THIRSTY EAR 2009 - SUNDAY

My main discovery of the 2009 Thirsty Ear Festival was a local -- well, Albuquerque -- band Felix y Los Gatos. Like a younger, hungrier Los Lobos, they rock out on R&B, Mexican songs, a little country (wild version of Merle Haggard's "Working Man Blues"), a little zydeco. Felix plays guitar while his pal David Barclay plays accordion. Yesterday they also had a sax player and Santa Fe favorite Pete Amaral on drums.

And Felix's mom was in the audience! How cool is that?

The group had been scheduled for the main stage, but a late afternoon hail storm caused the set to be moved to the hotel. (A wise move by the festival honchos. There was another rain during the performance.)

What a party! My only criticism is that they don't really know how to end a song. Their finale, an improvised version of the Cajun classic "My Toot Toot" was loads of fun -- but I would have ended it like 15 minutes earlier.

Felix and the cats play in Santa Fe a lot. According to their MySpace (follow that link and check out their music), they will be doing Santa Fe Bandstand on July 7.

I also caught a couple of good local soul bands at Thirsty Ear Sunday - Soulman Sam & The Soul Explosion and Tone & Co. Both are good, but they both are basically cover bands. Surely among the musicians in these bands there are some songwriters.

One treat was seeing Jimmy Russell get up on stage with Tone & Co. Jimmy lived in Santa Fe in the 80s and (I think '90s) and he recently moved back. Dang, Jimmy's back in town, Terry Diers is back in town. Good omens!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 14, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell with Special Co-host Tom Trusnovic
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

(Inebriated, uh, I mean abbreviated show tonight. First hour pre-empted by special Thirsty Ear Festival broadcast.)

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Make Up by Monkeyshines
I'm Fried by The Stooges
You Got it All ... Wrong by The Hives
Cave Girl by The Tex Reys
King Kong & Frankenstein by Monkeyshines
Black Cat Bone by Monkeyshines
Devil Inside by Rev. Beat-Man
Big Game Hunter by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Last Lost Fight by New Bomb Turks
Be My Queen by The Chantelles

Get Your Kicks on Route 666 by 27 Devils Joking
Going Away Baby by Grains of Sand
Caca de Vaca by Joe "King" Carrasco
Digging Up My Date by The Blood-Drained Cows
Crackhead Joe by Little Freddy King
What You Want by The Floors
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SHORT SOUND WORLD TONIGHT

Terrell's Sound World is cut in half tonight because of the Thirsty Ear boradcast. So I won't be on until 11 p.m. and then for just an hour.

But it should be a good damn hour. I'll be joined by Tommy Trusnovic -- you should know him from Monkeyshines, The Blood Drained Cows, The Floors, 27 Devils Joking and who knows how many other bands. He says he has some brain new Monkeyshines tracks, so that'll be fun.

If you're in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico tune in at 101.1 FM. For you in the outside world you can listen on the Web.

THIRSTY EAR 2009

The Thirsty Ear Festival snuck up on me this year. For the first time in its 10 year history, the festival was not held on Labor Day weekend. As I said before, I thought Mike Koster was crazy for changing the date, but yesterday shattered all previous attendance records, so that shows you what I know.

I wasn't able to make the Friday night show, but I was there for nearly all of yesterday. As always it was a good solid day of music from both local and national blues/country/folks acts at eaves Movie Ranch southeast of the city.

Most of the music through the day was nice and mellow. But for those of us who prefer it nice and rowdy as opposed to mellow, the show didn't really come alive until last night when Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas took the stage.

Nathan Williams and his band play good fast-paced traditional zydeco. Nathan dances around like a man half his age and his cousin, rubboard player Mark Williams, is even wilder. Great showmen and fun sounds.

Here's some thoughts about the rest of the day:

* Definitely the strongest part of the afternoon was banjo man Bela Fleck's set with African kora playerToumani Diabate. That was downright celestial. Diabate's instrument, which is a cousin to the banjo, reminded me of Washington Phillips, the itinerant gospel singer of the 1920s who played a stringed instrument that nobody has positively identified.

* The most stunning moment of the festival was during Felecia Ford's appearance with Sharon Gilchrist & band's late-night jam in the "hotel." It seemed that about half the musicians in town I know joined on stage at some point. But Felecia's performance of the Patsy Cline song, "So Wrong" would even put Patsy to shame.

* Watching Santa Fe's Alex Maryol in the hotel earlier in the day, I flashed back to the first time I'd seen him play in that building -- one of the very early -- maybe the first? -- Thirsty Ears when Alex was just a teenager. He was doing a solo acoustic set in the hotel -- if my memory serves me well because it was raining like crazy and the main stage act couldn't play. At one point songs, his cell phone went off. Alex answered and said "Hi Mom." He listened for a couple a couple of moments and very politely said something like, "OK, well, I'm on stage now .." I later told him that Elvis would have been proud of him.

* Sorry, Keb Mo fans -- and that includes about 99.6 percent of the people at Thirsty Ear yesterday -- I'm just not that big a fan. I just like my blues rougher and crazier.

* Early in the afternoon I ran into Otis Taylor wandering the grounds. He said he was just vacationing, not there to play. Dang! Would have loved to hear Otis!

The festival goes on today. It's "Community Day" which means local bands including Soulman Sam & Soul Explosion and Felix y Los Gatos. Admission is only $5 and two cans of food. ($10 if you don't bring the food.)

So get your cans out to Eaves Ranch!

Here's my FLICKR photos from Thirsty ear Saturday.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 12, 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
Pink Mountain Rag by John Doe & The Sadies
Your Love and His Blood by Wayne Hancock
Tired of Being Me by Dave Gonzales
Ladies Love Outlaws by Waylon Jennings
Thank God For the Road by The Flatlanders
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Rev. Beat-Man
When the Police Came by Mama Rosin
Country Playboy Special by The Pine Leaf Boys
Walk On By by Charlie Pride
Settin' the Woods on Fire by Bob Log III

Subterranean Homesick Blues by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Shake Shake Mama by Bob Dylan
Big Dog, Little Dog by Harvey Hunt
Rock-N-Bones by Elroy Dietzel
Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer by Johnny Russell
Hillbilly Truckdriving Man by Bill Kirchen
Keep on Truckin' by Smokey Wood & The Wood Chips
Deisel Smoke, Dangerous Curves by The Last Mile Ramblers
Jug Rag by The Prarie Ramblers

Let's All Be Normal by Poor Yorick
You Had Me at Get Lost by The Olympic Ass-Kicking Team
CB Song by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
LSD Made a Wreck Outta Me by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Wolverton Mountain by Claude King
Hot Tamale Pete by Bob Skyles & The Skyrockets
Pistol Packin' Mama by Al Dexter & His Troopers
Liza Pull Down the Shades by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

You Took My Thing and Put it In Your Place by C.W. Stoneking
Flapping Your Broken Wings by The Handsome Family
Satan's Jeweled Crown by The Louvin Brothers
Still Drunk, Still Crazy & Still Blue by Scott H. Biram
We Live In Two Different Worlds by Hank Williams
Faded Love by Chris Darrow
I've Got a Tender Heart by Eleni Mandell
A Satisfied Mind by Porter Wagoner
Something to Think About by Willie Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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