R.I.P. David Lescht

Terrible news.

David Lescht, the man who for years headed an organization that brought untold hours of free music -- local and national -- to the Plaza each summer in the popular Santa Fe Bandstand program, died early this morning. He was 64.

A mutual friend told me that it was a massive heart attack that killed David. I haven't officially confirmed that yet. David had just appeared on KBAC radio yesterday to talk about the 2012 Bandstand schedule. (Joe "King" Carrasco is the first headliner in July! Damn, David, you're going to miss it!)

David also was the founder and head honcho of the Outside In program, which brought music to jails, hospitals, rest homes and other institutions.

He also was a KUNM DJ. The man just loved music and loved bringing it to people.

The first time I interviewed David was in 1995 when he was doing one of the first Outside In shows at St. Elizabeth homeless shelter. This was years before the Bandstand program.

xxxx

UPDATE 10:30 am. Friends of Lescht are planning to get together at 5:30 pm at the Cowgirl to toast his legacy.

xxxxx

As you'll see in the story below, David had big plans since day one. I'll admit I was skeptical at first, but David worked like a maniac to make this program a reality.


A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
November 12, 1995

It was an outdoor gig on a cold night. A guitar string had broken in the middle of a song. The cops came and unceremoniously brought the show to a halt after a neighbor complained.

But to Nathan Moore and other members of ThaMuseMeant, a local acoustic band that performs mostly original tunes, the St. Elizabeth's homeless shelter show was successful beyond expectation.

The show was part of a program -- organized by music promoter David Lescht and called Outside In -- which brings quality music to the homeless, sick and incarcerated.

At St. Elizabeth's, people clapped, smiled and then grumbled when the officers apologized for having to shut the performance down.

``She sings just like Buffy St. Marie, '' a woman said when bassist Aimee Curl took a turn at the mike. ``I saw Buffy at Carnegie Hall back in the '60s.''

After the band had broken down all its equipment and shelter staff and residents had taken in the folding chairs, Moore was in a pensive mood.

``As we were playing for the homeless people, lyrics in some of our songs started taking on new meaning for me, '' Moore said. ``Our band -- myself, Dave (Tiller) and Aimee -- we started out in Virginia and went to Austin and now Santa Fe. We all spent a lot of time in which we were homeless. But because we had our music, we never felt like we were homeless.''

The song lyrics that most jumped out at Moore:

You won't find me beggin'/Straight up on the street/I've got nowhere to go/But I've got dancin' feet.

Such introspection after a concert is not uncommon, according to the bushy-bearded, 47-year-old Lescht. While he has no illusions that bringing music into an institution is going to solve the problems of audience members, he says it can be enriching -- can increase the chance for ``dancin' feet.''

Of course, ``dancin' feet'' is more of a state of mind than physical reality. On a recent Tuesday at La Residencia nursing home, many of cowboy singer Sid Hausman's audience sat in wheelchairs.

But the spirit was in the air.

La Residencia folks tapped their fingers and sang along as Hausman -- in his bright red shirt and tall cowboy hat -- sang and played banjo, ukelele and 12-string guitar. When he tried to leave, the crowd called him back for two encores.

Music can help people deal with boredom, isolation and despair, Lescht said.

``I just try to bring a little light from the outside into dark places, '' he said.

But the audiences are not the only beneficiaries.

``Musicians tell me this is therapy for themselves, '' Lescht said. ``The effect on the artist is amazing.''

ThaMuseMeant's Moore agreed. ``It really was a special feeling, '' he said a few days after the gig.

Hausman said he favors nursing home audiences to rowdy bar crowds.

``If you play music, you play for people, and if you can reach people, you've done your job, '' Hausman said. ``Unlike playing the bars, I can tell the people here were really listening.''

The concert by ThaMuseMeant was not the first time the St. Elizabeth's shelter had seen a show produced by Lescht. In late July, local bluesman Jono Manson and The Mighty Revelators played there.

Outside In also has performed at a local youth shelter. In June, Virginia singer/songwriter Vicki Pratt Keating entertained there. Although most teens are more into rap and hard rock than folk, Keating related well to her audience, Lescht said.

``She spent some time in a shelter for runaways herself when she was a kid, '' he said.

Later in June, Lescht organized a show by Cajun Connections, a band from Los Alamos, at a dance for developmentally disabled people at New Vistas in Santa Fe. The next month, Outside In brought a bluegrass band, Ain't Misbehavin, ' to Horizon nursing home, and Carlos Lomas and his flamenco troupe to La Residencia nursing home.

In August, Lescht brought a local rock group, The Withdrawals, to inmates at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas. And Jono Manson and his band performed at the women's prison in Grants in October, Lescht said.

So far, Lescht is paying musicians out of his own pocket.

``It's not a bad paying gig, '' Moore said. ``I've made more at parties, but I've made less at bars.''

But Lescht hopes to stop bankrolling the venture.

``I'm doing it myself now to get the ball rolling, but I'm actively seeking contributors, '' he said.

Outside In is affiliated with the Santa Fe Council for the Arts, so donations made through the SFCA are tax deductible, Lescht said. His first year projected budget is slightly more than $55,000.

Lescht said he was inspired by a similar program in California called ``Bread and Roses.'' Created by Mimi Farina, a folk singer who is a sister of famous folkie Joan Baez. Bread and Roses -- which organizes 30 events a month -- has been around for 20 years, Lescht said.

But long before he became acquainted with Bread and Roses, Lescht was experimenting with ways to mix music and social consciousness. He moved to Santa Fe in 1974 and lived in a commune, working at a now-defunct hostel on Manhattan Street.

Out of the commune, grew a rock group called The Brotherhood Band, which Lescht said contained elements of gospel music, The Grateful Dead and preachy ``peace and love'' sloganeering. He was the group's manager.

The band focused on playing in prisons, hospitals, youth shelters and other institutional settings in the West. The band did a tour of virtually all the prisons in Spain.

In 1984, The Brotherhood Band played a Bread and Roses gig in California, where Lescht met Mimi Farina. At the time, the band was suffering from the usual type of personality and ego problems that doom some of the best groups. The Brotherhood Band sputtered to an end about 1988.

Lescht then moved to England, where he met his wife Sarah. He kept his hand in the music business by managing a rehearsal space for musicians.

One of his friends from The Brotherhood Band era who was living in Massachusetts sent him a copy of Farina's Bread and Roses Handbook . The two talked about, and eventually planned, moving to Santa Fe to start such a program here.

However, soon after the Leschts arrived here, his friend died in Massachusetts at age 49.

``That kind of gave me an extra push to go ahead and do this, '' he said.

Lescht worked for awhile at Seeds of Change, but quit earlier this year to pursue Outside In fulltime.

Whether he can get the financial backing to make it work remains a question. But one thing is for certain: He will always have audiences whose days could be made a little brighter by some music. And there undoubtedly are enough musicians around to do the shows.

``I'm not really sure who it means more for -- the performers or the audience, '' Moore of ThaMuseMeant said.

UPDATE: 11:08 am Earlier versions of this post said Lescht died "last night." I'm now being told it was early this morning. The text has been corrected. (Also cleaned up a little gibberish in the first paragraph.)

Terrell's TuneUp: Land of the Dinsosaur

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 4, 2012

One of my favorite record labels in recent years is an independent roots-soaked punk outfit from San Antonio, Texas, called Saustex Media.

With its big green dinosaur-in-a-cowboy-hat logo, Saustex is the love child of Jeff “Smitty” Smith, singer and head hick of The Hickoids, a San Antonio band that, to misquote Barbara Mandrell, was cow-punk back when cow-punk wasn’t cool. The Hickoids are still going strong after all these decades — in recent months with Santa Fe’s own Tom Trusnovic playing guitar. They’re Saustex’s flagship band.

There are lots of great acts that have released music on the label — Piñata Protest, Glambilly, Sons of Hercules, Stevie Tombstone, and singer-songwriter Eric Hisaw. I was lucky enough to catch some of these acts in Austin during South by Southwest in March at a couple of Saustex-sponsored events.

And even better, the label has recently released a ton of new music:

*  Intexicated by T. Tex Edwards. Dallas-born Thomas Edwards has been making a musical nuisance of himself for decades. He initially became known working with a punk band called The Nervebreakers — they opened for The Sex Pistols’ Dallas show in 1977 and these days sometimes still get together to play. Since then he’s fronted bands including The Saddle Tramps, Out on Parole, The Loafin’ Hyenas, Lithium X-mas, The Swingin’ Cornflake Killers, and recently Purple Stickpin.

This compilation includes recordings from Edwards’ post-Nervebreakers career spanning the early ’80s through to just a few years ago. There are lots of rockabilly influenced songs such as “Cravin’,” “It’s Gravity,” and “Thirteen Women.”

Best of all are “Move It,” a 1982 record with The Saddletramps, and the delightfully warped “Crazy Date,” recorded with Out on Parole featuring Edwards. This was an obscure 1959 regional hit by an Alabama group called The Crazy Teens. Tex, reciting the lyrics like a sinister Big Bopper, turns it into the diary of a terminal lech.

There’s also a good representation of Edwards’ trademark twisted takes on country songs. There are two tunes that grace Out on Parole’s 1989 psycho-country classic Pardon Me, I’ve Got Someone to Kill: Leon Payne’s “Psycho” (a 1984 rendition of the song featuring a sweet honky-tonk piano) and “LSD,” an obscure cautionary tale about acid originally recorded by singer Wendell Austin (“I started using LSD/ It gave me such a kick/ Better than booze and easy to use/ But it made me mentally sick”).
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There’s also a nightmarish lo-fi cover of “Blood on the Saddle,” a tune associated with another Tex — Tex Ritter.

A real treat is a version of “Lee Harvey,” a song about the accused Kennedy assassin, recorded with The Hickoids in 1989 — several years before the Asylum Street Spankers released the version that I’m most familiar with. Written by Homer Henderson, the lyrics humanize the shadowy Oswald:

“Lee Harvey was a friend of mine/He used to take me fishing all the time/He used to throw the ball to me/ When I was just a kid/They say he shot the president/But I don’t think he did.”

One thing about T. Tex Edwards, he never sold out to the corporations. Oh, wait, he did! The last song here is a demo he did for Chili’s restaurant. I’m not sure if the chain actually used this 30-second punk-rock flash. But it did make me hungry for baby back ribs.

(On the Santa Fe Opry I'll be playing a special set of "Songs T. Tex Edwards taught us. The show starts at 10 p.m Mountain Time Friday on KSFR, 101.1 FM or streaming HERE )

* El Pathos. This Austin band has only been around for a few years, but it’s made up of several veterans of Texas punk-rock groups (The Dicks, Offenders, Cat Butt, and others). They play a basic garage/punk, Stooge/Dolls-influenced brand of raw rock ’n’ roll — and do a fine job. There’s not a dull moment on this, their self-titled second album.

The album kicks off with the slow-burning “Election Day,” which sounds like Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones. The next song, “Straight Into the Sun,” slips into a higher gear. Try to listen to this one without thinking of “You’re Gonna Miss Me” by the 13th Floor Elevators.

One thing that sets El Pathos apart from most bands with similar approaches is that it has an actual steel/slide guit — Mark Kenyon — as part of its permanent lineup. And the group isn’t afraid to use him. In fact, there are a couple of fine country rockers hiding in this album, in which Kenyon shines.

The rowdy “Gypsy Minor” is a potential punk-rock honky-tonk classic, while the last song here, the melancholy country rocker called “Yesterday Mourning,” is nice and purdy. This album makes me want to seek out El Pathos’ first effort, Hate and Love.

* The Copper Gamins. This five-song, self-titled EP is just a blast. The CGs are a two-man lo-fi punk-blues unit from San Miguel Totocuitlapilco, Mexico. The whole thing sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned gas station, but it’s got spirit.

My favorite song here is “Candy Man.” The CGs give songwriting credit to Mississippi John Hurt, but fans of the saint of Avalon, Mississippi, aren’t likely to recognize the song. Singer José Carmen howls like a castrato Smurf while drummer Claus Lafania sounds like a speed freak swatting mosquitoes with a baseball bat.

To hear songs by the above artists plus others on the label’s roster, check out this:

*  For Those About to Forget to Rock by The Grannies. This San Francisco group isn’t officially a Saustex band, but I saw The Grannies at Saustex’s recent official South by Southwest showcase with The Hickoids and Glambilly.

The Grannies are known for appearing in granny drag — bad wigs and even worse dresses. Many of their songs are sardonic looks at old age — “Walker on the Wild Side,” “Toothless,” and “Denture Breath.”

Now that I’m on the outskirts of middle age on a fast bus to Codgerville, maybe I should take offense at this. Instead, I’m taking a weird delight in it. Besides, The Grannies play fierce, aggressive, and tight, just like I love it.

So as Jan and Dean would say, “Go, Grannies, go!”

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 29, 2012 
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
Catch Me Daddy by Big Brother & The Holding Company
My Groupie by Thee Martian Boyfriends
Side Door Man by The Grannies
Little Black Drops by El Pathos
Cool Right Down by The Molting Vultures
Pump it Up by Mudhoney
Rattlesnakes Don't Commit Suicide by Help Me Devil
Cold Night Blues by Dead Man's Tree
Meek My Joe by Die Zorros

Move It! by The 99ers
Move It by T. Tex Edwards
Burnin' Love by The Hickoids
Nuclear War on the Dance Floor by The Electric Six
Timothy by The Nervebreakers
Losers, Boozers and Heros by fIREHOSE
Seven Are the Horns of Satan by The Happy Kids
From My Heart by Fenton Robinson
Dirty Britches by The Leap Frogs

How You Sell Soul To A Souless People Who Sold Their Soul? by Public Enemy
Lyin' Ass Bitch by Fishbone
Get It Together by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Mojo Hanna by Andre Williams
I Got the Feeling by Sharon Jones
Cry Me a River Blues by Little Esther Phillips & The Johnny Otis Show
Booty City by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Ain't No Sunshine by Freddie King

Big Shot by Dr. John
500 Pound Bad Ass by Chief Fuzzer
The Dream by Thee Oh Sees
I Just Missed You by Mary Weiss
Candy by Johnny Dowd
What I Know by Grinderman

Public Enemy in Santa Fe

They brought the noise. They also brought the rain.

Public Enemy, the group that basically defined hip hop in the late '80s and early '90s returned to Santa Fe yesterday for a private show for students (and some lucky non-students like myself) at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. It was part of the school's "Artists for Positive Social Change" program.

Performing mostly songs from their classic 1990 Fear of a Black Planet album -- including "Brothers Gonna Work It Out," "911 is a Joke," "Welcome to The Terrordome," "Fight the Power" and more.

Flava!

PE's political/socially conscious style of intelligent rap was eclipsed commercially in the early '90s by increasingly mindless gangsta rap, but the young crowd at the college ate this stuff up. I can't see how anyone could argue that this music -- and the lyrics -- are any less relevant today than they were 22 years ago.

And to those of My Generation -- or any damned generation -- that says rap "isn't really music" or similarly idiotic claims, you really ought to check out PE's stage show. Chuck D and Flava Flav are backed by an ace funkified band led by guitarist Khari Wynn. Hell, even Flava Flav grabbed a bass and played it on "Terrordome."

Mr. Hardgroove

Speaking of bass, longtime PR bassist Brian Hardgroove -- who was instrumental in bringing the group to Santa Fe yesterday, as well as the previous two times they were here -- no longer is with the group. He's on hiatus, he told me. Still, he joined the band on stage Saturday night on "Arizona (Ball of Confusion)" and other tunes.

Earlier in the day, Chuck D and Hardgroove participated in a symposium at the college about hip-hop's impact on society and culture.

Just one little problem with the show:

It rained.

Not a great downpour, but enough to make it unsafe to be playing electric instruments on the stage. So, after about 45 minutes of performing, they left the stage for awhile -- despite the vocal protests of Flava. At first I didn't think they would come back. But after 15 or 20 minutes, they happily proved me wrong.

ICC opening for PE

Hey, a shoutout to some locals: I'll admit I wasn't enthusiastic at first about the opening band, a group of University students who call themselves ICC (Inner City Connection.) But about 20 seconds after they took the stage I realized they're fantastic, full of enthusiasm that matches their talent.

I should have known. ICC was organized and rehearsed by Hardgroove. (Santa Fe musician, USFAD instructor and fellow KSFR DJ Peter Williams also told me that they're students of his. )

And if you don't believe me, here's what Chuck D said about them on Twitter right after the show: "ICC from SantaFe a really really good multiracial gendered Band group of MCs singers players tonight did their thing. Proud of them .. doPE!"

Mr. Chuck

Here's a video of PE from Saturday's show.





Public Enemy "Show 'Em Whatcha Got"/"Bring the Noise" in Santa Fe from brad hayes on Vimeo.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 27, 2012 
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
Bring the Noise by Unholy Trio
Outlaw Convention by Hank 3
Thirteen Women by T. Tex Edwards
Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad by Wanda Jackson
In the Summertime by O'Brien Party of 7
Sick Rick by The Misery Jackals
Trucks, Tractors and Trains by The Dirt Daubers
Hoboes Are My Heroes by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Gee Baby by Great Recession Orchestra with Maryanne Price

Lead Me on by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
Big Time Annie's Square by Merle Haggard
Sing Me Back Home by Chesterfield Kings
Ain't No Diesel Trucks In Heaven by Bob Wayne
Got My Mojo Working by The Asylum Street Spankers
Life's Lonesome Road by Wayne Hancock
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad by Cathy Faber
Ramblin' Man by Soda
Beatin' on the Bars by The Travelin' Texans
Farmer Had Him Rats by Black Jake & The Carnies

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall by The Waco Brothers with Paul Burch
Wreck on the Highway by The Waco Brothers
Tennessee Jed by Levon Helm
Cheatin' Games by Little Lisa Dixie
Running on Pure Fear by Martin Zellar & The Hardways with Kelly Willis
Vacant Lot by Deano Waco & The Meat Purveyors
Rockin' and Knockin' by Gayle Griffith

My Rifle, Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson
Righteous, Ragged Songs by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires
Blunderbuss by Jack White
Burnt Toast Mornin' by Jason Eklund
Plane Of Existence by Giant Giant Sand
Four Years by Tom Armstrong
Same God by The Calamity Cubes
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Firing Up The Wacos

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
April 27, 2012



It’s been seven years since The Waco Brothers released an album of new material — seven long years since Freedom and Weep.

I’m not sure what caused this delay. There have been some personnel changes — miss your steel guitar, Mark Durante — but the group never broke up. It’s not that the band’s songwriting has dried up.

Langford up front, Burch in back

Frontman Jon Langford has done some solo albums and contributed to albums by his other band, The Mekons. And singer/guitarist Dean “Deano Waco” Schlabowske released an under-recognized but tasty — and free — little album with The Meat Purveyors a few years ago (Deano Meats the Purveyors).

But it took another singer, the Wacos’ Bloodshot Records (sometimes) labelmate Paul Burch, to spark a new Wacos album.

According to the press release, the idea came while sharing pitchers of Guero’s margaritas in Austin during a past South by Southwest festival. Guero’s is just down the street from the Yard Dog Gallery, where, for more than a decade, the Chicago-based Wacos have become renowned for crazed, boozed-up, fiery performances during the annual Bloodshot party. (I was there for that show in March, and I’ll testify that the Brothers, aided by Burch and Commander Cody guitarist Bill Kirchen, were in rare form. They made “Folsom Prison Blues” sound like Godzilla crushing Tokyo.)

To fans of Burch and/or the Wacos, such a team-up might not seem like a natural pairing, no matter how many margaritas were involved. Burch, a Nashville songster, has a voice that’s similar to that of Jimmie Dale Gilmore. His records are far gentler and more melodic than the trademark insurgent country chaos of the brothers Waco. But the main result of the collaboration, a new album called Great Chicago Fire, is a joy that fans of either act should appreciate.

It’s appropriate somehow that a band named after one tragedy would name its latest album after another. “Is there nothing we have learned?/Burn, baby, burn!” goes the refrain in the title song, co-written and co-sung by Burch and Langford. It’s a fun tune, but the album only gets better the deeper you sink into it.

 All the singers have great moments here. Burch takes advantage of the Wacos as his raucous backup band in his song “Wrong Side of Love,” a catchy country rocker. And “Transfusion Blues” is a jumpy rockabilly-tinged workout. But he also has some downright pretty tunes here, his best being “Flight to Spain,” a slow, minor-key song that reminds me of Hundred Year Flood’s “Blue Angel.”

Langford’s “Cannonball” is an upbeat swampy tune with tasty tremolo guitar. The best song he wrote for the album is the introspective “Someone That You Know,” but he lets Burch sing it. That turned out to be a good decision. Burch nails it dead.

The foul-mouthed, outrageous, and completely charming Langford is what first attracted me to the Waco Brothers in the ’90s, but through the years I’ve come to look forward to Schlabowske’s contributions as well. With his hoarse Midwestern baritone, Deano sings songs that cut deep. My favorite here is “On the Sly,” a song I hope the Wacos keep in their repertoire for years.

Though the album is full of wonderful new original tunes, it ends with a shoot-’em-up saloon-band cover of Bob Dylan’s apocalyptic “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” The arrangement sounds amazingly similar to Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue version (found on the Live 1975 Bootleg Series set). Despite the fearsome lyrics, it’s nothing short of a stomping joy.

My biggest hope is that Great Chicago Fire sparks more new material from the Waco Brothers.

Also noted: 

*  Bootleg Vol. IV: The Soul of Truth by Johnny Cash. I’ve always associated Johnny Cash with gospel music. The very first Cash album I ever had back in the early ’60s (Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash) contained two great gospel tunes. One was Thomas Dorsey’s “Peace in the Valley,” and Cash did a fine version.

But, most important, there was a song called “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord.” I was just a grade-school kid and not particularly religious, but this song scared the crap out of me. It still kind of does. Mournful and intense, Cash puts you right at the scene. And, as the lyrics go, sometimes it causes me to “tremble, tremble, tremble.”

Unfortunately, there’s nothing nearly as powerful on this new collection of gospel tunes by Cash. There are a few jewels in the two-disc, 51-song compilation. But too many tracks suffer from slick, syrupy production, sweetening strings, and cheesy horns. The sad truth is that basically this was par for the course for Cash recordings in the mid ’70s through the early ’80s, that bleak era from which the material for The Soul of Truth was drawn.

The collection includes material from various Cash albums released only on gospel labels. There are also a dozen tunes from an unreleased gospel album recorded in 1975.

Among the worthwhile songs are “Would You Recognize Jesus,” a decent if not essential cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal” (complete with a Dixieland horn section), “Don’t Take Everybody to Be Your Friend,” a folksy “Wildwood in the Pines,” a nice understated take on Bill Monroe’s “You’re Drifting Away,” and a rousing “Children Go Where I Send Thee.”

“This Train Is Bound for Glory” has a lengthy spoken introduction as well as Cash’s classic chunka-chunka beat. And even though its marred by an unnecessary string section, “Look Unto the East” is one of those weird mystical Cash gospel tunes, the kind that Rick Rubin so loved when producing the Man in Black’s final few albums.

But way too many of the other tracks sound like they were aimed at a middlebrow, middle-of-the road audience. Personally, the kind of gospel that soothes my soul doesn’t always sound soothing on the surface.

Mojo in the Court: (A Tuneup Correction)

I got an email this morning from Dick Rosemont, who runs Guy in the Groove Records on Guadalupe Street. He challenged something I wrote in last week's Tuneup column in my favorite voodoo songs list.

Said Dick, "... despite the prevailing word on the street, Ann Cole did not record "Got My Mojo Working" before Muddy Waters. She was performing it first (having gotten the song from writer Preston Foster) but Muddy's was cut earlier (12-56) than Cole's 1957 take on it."

Uh oh. Dick's a vinyl fanatic and he knows his stuff. And it looks like he's right here. According to several Muddy Waters discographies all over the web, "Mojo" was recorded on Dec. 1, 1956 -- at the same session that produced "Rock Me," "I Live the Life I Love," and "Look What You've Done."

I knew I'd have to look back to see how I'd come to my conclusion about Cole.

My original source on it  wasn't "the street," but a guy named Bob Dylan. Shortly before writing my column, I'd been listening to an old episode of Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour that had popped up on my iTunes shuffle DJ -- episode 8, about Weddings. On it was a song called "Don't Stop the Wedding" by Cole, an "answer song" to Etta James' "Stop the Wedding."

"That was Ann Cole," the voice of a generation said after playing Cole's song. "In 1956 she recorded a song for the Baton record label that Muddy Waters later took and made into his signature song -- She recorded the original version of  "Got My Mojo Working"

I Googled around and found the Wikipedia entry on the song (voice of Ernest P. Worrell: "Now there's your problem, Vern ..."), which verified what Dylan had said: " ... a 1956 song written by Preston Foster and first recorded by Ann Cole, but popularized by Muddy Waters in 1957."

Muddy

Checking one of two external links that still work on the Wikipedia page, I came across a federal lawsuit that mentions "Mojo," Anna Cole and Muddy.  In this suit, a woman named Ruth Stratchborneo was suing songwriter Preston "Red" Foster, who wrote "Got My Mojo Working" as well as Muddy Waters and Dare Records owner Saul Rabinowitz, who introduced the song to Anne Cole.

In the suit Stratchborneo claimed that anyone who had anything to do with "Got My Mojo Working" had stolen it from her song "Mojo Workout," which was released in 1960.  (It's not the same song that decades later would inspire a punk rock talk show and podcast on Real Punk Radio.)

Stratchborneo lost the suit. But in his decision, federal Judge Charles Brieant wrote about about the history of the Cole/Waters song:

(Dare Records owner Saul) Rabinowitz first met defendant Preston Foster, also known as Red Foster, in 1957, at which time Foster visited him, offered for sale and played a number of songs. He sang a song, "I'VE GOT MY MOJO WORKING", accompanying himself by guitar, and played a demonstration record which he had previously recorded (Ex. F)

Foster, on October 29, 1956, had filed a claim to copyright for that song as author. On January 9, 1957, Dare entered into a mimeographed form publisher's contract with Preston Foster, by which it acquired "I've Got My Mo-Jo Working".  ...

A month or two later in 1957, Rabinowitz played Foster's demonstration record for singer Ann Cole. Ann Cole learned the song and recorded her artistic arrangement or version of it for Baton Records, under license from Dare. This record is entitled "Got My Mo-Jo Working (But It Just Won't Work On You)", and lists Foster as the author. The Ann Cole record was released, at least prior to April 20, 1957, because "Cashbox", a trade publication, on that date, refers to the Ann Cole rendition as the "Cashbox R&B Sleeper of the Week".

At about the same time, a record "Got My Mojo Working", sung by Muddy Waters, was issued by Chess Records. This also was referred to as a "sleeper of the week" in the same April 20, 1957 edition of Cashbox. Rabinowitz learned of the Muddy Waters rendition within two or so days after samples of the Ann Cole record had been released to distributors.

Rabinowitz testified that Miss Cole had just returned from a road tour with Muddy Waters' band. He concluded that she had been singing the song while on tour, and that Muddy Waters had liked it and recorded it, claiming authorship for himself. The Muddy Waters record bears a copyright credit for defendant Arc, and shows defendant McKinley Morganfield, the true name of Muddy Waters, as the author of the work, and "Muddy Waters" as the singer.

So according to Judge Brieant, the songs appeared virtually simultaneously. I guess that's what you call mojo!