TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 20 , 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
Cryin' in the Beer of a Drunk Man by New Bomb Turks
Sun Is Shining by The Dirtbombs
Ghostrider by The Gories
Little Miss Contary by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
Firewater by The A-Bones
One Day I Will Kill You by Deadbolt
Hog Heaven by Shrunken Heads
Psycho Over Europe by The Monsters
Not Your Saint by The Fast Takers
Quarter to Four by Mad Mike & The Maniacs

That Man In Your Bed by The Hormonauts
Funnel of Love by The Fall
Won't Cook Fish by The Immortal Lee County Killers
All My Lovin' by The Almighty Defenders
We're Sinking by Mark Sultan
Whiskey Wagon by Barrence Whitfield & the Savages
Sally Sensation by The Molting Vultures
I Need Somebody by Manby's Head
Dram Shopper by The Scrams
Charley Aikens by The Sidewinders

Swamp Woman/Lies/Yolanda by Johnny Dowd
Look Out by Peter Case
No Reason To Complain by The Alarm Clocks
How Can I Make Her Mine by The Lyres
Atom Spies by The Fleshtones

Ju Ju Hand by Handsome Dick Manitoba
I Think We're Alone Now by Tommy James & The Shondells
Demon Stomp by The Things
Coal Black Mattie by Richard Johnston
Who Do You Love by Quicksilver Messenger Service
Take It Slow by Strangers Family Band
Vikings by The Black Angels
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 18, 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
Ice Cold Water by Ray Condo & The Hardrock Goners
Hesitation Boogie by Hardrock Gunter
Good BBQ by The Riptones
My Way Of Rockin' by Wild Bob Burgos
Violet and Jeffrey Lee by The Sadies
Tulsa County Blue by The Byrds
The Crawdad Song by Jerry Lee Lewis
Ain't Got Time For the Blues by Bill Kirchen with Maria Muldaur
Big Game Hunter by Andy Anderson
Your Mind is On Vacation by Asleep at the Wheel

Down the Bar From Me by Kell Robertson
Hard Travelin' by Simon Stokes
Don't Buy a Skinned Rabbit by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Gamblin' Man by Cliff Carlisle
I Fought the Law by Bobby Fuller
I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas) by Jim Atkins
Born Bred Corn Fed by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Dirty Dozen by Delaney Davidson
Drunkards Dream by The Dead Brothers

Who Built the Moon by Shinyribs
Pieces of the Past by Jon Langford & Skull Orchard with Andre Williams
Beat on the Mountain by Jason & The Scorchers
Down in the Bowery by Alejandro Escovedo
Hobos Are My Heros by Legendary Shack Shakers
Voodoo Queen Marie by the Du-Tells
Marie LaVeau by Bobby Bare

Fever by Fishtank Ensemble
The Fat Doctor/Rattlesnake Jig by Bayou Seco
Sunbonnet Sue by The Fort Worth Doughboys
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights/Volver Volver by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Chris Gaffney
It's a Mystery to Me by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
You Cared Enough to Lie by Reckless Kelly
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: DOWD OUT LOUD

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 18, 2010

Two-bit hustlers living in shame. Men with broken hearts and bitter dreams. Dark secrets, ugly schemes, and soiled pleasures. Welcome to the world of Johnny Dowd.

The singing moving-company operator is back with another warped little masterpiece, a 13-song album called Wake Up the Snakes, which, unfortunately, is destined to be appreciated mostly by the scattered cult that reveres him. I’m proud to be part of that. Care for some Kool-Aid?

Quick recap for the uninitiated: Dowd is a Grandma Moses-like latecomer to showbiz. Living in Ithaca, New York (but with roots in Fort Worth, Memphis, and Pauls Valley, Oklahoma), he didn’t release his first album until he was 50 years old. That was 1997’s Wrong Side of Memphis.

Like the title of one of his early albums (which was lifted from a Hank Williams song), this CD is full of pictures from life’s other side. For reasons I’m not sure of, Dowd is frequently classified as “alternative country.”

True, he rose out of alt country circles. The first time I saw him play was at a No Depression magazine party at South by Southwest in Austin. And it’s true, he has that Pauls Valley drawl, and he has covered a couple of Hank songs.

But I don’t think Hank done it that way. With keyboards that zigzag between “96 Tears” and Fright Night With Seymour and background vocals by Kim Sherwood-Caso, who sounds like a torch singer from the dark dimension, Dowd doesn’t easily fit into any category.

Wake Up the Snakes is a classic Dowd album. It starts off with “Yolanda,” which has a slow, smoky, almost Latin beat, with keyboardist Michael Stark sounding as close to original Santana organ-man Gregg Rolie as you’re going to hear on a Dowd record. Dowd recites — almost whispers — the story of a guy whose girlfriend tries to involve him in a plot to kill her own father. He balks, but she goes through with the evil deed. You can almost taste his regret that he didn't help her.

“Lies” is built on the classic ’50s grease- ballad chord pattern. Dowd sings verses (“Do you think I’m pathetic and easy to ignore?/Does it bother you when I pace up and down the floor?”), while Sherwood-Caso comes in crooning sweetly on the chorus (“Lies, I told you nothing but lies/Everything I said/Was a lie”).

There are some bitchen garagey rockers like “Howling Wolf Blues,” “Fat Joey Brown” (where did that weird trombone come from?), and “Swamp Woman.” On the last, Dowd praises his woman: “Lord God a mighty, my baby is hot!” goes the refrain, even though he later observes, “She’s got the moral perspective of an alley cat.”

“Words of Love” is another Santana-influenced tune — and a solo spotlight for Sherwood-Caso — while “Hello Happiness” is a sinister bossa nova with Dowd and Sherwood-Caso trading lines like a damaged version of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

Meanwhile, “Demons and Goats” lives up to its name — it’s pure evil. So is “Voices,” which starts with the line, “I wish the voices in my head would shut up.”

The one big misfire here is the song “Mary Lou,” about a father who sexually abuses his daughter. The subject matter seems like a good one for Dowd; he sings from the perspective of the father, who realizes that he will “burn in hell” for his sins.

But what bothers me is the name of the daughter/victim: Jessie Mae Hemphill. Didn’t Dowd realize that this was the name of a great Mississippi blueswoman? Or is this Hemphill’s actual story? I honestly don’t know.

That quibble aside, it’s always an adventure to explore darkened corridors with Johnny Dowd.

Also recommended:

* Self-Decapitation by Delaney Davidson and 5th Sin-Phonie by The Dead Brothers. New Zealand native Davidson used to play guitar with the Swiss “funeral” band The Dead Brothers, and his solo album reminds me of his old group.

Traces of Salvation Army marching bands and dark blues permeate Davidson’s album, as they do the latest Dead Brothers outing.

Self-Decapitation begins with “Around the World,” which recalls a little of the old faux-Dixieland hit from the early ’60s “Midnight in Moscow.” As on that earlier song (made famous by the long-forgotten British group called Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen), you can hear influences of American blues, early jazz, and Eastern European/Gypsy sounds on “Around the World.” And you can hear them loud and clear on “Back in Hell” and “Ladies Man,” which features a pretty amazing Gypsy-jazz guitar solo.

Davidson does a credible version of “In the Pines,” a close cousin of Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” He does it as an industrial-edged blues tune with an acoustic guitar and altered vocals yielding to overamped guitar and crazy-loud drums.

My favorite here, though, is the delightfully filthy “Dirty Dozen,” a foul-mouthed country-blues stomp that reminds me why I love this music in the first place.

The Dead Brothers are in top form, too, on this, their fifth album. Starting out with an old-timey Appalachian-sounding fiddle-and-banjo tune called “Drunkards Walk,” the bros go into a Tom Waits-y stomp titled “Death Blues.”

The one song I don’t like is one called “Teenage Kicks.” Somehow it reminds me of a chamber quartet doing Ruben and the Jets.

But they make up for it with “Drunkards Dream,” which sounds as if Bertolt Brecht started a bluegrass band, and a cover of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” an ode to the old vampire that evokes fond memories of Alejandro Escovedo’s pseudo-baroque take on The Stooges’ “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

FATHER'S DAY FIESTA

This could be some fun.

There's music featuring a zydeco band called Dikki Du & His Zydeco Krewe plus local favorites Felix y Los Gatos. (If you missed them at Thirsty Ear, here's your chance.)

Also, there's movies, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which many locals believe is a documentary.

It's all taking place at the Railyard Park and it's all free. Check the Web site.

THIRSTY EAR DAY TWO

My snapshots of this year's Thirsty Ear Festival are HERE

Sunday marked an end of an era for the Thirsty Ear Festival. Mike Koster, Thirsty Ear Supreme Commander and President for Life, will soon be moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where assumedly he will become a monk in the Temple of Bob Wills. He says he'll still be bringing shows to Santa -Fe and there will be some kind of Thirsty ear Festival -- but not at Eaves Ranch, the movie set that has served as a the festival home nearly every year since 1999.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the last show of the night -- Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women. I'm sure they were great, as they were last year at Santa Fe Brewing Company.

The rest of the day was fairly low key. I liked a couple of his songs, but I'm not a huge Hayes Carll fan and J.T. & The Clouds frankly was boring.

For me the highlight was Savor, a Cuban street music band currently based in Santa Fe, led by the charismatic Victor Alvarez.

Basically the band consists of an electric mandolin (played by Victor), an electric bass and four guys on percussion. It's almost magical the way it works. Savor opened up the day on the main stage -- which I missed, but played a seconf set inside the "hotel." Everyone I talked to said this set was far superior. I hope to catch these guys around Santa Fe sometime.

It also was good to see Alex Maryol and his trio (Willie Magee on bass, Andy Primm on drums.) Alex played the first Thirsty Ear when he was still a teenager back in 1999 -- and I bet he's played a majority of the festivals since then. It seemed somehow appropriate that he was here for the closing of this chapter.

Alex recently told me he's got a new album coming out so look out for it.