Happy Birthday, Hank!!!!!!!!

Hiram King Williams: September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953.

The guy wrote some songs.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Sept. 16, 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
Crazy as a Junebug by Paula Rhea McDonald
Clickity Clack by Ugly Valley Boys
Poor Man's Blood by Rick Brousard
Traveling Free by Jerry J. Nixon
It Pays to Advertise by The Farmer Boys
Truck Driver's Woman by Nancy Apple
Oklahoma Girl by Susan Herndon
Stump Grinder by Sanctified Grumblers
Five Foot High and Rising by Johnny Cash

The Bottle Left Me Down by Frontier Circus
How Many Women by Lydia Loveless
49 Women by Jerry Irby & His Texas Rangers
Delia by Robert Earl Reed
Honkytonk Hardwood Floor by Jess Willard
Quittin' Time by Jocephus & The George Jonestown Massacre
Lovin' Ducky Daddy by Carolina Cotton
Love Me by Elvis Presley
Mamma Possums by Mojo Nixon
Throwing Stones by Poor Boy's Soul

Outlaw You by Shooter Jennings
Fuck This Town by Robbie Fulks
The Grand Old Opry Ain’t So Grand Any More by Hank Williams III
Murder on Music Row by Larry Cordell & Country Standard Time
Oh Brother, Where’s the Hits? by Jim Terr
Nashville Rash by Dale Watson
Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down by Mojo Nixon & Jello Biafra
Nashville Radio/The Death of Country Music by Jon Langford’s Hillbilly Lovechild
Put the O Back in Country by Shooter Jennings

Big Drops of Trouble by Arty Hill
You Don't Know Me by Chris Thomas King
That's How It Goes by The Meat Puppets
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: Outlawing Nashville

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 16, 2011

As Waylon Jennings put it back in the late ’70s, “Don’t y’all think this outlaw bit’s done got out of hand?”

A current odious trend in modern country music is the rise of the pre-fab “outlaw.” Chet Flippo lamented this a few months ago in his column on the Country Music Television website:

“Nowadays, country music seems to have recently gotten outlaws again. Gotten outlaws in the same way that some people have gotten ants or bedbugs or cockroaches. We have a new infestation. To be sure, they’re small outlaws, but they are insistent that they are here.”

Who is he talking about? New Nashville hats like Josh Thompson, Eric Church, and a guy named Justin Moore, of whom Flippo says, “If he’s a true outlaw, then Miss Piggy is Dolly Parton.”

Flippo continues: “What’s a bit alarming is that we seem to have cultivated a generation of young, male country performers who are preoccupied with displaying Outlaw attitude and Outlaw posturing, as opposed to developing real Outlaw musical content.”

What would Waylon think? Well, he’s gone to the honky-tonk in the sky, so we’ll never really know.

 But his son Shooter Jennings has weighed in on these would-be honky-tonk heroes namechecking his dad and other outlaw icons. He’s creating a nifty little controversy with a new song and video called “Outlaw You.”

He makes fun of the “perfect boots you got from your record label’s image group,” and he tells the story of his dad, perhaps overstating it a bit when he says that Waylon and Willie and the boys “freed the slaves.”

He’s talking about singers who wanted to record their own songs with their own bands instead of the songs and studio musicians assigned by producers. “Hey, pretty boy in the baseball hat / You couldn’t hit country with a baseball bat,” Shooter sings in the chorus. His conclusion: “They should outlaw you.”

The cool thing is that Shooter was able to get the song played on CMT, where it rose to the top three. He had at least one ally over there — Flippo CMT’s editorial director. Check out the comments on the CMT site — Shooter succeeded in stirring up the hornet’s nest. He’s got his defenders who say, “About time!” while fans of the Mini-Me outlaws say that Shooter is the real poser.

But in reality, the younger Jennings is following a country and alt-country tradition of songs about sticking it to Nashville’s Music Industrial Complex that’s been going on at least since the ’90s. His 2005 debut album was called Put the O Back in Country. The title song, set to the tune of Neil Young’s “Are You Ready for the Country,” had lyrics like “You know that ain’t country music you been listenin’ to. ... There ain’t no soul on the radio.”

Below are some of my favorite Nashville-bashing tunes of this ilk.

* “Fuck This Town” by Robbie Fulks. The song was written out of frustration after Fulks’ unsuccessful attempt to make it as a Nashville songwriter in the mid-’90s. Says Fulks, “This ain’t country-western, it’s just soft-rock feminist crap / And I thought things had hit bottom in the days of Ronnie Milsap.”

* “The Grand Old Opry Ain’t So Grand Any More” by Hank Williams III. The grandson of Hank Williams talks about how “real rebels” like Waylon, Johnny Paycheck, and Jimmy Martin, as well as Hanks Sr. and Jr. were never really welcomed by the uptight country establishment. Hank III plows some of the same ground on his song “Dick in Dixie” released around the same time as Shooter’s “O Back in Country” (which was a cause of friction between the two).

* “Murder on Music Row.” This lament started out as a bluegrass song by Larry Cordell & Country Standard Time. But then it got recorded as a duet by mainstream country traditionalists George Strait and Alan Jackson and received the Country Music Association’s Vocal Event of the Year award in 2000, even though it had lyrics like “Someone killed country music/Cut out its heart and soul / They got away with murder down on Music Row.”

Jim Terr in his guise as "Buddy"

* “Oh Brother, Where’s the Hits?” by Jim Terr. The Santa Fe satirist thumbed his nose at Nashville back when the the bluegrass-heavy O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack — for a couple of minutes at least — seemed to overshadow all the sappy dribble Music Row was churning out. “We’ll learn to fake sincerity, of all the details that’s the key / To pullin’ on your heartstrings and your goldurn MasterCard.”

Dale Watson and his fiddler

* “Nashville Rash” by Dale Watson. The little giant of Texas honky-tonk has done several songs talking about how commercial country music sucks. This one, from his 1995 album Cheatin’ Heart Attack is my favorite. “I’m too country now for country, just like Johnny Cash.”


* “Long Time Gone” by Dixie Chicks. Even before the Chicks became traitors in the eyes of many right-wingers because Natalie Maines said that she was ashamed to be from the same state as George W. Bush, they were biting the hand of the industry that fed them. Dumping on the country radio of the day, Maines sang “The music ain’t got no soul / They sound tired but they don’t sound Haggard / They have money but they don't have Cash."

* "Let's Go Burn  Ole Nashville Down” by Mojo Nixon & Jello Biafra. Set to the tune of “Old Joe Clark,” this is a classic country/punk romp. This song took on the sad state of country music in the '90s while boldly declaring "Country don't have flutes!"

Jon Langford

* “Nashville Radio/The Death of Country Music” by Jon Langford’s Hillbilly Lovechild. Here’s an elegant 11-minute dreamlike medley complete with electric sitar. “Nashville Radio” is a moving account of Hank Williams Sr.’s demise: “I gave my life to country music, I took my pills and lost / Now they don’t play my songs on the radio / Feels like I never was.” This turns into “The Death of Country Music” — originally recorded by the Waco Brothers, another Langford band, it’s a sneer at people “picking the flesh off the bones” of country music. “We spill some blood on the ashes of the bones of the Jones and the Cashes / Skulls in false eyelashes / Ghost riders in the sky.”

 I will play all these songs on the Santa Fe Opry on Friday night  on KSFR-FM 101.1 or www.ksfr.org

Check out the “Outlaw You” video  below:

Free Biram, SCOTS MP3s

Scott H. Biram is giving away a free MP3 of his song "Don'tcha Lie to Me, baby" from his upcoming album Bad Ingredients.

Hear it and download it HERE. 

The release date is Oct. 11.

And coming up Sept, 27, in plenty of time for Halloween season, there's Zombified by Southern Culture on the Skids. Check that out below. (More info HERE )

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 11, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org


Special Post Labor Day Songs For the Workin' Man
Guest co-host Stan Rosen

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Plenty Tuff and Union Made by The Waco Brothers
Joe Hill by Paul Robeson
Boiling Frog by Pat Wynne
We Shall Not Be Moved/ I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister by The Union City Criers
The Death Of Mother Jones by Gene Autry
Yo Estoy Con Chavez by Ramon "Tigre" Rodriguez with Los Lobos
Gary Indiana 1959 by Dave Alvin

Corrido de Doleres Huerta #39 by Carmen Moreno with Los Lobos
Pie In The Sky by Utah Philips & Ani DiFranco
Corporate Welfare Song by Anne Feeney
Union Song by Carter Falco
Do Re Mi by John Mellencamp
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live by The Del-Lords
Talking Union by Pete Seeger

September 11 Set
Let's Roll by Neil Young
It's the Day of Atonement, 2001 by Dayna Kurtz
Far Away by Sleater-Kinney

You Ain't Done Nothin' If You Ain't Been Called a Red by Faith Petric
Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed
We Were There by Brooklyn Women's Chorus

Working for the Man by Roy Orbison
Working Man by Bo Diddley
Working at Working by Wayne Hancock
Damned Right I Got the Blues by Buddy Guy
Standing on the Shoulders by Charles Bernhardt
May the Work That I Have Done by Bruce Thomas
Working At The Gas Station by Scruff with Go Freddy Go
(Substitute) CLOSING THEME: This Land is Your Land by Pete  Seeger, Sweet Honey in the Rock and Doc Watson

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

No SF Opry Tonight, Special Sound World on Sunday

I won't be doing my regular Friday night Santa Fe tonight because I'll be attending festivities for my 40th (!) high school reunion. On Demons, down that field ...

But please tune in anyway The lovely Laurell Reynolds will be substituting for me -- probably the last time she ever ewill because, sadly, she's leaving town. My other frequent SF Opry sub, Tom Adler, also one of the revolving Acoustic Explorations hosts, will be taking over Laurell's Sunday morning show, Folk Remedies.

On Sunday I'll be joined by my pal and labor historian Stan "Rosebud" Rosen for out annual, well almost (we missed last year) "Songs for the Working Man" post-Labor Day special.

KSFR is 101.FM in the Santa Fe/Northern New Mexico area and streams online HERE

Here's a preview of the kind of stuff we'll be playing Sunday night.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: RAT CITY, HERE I COME

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 09, 2011

The Oblivians were a crazy little garage/punk trio from Memphis in the mid-’90s who earned a rabid national following though barely a peep of recognition from the mainstream. (That’s the story of about 95 percent of the musical acts I love, but what can you do?)

They were ferocious. They were funny. They were obscene and politically incorrect. They were beautiful.

One member, Greg Oblivian (Cartwright) went on to form another bitchen band called Reigning Sound, while Eric Oblivian (Friedl) is best known these days for running Goner Records, a Memphis music store and label.

That leaves Jack Oblivian (Yarber), who never hung up his rock ’n’ roll shoes. Since The Oblivians dismantled, he’s done solo records; he’s led bands, including The Tennessee Tearjerkers; and, for a while with Cartwright, he reformed The Compulsive Gamblers, a band that was around before The Oblivians.

And next week, he’s releasing a new solo album called Rat City. It’s sweet, sweaty rock, some of which is graced with understated pop sensibility.

It starts off with the title song, a crunchy blues-punk workout introduced with a mournful harmonica. And speaking of blues, a subsequent tune, “Old Folks Boogie,” sounds like John Lee Hooker filtered through a meat grinder. Between the two is “Mass Confusion,” a hard-driving tune with touches of funk plus — surprise, surprise — hammering drums that suggest disco. (Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. A previous Jack O album was called The Disco Outlaw.)

But a more melodious side of Yarber comes out in “Dark Eyes.” This one sounds like an early Strokes song with just a touch of Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas. The following song, “Kidnapper,” has a Motown edge to it, while “Girl With the Bruises,” a song about an abused woman, could almost be a lost Paul Westerberg song.

You might hear echoes of “Tumblin’ Dice” in the song “Caboose Jump.” And Oblivian fans might hate me for saying this, but I hear a little Tom Petty and even — don’t hit me! — Springsteen in “Jealous Heart.”

Most of the songs here are originals, but there are some fine covers. There’s a fairly faithful version of Billy Swan’s “Lover Please” (my favorite cover still being Clyde McPhatter’s). And there’s an obscure Tommy James tune called “Moses and Me,” complete with warbly, distorted “Crimson and Clover”-style vocals.
Basically this is just excellent, gut-level rock ’n’ roll.

Do yourself a favor and take a little trip to Rat City. You might find yourself seeking out music from the Gamblers and the Tearjerkers and, of course, The Oblivians.

Also recommended:

* White BBQ Sauce by Glambilly. Somewhere there’s an alternative universe, a parallel world in which New York Dolls arose from Texas instead of New York. In that world, those Dolls sounded a whole lot like Glambilly, which specializes in hard-hitting, pre-punk style, blues-informed and booze-fueled rock ’n’ roll full of humor, tales of sex and substance abuse, and wry commentary on the decadence and decay they see around them.

With just a hint of Lone Star twang.

This San Antonio power trio, originally known as Hans Frank & The Auslanders, reportedly got its name from an unfriendly heckler. Though meant as an insult, singer-bassist Frank embraced the name and the whole concept it implied.

There are some outstanding tunes here: “I Must Be the Devil” is a spoken-word boogie in which Frank boasts of his similarities with the prince of darkness, including a fondness for Plymouth Valiants and 18-year-old blondes.

“Bite the Bed,” a Zep-like tune featuring a nasty slide guitar, is the tale of a guy who spends 11 years in prison then gets out and informs his lover that she has gained weight. But he’s not complaining. “That’s the way I like it,” the narrator says. Most of the tunes are original, but a cover tune nearly steals the show.

Glambilly does a menacing, minor-key version of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys’ “Stay All Night.” Ol’ Bob didn’t do it this way, but Glambilly makes it howl.

While many of the songs seem to be smirking at the hapless, deeply flawed characters who inhabit the Glambilly mythos, on the final song, “Firefly,” Frank proves he can write a truly moving, poignant musical tale. It’s about a homeless girl who comes to a tragic end. This tune sounds like a sad update of the title song, which dealt with various young women with “faraway looks” in their eyes, such as the girl being “passed around” by guys in a pickup truck.