Friday, November 26, 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
Turkey Jive by The Hormonauts
Turkey in the Straw by Sen. Robert Byrd
Two Little Fishes and Five Loaves of Bread by Odetta & The Chambers Brothers
Honkey Tonk Man by The Honky Tonk Man
The Wig Song by Bud & Darlene Chambers
I Wanna Waltz by Wanda Jackson
The Love-In by Ben Colder
Honey Baby Blues by Lightning Beat-Man
Sweet Thang by Marti Brom & Bill Kirchen
Turkey and the Rabbit by T-Model Ford
You Burned Me by Suzette & The Neon Angels
Pigfork Jambouree by The Imperial Rooster
Pigmeat by Leadbelly
Too Much Pork For Just One Fork by Southern Culture On The Skids
Alligator Meat by Johnny Ray Harris
Born Bred, Corn Fed by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Tom Waits
Mark Twain by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks
Dark Angel by Benny Joy
Hot Rodder's Lament by Deke Dickerson & The Ecco-Fonics
Waxahachie Drag Race by Ronnie Dawson
Me and Old Dog Tray by Peter Stampfel & The Bottle Caps
Too Sweet to Die by The Waco Brothers
I'm Troubled by The Gourds
Country Cool by Shinyribs
Swingin' from Your Crystal Chandeliers by The Austin Lounge Lizards
Hippie in a Blunder by Johnny Bucket
You Ain't Never Gonna' Live To Love Saturday Again by T.Tex Edwards & Out On Parole
Steve McQueen by The Drive-By Truckers
Devil's Game by Stevie Tombstone
Back Street Affair by Web Pierce
Red Wine in the Afternoon by The Whateverly Brothers
Big in Vegas by Buck Owens
Santa's Workshop by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, November 26, 2010
BIG ENCHILADA PODCAST SELLS OUT!
It's Black Friday and I'm inviting you to the new Big Enchilada online store at Zazzle.com.
Spend all your money on stocking stuffers for the criminally insane! Be the first kid on your block to buy some of this junk!
Wear the Big Enchilada podcast on your head by way of these snazzy trucker caps.
Listen to the Big Enchilada podcast as you drink your morning coffee in a well-constructed Big Enchilada podcast mug.
Proudly proclaim your loyalty to the Big Enchilada podcast to anyone who enters your kitchen
with colorful Big Enchilada podcast refrigerator magnets.
Shop other personalized gifts from Zazzle.
Spend all your money on stocking stuffers for the criminally insane! Be the first kid on your block to buy some of this junk!
Wear the Big Enchilada podcast on your head by way of these snazzy trucker caps.
Listen to the Big Enchilada podcast as you drink your morning coffee in a well-constructed Big Enchilada podcast mug.
Proudly proclaim your loyalty to the Big Enchilada podcast to anyone who enters your kitchen
with colorful Big Enchilada podcast refrigerator magnets.
Shop other personalized gifts from Zazzle.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: COCKADOODLE DOO!
How can you not love an album that begins with a slide guitar lick from a guy called “Khorn Sirrup” followed by the line, “Well I ain’t too pretty and I ain’t too bright ...”?
The album is Old Good Poor Crazy Dead, and the band responsible for it is The Imperial Rooster. They’re from Española, and the singer’s right. They ain’t too pretty. From the looks of the band photo on the inside cover of the CD, I’d hate to meet these guys in a dark alley — or even worse, a well-lit alley.
But pretty or not, I can’t get enough of this album.
This is good, rootsy hillbilly slop. I don’t hear a jug in the mix, but The Imperial Rooster has a real jug-band spirit — on top of a punk-rock soul. The band members’ funny monikers — such as “Nat King Kong,” “Cootie LeRoux,” and “Dusty Vinyl” — create a mythological musical world somewhere along an astral plane between Dogpatch and Española.
The first song, “Your Friends Think I’m the Devil,” has a melody similar to an old tune called “Wild About My Lovin’ ” (a traditional song covered most famously by The Lovin’ Spoonful). It is a serious, self-loathing blues song. “Well, I try to be a good man, try to do what’s right / But Betty Sue done told me that I’m a parasite.”
The song that first drew me to the Rooster was “Pig Fork.” The title should remind you of “Too Much Pork for Just One Fork” by Southern Culture on the Skids. But this tune, punctuated by frightening hog squeals and embellished with a chorus of “yeah yeah yeah” whenever the singer says “pig fork,” achieves its own level of lunacy. “Well, I keep it in my pocket right next to my thigh / If you get too close you get poked in the eye / Stick it in a socket you get electrified / I like my pork cracklins deep fried.”
They’ve even got an eight-minute minor-key epic here. “Advice of the Ages” starts off slow and spooky, led by the upright bass of “Tennessee Skilly McGee.” A lengthy instrumental starts to sound like Symphony Sid Page’s solo ins. But instead of a violin, the dominant instrument on the Rooster song is a kazoo. (“Pilgrum Hart” later comes in on the fiddle.)
The Imperial Rooster plays The Cowgirl BBQ, 319 S. Guadalupe St., at 9 p.m. on Dec. 11. Bring your own pig forks.
Other new CDs from this enchanted land:
* Wheel of Life by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks. Here’s the latest collection of melodic celebrations from the Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter and his capable, underrated band. Wheel is McCutcheon’s third album with The Salt Licks. While I still prefer the first, 2005’s Cactusman vs. the Blue Demon, the new one has some real delights.
My favorites here are the ones in which he cuts loose with honky-tonk abandon. The first song on this album (“What Ails You?”) grabs you right from the beginning with its Johnny Cash chunka-chunka beat. That’s Susan Hyde Holmes on upright bass and Brett Davis on twang guitar and lap steel.
Also notable is country-funk charmer “Boxspring Plough.” Judging from this and Tom Waits’ “Filipino Box Spring Hog,” one can only conclude that songs with “box spring” in the title are fun. This one starts out with McCutcheon singing about the annual “hippies vs. the locals” baseball game up near Picuris Pueblo. Then there’s “Peeler,” which McCutcheon, on his website, says is about “a young man who falls madly and foolishly in love with a new age stripper.”
Though McCutcheon is known mostly as a songwriter, on Wheel of Life he includes three songs written by others. There’s a decent version of Townes Van Zandt’s “No Place to Fall” and a fun take on “Lee Harvey,” a tune written by Homer Henderson but best known for The Asylum Street Spankers’ version. It’s about a guy who apparently was involved in some kind of kerfuffle in Dallas back in the early 1960s. Despite its unnecessarily slanderous lyrics about a Texas businessman named Jack Ruby, it’s a fun song, and McCutcheon does it justice.
And once again McCutcheon teams up with Albuquerque songwriter Mark Ray Lewis from the band Trilobite. On Cactusman, McCutcheon covered Lewis’ spooky “Caves of Burgundy.” Here he does a Lewis tune called “Mark Twain.” It’s not about the author. It’s a compelling tale about a fateful romance with a farmer’s daughter and a trip into the unforeseen.
The album ends with a jaunty little backroads journey called “Bad Road, Good People,” which is also the title of his previous album. Here he sings about his Northern New Mexico home, which apparently is “a good place to burn a car or shoot an old washer or dryer.”
* Keep ’em Coming by The Whateverly Brothers. Longtime Santa Fe favorite Jono Manson joins forces here with an old pal, British singer-songwriter George Breakfast. The two were musical compadres in New York back in the ’80s and became The Whateverly Brothers in the early part of this century.
The first 10 tracks in this collection are new recordings. But also here is The Whateverly Brothers’ entire first album, Global Toast, which was recorded in Denmark in 2001.
The music is simple and underproduced — in my book, a good thing. Mainly just two guys and their guitars. (Was that a dog I heard yip in “Warm Love”?)
There’s a new recording of Manson’s “Red Wine in the Afternoon.” Other favorite tracks include the bluesy “I Prefer to Walk” and especially the wickedly clever “I Never Want to Be Your Ex.” The chorus goes, “I never want to be your ex / Someone with whom you used to have sex / Who got swept aside when you cleared the decks.”
The Whateverly Brothers make a rare Santa Fe area appearance at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28, at Mike’s Music Exchange in La Tienda shopping center in Eldorado. The suggested donation (come on, pay it, ya cheapskates!) is $15.
The album is Old Good Poor Crazy Dead, and the band responsible for it is The Imperial Rooster. They’re from Española, and the singer’s right. They ain’t too pretty. From the looks of the band photo on the inside cover of the CD, I’d hate to meet these guys in a dark alley — or even worse, a well-lit alley.
But pretty or not, I can’t get enough of this album.
This is good, rootsy hillbilly slop. I don’t hear a jug in the mix, but The Imperial Rooster has a real jug-band spirit — on top of a punk-rock soul. The band members’ funny monikers — such as “Nat King Kong,” “Cootie LeRoux,” and “Dusty Vinyl” — create a mythological musical world somewhere along an astral plane between Dogpatch and Española.
The first song, “Your Friends Think I’m the Devil,” has a melody similar to an old tune called “Wild About My Lovin’ ” (a traditional song covered most famously by The Lovin’ Spoonful). It is a serious, self-loathing blues song. “Well, I try to be a good man, try to do what’s right / But Betty Sue done told me that I’m a parasite.”
The song that first drew me to the Rooster was “Pig Fork.” The title should remind you of “Too Much Pork for Just One Fork” by Southern Culture on the Skids. But this tune, punctuated by frightening hog squeals and embellished with a chorus of “yeah yeah yeah” whenever the singer says “pig fork,” achieves its own level of lunacy. “Well, I keep it in my pocket right next to my thigh / If you get too close you get poked in the eye / Stick it in a socket you get electrified / I like my pork cracklins deep fried.”
They’ve even got an eight-minute minor-key epic here. “Advice of the Ages” starts off slow and spooky, led by the upright bass of “Tennessee Skilly McGee.” A lengthy instrumental starts to sound like Symphony Sid Page’s solo ins. But instead of a violin, the dominant instrument on the Rooster song is a kazoo. (“Pilgrum Hart” later comes in on the fiddle.)
The Imperial Rooster plays The Cowgirl BBQ, 319 S. Guadalupe St., at 9 p.m. on Dec. 11. Bring your own pig forks.
Other new CDs from this enchanted land:
* Wheel of Life by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks. Here’s the latest collection of melodic celebrations from the Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter and his capable, underrated band. Wheel is McCutcheon’s third album with The Salt Licks. While I still prefer the first, 2005’s Cactusman vs. the Blue Demon, the new one has some real delights.
My favorites here are the ones in which he cuts loose with honky-tonk abandon. The first song on this album (“What Ails You?”) grabs you right from the beginning with its Johnny Cash chunka-chunka beat. That’s Susan Hyde Holmes on upright bass and Brett Davis on twang guitar and lap steel.
Also notable is country-funk charmer “Boxspring Plough.” Judging from this and Tom Waits’ “Filipino Box Spring Hog,” one can only conclude that songs with “box spring” in the title are fun. This one starts out with McCutcheon singing about the annual “hippies vs. the locals” baseball game up near Picuris Pueblo. Then there’s “Peeler,” which McCutcheon, on his website, says is about “a young man who falls madly and foolishly in love with a new age stripper.”
Though McCutcheon is known mostly as a songwriter, on Wheel of Life he includes three songs written by others. There’s a decent version of Townes Van Zandt’s “No Place to Fall” and a fun take on “Lee Harvey,” a tune written by Homer Henderson but best known for The Asylum Street Spankers’ version. It’s about a guy who apparently was involved in some kind of kerfuffle in Dallas back in the early 1960s. Despite its unnecessarily slanderous lyrics about a Texas businessman named Jack Ruby, it’s a fun song, and McCutcheon does it justice.
And once again McCutcheon teams up with Albuquerque songwriter Mark Ray Lewis from the band Trilobite. On Cactusman, McCutcheon covered Lewis’ spooky “Caves of Burgundy.” Here he does a Lewis tune called “Mark Twain.” It’s not about the author. It’s a compelling tale about a fateful romance with a farmer’s daughter and a trip into the unforeseen.
The album ends with a jaunty little backroads journey called “Bad Road, Good People,” which is also the title of his previous album. Here he sings about his Northern New Mexico home, which apparently is “a good place to burn a car or shoot an old washer or dryer.”
* Keep ’em Coming by The Whateverly Brothers. Longtime Santa Fe favorite Jono Manson joins forces here with an old pal, British singer-songwriter George Breakfast. The two were musical compadres in New York back in the ’80s and became The Whateverly Brothers in the early part of this century.
The first 10 tracks in this collection are new recordings. But also here is The Whateverly Brothers’ entire first album, Global Toast, which was recorded in Denmark in 2001.
The music is simple and underproduced — in my book, a good thing. Mainly just two guys and their guitars. (Was that a dog I heard yip in “Warm Love”?)
There’s a new recording of Manson’s “Red Wine in the Afternoon.” Other favorite tracks include the bluesy “I Prefer to Walk” and especially the wickedly clever “I Never Want to Be Your Ex.” The chorus goes, “I never want to be your ex / Someone with whom you used to have sex / Who got swept aside when you cleared the decks.”
The Whateverly Brothers make a rare Santa Fe area appearance at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28, at Mike’s Music Exchange in La Tienda shopping center in Eldorado. The suggested donation (come on, pay it, ya cheapskates!) is $15.
TOM WAITS at 78 rmp
Let's be thankful for Tom Waits and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans. They've teamed up to produce a couple of songs that recently were released on a 78 rpm record.The songs are “Tootie Ma Was A Big Fine Thing” and “Corrine Died On The Battlefield,” both recorded originally by a guy named Danny Barker in 1947.
They only pressed 504 hand-numbered copies to raise money for Preservation Hall and its outreach programs. The first 100 will be accompanied by a special Preservation Hall 78rpm record player (which also plays albums and 45s.) That special package will cost you $200. The record alone is a mere $50.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I'll be buying this. I can't afford the $200 and I don't know whether my iPod even plays 78s. (Actually Waits' songs are on a benefit CD released early this year including Merle Haggard, Richie Havens, Dr. John, Buddy Miller and many more.)
Here's one of those songs, below. (Thanks to Liisa for the tip.)
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
NEW GARAGE EXPLOSION!
While your turkey's cooking Check out this 3-part documentary from Scion A/V. Lots of Jay Reatard and Black Lips. Enjoy
(This post has been updated. It had been in three parts -- now the complete episode is in one.)
(This post has been updated. It had been in three parts -- now the complete episode is in one.)
Sunday, November 21, 2010
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, November 21, 2010
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
Steppin' Out by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Licking the Frog by Manby's Head
Blew My Mind by The Reatards
Runaround Sue by Dion & The Belmonts
Yellow Elevator #2 by The Black Angels
The Coo Coo by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Gin and Juice by The Gourds
Get Me To The World On Time by The Electric Prunes
In a Dirty Cellar by Pirate Love
A Luz Sobre Mim by Horror Deluxe
Hot Head by Captain Beefheart
Officer Touchy by The Scrams
Death Cult Soup n Salad by The Almighty Defenders
Saved by LaVern Baker
JFK ASSASINATION SET
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
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
Steppin' Out by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Licking the Frog by Manby's Head
Blew My Mind by The Reatards
Runaround Sue by Dion & The Belmonts
Yellow Elevator #2 by The Black Angels
The Coo Coo by Big Brother & The Holding Company
The Other Side Of This Life by Jefferson Airplane
Jungle Music by Simon StokesGin and Juice by The Gourds
Get Me To The World On Time by The Electric Prunes
In a Dirty Cellar by Pirate Love
A Luz Sobre Mim by Horror Deluxe
Hot Head by Captain Beefheart
Officer Touchy by The Scrams
Death Cult Soup n Salad by The Almighty Defenders
Saved by LaVern Baker
JFK ASSASINATION SETMurder Weapon by The Rockin' Guys
Jack Ruby by Camper Van Beethoven
Lee Harvey by Boris McCutcheon & The Saltlicks
November by The Rockin' Guys
He Was a Friend of Mine by The Byrds
Tomorrow Wendy by Concrete Blonde
Palaceo of Montezuma by Grinderman
Do You Know What I Idi Amin by Chuck E. Weiss with Tom Waits
Jealous by Diplomats of Solid Sound
Bel Air Blues by Stan Ridgway
Hands on Your Stomach by Otis Taylor
Just A Closer Walk With Thee by Treme Brass Band
Caberet by Big Maybelle
MORE TO COME (Keep refreshing your browser until midnight)November by The Rockin' Guys
He Was a Friend of Mine by The Byrds
Tomorrow Wendy by Concrete Blonde
Palaceo of Montezuma by Grinderman
Do You Know What I Idi Amin by Chuck E. Weiss with Tom Waits
Jealous by Diplomats of Solid Sound
Bel Air Blues by Stan Ridgway
Hands on Your Stomach by Otis Taylor
Just A Closer Walk With Thee by Treme Brass Band
Caberet by Big Maybelle
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Be Thankful For THIS: The New BIG ENCHILADA Episode
Welcome to the November episode of The Big Enchilada podcast, called Psychic Flotsam. Sit down. Relax. Look deep into my eyes. The Spirits are about to speak.
You're going to hear some mystical sounds of Carbon/Silicon, The Ding Dongs, The Tandoori Knights, The Gories, The Rockin' Guys and so much more, all very cosmic -- in a trashy kinda way
Play it here:
DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE| SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK NETWORK PODCASTS
Here's the playlist:
(Background Music: Cosmic Bellydance by The Monsters)
Fix That Broken Halo by The Ruiners
Ding Dong Party by The Ding-Dongs
Bandstand by The Tandoori Knights
Great Big Idol With the Golden Head by The Gories
Framed by The Coasters
The Return of the Pretty One by Lord Sundance
(Background Music: Hell of a Woman by Impala)
November by The Rockin' Guys
Turboa by Make-Overs
Man Man by Leroy MacQueen & The Gussets
Ringue by Horror Deluxe
A Poison Tree by Movie Star Junkies
Happyland by Arrington de Dionyso & Old Time Relijun
Daddy The Swingin' Surburbanite by The Weird-ohs
(Background Music: Grungy by Davie Allan & The Arrows )
Flyin' Blind by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes with Phil Alvin
El Tren de la Costa by The Del Moroccos
Outta Site by Sinister Six
Sin Eater by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
What's Up Doc by Carbon-Silicon
Friday, November 19, 2010
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, November 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
Sweet Soul Music by Run C&W
Honky Tonk Queen by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Blues Keep Callin' by Marti Brom
Vang Bang by Zeno Tornado And The Boney Google Brothers
Treat Me Right by Suzette & The Neon Angels
Red Velvet by The Kirby Sisters
Go-Go Truck by The Defibulators
Hey Sexy by Robbie Fulks
Rollergirl Gail by The Misery Jackals
Rub-A-Dub-Dub by Hank Thompson
Your Friends Think I'm the Devil by Imperial Rooster
Rainbow Stew by Merle Haggard
The Squeeky Wheel Gets the Oil by The Coal Porters
It Ain't Nobody's Biz'ness What I Do by The Hoosier Hot Shots
Hound Doggit Blues by Cordell Jackson
Rockin' Granny by Nancy Apple
Cheap Living by Eric Hisaw
Animal Hoedown by Harry Hayward
What Ails You by Boris & The Saltlicks
Pill-Poppin' Country Weirdo by Halden Wofford & The Hi-Beams
I Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel by Reckless Kelly
Everything's Raising by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Whoop and Hollar by Ray Wylie Hubbard
The Hills of Hell by Legendary Shack Shakers
Gypsy Lou by Bob Dylan
Monkey Rag by Asylum Street Spankers
Smoke Along the Track by Doug Jeffords
I Never Want to Be Your Ex by The Whateverly Brothers
Wreck on the Highway by The Waco Brothers
Whispering Sea by Eilen Jewell
Drinkin' Thing by Gary Stewart
Fit For a King by Joe Diffie
Summer Wages by David Bromberg
Treasures Untold by Doc and Merle Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
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
Sweet Soul Music by Run C&W
Honky Tonk Queen by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Blues Keep Callin' by Marti Brom
Vang Bang by Zeno Tornado And The Boney Google Brothers
Treat Me Right by Suzette & The Neon Angels
Red Velvet by The Kirby Sisters
Go-Go Truck by The Defibulators
Hey Sexy by Robbie Fulks
Rollergirl Gail by The Misery Jackals
Rub-A-Dub-Dub by Hank Thompson
Your Friends Think I'm the Devil by Imperial Rooster
Rainbow Stew by Merle Haggard
The Squeeky Wheel Gets the Oil by The Coal Porters
It Ain't Nobody's Biz'ness What I Do by The Hoosier Hot Shots
Hound Doggit Blues by Cordell Jackson
Rockin' Granny by Nancy Apple
Cheap Living by Eric Hisaw
Animal Hoedown by Harry Hayward
What Ails You by Boris & The Saltlicks
Pill-Poppin' Country Weirdo by Halden Wofford & The Hi-Beams
I Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel by Reckless Kelly
Everything's Raising by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Whoop and Hollar by Ray Wylie Hubbard
The Hills of Hell by Legendary Shack Shakers
Gypsy Lou by Bob Dylan
Monkey Rag by Asylum Street Spankers
Smoke Along the Track by Doug Jeffords
I Never Want to Be Your Ex by The Whateverly Brothers
Wreck on the Highway by The Waco Brothers
Whispering Sea by Eilen Jewell
Drinkin' Thing by Gary Stewart
Fit For a King by Joe Diffie
Summer Wages by David Bromberg
Treasures Untold by Doc and Merle Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, November 18, 2010
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: TENSION & ROMANCE
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 19, 2010
It has been five years since Martí Brom released an album (Martí Brom Sings Heartache Numbers). This was about the time she and her family moved from Austin, Texas, to Washington, D.C. I was worried Brom might have hung it up.
So seeing her new CD, Not for Nothin’, was a true sight for sore eyes — in more ways than one. The artwork, based on old detective-story pulp magazine covers, is one of the sexiest album covers I’ve seen lately. Trouble ahead, lady in red!
Brom makes sweet, rockabilly-informed, R & B-influenced retro country. Her voice has been compared to that of Patsy Cline. (Think Cline during her mid-1950s rockabilly flirtation, such as her tune “Stop, Look and Listen.”) But back during her teenage years, Brom’s main musical turn-on was proto-punker Suzi Quatro.
And one of the first times she played before an audience was when her husband, Bob, a career Air Force officer, convinced her to audition for an officers’ wives club musical called The 1940s Radio Hour, for which she sang “Blues in the Night.”
(Another cool tidbit about Brom: she allegedly named her daughter Ivy, now 20, after The Cramps’ Poison Ivy.)
Not for Nothin’ (subtitled Tales of Tension & Romance) is Brom’s tribute to singers, musicians and songwriters from the Washington, D.C., area. Fortunately, none of the songs have anything to do with government or politics. And even more fortunately, the album shows Brom in top form, despite her five-year absence from recording.
The first song is a fun little hopped-up bopper called “Finders Keepers” by Wynona Carr, a singer best known for her gospel songs though she later turned to R & B. Brom’s high-charged version is driven by a screaming sax.
“Mascara Tears” is a honky-tonk weeper written by Artie Hill, a fine performer in his own right. Backed by steel guitar and fiddle, Hill makes it weep.
One of the standout songs is one made famous by Elvis Presley: “A Fool Such as I.” The song, done here as a country shuffle, is a perfect vehicle for Brom’s voice. Elvis would be proud.
She teams up with D.C. picker/singer Bill Kirchen on “Sweet Thang.” It’s a delight, but also seek out the 1967 version by Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn.
Not For Nothin’ is full of spunk and heartache. It’s great to have Brom back.
Also recommended:
* Tex-O-Billy by Suzette & The Neon Angels. Tejana almost became a dirty word during the recent gubernatorial campaign in New Mexico.
So maybe I should clarify that when Suzette Lawrence sings, “Yo Soy Tejana (I’m a Texas Girl),” I don’t think her purpose is to steal New Mexico’s water from working families. This song is a stomping rocker with some crazy slide and a melody similar to Terry Allen’s “Amarillo Highway.”
Lawrence left Texas for Los Angeles in the early 1990s. There she became a fixture at the Palomino Club and fell in with the “Town South of Bakersfield” crowd (her picture appears on the cover of the third volume of the album series of that name) along with the likes m Lauderdale, Rosie Flores, and James Intveld.
Now a Nashville resident, Lawrence also has roots in rockabilly. That’s obvious in the opening number, “Kitty Cat Scratch,” which also owes a debt to Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever.”
But good bluesy roadhouse roots-rock is Lawrence’s foundation. When she sings “Tear Up the Honkytonk,” her fervor makes you take the threat seriously. And when she sings “Go Girl Go,” it’s tempting to shout along with her.
* Eilen Jewell Presents Butcher Holler: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn. Jewell’s voice doesn’t really sound much like Lynn’s blue Kentucky drawl. And to her credit, she doesn’t try to imitate Lynn. But like any real country fan, Jewell clearly admires Lynn’s songs. Aided with an able country band and her unaffected alto, she does them justice in her own style on this appealing tribute.
She includes several of Lynn’s best-known songs: “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Fist City,” and “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl.” But she also does several lesser-known gems from the Lynn songbook.
There’s the defiantly religious “Who Says God Is Dead,” as well as the sweet adultery odes “A Man I Hardly Know” and “Another Man Loved Me Last Night.” And I had never heard the original “Deep as Your Pocket,” a song about a gold digger (“Her love for you is as deep as your pocket”).
Local alert: Born in Idaho and now living in Boston, Jewell, according to several sources, lived in Santa Fe around the turn of the most recent century, attending St. John’s College. Apparently she used to play at the farmers market. I couldn’t find her anywhere in The New Mexican’s computer archives. Anyone remember her?
November 19, 2010
It has been five years since Martí Brom released an album (Martí Brom Sings Heartache Numbers). This was about the time she and her family moved from Austin, Texas, to Washington, D.C. I was worried Brom might have hung it up.
So seeing her new CD, Not for Nothin’, was a true sight for sore eyes — in more ways than one. The artwork, based on old detective-story pulp magazine covers, is one of the sexiest album covers I’ve seen lately. Trouble ahead, lady in red!Brom makes sweet, rockabilly-informed, R & B-influenced retro country. Her voice has been compared to that of Patsy Cline. (Think Cline during her mid-1950s rockabilly flirtation, such as her tune “Stop, Look and Listen.”) But back during her teenage years, Brom’s main musical turn-on was proto-punker Suzi Quatro.
And one of the first times she played before an audience was when her husband, Bob, a career Air Force officer, convinced her to audition for an officers’ wives club musical called The 1940s Radio Hour, for which she sang “Blues in the Night.”
(Another cool tidbit about Brom: she allegedly named her daughter Ivy, now 20, after The Cramps’ Poison Ivy.)
Not for Nothin’ (subtitled Tales of Tension & Romance) is Brom’s tribute to singers, musicians and songwriters from the Washington, D.C., area. Fortunately, none of the songs have anything to do with government or politics. And even more fortunately, the album shows Brom in top form, despite her five-year absence from recording.
The first song is a fun little hopped-up bopper called “Finders Keepers” by Wynona Carr, a singer best known for her gospel songs though she later turned to R & B. Brom’s high-charged version is driven by a screaming sax.
“Mascara Tears” is a honky-tonk weeper written by Artie Hill, a fine performer in his own right. Backed by steel guitar and fiddle, Hill makes it weep.
One of the standout songs is one made famous by Elvis Presley: “A Fool Such as I.” The song, done here as a country shuffle, is a perfect vehicle for Brom’s voice. Elvis would be proud.
She teams up with D.C. picker/singer Bill Kirchen on “Sweet Thang.” It’s a delight, but also seek out the 1967 version by Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn.
Not For Nothin’ is full of spunk and heartache. It’s great to have Brom back.
Also recommended:
* Tex-O-Billy by Suzette & The Neon Angels. Tejana almost became a dirty word during the recent gubernatorial campaign in New Mexico.
So maybe I should clarify that when Suzette Lawrence sings, “Yo Soy Tejana (I’m a Texas Girl),” I don’t think her purpose is to steal New Mexico’s water from working families. This song is a stomping rocker with some crazy slide and a melody similar to Terry Allen’s “Amarillo Highway.”
Lawrence left Texas for Los Angeles in the early 1990s. There she became a fixture at the Palomino Club and fell in with the “Town South of Bakersfield” crowd (her picture appears on the cover of the third volume of the album series of that name) along with the likes m Lauderdale, Rosie Flores, and James Intveld.
Now a Nashville resident, Lawrence also has roots in rockabilly. That’s obvious in the opening number, “Kitty Cat Scratch,” which also owes a debt to Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever.”
But good bluesy roadhouse roots-rock is Lawrence’s foundation. When she sings “Tear Up the Honkytonk,” her fervor makes you take the threat seriously. And when she sings “Go Girl Go,” it’s tempting to shout along with her.
* Eilen Jewell Presents Butcher Holler: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn. Jewell’s voice doesn’t really sound much like Lynn’s blue Kentucky drawl. And to her credit, she doesn’t try to imitate Lynn. But like any real country fan, Jewell clearly admires Lynn’s songs. Aided with an able country band and her unaffected alto, she does them justice in her own style on this appealing tribute.She includes several of Lynn’s best-known songs: “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Fist City,” and “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl.” But she also does several lesser-known gems from the Lynn songbook.
There’s the defiantly religious “Who Says God Is Dead,” as well as the sweet adultery odes “A Man I Hardly Know” and “Another Man Loved Me Last Night.” And I had never heard the original “Deep as Your Pocket,” a song about a gold digger (“Her love for you is as deep as your pocket”).
Local alert: Born in Idaho and now living in Boston, Jewell, according to several sources, lived in Santa Fe around the turn of the most recent century, attending St. John’s College. Apparently she used to play at the farmers market. I couldn’t find her anywhere in The New Mexican’s computer archives. Anyone remember her?
A ROTTEN BLESSING FOR ROYAL COUPLE
John Lydon might have sung, "God save the Queen/she ain't no human bein'," with The Sex Pistols all those years ago, but according to an interview in The Sun, the Rotten one has nothing but nice things to say about Prince William and his bride-to-be.
Here's the Johnny Rotten I remember:
"People think I hate the Royal Family, but that's not true. My animosity is towards the institution, not the people themselves. ... They really appear to have stars in their eyes. I can see it, and that is a lovely thing. So much more important than diamonds and tiaras. I can't stand it when people have a jealous reaction to this - saying she is a gold-digger and he is marrying beneath him. ... They'd probably be happy with a small wedding. But in their situation the State requires a load of pomp and ceremony. And why not? I love a bit of flag-waving."
Here's the Johnny Rotten I remember:
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