THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 18, 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
I'm Gonna Take You Home and Make You Like me by Robbie & Donna Fulks
Electrified by Quarter Mile Combo
Guvment by Roger Miller
Deep as Your Pocket by Amber Digby
Oh Babe by Big Al Dowling
The Great State of Misery by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Good Lovin' by C.C. Adcock
Cool Love by Kim Lenz
How Come it by Thumper Jones
Fish House Blues by Georgia Tom & Kansas City Kitty

Bring the Noise by The Unholy Trio
Gin & Juice by The Gourds
Six Nights a Week by Peter Case
High on a Hilltop by Tommy Collins
Trouble by Ethyl & The Regulars
Buzz Buzz Buzz by The Blasters
Bumble Bee by Heavy Trash
Fireball Mail by Roy Acuff
Strangler in the Night by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole

Hush, Sorrow by Buddy & Julie Miller with Regina McCrary
Chain Gang by Fred Eaglesmith
Safe and Sorry by Nathan Moore
Frankie and Johnny by Jerry Lee Lewis
Death Metal Guys by Rev. Horton Heat
Nighttime Ramblin' Man by Hank Williams III
Handcuffed to Love by Johnny Paycheck
The Ballad of Charles Whitman by Kinky Friedman & His Texas Jewboys

Strip Joint is Closed by The Red Elvises
I Hate These Songs by Dale Watson
One Sweet Hello by Merle Haggard
TVA by Drive-By Truckers
I Tremble for You by Johnny Cash
Going Down the Road Feeling Bad by Doc & Merle Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: HOT SOUL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 18, 2009


Here's one to file under "weird science."

A few weeks ago I got an advance copy of the new album by The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker. I'd been looking forward to this release, because I truly enjoyed this band's first album, which came out a couple of years ago. So I took it out to my car and popped it in the CD player. From Leo Black's rasty little guitar lick that kicks off the title song to the end, I was happy.

The next day I drove to Albuquerque. After a couple of stops, I decided to play the CD again. I reached down to my little plastic CD box to grab my copy only to experience a startling discovery. The jewel box was warped. It had melted — both the clear plastic part and the black plastic part. I keep CDs in my car all the time, winter and summer, and this has never happened before (or since).

Here's the good news. Somehow, by the grace of the music gods, the CD was unscathed. To my relief, the funk flowed fine in my car stereo.

Oh yeah, the title of this CD is Burn It Down. Yikes! I'm just happy that The Dynamite's first album, Kaboom!, didn't explode in my car back in 2007.

Burn It Down is a hot time. Walker is a soul shouter from Nashville — that's right, not Memphis — whose career goes back more than 40 years. (I'm not sure why they don't just call the band "Charles Walker & The Dynamites," but the group didn't ask for my opinion.)

The music goes down the same path as Kaboom! does — tight, horn-heavy, gritty Southern soul. Sure, the sound recalls the heyday of funky soul, but this is no nostalgia trip. The songs are new and original, and the lyrics, while mainly dealing with the time-honored themes of love and heartache, make occasional reference to modern times. There's a shout-out to our first black president at the end of the title song.

Walker gets political on other songs, too. There's "Somebody's Got it Better," which deals with the gap between the rich and poor. Over riffs that sound like they're straight out of James Brown's "Super Bad," Walkers, "I know a man who works all night/Never gets home until the morning light/I know another man don't even have a job/Got so much money, must be breakin' the law. ... You can see it in the paper, see it in the news/Some people got the green, others got the blues."

On "It's a Sunny Day," Walker chides the doomsday prophets, presumably from all political sides. "It don't take much to get you down, there's no shortage of bad news. ... Turn off that TV, walk out that front door/Get out, it's a sunny day."

"Can't Have Enough," with its funky flute and wah-wah guitar, sounds like it could be from a blaxploitation movie. It would sound great alongside Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" or Curtis Mayfield's "Freddy's Dead." The lyrics warn against materialism and excess.

Another favorite is the jumping "The Third Degree," which features some tasty organ licks from either Charles Treadway or Tyrone Dickerson — the band's blessed with two fine keyboardists. And “The Real Deal,” which concludes the album is a duet between Walker and fellow Nashville soulster Shawna P.

So yes, I heartily recommend this album. Just don't leave it in your car.

Also recommended:

We Call It Soul by Wiley and The Checkmates. Like Charles Walker, Mississippi native Herbert Wiley is a veteran journeyman soul singer whose career goes back to the 1960s — although he also had a day job for a few decades, operating a cobbler shop in Oxford. Guess you could call that sole-to-soul. According to one interview, Wiley claims that, as a child, he worked on William Faulkner's shoes.

Wiley got back into the music game around 2004, rounding up a band with members who have played with a diverse group of musicians, including the late Fat Possum blues belter Paul "Wine" Jones and techno-rock outfit LCD Sound System. Wiley and his group released Introducing Wiley and The Checkmates in 2004.

The Checkmates tend to sound a little looser than The Dynamites do. And humor creeps into Wiley's music a little more often. The funniest here is definitely "I Don't Want No Funky Chicken." Wiley tells how his experience working on a chicken farm as a youth ruined his appetite for poultry as an adult.

One of my favorite tracks is a cover song — actually a medley of covers, Booker T. & The MG's "Hip Hug-Her" slinking around an upbeat take on Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe." I'm just a sucker for that song, though my favorite version is the irreverent one I saw the late Joe Tex perform on American Bandstand at least 40 years ago. (Tex played with the ending lyrics, "And me I spend all my time eatin' cold watermelon up on Choctaw Ridge/And I spit the seeds in the muddy waters off the Tallahatchie Bridge.")

Perhaps the highlight of this record is "I Did My Part," a dark minor-key song that slowly builds into an emotional storm with call-and-response vocals with Tricianna McGee and a crazy trumpet solo by Marc Franklin.

Listening to Wiley and The Checkmates along with The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker — not to mention Black Joe The Honeybears plus Sharon Jones and her Daptone label pals, it's easy to conclude that soul music is very much alive in the 21st century.

eMUSIC SEPTEMBER

This is late and long!

Just as I was about to finish up this post and publish the darn thing about a week ago, eMusic surprised me by bestowing me with 50 extra downloads. That was a "loyalty bonus" for those of us who didn't dump them when they decreased the number of downloads allowed. This post also includes the 25 extra downloads given to loyal members last month. Confused? Don't worry about it. Let's just talk about the music.

* A Thousand Footprints in the Sand by Jim Dickinson with Chuck Prophet. I didn't even read the info about this album when I pressed "download." I didn't recognize the title, so I just assumed it was the new album by Dickinson, the great Memphis producer who died last month.

But I was wrong. The new one is Dinosaurs Run in Circles. But I wasn't too disappointed. Footprints is a live set from the early '90s featuring Dickinson disciple Chuck Prophet and his band. And it's full of fire and steaming voodoo soul.

Most of the songs are old blues and R&B tunes. There's a lean and mean version of J.B. Lenoir's "Down in Mississippi," which Dickinson shouts as if his life depended on it. There's a straightforward version of "The Gypsy," (an old chestnut recorded by The Ink Spots and Dinah Shore, but my favorite version is by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs).

He also does what might the the finest song he ever wrote, "Across the Borderline," whose best-known version was sung by Freddy Fender. Jim didn't have the Mayor of Milagro's voice, but his soul still comes through.

Now I have to get my hands on Dickinson's new one.

* Lysergic Legacy by The Fuzztones. This is a "greatest hits" compilation by Rudy Protrudi and the boys. Since I didn't have LSD 25: 25 Years of Fuzz and Fury, the Fuzztones best-of that just came out four years ago, I was happy to see this new collection.

Yes, this group's been around in one form or another since the early 1980s, spreading the gospel of Farfisa and fuzz through good times and bad.

Legacy includes a couple of songs from their most recent album, last year's Horny as Hell -- plus several original versions of songs that were reworked for Horny.

It's not quite a "duets" album, but Legacy includes several impressive guest appearances by '60s garage/psychedelic greats. "Get Naked" features the late Sky Saxon. Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & The Raiders sings on "Caught You Red Handed." James Lowe of The Electric Prunes can be heard on "Hallucination Generation." And the sitar-soaked "All the King's Horse" features both Arthur Lee of Love and Sean Bonniwell of The Music Machine. (Sorry, "Look For the Question Mark" doesn't have the lead singer of The Mysterians.)

And there's not one but two covers of Sonics songs here, "Strychnine" and "Cinderella." The Fuzztones did an Sonics tribute EP a few years ago.

* Stay With We by NRBQ. When I interviewed "Big" Al Anderson a few years a few years ago (you can read that HERE, he insisted that his predecessor, Steve Ferguson was the best guitarist NRBQ ever had and that their first album, the self-titled 1969 release, was NRBQ's greatest album.

I'm still partial to NRBQ at Yankee Stadium and Kick Me Hard, but Big Al's right that early Q was dynamite. This album is a compilation of songs from that first album (10 of the fist album's 14 songs are here) plus a few cuts from Boppin' the Blues, (a 1970 collaboration with Carl Perkins) and lots of previously unreleased tunes from that era.

* Dirty Blues Licks by Various Artists. Here's the bargain of the month -- 49 tracks for 12 credits (even though I already owned several tracks -- Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith Bo Carter, Mississippi Sheiks, etc.)

The blues as a genre has made such a strong bid for respectability, some of its modern hawkers would like to forget its down-and-dirty, raunchy past. This collection is a blow against bowdlerizing.

Some of the biggest names in the blues are here -- Smith, Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins. There's even one from R&B shouter Wynonie Harris

Of course, little if anything in these songs is all that explicit, especially by modern standards.. The singers assume their listeners realize the metaphorical significance of bananas, hotdogs, cabbage and poodles. If these tunes actually offend you, you must not have any lead in your pencil.

This a good companion for another collection I picked up on eMusic years ago, Please Warm My Weiner.

* Not Now! by The A-Bones The album cover is an homage to an ancient Rolling Stones LP. But The A-Bones aren’t one of those neo-Stones bands, such as The Chesterfield Kings, and they don’t sound much like Mick and the lads.

But on this new record they capture some of the spirit of the early Stones, sharing a love for greasy old blues and R&B. In fact, you could argue that the Bones go for greasier, nastier and definitely more obscure source material than did The Stones.

The A-Bones, in case you've never had the pleasure, is a project of singer Billy Miller and drummer/singer Miriam Linna, a couple whose other major project is Norton Records, one of the finest labels in the known universe (and one I regularly turn to on eMusic.)
For my full review of Not Now! CLICK HERE

* Cavernicola by Los Peyotes This is an early album by Argentina’s finest garage band, first released in 2005, recently made available in download version by London’s Dirty Water records.

Among their originals, on this record the boys cover crazy old rock songs, Los Peyotes do justice here to the infamous “Fire” by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (called “Fuego” here), "Jack the Ripper" (Screamin' Lord Sutch's song, not Link Wray's) and “The Witch.” by The Sonics.

Warning to those who took my advice last year and got Introducing Los Peyotes: “El Humo te Hace Mal” and “I Don’t Mind” appear on both albums (and sound like the same versions.) And the "secret bonus song at the end of "The Witch" (no, it's not really a 10-minute version of the song) is "Scream," which also appears on Introducing.


* Do the Wurst , Mojo Workout and Shake It Wild by King Salami & The Cumberland 3. These actually are an EP (Mojo Workout) and two "singles," totalling eight songs.

The London-based Salami reminds me of another "King," namely Khan. Like Khan's work with The Shrines, Salami plays a high-charged melding of soul and punk rock. But The Cumberland Three is a much smaller group than Khan's Shrines, so the sound is more stripped down.

The band tries its hand at surf music on "Uprising." It sounds like "Apache" (complete with tacky faux Indian war cries). And "Birddog" is a takeoff of The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird."

But my favorite has to be the cover of Bobby Long & The Satellites' "Mojo Workout," a little-known but powerful R&B stomper. You can hear that song in its entirety on the 39th episode of RadiOblivion.

*Some Kind of Kick by The Things. No, not The Pretty Things. Not even The Dirty Pretty Things. Just The Things, a garage-punk band from Dublin that I somehow stumbled across while fooling around eMusic. This album that apparently was released early this year.

Despite their Irish heritage you don't hear much of the olde sod in The Things. They sound nothing like The Pogues -- and thankfully, even less like U2. In fact, if anything, they remind me a lot of The Fuzztones -- heavy on the Farfisa and fury.

There's some cool spooky tunes -- "Psycho Lover," "Demon Stomp" -- but I think my favorite here is "Set Me Free" in which singer Neilo Thing sounds like The Hives' Howlin' Pelle Almqvist.

* Butterbeans & Susie Vol. 1: 1924-1925 Jodie Edwards and his wife Susie Hawthorne were stars of TOBA (Theatre Owners Bookers Association -- or popularly known as "Tough on Black Asses") circuit starting in the 1920s. This basically was Black vaudeville. I wouldn't want to live in that era, but what I'd give to be able to go back in time and sit in the front row at a Butterbeans & Susie show.

The duo sang funny songs about domestic disputes and sex. Decades before The Rolling Stones' "Some Girls," Butterbeans even gave a lesson in the sexual politics of skin color -- "high yellow gals" vs. "browns" in "Brown Skin Gal." They mocked each each other, making wisecracks to punctuate each other's singing. "Is that so?" Susie would say dryly as some Butterbean boast, putting him firmly in place with three little words.

Sometimes there were even insinuations of physical violence. Nobody of course took this literally back then. Joking about domestic violence has been so taboo for so long, such blatant political incorrectness now seems wickedly daring. Besides, Susie was no mousy pushover. "If you raise your hand to hit me, I'll put you under the jail" she sings in "Bow Legged Papa." Note, that's not in the jail it's under the building!

"A Married Man's a Fool," Butter declares in the song of the same title. And yet the two stayed married until Susie's death in 1963.

Most of the songs feature simple piano accompaniment, though King Oliver -- the King Oliver! -- sits in on cornet on "Kiss Me Sweet" and "Construction Gang."

This collection was taken from old 78s and Document Records made no effort to clean up the scratching. (Some songs, like "You Ain't Talkin' to Me" are nearly unlistenable.) Even so, this record, as well as Vol. 2, which I've owned for years, is just sheer delight.

* Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense No Sense at All (single) by Husker Du. It says single, but it's really four songs. I got it for "Love is All Around" -- yes, the Mary Tyler Moore theme (written by Buddy Holly crony and sometimes Cricket, Sonny Curtis!). There's also Husker's fantastic cover of The Byrds' "Eight Miles High." Because of some weird policy, you can't download individual songs for this work, it's all four or nothing, so to get the others, I had to download the song "Makes No Sense at All" even though I already have the tune on the Flip Your Wig album.

Plus

* "Strutting with Some Barbecue" by Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five. I got this for my latest podcast. Classic Satch. A great tune and it makes me hungry for barbecue. (Then again, most things do.)

* Three songs from Introducing Wiley & The Checkmates. More on that one next month.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 13, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Guest Co-host Stan Rosen
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org
Annual Post-Labor Day Songs For the Workin' Man Show

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Plenty Tuff and Union Made by The Waco Brothers
Joe Hill by Paul Robeson
There is Power in the Union by Utah Phillips
May the Work I Have Done by Freedom Song Network

Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed
Anita Pita by Joe West
Revolution by Larry Burch

Corrido de Dolores Huerta by Carmen Moreno
We Were There by Brooklyn Women's Chorus
Then Death of Mother Jones by Gene Autry
Yo Estoy con Chavez by Ramon "Tiguere" Rodriguez & Los Lobos
We're All a Dodgin' by The Weavers
Have You Been to Jail For Justice? by Anne Feeney
All the Weary Mothers by Charles Bernhardt

Workin' man Blues by Merle Haggard
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore by John Prine
Union Medley by Peter, Paul & Mary
Pie in the Sky by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
Talking Union by The Almanac Singers
Wal-Mart Union Gonna Rise Again by Charlie King & Karen Brandow
Working at Working by Wayne Hancock
Freedom is Coming by Seattle Labor Chorus

Bougeois Blues by Taj Mahal
Working Man by Bo Diddley
Red Neck, Blue Collar by James Luther Dickinson
(Happy Birthday to You (Dave Barsanti) by Steve Terrell & Stan Rosen)
This Land is Your Land by Pete Seeger, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Doc Watson & The Little Red Schoolhouse Chorus
Banker's Son by Joe West
Banks Were Made of Marble by The Weavers
Bread and Rose by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
SUBSTITUTE CLOSING THEME: Solidarity Forever by Joe Glaser

BLOODSHOT'S TURNING 15

I played "Bloodshot's Turning Five" by Robbie Fulks on The Santa Fe Opry last night in honor of Bloodshot Record's 15th Anniversary.

15 years old! And I remember when they were just a little baby record company.

Bloodshot's still one of the best. Through the years they've released excellent records by Fulks, Wayne "The Train" Hancock, Neko Case, Alejandro Escovedo, Trailer Bride, Dex Romweber, Kelly Hogan, The Bottle Rockets, The Sadies, The Detroit Cobras, Paul Burch, Graham Parker, Ryan Adams, Charlie Pickett, Scott H. Biram, Andre Williams, Rex Hobart (who lived in Santa Fe for awhile), Bobby Bare, Jr., The Old 97s, The Meat Purveyors, Sally Timms and of those those wonderful Waco Brothers ... among others.

Here's a story about Bloodshot from the Chicago Tribune (thanks David Barsanti for sending me this.) In it, Bloodshot cofounder Nan Warsaw, talking about the importance of music labels, says something to think about: "It’s easier than ever to put your music out there, but it’s tougher than ever to get your music noticed."

Congratulations Rob Miller and Nan and thanks for all the great music.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 11, 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
Bloody Mary Morning by Willie Nelson
Make Room on the Lifeboat for Me by The Delmore Brothers
The Governor by James McMurtry
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Laura Cantrell
Under Lock and Key by Gary Gorence
Down in Mississippi by Jim Dickinson with Chuck Prophet
Bloodshot's Turning Five by Robbie Fulks

Ain't No Saguaro in Texas by The Rev. Horton Heat
The Streets of Bakerfield by Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens
Uncle Frank by Drive-by Truckers
Beyond the Madness by Mike Cullison
Moving on #3 by Wayne Hancock
Slide Me Some Sugar by Nancy Apple
Julie's Neon Shoes by Kell Robertson
Get Yourself a Monkey Man, Make Him Strut His Stuff by Butterbeans & Susie

Move Along Train by Levon Helm
You Win Again by Mother Earth
Oh Lonesome Me by Ana Fermin's Trigger Gospel
Big Swamp Land by Johnny Paycheck
Preacher Man by Quarter Mile Combo
Ubangi Stomp by The Stray Cats
Chile Verde by Bayou Seco
Peor de Nada by El Trio Alegre

Get Off My Back Lucy by The Iguanas
Ta Bueno Compadre by Flaco Jimenez with the West Side Horns
The Garden by Freddy Fender
The Genitalia of a Fool by Cornell Hurd featurning Justin Trevino
I Couldn't Believe it Was True by Doc & Merle Watson
September Song by Hank Penny
Sweet Dreams by Leon Russell
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

ZOZOBRA ON VIDEO

Courtesy KOB TV.

It's 40 minutes long.

He burns and dies.

Viva la Fiesta!

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LAUGHIN' MORE THAN CRYIN'

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 11, 2009

On his new album, Laughin' & Cryin', released last week, The Reverend Horton Heat has slowed down a bit since his old psychobilly freakout days 20 years ago or so.

The man from Dallas is still capable of playing with wild energy. He proved that when I saw him at the Hootenanny festival in California a couple of months ago. But in his recordings through the years, he's become a little jazzier, maybe a little more country, and it sounds like he's paying more attention to his vocals. As he declares in one of the songs on his first album in five years (or at least his first non-Christmas album in that time), he's taken a definite stand on the great culture war between death-metal guys and rockabilly cats.

But The Rev. (whose real name is Jim Heath) still has a knack for machine-gun twang-guitar licks. And the man who introduced us to the concept of the "Big Dwarf Rodeo" all those years ago still has a love for crazy novelty songs. Laughin' & Cryin' is in fact built upon a foundation of topical songs, some of which have the potential to become Heat standards. Others stand a good chance of being remembered by Heat fans as weird curiosities.

One of those tunes is bound to become a favorite with New Mexico fans. "Ain't No Saguaro in Texas" is a musical complaint, featuring some Mexican-style accordion, about the fact that "Hollywood and misinformed artists" have the knack of depicting his home state as having tall saguaro cacti — which, in the U.S., only grows in Arizona and a small part of California. We've got the same problem in New Mexico. Sometimes politicians here who have hired out-of-state companies to do their ads find pictures of mighty saguaros decorating their campaign literature.

Speaking of Texas, another song on Laughin' and Cryin', "There's a Little Bit of Everything in Texas" sounds like Heat's making a serious bid to get a gig with his home state's tourism department.

Heat gives some good advice to parents in "Please Don't Take the Baby to the Liquor Store." This song reminds me of an old tune by the Dead Milkmen, "Let's Get the Baby High."

One of my favorites here is "Crazy Ex-Boyfriend," a tune about an obsessed former lover. "The next time she saw him, he called her a slut/So I rolled up my sleeves and kicked his butt."

But the CD's best song won't be well received by the politically correct. "Rural Point of View" is a defense of big old pickup trucks over little electric cars and a screed against Ivy League professors and organic-food snobs. "That pompous little fool can ride his bike to school 'cause a farmer with a truck is how he eats."

And yes, that "Death Metal Guys" song. Wanna know the real difference between rockabilly cats and death-metal dudes? Jerry Lee Lewis shot his bass player. But a death-metal guy, according to The Rev. Heat, would have "eaten his brain."

This album isn't very deep. But deep's overrated. Laughin' & Cryin' is lots of fun.

Also recommended

* The Fine of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008 by Drive-By Truckers. Like the title explains, this is an odds 'n' sods collection of outtakes, alternate takes, cover songs, and other previously unreleased tracks by these wild-eyed Southern boys. To be honest, I find this album fresher than the Truckers' past couple of studio albums.

The album kicks off with an irreverent ode to a honky-tonk hero. "George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues" deals with the Possum's 1999 car wreck. (He was driving drunk and yakking with his daughter on a cell phone when he drove off a bridge.)

The Truckers' song, written and sung by Patterson Hood, is an upbeat country rocker with John Neff's sweet steel guitar. It's got some wickedly funny lines Jones fans will recognize. ("I heard it on the news, you almost stopped loving her today/Better stay on that riding lawnmower if you're gonna keep on carrying on that way.") The love for Jones and his music is obvious in every lick.

But the strongest song here is Hood's weird slow burner called "The Great Car Dealer War." Apparently an outtake from The Dirty South (still my favorite DBT album), this is the story of a guy paid to torch vehicles at a car lot. The best lyrics: "I don't ask questions, I don't assume/I just take a long hard look when I walk into a room."

There are two opposing views about the Tennessee Valley Authority on the CD. One features on a rerecording of Trucker Mike Cooley's "Uncle Frank," a song that first appeared on the DBT's second album, Pizza Deliverance. In it, Frank kills himself after being ripped off by the government. On the other hand, there's former Trucker Jason Isbell's "TVA," which sounds like a Steve Earle song. He credits the TVA for bringing jobs and electricity to the South, as well as for his first teenage sexual conquest.

For pure twistedness, there's a funny Christmas song called "Mrs. Claus' Kimono" Full of adultery, class warfare, and an undercurrent of violence, it almost sounds like a parody of the Drive-By Truckers. And there's a story about a reindeer that Burl Ives never sang about.

The cover songs, for the most part, are inspired. Various Truckers trade off verses of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." There's a snarling version of Warren Zevon's "Play It All Night Long." ("Sweet home Alabama, play that dead band's song.") And best of all is a heartfelt version of Tom T. Hall's "Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)." This is the story of a soldier coming home from war after having a leg blown off. He tries to keep his humor, but he's also got a bottle under his blanket.

The only misstep is a cover of Tom Petty's "Rebels." The DBTs do it like a Springsteen anthem. It sounds tacky in the company of "The Great Car Dealer War" and "Mama Bake a Pie."

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 6, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I'm in With the Out Crowd by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Wolfman Boogie Part 1 by Wolfman Jack & The Wolf Pack
Hey Grandma by Moby Grape
Granny Tops 'em at the Hop by The A-Bones
Dustbowl Flashback by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
Wild Wild Lover by The Monsters
Goodbye Ramona by The Neckbones
Skinny Jimmy by The Del Moroccos
Hurdy Gurdy Man by The Butthole Surfers
Woe is Me by The Cadillacs

Psycho Lover by The Things
13 Ghosts by Marshmallow Overcoat
A Thousand Shadows by The Seeds
Teeth by The Mekons
Back in Business by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Have You Ever Spent the Night in Jail? by The Standells
Precious Thing by Big Black
I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas by Andre Williams & The Green Hornet
Ride the Torpedo by The Tallboys
Don't Worry 'bout That Mule by Louis Jordan


SOUL POWER SET
Soul Power by James Brown
Santa Barbara by Celia Cruz
Saturday Night Fish Fry by B.B. King
Mosadi Ku Rima by Miriam Makeba
I Don't You on My Mind by Bill Withers
Feast of the Mau Mau by Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Ifa by Tunji Oyelana & The Benders
Amos Moses by Primus
Busman's Honeymoon by Pere Ubu
Junco Partner by The Clash
September Song by Lou Reed
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 4, 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
Always Late With Your Kisses by Merle Haggard
Kiss Me Quick an Go by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
I'm Your Man by The Derailers
One Bad Stud by The Blasters
Blazing Trailer of Love by Neil Mooney
A Living Hell by The Bottle Rockets
Devil's Run by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Rural Point of View by The Rev. Horton Heat
Bad Luck Dice by Clifford Gibson

Tex Mex Mile by The Gourds
Got U on My Mind by The Watzloves
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on the Skids
I Do Drive a Truck by Jon Wayne
Faraway Eyes by The Rolling Stones
Cook County Jail by Ethyl & The Regulars
I'm Tired of Pretending by Hank Thompson
The Sunny Side of the Moon by Johnny Dilks

Barbecue by Devil in a Woodpile
Turn it On, Turn It On, Turn It On by Tom T. Hall
Mama Bake a Pie by Drive-By Truckers
Going Up the Country by Jimbo Mathus
Good Enough for Grandad by The Squirrel Nut Zippers
Satellite Baby by Skip Stanley
Bluest Boy in Town by Yuichi & The Hilltone Boys
Gee I Really Love You by Heavy Trash
(This Ain't Just Another) Lust Affair by Mel Street

Seven Eleven Heaven by Danny Santos
Bruises for Pearls by Trailer Bride
It Wouldn't Be Hell Without You by Cornell Hurd
One Spectacular Moon by Jaime Michaels
Let Me Be The Judge by Amber Digby
Cross My Heart by Martin Zellar
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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