THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March x, 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
The Moon is High by Roger Miller
She Took a Lot of Pills and Died by Robbie Fulks
Highway Patrol by Junior Brown
Oil in My Lamp by The Byrds
Rub a Dub Dub by Hank Thompson
Broken Engagement by Webb Pierce
Shake a Leg by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Whistle Bait by Larry Collins
Let's Elope by Janis Martin
Move Along Train by Levon Helm
Old Corn Likker by The Carolina Chocolate Drops

T-Model Theme Song by T-Model Ford
Picture of You by Dex Romweber Duo
Diddey Wah-Diddey by Taj Mahall
This Ain't a Good Time by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
Blood on the Saddle by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
High Noon by Tex Ritter
Take Me Back by Billy Kaundart
Country Boy by Little Jimmy Dickens
Night Spots of the Town by Roy Acuff

The Wig He Made Her Wear/Get Downtown by Drive-By Truckers
Rebel by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Pour Hank on the Pain by Mike Cullison
My Bucket's Got a Hole in It by Hank Williams
When Sin Stops by Waylon Jennings & Buddy Holly
Mud Flap Boogie by The World Famous Blue Jays
Your Squaw is on the Warpath by Loretta Lynn
Star Motel Blues by Kell Robertson

Wade in the Water by Asylum Street Spankers
The Ballad of Jack Dolan by Moloney, Keane & O'Donnell
Bad Man Napper by Lee Green
Ballad of Hell's Half Acre by The Bootleg Prophets
Don't Go by Hundred Year Flood
That's When It Hits Me by Nancy Apple
Pie in the Sky by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
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: TRUCKING TO GLORY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 26, 2010

With The Big To-Do, The Drive-By Truckers continue their run as probably the most consistently strong, consistently good band working today.

They sound as tough as ever, with three fine singers and loud guitars. They tell riveting stories and are not afraid to be funny or get sentimental when it’s called for. They’ve even stuck with artist Wes Freed, whose colorful, magical mystery Southern Gothic style makes him my favorite album-cover artist working today.

In the liner notes, Trucker Patterson Hood says that unlike other Trucker albums, there wasn’t supposed to be an overall theme or story line on this record. “Yet as we sit down to sequence, it somehow seems to imply otherwise.” (I love a band that’s not afraid to honestly comment on its own work.)

The first tune that grabbed me was “Drag the Lake, Charlie.” It’s a loose and funky upbeat song sung from the perspective of a small-town law enforcement officer (think Andy or Barney in Mayberry). The song is funny at first, with the narrator worried about the wrath of Wanda, the wife of philandering ne’er-do-well Lester, who’s missing. “Better keep your fingers crossed and hope we find him drowned/Wanda’s gonna come and kill us all if he shows up in town.”

But as the song progresses, so does the darkness. “Remember what happened last time Lester went on the make?/I heard it took the cleaning crew two weeks to clean the bar/They never found that teenage girl/They never found the car.”

The Truckers have always excelled at crime songs, and it’s a real double punch when “Drag the Lake” is followed by “The Wig He Made Her Wear.” This one is ripped straight from the headlines; it’s the story of Mary Winkler, who was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for killing her husband, the Rev. Matthew Winkler, in 2006. As reported by the Associated Press, “Jurors were shown a pair of tall platform shoes and a black wig Winkler said that she was pressured to wear during sex.”

Hood sings:

“Said that he berated about everything/Make her do things that made her feel so ashamed/Nobody at church would ever suspect/Made her dress up slutty before they had sex ... She’s already out of jail/And it was them high-heeled shoes and that wig he made her wear.”

Mike Cooley is responsible for “Birthday Boy,” the tale of a world-weary small-town stripper/hooker. “You got a girlfriend, don’t you, boy?/Nervous hands can’t lie/Married men don’t ask how much, single ones ain’t buying.”

“Get Downtown” is a funny rocker that starts off, “Kim said ‘Jimmy you better get yourself up off of that raggedy couch/I’m too pretty to work and I’m tired of you uglying up my house.’ ” The crunchy, fuzzy production adds to the pleasure.

Probably the most sonically stunning track on To-Do is Shonna Tucker’s “You Got Another.” The subject matter is hardly original — “You got another and you’ll go to her” — but Tucker sings with an ache and rage that makes it sound as if she’s the world’s first victim of sexual infidelity (which of course is just how it feels if it happens to you). The songs starts off slow and spare, with Tucker singing over piano and Hood coming in for harmony in the refrain.

At first, it reminded me of Lucinda Williams’ “Broken Butterflies,” sad and somewhat otherworldly. But then the rest of the band comes in and the music builds — the sob of the opening verse becomes a growl and then a roar. And Tucker’s voice remains the most powerful element of this song.

And, by golly, there’s even a song called “Santa Fe,” (hey, I live there!) which Hood says he wrote here (“before and after sound check”) while in town for a show in June 2008.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really say anything about Santa Fe: “You said that you’d be waiting for me here in Santa Fe.” It could be about any town with three syllables for its name. In fact, if I had to pick the weakest song on the record, I’d have to set aside hometown pride — though John Neff deserves some credit for a tasty steel-guitar solo.

“Our album begins with a song about a little boy missing his dad and ends with a father missing his children,” Hood writes in the liner notes, referring to his song “Daddy Learned to Fly” and Cooley’s “Eyes Like Glue” — a sweet and sad one.

But the true climax of the album is “The Flying Wallendas.” Yes, it’s the story of the famous circus family of acrobats, who provide a classic symbol for showbiz. The Wallendas were amazing performers, but sadly they’re probably best known for the tragic incident of Jan. 30, 1962, when two members of the act were killed and another paralyzed after they fell while performing in Detroit.

“And they fell to the ground with the greatest of ease/And three didn’t get up from the blood in the breeze,” Hood sings. And yet the Wallendas kept going. They performed the very next night. I saw them as a child a few months later. Patriarch Karl Wallenda kept performing until 1978, when he fell to his death from a high wire in Puerto Rico at the age of 73. “They never would stop and they never surrendered/And they lived like they died, The Flying Wallendas,” Hood sings.

Let’s hope the Drive-By Truckers keep flying too.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March, 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
Get it On by Grinderman
The Beat Goes On by The Pretty Things
Around the World by Delaney Davidson
Cigarettes and My Old Lady by Andre Williams
I Need Somebody by Manby's Head
Box-o-Wine by Dirtbag Surfers
'Sup by The Fuzzy Set
Action Packed by The Del Moroccos
Dig That Grave by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers

JUNGLE SET
Jungle Hop by Don & Dewey
Jungle King by Cab Calloway
Jane in the Jungle by The 5.6.7.8s
Jungle Rock by The Fall
Jungle by The Nite Cats
Stranded in the Jungle by Frank Zappa
Tiger Man (King of the Jungle) by Rufus Thomas
Guitarzan by Ray Stevens

ALEX CHILTON TRIBUTE
The Letter by The Box Tops
Like Flies on Sherbert by Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton's Guitar by The Rockin' Guys
September Gurls by Big Star
The Mad Daddy by The Cramps
Baron of Love Part II by Ross Johnson & Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton by The Replacements
Rock Hard by Alex Chilton

Murder in My Heart for the Judge by Moby Grape
Death Cab For Cutie by Bonzo Dog Band
Snow Blind Friend by Steppenwolf
Peg and Pete and Me by Stan Ridgway
Deathletter in the Mail by Bernadette Seacrest & Her Provocateurs
Zero Hour by The Plimsouls
Rambling Rose by The Persuasions
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 19, 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
Drag the Lake, Charlie by Drive-By Truckers
I've Done Everything I Could Do Wrong by Reckless Kelly
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Family Man by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Even If It's Wrong by BR549
Married Man Blues by The Nite Owls
My Baby's Gone by Marti Brom
In the Pines by Delaney Davidson
World Renown by The Riptones

Paper Crosses by Philip Gibbs
Lulu's Back in Town by Dan Hicks
He Calls That Religion by Maria Muldaur
By and By by Asylum Street Spankers
If Yous a Viper by Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Cancion Mixteca by The Chieftains by Los Tigres del Norte

Johnny Gimble Set
(All songs by Johnny Gimble or from songs on which JG played)
Hey Mr. Cowboy by Johnny Gimble with Jesse Dayton
Ida Red by Merle Haggard
You Win Again by Mother Earth
Divorce Me C.O.D. by Don Walser
I Needed You by Johnny Gimble with Dale Watson
(How Will I Know) I'm Falling in Love Again by Willie Nelson
Going Away Party by Asleep at the Wheel & The Manhatten Transfer & Willie Nelson
Sweet Georgia Brown by Johnny Gimble with Merle Haggard

Waltz Across Texas by Alex Chilton
A Satisfied Mind by Marty Stuart
Murder in My Mind by Holly Golighty & The Brokeoffs
Sneaky Pete by Sonny Fisher
Mamma's Fried Potatoes by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Bloody Bill Anderson by South Memphis String Band
Go Ring the Bells by Johnny Paycheck
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

ALEX CHILTON TRIBUTE SET ON SOUND WORLD SUNDAY

Please tune in Sunday on KSFR. The show starts at 10 p.m. Mountain Time. I'll probably do the Chilton segment about 11 p.m.

Meanwhile, here's some videos. Some folks on YouTube say the first one is NOT from 120 Minutes, but an older show that was called The Cutting Edge. That's Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones introducing him.