Friday, February 20, 2015
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, Feb. 20, 2015
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
Here's my playlist below:
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, February 19, 2015
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Girl Power, 1940 Style
Here's a great bunch of dames, Frances Carroll & The Coquettes.
I stumbled across a shorter version of this 1940 Warner Brothers music short -- just the segment featuring "our charming little drummer" Viola Smith -- a couple of weeks ago when some fellow rock 'n' roll freak posted it on Facebook.
The film was directed by Roy Mack, who was responsible for a lot of music shorts in that era. Sadly, only Carroll and Smith and tapdancer Eunice Healey are identified in the Internet Movie Database. But another Coquette was Smith's sister Mildred Bartash, who played clarinet and sax,
According to a post on the Zildjian Cymbals company's website:
From 1938 to 1941 Viola flourished in a highly acclaimed all female band that she and her sister Mildred organized, called The Coquettes. The Coquettes were so successful, and she as their drummer so popular, that Viola and her drum set graced the cover of Billboard Magazine on 24 February 1940.
So just sit back and enjoy some hot swing from this remarkable band.
And here's an interview with Viola Smith from a couple of years ago. She's still alive and 102 years old.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
WACKY WEDNESDAY: The Musical Legacy of Jackie "Teak" Lazar
Those familiar with the music of Stan Ridgway know that despite this singer's natural talent, the real secret of his success is a talent scout and big wheel by the name of Jackie "Teak" Lazar.
Not only is Jackie the brains behind Ridgway's career, at least since Ridgway's departure from Wall of Voodoo, he's also had roles in Ridgway videos and, yes even at least one guest vocal on a Ridgway album.
Back in 2002, Jackie appeared on a hidden track on Ridgway's album Holiday in Dirt. It was a sensitive rendering of Charlie Rich's greatest hit, "Behind Closed Doors." Some purists argued that the track should remain hidden, but I beg to differ.
In fact I bet you'll agree that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors with Jackie.
Spotify users can hear it below:
About three years after the release of Holiday in Dirt, Ridgway released a wonder video collection of songs from that album. "Behind Closed Doors" was there, but I think another actor portrayed Jackie. (Sorry, I can't find any Youtubes of that video. (The DVD seems to be out of print, but you can buy it at Amazon at a decent price.)
But even before "Behind Closed Doors," Jackie appeared in The Drywall Incident, a music and video project involving Ridgway's band Drywall. (I can't find the video by Carlos Grasso anywhere online, but the music is wonderful and you can buy it HERE)
And Jackie starred in Ridgway's 1995 video of "Big Dumb Town."
Jimmy on the cover of Hicks' Where's the Money? |
Though Jackie "Teak" Lazar recordings are rare, you can still find him singing some American classics on MP3s ((that I think originally were posted on Ridgway's website many years ago.) Three of them -- "Always on My Mind," "A Very Good Year" and "The Wayward Wind" are HERE.
Just don't believe the hideous lies and slander in the very last line in small print at the bottom of the page.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Hoppin' Horny Toads! It's the New Big Enchilada Podcast!
Hoppin' Horny Toads! This Big Enchilada episode is bringing you some fine hillbilly sounds old and new -- honky-tonk, rockabilly, bluegrass, roadhouse boogie, cowboy songs and barroom weepers -- by a dangerous array of artists old and new.
SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK PIRATE RADIO PODCASTS |
Here's the playlist:
(Background Music: Mississippi Muddle by Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys)
Harper Valley PTA by Syd Straw & The Skeletons
I Dig Dangling Participles by The Harper Valley PTA
Borrow Me Some Money by Augie Meyers
I'm Goin' Huntin' Tonight by Martha Lynn
Cowboy Song by Slackeye Slim
Drivin' Nails in My Coffin by Larry Wellborn
Don't Thrill Me No More by J.D. Wilkes & The Dirt Daubers
(Background Music: Stratosphere Boogie by Jimmy Bryant & Speedy West)
Dirt by Chuck Prophet
Semi-Truck by Commander Cody
Chickenstew by Reverse Cowgirls
The Struggle in the Puddle at the Bottom of the Bottle by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Born to Boogie by Texas Martha & The House of Twang
Gear Bustin' Sort of Feller by Bobby Braddock
Brain Damage by The Austin Lounge Lizards
(Background Music: March of the Cosmic Puppets by Clothesline Revival)
Whiskey and Cocaine by Stevie Tombstone
I Can Talk to Crows by Chipper Thompson
Texarkana Baby by Jason Ringenberg
White Lightnin' by The Waco Brothers
Twang by The Backsliders
Play it on the player below:
(Background Music: Mississippi Muddle by Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys)
Harper Valley PTA by Syd Straw & The Skeletons
I Dig Dangling Participles by The Harper Valley PTA
Borrow Me Some Money by Augie Meyers
I'm Goin' Huntin' Tonight by Martha Lynn
Cowboy Song by Slackeye Slim
Drivin' Nails in My Coffin by Larry Wellborn
Don't Thrill Me No More by J.D. Wilkes & The Dirt Daubers
(Background Music: Stratosphere Boogie by Jimmy Bryant & Speedy West)
Dirt by Chuck Prophet
Semi-Truck by Commander Cody
Chickenstew by Reverse Cowgirls
The Struggle in the Puddle at the Bottom of the Bottle by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Born to Boogie by Texas Martha & The House of Twang
Gear Bustin' Sort of Feller by Bobby Braddock
Brain Damage by The Austin Lounge Lizards
(Background Music: March of the Cosmic Puppets by Clothesline Revival)
Whiskey and Cocaine by Stevie Tombstone
I Can Talk to Crows by Chipper Thompson
Texarkana Baby by Jason Ringenberg
White Lightnin' by The Waco Brothers
Twang by The Backsliders
Play it on the player below:
Sunday, February 15, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015
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
Here's the playlist below
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Friday, February 13, 2015
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, Feb. 13, 2015
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
Here's my playlist below:
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, February 12, 2015
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: New Ones from Dowd and Slackeye
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Feb. 13, 2015
Johnny Dowd writes his songs like a sniper aims his gun. Sometimes his songs are like a captured serial killer’s confession. They’re full of regret, shame, venom, horrifying humor, and uncomfortable truths.
Dowd’s new album, That’s Your Wife on the Back of My Horse, has a title based on one of the most cocky, swaggering lines in the history of the blues, from Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Gangster of Love”: “The Sheriff says, ‘Is you Guitar Watson?’ in a very deep voice/I say, ‘Yes sir, brother Sheriff, and that’s your wife on the back of my horse.’ ”
This time out, Dowd played virtually all the instruments himself — exceptions are vocal contributions from Anna Coogan, who sounds so much like Dowd’s old bandmate Kim Sherwood-Caso it’s spooky; a guitar solo on “Words Are Birds” from Mike Cook; and a brief appearance by Dowd’s regular band on the end of “Teardrops.”
Dowd himself has compared the record to his first one, Wrong Side of Memphis. That late-1990s album is also mostly just Dowd on a variety of instruments. But it is more acoustic and rootsy, based in country and blues. On this new one, the music behind the lyrics is crazier than ever: low-tech electronica; rasty, distorted guitar licks; insane beats from an ancient drum machine over Dowd’s growling drawl and Coogan’s angelic melodies. It’s “New Year’s Eve in the nuthouse,” as Archie Bunker would say.
The album kicks off with the title song, Dowd reciting the lyrics that serve as a taunting invocation:
“That’s your wife on the back of my horse/That’s my hand in your pocket/Around my neck is your mother’s locket/Your sisters will dance at my wake/Your brother will blow out the candles on my birthday cake/That’s your wife on the back of my horse.”
This is followed by a funky, boastful rap, “White Dolemite,” a salute to the heroic persona of “party” record artist and blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore. “I live the life men dream about/Stand up, people, give me a shout,” Dowd declares, as Coogan responds, “Hot pants! He needs a spanking.”
On “The Devil Don’t Bother Me,” Dowd sounds like a death-row inmate contemplating theology while awaiting injection. “An angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other/Jesus, He’s my savior, but the devil is my brother.”
And that's just one of Dowd’s characters who seem like a coiled snake about to strike. On “Nasty Mouth,” Dowd’s narrator spews harsh judgment about a woman, who, I would guess, rejected him. “I’m just trying to forget the words that came out of your nasty mouth,” he spits over ambient blips and bleeps and a dangerous fuzz guitar.
Another favorite here include “Female Jesus,” which has a bluesy, swampy groove and is about a rural Okie prostitute who, Dowd says, “satisfied my body/She purified my brain/Then she called the undertaker and put my casket on a train.” Easily the album’s most melodic track, The song “Why?” sounds like a ’60s soul ballad left in the forest to be eaten by wolves, while the upbeat “Sunglasses” could have been a summertime pop hit … on the planet Neptune. (“Boys who wear sunglasses get laid,” Coogan informs us.)
At the end of the last song, “Teardrops,” a slow, dreamy (well, nightmarish) dirge about the fall of a powerful man (“In a world of little men, I walked like a giant/If I’d have been a lawyer, God would’ve been my client”), Dowd thanks his audience and an announcer says, “The ultrascary troubadour has left the building. With your wife. On the back of his horse.”
Left the building? Well, maybe. But I bet he actually just went to the dark alley behind the building.
Where he’s waiting ...
Also recommended
* Giving My Bones to the Western Lands by Slackeye Slim. Joe Frankland is another singer-songwriter who likes to explore the shadows, though his music is rooted in the country, folk, and spaghetti-western realms. Under the name Slackeye Slim, Frankland’s songs frequently are cast in an Old West setting, though his themes of sin, redemption, loneliness, desperation, and freedom are universal.
It’s been four years since his previous album, El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, which I compared to Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger. Since then, he’s moved from Montana to a ranch near Mesa, Colorado. He says he recorded this album in “dilapidated buildings” as well as on his front porch, “as hundreds of cattle grazed quietly just a few yards away.”
The body count on Giving My Bones isn’t nearly as high as it was on El Santo Grial, even though the second song, “Don Houston,” is about a guy who, for no apparent reason, shoots a stranger in the face. “Every time he pulled the trigger, it was the most beautiful thing you ever saw,” the narrator explains. “It was an art. His brush was a bullet, his paint was blood, his canvas was the earth, the rocks, the trees, and the dirt.”
Don Houston and El Santo Grial’s antihero, Drake Savage, would have a lot to talk about. Assuming they didn’t kill each other first.
But not every song on the new Slackeye album deals with crazy violence. One recurring theme here is psychological healing.
Take the sadly beautiful “I’m Going Home.” (I’ll be extremely surprised if anyone comes up with a prettier song than this one this year — or in the next decade.) Accompanied only by a banjo, a harmonica, and his stomping foot, Slackeye’s foghorn voice is perfectly suited to this tale of a lonesome journey to the nadir of his life. Riffing on lines from the old song “Hesitation Blues,” he sings, “Whiskey was the river and me, I was the duck/I lived down at the bottom and I could not get up/At first I thought I’d found it, a place where I belonged/But I had no home.”
Then, on “Cowboy Song” — a herky-jerky waltz that, with a few Balkan embellishments, could almost be a Beirut song — riding the range is the prescription that rebuilds a broken soul: “A man alone in the wilderness/That’s where his soul is born/As long as he’s singing his cowboy song.”
Keep singing, Slackeye.
You can listen to and/or name your own buying price for Giving My Bones to the Western Lands at www.slackeyeslim.bandcamp.com. But even though you can snag it for free, pay him something. Don’t be a jerk!
It's Video time!
Here's the title song from Johnny Dowd's new album
And here's a song called "Cadillac Hearse" from that album
And here are a couple of my favorite new Slackeye Slim songs
And here's a latter-day version of "Gangster of Love" by Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Feb. 13, 2015
Johnny Dowd writes his songs like a sniper aims his gun. Sometimes his songs are like a captured serial killer’s confession. They’re full of regret, shame, venom, horrifying humor, and uncomfortable truths.
Dowd’s new album, That’s Your Wife on the Back of My Horse, has a title based on one of the most cocky, swaggering lines in the history of the blues, from Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Gangster of Love”: “The Sheriff says, ‘Is you Guitar Watson?’ in a very deep voice/I say, ‘Yes sir, brother Sheriff, and that’s your wife on the back of my horse.’ ”
This time out, Dowd played virtually all the instruments himself — exceptions are vocal contributions from Anna Coogan, who sounds so much like Dowd’s old bandmate Kim Sherwood-Caso it’s spooky; a guitar solo on “Words Are Birds” from Mike Cook; and a brief appearance by Dowd’s regular band on the end of “Teardrops.”
Dowd himself has compared the record to his first one, Wrong Side of Memphis. That late-1990s album is also mostly just Dowd on a variety of instruments. But it is more acoustic and rootsy, based in country and blues. On this new one, the music behind the lyrics is crazier than ever: low-tech electronica; rasty, distorted guitar licks; insane beats from an ancient drum machine over Dowd’s growling drawl and Coogan’s angelic melodies. It’s “New Year’s Eve in the nuthouse,” as Archie Bunker would say.
The album kicks off with the title song, Dowd reciting the lyrics that serve as a taunting invocation:
“That’s your wife on the back of my horse/That’s my hand in your pocket/Around my neck is your mother’s locket/Your sisters will dance at my wake/Your brother will blow out the candles on my birthday cake/That’s your wife on the back of my horse.”
This is followed by a funky, boastful rap, “White Dolemite,” a salute to the heroic persona of “party” record artist and blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore. “I live the life men dream about/Stand up, people, give me a shout,” Dowd declares, as Coogan responds, “Hot pants! He needs a spanking.”
J. Dowd Photo by Kat Dalton |
And that's just one of Dowd’s characters who seem like a coiled snake about to strike. On “Nasty Mouth,” Dowd’s narrator spews harsh judgment about a woman, who, I would guess, rejected him. “I’m just trying to forget the words that came out of your nasty mouth,” he spits over ambient blips and bleeps and a dangerous fuzz guitar.
Another favorite here include “Female Jesus,” which has a bluesy, swampy groove and is about a rural Okie prostitute who, Dowd says, “satisfied my body/She purified my brain/Then she called the undertaker and put my casket on a train.” Easily the album’s most melodic track, The song “Why?” sounds like a ’60s soul ballad left in the forest to be eaten by wolves, while the upbeat “Sunglasses” could have been a summertime pop hit … on the planet Neptune. (“Boys who wear sunglasses get laid,” Coogan informs us.)
At the end of the last song, “Teardrops,” a slow, dreamy (well, nightmarish) dirge about the fall of a powerful man (“In a world of little men, I walked like a giant/If I’d have been a lawyer, God would’ve been my client”), Dowd thanks his audience and an announcer says, “The ultrascary troubadour has left the building. With your wife. On the back of his horse.”
Left the building? Well, maybe. But I bet he actually just went to the dark alley behind the building.
Where he’s waiting ...
Also recommended
* Giving My Bones to the Western Lands by Slackeye Slim. Joe Frankland is another singer-songwriter who likes to explore the shadows, though his music is rooted in the country, folk, and spaghetti-western realms. Under the name Slackeye Slim, Frankland’s songs frequently are cast in an Old West setting, though his themes of sin, redemption, loneliness, desperation, and freedom are universal.
It’s been four years since his previous album, El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, which I compared to Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger. Since then, he’s moved from Montana to a ranch near Mesa, Colorado. He says he recorded this album in “dilapidated buildings” as well as on his front porch, “as hundreds of cattle grazed quietly just a few yards away.”
The body count on Giving My Bones isn’t nearly as high as it was on El Santo Grial, even though the second song, “Don Houston,” is about a guy who, for no apparent reason, shoots a stranger in the face. “Every time he pulled the trigger, it was the most beautiful thing you ever saw,” the narrator explains. “It was an art. His brush was a bullet, his paint was blood, his canvas was the earth, the rocks, the trees, and the dirt.”
Don Houston and El Santo Grial’s antihero, Drake Savage, would have a lot to talk about. Assuming they didn’t kill each other first.
But not every song on the new Slackeye album deals with crazy violence. One recurring theme here is psychological healing.
Take the sadly beautiful “I’m Going Home.” (I’ll be extremely surprised if anyone comes up with a prettier song than this one this year — or in the next decade.) Accompanied only by a banjo, a harmonica, and his stomping foot, Slackeye’s foghorn voice is perfectly suited to this tale of a lonesome journey to the nadir of his life. Riffing on lines from the old song “Hesitation Blues,” he sings, “Whiskey was the river and me, I was the duck/I lived down at the bottom and I could not get up/At first I thought I’d found it, a place where I belonged/But I had no home.”
Then, on “Cowboy Song” — a herky-jerky waltz that, with a few Balkan embellishments, could almost be a Beirut song — riding the range is the prescription that rebuilds a broken soul: “A man alone in the wilderness/That’s where his soul is born/As long as he’s singing his cowboy song.”
Keep singing, Slackeye.
You can listen to and/or name your own buying price for Giving My Bones to the Western Lands at www.slackeyeslim.bandcamp.com. But even though you can snag it for free, pay him something. Don’t be a jerk!
It's Video time!
Here's the title song from Johnny Dowd's new album
And here's a song called "Cadillac Hearse" from that album
And here are a couple of my favorite new Slackeye Slim songs
And here's a latter-day version of "Gangster of Love" by Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Albums Named for Unappetizing Food
O.K., I'll admit this is a pretty dumb idea. It came to me yesterday after I ran into my friend Dan during my afternoon walk along the ...
-
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican January 14, 2011 Junior Kimbrough is dead. R.L. Burnside is dead. Paul “Wi...
-
Remember these guys? I'm not sure how I missed this when it first was unleashed a few weeks ago, but Adult Swim — the irrevere...
-
Sunday, May 15, 2022 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM Em...