R.I.P. Hazel Dickens

I just learned about the death of one of the finest, most authentic and most under-rated country singers ever -- Hazel Dickens -- has died at the age of 75 in Washington, D.C. where she has lived for several years.

From The Washington Post:

Ms. Dickens grew up in dire poverty in West Virginia’s coal country and developed a raw, keening style of singing that was filled with the pain of her hardscrabble youth. She supported herself in day jobs for many years before she was heard on the soundtrack of the 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about coal mining, ”Harlan County, U.S.A.”
Her uncompromising songs about coal mining, such as “Black Lung” and “They Can’t Keep Us Down,” became anthems, and she was among the first to sing of the plight of women trying to get by in the working-class world.

I'll remember Hazel on The Santa Fe Opry tonight (10 p.m. Mountain Time on KSFR. Until then, here's a video of a Hazel song.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Cessna, Morgan & Spaghetti

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 22, 2011

Here’s an innovative Denver band that’s been around for years and years. I should have been listening to these musicians for years and years, but somehow they escaped my attention until a couple of months ago.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is often billed as a “country gothic” band (whatever that is). Led by Cessna, who shares vocal duties with sidekick Jay Munly, the Auto Club often takes the viewpoint of sinners in the hands of an angry God. But on its new album, Unentitled, which some critics say is the group’s most accessible, many songs are so upbeat and happy-sounding that I really don’t think the “gothic” label does the band justice.

True, Auto Club has that banjo-apocalypse vibe of fellow Coloradans 16 Horsepower going full force on the first song, “Three Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro.” This is a terrifying tale that deals with bloodhounds being set loose on some hapless target, perhaps an escaped prisoner. It takes me back to House of Freaks’ “When the Hammer Came Down.” The narrator of that tune, running from bloodhounds — though we’re never told exactly why — could almost be the victim in Cessna’s song.

However, the next tune, “The Unballed Ballad of the New Folk Singer,” takes off with an eye-opening, frantic, almost ’90s ska-like beat. The music is fierce and thundering and, no, not very “country” (though I can imagine a band like the Legendary Shack Shakers doing something like this).

The following song, “Thy Will Be Done,” gets back to the banjo with an almost raga-like melody and some otherworldly whistle instrument I have yet to identify. I’m not quite sure why, but when I hear this song I want to mix in some Tuvan throat singers. Somehow they’d just fit in.

That old-time religion — backwoods hellfire style — is a major theme with the Auto Club. The first three minutes or so of “A Smashing Indictment of Character” has an upbeat- sanctified rhythm, the kind Paul Simon employed on songs like “Gone at Last.”

But some subsequent tunes get darker and spookier. The seven-minute “Hallelujah Anyway” is a twisted tale of an arranged wedding. But even better is the closing song, “United Brethren,” an emotional tune about a preacher losing his congregation to another church — just as his great-grandfather had experienced. It’s not a problem most of us will ever face, but as Munly pleads at the end of the song, “Lord have mercy upon us” in his lonesome tenor with just an autoharp behind him, only the most hard-hearted heathen would be unmoved.

“My people always been United Brethren. Cessnas always does as told,” Slim sings at the outset of the tune. This free-spirited record proves that’s probably not true.

So ya wanna talk about country rock ... also recommended:

*Whitey Morgan & the 78’s. Hands down, this record, released late last year, is the most “pure” country album Bloodshot Records has put out since ... well, since the latest Wayne Hancock album a couple of years ago.

Morgan, whose real name is Eric Allen, is a Flint, Michigan, native, but he’s got a voice that’s bound to remind you of a young Waylon Jennings, or — I almost hesitate to say it — Hank Williams Jr., back in the days when Bocephus was good, before he became such a caricature of himself.

I was hooked from the first track, “Bad News,” a John D. Loudermilk tune covered some 40 years ago by Johnny Cash and, believe it or not, former Los Angeles Ram Roosevelt Grier, who sang it on some TV variety show (I forget which one) in the late ’60s.

Whitey salutes his musical heroes like George Jones in “Turn Up the Bottle” (the rest of the refrain being, “and turn up the Jones”). And he does a rowdy cover of “Where Do Ya Want It?” — Dale Watson’s tale of Billy Joe Shaver’s Waco shooting incident.

While Morgan is good at doing other people’s songs (there are Johnny Paycheck and Hank Cochran songs here, too), he is a decent songwriter himself. “Buick City,” a fast-paced tune about his hometown’s economic woes, is a highlight. It’s a nice little illustration of how times have changed. In the early ’60s, Mel Tillis wrote and Bobby Bare sang “Detroit City,” about a lonesome Southerner who moves to Michigan for economic reasons. In “Buick City” Morgan yearns to go to greener pastures in the South — Austin, Texas, to be exact.

* Sundowner by Eddie Spaghetti. Unlike Morgan, nobody would be likely to mistake Mrs. Spaghetti’s baby boy for Waylon or Bocephus or David Allan Coe.

But Eddie, who’s best known as the lead singer of Supersuckers, has always had an special place in his heart for country music. You could sense a country/rockabilly vibe in some of Supersuckers’ records even before the group made a stab at country rock in Must’ve Been High in the late ’90s. And Eddie’s solo records, including this one, have been full of fun country tunes.

Here he sings Johnny Cash’s “What Do I Care?” Steve Earle’s “If You Fall in Love,” and a better-than-it-should-be take on “Always on My Mind.” (Willie Nelson had a hit with it, and Elvis sang it before Willie.)

And there’s some countrified punk rock here. Spaghetti versions of the Dwarves’ “Everybody’s Girl” and the Lee Harvey Oswald Band’s “Jesus Never Lived on Mars.”

My favorites on Sundowner are “Party Dolls and Wine” (a country-rock take on a Dean Martin tune) and Del Reeves’ twang-heavy truck-driver hit “Girl on the Billboard.”

The Whitey Morgan and the Eddie Spaghetti albums are from Bloodshot Records.

FROGFEST 6

The Frogfest 6 lineup has been announced, and once again it's a great array of, mostly, New Mexico talent. Sadly I don't see Hundred Year or Goshen, but the rest of the lineup is solid. Most of the acts are associated with Santa Fe's Frogville Records.

It's going back to a two-day event after being just one day for the past few years. Mark your calendars for May 28-29 at the Santa Fe Brewing Company.

In Honor of the Free Music Archive's 2nd Anniversary

Here's a mix of 13 songs I've known, loved and downloaded from the FMA.

Enjoy. Or better yet, go to the Free Music Archives and make your own mixes.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 17, 2011
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 Walked With the Zombie by Roky Erikson & The Nervebreakers
Don't Slander Me by Lou Ann Barton
New Orleans Walkin' Dead North Mississippi Allstars
Can O' Worms by Churchwood
Blew My Speakers by The Angel Babies
Bad Boy by The Backbeat Band
Dizzy, Miss Lizzy by Larry Williams
Shout by The Isley Brothers
Right String Baby (But the Wrong Yo Yo) by Carl Perkins

Grease Box by TAD
I Don't Think So by Dinosaur Jr.
I'm Now by Mudhoney
Who Was in My Room Last Night by The Butthole Surfers
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson with The Cramps
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show by Big Maybelle
Hot Skillet Momma by Yochanan
Show Me by Joe Tex
Bumble Bee by LaVerne Baker

It Came From The Hideout/Records to Ruin Any Party Set
(For More Info CLICK HERE )

Whistlebait Baby by Lovestruck

I Need More by The Cynics

Dust My Broom by The Jukejoint Pimps

Brush your Tits by Mondo Ray

Short-Term Memory Lane by J.J. by The Real Jerks

Two-Headed Demon by Urban Junior

Short Leash by Scorpion Vs. Tarantula

She by Audio Kings of the Third World
I'm Going Away Girl by The Monsters
City of Bother and Loathe by Jukebox Zeroes

She Floated Away by Husker Du
Rosemary's Baby by Half Japanaese
Gorgeous by Kustomized
Thrash City by Poly Styrene
She's So Scandalous by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Hymn No. 5 by The Mighty Hannibal
Lonely Town by Stan Ridgway
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 15, 2011
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
Meet Me in the Alleyway by Steve Earle
Reefer Load by Scott H. Biram
Chug-A-Lug Mojo Nixon And The World Famous Blue Jays
I Ain't Drunk by Whitey Morgan
Rock 'n' Roll Yodel by Johnny Wildcard
Come Back Uncle John by Ronnie Dawson
Sneaky Snake by Buddy Miller with Duane Eddy
Everybody's Girl by Eddie Spaghetti
I'll Be Glad When You're Dead by The Great Recession Orchestra

Foolkiller by Johnny Rivers
Sixpack to Go by Gal Holiday
Get Lost, You Wolf! by Hylo Brown And The Timberliners
Honky Tonkin' by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Blue Yodel No. 4 by Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
Ruby Ridge by Peter Rowan
My Four Reasons by Howard Armstrong with Ikey Robinson
Long Gone Daddy by Jimmie & Leon Short
Foothill Boogie by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Who Puts The Cat Out When Papa's Out of Town by Sam Nichols

VOODOO RHYTHM COUNTRY
Blood by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
The Coo-Coo Bird by Andy Dale Petty
Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets by DM Bob & The Deficits
Teardrops by Sixtyniners
Le Pistolet by Mama Rosin
Cold And Blind by Possessed By Paul James
Honest I Do by John Schooley
Chopped by The Watzloves
Blue Moon Of Kentucky by Rev, Beat-Man

Ballad of Clara Mae by E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier
Peach Blossom by Hundred Year Flood
Katie Mae by David Johansen
I Want My Crown by The Swan Silvertones
Set 'em Up (I'm Afraid to Go Home) by Cornell Hurd
No Reason to Quit by Merle Haggard
LSD by Wendell Austin
The Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Hits from the Hideout

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 15, 2011


A few months ago, Jeff “Kopper” Kopp stumbled across Little Steven’s Underground Garage compilation series The Coolest Songs in the World. He was not impressed.

“Looking over the track lists on these, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, these are what he thinks are the coolest songs in the world? Hell, the bands on the Hideout have better stuff than this,’ ” Kopper wrote over at the GaragePunk Hideout, an internet social network he established for rock ’n’ roll misfits and miscreants.

In fairness to Little Steven, the Coolest Songs collections have been graced by bands like The Stooges, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, The Chesterfield Kings, and The Hentchmen.

But Kopper was right. There are indeed unknown bands lurking around the Hideout that put most of the Coolest Songs acts to shame. So he invited bands there to submit original songs for a new independent garage-punk compilation series. It Came From the Hideout: The Best of the GaragePunk Hideout Vol. 1 was unleashed this week with a bitchen monster-cartoon cover by a resident Hideout artist, an Austrian known only as Idon Mine.

(Disclosure time: My Big Enchilada podcast is part of the GaragePunk Hideout Podcast Network. It’s a labor of love I don’t get paid for. Not even in hookers and blow. And except for encouraging some bands I know to submit songs, I’m not in any way connected to this compilation.)

What’s impressive here is the variety of sounds within the primitive guitar-rock framework. There’s beer-bust bar rock; sweet, savage girl punk; mutant blues; good old- fashioned snot punk; and even Swedish surf rock from The Surfites, a Stockholm band.

The collection starts out with a new tune from the one band here that you might have actually heard of before. The Cynics is a Pittsburgh group that started out back in the mid-1980s. “I Need More,” with its catchy melody and jangly guitar, sounds like pumped-up, fuzzed-out folk rock.

That’s followed by “Short Term Memory Lane,” a boozy, harmonica-driven rave-up by J.J. & The Real Jerks, a Los Angeles band that also features a piano and sax. That leads into “Bollywood Woman” by The Above, which has a British Invasion, early Who feel, though the band is actually from New York.

A couple of my favorite tracks on this collection are by groups with female vocalists. The Manxx is a Denver band doing a song called “Luck,” which has a hypnotic organ and slashing guitar. Then there’s “Whistlebait Baby,” which almost sounds like a punk bolero, by LoveStruck. This Brooklyn-based power trio, fronted by Danish singer Anne Mette Rasmussen, is one of my longtime favorite bands from the Hideout.

A couple of crazed Arizona groups are represented here. Scorpion vs. Tarantula does a wild, crunching tune called “Short Leash,” while The Plainfield Butchers do a pleasant little love song called “Truck Stop Urinal.”

One standout tune here is “She” by Audio Kings of the Third World. The Kings, who are from the third-world back roads of Philadelphia, list The Fall as one of their favorite bands. And indeed, singer Johnny O’s slow, singsong drawl has distinct traces of Mark E. Smith in it. And the fuzzy guitar is downright addictive.

Perhaps my favorite one is “Drunk” by Mark Steiner & His Problems. Steiner is an American who lives in Norway. The song is a sinister blues number that almost sounds like crime jazz, with sleazy sax and clanky percussion.

All in all, It Came From the Hideout is cooler than Coolest Songs.

And here’s some great news: Songs the Hideout Taught Us: The Best of the GaragePunk Hideout Vol. 2 is just around the corner, coming in mid-May. In fact, there’s supposed to be a new volume out every month through August.

The compilation is free to Hideout members and available for download in the usual places. There’s more information HERE.

Also recommended:


* Records to Ruin Any Party: Voodoo Rhythm Compilation Volume 3. Loyal readers of this column and listeners of my radio show know I’m an avid fan of Voodoo Rhythm Records, that Swiss label that’s home to psychobilly, damaged blues, garage rock, and criminally insane (that’s a step or two beyond “outlaw”) country music.

If you’ve ever been tempted to seek out some of the Voodoo Rhythm acts but haven’t quite taken the plunge to actually buy any of the records, this convenient, 21-track compilation would be a good place to start.

It’s a great sampling of stuff, mainly from albums released in the past two or three years. There are songs by The Movie Star Junkies and Delaney Davidson (doing songs from albums that made my 2010 Top 10 list). Label founder/owner Reverend Beat-Man’s frightening signature “Jesus Christ Twist” is there, as is a song by Beat-Man’s garage group The Monsters.

King Khan & The Shrines perform randy punk soul. The Pussywarmers do a gypsy- flavored stomper. You get one-man techno blues from Urban Junior, an acoustic Tom Waitsian dirge from The Dead Brothers, an Elmore James song as you’ve never heard it by Germany’s Juke Joint Pimps, and punchy blues from Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers.

Though it’s a European label, this compilation is crawling with Americans. You’ll find wild one-man blues blasters like Bob Logg III and John Schooley, backwoods shouter Possessed by Paul James, California garage punkers The Guilty Hearts, and Alabama folkster Andy Dale Petty, who performs a straightforward version of “The Cuckoo Bird.”

And did I say something about crazy country? Check out Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers (Switzerland), Sixtyniners (Netherlands), and Mama Rosin’s Swiss/Cajun “Le Pistolet,” which features a weird a cappella doo-wop intro.

And if you want to go back further into Voodoo Rhythm history, the label recently re- released Volumes 1 and 2 in a two-disc set. You can order theVol. 3  CD from Voodoo Rhythm or download it on Amazon.com when it becomes available on April 22.