Friday, February 3, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You by Hank Thompson
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 by Jessi Colter
Come as You Are by The Mammals
The Glory of True Love by John Prine
Ashes of Love by Chris Hillman
Bean Vine Blues #2 by M. Ward
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush
Give Him Another Bottle by James Talley
Bloodshot Anniversary Set
The Lost Soul by The Handsome Family
De-Railed by 16 Horsepower
Magnificant Seven by Jon Rauhouse
Behind That Locked Door by My Morning Jacket
I'd Be Lonesome by The Old 97s
Chicken Road by Kelly Hogan
Burn the Flag by The Starkweathers
Sputnik 57 by The Minus 5
I Fought the Law by The Waco Brothers
THE GOURDS SET
(All songs by The Gourds except where noted)
Burn the Honeysuckle
When Wine Was Cheap
Pickles
Weather Woman
2,000 Man
Virgin of the Cobra by Kev Russell's Junker
Blood of the Ram
My Name is Jorge
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Concrete Blonde
Death Grip by Boris & The Saltlicks
Nothin' But Godzilla by Will Johnson
Brass Buttons by Gram Parsons
Rosalie by Bob Neurwirth
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
(except I spaced out and didn't report on time this month. Sorry, John!)
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Friday, February 03, 2006
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: VIVA EL GOURDOS
February 3, 2004
The Gourds’ new album, Heavy Ornamentals, is a weird little masterpiece, though that can be said about most of their records. Like their best work — and who knows, in the long run this could end up ranking with it — it’s fun-time, rootsy music with just the right touch of the bizarre.
Led by two twisted songwriters, Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith, with master instrumentalists Max Johnston on a deadly arsenal of strings and Claude Bernard on keyboards and accordion — and don’t forget Keith Langford on drums — the Gourds live up to the motto you can find on their Web site: “Music for the unwashed and well read.”
I’m hardly the first to compare this Austin group with The Band, and that might be a good point of reference to start with.
But if you listen closely, you might hear faint, coded echoes of Firesign Theatre or maybe even the Three Stooges. The Gourds, even on their “pretty” songs, always seem on the verge of a huge, cosmic belly laugh, a joke that nobody, maybe not even the Gourds, is meant to fully understand.
Part of the Gourds’ charm is how effortlessly they can go from the mundane, like “New Roommate” (“My new roommate’s got him a green thumb/Queer fluorescent lighting and an 8-foot bong”), to the mythological. Take the first verse on “Burn the Honeysuckle” — Russell sings with only a marching-beat drum behind him:
“I was born in the summer with black gum on my heels/Full grown and cussin’ and bleach on my wheels/Killed me a panther before I was even grown/With a pocket knife and a guitar string and a live honeycomb.”
He’s Davy, Davy Crockett. He’s Big Bad John, Jumpin’ Jack Flash. He’s the Hoochie Coochie Man. He’s the one, he’s the one, the one they call the Seventh Son.
And by the second verse, Russell drawls about marrying a girl “raised on mustard greens and bears.”
On first listen, Heavy Ornamentals sounds more “country” than the group’s previous album, Blood of the Ram, which was a juiced-up joyride into garage-band heaven.
It’s not just the sweet, old-timey fiddle and mandolin workout of “Stab,” or the untitled, unlisted Hobbitgrass ditty that closes the album. There’s a country feel all over the place.
Some musical elements are showing. The intro of “Weather Woman” sounds a lot like Neil Young’s “Southern Man.” “The Education Song” has a melody that soul guru Dan Penn could have written. “Pick and Roll” has some keyboard licks I think were stolen from Vivaldi.
The Gourds were pals with the ascended master Doug Sahm, whose ghost is loud and proud on “Shake the Chandelier.” It begins like the funky reincarnation of “She’s About a Mover.” When Russell’s vocals start and Bernard’s greasy keyboards play off Johnston’s fiddle — and then a grungy guitar solo ends the song — you know it’s homegrown in Gourdsville.
The big sore thumb on this album is “Our Patriarch” — sticking out for its strange, wounded beauty. It’s a slow, mournful melody that starts out with a wistful acoustic guitar accompanied by a sad piano and stark drums. It’s almost like a Palace Brothers tune, until Johnston comes in with a fiddle that might remind old Jerry Jeff Walker fans of David Bromberg’s accompaniment on “My Old Man.”
In some ways, the Gourds can be seen as keepers of a hidden flame, a Skull and Bones Society of misfits disseminating vital secrets to those with ears to hear and the need to know. Either that, or just a bunch of good-time Charlies whose fun is transcendental.
The Gourds are scheduled to open for Ralph Stanley at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Feb. 23. For a big ol’ dose of The Gourds, tune in to The Santa Fe Opry, 11 p.m. tonight, Feb. 3, on KSFR, 90.7 FM (also streaming on the Web.)
Also Recommended:
* For a Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records OK, I’m not sure why the folks at Bloodshot didn’t do this a year ago, when it would have been their 10th anniversary. Either they wanted to be different or, more likely, it was some painful combination of Murphy’s Law and human error.
But that’s what I love about Bloodshot. Even though they’ve produced some of my favorite music in the past 10 or 11 years, the little Chicago “insurgent country” company has always done it on a human scale.
Like their fifth-anniversary collection, For a Decade of Sin has contributions from the usual gang — unrepentant beer crier (and former Santa Fe resident) Rex Hobart; the underappreciated Kelly Hogan (who does a stunning and sultry tune called “Chicken Road”); the Mekons’ angelic demon Sally Timms; those bluegrass bad girls called the Meat Purveyors; the hard-rocking Yayhoos (who cover “Love Train”); steel-guitar whiz Jon Rauhouse (whose version of the theme from The Magnificent Seven is a highlight); Wayne “The Train” Hancock (teaming up with Hank Williams III); pub-rock icon Graham Parker (who now has released two Bloodshot albums); and of course those Bloodshot standard-bearers, the Waco Brothers (who do a raucous, if somewhat predictable, “I Fought the Law.”)
There’s also an impressive visitors section, including Carla Bozulich (ex-Geraldine Fibbers), who does a country tear-jerker called “Lonesome Roads”; Richard Buckner, whose “Do You Want To Go Somewhere?” sounds like Twin Peaks country; that Japanese kewpie-doll duo Petty Booka; and My Morning Jacket, Kentucky alt-rockers whose “Behind That Locked Door” shows that this is a band with country music in its soul.
Some of the most impressive tunes are by lesser-knowns. Graham Lindsey is in his 20s, but his dark mountain tune “No Way Out But Down” sounds like the work of an ancient soul. And if the Starkweathers were more famous, their “Burn the Flag” would create a national outrage.
The only puzzling thing about this album is the absence of so many of the artists who helped build the company. Bloodshot alums The Old 97s are here. But where are Neko Case, Robbie Fulks, Alejandro Escovedo, and Melissa Swingle?
Hear selections from this collection around 10:30 p.m. tonight on KSFR’s Santa Fe Opry.
Part of the Gourds’ charm is how effortlessly they can go from the mundane, like “New Roommate” (“My new roommate’s got him a green thumb/Queer fluorescent lighting and an 8-foot bong”), to the mythological. Take the first verse on “Burn the Honeysuckle” — Russell sings with only a marching-beat drum behind him:
“I was born in the summer with black gum on my heels/Full grown and cussin’ and bleach on my wheels/Killed me a panther before I was even grown/With a pocket knife and a guitar string and a live honeycomb.”
He’s Davy, Davy Crockett. He’s Big Bad John, Jumpin’ Jack Flash. He’s the Hoochie Coochie Man. He’s the one, he’s the one, the one they call the Seventh Son.
And by the second verse, Russell drawls about marrying a girl “raised on mustard greens and bears.”
On first listen, Heavy Ornamentals sounds more “country” than the group’s previous album, Blood of the Ram, which was a juiced-up joyride into garage-band heaven.
It’s not just the sweet, old-timey fiddle and mandolin workout of “Stab,” or the untitled, unlisted Hobbitgrass ditty that closes the album. There’s a country feel all over the place.
Some musical elements are showing. The intro of “Weather Woman” sounds a lot like Neil Young’s “Southern Man.” “The Education Song” has a melody that soul guru Dan Penn could have written. “Pick and Roll” has some keyboard licks I think were stolen from Vivaldi.
The Gourds were pals with the ascended master Doug Sahm, whose ghost is loud and proud on “Shake the Chandelier.” It begins like the funky reincarnation of “She’s About a Mover.” When Russell’s vocals start and Bernard’s greasy keyboards play off Johnston’s fiddle — and then a grungy guitar solo ends the song — you know it’s homegrown in Gourdsville.
The big sore thumb on this album is “Our Patriarch” — sticking out for its strange, wounded beauty. It’s a slow, mournful melody that starts out with a wistful acoustic guitar accompanied by a sad piano and stark drums. It’s almost like a Palace Brothers tune, until Johnston comes in with a fiddle that might remind old Jerry Jeff Walker fans of David Bromberg’s accompaniment on “My Old Man.”
In some ways, the Gourds can be seen as keepers of a hidden flame, a Skull and Bones Society of misfits disseminating vital secrets to those with ears to hear and the need to know. Either that, or just a bunch of good-time Charlies whose fun is transcendental.
The Gourds are scheduled to open for Ralph Stanley at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Feb. 23. For a big ol’ dose of The Gourds, tune in to The Santa Fe Opry, 11 p.m. tonight, Feb. 3, on KSFR, 90.7 FM (also streaming on the Web.)
Also Recommended:
* For a Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records OK, I’m not sure why the folks at Bloodshot didn’t do this a year ago, when it would have been their 10th anniversary. Either they wanted to be different or, more likely, it was some painful combination of Murphy’s Law and human error.
But that’s what I love about Bloodshot. Even though they’ve produced some of my favorite music in the past 10 or 11 years, the little Chicago “insurgent country” company has always done it on a human scale.
Like their fifth-anniversary collection, For a Decade of Sin has contributions from the usual gang — unrepentant beer crier (and former Santa Fe resident) Rex Hobart; the underappreciated Kelly Hogan (who does a stunning and sultry tune called “Chicken Road”); the Mekons’ angelic demon Sally Timms; those bluegrass bad girls called the Meat Purveyors; the hard-rocking Yayhoos (who cover “Love Train”); steel-guitar whiz Jon Rauhouse (whose version of the theme from The Magnificent Seven is a highlight); Wayne “The Train” Hancock (teaming up with Hank Williams III); pub-rock icon Graham Parker (who now has released two Bloodshot albums); and of course those Bloodshot standard-bearers, the Waco Brothers (who do a raucous, if somewhat predictable, “I Fought the Law.”)
There’s also an impressive visitors section, including Carla Bozulich (ex-Geraldine Fibbers), who does a country tear-jerker called “Lonesome Roads”; Richard Buckner, whose “Do You Want To Go Somewhere?” sounds like Twin Peaks country; that Japanese kewpie-doll duo Petty Booka; and My Morning Jacket, Kentucky alt-rockers whose “Behind That Locked Door” shows that this is a band with country music in its soul.
Some of the most impressive tunes are by lesser-knowns. Graham Lindsey is in his 20s, but his dark mountain tune “No Way Out But Down” sounds like the work of an ancient soul. And if the Starkweathers were more famous, their “Burn the Flag” would create a national outrage.
The only puzzling thing about this album is the absence of so many of the artists who helped build the company. Bloodshot alums The Old 97s are here. But where are Neko Case, Robbie Fulks, Alejandro Escovedo, and Melissa Swingle?
Hear selections from this collection around 10:30 p.m. tonight on KSFR’s Santa Fe Opry.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
NEW MEXICO MUSIC SHOWCASE
The Legislature's barely half over, but I'm already daydreaming about South by Southwest. (Actually I've been doing that for several weeks now ...)
The state Tourism Department and Music Commission are sponsoring a New Mexico Music showcase on Wednesday, March 15 at Las Manitas restaurant in Austin (where in 1997, Sandra Bullock served me a beer at a gig featuring Doug Sahm, Joe Ely, Rosie Flores and Rick Trevino -- a jam session that eventually led to the creation of Los Super 7. ... but I babble)
The New Mexico show next month will feature local faves Hundred Year Flood and Joe West.
There also are a couple of "kick-off" shows scheduled: Saturday, March 11 at Santa Fe Brewing Company and Friday March 10 at the Atomic Cantina in Albuquerque.
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: MEDICAL MARIJUANA NO ALBATROSS
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Feb 2, 2006
Is Gov. Bill Richardson playing with political fire by backing the medical-marijuana bill? If SB258 — which passed the Senate by a huge margin this week — makes it through the House, would signing the bill come back to haunt Richardson if he runs for president in 2008?
Richardson told reporters he would sign the bill, which would establish a program for people with certain serious medical conditions to use marijuana to treat their symptoms. “It has very strong safeguards,” he said.
Could that be used against him up the road?
“Not in the Democratic primaries,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It would probably help him with the Democratic base.”
In a general presidential election, Sabato said, the bill probably would be discussed. But signing it, he said, probably wouldn’t be an albatross.
“I’ve seen national surveys where sizable majorities of Americans support real medical-marijuana laws where it’s really used to ease pain,” Sabato said.
Sabato said medical marijuana isn’t one of the “hot button” issues that polarize the electorate. He noted that many conservatives have backed such legislation — as Tuesday’s state Senate vote showed. SB258 was supported by commanding majorities of both parties.
“Even some people who are opposed to abortion and gay rights aren’t opposed to it,” Sabato said.
But if the bill does get to Richardson’s desk and he signs it, he might be the only governor in the Democratic race to have signed a medical-marijuana bill.
A spokeswoman for former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner — frequently mentioned as a probable 2008 contender — said Wednesday that the issue never came up in Virginia during Warner’s four-year term.
A curveball from the speaker: At least in the past couple years, medical marijuana has had a much easier time in the Senate than in the House.
SB258 hit its first bump in the road Wednesday. Advocates of the bill were encouraged when they read in Wednesday’s New Mexican that House Speaker Ben Luján said he’d probably assign the bill to the same two committees that heard a near-identical bill last year. (House Consumer & Public Affairs and House Judiciary.)
However, later in the day, Luján assigned the bill to House Judiciary and House Agriculture — a panel that has never heard it before.
The Grubesic factor: (Note: Most of this section appeared in my Legislature blog Wednesday) Just about everybody at the Roundhouse on Wednesday was talking about Sen. John Grubesic’s candid and not very flattering views of a favorite legislative watering hole, the governor and legislative life in general published as a guest column in Wednesday’s New Mexican.
Setting the scene, the Santa Fe Democrat described the bar of the Rio Chama Steakhouse, next door to the Capitol: “Lobbyists positioned near the entrance poised to pick off the politicians as they walked in, attractive women in the second tier and of course the governor’s minions protecting his corner table until he arrived to hold court and have the fops approach to kiss his ring.”
Referring to the governor’s table, Grubesic wrote, “One by one I see them line up for some face time with Bill. This bootlicking is not partisan; Reds and Blues alternate hoping to protect their pork.”
Grubesic said Wednesday that the reaction so far has tended to fall along party lines. “As far as the Democrats go, it was political suicide,” he said. “But the Republicans loved it.”
Is it political suicide? Maybe so, Grubesic said. “But (Richardson) was going to run someone in the primary against me anyway.” The senator is up for re-election in 2008.
Grubesic made headlines last year when he wrecked his sport-utility vehicle near his home following a visit to the Rio Chama bar after a legislative session. He later admitted that his initial story he gave police wasn’t true. A few months later, he made news again for cussing out a sheriff’s deputy who went to his home after a neighbor complained about his alleged speeding.
Grubesic later apologized for the incident and said he would seek treatment. Following a period of lying low, he came back swinging right before last October’s special session, admitting he has a drinking problem, blasting Richardson for calling the special session and denouncing some of the governor’s bills.
On Wednesday morning, a reporter asked Richardson if he had any comment about Grubesic’s guest column.
“Oh God, no,” Richardson said, laughing.
Later in the day, the governor’s office issued this statement: “Sen. Grubesic’s personal attacks and rants are childish and not befitting a public official, and are not worthy of a response.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have called him ‘the flabby king,’ ” Grubesic said. “That was poetic license.”
Feb 2, 2006
Is Gov. Bill Richardson playing with political fire by backing the medical-marijuana bill? If SB258 — which passed the Senate by a huge margin this week — makes it through the House, would signing the bill come back to haunt Richardson if he runs for president in 2008?
Richardson told reporters he would sign the bill, which would establish a program for people with certain serious medical conditions to use marijuana to treat their symptoms. “It has very strong safeguards,” he said.
Could that be used against him up the road?
“Not in the Democratic primaries,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It would probably help him with the Democratic base.”
In a general presidential election, Sabato said, the bill probably would be discussed. But signing it, he said, probably wouldn’t be an albatross.
“I’ve seen national surveys where sizable majorities of Americans support real medical-marijuana laws where it’s really used to ease pain,” Sabato said.
Sabato said medical marijuana isn’t one of the “hot button” issues that polarize the electorate. He noted that many conservatives have backed such legislation — as Tuesday’s state Senate vote showed. SB258 was supported by commanding majorities of both parties.
“Even some people who are opposed to abortion and gay rights aren’t opposed to it,” Sabato said.
But if the bill does get to Richardson’s desk and he signs it, he might be the only governor in the Democratic race to have signed a medical-marijuana bill.
A spokeswoman for former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner — frequently mentioned as a probable 2008 contender — said Wednesday that the issue never came up in Virginia during Warner’s four-year term.
A curveball from the speaker: At least in the past couple years, medical marijuana has had a much easier time in the Senate than in the House.
SB258 hit its first bump in the road Wednesday. Advocates of the bill were encouraged when they read in Wednesday’s New Mexican that House Speaker Ben Luján said he’d probably assign the bill to the same two committees that heard a near-identical bill last year. (House Consumer & Public Affairs and House Judiciary.)
However, later in the day, Luján assigned the bill to House Judiciary and House Agriculture — a panel that has never heard it before.
The Grubesic factor: (Note: Most of this section appeared in my Legislature blog Wednesday) Just about everybody at the Roundhouse on Wednesday was talking about Sen. John Grubesic’s candid and not very flattering views of a favorite legislative watering hole, the governor and legislative life in general published as a guest column in Wednesday’s New Mexican.
Setting the scene, the Santa Fe Democrat described the bar of the Rio Chama Steakhouse, next door to the Capitol: “Lobbyists positioned near the entrance poised to pick off the politicians as they walked in, attractive women in the second tier and of course the governor’s minions protecting his corner table until he arrived to hold court and have the fops approach to kiss his ring.”
Referring to the governor’s table, Grubesic wrote, “One by one I see them line up for some face time with Bill. This bootlicking is not partisan; Reds and Blues alternate hoping to protect their pork.”
Grubesic said Wednesday that the reaction so far has tended to fall along party lines. “As far as the Democrats go, it was political suicide,” he said. “But the Republicans loved it.”
Is it political suicide? Maybe so, Grubesic said. “But (Richardson) was going to run someone in the primary against me anyway.” The senator is up for re-election in 2008.
Grubesic made headlines last year when he wrecked his sport-utility vehicle near his home following a visit to the Rio Chama bar after a legislative session. He later admitted that his initial story he gave police wasn’t true. A few months later, he made news again for cussing out a sheriff’s deputy who went to his home after a neighbor complained about his alleged speeding.
Grubesic later apologized for the incident and said he would seek treatment. Following a period of lying low, he came back swinging right before last October’s special session, admitting he has a drinking problem, blasting Richardson for calling the special session and denouncing some of the governor’s bills.
On Wednesday morning, a reporter asked Richardson if he had any comment about Grubesic’s guest column.
“Oh God, no,” Richardson said, laughing.
Later in the day, the governor’s office issued this statement: “Sen. Grubesic’s personal attacks and rants are childish and not befitting a public official, and are not worthy of a response.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have called him ‘the flabby king,’ ” Grubesic said. “That was poetic license.”
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
BUT WASN'T HE IN THE POLICE?
This headline on my MSN home page under "New Mexico News" really grabbed my attention.
Sting snags second online predator
Oh ... not that Sting
(Here's the actual story: Click HERE)
Sting snags second online predator
Oh ... not that Sting
(Here's the actual story: Click HERE)
PAZZ & JOP
The Village Voice's 2005 Pazz & Jop poll is out. CLICK HERE
Looks like the only one of my choices to make it to the Top 10 is Sleater-Kinney's The Woods. (Bettye LaVette and The Decemberists made it to the Top 40.)
You can find my ballot HERE
Monday, January 30, 2006
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, January 29, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
There's Nothing on the Radio by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Monsters in the Parasol by Queens of the Stone Age
Piss Bottle Man by Mike Watt
One Big Holiday by My Morning Jacket
On Broadway by Neil Young
I Can't Control Myself by The Ramones
Cigarettes by Greg Dulli
LIVE MUSIC ARCHIVES SET
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave by Butthole Surfers
Loretta and The Insect World by Giant Sand
Eye of Fatima by Camper Van Beethoven
Millionaire by The Mekons
Memoirs From the Secret Spot by This Bike is a Pipe Bomb
That's Amore/Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon
You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erikson
Maggie's Farm by Bob Dylan
Thumb by Dinosaur Jr.
Finish Line by Come
Who Knows One by Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
The Bum I Loathe is Dead and Gone by Desdemona Finch
The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts by Sufjan Stevens
Roll Away My Stone by Mark Eitzel
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Bettye LaVette
Tango by Bernadette Seacrest & Her Yes Men
World on Fire by Ken Valdez
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
There's Nothing on the Radio by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Monsters in the Parasol by Queens of the Stone Age
Piss Bottle Man by Mike Watt
One Big Holiday by My Morning Jacket
On Broadway by Neil Young
I Can't Control Myself by The Ramones
Cigarettes by Greg Dulli
LIVE MUSIC ARCHIVES SET
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave by Butthole Surfers
Loretta and The Insect World by Giant Sand
Eye of Fatima by Camper Van Beethoven
Millionaire by The Mekons
Memoirs From the Secret Spot by This Bike is a Pipe Bomb
That's Amore/Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon
You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erikson
Maggie's Farm by Bob Dylan
Thumb by Dinosaur Jr.
Finish Line by Come
Who Knows One by Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
The Bum I Loathe is Dead and Gone by Desdemona Finch
The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts by Sufjan Stevens
Roll Away My Stone by Mark Eitzel
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Bettye LaVette
Tango by Bernadette Seacrest & Her Yes Men
World on Fire by Ken Valdez
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, January 28, 2006
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, January 27, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Declineometer by The Gourds
Throwin' Rocks at the Moon by The Backsliders
Interstate City by Dave Alvin
I Push Right Over by Robbie Fulks
Papa Dukie & The Mud People by The Subdudes
Juke Joint Jumpin' by Hank Williams III & Wayne Hancock
Miss Molly by Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry
Rock Island Line by Leadbelly
You Can Pick 'em by Jessi Colter
No Good For Me by Waylon Jennings
Something's Gotta Happen by Martin Zeller
How Long (Have You Been Gone) by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Chicken Man by Boris & The Saltlicks
11 Months and 29 Days by Johnny Paycheck
How Can I Be So Thirsty Today? by Petty Booka
LIVE MUSIC ARCHIVES SET
Cottonseed by Drive By Truckers
Sweet Kind of Love by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Face to Face by Danny Barnes
Sinkhole by Drive By Truckers
Drunkard's Blues by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts with Kelly Hogan
Jacob Green by Johnny Cash
He's Coming to Us Dead by Norman & Nancy Blake
Blue Eyed Ruth & My Sunday Suit by James Talley
I'll Sign My Heart Away by Merle Haggard
Crooked Frame by The Section Quartet
Rock of Ages by The Duhks
One of The Unsatisfied by Lacy J. Dalton
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Declineometer by The Gourds
Throwin' Rocks at the Moon by The Backsliders
Interstate City by Dave Alvin
I Push Right Over by Robbie Fulks
Papa Dukie & The Mud People by The Subdudes
Juke Joint Jumpin' by Hank Williams III & Wayne Hancock
Miss Molly by Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry
Rock Island Line by Leadbelly
You Can Pick 'em by Jessi Colter
No Good For Me by Waylon Jennings
Something's Gotta Happen by Martin Zeller
How Long (Have You Been Gone) by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Chicken Man by Boris & The Saltlicks
11 Months and 29 Days by Johnny Paycheck
How Can I Be So Thirsty Today? by Petty Booka
LIVE MUSIC ARCHIVES SET
Cottonseed by Drive By Truckers
Sweet Kind of Love by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Face to Face by Danny Barnes
Sinkhole by Drive By Truckers
Drunkard's Blues by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts with Kelly Hogan
Jacob Green by Johnny Cash
He's Coming to Us Dead by Norman & Nancy Blake
Blue Eyed Ruth & My Sunday Suit by James Talley
I'll Sign My Heart Away by Merle Haggard
Crooked Frame by The Section Quartet
Rock of Ages by The Duhks
One of The Unsatisfied by Lacy J. Dalton
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, January 27, 2006
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: LIVE MUSIC ARCHIVE
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 27, 2005
The robber barons of the music industry are weeping again. In 2005 album sales hit the skids, declining about 7 percent from the previous year.
As usual, bigwigs of the major record companies are blaming illegal downloading for many of the industry’s problems. (And, as usual, guys like me will blame bad radio, overpricing, extravagant pampering of a handful of pop “royalty,” and most of all, crappy music.)
Personally, I like to see the Music Industrial Complex squirm. What better way to shake it up than a way to download free music that’s not illegal — or even immoral?
Get yourself acquainted with the Live Music Archive, a Web site that states a goal “to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy.”
Nearly 30,000 free concerts are available for downloading from more than 1,700 “trade-friendly” artists — that is, musicians who allow the taping of their shows and the noncommercial distribution of those recordings. (So actually it’s the commercial bootleggers who are hurt by this more than the music industry.) The vast majority of musicians represented in the Live Music Archive are pretty obscure. But there are a surprising number of well-known artists, either big in indiedom or cast aside by big labels.
The concept of the trade-friendly musician was pioneered by the good old Grateful Dead. Thus it’s not surprising that the Dead is the biggest presence on the Live Music Archive, with more than 3,000 shows ready to download. (This isn’t including spawn of the Dead like Phil Lesh & Friends, Ratdog, New Riders of the Purple Sage, etc.)
I’m no audiophile, but in general the sound quality on these shows is inferior to regular commercial CDs. In fact, some are pretty bad. I recently downloaded the Oct. 12, 1989, Camper Van Beethoven show in St. Louis, which was recorded, broadcast over the radio a couple of months later, and captured on some boombox before it made it onto the Internet.
Luckily, much of the spirit of the show remains — including covers of the Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Virginia” and Jerry Garcia’s “Loser” — more than making up for some loss of sound fidelity. In fact my biggest complaint is that Camper didn’t perform “Jack Ruby” from their then-current album Key Lime Pie.
Truth is, ever since I got DSL for my home computer, I’ve been like a kid in the proverbial candy store. While checking the band roster a couple of minutes ago, I just noticed that the Drive By Truckers were on it. I downloaded and am enjoying a live May 2005 version of “Where the Devil Don’t Stay” as I write, and it’s rocking!
Here are some of my other discoveries on the Live Music Archive:
*Mekons Live at the Echo Lounge, March 16, 2004: They don’t have as many shows here as the Grateful Dead, but the Mekons indeed are trader-friendly. They have 28 shows listed, going all the way back to 1980. You can also find a bunch of shows by Mekons offshoot the Waco Brothers and “solo” outings by Mekons singer Jon Langford. (Here's the 1999 Pine Valley Cosmonauts star-studded Bob Wills tribute show at South by Southwest. If you listen closely you can hear me applauding from the audience.)
Much of the repertoire from this show is from the Mekons album Punk Rock, which consisted of remakes of some of their earliest songs. There’s also a righteous cover of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and a high-charged version of “Millionaire,” one of my favorite Sally Timms tunes, which unlike the studio version has no synths. Unfortunately, Sally’s voice sometimes gets overwhelmed in this mix.
One of my favorite nonmusical parts of this show is when Sally wonders aloud why the overwhelming majority of the Mekons’ audience these days is male: “I want to know what happened to all the women who used to come to our shows.”
*Robyn Hitchcock Live at Maxwell’s, March 26, 2005: This is an acoustic solo show Hitchcock recorded at a Hoboken, N.J., nightclub last year. Starting out with Dylan’s “The Gates of Eden” (and later covering “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”), Hitchcock also plays a couple of Syd Barrett tunes (“Dominoes” and “It Is Obvious”). But it’s his own strange tunes, which meander between whimsical and mysterious, that are the main attractions here. Too bad he muffs the ending of “Madonna of the Wasps.”
*Butthole Surfers Live at Emo’s, July 20, 2002: Gibby Haynes and the boys are on their home turf here in this Austin, Texas, show. The song list features tunes spanning their long career, from the near-folk rock of “Dessert” to the crazy chaos of “Lady Sniff.” (For reasons not explained, there are two takes on this song, one right after the other.)
* Warren Zevon Live at Parker’s Casino, Feb. 11, 1992: The late Zevon delivers faithful versions of crowd-pleasing rockers such as “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” and “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” as well as killer takes on “Boom Boom Mancini” and “Detox Mansion.” But my favorite part of this Seattle show is after his synthy ballad “Searching for a Heart,” when he gets defensive about the song, which was included in the soundtrack of the forgotten ’90s film Grand Canyon.
“Is this the new, subdued, adult-contemporary kind of response I’m to expect from now on?” Zevon chided the crowd after the song. “Listen, you realize if this song was to actually be successful, it’ll, you know, enable me to be financially secure enough to actually go back and write those songs about sex, terrorism, and voodoo. ... Think of it as sort of like Dr. Hunter S. Thompson writing a few episodes of Knots Landing ...”
*Danny Barnes Live at the Tractor Tavern, Dec. 22, 2005: Here’s the most recent show I’ve come across, recorded right before Christmas. Barnes, former singer with the pioneering punk bluegrass outfit the Bad Livers, plays with a good, rocking band. It’s basically country rock, though he does a creditable take on the R&B classic “The Haunted House.” There’s some solo banjo here, as well as a medley from the Livers’ final album Blood & Mood — avant twang that Barnes describes as “music that killed my career.”
January 27, 2005
The robber barons of the music industry are weeping again. In 2005 album sales hit the skids, declining about 7 percent from the previous year.
As usual, bigwigs of the major record companies are blaming illegal downloading for many of the industry’s problems. (And, as usual, guys like me will blame bad radio, overpricing, extravagant pampering of a handful of pop “royalty,” and most of all, crappy music.)
Personally, I like to see the Music Industrial Complex squirm. What better way to shake it up than a way to download free music that’s not illegal — or even immoral?
Get yourself acquainted with the Live Music Archive, a Web site that states a goal “to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy.”
Nearly 30,000 free concerts are available for downloading from more than 1,700 “trade-friendly” artists — that is, musicians who allow the taping of their shows and the noncommercial distribution of those recordings. (So actually it’s the commercial bootleggers who are hurt by this more than the music industry.) The vast majority of musicians represented in the Live Music Archive are pretty obscure. But there are a surprising number of well-known artists, either big in indiedom or cast aside by big labels.
The concept of the trade-friendly musician was pioneered by the good old Grateful Dead. Thus it’s not surprising that the Dead is the biggest presence on the Live Music Archive, with more than 3,000 shows ready to download. (This isn’t including spawn of the Dead like Phil Lesh & Friends, Ratdog, New Riders of the Purple Sage, etc.)
I’m no audiophile, but in general the sound quality on these shows is inferior to regular commercial CDs. In fact, some are pretty bad. I recently downloaded the Oct. 12, 1989, Camper Van Beethoven show in St. Louis, which was recorded, broadcast over the radio a couple of months later, and captured on some boombox before it made it onto the Internet.
Luckily, much of the spirit of the show remains — including covers of the Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Virginia” and Jerry Garcia’s “Loser” — more than making up for some loss of sound fidelity. In fact my biggest complaint is that Camper didn’t perform “Jack Ruby” from their then-current album Key Lime Pie.
Truth is, ever since I got DSL for my home computer, I’ve been like a kid in the proverbial candy store. While checking the band roster a couple of minutes ago, I just noticed that the Drive By Truckers were on it. I downloaded and am enjoying a live May 2005 version of “Where the Devil Don’t Stay” as I write, and it’s rocking!
Here are some of my other discoveries on the Live Music Archive:
*Mekons Live at the Echo Lounge, March 16, 2004: They don’t have as many shows here as the Grateful Dead, but the Mekons indeed are trader-friendly. They have 28 shows listed, going all the way back to 1980. You can also find a bunch of shows by Mekons offshoot the Waco Brothers and “solo” outings by Mekons singer Jon Langford. (Here's the 1999 Pine Valley Cosmonauts star-studded Bob Wills tribute show at South by Southwest. If you listen closely you can hear me applauding from the audience.)
Much of the repertoire from this show is from the Mekons album Punk Rock, which consisted of remakes of some of their earliest songs. There’s also a righteous cover of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and a high-charged version of “Millionaire,” one of my favorite Sally Timms tunes, which unlike the studio version has no synths. Unfortunately, Sally’s voice sometimes gets overwhelmed in this mix.
One of my favorite nonmusical parts of this show is when Sally wonders aloud why the overwhelming majority of the Mekons’ audience these days is male: “I want to know what happened to all the women who used to come to our shows.”
*Robyn Hitchcock Live at Maxwell’s, March 26, 2005: This is an acoustic solo show Hitchcock recorded at a Hoboken, N.J., nightclub last year. Starting out with Dylan’s “The Gates of Eden” (and later covering “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”), Hitchcock also plays a couple of Syd Barrett tunes (“Dominoes” and “It Is Obvious”). But it’s his own strange tunes, which meander between whimsical and mysterious, that are the main attractions here. Too bad he muffs the ending of “Madonna of the Wasps.”
*Butthole Surfers Live at Emo’s, July 20, 2002: Gibby Haynes and the boys are on their home turf here in this Austin, Texas, show. The song list features tunes spanning their long career, from the near-folk rock of “Dessert” to the crazy chaos of “Lady Sniff.” (For reasons not explained, there are two takes on this song, one right after the other.)
* Warren Zevon Live at Parker’s Casino, Feb. 11, 1992: The late Zevon delivers faithful versions of crowd-pleasing rockers such as “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” and “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” as well as killer takes on “Boom Boom Mancini” and “Detox Mansion.” But my favorite part of this Seattle show is after his synthy ballad “Searching for a Heart,” when he gets defensive about the song, which was included in the soundtrack of the forgotten ’90s film Grand Canyon.
“Is this the new, subdued, adult-contemporary kind of response I’m to expect from now on?” Zevon chided the crowd after the song. “Listen, you realize if this song was to actually be successful, it’ll, you know, enable me to be financially secure enough to actually go back and write those songs about sex, terrorism, and voodoo. ... Think of it as sort of like Dr. Hunter S. Thompson writing a few episodes of Knots Landing ...”
*Danny Barnes Live at the Tractor Tavern, Dec. 22, 2005: Here’s the most recent show I’ve come across, recorded right before Christmas. Barnes, former singer with the pioneering punk bluegrass outfit the Bad Livers, plays with a good, rocking band. It’s basically country rock, though he does a creditable take on the R&B classic “The Haunted House.” There’s some solo banjo here, as well as a medley from the Livers’ final album Blood & Mood — avant twang that Barnes describes as “music that killed my career.”
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