THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 17, 2009
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
Guv'ment by Roger Miller
Right or Wrong by Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel
After All These Years by Mose McCormack
Lookin' at the World Through a Windshield by Bill & Bonnie Hearne
Cold Hard Facts of Life by John Doe & The Sadies
Blood Sweat and Murder by Scott H. Birham
Hillbilly Heartache by Don Rigsby
The Rounder by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Say a Little Prayer by Mary & Mars

Keep on Truckin' by Hot Tuna
I'm Not That Kat Anymore by Terry Allen
Tequila Shiela by Bobby Bare
Throwin' Away My Money by Wayne Hancock
Down on the Farm by Big Al Dowling
Heartbreak Ahead by Wanda Jackson
Between Lust and Watching TV by Cal Smith
I Spent All My Money Loving You by Beausoleil
Big Mamou by Doc Gonzales
Bright Lights, Big City by Jimmy Reed

Jamie III by Joe West
A on Horseback by Charlie Pickett
Pendergast Machine by Ha Ha Tonka
Adios Mexico by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Texas Tornados
Classy Sassy Lassy by Andy Anderson
Long Run by John Egenes
Five Days, Five days by Robert Gordon
Rooster by Ray Wylie Hubbard

Down Throught the Holler by Hundred Year Flood
Neon Rainbow by Phil Lee
Stuck on a Hat Check Girl by Al Duvall
Breeze by Sunshine Skiffle Band
Can't Be Satisfied by Guy Davis
Stateline Bar by Deano Waco & The Meat Purveyors
Linda on My Mind by Conway Twitty
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: HOLY MOSEY!

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 17, 2009

Mosey Mack is back.

Mose McCormack, one of the finest country songwriters in New Mexico, has just released his first album in 12 years. Appropriately enough, it's called After All These Years.

Not only that, he's re-released all of his old albums on CD. Two of those, Beans and Make Believe and Mosey Mack, have never been on CD before. Another, Old Soldier's Home, recorded in the late '70s, has never been released at all.

For those unfamiliar with Mose, here's his story: McCormack was born in Dothan, Alabama, and went to high school in Georgia, but he got out of the South not too many years after getting his driver's license. He went to California. After a brush with the law in Hawaii, McCormack became a professional jewelry maker. "My teachers were the Hopis and the hippies," he told me in an interview for No Depression magazine in the late '90s. "I started doing that for a while, and people kept telling me I could sell more jewelry if I moved to Santa Fe."

He did that in 1973. Except for some short stints in Nashville and Tulsa, McCormack has lived in New Mexico since. He hasn't been seen much in these parts in recent years, though. He's been living in Belen with his wife, Becky, and daughter Alma, who was just a baby when his previous album, Santa Fe Trail, came out.

McCormack recorded After All These Years, like all his other albums, at John Wagner Studios in Albuquerque. That could be one reason the music sounds so timeless. A bunch of Wagner/McCormack regulars play on it, including Augie Hayes on steel guitar, Mike Montiel on guitar, and Gretchen Van Houten on fiddle. There's just a little more age in McCormack's voice, but most of the tracks from the new album would fit in on the older ones, and vice versa. But most important — after all these years — McCormack still writes some mighty fine country songs.

The album kicks off with "Battle of Love," a jumpy little stomper that starts with "That white trash trailer house rockin' to the battle of love/On a rocky foundation there's a whole lot of shakin' goin' on." My favorite part is the refrain, "But I open my big mouth, uh oh/Little brain went south, oh no." Another favorite is "Another Clown," a heartache two-stepper in which Hayes and Van Houten especially shine. "No, I ain't funny anymore," McCormack sings. "Find yourself another clown."

There's a song about his daughter, "Little Alma"; a Cajun rocker; and the norteño-flavored "Dusty Devil," which has the refrain, "Came from Alabama with a banjo on his knee/Came for your tortillas, you obliged so graciously."

One might suspect that the title song of an album called After All These Years would be slow and maybe a little maudlin. Not so here. This is a fast-paced, good-humored country rocker. The first verse says, "I met her in Albuquerque/At the Waffle House down at the Big I/I said 'I feel like ham,' she said, 'You look like turkey'/I knew, then, I'd love her till the day I die."

This album is full of joy. I just hope it doesn't take Mose 12 years to do the next one.

Here's a look at the reissues:

* Beans and Make Believe (1976). "That's 25-year-old Mosey on the cover," McCormack told me in a recent e-mail. Indeed it is. But that's probably the only dated thing about McCormack's debut. This one has the first recording of the singer's signature tune, "New Mexico Blues," as well as the title song, about a lovesick man living in a little dump "out behind Hamburger Heaven."

* Old Soldier's Home (1979). Mose has the best description, which appears on the liner notes: "This album was dug out of the great Hillbilly vs. Hollywood wars. The 'Major Record Deal' that got canned so deeply, we didn't think it would ever see the light of day." Or as he told me, "My 'stardom' was casually flushed into the sewers of Sunset Boulevard." It's clear there are some bad memories here. But the music, while just a little slicker than most of his stuff, is fine. I especially like "Bustin' for the Door," which, like several McCormack tunes, changes time signatures several times — though unlike most Mose tunes, this one's got sax bteaks.

* Mosey Mack (1981). This CD has the distinct honor of being the first Mose album I ever reviewed — back when I was freelancing for The Santa Fe Reporter. It's got a cool Cajun-like tune called "Mama Copacabana" and a rocked-out banjo stomper called "Bootlegger." But after 28 years, my favorite song still is "Louie," the sad tale of a working man seeking his freedom and $100 whores.

* Santa Fe Trail (1997). This is just a mighty fine CD. When it first came out, I wrote that my favorites were the hard-core honky-tonkers "It's No Secret" and "That Nightmare Is Me." That's still true, though his cowboy song "Mama's Picture" is worthwhile too.

After All These Years is available on CD Baby, Perhaps the reissues soon will be there too. You can find Mose at myspace.com/mosemccormack, but it doesn't look like he updates it much. Oh well, it's almost refreshing these days to come across a musician who's not all Internet-obsessed. If you want to buy a CD, e-mail him at mccorma696@cs.com. And CLICK HERE for a 1997 Pasatiempo profile of Mose by the late Woody Thompson.

Podcast Plug: Mose McCormack's song "Beans and Make Believe" is on my latest podcast, Santa Fe Opry Favorites Vol. 2, at http://terrellpodcasts.blogspot.com.

FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE

Here's my latest internet music obsession: WFMU's Free Music Archive. It's a huge library of free -- and legal -- downloads of cooperating independent artists.

WFMU, that great station from Jersey City started the thing, but other stations and venues have contributed. Lots of the tracks -- which you can stream as well as download -- are live performances in WFMU's studio.

Most of the artists here I've never heard of, but I'm quite familiar with some of them: Dengue Fever, Pierced Arrows (the new band from Dead Moon's Fred & Toody), Alan Vega, The New Bomb Turks, The Moaners (featuring Melissa Swingle of Trailer Bride), Edith Frost, Bobby Bare Jr., Xiu Xiu and more.

One of the most interesting sections in the archive is the Old-Time/Historic section. Not only are there some great old recordings by the likes of Sophie Tucker (the Last of the Red Hot Mamas!) and Billy Murray, but there are some interesting new artists dabbling in the old styles. There's Al Duvall (who claims to have been in 1877, nudge nudge wink wink) who reminds me a lot of C.W. Stoneking. And best of all, there's Singing Sadie. When I first listened to her songs "Put Down The Carving Knife" and "Everyone in Town Wants You Dead" I thought it was from some bizarre 78s from the '30s. I later learned she's "the all singing all dancing queen of the burgeoning underground show tunes scene. "

I've barely begun to wade through most of this treasure trove. Looking forward to diving in deeper.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 12, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Again & Again by The Black Lips
Rollin' to the Jukebox Rock by The A-Bones
Higgle-dy Piggle-Dy by The Monks
Baby Please Don't Go by The Amboy Dukes
Johnny Cynic by Scared Stiff
Looking for a Kiss by The New York Dolls
Mortal Man by Mark Sultan
Makin' It by Impala

Hadn't I Been Good to You by Charles Caldwell
Grease Monkey by Kenny Brown
Roll That Woman by Paul "Wine" Jones
Rock 'n' Roll by The Velvet Underground
You Better Run by Iggy & The Stooges
Little Nasty Girl by The Black Smokers
I'll Take Care of You by Tav Falco

Sleepwalking Through the Mekong Set
(not all the songs here are from the soundtrack album)

Tip My Canoe by Dengue Fever
Have You Seen My Boyfriend by Ros Serey Sothea
Rebel Guitars in Strange Dialect (from Radio Phnom Penh)
Seeing Hands by Dengue Fever
Dance Soul Soul by Liev Tuk & Rom Sue Sue
Master Tep Mary by Tep Mary & Dengue Fever
Pow Pow by Dengue Fever

Baby Let Me Follow You Down by Bob Dylan & The Band
Death Letter by Charlie Pickett
Foxy Brown by The Moaners
Long Time Woman by Pam Grier
Fire Down Below by Nick Cave
You Were Sleeping by Jay Reatard
Telephone Call from Istanbul by The Red Elvises
Shiny Things by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 10, 2009
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
Who Are You by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Husbands and Wives by John Doe & The Sadies
Plastic Love by The Riptones
Battle of Love by Mose McCormack

MOSE McCORMACK LIVE SET
HillbillyTown
Under the Jail
Mr. Somebody
Dusty Devil
Louie
Out on the Highway
(from After All These Years) Little Alma

In the Mood by Ray Stevens
Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait by Little Jimmy Dickens
Brand New Heartache by Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh
She Left Me Cold by The Derailers
Tennessee by The Last Mile Ramblers
Ants on the Melon by The Gourds
Freight Train Boogie by Wayne Hancock
Highway Cafe by Kinky Friedman & His Texas Jewboys
Old Car by John Egenes
Oklahoma Sweetheart by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Brother Drop Dead Boogie by Pee Wee King

One Has My Name by Jerry Lee Lewis
The Man Worth Lovin' You by George Jones
The Last Word in Lonesome is Me by Roger Miller
Murky State of Mind by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Entella Hotel by Peter Case
Honey Child by Susan Cowsill
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: DENGUE ON FILM

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 10, 2009

Dengue Fever is an amazing California band that has helped revive the crazy psychedelic sounds of pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. Back in 2005, the band traveled to Cambodia — not only the land of its musical idols, but also the home of its lead singer, Chhom Nimol.

That tour — Nimol’s first trip home since she’d immigrated to this country five years before — is the subject of a rocking documentary called Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, released on DVD next Tuesday.

Directed by John Pirozzi, the film follows the members of Dengue Fever as they visit Cambodian marketplaces (where merchants are amused by guitarist Zac Holtzman’s Mr.-Natural-as-a-young-man beard and bassist Senon Williams’ height); a school where the band shares songs with a group of children; a studio where Dengue jams with masters of traditional Cambodian instruments; a karaoke bar where a couple of Dengue members sing with some locals to “I’m 16,” an old Cambodian pop hit; and various stages where the group performs its surf-a-delic sounds — nightclubs, an outdoor festival in a shantytown, and a CTN (Cambodia Television Network) studio, where the musicians are special guests on a variety show that makes Mexican television look tame.

But as fun and enlightening as Sleepwalking is, there are some basic unanswered questions that leave a viewer not quite satisfied. And these oversights deal directly with the East-meets-West story that is central to Dengue Fever’s appeal.

First of all, there’s the question of how the band got so interested in Cambodian rock in the first place. According to allmusic.com, keyboardist Ethan Holtzmann fell in love with the sounds of Cambodian psychedelic rock of the late ’60s and early ’70s — Sin Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ron, and others — when traveling in that country in 1997 with a friend (who got the disease for which the band was later named). But what was Holtzmann doing over there in the first place? Was it some music endeavor? Was he an archaeologist studying Angkor Wat? Just bumming around? I would have liked to have heard him talk about this.

But more important is the story of Chhom Nimol. There’s a segment in which Nimol talks about how difficult it was coming to the U.S. by herself. Through interviews and publicity material, we’ve been told that she was a successful singer in her native land. She “sang regularly for the king and queen of Cambodia,” a press release from the filmmaker says.

The question is, Why did she come here? Was it to further her musical career? According to Dengue legend, she had a long-term singing gig at a Southern California Cambodian nightclub called The Dragon House before she joined the band (which led to the title of the group’s second album, Escape From Dragon House). I want to know more about her career in Cambodia. When she played before the king, was it command performances at state dinners or more like an American high-school band playing at the president’s inauguration?

A Cambodian music teacher interviewed in the film tells us, “The Khmer Rouge killed all the famous singers.” Indeed, those commie thugs who ruled the country between 1975 and 1979 killed artists, intellectuals, professionals, and a third of the population during their time of power. The DVD has a smattering of footage of what looks like real cool Cambodian teen-exploitation movies from that mod à go-go era. But I’d like to hear more about those wonderful Cambodian singers whose music inspired Dengue Fever — and to whom the film is dedicated.

Director Pirozzi has started work on another documentary called Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock ’n’ Roll. Let’s hope he makes enough money on Sleepwalking to finish Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten.

When Dengue Fever is playing music in this film, frequently there are shots of audience members looking enraptured. Such images of adoring fans aren’t exactly rare in rockumentaries. But wouldn’t it be great if there were a Velvet Underground effect here — if, as the rock ’n’ roll truism goes, anyone who saw them in Cambodia started a band of their own? Perhaps dozens of bands will pop up there, take the music, and mutate it into something new and powerful.

Quick word on the CD: Sleepwalking Through the Mekong comes packaged with a soundtrack CD as well as the DVD. If you don’t already have Dengue Fever’s three albums, this could serve as a decent introduction. But long-time fans will be disappointed. Too many Dengue Fever songs here are the same versions that are on their previous albums — “Tip My Canoe,” “One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula,” “Hold My Hips,” and “Hummingbird.”

There is a live version of “Ethiopium” (inspired by the music of another nation with a fine little rock scene that was crushed by evil comrades in the ’70s). But there should have been more. The movie has lots of live material that should have made it here.

There is some worthwhile new Dengue material, such as the instrumental “March of the Balloon Animals,” plus some nice jams with some of the masters of traditional Cambodian instruments featured in the film.

One good thing is that there are handfuls of the old original Cambodian rock classics here by Sisamouth and Sothea, including “Mou Pei Na (From Where)” by both singers and “Dondung Goan Gay” by Meas Samoun, which sounds as if it could have been inspired by Santana.

Dengue radio: Hear a huge dose of the Sleepwalking on the Mekong soundtrack and more Dengue Fever and immortal Cambodian rock on Terrell’s Sound World, freeform weirdo radio, 10 p.m. Sunday. And don’t forget The Santa Fe Opry, the country music Nashville does not want you to hear, same time on Friday, both on KSFR-FM 101.1.

FREE! JOHNNY DOWD LIVE ALBUM

I hadn't heard much new stuff from Johnny Dowd in recent years, so I checked out Blip.fm and shared a song there. Then later, while checking his official site I stumbled on some good news.

First, he's got a new live album released just last month, Ratten Speigle, recorded in Germany in 2002.

Plus, there's another live album, Live at Schuba's 2000. And it's free to download. So do that and check him out. Then spend some cash on the new release or some of his old stuff. Dowd is one of the most original talents to arise out of the late '90s.

Here's that Dowd Blip:

eMUSIC APRIL

* The Sympathetic Sounds of Montreal . From the same folks who brought you The Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit (which featured The Dirtbombs, The Hentchmen, The Detriot Cobras and a rare White Stripes track) comes this compilation of Maple Leaf garage punk. Standouts include the party-time punk of Les Sexareenos and The Deadly Snakes, who manage to pay musical homage to Tommy James as well as The Status Quo in their two tracks.I also like the catchy tribute to Loretta Lynn by The Sunday Sinners.

One man who seems like a dominant presence on this record is Mark Sultan, aka BBQ, who once was a member of The Sexareenos and later became a musical partner of King Khan. BBQ's one or two-man punk/blues/do-wop stomp is heard all over the place here.

*Sybil by Troy Gregory. Speaking of The Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit, here's another album that showcases Detroit-area bands.

I discovered Sybil while looking for the song "Born in a Haunted Barn" by The Dirtbombs, which I'd stumbled across on Blip.fm. Actually, I was looking for the album with that song, the apparently out-of-print Billiards at Nine Thirty, a split album with King Khan & The Shrines. Billiards isn't on eMusic, but "Haunted Bar" showed up on an album by this guy Gregory. And The Dirtbombs themselves are backing him up here.

Also appearing here are bands like Bantam Rooster (who play on the opening cut, an intense cruncher called "Lice, Cots n' Rabies Shots"), Outrageous Cherry (who do a song called "Regrets, I've Had a Few," which sounds like some long-lost early MTV hit, and Jim Diamond's Pop Monsoon (with an otherworldly, not very Christmasy tune called "Down 2 the Last Santa Claus.")

There's even a taste of country with The Volebeats. "Left My Mind Alone" doesn't come close to The Voles' "Two Seconds," but it's a nice surprise


*Specialty Profiles: Larry Williams: This New Orleans guy wrote some of my favorite cover songs the early Beatles did -- "Slow Down," "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and (my favorite) "Bad Boy." He had several hits of his own in the '50s, including "Boney Maroni" and "Short Fat Fannie" -- both of which could be viewed as follows to Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." At one point Specialty Records hoped Williams would become the next Little Richard.

But it didn't work out that way. Williams had some serious demons gnawing at him. In 1959 he was arrested for selling drugs -- long before that was fashionable. He bounced around labels, working mainly as a producer. He worked with Johnny "Guitar" Watson in the mid '60s, but no major hits came of that collaboration. And between 1969 and 1978 (when he briefly emerged with a funk album, long out of print,called That's Larry Williams), he didn't work at all in the music biz.

Williams died in 1980, found at his home with a gunshot wound to his head. According to the All Music Guide, "The medical examiners called the death a suicide, but rumors persisted for years after his death that he was murdered because of his involvement in drugs, crime and — allegedly — prostitution."

This collection has all those songs The Beatles did. (Until now, I never knew what the heck John Lennon was singing on the line, "He gave his cocker spaniel a bath in his mother's Laundromat. "). "She Said Yeah," which The Rolling Stones covered, some New Orleans R&B hits like "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" and Lloyd Price's "Just Because," and other gems like "You Bug Me, Baby" and "Let Me Tell You, Baby," which sounds like the second cousin of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy."


* Pyschobilly Box: Rockabilly Roots and Hootenany (Disc 1) This is a strange hodgepodge of actual pyschobilly bands (The Meteors and The Frantic Flintstones among them), rock stars trying their hand at rockabilly-related sounds (Lemmy from Motorhead singing "Good Rockin' Tonight," Johnny Ramone doing a surfed-up instrumental of "Viva Las Vegas") and '50s rarities from country stars.

The latter ones are my favorites. There's Patsy Cline getting into the rockabilly spirit with "Stop, Look and Listen" and a young Waylon Jennings with his mentor Buddy Holly and a honking sax (could that be King Curtis?) doing a song called "When Sin Stops."

While most of the acts are pretty obscure -- Scared Stiff, Coffin Nails, Demented Are Go, Hayride to Hell -- a lot of the songs covered here are very well known -- "Big River," "Wooly Bully," "Surf City," "Should I Stay or Should I Go."

And what's with all these cat bands? There's The Polecats, The Head Cat, 13 Cats, The Swing Cats (who do a limp, extremely non-psycho version of "Summertime"), and yes, The Stray Cats with a near 9-minute live version of their early '80s hit "Rock This Town."

There's lots of good fun here. But I don't have an overwhelming desire right now to download the second disc of this compilation. Maybe next month.

plus ...

... the 16 tracks I didn't download last month from Hully Gully Fever by Rudy Ray Moore. Would I be a heretic to say I like a lot of this stuff -- basic hopped-up R&B from the '50s and early '60s -- even better than his Dolemite party-album classics?

plus ...

I had four tracks left over, so I picked up the first four songs on Merriweather Post Pavilion, the new album by Animal Collective. Sounds good so far. More on Merriweather next month after I nab the rest of the tracks.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 5, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino
Roadhouse by The Flamin' Groovies
Mysterious Teenage by The Vels
Jet Boy by The New York Dolls
Lice, Cots n' Rabies Shots by Troy Gregory with Bantam Rooster
El Telecote by Calvin Cool
Feels Good by Stud Cole
She Live in a Time of Her Own by 13th Floor Elevators

Monk Time/Love Came Tumblin' Down by The Monks
Loan Shark by The Guana Bats
Headcoat Man by Thee Headcoats
Jackie Chan Does Kung Fu by Thee Headcoatees
Baby I Grind by Les Sexareenos
Racoon City Limits by The Black Smokers
Alligator Night by Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
I'm the Slime by Frank Zappa
Youngblood by The Coasters

Puzzlin' Evidence by The Talking Heads
Police Call by Drywall
Snow by The Mekons
Spotlight Kid by Captain Beefheart
Then Comes Dudley by The Jesus Lizard
Negro Observer by Butthole Surfers
March of the Balloon Animals by Dengue Fever
Theme From the Unknown by Davie Allan & The Arrows

Contraflow by The Fall
Is Chicago Not Chicago by Soul Coughing
Got to Be the Way it Is Part 1 by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Back to Mt Old Ways Again by Howard Tate
It's a Highway to Heaven by Alex Bradford
I'm on My Way by Mahalia Jackson
Have I the Right by Tav Falco & Panther Burns

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TRUE STORIES

So a good friend of mine sent me a link to this tacky conspiracy nutball video and it reminded me of "Puzzling Evidence" in True Stories. In looking for that scene on YouTube, I quickly realized that several scenes from that movie -- one of my favorites of the '80s --are available.

David Byrne said after the "soundtrack" alnum came out, he regretted not releasing a version with the actual actors singing their songs. Hey Dave, I've always liked that idea. It's not too late.

Here's a few of my favorites:



Here's the great Pops Staples as a Voodoo priest. (As you'll see, this was from the German version of the film)



And who can forget The Lying Woman, Santa Fe's own Jo Harvey Allen?