Sunday, October 18, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, October 18, 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
She Digs My Love by Sir Douglas Quintet
Little Doll by The Stooges
As Long as I Have You by Detroit Cobras
Speed Limit by The Dot Wiggins Band
Fire Engine by The Molting Vultures
That's the Bag I'm In by Big Foot Chester
Tres Borrachos by Left Lane Cruiser
People Ain't No Good by The Cramps
Sit Down, Baby by Dave & Phil Alvin
Jockey Full of Bourbon by Los Lobos
Walk on Gilded Splinters by Jello Biafra & The Raunch and Soul All-Stars
Big Chief by Dr. John
21 Days in Jail by Magic Sam
Redhead Mortician by The Suicide Shifters
Video Violence by Lou Reed
Police Call by Drywall
Subhuman Woman by Devo
The Wicked Messenger by Black Keys
25th Floor / High on Rebellion by Patti Smith
He Looks Like a Psycho by The Electric Mess
Isis by Bob Dylan
Full Moon in the Daylight Sky by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Bring it on Home to Me by The Animals
Seven Wonders by Holly Golightly
Harry Hippie by Bobby Womack
Hey Hey by Pat Burns with Cynthia Becker
Mean Mean Man by Lou Ann Barton
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, October 16, 2015
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, October 16, 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
Guacamole by Freddy Fender & Augie Meyers
Stay a Little Longer by Glambilly
Jason Fleming by The Sadies with Neko Case
Jump in the River by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Wingless Angel by Asylum Street Spankers
Hey Mama, My Time Ain't Long by Ray Wylie Hubbard
If You See My Savior by Dave & Phil Alvin
The Ballad of Irving by Frank Gallop
Two Janes by Los Lobos
Deacon Brodie by The Yawpers
Raise a Little Hell by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Little Richard Medley by Andy Anderson & The Dawnbreakers
The Cat Never Sleeps by Mama Rosin together with Hipbone Slim & the Kneetremblers
She Still Comes Around to Love What's Left of Me by Jerry Lee Lewis
Them Hillbillies Are Mountain Williams by Hoosier Hot Shots
Tony the Tiny Texan by Hal Keefer
Billy the Kid by Ry Cooder
The Streets of Bakersfield by Jon Langford & Sally Timms
Boxcars by The Satellites
Machine Gun Molly by Billy Stolz
Born Under a Bad Sign by Legendary Shack Shakers
Send Me to the Lectric Chair by David Bromberg
Mr. Edison's Electric Chair by Ronnie Elliot
Rein Rein by Lori Ottino
Shake Sugaree by Elizabeth Cotten (Vocals by Brenda Evans)
Pawn Shop Gun by Amanda Pearcy
Lament by The Gourds
Jolie Louise by Daniel Lanois
Waiting on a Plane by Peter Case
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, October 15, 2015
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Memorable Songs from The Alvin Brothers
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 16, 2015
If you rate albums on the basis of how many times you find yourself singing its songs to yourself during the day, then Lost Time by Dave & Phil Alvin would definitely be the top record of the year.
Seriously, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve caught myself — in my car, at home, during interviews with important political leaders (just kidding, just kidding) — humming or singing under my breath “Papa’s on the House Top” or “In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues)” from this cool little album. I can’t help myself. The only places I’m immune to it are at the farmers market or the produce section of supermarkets. And that’s because at those places I’m usually singing Brian Wilson’s “Vegetables.” (I’m sure there is a name for this disease.)
Before we go on with my true confessions, let’s talk about these Alvin brothers for the benefit of the uninitiated. Back in the early ’80s, these Downey, California, natives were the core of one of the greatest groups of the era, the Blasters. Older brother Phil sang while Dave played guitar and wrote songs for the band, which was part of an impressive and highly influential Los Angeles roots-rock scene that included Los Lobos, country singer Dwight Yoakam, and the punk gods X. (Dave Alvin was briefly a member of X.)
And even before the Blasters, Dave and Phil were obsessed with the senior blues, early rock, and R & B giants who were still alive and pickin’ in the late ’60s and ’70s. They’d sneak into clubs like the Ash Grove and sometimes even hang out with rasty old blues heroes old enough to be their grandfather.
Dave Alvin in Santa Fe 2009 with The Guilty Women |
Phil did a couple of solo albums, most notably Un “Sung” Stories, a 1986 effort that included some tracks with Sun Ra’s Arkestra. He also revived the Blasters — without Dave, though little brother Dave has occasionally reunited with the group. Back in 2011, Phil did a guest spot on a song on Dave’s album Eleven Eleven — a song appropriately called “What’s Up With Your Brother?” It was the first time the two had recorded together since the Blasters’ heyday.
Then last year — following an abscessed tooth infection that hospitalized and nearly killed Phil — the two did an actual album together, Common Ground, a tribute CD featuring songs by blues titan Big Bill Broonzy. Apparently that album wasn’t just a one-shot deal. On Lost Time, the brothers sound as if in their late middle age, they’re actually enjoying making music with each other again. Like the Broonzy album, there are jaunty acoustic country-blues numbers as well as hard-edged, Blasterific blues.
Phil Alvin jamming with Rev. Horton Heat and Los Lobos Hootenanny 2009, Irvine, Calif. |
Another standout on Lost Time is “Sit Down, Baby,” an old Otis Rush chugging tune (written by Willie Dixon) that Dave sings. It starts off with a classic blues meme about “the little red rooster” talking to “the little brown hen” and then moves seamlessly to a new take on the Aesop fable with a hepcat turtle taunting the rabbit (“You ain’t got a chance of winning this race!”). Then it gets into politics with a verse about an old labor dispute: “The C.I.O told U.S. Steel/We ain’t gonna take your dirty deal.” The Alvins added a verse about Rosa Parks (she tells an Alabama judge that it’s time for him to sit in the back of the bus) that wasn’t in Rush’s original.
Dave and Phil do a couple of tasty upbeat gospel songs here. The brothers trade off verses on an electric (and electrifying) version of “World’s In a Bad Condition,” an old song. (I can’t say for sure who did it first, but I found a 1935 version by a quartet called Heavenly Gospel Singers on YouTube.) And the album concludes with a Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey song, “If You See My Savior.” The brothers do this in a sweet acoustic country style. They sing this as a call-and-response, with Phil calling and Dave responding.
As for those memorable songs that always seem to pop into my brain, “Papa’s on the House Top” is a funny old 1930 novelty by blues pianist Leroy Carr. “In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues)” is a version of the old whorehouse lament, “House of the Rising Sun.” But you might not recognize the melody. Gone is the slow pace and minor key that The Animals (and Bob Dylan and Josh White and countless others) popularized. I can’t quite figure out where the melody the Alvins use came from, but to my ears, it sounds closer to the 1933 version by Tom Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster than to anything else.
Not every song on Lost Time is a winner. While Phil does a respectable job on “Please Please Please,” I can’t see anyone ever topping James Brown’s original.
But there are so many great tracks here, that’s just a slight quibble. I hope Dave and Phil continue to demonstrate together the Alvin family values.
Video Time!
UPDATED 10-17-15 I'm adding this on Saturday, the day after I posted the original version of this Tune-Up. I just learned this morning that this new video of the Alvins singing “World’s In a Bad Condition” debuted Friday on the Relix site. And it's a good one!
Dave and Phil play a song from their previous album, Common Ground.
On this one, the brothers play a couple of old Blasters tunes
Here is an early version of "This Old World is on Bad Condition."
And please allow me to introduce you to Oscar Brown, Jr. and "Mr. Kicks."
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair!
Judge you want to hear my plea
Before you open up your court
But I don't want no sympathy
'Cause I done cut my good man's throat
I caught him with a trifling Jane
I warned him 'bout before
I had my knife and went insane
And the rest you ought to know
These, of course are the opening lines of "'Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair," a black-humor ditty recorded in 1927 by The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith.
The song, credited to George Brooks -- which was a pseudonym for Fletcher Henderson, the influential bandleader and music director. This is one of many tunes he wrote for Bessie. But it's the most memorable.
The woman in the song is begging the judge to send her to the chair because she knows she has to reap what she's sown.
And if the judge was prone to having sympathy for the poor woman, it probably dissipated after she added these details to her true confession:
I cut him with my Barlow
I kicked him in the side
I stood here laughing o'er him
While he wallowed around and died
Yep, by that time he probably was ready to send her to the Devil down below, just like she requested.
Here's Bessie's original:
In 1958 Dinah Washington released an album called Dinah sings Bessie Smith. " 'Lectric Chair" was on it. Below is a TV performance by Washington. I don't know which show it is but it's sometime after her Bessie album was released.
Like a lot of folks my age, I came to this song through David Bromberg's version, which appeared on his 1974 album Wanted Dead or Alive. It's still a staple of his live shows. Playing the lead himself on acoustic guitar, Bromberg turned " 'Lectric Chair" into a crazy Dixieland romp. He changed the lyrics slightly to make the narrator/killer into a man. (Instead of a "trifling Jane," his loved one was messing around with a "gambling Joe.")
One of my favorite touches is when Bromberg, when begging the judge, says, "Mr. Sirica, please ..." (This was recorded during the Watergate era, remember.)
Here's a live 1977 performance.
And somehow this funny little song of crime and punishment led to a very short but very strange 2009 film of the same title directed by Guy Maddin and Isabella Rosselini. Actually the film doesn't seem to have much to do with the tune -- except the fact that a snippet of Bessie's song comes in briefly at the 1:31 mark.
For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Some Satanic Tales from The Vinyl Wastelands
I recently scored not one but two CD volumes of the incredible Twisted Tales from the Vinyl Wastelands series for a good price. And that was just a few weeks after I purchased another volume from Norton Records, where all 15 volumes are now sold legally.
(And very soon, the wizards at Trailer Park Records will be releasing new vinyl versions of Twisted Tales. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for more info.)
So I've been listening to a lot of Twisted Tales tunes lately, sometimes on shuffle mode. And sometimes I've heard THE DEVIL!
Here are three twisted Satanic tales from this wonderful series.
"When De Debbil Taps You On De Back" by Della Hicks) available on Vol. 9: Sorrow City Heebie Jeebies)
"The Devil, My Conscious and I " by Billy Barton (available on Volume 6: Strange Happenings at the Boonies.)
"The Devil Made Me Do It" by child singing sensation Duane Williams (available on Vol.1: Hog Tied & Country Fried)
And what the hell, maybe this devilish delight from my feckless youth will be one some future volume of Twisted Tales ...
Sunday, October 11, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, October 11, 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
Judy in Disguise by Jello Biafra and the Raunch & Soul All-Stars
Big Black Witchcraft Rock by The Cramps
Stare into the Night by Cheetah Chrome
Eviler by The Grannies
Spin the Bottle by The A-Bones
C'mon a My House by The Satellites
Devil Smile by Nekromantix
Rosalyn by The Pretty Things
The Dozens by Eddie One-String Jones
Manny's Bones/ Oh Yeah by Los Lobos
People Who Died by The Jim Carrol Band
WPLJ by The Four Deuces
Wine-O Boogie by Don Ramone, Sr. y Su Orquestra
WPLJ by The Mothers of Invention
Gonna Feed My Baby Poison by The Rocketeers
1970 / Funhouse by The Stooges
The Departed by Iggy & The Stooges
Black Girls by The Violent Femmes
Give Me Back My Wig by Hound Dog Taylor
Crawdad by The Gories
Maybe Your Baby by The Dirtbombs
Ain't That a Bitch by Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Golden Rule by John the Conquerer
But I Forgive You Blues by Don Covay & J. Lemon Blues
This Train by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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FOLK REMEDY PLAY LIST
8 a.m. to 10 am Sunday Mountain Time
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
Substitute Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's the playlist
Witness for My Lord by Silver Leaf Quartet
Minglewood Blues by Cannon's Jug Stompers
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
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