eMusic December

* Songs of a Freeborn Man by Jimmy Martin. When most casual bluegrass think of the classic performers of the genre, they usually think in terms of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and The Stanley Brothers. But there's another name that belongs in that pantheon -- Jimmy Martin.

 A veteran of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys -- and a longtime devotee of Monroe's music -- Martin, whether he meant to or not, infused a rock 'n' roll spirit into his music. Anyone who's enjoyed Junior Brown ripping through Martin's signature song, "Freeborn Man," could testify to that. Martin doesn't use any electric instruments on his version (or anywhere else here for that matter), but you can hear the blues in his soul and the growl in his voice.

 This is hardly a collection of essential Martin recordings. The 25 tracks on this album, released after the turn of the century, are compiled from three different projects, according to Jon Weisburger in a No Depression review:

 "... a late 1950s home recording of Martin and two of his greatest Sunny Mountain Boys (with bass overdubbed years later), a live album originally released in 1990, and an album of duets recorded in the early 1990s that may or may not have been sold at his record table for a brief period .... 

 Those duet partners include Little Jimmy Dickens, Leonna Williams, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs and Jett Williams. Most of the stars wisely don't try to dominate the feisty Martin.

One strange aspect of this album is that tacked on to the songs that begin and end the album is a snatch of a tune not by, but about Martin. It's Gary Brewer singing s "Jimmy Martin Songs for Dinner," a re-written version of Tom T. Hall's "Bill Monroe for Breakfast."

 On the first track, the Brewer song and Martin's "Made in the Shade If a Tree Don't Fall" are separate by the outgoing message on Martin's answering machine that features the barks of one of his coon dogs. Later there's a song about "Pete the Best Coon Dog in the State of Tennessee."

One of my other favorites here is about another one of Martin's animals, "Jimmy's Mule" which features some world-class hee-hawing by Martin.

There's not a bad track on here, although there's a few too many over-covered bluegrass standards here for my own tastes -- "The Sunny Side of the Mountain," "Molly and Tenbrooks," the obligatory "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" etc. Of course Martin does all of these justice. And his version of "Little Maggie" is just wonderful.

* Putrifiers II by Thee Oh Sees. I only became a fan of this San Francsco group earlier this year when I saw them on the same bill as The Gories and Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds in Austin during South by Southwest. With both a male and female vocalist (John Dwyer and Bridget Dawson), they're a cool blend of garage pop with some almost Black Angel-like psychedelic overtones. You might even hear some overtones of Yo La Tengo.

Soon after seeing them, I downloaded last year's Carrion Crawler/The Dream, which verified my first impression of Thee Oh-Sees as a band I wanted to follow.

However, this one, their latest album, released in September, is something of a disappointment. No, it's not bad and it starts out strong with a couple of fuzzed-out rockers, "Wax Face' and a glam-rock contender called "Hang a Picture."

Later on there's some fine treats like "Flood's New Light" (a song showing the influence of '60s soul) and "Lupine Dominus," which, after 25 seconds or so of a piercing organ note and electronic sputtering, breaks into a high-powered romp that sounds like the work of a rock 'n' roll cargo-cult that worships The Beatles' Revolver.

If the rest of the album was half as impressive as "Lupine Dominus" I wouldn't be complaining . Unfortunately too many of the remaining songs are anemic. There's the plodding title song; the dreamy flower-power reminiscent "So Nice"; and, speaking of The Fab 4, "Wicked Park" sounds like Dwyer and Dawson imitating Robyn Hitchcock imitating The Beatles.

I have to admit that I've come to enjoy "Will We Be Scared," which sounds like a girl-group era tune performed by Martians.

So I'm not giving up on Thee Oh Sees. I just hope they pick up the pace on their next reccord.


* Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine? by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson. I've got Ronny Elliott to thank for sparking my interest in this proto rocker. So I'll give Ronny the task of explaining the story of the man born Harry Raab, who had played piano for Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and other greats. (from Ronny's song "Handsome Harry the Hipster." on his album I've Been Meaning to Write.)

“In the ’40s, Harry began pumpin’ up the rhythm, and tearin’ up the keyboards,” Elliot drawls. “With rollicking songs like ‘Handsome Harry the Hipster’ and ‘Get Your Juices at the Deuces,’ he was bringing hip Manhattan its first taste of rock ’n’ roll.”

Gibson in his songs sang about the joys of drugs. The title song of this collection, some say, got him "blacklisted" -- though I have to wonder whether it was his own drug habit that made it hard for him to find work in the late '40s and  '50s instead of evil censors -- whoever they were -- upset over that one funny novelty song. (I mean, hell, the song "Wacky Dust" hardly stunted Ella Fitzgerald's career. Cab Calloway did lots of songs about dope and he did OK.)

This album consists of material Gibson did in the '70s and '80s. Many if not most of the songs are dope humor that make Cheech & Chong seem sophisticated. The first words out of his mouth on the opening track "Hey Man! You Just Mde My Day" are "I'm the kind of guy who likes to get high on reefer, hash and snow." Then there's "I Flipped My Wig in San Francisco" and "I Want to Go Back to My Little Grass Shack" (Grass! Get it?)

But there's something irresistible about Harry the Hipster , especially on the songs where he's backed by a tasty little jazz combo. And the 7-minute THC-laden shaggy-dog tale "Me and Max" can't help but remind you of those long hilarious stories Tom Waits told, to similar musical accompaniment, on Nighthawks at the Diner.

Read more about Gibson HERE and find Ronny Elliot's latest album HERE

* Sinner Man by Esquerita. This album comes from sessions recorded in New York City in 1966. Esquerita sings and plays piano and organ, sometimes switching back and forth during the course of a song. He’s accompanied only by a drummer, whose name has been lost to history.

The fiery eight-minute title track that opens the album (there’s also a shorter version later) should be required listening for any student of soul music. Inspired by Nina Simone’s take on the old spiritual, Esquerita pounds the piano as frantically as his drummer pounds the skins. He sings “Running to the Lord/He told me to go on to the devil” like someone who had just had that conversation a few minutes before. And when he sings “Went to the devil/The devil he was waiting,” you can almost smell the brimstone.

Sound familiar? I reviewed this in Terrell's Tune-up not long ago. CLICK HERE to read the full review.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Soundgarden Roars Again

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 21, 2012

Years before Nirvana came to symbolize the Seattle sound — and something called “grunge,” a label that no “grunge” band actually embraced — a group called Soundgarden seemed perched to conquer the world.

It started out in the mid ’80s, recording on venerable independent labels like SST and, yes, Sub Pop. With a fresh metallic punch — too derivative, in the early days, of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath — by the early ’90s Soundgarden had evolved into a powerful musical force.

The band’s album Badmotorfinger, released in October 1991, was nothing short of a head-twister. With songs like “Rusty Cage,” “Jesus Christ Pose” and “Outshined,” it was metal, all right, and but it was metal hurling itself into exciting, unexplored directions.

But in what definitely was a case of bad timing, this album was released just after Nirvana’s breakthrough Nevermind, which (sorry) outshined Soundgarden’s album in terms of national attention and critical acclaim But then and now I believe Badmotorfinger was the superior album. And, in fact, I still like it even more than Superunknown, Soundgarden’s most popular album, which came out in 1994.

Soundgarden called it quits in 1997. But they’re back. The musicians reunited for some live shows a couple of years ago. And late this year they unleashed King Animal, an album of all new material. All hair-metal casino acts, nu-metal pretenders, indie-rock shoegazers, and emo wimps should flee in fear. This album, especially the first half, is a doozie.

If Soundgarden fans back in, say, 1999 could have heard King Animal, they probably would have been delighted, but they would not have been shocked. Thankfully, there’s no self-conscious effort to update the band’s basic sound. No fancy, zingy technological touches are noticeable.

Granted, there are some signs of maturity on this record. The band employs a little more acoustic guitar than it did in the old days on songs like “Black Saturday” and “Bones of Birds” (which reminds me of Temple of the Dog, an early 90s album that included Soundgarden members.) But singer Chris Cornell still wails — if not quite as loud as the old days. Kim Thayil’s guitar still leads the screaming life. And drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepard are still one brawny rhythm section.

King Animal starts off, appropriately enough, with a rocker called “Been Away Too Long.” It’s the lament of someone returning to his hometown, though it’s hard not to see it as a metaphor about going back to a “town” called Soundgarden. “I’ve been away for too long/Though I never really wanted to stay.”

The next song, “Non-State Actor,” is also a pounder, with Cornell seemingly giving voice to some underground populist movement: “We’re not elected but we will speak/We’re not the chosen, but we believe/And we settle for a little bit more than everything.”

The thumping “Blood on the Valley Floor” is Soundgarden at its most Black Sabbath-like, while the opening strains of “By Crooked Steps” might remind you of early U2, until the entire band bursts in. The song starts out with Cornell singing about “stealing love” and declaring, “I’m a walking believer/I’m a ghost and a healer/I’m the shape of the home inside your mind.” That sounds nice and positive. But this ain’t no New Age ballad. The narrator soon reveals a harsher sider. “Blood raining down/Cuts a deep, deep river/And we’re diving.”

The album ends with “Rowing,” a five-minute slow burner that almost suggests an old chain-gang chant. “Don’t know where I’m going, I just keep rowing” goes the refrain.

Let’s hope Soundgarden keeps on rowing through the murky river of modern music.

Also Recommended:

The Frontier Circus

* Sideshow EP by The Frontier Circus. Here’s a four-song disc from a group I currently consider the best cover band in America. This is a nifty follow-up to the Conway, Arkansas, group’s debut album, A Little Bit Psycho … A Little Bit Western, released last year. That one featured the Circus’ feedback-drenched psychedelic/punk versions of songs by Johnny Paycheck, Jefferson Airplane, Wanda Jackson, and Roky Erickson, among others. My favorite there is a loud, grating mash-up of “A Horse With No Name” and “Cool Clear Water.”

On Sideshow, Frontier Dan and his combo perform crazy versions of songs made famous by Nancy Sinatra, The Velvet Underground, Cher, and fellow Arkansas native Glen Campbell.

They’re all good, but the best is the visionary take on the Lee Hazlewood-penned “Some Velvet Morning,” on which Dan sings both the Nancy and Lee parts while the guitars sound like a Martian attack. It sounds kind of funny when Dan sings “White men always called me ‘Indian squaw’” on Cher’s “Half-Breed,” but this is one rocking tune.

“All Tomorrow’s Parties” retains the folk-rock jangle of the Velvets’ original, and Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” is pure joy (even though my favorite cover still is local boy Joe West’s version.)

My only complaint is that this is a four-song EP and not a full album. This might just be a sideshow, but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s inside the big top for The Frontier Circus.

Blog Bonus:

Enjoy yourself some videos:




And here's a little Circus music

Merry Christmas from The Big Enchilada Podcast!

Once again it's Christmas time at the Big Enchilada. Hang your Yule logs and burn your stockings, It's the War on Christmas and it's gonna rock.

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Jingle Bells by Rebirth Brass Band)
City of Christmas Ghosts by Goldblade feature Poly Styrene
Tamale Christmas by Joe "King" Carrasco y El Molino *
Boogie Woogie Santa Claus by Mabel Ross
Santa is a Swinger Now by Candye Cane
Santa's Helper by Joe Poovey
Santa's Gonna Shut 'em Down by Untamed Youth
Jingle Bells by Richard Cheese
(Background Music: Black Santa by King Salami & The Cumberland 3)

White Elephant by The Hentchmen
The Only Law That Santa Clause Understood by Ted Lyons
Under the Tree by Drunken Thunder 
Christmas Tree on Fire by Holly Golightly
The Death of an Elf by Rev. Glen Armstrong
Merry Christmas Polka by Sonny Cash
Pappa Ain't No Santa, Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree by Butterbeans & Susie
(Background Music: Sleigh Ride by El Vez)

Please Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Drinking Up Christmas by The Dwarves
You Better Ask Santa by The Yule-Tones
Christmas with Satan by James White

* From Holiday HAAM Jam, a benefit CD for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.

Play the darned thing here:



 For all my Christmas podcasts, CLICK HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Dec. 16, 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
Heartbreak Hotel by The Cramps
Hey Sailor by The Detroit Cobras
Bottle Baby by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Personality Crisis by Johnny Thunders
Ring Dang Do by Lyres
My Love Machine by The Fleshtones
The Tongue by The Ty Segall Band
The Wolf Song by LoveStruck
Christmas Boogie by Canned Heat & The Chipmunks
Boogie Woogie Santa Clause by Busy McCarroll

Non-State Actor by Soundgarden
Holy Juke Joint Beat by The Juke Joint Pimps
This Shit is Gold by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Half Breed by The Frontier Circus
Eggnog by The Rockin' Guys
Happy Wanderer by The Polkaholics
Wiener Dog Polka by Polkacide

Run Run Run/ Who Do You Love ? by The Plimsouls
Before You Accuse Me by The 13th Floor Elevators
Hot Pastrami with Mashed Potatoes by Joey Dee & The Starliters
Long Haired Guys From England by Too Much Joy
Sock it To Me Santa by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Reindeer are Wild by Thee Headcoats with  Thee Headcoatees
This is Hi-Fi by Mission of Burma
Apartment Wrestling Rock 'n' Roll Girl by Lightning Beat-Man & The Never Heard of Ems

Dark Night of the Soul by Dangermouse, Sparklehorse & David Lynch
Get Happy by Simon Stokes
It's Bad You Know by R.L. Burnside
Jenny I Read by Concrete Blonde
Death is Not the End by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

See the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Dark Cries from the Country

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 14, 2012

I was afraid that there was no way Rachel Brooke’s new album, A Killer’s Dream, could live up to her previous one, Down in the Barnyard. I was correct in thinking that the new one would be a lot different from Barnyard.

But my fears were for naught. The new album is just as good if not better than her earlier effort.

Brooke’s previous albums have mostly been acoustic affairs. On her new one, a lot of the songs feature the sweet-voiced Michigan country singer backed by a Florida group called Viva Le Vox. The band gives her sound heft, and Brooke gets the opportunity to rock and even strut. Together they do a creditable version of a Fats Domino song, “Every Night About This Time.”

When I reviewed Down in the Barnyard a couple of years ago, I called Brooke the “Wednesday Addams of country music,” because, despite her innocent-sounding voice and her pretty melodies, her lyrics reveal a dark, spooky side and are full of stories of murder, violence, vengeance, and all the things that make American folk music — real folk music, not the watered-down stuff too many people think is folk music — the deep, mysterious force it is.

The lyrics of the new album aren’t quite as violent as those on Barnyard, but there are still plenty of dark corners. The song “Serpentine Blues” opens with Brooke singing, “I had a dream last night, a big black rat in my bed.” Spookier still is a tune called “The Black Bird,” in which she explores the paranoia prompted by forbidden love. “Fox in the Hen House” sounds like an easygoing blues tune, but by the end of the song Brooke is threatening her romantic rival with a firearm.

For this album Brooke rerecorded a couple of songs from an acoustic EP she released earlier this year. Personally, I like the new versions of “Late Night Lover” and “Ashes to Ashes” better. Both feature a sleazy sounding trumpet, while “Late Night Lover” also has an uncredited musical saw — or at least something that sounds like a saw. You might think it’s a torch song from another planet.

The most emotional song here is “Old Faded Memory,” a duet with a guy named Lonesome Wyatt (from the band Those Poor Bastards). This a melody that could be straight out of the 1890s. It’s a story of two elderly people, once a couple, separated by the decades, pining for each other.

“And with my last breath unto death may I stare/I’ll remember the life that we never shared,” Brooke sings. It’s sentimental, but it packs a punch.
^
Also recommended:

* Sunday Run Me Over by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs. For the past five years or so, British-born singer Holly Golightly and her partner, “Lawyer Dave” Drake, have quietly cranked out some of the most enjoyable country-soaked, devil-fearing blues-inspired rock ’n’ roll records you’ll find anywhere. These albums seemingly pop out of the soil of the couple’s Georgia farm like misshapen pumpkins or oversized zucchinis that look like Dick Nixon.

Golightly clearly loves the roots music of her adopted land, and she and Drake play it in an irresistibly irreverent way. Their latest album is an unmitigated joy.

Golightly is a protégée of English garage-rock renaissance man Billy Childish. If you haven’t heard Holly’s old band Thee Headcoatees, a ladies auxiliary of Childish’s Thee Headcoats, that’s your next assignment. One of the tunes here, a swampy stomper called “This Shit Is Gold” actually reminds me of Holly’s Childish days.

Sunday Run Me Over kicks off with “Goddamn Holy Roll,” an urgent gospel-infested rocker with some devilish slide guitar from Lawyer Dave. It’s followed by the slow, menacing “They Say,” another showcase for Dave’s slide. And this is followed by “Tank” — with some chicken-scratching lead guitar that sounds as if Jerry Reed has risen from the dead. “One for the Road” is a clunky-funky waltz that has echoes of vaudeville or English music hall songs.

While Golightly wrote most of the songs here, The Brokeoffs also do some wonderful covers. “I Forgot More” is a sad, sweet country tune made famous by The Davis Sisters (though I first heard it done by Johnny Cash in the ’60s).

Lawyer Dave steps out front to sing a hilarious take on an old Mac Davis novelty, “It’s Hard to Be Humble.”

(Involuntary flashback: back when I was a substitute teacher about 30 years ago, I overheard a girl at a local junior high talking to her friend say, “Did you see Mac Davis on TV last night? He sang the most conceited song!” Irony deficiency is a most tragic condition.)

The most subversive cover song I’ve heard lately is The Brokeoffs’ rewrite of Wayne Raney’s finger-wagging classic, “We Need a Lot More of Jesus (And a Lot Less Rock and Roll).” Golightly has retitled it, “A Whole Lot More …” and, true to her punk-rock heritage, basically reversed the sentiment, singing “We need a whole lot less of Jesus and a lot more rock ’n’ roll.”

The couple harmonizes, “You can read it in the morning paper, hear it on the radio/Christ has taken the nation, and we don’t all want to go.” I hope their neighbors in rural Georgia understand.

* Queen of the wild frontier: E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier are having a CD-release party for her hot-off-the-presses album Americana Motel at Cowgirl BBQ (319 S. Guadalupe St., 982-2565) on Saturday, Dec. 15, at 8:30 p.m. There is a $5 cover.

Herr is an Albuquerque singer who has a warble in her voice that may remind you of Chrissie Hynde.

A follow-up to her 2009 album Lullabies & Cautionary Tales, Americana Hotel is a collection of 11 original songs, plus one impressive drum-heavy cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper.” Hopefully she’ll be doing this one on Saturday, as well as the title song and “Townes,” which may or may not be a tribute to the late Mr. Van Zandt.

BLOG BONUS

Here's Our Miss Brooke doing an early version of "Late Night Lover."

And here's Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs singing about the Rapture

SF MUSIC ALLIANCE PARTY

Mariachi Buenaventura 

The newly formed Santa Fe Music Alliance is hosting its first fundraiser/membership drive/holiday party. There's going to be live music by Mariachi Buenaventura and the Swinging Ornaments plus "special guests."

The shindig is 5 pm to 8 pm Sunday at the Cowgirl BBQ (which will be providing free appetizers.)

The party is free but expect the group to hit you up to buy a membership, which is only $20 a year (cheap).

And, in case you were wondering, "The Santa Fe Music Alliance is a non-profit organization of musicians, music industry professionals, and music advocates. The SFMA is dedicated to fostering creativity and community by supporting a sustainable and vital environment for music of all genres in Santa Fe, N.M."

So go foster some creativity and go to the party Sunday.

Adventures in Santa Fe Music

(not my Teddy bear.)

I had kind of a flashback today when I was at an auto glass repair shop making an appointment to replace my windshield. I realized I'd been in the exact same place just over 34 years ago.

It was October 1978. At the time I had a weekly Sunday-night gig at this bar called Faces in DeVargas Mall. (It was where the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop is today.)

One night there was a table full of rowdy members of a local basketball league. A bunch of drunken  jerks. (I'd better be careful. Most of them probably still live here.)

They got in some kind of hassle with Faces' bouncer, who kicked them out.

But apparently the basketball boys came back for revenge.

They broke every damned windshield of every vehicle in the parking lot, including my new 1979 Ford Fiesta. Needless to say, the windshield cost a lot more than I made that night.

Otherwise, a pretty good gig for a Sunday.