TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 4, 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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Scotch and Water and You by Monkeyshines
Threw My Girl a Party by BBQ
Best Napkin I Ever Had by Black Lips
Dark as a Dungeon by The Tombstones
The Dealer, The Peeler And The Stealer by Andre Williams With The Compulsive Gamblers
Rat City by Jack Oblivian
Do The Milkshake by The Oblivians
Move Mr. Man by The Del-Gators
Boggie 65 by Juke Joint Pimps

White Rabbit by The Frontier Circus
Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In by Mojo Nixon
Samson and Delilah by Edison Rocket Train
She's Like Heroin to Me by The Gun Club
Stay a Little Longer by Glambilly
Johnny Voodoo by Empress of Fur
Death of Mighty Joe by The Devil Dogs
Bottle Of Wine by The Fireballs

Bad Whiskey and Cocaine by David "Honeyboy" Edwards
Hip Shake by L.C. Ulmer
It Hurts Me Too by Hound Dog Taylor
Bad Dog by Boogie Bill Webb
Fox Hunt by Little Freddie King
Here Comes Papa by T-Model Ford
Hoodoo Man Blues by Junior Wells
Riding the Rails by David "Honeyboy" Edwards

Zozobra by A Hawk And A Hacksaw and The Hun Hangár Ensemble
Burn The Flames by Roky Erickson
Wang Dang Doodle by PJ Harvey
Infected by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Weeping Song by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Stormy Weather by Reigning Sound
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

eMusic September

* Wasted Life by Stiff Little Fingers. I got to see this veteran Belfast punk band last month when I
went to Austin. It was a mighty show.

Led by Clash-inspired singer/guitarist Jake Burns, SLF has been plugging away since 1978 or so. Burns has been the group's constant since the beginning. For the past five years or so, original bassist Ali McMordie has been back with the band.

This is a 28-track, 100-minute compilation of mostly live material with some stray studio versions of various songs thrown in. Lots of the songs they did at Emo's last month -- "Tin Soldier," "Straw Dogs," and of course "Alernative Ulster" are  here, some twice. Some tunes are raw and desperate ("Forensic Evidence," "At the Edge,") while some are surprisingly poppy. Am I a heretic to say "Shake It Off" reminds me of The Partridge Family? Though it's an enjoyable listen, the album doesn't come close to matching the intensity of SLF's live show.

Here's a sad but true story: I was right up front when SLF started. A couple of songs in and the youngsters started moshing, as youngsters will. I got knocked around something fierce and at one point my upper plate got knocked loose in my mouth.

But I didn't let it happen. To lose my false teeth at a punk rock show is just too much of an ironic metaphor. I wouldn't allow myself to be part of it.

Joe Buck Yourself

* Remember the Alimony by Joe Buck and Gory Gory Hallelujah by Joe Buck Yourself.  Here's something that left me feeling stupid. I downloaded this EP by the artist known as Joe Buck Yourself (a former member of Hank III's band and Tha' Legendary Shack Shakers).

And then I downloaded the album by "Joe Buck," thinking it was the same guy in an earlier phase of his career.

Besides the name, some of the song titles --  "She's a Dick" and the feedback fury and slide guitar mayhem of "Hillbilly Thunder"-- led me to think it was that Joe Buck.

Well, I was wrong. This "Joe Buck" is not the Evil Motherfucker from Tennessee. In fact it's not a guy, it's a band, led by a singer called "Swayback Dave." And they're from San Francisco, not Tennessee.

And I found out even sooner that the basic sound of these two acts are very different. Joe Buck Yourself is a one-man band who plays harsh metallic blues riffs over his guttural voice. Kind of like a malevolent Bob Logg III.

The band Joe Buck basically is a country rock band with strong rockabilly overtones. They aren't as crazed and threatening as JBY, but they sure ain't bad.  Hell, most the songs would fit in just fine with Shooter Jennings' Southern Independent XXX compilations. And the first song, "Easy Street," reminds me of The Gear Daddies.

I'm not sure whatever happened to Swayback Dave and the boys. I hope they're making country musiuc somewhere.

* Pound Down! by The Del-Gators. Here's another band from the early part of the century. Unfortunately, I don't believe they made any albums after this -- at least none you can find on the world wide web.

The DGs were a good-time Montreal garage band with heavy R&B influences. They were fronted by a singer named Jenna Roker, who also sang in another group called The Sunday Sinners. Another Gator was a electric pianist named Cocobutter Khan, who happens to be the sister of Arish "King" Khan.

If you like The Detroit Cobras you'll probably love The Del-Gators. My favorite tune here is "Car Trouble," which also appeared on one of the Voodoo Rhythm samplers. Jenna even makes auto repair sound sexy.

Plus

* The first six tracks of Fire of Love by The Gun Club. How could I have missed out on The Gun Club all these years. I was familiar with the name, always saw the band and Jeffrey Lee Pearce listed as a punk-blues/cowpunk originator, and I've liked the song "Sex Beat" for years. (It was among the Nothin' But Trash compilation tracks I downloaded a couple of months ago. Also I heard Kid Congo Powers do a blazing live version when I saw him in New York last year.) And yet somehow ...

When writing about roots punk in my column about the new releases by DM Bob & The Deficits and The Juke Joint Pimps, I took the opportunity to take a good hard isten to The Gun Club on Spotify (which really is turning out to be the rock critic's friend). After just a couple of songs, I knew I had to repair this gaping hole in my knowledge.

I only had enough tracks last month to get these six. I'll get the rest when my account refreshes.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 2, 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! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Hard Times by Jon Langford
Gambling Preacher and His Daughter by Whiskey Folk Ramblers
Broken Man by The Goddamn Gallows
Sleepy Time Blues by Jess Hooper
Asthma Inhaler by Joe Buck
Detour by Sleepy LaBeef
Preaching the Blues by The Gun Club
Mae Dawn by Artie Hill
Pine Box Rotten by Crankshaft & The Geargrinders

Rainmaker by Eliza Gilkyson
Tonight I'm Going to Jail by Felix y Los Gatos
Back in Your World by Billy Kaundart
Anything Goes at a Rooster Show by The Imperial Rooster
Lookin' For Someone to Kill by Kell Robertson
Keeper of the Light by Joe West
Sinfull Paradise by Stephanie Hatfield
A Hundred Dollars by John Egenes

Another Bender Might Break Me by Hellbound Glory
Canteen Full of Dreams by Roger Alan Wade
Old Moon by Bloodshot Bill
Happy Hour In Hell by Cornell Hurd
If I Could Take You Home by The Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show
Favorite Waste of Time by J.B. Beverley &The-Wayward-Drifters
Sparkling Brown Eyes by Webb Pierce
Little Bells by Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts

Redemption by Dex Romweber Duo
Ain't Comin' Back No More by Poor Boy's Soul
Bob Dylan's 49th Beard by Wilco
Ten Lonely Years by Stevie Tombstone
Seven-Mile Island by Jason Isbell by The 400 Unit
A Smashing Indictment of Character by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Weakness In A Man by Waylon Jennings
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: Joe West Goes Back to Aberdeen

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 2, 2011

Joe West is the only person I know, besides myself, who admits to having consumed Buckhorn beer. He’s not old enough to remember buying it for 79 cents a six-pack at the old Safeway on St. Michael’s Drive, but he’s familiar with the product, which was discontinued long ago — like any brain cells that stood in its path.

“Sixteen gallons and a case of Buckhorn / I never felt so alive since the day I was born,” West recites in the song “Keg Party at the Muldoon Farm,” which appears in two different versions on his new album, Aberdeen, S.D. The song is about a high-school senior driving a Trans-Am and ready to party. It sounds like a sweet and authentic memory.

You almost can smell the teenage puke by the barn.

West, whose mother still lives in South Dakota, spent his teenage years in Aberdeen. West told the Aberdeen News a couple of months ago that the record is “an ode to Aberdeen and the time I spent in Aberdeen — a town I really love.” The paper noted that West mentions several Aberdeen landmarks — Lager’s bar, Kessler’s supermarket — in the album.

“Goin’ Down to Kessler’s,” the opening track, is a funny little tune about a guy going to pick up some milk and cigarettes (and perhaps some Buckhorn beer?) in preparation for taking the day off work to begin the healing process for a broken heart. The lilting beat and happy fiddle belie any inner pain.

A listener is pretty sure that the narrator is going to pull through. But then, about halfway through, the song changes. The beat slows and minor-key clouds roll in. There’s a heavy cello and desperate blues licks from a guitar. The last minute or so features a repeated tape loop of some guy talking about local Lutheran churches. I’m not sure what it means, but it doesn’t sound healthy.

“Kessler’s” and other songs and sequences on Aberdeen, S.D. remind me a lot of West’s KSFR radio show, Intergalactic Honky-Tonk Machine, an almost surreal mix of music, interviews, and humorous and frequently poignant storytelling built upon the rock of West’s appreciation and respect for the people he encounters.

The music on the album has a cool, lo-fi, junkyard sound — think Tom Waits’ Frank’s Wild Years. According to the liner notes, it was “recorded on an old analog 4-track, using borrowed instruments and thrift-store tape decks, microphones, and toys.” (I’m pretty sure that’s a kid’s chord organ on the “original mix” of “Keg Party.” At least it sounds that way.) It was recorded in Aberdeen early this year with some later recordings in Santa Fe.


Some of the songs seem like high-school flashbacks. Others, like “Old Friends” are about a prodigal Joe returning to his old hometown. One of my favorites, “Johnny’s Not Here,” is a bluesy number with a good sleazy sax. It’s about some barroom regulars concerned that the most regular of the regulars is missing. “He’s part of the landscape, part of the atmosphere / But it’s 4:30, and Johnny’s not here.” We never find out what happened to the guy, but there’s definitely a disturbance in the Force.

Then there’s “Keeper of the Light,” a long (six-minute-plus) shaggy-dog tale told over a stand-up-bass-driven blues backdrop, about a guy who collects all sorts of junk:

“I don’t necessarily dumpster dive, but I do like to look into dumpsters,” West explains at the outset of song. He sounds like a kid on Christmas morning as the treasures are unveiled: a 1983-era keyboard/guitar; a CB radio box with the likeness of singer C.W. McCall (remember “Convoy”?); and best of all, display crates of old cassettes — Kenny Rogers, Toto, The Cars’ Candy-O, a Bing Crosby Christmas collection. West realizes he’s made a faux pas by offering to buy the tapes. This stuff isn’t for sale. This guy is a keeper of the light.

And, it almost goes without saying, so is Joe West.

Check out  Intergalactic Honky-Tonk Machine, 1 a.m. Fridays on KSFR-101.1 FM or www.ksfr.org. You can hear all of them on Joe’s website.

R.I.P. Honeyboy

David "Honeyboy Edwards" died Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 96.

Honeyboy was a Mississippi native, born in Shaw, Miss. in 1915, and authentic Delta bluesman.

He first left home as a teen to travel with Big Joe Williams. He was a pal of Little Walter. But he's most famous for his association with Robert Johnson. He was said to have been playing with Johnson the night he was poisoned in 1938.

I was lucky enough to see him at the Thirsty Ear Festival in 2006. As I blogged back then, Honeyboy perhaps was "the last one standing who's played with Son House and Charlie Patton back in the old days, and he's still a joy to hear and behold."

He played a simple, no-frills set accompanied on harmonica by his manager Michael Frank and on some songs by guitarist Louisiana Red.

His obit is HERE. A tribute in Time Out Chicago is HERE.

Below is some music and a radio interview.

More on Spotify

Yes, Spotify has become a weird obsession.

I just discovered this groovy little site called ShareMyPlaylists.com that gives you a central place to post all your playlists.

So I did.

All 17 are HERE Check it out.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August, 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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Dirty Nightgown by Dave Alvin
Bite the Bed by Glambilly
Wasted Life by Stiff Little Fingers
Clever Way to Crawl by Persian Claws
Puss 'n Boots by New York Dolls
You Give Me Nothing To Go On by The Fleshtones
Jailhouse Tattoo by The Tombstones
Cryin' for My Baby by Pete McKinney
I'm Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Girl Tonight by The Savoy Havana Band

Senator by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Spit on a Stranger by Pavement
The Best Liqour Store by The Hickoids
Get Down (and Get Stupid!) by The Del-Gators
For the Love of Ivy by The Gun Club
Old Folks Boogie by Jack Oblivion
Jungle Drums by Dex Romweber Duo
Endless Sleep by The Frantic Flintstones
Te Vas Amor by El Coyote y Su Banda Tierra Santa

Directly From My Heart to You by Frank Zappa featuring Don "Sugarcane" Harris
Heart Attack by Don & Dewey
Raise Your Hand by Janis Joplin
C'est Pas Facile by The Come N' Go
Deborah Lee by BBQ
Ritalin by Sonic Reverends
The Pimps Don't Like It by The Juke Joint Pimps
Shout Bama Lama by The Detroit Cobras

Ballad Of Jimmy Tanks by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Lipstick Vogue by Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Cry Cry Cry (In The U.S.A.) by The Scrams
Alligator River by Lothar
Slow Lightning by Junior Kimbrough
Peaches Falling by L.C. Ulmer
My Juanita by Johnny Maestro & Brooklyn Bridge
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE