THROWBACK THURSDAY: Saluting a Jug Band Giant

from the April 1930 edition of What’s on the Air, a publication of WHAS radio in Louisville, Ky.
Earl McDonald is the banjo man in the middle.
Click the image to make it more readable

Most people haven't heard of him, but American music owes a lot to an African American banjo player from Kentucky named Earl McDonald.

As a teenager circa 1900, (no that's not a typo), McDonald was a fan of what might have been the very first jug band in the known universe, The Cy Anderson Jug Band, which featured early jug pioneer B.D. Tite. 

The Anderson band, based in Louisville, knocked around for about nine years, playing "riverboats, carnivals, parties and venues throughout the Midwest and upper South" according to Don Kent's liner notes for the wonderful Yazoo jug band collection Ruckus Juice & Chitlins. 

But by 1909, a homesick Anderson decided to move back to Virginia. But McDonald was ready to fill the void. Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band got a gig playing the Kentucky Derby. According to the Jug Band Hall of Fame:

By 1914, he was travelling with his band to performances in New York and Chicago. Earl McDonald led the Ballard Chefs' weekly performances on Louisville's WHAS radio for three years (1929-1932). Public response exceeded expectations, enhancing the popularity of jug band music throughout the eastern half of the United States. Earl McDonald's voice and the rhythm of his jug blowing enlivened the recordings of more than 40 tunes with a half-dozen bands from 1924 to 1931.

McDonald played with the  Original Louisville Jug Band as well as the Ballard Chefs and The Old Southern Jug Band. And in 1924 with a group that eventally became known as The Dixieland Jug Blowers -- which was a merger of McDonald's Original band and one led by his former musical partner Clifford Hayes -- he made the first known jug band recording backing singer Sara Martin on "Blue Devil Blues."

I wasn't able to find any information and what happened to McDonald. He was doing his Ballard Chefs radio gig as late as 1932. Tat's about the time the bottom was falling out of the recording industry, especially for "race" records and "hillbilly" records. I'm not even sure when McDonald died. 

But he sure left some fun tunes behind. Enjoy some now.

Here's my favorite Earl McDonald song, "She's in the Graveyard Now," a variation of "In the Jailhouse Now."

And here's another classic

And here is another McDonald, Hayes and Martin collaboration from 1924

And what the heck, here are a bunch of songs from McDonald and his bands

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Blasphemy Day

Today, in case you didn't know, is International Blasphemy Rights Day.

And my boss still wants me to go to work.

But this is serious. This little-known holiday is a tradition that goes back all the way to 2009. It originated with the Center for Inquiry's Campaign for Free Expression. According to the group's website, the day was created "to show solidarity with those who challenge oppressive laws and social prohibitions against free expression, to support the right to challenge prevailing religious beliefs without fear of violence, arrest, or persecution."

Blasphemy Rights Day is observed every September 30, the website says, "to commemorate the publishing of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which angered religious believers around the world, many of whom expressed their disapproval with violent protests, riots, and in some cases, murder."

Yes in many parts of the world you can be jailed, executed or disappeared just by expressing ideas the ruling religion deems blasphemous.

Places ruled by Islamic fundamentalists is one example. And just a few years ago, Pussy Riot showed that blasphemy can land you in prison in Russia.



So I'm proud to be an American, to live in a land where you can blaspheme til you're blue and, even though you'll probably piss off a lot of believers, and maybe even get beat up by righteously outraged, usually your life and liberty won't be threatened.

In honor of the day here are three of my favorite examples of good old American blasphemy.

And, no, John Lennon's "Imagine" isn't one of them. First of all, he technically wasn't an American. But most of all, to commit a kind of blasphemy myself, the song just sucks. So many times I've heard it sung or quoted so solemnly by self-righteous hippies, I'd rather listen to Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." 

Actually, I'd rather listen to these tunes.

Let's start with Cab Calloway. Back in the mid '60s, when I was in grade school in Oklahoma City, I saw Cab Calloway in person. He played with a small combo during the half time at a Harlem Globetrotters game. I had no idea who he was, but my grandmother, who took me to the game, was hep to that Hi-Di-Ho jive. I loved it, but I was stunned when Cab sang "It Ain't Necessarily So," a song from Porgy & Bess.It basically twisted my youthful Okie head off.

I didn't come from a religious family. We were not churchgoers. My grandmother used to delight in pointing out contradictions in the Bible. The extent of my grandfather's religious teachings was that Jesus loved the little children.

But in conservative Oklahoma most of my friends did go to church, and religion seemed to be everywhere. So when this crazy dude in a zoot suit sang "the things you are liable to read in the Bible, it ain't necessarily so ..." and poked fun at various Bible stories, it opened my eyes. And when Calloway went into his crazy scat singing, it sounded like wild demonic chants beckoning the listeners to follow him into an exciting and probably dangerous new world.

Here's a version of an older Calloway blaspheming away.



Sometimes I think Randy Newman in his prime was the closest thing to Mark Twain that My Generation ever had. That was because of wickedly subversive songs like this.



And here is Robbie Fulks exploring similar terrain. To me he never sounded like he was mocking any religious ideas with this song. He's always sung it with a certain sadness in his voice. And the melody is so pretty, it sounds like the Devil himself wrote it to lead good Christians to the fires.




So have a blasph on Blasphemy Day.

A Devine, Bovine New Hillbilly Episode of The Big Enchilada Podcast

It's a new hillbilly episode of the Big Enchilada and we're bringing it all back home (on the range) featuring backwoods moans from Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band, Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, The Fabulous Alvin Brothers, Legendary Shack Shakers, Audrey Auld and a special set by New Mexico musicians including Slackeye Slim, Imperial Rooster, Mose McCormack and more. Let the music moooooove you!

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Cowbell Polka by Spade Cooley)
Let's Jump a Train by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Caca de Vaca by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns
Jump in the River by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Marijuana, the Devil's Flower by Mr. Sunshine
Pappa's on the Housetop by Dave & Phil Alvin
Fuck Off by Audrey Auld
(Background Music: Buckaroo by The Byrds)

New Mexico set
April by The Imperial Rooster
It Wasn't You by Slackeye Slim
$2,000 Navajo Rug by Joe West & The Sinners
Hillbilly Town by Mose McCormack
Falling Off the World by Chipper Thompson
Looking for Someone to Kill by Kell Robertson

(Background Music: Osage City by Milo de Venus)
My Favorite Record by Asylum Street Spankers
Christ Almighty by Legendary Shack Shakers
Slippin' and Slidin' and Fightin' by Joey Delton
Hotrod Shotgun Boogie by Tillman Franks & His Rainbow Boys
If I Could Only Win Your Love by Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen
Cow Cow Boogie by Wayne Hancock


Play it here:

BIG ENCHILADA 88: The Cow in the Window by Steve Terrell on Mixcloud

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 27, 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

New Blue Mercedes by Drywall

American Wedding by Gogol Bordello

The Lowlife by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes

Hanged Man by Churchwood

Love Comes in Spurts by Richard Hell & The Voidoids

In Your Grave by King Khan & The Shrines

Happy Hodaddy by The Astronauts

Dames, Booze, Chains and Boots by The Cramps

Bad Little Woman by The Shadows of Night

 

Empty Space by Holly Golightly

House of the Rising Sun by Nina Simone

Psychedelic Afro Shop by Orlando Julius

Oya Ka Jojo by Les Volcans de La Capitol

 

96 Tears by Big Maybelle

Too Many Bills, Not Enough Thrills by Figures of Light

52 Girls by The B52s

Here's a Heart by Lyres with Stiv Bators

Run Shithead, Run by Mudhoney

Black September by Dead Moon

Icecream for Crow by Captain Beefheart

Pornography Part 1 by Mike Edison & The Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra

 

Hold My Hips by Dengue Fever

Get Get It by Alex Maiorano & The Black Tales

Black Isn't Black by The Black Angels

Blackheart Man by Bunny Wailer

The Blues Don't Knock by Don Covay & The Jefferson Lemon Blues Band

That Feel by Tom Waits with Keith Richards

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

 

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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

 

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 25, 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

Two Hoops and a Holler by Jean Shepard

Hillbilly Truckdrivin' Man by Bill Kirchen

Big Lotsa Love by The Bottle Rockets

Marijuana the Devil's Flower by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Marijuana the Devil Flower by Johnny Price

Cold by Legendary Shack Shakers

In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues) by Dave & Phil Alvin

2 Drinks on an Empty Stomach by Lonesome Bob

Love Bug Crawl by Jimmy Edwards

Insane by Katie Lee

 

Pistol Packin' Mama by Red Allen & Frank Wakefield

Alcohol and Pills by Fred Eaglesmith

Still Sober After All These Beers by The Banditos

You're the Reason by Nancy Apple

Mona Lisa by James Hand

From Hell to Paradise by The Mavericks

The Ballad of Maverick by Geoege Thorogood & The Destroyers

3 Coyotes Howlin' by Joe Ely

 

I Want Some Lovin' Baby by Jimmy & Duane

Daddy Was a Preacher But Mama Was a Go Go Girl by Southern Culture on the Skids

Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun by Dave Dudley

Drinking Problem by Audrey Auld

Funky Tonk by Moby Grape

I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water by Buck Owens

Invisible Stripes by Eddie Noak

Boys Will Be Boys by The Gear Daddies

Pot Roast and Kisses by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

He Calls That Religion by Maria Muldaur

Gone Back to Whorin' by Roger Alan Wade

 

Whispering Pines by Johnny Horton

Funny Face by Kate Campbell

The Selfishness in Man by George Jones

Am I That Easy to Forget by Bobby Bare

I Know You Are There by The Handsome Family

Come Fly Away by Jimmie Dale Gilmore

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list