THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Laurell subbed for me last Friday when I was getting back from Texas. Here's her playlist:

Friday, April 20, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Gust Host: Laurell Reynolds
NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Buckaroo-Byrds
Blue Moon of Kentucky-Pasty Cline
Romance In Durango-Bob Dylan
El Paso-Marty Robbins
Let's Impeach the President &
Southern Man-Neil Young
Drug Store Truck-Drivin Man-Gram Parsons
Bully of the Town-The Holy Modal Rounders

Behind the Fear-Lum Hatcher
How Can I Love You if You Won't Lie Down-The Silver Jews
I'm Gettin Ready to Go-Michael Hurley
Laura The Horse-Peter Stampfel
Act Natually-Buck Owens
To Love Somebody-The Flying Burrito Brothers
I Am a Lonesome Fugative-Merle Haggard
I'm Movin On-Hank Snow

How High the Moon-Les Paul & Mary Ford
Child of the Falling Star-Steve Terrell
Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do-Hank Williams
Hickory Wind-The Byrds
I Don't Want to Play House-Tammy Wynette
George Jones-Once You've Had the Best
Thunderstorms and Neon Signs-Wayne Hancock
If I Could Only Win Your Love-The Louvin Brothers
I Shall Be Released-The Band
Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy-Uncle Dave Macon

Wild Bill Jones-The Highwoods String Band
Dixie Darling-The Carter Family
I Guess Things Happen That Way-Johnny Cash
Making Believe-Kitty Wells
Pancho & Lefty-Emmylou Harris
For the Sake of the Song-Townes Van Zandt

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 22, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Do You Know What I Idi Amin? by Chuck E. Weiss with Tom Waits
Spreading the Love Vibration by 27 Devils Joking
Prison Shank by Deadbolt
That Jim by The A-Bones
Little Latin Lupe Lu by Strawberry Zots
Tina Louise by The Dirtbombs
She Looks Like a Woman by The Fleshtones
Go Away by The Plague
The Model by King Automatic

I Don't Care by Mary Weiss
Escape From Dragon House by Dengue Fever
Green Light by The Detroit Cobras
Girl in the Mini Skirt by Era of Sound
Eric Estrotica (Live in Space) by Man or Astroman?
Time Wave Zero by Drywall
Ghost in My Room by The Guilty Hearts
Cave Man Love by Space Man & The Rockets

The Tracker by Sir Douglas Quintet
Buena by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns
Headin' For The Texas Border by The Flamin' Groovies
Wiggle Waddle Women by Ronnie Dawson
Shakin' and a Shiverin' by Dean Beard
Sneakin' by George Weston
Staggolee by Pacific Gas & Electric
Stack o Lee Blues by Samuel L. Jackson
Lonesome Town by The Monsters

Movie Monster by Sound Team
The Meth of a Rockette's Kick by Mercury Rev
Cry Cry Cry by Pere Ubu
Moonbeam by King Richard & The Knights
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

INCOGNITO AT THREADGILL'S

DSCF4040.jpg
Originally uploaded by fist city.

Molly took this picture Wednesday morning.

BACK FROM TEXAS

I just got back from Austin tonight, so I was late getting this week's Tuneup posted and there's no Santa Fe Opry playlist. (Laurell Reynolds subbed for me.) And, oh yeah, that's why there was no Roundhouse Roundup on Thursday.

I was down there to help my daughter and her husband move. Actually, they didn't really need my help, but it was great hanging out with them.

Too pooped to make a long post, but you can see my pictures from the trip HERE

(That's Cornell Hurd and his band you see on the right. I saw them Thursday night at Jovita's.)

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: THE RETURN OF MARY WEISS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 20, 2007
Hers was the voice of teenage tragedy.

As lead singer of the last great “girl group,” the Shangri-Las, Mary Weiss sang of star-crossed high-school love, fatal motorcycle crashes, and parents who die of broken hearts over their wayward daughters.

Was this the last era in which so much human drama haunted the Top 40? The very titles hint at the tragedy in the lyrics: “Give Us Your Blessings,” “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” (Thomas Wolfe reincarnated as a girl from Queens?), and, of course, the group’s biggest hit, the one with the revving, then crashing, motorcycle — the greatest teenage death song since “Teen Angel” and “Tell Laura I Love Her” — “Leader of the Pack.”

Even the songs in which nobody died took on Wagnerian overtones. The Shangri-Las first hit, “Remember (Walking in the Sand),” sounded as if the Universe was about to break into tears as the youthful Weiss sang before the chorus, “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no no no no no!”

But the Shangri-Las also presented a world of joyful, forbidden teenage lust, songs about falling for boys in black leather, with dirty fingernails — and gossiping about it with the girls. Between verses of “Give Him a Great Big Kiss,” the girls sang, “Tell me more, tell me more.”

It was hard not to love them. Especially if you were a male teen (or preteen) back in the mid-1960s. I actually got to see the Shangri-Las in Oklahoma City, circa 1965, as a part of a package show with The Dave Clark Five. I fell totally in lust with Weiss, as well as with the other members, twin sisters Marge and Mary Ann Ganser. (A fourth member, Mary’s sister Liz, didn’t always perform with the group.)

Not long afterward, the Shangri-Las rode off into history. (Look out! Look out! Look out!).

Changing musical tastes, record-company weirdness, and litigation (have I mentioned lately how much I hate the music industry?) made sure they could never go home anymore. Both the Gansers died, one in the 1970s; one in the 1990s. “Leader of the Pack” became campy nostalgia and the group fell into obscurity.

Weiss moved on. Except for a couple of attempted comebacks, she gave up on music.

Until now.

Earlier this year, Norton Records released her first solo album, Dangerous Game. Backed by a cool Memphis band called the Reigning Sound, Weiss sings now not as an overly dramatic teen, but as an adult. She’s older and wiser, and her voice has deepened. But in it you can hear the heart of the girl who sang “Out in the Streets.”

And it’s that heart that carries this album. “My Heart is Beating” is the title of the irresistible opening cut. Here, she’s contemplating taking back an errant lover. Should we take that as a metaphor for her audience? “If I take you back, I wanna know you’ll be good to me,” she sings.

But perhaps she’s answering herself on a later song. “I don’t care if you ever come back now,” goes the refrain of “I Don’t Care.” The funniest moment on the album is the last verse here, “And that guy who’s on my couch, he just helped me figure out that I don’t care.”

Another “heart” song, “Break It One More Time,” is one of the most unforgettable tunes. With the band providing a nice, minimalist backdrop (prominent piano and organ by Dave Amels, and understated guitar by the Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright, who wrote most of the songs) it’s a timeless sound that contains a few echoes from the ’50s and ’60s, but might remind some listeners of early Springsteen.

Only a couple of songs here have hints of nostalgia. With its minor-chord melody, “I Just Missed You,” one of my favorites, sounds similar to “Remember (Walking in the Sand).” “Cry About the Radio” is a lament about the current state of the medium that made Weiss a teenage star. She even uses a word in the first verse that will guarantee the song won’t get played on commercial radio.

Dangerous Game is like a sweet letter from a long lost friend. It’s also got to be the comeback album of this young century.

For a great interview with Weiss, CLICK HERE.

Also recommended:

*Tied & True by The Detroit Cobras. Detroit is in their name, but in the latest album (scheduled for release Tuesday, April 24), the band’s got a lot of Memphis in it. In fact, two members of the Reigning Sound — Greg Cartwright and bassist Carol Shumaker — are listed as Cobra members in the credits here.

Fronted by singer Rachel Nagy and guitarist Mary Ramirez, the Cobras pride themselves as being a “covers” band. They perform lots of early rock, R & B, and soul tunes — mostly obscure or at least lesser-known ones. Highlights here include a tough take on “(I Wanna Know) What’s Going On” (co-written by Dr. John), a stormy “Puppet on a String” (not the Elvis song), and a rocking version of Leadbelly’s “On a Monday” (a song that inspired Johnny Cash’s “I Got Stripes”).

This might be the most slickly produced Cobras album yet. With smooth tunes like “The Hurt’s All Gone,” you might wonder how they were ever known as a garage band. But with wild, raw tunes like “Green Light,” you know these Cobras still bite.


*Dismissed With a Kiss by Spanking Charlene. This New York group is never going to be as big as the Shangri-Las, or probably even the Detroit Cobras, but singer Charlene McPherson reminds me a little of Mary Weiss’ tough-but-vulnerable persona.

This album has some good rocking and sometimes funny songs in which McPherson tackles issues such as jealously (“I Hate Girls”) and poor body image (“When I’m Skinny”).

With typically hard-punching production by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, the best songs here are the raucous ones like “Field Trip,” “We’re All Gonna Die,” and the Stonesy “Groundhogs Day.”

My only complaint is that there are a couple of ill-advised slow acoustic ballads (“Easy to be Sad” and “Behind”). They’re not that bad. I suspect perhaps McPherson might even have a halfway decent country album in her. These tunes just don’t fit in with the rest of this album.

eMUSIC APRIL

Here's my allotted 90 downloads from eMusic this month:


* Reformation Post T.L.C. by The Fall . More than a decade ago, in reviewing some Fall album or another, I wrote, “I doubt if all the CIA’s computers could crack the garbled ranting of Mark E. Smith.” In recent years I’ve been leaning toward a conspiracy-theory explanation for The Fall’s appeal to its scattered cult.The band is actually sending coded messages to some alien/Lovecraftian sleeper cell. Some isolated Smith yelp in conjunction with some post-Standells guitar hook causes some shift in brain chemistry in some isolated listener, and next thing you know some unwitting Fall fan in Dalhart, Texas, is making a 4 a.m. drive to the Tucumcari airport to pick up a crate of something unspeakable delivered on a secret flight from Bohemian Grove.

(Does that sound familiar? Maybe you read it HERE )


* Live at The Casbah 01/14/2005 by Deadbolt. I just discovered "The Scariest Band in the World" this month when the cover of Tijuana Hit Man caught my eye at Natural Sound. I bought it and liked it -- kind of like James Elroy fronting The Cramps -- and was delighted to learn that eMusic had two live Deadbolt shows. I chose the one with the most songs (12), then added the four songs from the other show, Live at The Casbah 11/06/2004 that aren't on 1-14-2005. I'm a fan!

* The Chambers Brothers Live. First off, Ricki Lee Jones made this sale. She included it in her "Dozens" piece. (I always read these things. Also the monthly column by Lenny Kaye. Not only are they interesting reads, it's a good way to find out about albums on eMusic you might not have known were there.) This is the Brothers several years after their prime, but it ain't bad. What can you say about an album that starts off with an introduction by Wolfman Jack and ends with a nine minute version of "Time Has Come Today."?


*Precision by King Richard & The Knights (Plus Other 60's Albuquerque Groups) This is a collection of garage-band proto psychedelia, instrumental tunes and good greasy ballads (such as the lovely "Moonbeam") from Albuquerque's Lance Records, run by "King Richard" himself, Dick Stewart. The Knights have the lion's share of the tunes here, though there's also bands like The Plague, who I first discovered on a Pebbles compilation. This makes me hope that eMusic someday will pick up another Lance compilation I Wanna Come Back from the World of LSD, which includes the title song by an old New Mexico group The Fe Fi Four Plus 2 plus cuts from The Lincoln Street Exit and Santa Fe's Morfomen. I also wish eMusic had done a better job providing information about this album and the bands that play on it.


* Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac by The Butthole Surfers. When you hear some of the limp crap that passes for "indie rock" in these timid times, it's hard to imagine that "alternative music" started out as crazed, dangerous, happily psychotic sounds like this.

* Dangerous Game by Mary Weiss. I downloaded the first three tracks last month. Mary is the former leader of the Shangri-La pack and this is the comeback album of this young century. You'll have to wait until Friday's Terrell's Tune-up for my complete review of this album.

* Four tracks from a Shangri-Las compilation, Choice Rock Cuts Vol. 3. This reminds me of listening to AM radio in the '60s. In fact the recording quality sounds like a goddamn AM radio . I'm no prissy audiophile, but this is so wretched it's nearly unlistenable. The Shangri-Las deserve so much much better. (There are other Shangri-La collections on eMusic, but I've been afraid to try them.)

I had two tracks left. I've been enjoying stuff from Norton Records so much lately (including Mary Weiss, Link Wray, Hasil Adkins and T. Valentine) I decided to go for the first two songs from The Life of Riley by The A-Bones, Norton founder Billy Miller's band. More on that one next month.

THE NIGHT PORTER WAGONER CAME TO TOWN

I just got an e-mail from a country songwriter named Tabby Crabb. He apparently came across a Terrell's Tune-up I wrote last September mentioning his song "The Night Porter Wagoner Came to Town" and how Johnny Cash had changed it to "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town."

Tabby says that inspired him to put his old video -- which was one of the first country music video hits in the mid 80s -- up on YouTube.

It's a great song and I'm proud to have had a small role in making it available again.

Check it out:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 15, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Treat Her Right by Los Straightjackets with Mark Lindsay
Between Me and You Kid by Mudhoney
Medicine Man by The Fleshtones
Tijuana Hit Squad by Deadbolt
Johnny Gillette by Simon Stokes
Here Comes the Terror by King Automatic
I Hate Girls by Spanking Charlene
That Creature by Sweet Acids
Chick Habbit by April March

Restin' Bones by Primus
Non-Alignment Pact by Pere Ubu
A Go Go by Dengue Fever
Quiche Lorraine by The B52s
Wonder Why by The Stillettos
Bedroom Athlete by James Chance
What Do You Look Like? by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
It's So Easy by Willie DeVille
Primitive Love by Tom Reeves

The Boogie Monster by Gnarls Barkley
Let the Devil In by TV on the Radio
Elevators (Me and You) by Outkast
Beatnik by DJ Monkey
Ex-Factor by Lauryn Hill
Swing Down Sweet Chariot by Parliament
I Want You to Have My Baby by T. Valentine

Stick to the Plan by Graham Parker
I'm the Ocean by Neil Young & Pearl Jam
When I Was Cruel no. 2 by Elvis Costello
Don't Come Back by Mary Weiss
Remember by Harry Nilsson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

HAPPY RUINATION DAY!

Yes, today is the anniversary of of the assassination of President Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic and the Great Dust Storm of 1935 -- as lamented in those mysterious songs by Gillian Welch I played in my set on The Santa Fe Opry last night.

I nearly forgot about the date. But luckily I received a comment on this blog from a guy named Jeff that reminded me. He left it on my post of my April 15, 2005 Santa Fe Opry playlist , but I'll re-post it here :

Please stop perpetuating this "Ruination Day" label for April 14th. So singer Gillian Welch calls April 14th "Ruination Day" -- millions, including me, call it my birthday. She notes Lincoln was shot on the 14th, the day the Titantic also struck the infamous iceburg. However Lincoln did not die until the 15th, nor the Titantic sink until the next day's morning. Compare that to October 2nd, Ms. Welch's birthday, which saw President Woodrow Wilson's stroke, the Tiberias Massacre in Palestine and the Carandiru Massacre in Brazil. Just a sampling, mind you. Let he (or she) who is without historical coincidences cast the first epithet, Ms. Welch!

Sorry, Jeff, but it's too good of an American tradition not to keep perpetrating it.

But thanks for the reminder, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

P.S.: NewMexiKen reminds us it's also the birthday of Loretta Lynn and others. Dang! I should have played some Loretta last night.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 13, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Wavin' My Heart Goodbye by The Flatlanders
Somewhere Between by Bill Hearne
Between Lust and Watching TV by Cal Smith
Jim, Jack and Rose by Johnny Bush & Justin Trevino
On a Monday by The Detroit Cobras
Thrown out of the Bar by Hank Williams III
Wreck on the Highway by The Waco Brothers
Girl Called Trouble by The Watzloves
The Deeper In by The Drive-By Truckers
Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown by Mudhoney
Yellow Gal by Leadbelly

Suitcase in My Hand by Ry Cooder
Two Janes by Los Lobos
I Push Right Over by Rosie Flores
Baby I'm Drunk by The Rev. Horton Heat
Crow Holler by The Shiners
Honey Hush by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n' Roll Trio
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on the Skids
Hot Rod Race by Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan
Singin' the Blues by Dean Martin

Ruination Day Set
April the 14th Part 1 by Gillian Welch
The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Diaster) by Woody Guthrie
The Titantic by Bessie Jones, Hobart Smith & The Georgia Sea Island Singers
Booth Killed Lincoln by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Lincoln and Liberty by Oscar Brand
Waltzing on the Titantic by Lonesome Bob
My Heart Will Go On (Theme from Titanic) by Los Straitjackets
Ruination Day Part 2 by Gillian Welch

I Discovered America by Graham Parker
Old Cape Cod by John Prine & Mac Wiseman
Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other by Willie Nelson
The Wrong Direction Home by Dolly Parton
Justice for All by Dale Watson
The Wrong Kind of Girl by Roger Miller
Last Seen in Gainsville by Audrey Auld Mezera
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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