Santa Fe Concert Watch

Here's some upcoming shows I personally recommend:

Wednesday May 23: (tomorrow): The Misery Jackals with The Imperial Rooster at The Underground

Monday, May 28: Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks at Santa Fe Sol
(Check out Dan and the band 40 (!) years ago on the Flip Wilson Show)



Saturday June 2: The Bodeans at Santa Fe Railyard Plaza
FREE!


Thursday, June 7: Legendary Shack Shakers with The Dirt Daubers at Santa Fe Sol
(I love this Dirt Daubers video, below)




Tuesday, July 3: The Rev. Horton Heat with The Goddamn Gallows at Santa Fe Sol.

eMusic May

* Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town by Hank 3. This two-album, two-hour-plus set is part of the avalanche of music Hank unleashed last year following his emancipation from the evil Curb empire. (There also was Attention Deficit Domination, which showed his love for metal) and the bizarre Cattle Callin', a hillbilly answer to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.)

So Ghost to Ghost is Hank 3's country set. There's fiddles and banjos. Drinkin', druggin', fuckin', shootin' guns -- good dirty outlaw fun. But make no mistake, it's country on his own terms. Lyricswise, he's ploughed much of this ground before. But more than ever, he's taking the music to strange corners.

The album starts off with fairly straightforward country sounds. But by the third track, "Ridin' the Wave" things take a turn for the little crazy. The drums are raw thunder, there's some kind of pump organ that sounds like a call from a past century and the fiddle and electric guitar create a wilds backwoods cacophony.

But don't think the boy can't do purdy. "The Devil's Movin' In" is just that. And so is "Time To Die,"   though the drums sound like they might have been lifted from a voodoo ceremony. There's some sweet gypsy tango featuring fiddle and accordion in the title song.

One of my favorite tracks here is "Ray Lawrence, Jr." It's actually two songs written and sung by an Arizona pal by that name, both recorded on Hank's bus. The first one, “When You Lose All You Have,” is a sweet country moaner that Lawrence wrote while living in a homeless shelter. The second, "Back in the Day," is more upbeat, with a chunka chunka Johnny Cash vibe. (Lawrence was interviewed last year by Saving Country Music. Read it HERE.)

Lawrence isn't the only guest vocalist here "Trooper's Holler" features Hank's dog. This might just be the most bitchen dog song I've heard since Grandpa Jones' "Old Rattler." And hell, I'd rather listen to Trooper than some worthless guest star like Kid Rock or Sting. But some pretty cool human guests lie ahead on the second album.

Son of a gun, Hank has some fun on the bayou on the second album in this set, Guttertown. This features Hank experimenting with Cajun music as well as atmospheric, ambient swamp soundscapes -- birds, bugs, beasts, wind, water and railroad tracks.

Then there's some spooky, exotic instrumental dirges like "Chaos Queen" and "Thunderpain" that sound like soundtracks for Buggery Night at the Temple of Doom.

All in all, the results of the Guttertown experiment are mixed -- and that might be too generous of a verdict.

But but there are some gems on Guttertown too. The spirited "Gutter Stomp" for instance borrows the melody of "Bosco Stomp" (which already had been borrowed for "Cajun Stripper).

And even better is the duet with Tom Waits (now there's a guest star!) on the song "Fadin' Moon." Whenever I here this song I get this image of Waits and Hank sharing a bottle somewhere deep in a swamp where neither belong but both feel right at home.

Likewise, the Les Claypool contribution is a goofy highlight. It's a fractured, almost Beefheartian faux sea chantey, which Hank and the Primus leader sing accompanied only by a bass drum for most of the seven-minute song. "We're going down with the ship/ deep down in the sea/ We're going down with the ship/ the pirate's life we lead," they sing.

 After being under Curb's corporate thumb for so many years, Hank 3 undoubtedly reveled in his freedom to create whatever weirdness tickled his mind. But with so many sound-effect and atmosphere tracks here -- some of them rather lengthy -- I sincerely believe that a wise, sympathetic producer not afraid to say, "Let's save this for the deluxe edition 20 years from now," could have benefited this work. It easily could have been whittled down to one decent album -- though that's the case with way too many double albums.

* Controversial Negro in Tucson by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Good thing  Spencer and crew recorded this in 1996. I'm pretty sure the Arizona state Legislature has in recent years passed a bill prohibiting controversial Negroes in the state.

But seriously, folks, this is The Blues Explosion doing what they did best romping, stomping, screaming and howling through their stripped down, blues-touched gutter rock.

Hey Spencer, I like Heavy Trash and all, but listening to this glorious mess, I'm convinced that the Blues Explosion should rise again.

* Locked Down by Dr. John. Here's the best album the good doctor has done in decades. The music recalls his early voodoo-drenched Night Tripper days, but it's got a sharp contemporary edge — for which we can thank producer Dan Auerbach, frontman of The Black Keys. But unlike some older artists produced by hip young bucks, Dr. John doesn't feel like a fish out of water here. The music is fresh, not forced.

Auerbach reportedly wanted to get Dr. John back into the thick, atmospheric, heady hoodoo excursions of his early albums — Remedies, Babylon, The Sun, Moon & Herbs, and especially his classic Gris-Gris. What’s so refreshing about this record is that it has most of those elements that made Dr. John so irresistible. Yett it doesn’t sound like a paint-by-number re-creation of the old sound.

Sound familiar? Yes, this was the subject of Terrell's Tune-up not long ago.

Plus
* "Weedeye" and "Rickshaw Rattletrap" by Churchwood. These are the two songs I didn't have from Churchwood's Just the Two of Us "single." (The other two, "A Message from Firmin Desloge" and "Metanoia" are on the latest Saustex sampler Sample This.)

* "Forbidden Fruit" by The Band. This is a cool tune from The Band's 1975 Northern Lights/Southern Cross album. I already had most of the songs I like from that record from various compilations, but somehow "Forbidden Fruit," sung by the late great Levon Helm, never made it into any best-of retrospectives. I had to have it for my recent Santa Fe Opry tribute to Helm, who died of cancer last month.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 20, 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
People Who Died by The Jim Carrol Band
Perverts in the Sun by Iggy Pop
Hot by Big Ugly Guys
Hey You by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Something Came Over Me by Wild Flag
Patches Rides the Rail by Deadbolt
The Freak Was Clean by The Oh Sees

Willow by Manby's Head
Train Crash by The Molting Vultures
Cynical Ride by The Pulsebeats
Show Me by The Dirty Novels
Alleys of Your Mind by The Dirtbombs
Beaver Patrol by The Wild Knights
I Wanna Go by Uzis
Paint It Black by Die Zorros
Vampire Sugar by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Wasted Time by The Grannies
Who Doesn't Love by Sinn Sisamouth

Cuckoo by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Dynamite Love by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Dance Commander by The Electric Six
Crankcase Blues by Mudhoney
I Drink Alone by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Bucket O' Blood by Big Boy Groves
Advanced Romance by Frank Zappa & The Mothers with Captain Beefheart

Walking the Cow by Firehose
Dono by Afrosippi
Ellegua by Dr. John
Spirit in the Dark by Aretha Franklin
Let's Forget About the Past by The Detroit Cobras
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 18, 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





Cowboy Logic by Michael Martin Murphey (for Erik Ness, R.I.P.)
House Rent Jump by Peter Case
Devil Came Knockin' by Liquor Box
I Washed My hands in Muddy Water by George Thorogood
No Place For Children by The Misery Jackals
Do You Know Thee Enemy by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Rock Me by Little Jimmy Dickens
I Told Her Lies by Robbie Fulks

Wake Up and Smell the Whiskey by Dean Miller
Too Drunk To Truck by The Sixtyniners
Tumblin' Tumbleweeds by The Tumbleweeds
Baby He's A Wolf by Werly Fairburn
Dire Wolf by Halden Wofford & The Hi-Beams
49 Women by Jerry Irby & His Texas Ranchers
How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
Villa of the Nude by Julie Young
Blood on the Saddle by T. Tex Edwards
How Do You Tell A Child That Someone Has Died The Black Lips

Poor Me by Big Al Anderson
Righteous Ragged Songs by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires
Sun Bonnet Sue by The Fort Worth Doughboys
He'll Have to Go by Cathy Faber's Swingin' Country Band featuring Auge Hayes
Pass the Bottle by The Goddamn Gallows
The Same God by The Calamity Cubes
Coochy Coochy by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Prescription Drugs by Two-Man Gentleman Band
Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James

Yuppie Scum by Emily Kaitz
Romping Through the Swamp by Holy Modal Rounders
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes by Retta & The Smart Fellas
Prayer by Slackeye Slim
Undiscovered Country by Giant Giant Sand
Running On Pure Fear Martin Zellar & The Hardways
I've Got a Tender Heart by Eleni Mandell
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Misery Never Sounded This Good

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 18, 2012

The Misery Jackals, a band from Akron (home of Devo), Ohio, is part of a new crop of acoustic “underground” country bands with one foot in bluegrass and another foot, and possibly additional body parts, in punk rock. Other such outfits sprouting up include The Calamity Cubes, The Dirt Daubers, Honky Tonk Hustlas, Black Jake & the Carnies, and Liquor Box.

But of all these, the Jackals may be the only band with built-in legal representation. Banjo picker and Jackal mastermind Bill Corgan (no, not the guy from The Smashing Pumpkins) is a practicing lawyer. That might come in handy for a band on the road. And on the road the group is. The Misery Jackals pull into Santa Fe on Wednesday, May 23, for a show at The Underground at Evangelo’s with Española’s revered Imperial Rooster.

And there, hopefully, the Jackals will be hawking their devilishly delightful new album, No Place for Children, which they recorded earlier this year. This album is a follow-up to the band’s first effort, EP, which made me a fan a couple of years ago.

Packed into EP’s modest seven-song package are a lighthearted ode to roller derby; a tribute to/parody of top Midwestern underground-country hero Slackeye Slim (“He eventually acquired a taste for hot dogs and human flesh”); a gut-wrenching tale of a crack addict who’s just spent his baby-formula money on drugs; a theme song explaining the name of the band (“I’m a misery jackal, and on yer pain I feed/Cause I’m a misery jackal, I love to watch you bleed”), and more.

Happily, the new album is even better. Corgan’s twisted humor is evident on most of the tracks.

My immediate favorites include “Liquor and Whores” (a hillbilly sleazoid version of “My Favorite Things”); “Mudflap Girl,” a truck driver’s homage to the silver naked lady seen on the back of 18-wheelers throughout the country; a minor-key cautionary tale of a legendary creature — perhaps Ohio’s answer to the jackalope — called “Skunk Ape”; and “The Mortuary Bop,” which describes the secret pleasures of a woman who works in a funeral home.

But not all the songs are full of yucks. Like “Crack & Similac” from EP, “Patrick” is a sympathetic song about a drug addict who died at the age of 21. The Jackals are far less sympathetic to “Sick Rick,” a junkie creep.

Musically, the band seems to be getting tighter. It’s certainly not the first band to add drums to bluegrass (heresy for the bluegrass purist, though we don’t care much about purists at “Terrell’s Tune-Up”), but the MJs do it right.

They've got the bluegrass thing down, and the list of those who’ve influenced them seems to be expanding. I never understood why they mention Gogol Bordello as an influence until I heard “My Family,” the opening track of No Place for Children, as well as the album’s “Josephine” and the accordion solo on “Pirates of the Northcoast’ — all of which show a kinship with Gogol’s “gypsy punk” sound.

The Jackals also show an appreciation of Mexican music with “La Muerte por el Perrero,” which Corgan sings in Spanish. And are those mariachi horns I hear at the end of “Patrick”?

The Misery Jackals with The Imperial Rooster are playing at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 23, at The Underground at Evangelo’s, 200 W. San Francisco St. Cover is a mere $5.


And if you’re in Albuquerque the night before, the Jackals are playing at Blackbird Buvette, 509 Central Blvd. N.W. beginning at 9 p.m.

Also recommended:

*  There Is a Bomb in Gilead by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires. I have to admit, the first thing that attracted me to this album was the title — an irreverent play on the title of an old gospel hymn, recorded by Mahalia Jackson and countless others.

This first album by this Alabama band amounts to a new argument that Southern rock is not anywhere close to dying. True, Bains and company don’t have the powerful songwriting chops of that other Alabama group, The Drive-By Truckers, but they’re drawing on some of the same sources: Mussel Shoals soul, smoldering blues, sweet country songs and, of course, that first generation of wild-eyed Southern bands — the Allmans, Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Wet Willie, and the rest — who sounded the rebel yell back in the ’70s.

Gilead starts out with a smoky slow burner called “Ain’t No Stranger.” It’s an intriguing little tune that sounds like a long-lost lilting Howard Tate song on the verses that builds up to loud guitars and intense drums on the choruses.

But I prefer the next song, “Centreville,” which thunders from start to finish. Bains starts off with some healthy class warfare: “If you hear any bleedin’ it’s me and the boys/We’re overeducated and we’re underemployed.” The rage never stops. Other sturdy rockers include “The Red, Red Dirt of Home” and the South’s-gonna-rise-again blast of “Magic City Stomp.”

One standout on this album is “Everything You Took.” It’s a bitter little breakup song in which Bains tells a former girlfriend, “Go on keep my T-shirts/Well you can go on keep my books.” But I’m not quite sure I believe the second half of the refrain: “Each small hope that you give me/Makes up for everything you took.”

There are some good pretty numbers too. “Reba” is a country love song, and “Opelika” is a sweet soul tune that hints at country — the kind of song for which Dan Penn is known. “Roebuck Parkway” is a minor-key folkie-sounding tune in which Bains is accompanied only by acoustic guitar.

The album ends with the title song, which, not surprisingly, has a lot of gospel in it. With a piano as the main instrument, Bains sings most of it in a soulful falsetto. Try to listen to the chorus of this tune without thinking of The Faces.

On Bains & The Glory Fires’ next album, I’d like to hear a few more “Centrevilles” and a little less “Roebuck Parkways.” But I do want to hear more from Lee Bains.


BLOG BONUS: Enjoy some Jackals