Friday, January 15, 2010
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
Shufflin' Shoe Boogie by Wes Holly
The Hell I'm Raising Now by Mike Cullison
Real Gone Lover by Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis
Down by The Riverside by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
My Drinkin' Problem by Hank Williams III
Strut My Stuff by Slim Redman & Donny Bowshier
I'm Gonna Strangle You Shorty by Joe Ely, Lee Rocker & All the King's Men
Who, Tell Me Who by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
A Man of the Road by Wayne Hancock
Mississippi Muddle by Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys
Satan's Burning Hell by Bill Neely
I Hung it Up by Junior Brown
Truck Stop at the End of the World by Bill Kirchen
Too Hip Gotta Go by The Stray Cats
She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft) by Jerry Reed
A Satisfied Mind by Jean Shepard
Rough and Rocky Road by Stars of Harmony
Golden Gate Gospel Train by Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet
What Kind of Man by The Caravans
Dig a Little Deeper by Mahalia Jackson
Where the Soul of Man Never Dies by Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy
My Troubles Are So Hard to Bear by Ethel Davenport
Strange Things Happen Every Day by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Between Darkness and the Light of Day by Clarence Fountain & Sam Butler
I Want My Crown by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama
Babylon's Fallen by The Trumpeteers
The Legend of Hell's Half Acre by Bootleg Prophets
Deep Blue Sea by South Memphis String Band
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Cathead Biscuits and Gravy by Nancy Apple with Rob McNurlin
Look at that Moon by Carl Mann
We Live in Two Different Worlds by Hank Williams
Accidently on Purpose by George Jones
The Great Speckled Bird by Kitty Wells
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, January 15, 2010
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: HONORING DICKINSON
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 16, 2010
One of the undersung giants of American music died last summer. I speak of Jim Dickinson — songwriter, piano player, record producer, music preservationist, singer (in his own gruff manner), Memphis royalty, and spiritual force.
Dickinson’s footprint is all over the blues and rock ’n’ roll. He played piano on the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark,” and Bob Dylan’s album Time Out of Mind. He produced albums by The Replacements, Mudhoney, The Flamin’ Groovies, and Big Star. He was a sideman for Ry Cooder for years.
The list of artists he produced and/or recorded with seems to go on forever: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Jerry Jeff Walker, Esther Phillips, Joe “King” Carrasco, T-Model Ford, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Flat Duo Jets, Toots & The Maytals, Jason & The Scorchers, the Tarbox Ramblers, and Petula Clark.
Yes, Petula Clark!
Dickinson’s spirit is all over a couple of new CDs involving his son Luther Dickinson, who is best known for his work in the North Mississippi Allstars. There’s Onward and Upward, credited to Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy, released late last year. And Home Sweet Home by the South Memphis String Band is released on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Onward and Upward was recorded last August, three days after Jim Dickinson’s death, at the old master’s Zebra Ranch Studio in Independence, Mississippi. Musicians include Jimbo Mathus (best known as the frontman of the Squirrel Nut Zippers), singer Shannon McNally, and two members of Dickinson’s old band, Mudboy and the Neutrons — guitarist Sid Selvidge and Jimmy Crosthwait, who plays washboard and sings. Also on board were Steve Selvidge on dobro and guitar and Paul Taylor on washtub bass.
Dickinson is listed as one of the producers “in absentia.” According to the other producer, David Less, in the liner notes, “To say [the recording sessions] were cathartic for all those participating would be to undervalue the music. Everyone understood that Jim was there and despite his passing, the music can still survive. To quote his epitaph, ‘I’m just dead, I’m not gone.’ ”
Cathartic or not, this album does have a funereal feel. For the most part, it’s somber and mournful — not to mention heartfelt. I wouldn’t be the first to compare it to a musical wake for Dickinson. Close your eye you can easily imagine yourself sitting in his living room while his son and friends pay tribute in the best way they know how.
The album is mostly a collection of classic gospel tunes and spirituals: “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning,” “Softly and Tenderly,” “You’ve Got to Walk That Lonesome Highway,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” and from the bluegrass world, “Angel Band.” It’s acoustic, low-key, and unflashy. Most of the tracks were first takes with no overdubbing or other studio trickery.
Among the standouts are the upbeat “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies,” a song I think I first heard done by Delaney & Bonnie; “Let it Roll,” a dobro-driven dirge written by Dickinson the younger the day he started recording the album; and “Back Back Train,” a Mississippi Fred McDowell song, which features some snazzy washboard and washtub bass interplay.
You know that Jim Dickinson is smiling somewhere.
Home Sweet Home was recorded sometime before Dickinson’s death. That’s apparent, because he wrote the liner notes for the CD and basically reviewed the album in the process. “If you don’t dig this there is seriously something wrong with you,” he wrote. I won’t go quite that far, but I agree with old Jim that this is seriously righteous album.
Luther Dickinson is joined in the South Memphis String Band by Mathus as well as by Alvin Youngblood Hart. Luther and his pals share Dickinson’s love for the old string bands and jug bands that sprouted up around Memphis and other parts of the South in the early part of the last century. This album has covers of songs done decades before by The Mississippi Sheiks, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, Blind Willie Johnson, The Carter Family, and others.
There’s not one but two outlaw songs here — the good old “Jesse James” (yes the one with the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard) and “Bloody Bill Anderson,” which is about the life of an anti-Union guerilla fighter in Missouri during the Civil War.
And, don’t you know, there’s the sound of a prison chain-gang tune called “Eighteen Hammers.” There are moaning call-and-response vocals, and the percussion sounds like shovels and hoes clanking on the ground.
With its buzzing kazoo, honking harmonica, and lazy rhythm, I assumed “Worry ’Bout Your Own Backyard” was some ancient jug band song. However, it’s a Mathus original. And a fine one it is.
One of the jewels is Hart’s “Deep Blue Sea,” which he also sang on Otis Taylor’s Recapturing the Banjo a couple of years ago and his own Jim Dickinson-produced album Down in the Alley a few years before that. Actually, Luther Dickinson’s North Mississippi Allstars a few years back took a respectable crack at this folk tune — which has been done by Odetta, Pete Seeger, and who know how many others. But nobody sings it like Hart.
Both CDs are available from Memphis International Records at memphisinternational.com, among other places
January 16, 2010
One of the undersung giants of American music died last summer. I speak of Jim Dickinson — songwriter, piano player, record producer, music preservationist, singer (in his own gruff manner), Memphis royalty, and spiritual force.
Dickinson’s footprint is all over the blues and rock ’n’ roll. He played piano on the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark,” and Bob Dylan’s album Time Out of Mind. He produced albums by The Replacements, Mudhoney, The Flamin’ Groovies, and Big Star. He was a sideman for Ry Cooder for years.
He’s responsible for some wonderful field recordings of Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis, and Otha Turner. Although a Southerner through and through, he captured the spirit of the Southwest in his soulful, Mexican-flavored “Across the Borderline,” (co-written with Cooder and John Hiatt), the best version of which was sung by Freddy Fender in Cooder’s soundtrack for the 1982 movie The Border.
The list of artists he produced and/or recorded with seems to go on forever: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Jerry Jeff Walker, Esther Phillips, Joe “King” Carrasco, T-Model Ford, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Flat Duo Jets, Toots & The Maytals, Jason & The Scorchers, the Tarbox Ramblers, and Petula Clark.
Yes, Petula Clark!
Dickinson also released several good-time, blues-soaked, country-fried albums of his own in recent years, including Free Beer Tomorrow and Jungle Jim and The Voodoo Tiger. I recently stumbled across a live Dickinson collaboration with Chuck Prophet, A Thousand Footprints in the Sand (a line from “Across the Borderline”) from the ’90s.
Dickinson’s spirit is all over a couple of new CDs involving his son Luther Dickinson, who is best known for his work in the North Mississippi Allstars. There’s Onward and Upward, credited to Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy, released late last year. And Home Sweet Home by the South Memphis String Band is released on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Onward and Upward was recorded last August, three days after Jim Dickinson’s death, at the old master’s Zebra Ranch Studio in Independence, Mississippi. Musicians include Jimbo Mathus (best known as the frontman of the Squirrel Nut Zippers), singer Shannon McNally, and two members of Dickinson’s old band, Mudboy and the Neutrons — guitarist Sid Selvidge and Jimmy Crosthwait, who plays washboard and sings. Also on board were Steve Selvidge on dobro and guitar and Paul Taylor on washtub bass.
Dickinson is listed as one of the producers “in absentia.” According to the other producer, David Less, in the liner notes, “To say [the recording sessions] were cathartic for all those participating would be to undervalue the music. Everyone understood that Jim was there and despite his passing, the music can still survive. To quote his epitaph, ‘I’m just dead, I’m not gone.’ ”
Cathartic or not, this album does have a funereal feel. For the most part, it’s somber and mournful — not to mention heartfelt. I wouldn’t be the first to compare it to a musical wake for Dickinson. Close your eye you can easily imagine yourself sitting in his living room while his son and friends pay tribute in the best way they know how.
The album is mostly a collection of classic gospel tunes and spirituals: “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning,” “Softly and Tenderly,” “You’ve Got to Walk That Lonesome Highway,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” and from the bluegrass world, “Angel Band.” It’s acoustic, low-key, and unflashy. Most of the tracks were first takes with no overdubbing or other studio trickery.
Among the standouts are the upbeat “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies,” a song I think I first heard done by Delaney & Bonnie; “Let it Roll,” a dobro-driven dirge written by Dickinson the younger the day he started recording the album; and “Back Back Train,” a Mississippi Fred McDowell song, which features some snazzy washboard and washtub bass interplay.
You know that Jim Dickinson is smiling somewhere.
Home Sweet Home was recorded sometime before Dickinson’s death. That’s apparent, because he wrote the liner notes for the CD and basically reviewed the album in the process. “If you don’t dig this there is seriously something wrong with you,” he wrote. I won’t go quite that far, but I agree with old Jim that this is seriously righteous album.
Luther Dickinson is joined in the South Memphis String Band by Mathus as well as by Alvin Youngblood Hart. Luther and his pals share Dickinson’s love for the old string bands and jug bands that sprouted up around Memphis and other parts of the South in the early part of the last century. This album has covers of songs done decades before by The Mississippi Sheiks, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, Blind Willie Johnson, The Carter Family, and others.
There’s not one but two outlaw songs here — the good old “Jesse James” (yes the one with the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard) and “Bloody Bill Anderson,” which is about the life of an anti-Union guerilla fighter in Missouri during the Civil War.
And, don’t you know, there’s the sound of a prison chain-gang tune called “Eighteen Hammers.” There are moaning call-and-response vocals, and the percussion sounds like shovels and hoes clanking on the ground.
With its buzzing kazoo, honking harmonica, and lazy rhythm, I assumed “Worry ’Bout Your Own Backyard” was some ancient jug band song. However, it’s a Mathus original. And a fine one it is.
One of the jewels is Hart’s “Deep Blue Sea,” which he also sang on Otis Taylor’s Recapturing the Banjo a couple of years ago and his own Jim Dickinson-produced album Down in the Alley a few years before that. Actually, Luther Dickinson’s North Mississippi Allstars a few years back took a respectable crack at this folk tune — which has been done by Odetta, Pete Seeger, and who know how many others. But nobody sings it like Hart.
Both CDs are available from Memphis International Records at memphisinternational.com, among other places
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
NO COMMENT
Looks like Haloscan made good on their promise to switch from a free service for comments to a paid service called Echo.
Meanwhile, enjoy some Cankisou:
Sorry, I'm a cheapskate. So all my old comments from Halo have gone away. (To the conspiracy-minded out there, yes this is an evil plot to HIDE THE TRUTH FROM THE PEOPLE, and I'M IN ON IT! Please, don't tell anybody.)
I'm trying to get the free Blogger comment thing to work, but so far, no luck. Anyone have any ideas? If so, e-mail me.
Meanwhile, enjoy some Cankisou:
Sunday, January 10, 2010
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, January 10, 2010
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
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Roller Coaster by The 13th Floor Elevators
Hey Hey Spaceman by Stranger Family Band
Tripmaker by The Seeds
The Trip by The Rockin' Guys
Doves by The Black Angels
LSD by The Pretty Things
Mad Libs by Bichos
Fiery Jack by The Fall
Psychedelic Sex Machine by The North Mississippi Allstars
Black Magic by King Automatic
Bad Blood by The Sons of Hercules
Wild Man by Thee Headcoatees
Cholla Polka by Mike Enis & Company
Buckle Down with Nixon by Oscar Brand
Nixon's Dead Ass by Russell Means
Superbird/Tricky Dick by Country Joe & The Fish
One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons
Evil Eye by Dead Moon
Fire in The Western World by The Dirtbombs
Girl from Outer Space by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages Sunrise by The Chesterfield Kings
Holy Juke Joint Beat by The Juke Joint Pimps
Hipsville 29 BC by The Sparkles
I Caveman and You? by Los Peyotes
Stranded in the Jungle by Frank Zappa
Thursday by Morphine
I See the Light by Rev. Beat-Man
My Old Man Boogie by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Destination Mars by Frosty & The Diamonds
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Roller Coaster by The 13th Floor Elevators
Hey Hey Spaceman by Stranger Family Band
Tripmaker by The Seeds
The Trip by The Rockin' Guys
Doves by The Black Angels
LSD by The Pretty Things
Mad Libs by Bichos
Fiery Jack by The Fall
Psychedelic Sex Machine by The North Mississippi Allstars
Black Magic by King Automatic
Bad Blood by The Sons of Hercules
Wild Man by Thee Headcoatees
Cholla Polka by Mike Enis & Company
Buckle Down with Nixon by Oscar Brand
Nixon's Dead Ass by Russell Means
Superbird/Tricky Dick by Country Joe & The Fish
One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons
Evil Eye by Dead Moon
Fire in The Western World by The Dirtbombs
Girl from Outer Space by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages Sunrise by The Chesterfield Kings
Holy Juke Joint Beat by The Juke Joint Pimps
Hipsville 29 BC by The Sparkles
I Caveman and You? by Los Peyotes
Stranded in the Jungle by Frank Zappa
Thursday by Morphine
I See the Light by Rev. Beat-Man
My Old Man Boogie by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Destination Mars by Frosty & The Diamonds
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
eMUSIC JANUARY
* The Roots of The Cramps by various Artists Hot diggity dog! Not only is this a serious eMusic bargain (56 tracks for 12 credits!) it's a serious dose of rockabilly, R&B, surf and garage obscurities.
In short, these are the songs The Cramps covered or, in some cases the tunes that The Cramps mutated into their original songs. (Listen to "Strolling After Dark" by The Shades and you can easily understand why Lux and Ivy were inspired to add a teenage werewolf.)
There's lots of overlap here with a now-out-of print 2007 compilation called Songs The Cramps Taught Us. But that only had 31 tracks.
Among my favorites here are "Miniskirt Blues" performed by The Flower Children, an early band of Simon Stokes; the bubblegum classic "Quick Joey Small" by The Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus; a version of Elroy Dietzel's "Rockin' Bones" by a young Ronnie Dawson; and "Storm Warning," some pre-Dr. John gris-gris from Mac Rebennack.
Then there's the girl-biker anthem "Get Off the Road" by The R. Lewis Band. "We are the Hellcats who nobody likes/Man-eaters on motorbikes." Well, I like 'em
* Interplanetary Melodies by Sun Ra. If Lux Interior runs into Sun Ra up in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, they will have a lot more to talk about than you might initially imagine.
* Interplanetary Melodies by Sun Ra. If Lux Interior runs into Sun Ra up in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, they will have a lot more to talk about than you might initially imagine.
You see, Herman Sonny Blount not only played cosmic jazz, but also dabbled in recording doo-wop and R&B in the 1950s. And damned if he didn't make that sound cosmic too! One of the bands represented here was even called The Cosmic Rays, but they're not as otherwordly as The Nu Sounds, a Ra vocal group performing songs like "Spaceship Lullaby" and "Africa."
Norton Records recently released three CDs of this material. I picked up Rocketship Rock over on Amie Street. (My favorite tracks there are the down and gritty "Hot Skillet Mama" by Yochanan -- there are two versions here -- and the short version of "I Am Gonna Unmask the Batman" by Lacy Gibson.) I'll definitely pick up The Second Stop is Jupiter before long.
* Ow! Ow! Ow! by Barrence Whitfield. Good news: Rounder Records is now on eMusic. That means classic '80s Barrence albums are now available.
For those unfamiliar with this contemporary R&B wildman, I'd start out with Live Emulsfied, (which I already had) -- if only for "Mama Get the Hammer" and "Bloody Mary."
But Ow! Ow! Ow! is a fine choice too. Not a bad track here and some, like "Girl From Outer Space" are downright crazy. And for those who like Whitfield's slower, prettier side, "Apology Line" is one of his finest ballads.
PLUS:
PLUS:
* Sun Recordings Vol. 1 by Jerry Lee Lewis. Here's another good eMusic bargain. Several years ago I downloaded eight tracks from this album. With eMusic's new pricing plan, they only charged me four credits for the other 12 tracks.
Those familiar only with the smattering of Lewis hits they play on oldies radio might be surprised to know that Lewis' fire went well beyond "Great Balls of Fire." He did an excellent version of Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush," not to mention his raucous cover of The Dominos' "60 Minute Man."
But even back in those Sun Records years, Jerry Lee displayed his knack for country music. "Who Will Buy the Wine," included on this volume, has as much soul as The Killer's honk-tonk classics like"What Made Milwaukee Famous" and "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye."
* Seven tracks from No Requests Tonight by The Devil Dogs. This is a live album, released in 1997 by the Dogs, a fine New York punk/trash trio. It's a California show and the stage patter consists largely of East Coast/West Coast abuse Previously my favorite Devil Dogs tune was their cover of former New Mexico Music Commissioner Tony Orlando's grease ballad "Bless You" from the Choad Blast EP. But here the The Devil Dogs cover Bono -- Sonny Bono, that is. Their version of Sonny's proto-hippie lament "Laugh at Me" is a heart-warming delight.
* The tracks I didn't get last month from The Kids Are All Square - This Is HipGirlsville by Thee Headcoats and Thee Headcoatees. Most of the ones I got this month were by Thee Headcoatees, Billy Childish's "girl group" of the '90s, which included Holly Golightly, Miss Ludella Black, Kyra Rubella and Bongo Debbie.
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TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
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