Loser by Doris Duke. (This is my favorite album released as part of Alive/Natural Sound’s Swamp Dogg archives series. Too Many People in One Bed by Sandra Phillips, The Brand New Z.Z. Hill, and the self-titled Wolfmoon also are fine examples of late ’60s, early ’70s deep Southern soul. There’s also one in the series I haven’t heard yet by Irma Thomas. It’s hard to imagine that one not being worthy as well.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Suddenly It's Christmas by Loudon Wainwright III

Beaver Fever by The Brain Eaters

Gravedigger by Billy Joe Winghead

Some Velvet Morning by The Frontier Circus

Oblivian by The Oblivians 

White Light/White Heat by Lou Reed

Christmas Out of Sight (Wonder) by New Mystery Girl

Gloria by Elastica
The Witch by Los Peyotes
Sing This Song of Joy by Mudhoney 

Santa Won't You Please Bring Me Some Beer by The Mojo Gurus

Crazy For You by La La Brooks

Milwaukee's Beast by Slab City
Let's Snap by The Mobbs

Hey Santa Claus by The Moonglows

Paralyze Ya by Left Lane Cruiser

Why You Leave Me by T. Valentine & Daddy Long Legs

Six Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies

Sand Surfin' by The Four Dimensions

Border Town Blues by Long John Hunter

Don't Need You No More by The Outer Limits

When You Were Mine by. The Morfomen 

El Vampiro by Los Vampiranos 

Love's Made a Fool of You by The Bobby Fuller Four

BC Clark's Anniversary Sale

We Got the Eggnog if You Got the Whiskey by Hickoids

Jinglecide by The Rockin' Guys

Father Christmas is Dressed in Green by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire

I Was on the Bozo Show by Nobunny

Stick a Fork in It by Lovestruck 

Daddy's Gone toBed by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages

Chokin' Kind by Z.Z. Hill

The Season 's Upon Us by Dropkick Murphys 

Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope by Sonic Youth

That Feel by Ze'ev Tene

Lucky Day by Tom Waits

Substitute CLOSING THEME: Oh Holy Night by Brian Wilson

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Dec. 20, 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
 OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
How You Want It Done by Big Bill

They Call Me Country by DM Bob & The Deficits

I Guess I'm Crazy For Loving You by Werly Fairburn

Polk Salad Annie by Jason & The Scorchers

Ole Rattler by Long John Hunter
The Crawdad Song by The Meat Purveyors

Moonshine Still by Jack Holt

Live Fast, love Hard, Die Young by Faron Young

Hard Rain's Gonna Fall by Paul Burch & The Waco Brothers

Liquored Up by Southern Culture on the Skids 

Closing Time / Take a Letter Maria by The Pleasure Barons

Hawkeye Jordan by Jimbo Mathis

Songs We Used to Sing by Possessed by Paul James

Ain't That a Mess by Al Miller & His Swing Stompers

Making Believe by Social Distortion

Everybody's Sweetheart by Art Gibson & His  Mountain Melody Boys

Bright Lights and Blonde Haired Women / There's No Fool Like a Young Fool by Ray Price

I Hung It Up by Junior Brown

Something's Gonna Get Us All by Earl Poole Ball

Merry Christmas From the Family by Robert Earl Keen

Christmas in Southgate by Ry Cooder
Lonesome Road Blues by Ernest Stoneman

Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You by Sally Timms

Rose of the Summer by Robbie Fulks

Wildebeest by The Handsome Family

The Christians and the Pagans by Dar Williams

Someday by Blaze Foley

Old Toy Trains by Roger Miller 
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Some NM Musical History from Norton Records

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 20 , 2013

UPDATED 12-23-13 (Check below the videos)

Two recent compilations from Norton Records hit close to home. Well, two or three hundred miles or so from home. El Vampiro, which is all instrumental surf rock from 1963 and 1964, and Sand Surfin’, which includes surf music as well as garage-band snot-rock from the mid-1960s, are the latest entries in Norton’s El Paso Rock series (Volumes 8 and 9, respectively).

The name of this series isn’t quite accurate. These “El Paso” albums include several New Mexico bands as well as labels and recording studios from our enchanted land. Indeed, these impressive collections provide a great introduction to the rock ’n’ roll side of three influential southern New Mexico record labels operated by giants of New Mexico’s musical history.

Let’s start off with Goldust Records of Las Cruces, which was owned and operated by Emmit Brooks, who still runs the Goldust recording studio, releasing more than 100 singles in its day. A 2011 profile in the Las Cruces Sun News noted that Brooks is a country musician himself, playing bass and singing with a touring band called The Aggie Ramblers from 1957 to 1975. Before he opened the studio, Brooks recorded an original country song called “Peach Blossoms” at Petty Studios in Clovis (most famous for recording the lion’s share of Buddy Holly’s hits).

Goldust was the home of a Las Cruces band called The Four Dimensions, which provides the title song of Sand Surfin’. It’s about the joys of riding plywood planks down the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument: “Down in the wastelands of New Mexico/Where there’s a definite lack of H2O/The kids get their kicks in this barren land/When they go surfin’ on pure white sand.”

In an interview for the website Garage Hangover a few years ago, Dimension Jack Starkey recalled his Goldust days. “We had a great relationship with Emmit, and he shared in the cost and profit of the record (I don’t think there was any profit). We backed other performers at the studio also.”

Goldust is also the label that released “Don’t Need You No More” by The Outer Limits, also on Sand Surfin’. The liner notes say the (unidentified) lead singer was frequently compared to Roky Erickson. I don’t hear 13th Floor Elevators in the song so much as I hear the melancholy folk rock of The Beau Brummels (“Laugh Laugh,” “Just a Little”). Though not included on the Norton compilations, Santa Fe’s Morfomen also recorded at least a couple of tracks for Goldust in the ’60s.

Starkey, in that Garage Hangover interview, also talks about hanging out with other Las Cruces and El Paso rockers of the day at The Lobby in Juárez, where he watched and undoubtedly picked up licks and tricks from bluesman Long John Hunter, who recorded with Yucca Records of Alamogordo.

A couple of years ago, Norton Records acquired Yucca’s entire catalog, including music that never saw the light of day. Nortonville’s blog describes Yucca as “a star in Norton’s ever growing constellation of able labels. Yucca’s output in the 1950’s and 1960’s is equaled by the number of world-class recordings that sat in the can for fifty years.”

It was headed by the late Calvin Boles, who, like Emmit Brooks, was a country musician. With a voice like Ernest Tubbs’, he played in a band called The Rocket City Playboys. Yucca recorded some great rock, country, and blues sounds in the 1950s and ’60s.

The best-known artist to record with Yucca was an El Paso singer named Bobby Fuller, who released two singles on the label in 1962. Not long afterward, Fuller would hit it big with “I Fought the Law.” Fuller’s music makes up the first three volumes in the El Paso Rock series.

Among Yucca’s classics is a politically incorrect 1961 rockabilly single by Big Lloyd Dalton & The El Paso Trail Blazers called “Thees Plane Ees Mine.” It was inspired by Antulio Ramirez Ortiz’s hijacking of a National Airlines flight to Cuba that year, eight years or so before hijacking planes to Cuba became a national plague. Unfortunately Dalton’s song hasn’t yet been reissued by Norton. I hope they rectify that situation.

El Vampiro has five tracks, some previously unreleased, from Yucca by The Monarcs, featuring guitarist Tim Taylor. The best Monarcs song is the slow, eerie, whammy-bar heavy “Forever Lost.”

The other Yucca acts represented on these recent El Paso Rock compilations are: Steve Cooper & The Avantis, whose stinging 1966 instrumental “Sky Diver” is on Sand Surfin’; Las Cruces guitarist Chuck Sledge, who has three previously unissued instrumentals, including his version of “La Bamba,” on El Vampiro; The Pitiful Panics, whose low and slow “Why I Cry” on Sand Surfin’ is as full of teenage yearning as the title suggests; and The Fortunes, an Alamogordo band whose “Chi-Wa-Wa,” which is on El Vampiro, was a favorite of the late Steve Crosno, a DJ on the popular KELP station in El Paso (a religious station these days). Crosno used it as the background music leading up to the news breaks during his show.

Crosno was perhaps El Paso’s major go-to rock ’n’ roll figure of the ’60s. In addition to his radio show, he had an American Bandstand-like TV show in El Paso and promoted concerts in the area. And he’s also responsible for the third New Mexico label and studio to be featured on these albums, the slightly more obscure Frogdeath Records. Yes, decades before New Mexico had Frogville Records, it had Frogdeath Records.

Crosno, who died of cancer in 2006, operated Frogdeath out of his home in University Park (part of the Las Cruces area). Crosno’s goofy sense of humor was apparent in Frogdeath’s logo. It was a parody of RCA-Victor’s logo — Nipper the dog listening to “his master’s voice” on a Victrola. Frogdeath had a frog instead of a dog. And right above the poor creature’s head was a boot, apparently ready to stomp.

Sand Surfin’ includes the first Frogdeath single, “Wipe In” by The Imposters. This is basically a parody of The Surfaris’ hit “Wipe Out,” down to the crazy laugh that opens that record. (There’s another song on this album, “Bogus” by The Scavengers, which sounds like a slowed-down version of “Wipe Out.”)

Also on Sand Surfin’ is the instrumental “Mr. Big” by The Four Frogs. According to the liner notes of the album, one of the Four Frogs, Colin Flannigan, also has a song here — “You Came to Me,” a Beatles-ish rocker he recorded for a different label, Suemi, under the pseudonym Dave Caflan. Frogdeath also released “When Will I Find Her,” a fuzzy garage rocker by Mike Renolds (real name Reynolds) backed by The Infants of Soul.

And while its records weren’t released on Frogdeath, a Las Cruces band called The Key Men was produced by Crosno. The group’s instrumentals “Sun-Burstin’” and “Up to News” are on El Vampiro.

Southern New Mexico and El Paso are very rarely, if indeed ever, mentioned as major rock ’n’ roll meccas of the ’60s. But these compilations show that this area was bursting with crazy energy back in those daysin those days.

Here's some songs from those three New Mexico labels. There are some more Youtubes from Yucca Records on this old blog post.








UPDATE 12-23-13

Santa Fe musician Flash Swank sent me this anecdote after reading this column. I'm copying it here with his permission.

Sometime around 11 years ago I was working on a small job in Alamogordo. My rental car had a CD player, and I was coincidentally listening to Long John Hunter on what I believe was one of the early Norton records  “El Paso Rock” series. I had recently been exposed to Long John by seeing him at one of the free blues shows at the recently built Camel Rock Casino, and had purchased the CD after seeing a review in Vintage Guitar magazine.

One night I remembered that the tunes I was listening to were recorded in Alamogordo, and I reread the excellent liner notes on the Norton release. When I got back to the motel, I got out the phone book to see if Calvin Boles was still listed there. He was. I spent some time wondering if he would welcome a cold call from someone he had never met. His wife answered, and put Calvin on the line.


I opened with an apology for bothering him, but it turned out that he loved getting the call. He was in declining health and on dialysis, but loved talking about Yucca Records and the old days. He really got energized talking about music. When we were saying goodbye, he said he was going to warm up the garage and write some songs.

Pussy Riot Home For Christmas?

Two members of the punk band Pussy Riot jailed in the Soviet Union, uh, I mean Russia, will be freed under an amnesty plan that includes the release of 30 environmental activists, jolly old Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, are serving a two-year sentences for their "punk prayer"  in Moscow's main cathedral last year.

A third Pussy Rioter who was convicted for the protest, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal last year.

"I feel sorry for Pussy Riot not for the fact that they were jailed, but for disgraceful behavior that has degraded the image of women,” Putin said during his annual televised news conference.

There's no truth to the rumor that the Pussy Riot members were released as a part of a prisoner exchange program involving the U.S. instrumental band Los Straitjackets.

To celebrate their release, here's some Pussy Riot. The song is called "Putin Lights Up the Fires."

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas From The Big Enchilada!

Merry Christmas, my dear young friends! Once again  the Big Enchilada is going to rock your stockings off. Roll your Yule logs and hang your little balls on the tree. The War on Christmas never sounded so good.

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: O Christmas Tree by Brave Combo)
Beatnik's Wish by Patsy Ray & The Beatniks
We Got the Eggnog If You Got the Whiskey by Hickoids
Jail by The Rockin' Guys
Father Christmas is Dressed in Green by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of The British Empire
Nothin' But Tears Under My Christmas Tree by Thee Fine Lines
I Wanna Spend Christmas with Elvis by Marlene Paul
Hey Santa Claus by The Moonglows
(Background Music: Deck the Halls by The Klezmonauts)

Groovy Christmas and New Year by Kojo Donkoh & Pee Pee Dynamite
My Mom and Santa (Twistin') by George Jones
I Still Believe in Christmas by The Fleshtones
Poncho Claus by El Vez
Christmas Cheer by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
The Season's Upon Us by Dropkick Murphys
(Background Music: Jingle Bells by Gene Krupa & Charlie Ventura )

Christmas Outta Site (Wonder) by New Mystery Girl
Santa on the Roof by Reverend Horton Heat
I Know What You Want For Christmas by Kay Martin & Her Body Guards
'67 Christmas by The Electric Prunes
Merry Christmas Darlin' by James Hand
White Christmas by Iggy Pop


Play it here:

 For all my Christmas podcasts, CLICK HERE

GiG Performance Space's Non-Appeal For Donations

This email from GiG Performance Space made me look twice.

The subject line was "From GiG - Please Stop the Donations!"

It's either a creative donation pitch ... or a cry for help. You be the judge.

Friends,

We are so grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support for GiG Performance Space this Holiday Season. It has been really been nice to be on the receiving end of all this Holiday cheer. And you have our sincere gratitude for supporting the many hundreds of great performances at GiG over the past 8 years!

However...

We really must ask you to refrain from any more donations at this time. On average, we have been seeing two-dozen large, black mailbags per day filled with checks. The post office has been working long hours already and now this happens! We are being forced out of our space by the sheer volume of checks that are climbing to the ceiling, and we have crashed the gigsantafe.com servers several times -- evidently people are banging the donation button so hard that repetitive stress injuries (giginitus) are becoming all to common among GiG supporters. We have hired a technical support team in India to help field all the inquiries. (Just dial 1-800-OUT-SORC.)

It is the same every day. At 7AM when we begin to inform potential donors that we can no longer accept their checks and online donations, they begin to  stutter and say things like, "Well what about the new BiG GiG that you are wanting to move into? Won't you need new chairs? Or what about more recording and video equipment for the new production facility, at least let us buy you the new espresso/chai bar for the new front room. What about new staff members? Don't you need to grow your organization? But I absolutely must help you with your endowment fund dear. Please! You must let us help!" (And not to mention the irate reindeer that have been tap dancing on our roof at all hours!) 

As you can see it's been hell over here. I need to appeal to you all in this time of crisis to kindly refrain from any tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) check writing to:

The Open Arts Foundation
1808 Second Street, Suite H
Santa Fe, NM  87505

And if you have any shred of decency left this Holiday season you will refrain from any simple, secure online donating at GiG Performance Space - Home.

With your help, we are confident we can work through these growth pains together.

Many thanks and happy holidays,

Bruce Dunlap
Executive Director
Open Arts Foundation