eMUSIC NOVEMBER

Here's my 90 eMusic downloads for this month:
* Slide Guitar Gospel (1944-1964) by various artists (Actually only The Rev. Utah Smith and The Rev. Lonnie Farris.) Only recently was I turned on to The Rev. Utah Smith (sometimes called "Elder Utah Smith".) It was on the recent Sonic Nightmares podcast with Gringo Starr and Rev. Beat-Man. (Listen yourself HERE.) which featured Smith's song "Take a Trip." Gringo describes Smith, who started out as a traveling, electric-guitar slinging evangelist, donning "wings" and flying over his congregation (with the help of ropes and pulleys.)

So I sought him out on eMusic and found this great compilation on Document Records -- six Utah Smith tracks (including the one I heard on Sonic Nightmares) and 16 of the Rev. Lonnie Farris.

The Smith songs live up to the romise of "Take a Trip." The guy sang like Blind Willie Johnson and played guitar like a hopped up Sister Rosetta Tharpe. There's three versions of his song "Two Wings" here, but all are worthy. These songs were recorded in the '40s and '50s.

I came for Elder Smith, but I stayed for Rev. Farris. These are more recent recordings than Smith's -- from the 1960s I believe. His music sounds like a direct precursor of the Sacred Steel records we've come to know and love from Arhoolie.

But on some songs, Rev. Farris has a sax player. These are some of the grittiest recordings to ever come out of a church.

* Hey Mom! the Garage is on My Foot by various artists. Yes, one reason I downloaded this is because I like the cover.

This is a 1996 collection from Damaged Goods Records, Billy Childish's label. Billy's here, kicking off the album with Thee Headcoats, doing a song called "Deer Stalking Man" a tune lampooning hunting, done with a Bo Diddley beat.

Billy's pal Holly Golightly is represented with a hard-thumping fuzzbuster called "In You."

My favorite track here is "Haywire Hodaddy" by The Hodads. It's surf gone wrong, making The Trashmen look like The Lennon Sisters.

And hell, it's the closest thing eMusic has to "Hodad Makin' the Scene With a Six Pack" by The Silly Surfers. When is someone going to re-release the Silly Surfers/Weird-ohs album?

*The Wham of That Memphis Man by Lonnie Mack. Here's a classic 1963 debut album from an influential rock 'n' blues guitarist and underrated soul shouter.

It's from that post rockabilly/pre-Beatles period when rock 'n' roll supposedly had died. Maybe the teen idols ruled the charts, but the underground was alive with the likes of Lonnie Mack.

This album has plenty of Lonnie's best known instrumentals like "Memphis," "Susie Q" and "Wham," plus a generous helping of sweet greasy ballads, where Lonnie goes from a sob to a shout in nothing flat.


*America's Queen Mother of Soul Got a Brand New Bag by Big Maybelle. You got your ridiculous -- "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" -- and you got the sublime -- "That's Life," yes, the Frank Sinatra tune. And both with "Mellow Yellow." This is a collection of mid '60s hits that some producer almost certainbly forced this blues shouter to sing. It wouldn;t surprise me if she hated it. And it's sure not Maybelle's best.

But it's a hell of a lot of fun. She turns "96 Tears" into a soul workout." Same with The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself." And she pours her guts into the soggy, middlebrow Eddy Arnold hit "Turn the World Around the Other Way."

Had I been the producer of this record (instead of being 14 years old or whatever I was at the time, I wouldn't have let Big Maybelle touch the wimp-rock whiner "There Has to Be a Word That Means More than Love." She sounds as if she's trying to imitate Eartha Kitt here, but she ends up sounding more like Claudine Longet here. But she makes up for it with the electrifying "Black is Black."


*Canten En Espanol by Wau Y Los Arrrghs!!!
There are some bitchen sounds coming out of Spain these days.
The Hollywood Sinners commemorated these guys, their fellow countrymen in song, and I gave them another listen when I was writing about Spanish-language rock in my recent review of Los Peyotes. The group's members include Juanito Wau, Satu Arrrgh!!!, Molongui Arrrgh!!!, Isidro Arrrgh!!! and Fletan Arrrgh!!!

This is their 2005 album from Voodoo Rhythm. About time for a new album, no?

* Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! by Edison Rocket Train. I discovered this right after I got I Have Fun Everywhere I Go, the recent spoken-word CD by Mike Edison, a former editor of High Times, Screw, and some pro wrestling rag. Backed by a band including Jon Spencer, it's some of the craziest stuff I've heard all year. It was love at first listen (and you'll hear more about it in Terrell's Tune-up in the near future.)

This album isn't quite up to that level. But it's got a lot going for it. Just good crunching punk-ass blues with vocals (Mr. Edison I assume?) that sound like Captain Beefheart's criminal little brother. Spencer plays theremin on a couple of songs, but this is a blues explosion in its own right.

* PLUS ... Four tracks from Passover by The Black Angels. I've been meaning to get this one for awhile. I saw these guys at The Roky Erikson Ice Cream Social in Austin during SXSW and I loved their latest album, Directions to See a Ghost. (It's on eMusic HERE.) Passover, the tracks I've heard at least, is the same kind of psychedelic guitar space rock. It seems to be full of anti-war songs -- "The First Vietnam War," "Sniper at the Gates of Heaven" "Young Men Dead," etc. Intense fare all around. I'll nab the remaining tracks when my eMusic account refreshes next week.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 7, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Cherokee Boogie by Cornell Hurd
You're the Reason by Nancy Apple
Lover of the Bayou by The Byrds
Sixpack of Beer by Hank Williams III
Get Off on Your Porch by Charlie Pickett
Hell or High Water by Hundred Year Flood
Cuckoo Rock by The Collins Kids
Big Dwarf Rodeo by Rev. Horton Heat
I'm Happy by Rev. Beat-Man

Truckload of Art by Terry Allen
Honky Tonk Song by Webb Pierce
Worried, Unhappy, Lonesome and Sorry by Merle Haggard
Big Mamou by Waylon Jennings
Prisoner's Birthday by John Lilly
Think About Your Troubles by Asylum Street Spankers
A Summer Love Song by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
The Eggplant That Ate Chicago by Big Maybelle

Harder Than Your Husband/Lonesome Cowboy Burt by Frank Zappa with Jimmy Carl Black
Death Don't Have No Mercy by Hot Tuna
Miss the Mississippi by Bob Dylan
Satisfied by Lonnie Mack
Hot Dog Baby by Hasil Adkins
Get My Mind Together by Greezy Wheels

Ain't I Right by Marty Robbins
Single Women by Dolly Parton
A Satisfied Mind by Porter Wagoner
Ballad of Dead Men's Hollow by Dead Men's Hollow
The Cold Hard Truth by George Jones
Stand by Fred Eaglesmith
Eyes on the Prize by Mavis Staples
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

BROTHER STEVE'S GODCASTS

While indulging in the sin of vanity -- specifically, Googling to see how easy it is to locate my podcasts -- I stumbled across yet another Steve Terrell -- another podcasting Steve Terrell.

He's Brother Steve Terrell and he's associated with the First Baptist Church in Lepanto, Arkansas. You can find his most recent "Godcast" HERE.

So please, don't get confused. If you're looking for stories of Jesus dealing with the Pharisees to describe how Jesus came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it, you're probably looking for Brother Steve. If you're looking for weird music shows with Angry Johnny & The Killbillies, you're probably looking for me.

PUPPYDOG TALES

Remember Barack Obama's victory speech Wednesday night, how heartwarming it was when he told his little girls, " ... you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House."

It truly was sweet and I'm sure it means a lot to Obama and his family. But it sounded kind of familiar to me. I suddenly realized Obama isn't the president to charm the nation by talking about his cute little daughters and their dog.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: AN AMERICAN BAND

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 7, 2008

I’m not sure why anyone would be interested in a Florida bar band that most people outside of Florida have never heard of — a group that rose in the early ’80s and then sputtered to a stop well before the end of the decade, leaving behind no real hits and no MTV videos to get nostalgic over. Why would anyone care about a beer-drenched band led by a singer who called it quits, left showbiz for law school, and never looked back?

Because they sound so dang good!

You have to wonder why you never heard of them, and you wish you had been there for at least a few of those nights in some sweaty Fort Lauderdale saloon.

This is the story of Charlie Pickett, attorney at law, whose studio work from the crazy ’80s was recently released in an irresistible retrospective from Bloodshot Records.

The album Bar Band Americanus is credited to Charlie Pickett And — which first made me think that some guy was ripping off Johnny Winters. That’s not the case. Charlie’s first band was called The Eggs. Later, after the original Eggs cracked up and Pickett moved to Minneapolis, his band became known as The MC3.

Whatever he was calling his group, Pickett played a high-charged brand of roots rock. Like any self-respecting bar band of that period — or, I’d argue any period — his debt to Exile on Main St.-era Rolling Stones is proudly displayed.

Nearly all the songs here are original, though there are rocking covers of The Flamin’ Groovies’ “Shake Some Action” and a stomping take on Son House’s “Death Letter.” I have to agree with the liner notes that The White Stripes’ version sounds like it owes more to Pickett’s take than to Mr. House’s. (This reminds me — at this year’s Thirsty Ear Festival, young bluesman Samuel James argued that “Death Letter” is the greatest song ever written. Talk amongst yourselves.)

Among the highlights here are “Liked It a Lot,” a bluesy slow burner with a feedbacking guitar screaming in the background. It’s a song of sexual jealousy with lyrics I won’t even try to sneak in here. Let’s just say this could be considered a male version of Marianne Faithfull’s infamous “Why’d Ya Do It?”

On the other end of the spectrum is the upbeat “Penny Instead,” in which Charlie sings about his unabashed love for a woman, happily comparing Penny to less desirable girls in his past (“I could have had crazy, but I got Penny instead”) while his slide guitar squeals with delight.

One of my favorites here is “A. on Horseback” — the “A” is short for “America.” It’s a nostalgic look at this great nation of ours (“There were giants in those days”), featuring a cool ongoing duel between Pickett’s slide and Jim Duckworth’s burning guitar. Then there’s “Marlboro Country,” which shows The Eggs could handle the “Louie Louie”/“Hang On Sloopy” riff with the best of ’em.

Also recommended:

* Poison by Hundred Year Flood. Speaking of great American bar bands, Hundred Year Flood is one group whose members I hope never go to law school. Their long-awaited fifth album is ng short of a jewel — and a polished jewel at that. Poison is definitely slicker than most of the group’s previous releases. But it works.

Several tunes stand out here. Some of them are ones the band has been playing live for some time now.

The opening cut, “Hell or High Water,” has received much attention because Taj Mahal plays harmonica on it. Taj sounds great, but I’d be hooked on the tune even without him. It’s a slow swamp-stomper that starts off with Bill Palmer singing, “Last night I heard the coyotes howl and moan.” It’s like an omen that sets an uneasy mood. Felecia Ford sings the next verse. Flood’s repertoire is roughly divided between “Bill songs” and “Felecia songs,” but some of the band’s best are the ones on which they both sing lead.

The title song is one of the catchiest rockers on the album. It features a “Peter Gunn” bass line and a garage-rock guitar riff that will poison your brain.

The lyrics of “Sara & Jane” sound a little bit like an early Bruce Springsteen song, though the music, with a whining electric guitar, sounds a lot like classic Fleetwood Mac.

The song “Electricity” broods in the darkness, slow and spooky (“This is how death must feel, helpless and unwanted,” Ford sings). Don’t listen with the lights out. Meanwhile, “Grinding Wheel,” also sung by Ford, has a nice country feel. It’s an emotional little song with great imagery of an angry man who “left a mark out on the gravel when you drove away.”

“Neck of the Woods,” which features vocals by Flood pal Shannon McNally, is awfully purdy, but the most gorgeous song on this album (and perhaps in HYF history) is “Truly.” Sung by Ford, it’s nothing but a sweet declaration of love and fidelity (those of us who were at the band’s performance on the Plaza last summer, the day that bass player Kendra Palmer and drummer Jim Palmer had their baby, will always remember “Truly” as the song that opened that show).

After a few listens, my surprise favorite on Poison is “Down Thru the Holler,” a minor-key folk-rocker with some fine acoustic guitar work by Bill Palmer and haunted harmonies between him and Ford.

I’ve said it before. This town is lucky to have a band like Hundred Year Flood. This album reinforces that notion.