Sunday, July 19, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, July 19, 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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Riot on Sunset Strip by The Standells
That Girl by The Mummies
Withered Hand by Thee Oh Sees
A New Wave by Sleater-Kinney
Steppin' Out by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Big Mistake by Royal Crescent Mob
Cha Dooky-Doo by Art Neville
People Who Died by The Jim Carroll Band
Questions I Can't Answer by The A-Bones
I Love Little Pussy by Little Marcy
Come Back Bird by Manby's Head
The Future is Now ... (and it Stinks!) by J.J. & The Real Jerks
You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover by The Sonics
She's a Knockout by Social Distortion
I See the Light by Reverend Beat-Man
Tres Borrachos by Left Lane Cruiser
Big Beat Strong by The Woggles
El Tren de la Costa by The Del Moroccos
Don't Shake Me Lucifer by Roky Erikson
Mr. Supernatural by King Khan & The Shrines
I Ain't Going Home Alone by The Hares
I Want to Rock You by Frankie Lucas
Amazons and Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Desperation by The Oblivians
Walking on My Grave by Dead Moon
I Warned You by Motobunny
Shot on Meredith by J.B. Lenoir
I Am Fire by Afghan Whigs
I Can't Stop Loving You by Laura St. Jude
Pierce the Sky by Dinosaur Jr.
Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I'll Be Blue by Frank Black & The Catholics
Face to the Highway by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, July 17, 2015
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, July 17, 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 :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Goddamn Holy Roll by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Shortnin' Bread Rock by The Collins Kids
Jesus Was a Wino by Lydia Loveless
Hell Yes I Cheated by Patty Booker
Dried Out a River by The Dad Horse Experience
Over the Cliff by Jon Langford's Hillbilly Love Child
Working on a Guru by Bob Dylan
Desert Rose by Chris Hillman
Acadie A La Louisiane by Bruce Daigrepont
Diggy Liggy Lo by John Fogerty
I Heard the Voice of a Porkchop by Jim Jackson
Sam's Place by Buck Owens
Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll by Janis Martin
I'm Through Hurtin' by Dale Watson
Dream of the Miner's Child by Rose Maddox
I'm Ragged But I'm Right by George Jones
Don't Touch Me by Jeannie Seely
I've Got a Tender Heart by Eleni Mandell
Pickin' on the Chicken by Ray Stevens
Just Like Geronimo by Dashboard Saviors
Hillbilly Child by Paul Siebel
Bible Cyst by Legendary Shack Shakers
If You Play With My Mind You're Gonna Get Your Hands Dirty by Cornell Hurd
Don't Knock What You Don't Understand by Steve Train & His Bad Habits
Two Dollar Bill by Paula Rhae McDonald
Late Bloomer by Karen Hudson
Suburbia by The Riptones
Hey Warden by Audrey Auld
Sad, Horny and Blue by Porkchop Party
Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride
Unwound by Ralph White
A Fool Such as I by Don Walser
King of You by Wilco
Bus Fare to Kentucky by Skeeter Davis
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, July 16, 2015
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering Coal Songs
Locally, in my day job I've been covering the controversy over the coal-burning San Juan Generating Station near Farmington. (My latest article is HERE.)
Getting away from coal would mean less pollution, less black-lung disease and a lot fewer mining disasters.
But what about the music?
Coal-mining songs are a staple of American folk and country music for decades. Coal might be dirty and awful. But come on, can you truthfully imagine a song as powerful as "Dark as a Dungeon" or even "Big Bad John" coming out of a solar plant?
Back in 2008, I reviewed country singer Kathy Mattea's excellent album Coal, which featured several classic coal-mining songs, including some written by folksingers Jean Ritchie and Hazel Dickens.
For my money, "Dark as a Dungeon" written by Merle Travis is the greatest song about coal ever written. It doesn't deal with a mining disaster or black lung or labor strife. It's about the psychic effects of spending day in and day out in a "dark dreary mine." This version is performed by Travis with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their landmark May The Circle Be Unbroken album.
"Dream of a Miner's Child" is a terrifying little number about a coal miner who's about to leave the house to go to work when his little girl stops him and tells him about her vivid nightmare: "I dreamed that the mines were all flamin' with fire /And the workers all fought for their lives ... "
In "16 Tons," (which also was written by Merle Travis) Tennessee Ernie Ford makes coal mining seem rather cool. It doesn’t pay well, but it apparently it gives you license to kill those who refuse to step aside when they see you comin’.
New Orleans soul man Lee Dorsey also made coal mining seem pretty cool with his 1966 hit
"Workin' in a Coal Mine."
And in the '70s, Loretta Lynn took great pride in being a "Coal Miner's Daughter."
In "Paradise," written in the early '70s, native Kentuckian John Prine sang of the environmental and psychic damage caused by "Mr. Peabody's coal mine."
Jimmy Dean immortalized a coal miner called "Big Bad John" in this early '60s hit -- before Jimmy started working at the sausage mine.
"Last Train to Poor Valley" by Norman Blake is about what happens to the workers when the mines all shut down.
'Quecreek" by Buddy Miller is the most recent song on this list. Buddy's wife Julie Miller (who sings with Buddy in the video below) wrote it in 2002 after nine Pennsylvania coal miners who had been trapped in a collapsed mine for three days were rescued. It's one of the few mining disaster songs with a happy ending,
The main message of “Timothy” by The Buoys is that just because you’re in a mining disaster, that doesn’t mean you have to start skipping meals.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Little Marcy Seeks Youthful Prey
But something about Little Marcy just gave me the willies.
For one thing, she wasn't even a real little girl. She was some kind of ventriloquist dummy -- devil doll, they used to call them -- operated by a frustrated gospel trombonist .
The puppet meister was one Marcellaise Tigner, a native of Wichita, Kansas who released more than 40 Little Marcy albums between 1964 and 1982.
I'll yield to the scholars at Weirdomusic.com to tell this tale:
After Tigner's husband, Everett, overheard a group of record company executives discussing plans to hire child singers to make a children's album, she and Whitney entered the studio to record her rendition of the standard "Jesus Loves Me" as a showcase for her own childlike voice. The demo landed Tigner a deal with Cornerstone Records, and in 1964 she released her first children's effort, Happy Day Express: Sing With Marcy. A series of albums and live performances followed, but Tigner felt uncomfortable appearing on-stage while singing in a child's voice. While appearing in the film Teenage Diary, she befriended co-star (and Miss America 1965) Vonda Van Dyke, herself an accomplished ventriloquist; at Van Dyke's urging, Tigner purchased a copy of Paul Winchell's book Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit and began learning the trade. The same doll maker who designed Edgar Bergen's Charlie McCarthy character was soon commissioned to create Little Marcy, who became the on-stage conduit for Tigner's vocal performances.
Weirdomusic noted, "Though largely inactive from the 1980s onward, [Little Marcy] retained a large fan following, although in latter years her core audience counted far fewer Sunday school students than collectors of so-called "incredibly strange music."
Mrs. Tigner died in 2012 at the age of 90.
But her evil spawn, Little Marcy lives on. In your nightmares. (So far I've found no hard evidence to verify the rumor that she's shacking up with this guy.)
Here are some videos:
I think Nirvana did this first one.
There's a little bit of Little Marcy in Ned Flanders. (And if The devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack ...)
Here is an infamous Little Marcy Classic for which there is no YouTube PLAY HERE
Sunday, July 12, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, July 12, 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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Phantom by Flat Duo Jets
Ring of Fire by Social Distortion
Skeletons by The Routes
Kill You Tonight by The Sinister Six
Killers From Space by Figures of Light
Motobunny by Motobunny
The Wolf Pack Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Cadillac Hips by Soledad Brothers
Bikini Girl by Panty Meltdown Aftermath
Bikini Girls With Machine Guns by The Cramps
Web by Thee Oh Sees
Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu
Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry
Mean Ass Girlfriend by The Barbarellatones
Call of the West by Wall of Voodoo
Fattening Frogs for Snakes by Sonny Boy Williamson
Song for a Future Generation by B-52s
Star Dream Girl by David Lynch
Daddy Rolling Stone by The Who
Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man by Public Enemy
Wicked Waters by Benjamin Booker
Jimmy's Warmup by Jimmy Russell
Medley: It's Allright/ For Sentimental Reasons by Sam Cooke
Feel All Right by The Oblivians with Mr. Quintron
Sugar Farm by T-Model Ford
Vodka is Poison by Golem
El Perversion by Deadbolt
We're Desperate by X
Run Run Run by The Velvet Underground
On a Mississippi Porch by Marcus James
Glow in the Dark by Lovestruck
Yours to Destroy by Laura St. Jude
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, July 10, 2015
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, July 10, 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 :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Wave That Flag by The Bottle Rockets (Chicken Truck)
Time Heals by The Gear Daddies
Dig Them Squeaky Shoes by Andy Starr
Nervous Breakdown by Wanda Jackson
Dixie Fried by The Howlin' Brothers
The Devil's Right Hand by Steve Earle
Down in Mississippi By J.B. Lenoir
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now by Ry Cooder
Feels Good by Dustbowl Revival
Let's Talk About Us by Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis
The Women Make a Fool Out of Me by Ernest Tubb
The Silver Tongued Devil and I by Kris Kristofferson
Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
Let's Take a Ride by The Beaumonts
Whiskey And Women And Money To Burn by Joe Ely
Tongues by Jo Carol Pierce
Boomtown Boogie by Butch Hancock, Terry Allen & Jo Carol Pierce
The Way I Was Raised by Jo Harvey Allen
Cup of Tea by Joe Ely & Jo Harvey Allen
The Devil's at Red's by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Bad News by Alejandro Escovedo & Jon Langford
Fast Train Down by The Waco Brothers
Good News by Amy Helm
Mighty Lonesome Man by James Hand
Hey Mama, My Time Ain't Long by Ray Wylie Hubbard
When the Hammer Came Down by House of Freaks
Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife by Drive-By Truckers
The Last War by Jim Stringer
Think I'll Just Sit Here and Drink by Merle Haggard
Gypsy Songman by Jerry Jeff Walker
Richland Woman by David Johansen & The Harry Smiths
Here Comes That Rainbow Again by Jerry Lee Lewis with Shelby Lynn
It's Not MyTime to Go by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
The Lost Cause by Legendary Shack Shakers
Take it Down by John Hiatt
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: The War That Never Ends
If the South woulda won we'd still have Junior |
July 10, 2015
This week South Carolina's legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from the Capital grounds and Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill. Somehow, I don't think this war is over.
Remember this guy? |
You can hear most of these songs on this playlist, plus a few bonus tracks:
Thursday, July 09, 2015
THROWBACK THURSDAY: All My Trials Over "All My Trials"
I've always had a special place in my heart for the song. And lots of great -- and some not-so-great -- singers have recorded and performed versions of it. Most the usual folkie suspects -- Seeger, Baez, Van Ronk, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary -- have done it. The Bible-soaked lyrics tie in nicely with the Civil Rights struggle of the early '60s. "If religion were a thing that money could buy / The rich would live and the poor would die ..." and "I had a little book was given to me / And every page spelled liberty .." etc.
The lyrics get changed around from version to version. Some even cut out the first verse "Hush little baby don't you cry/ You know your mama was born to die ..." which is pretty morbid for a goddamn lullaby!
Yes, a lullaby. Practically every source I looked at while researching the song said it came from or might have come from an old "Bahamian lullaby" or perhaps a Bahamian "spiritual." One dubious source even referred to it as a "Jamaican slave song."
But when I set out trying to find out where the darn thing came from, I kept running into a brick wall. I couldn't find anything definite. No accounts of Nassau sailors singing it to delighted British journalists. Not even any Youtubes with Bahamian singers. (And I seriously wanted to find a crazed, incomprehensible version by Joseph Spence to post here!) Seems like Alan Lomax or somebody should have stumble across some mama in the Bahamas trying to put her kid to sleep with something like this.
It turns out that another blogger (and fellow podcaster and fellow musician and fellow DJ) who wanted to explore "All My Trials" ran into the same problems. Jim Moran of Comparative Video 101 wrote:
It turned out that "All My Trials" is of extremely uncertain pedigree, and the chances seem very good that the "folk" song was in fact assembled from fragments of earlier spirituals to sound like a traditional song when it was set to a mysterious Bahamian lullaby that no one really seems ever to have heard or bothered to record.
If Moran is right -- and I suspect he is -- then I've got an inaccuracy in tomorrow's Tune-up!
So where did it first appear? According to Moran, "The earliest commercial recording anyone can find seems to be Bob Gibson in 1957 -- on an album of what he thought were `strange' folk songs."
Here are some of my favorite versions, starting with Odetta (who also figures into tomorrow's column)
The first non-United Methodist Youth Fellowship version of "All My Trials" I ever heard was Harry Belafonte's. My mom had an album that contained it.
Over on the country side of the tracks, Anita Carter (June's sister, Maybelle's daughter, Hank Williams' singing partner) did this lovely take.
And, thanks to a blog by a Portland soul DJ called DJ Action Slacks, I just discovered this 1967 version by a classic girl group called The Cookies, bettter known for their early '60s hits "Chains" and "Don't Say Nothin' Bad About My Baby." In the middle of the song they sing a verse of "Kumbaya" another song I learned from my Methodist youth group.
Early on in the history of "All My Trials," there was a spin-off version. The Kingston Trio used the same basic melody -- apparently that good old Bahamian lullaby -- but overhauled the lyrics to create "All My Sorrows," a song full of heartache but at least no dying mamas. This song was recorded by The Chordettes, The Shadows and, best of all, The Searchers,
And don't forget that Nashville songwriter Mickey Newbury merged "All My Trials" with "Dixie" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to create "American Trilogy," best known through Elvis Presley's version.
But we'll talk more of that tomorrow.
For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
WACKY WEDNESDAY: A Musical Tribute to Phil Austin
Phil Austin of The Firesign Theatre died June 18. I'm still getting over that.
Hell, I'm still getting over Peter Bergman's death three years ago. Phil Proctor and David Ossman now are the only Firesigns left.
Back in my college days in the early '70s I practically worshiped The Firesign Theatre. They were far more than a comedy team. And it wasn't just hippie humor. In their records they created new worlds, surreal, satirical, multi-layered universes where the jokes had multiple meanings. They were full of references to pop culture of the day and Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe and spoofs of old radio shows and televangelists and politicians and cheesy TV shows and commercials
It's been 45 years since they released my favorite Firesign album, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers and I still find lines I never noticed before.
So if you've never heard The Firesign Theatre, by all means seek them out. (Most of their albums, including their early classics, are on Spotify and a bunch of their stuff is on Youtube. Or you might do something old timey and BUY some of their albums. (Start with Dwarf or How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All -- which includes the debut of Austin's most famous character, Nick Danger.)
Because this is a music blog, this Wacky Wednesday I'm paying tribute to Phil with some Firesign musical bits -- songs The Firesign Theatre taught us.
R.I.P. Nick Danger!
Here is a live version of "Oh Blinding Light" from the movie Martian Space Party. Phil Proctor's fiddle solo comes in at about 1:42
Here's one from I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus.
And finally, "Toad Away," a hymn and sermonette from Dear Friends. Someday we'll all be toad away.
Sunday, July 05, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, July 5, 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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Lupine Ossuary by Thee Oh Sees
Gimme Love by Sleater-Kinney
My Box Rocks by Figures of Light
Non-State Actor by Soundgarden
Glam Rock Girl by The Barbarellatones
The Lover's Curse by The A-Bones
Cretin Hop by The Ramones
Look at Little Sister by The Sonics
Duck for the Oyster by Malcom McLaren
Piñon Lurker by The Gluey Brothers
I'm a Hog For You Baby by Screaming Lord Sutch
Don't Shine Me On by Frankie & The Dell Stars
White Bread n' Beans by Left Lane Cruiser
Candy Man Blues by Copper Gamins
Mine All Mine by The Beat Rats
Funeral by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Catch a Ride to Sonic Bloom by Night Beats
They're Coming to Take Me Away by Napoleon XIV
Backup Man by Greenland Whalefishers
Red Rover by Motobunny
Fly Like A Rat by Quintron & MissPussycat
Lesson Of Crime by YVY
You Treat Me Bad by The Ju Jus
Count Me Out by Boss Hog
( I Got a) Good 'Un by John Lee Hooker
Set Your Mind Free by Wiley & The Checkmates
Lavar dySara by Cankisou
Love Letters by Dex Romweber Duo (with Cat Power)
On the Horizon by The Compressions
Voodoo Boogie by J.B. Lenoir
Down in Mississippi by Ry Cooder
Venus by Television
Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive / Things Are Getting Better by NRBQ
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Come for the Shame, Stay for the Scandal
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