Terry Allen with my son Anton at Santa Fe Brewing Company in 2006. (Anton looks older these days. Terry doesn't)
Here's what looks like a fine show down in Albuquerque coming up this weekend. Santa Fe's own Terry Allen and his son Bukka Allen, also a musician, will be playing at the Kimo Theater Saturday, Oct. 10 for an even called "An Evening for Vietnam."
The Allens' part of the show will follow a screening of Deryle Perryman and Moises Gonzalez' documentary Same Same But Different, a story of war veterans returning to Vietnam.
The show is a benefit for a music school in Vietnam being built by TwoBricks, an Albuquerque non-profit that builds music schools in underdeveloped regions.
Tickets are $10-$100 (now there's a range!) You can buy them HERE.
Listen to The Santa Fe Opry on KSFR, 101.1 FM in Santa Fe this Friday (10 pm-midnight). I might just have another ticket or two to give away.
Below is one of my favorite Terry Allen songs, "There Ought to Be a Law Against Sunny California," performed at Santa Fe Bandstand in 2012. Unfortunately, Terry cleaned up the lyrics when performing at that "family friendly" event.
Sunday, October 4, 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
We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad
Sinner Man by Esquerita
Drug Train by Social Distortion
Teeny Bopper Teeny Bopper by The Count Five
Vendidi Fumar by Churchwood
Dancing Fool by Butthole Surfers
Girl from Al-Qaeda by The Jack & Gene Show
Is That Religion? by Cab Calloway
Reefer Man by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Tumblin' Dice by Johnny Copeland
Ain't No Easy Way by Nancy Sinatra with Jon Spencer
Do the Get Down by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
It's The Truth, Ruth by The Big Bopper
As You Go Down by Holly Golightly
96 Tears by Aretha Franklin
Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Kick Hit 4 Hit Kix U (Blues for Jimi and Janis) by John Lee Hooker
Ball and Chain by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Get It While You Can by Howard Tate
Elephant Gun by Beirut
Wicked Waters by Benjamin Booker
High Noon Blues by The Night Beats
Crawl by The Cynics
Not of This World by The Plimsouls
Prayer for New Mexico by Ronnie Gene
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, October 2, 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
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 collectionRuckus 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
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.
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!
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
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
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican September 25, 2015
The original Holly Golightly was created by Truman Capote. She was the protagonist of his 1958 novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Capote described her as “an American geisha.”
But the Holly Golightly I’m writing about is neither a geisha nor an American — though for the past several years she’s been living in the U.S. of A. This Holly Golightly is a singer who comes from England. And, yes, that is her real name, at least two-thirds of her real name. She was born Holly Golightly Smith in 1966. Her mother reportedly was reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s around the time of Holly’s birth and liked the name.
This Holly Golightly happens to be one of the most underrated rock ’n’ roll singers currently plying the trade. And she’s got not one but two new albums – Slowtown Now!, a solo album, and Coulda Shoulda Woulda, under the banner of Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs. Both are solid musical delights full of tasty tunes and Golightly’s wicked wit and attitude.
A little Holly history: In the early ’90s, Golightly’s boyfriend was the drummer of Thee Headcoats, which was the musical vehicle of British garage poet/rock crank Billy Childish. She became an original member of Thee Headcoatees, a garage-rock girl group originally formed to back the boys, but which grew into a force of its own, recording several albums full of spunk and fire.
Golightly remained a member of the band until around 1999. But a few years before that, she started recording her own solo albums. Golightly moved to the U.S. not long after she shifted musical gears in 2007 and began recording bare-boned funky-clunky country bluesy records with her partner “Lawyer Dave” Drake under the name Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs. While a few steps removed from Thee Headcoatees’ garage sound, those rootsy albums represent some of her finest work. All of her albums since then have been Brokeoffs albums, until Slowtown Now!
For Slowtown, her first solo album in 11 years, Golightly went back to London to record. And she recorded it for her old label Damaged Goods (which has released a major chunk of Childish’s catalog) with an actual band assembled for the album, featuring a couple of guitarists, a drummer, and a standup bassist. The overall sound draws from the various influences that have propelled Golightly — rockabilly, ’60s girl-group sounds, blues, smoky jazz, and more.
It starts off with a slow-burning swamp-a-billy tune called “Seven Wonders” with a seductive voodoo beat and sweet, grating guitar. This is followed by “Fool Fool Fool (Look in the Mirror),” featuring a retro fuzz-guitar hook. The only tune here that’s not a Golightly original, this song was done in the mid-’60s by a Chicago soul singer named Barbara Acklin (who probably is best known for co-writing The Chi-Lite’s hit “Have You Seen Her”). With its soft trombone and sexy, understated vocals by Golightly, “Frozen in Time” could almost pass as an old Burt Bacharach production, something you might hear in an Austin Powers movie soundtrack.
Golightly hasn’t forgotten how to rock. The sassy “As You Go Down” (featuring some fine bass from Matt Radford) is rooted in rockabilly and, of all the songs here, probably sounds closest to her pre-Brokeoffs albums. That’s followed by the downright garagey “You Stopped My Heart” with some more snazzy fuzztone guitar. “Forevermore” reminded me of the recent Deke Dickerson/Los Straitjackets collaboration (Deke Dickerson Sings the Great Instrumental Hits) because the melody is so similar to the old surf hit “Apache.”
While there is so much to admire on Slowtown Now!, both in the performance and the production, between Golighty’s new albums, I have to say I like the raucous new Brokeoffs’ effort the best.
Coulda Shoulda Woulda, which is scheduled for release on Oct. 16, is a big sloppy homemade American mess. Of course, I mean that in the best possible way. From the opening cut, “Heaven Buy and Buy,” a rocking faux-gospel indictment of religious hypocrisy (including an invitation to the devil to perform an obscene act), this album is packed with crazy fun.
The rootsy tango “Apartment 34” is a character sketch of some bad white-trash neighbors who “do their cooking in the bathtub” and have a thing for old Camaros; “Lonesome Grave” is a spooky, fire-and-brimstone fiddle-and-banjo workout; “Little Mule” has some nice nasty guitar hooks; “Karate” is a funky dance song, though fans of Thee Headcoatees will surely see the link to “My Boyfriend’s Learning Karate”; and “Jump in the River” is Lawyer Dave’s big moment, taking Leadbelly’s great notion and turning it into a sardonic declaration of salvation.
Holly and Dave always come up with great cockeyed cover songs. Their best remains Mac Davis’ “Hard to Be Humble” (from their 2012 album Sunday Run Me Over). But in the same demented stratosphere is this album’s “Marijuana, the Devil’s Flower,” a vintage country-western anti-drug song by someone called Mr. Sunshine. The chorus goes “Marijuana, the devil’s flower, if you use it, You’ll be a slave/Marijuana’s gonna bring you sorrow/It will send you to your grave.”
(By the way, there were at least two country songs with a similar title. Another, which I found on a volume of the fabulous Twisted Tales From the Vinyl Wastelands series, was “Marijuana, the Devil Flower” by a Johnny Cash copycat named Johnny Price.)
Coulda Shoulda Woulda ends with a Christmas song — actually, an anti-Christmas song — called “Christmas Is a Lie.” This won’t be played at any big stores while you do your Yuletide shopping. But it would be cool if it were.
God bless us every one, Holly Golightly!
Videos!
Here's an official one from Slowtown Now!
And here is a live Brokeoffs classic from a few years ago
There is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun.
And it's a bed and breakfast in Algiers Point.
No kidding. And according to the website of The Rising Sun, owners Kevin Herridge and Wendy Portier, who have operated the business since 1999, aren't shy about promoting their B&B with the famous song that started out as a lament about a whore house ... unless it was a lament about some correctional facility.
Herridge and Portier acknowledge that their business is not the original House of the Rising Sun. And it probably hasn't been the ruin of many a poor girl. (Or boy.)
"There is a house on St. Louis Street ... in the French Quarter, whose owners claim to be the original House of the Rising Sun brothel, purportedly ran by a Madam named Marianne LeSoleil LEVANT (French for Rising Sun) between 1862 and 1874." the site says.
Also there was a Rising Sun Hotel on Conti Street, but it burned down in 1822. But various other businesses called "Rising Sun" in the French Quarter subsequently rose and fell in the 1800s. There's a good chance that none of these were the "real" House of the Rising Sun. It easily could be a fictitious place.
"Rising Sun has been performed by a huge variety of folk, blues, hillbilly, rock 'n' roll and who knows-what-else artists for more than 80 years, and undoubtedly longer. Here are a few:
Like most people my age, I came to the song via the huge hit by The Animals in 1964. Just a couple of years before, Bob Dylan sang an acoustic version on his first album. He'd learned it from Dave Van Ronk.
Alan Lomax recorded a young girl named Georgia Turner in eastern Kentucky singing it in 1937.
Only problem is, Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster recorded a commercial version three years before.
Nina Simone did an wild gospel-fired version. (An earlier version of this post mistakenly said this version is on her 1962 Nina at the Village Gate album. It's not.)
In 1970 a Detroit band had a hit with a psychedelic version.
The most recent version to grab my attention is a jaunty little number called "In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues)" on Dave & Phil Alvin's new album Lost Time.
So if you want to spend some time in sin and misery, check out my Spotify playlist below. It includes versions from Joan Baez to Jello Biafra, not to mention covers by Billy Lee Riley, Lead Belly, Roy Acuff, a garage-rock version by The Barbarians, a doo-wop take by Jerry Lawson, some funky Chambers Brothers, and more Enjoy.
Let's start with a classic early TV ad for Red Rose Tea starring The Marquis Chimps
This Post cereal commercial isn't nearly as cool as "Red Rose Tea." But it's still chimps.
In the '70s, Lancelot Link & The Evolution Revolution was the hippest chimp band going.
But let's go back to an earlier era of tlevision when the Nairobi Trio played The Ernie Kovacs Show. Technically, they were gorillas, but I think they fit in here.
Sunday, September 20, 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
Little War Child by the Oblivions
Testify by The BellRays
Turned Out Light by Thee Oh Sees
The Sky is a Poisonous Garden by Concrete Blonde
Brightness by The Malarians
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
Devil Dance by The A-Bones
Cool Arrow (EP version) by The Hickoids
Hell Hound on My Trail by The Slow Poisoner
Mr. Kicks by Oscar Brown, Jr.
Please Please Please by David & Phil Alvin
Empty Space by Holly Golightly
I Wonder Why People Don't Like Me by Thee Headcoats
Lost Avenue by Johnny Dowd
Crackpot Baby by L7
Betty vs The NYPD by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Funplex by The B-52s
Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
They Lie by Mind Spiders
Psycho Train by Sinister Six
15 Degrees Capricorn Asc. by Sam Samudio
Full Moon in the Daylight Sky by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Before the Next Teardrop Falls by Big John Hamilton
Bob George by Prince
I Got Your Number by The Sonics
Shout by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Speedway by Alan Vega
So Glad You're Mine by Junior Wells
Since I Met YouBaby by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
I Don't Think So by Dinosaur Jr
What You Gonna Do 'Bout Me by Proffessor Charles Taylor & The Taylor Singers
Love is All Around by The Troggs
What Kind of Fool Am I by Sammy Davis, Jr
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, September 18, 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
Crazy Arms by Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis
Honky Tonk Merry Go Round by The Stumbleweeds
A-Town Blues by Wayne Hancock
Henry by New Riders of the Purple Sage
Mean Mean Man by Wanda Jackson
Feudin' and Fightin' by Marti Brom with the Cornell Hurd Band
Dirty Mouth Flo by Robbie Fulks
Hello Walls by The Malpass Brothers
Whose Gonna Take Your Garbage Out by Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
When the Whiskey Turns to Tears by Cornell Hurd
Southern Eyes by Joe Ely
Five Brothers by Marty Robbins
Don't Remember Me by The Misery Jackals
Out on the Highway by Mose McCormack
Meet You Down South by The Reverse Cowgirls
MisAmerica by Legendary Shack Shakers
The Wheels Fell Off the Wagon by Johnny Paycheck
John Law Burned Down the Liquor Sto' by Chris Thomas King
Front Porch Trained by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Madness, Murder, Mayhem Set
Psycho by Jack Kittell
Pardon Me I've Got Someone to Kill by Lonesome Bob
Dolores by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
The Rubber Room by Porter Wagoner
Postcard from Jack by Ronny Elliott
Knoxville Girl by The Louvin Brothers
I'm a Nut by Leroy Pullens
Crazy by Willie Nelson
Something Stupid by The Mavericks with Trish Yearwood
I Never Go Around Mirrors by Lefty Frizzell
Your Hearty Laugh by The Defibulators
Ballad of Terri McGovern by Joe West & The Sinners
Never Cold Again by The Imperial Rooster
Between a Rock and Heartache by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets 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
Joe Ely playing with The Flatlanders
Thirsty Ear Festival, Santa Fe 2007
Just in case you haven't heard (because you live in a cave and only read this blog), there's a free show on The Santa Fe Plaza Saturday night (tomorrow! Sept. 19) featuring Joe Ely and The Mavericks.
And yes, I said FREE.
The show starts with Ely's set at 6:30 p.m. The Mavericks come on at 8 p.m.
This event is part of St Vincent’s Hospital Foundation's 150th Anniversary. Hey, it's better than a night in the hsopital (and lots cheaper).
Also Saturday night, don't forget The Sons of Royalty are playing right down the street at Skylight, 139 W. San Francisco St. starting at 7 p.m. I wrote about this in last week's Terrell's Tuneup. Tickets are $20 and it's a benefit for La Luz de Santa Fe Family Shelter.
Here's a video of Ely doing a Robert Earl Keen song on Austin City Limits.
One hundred twelve years (and two days) ago in the tiny town of Maynardville, Tennessee, the Great Speckled Bird delivered a baby boy named Roy Acuff, who would grow up to become virtually synonymous with The Grand Ol' Opry ... and Hell, synonymous with country music itself for many years.
Of Acuff, Hank Williams was quoted saying, "He's the biggest singer this music ever knew. You booked him and you didn't worry about crowds. For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God."
I bet even God didn't mind playing second fiddle to Roy Acuff.
Here is a video tribute to Roy, who, with his band, The Smokey Mountain Boys, helped make a great music even greater.
Let's start with one of his best known songs, "The Wabash Cannonball."
"Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour." (Jeremiah 12:9)
I'm more familiar with Little Jimmy Dickens' version of this next one. But Roy's version is nice too.
Here's a team-up with Red Foley on another Acuff classic.
Roy frequently turned his stage over to band members, who sometimes called themselves "Roy Acuff's Jug Band."
Finally, here's a weird musical connection: In the early days of the Acuff Jug Band, a young black kid played the jugs and spoons with the group. That might have been a goofy gig, but the kid, a Nashville native named Bobby Hebb, grew up to be a serious singer who had a huge hit in 1966 with a wonderful song called "Sunny." In the '70s Hebb cut a rocking soul version of Acuff's "Night Train to Memphis."
Hat tip to T. Tex Edwards for alerting me to Roy Acuff's birthday via a Google Plus post.
Yesterday I saw an item on the Dangerous Minds blog about a "feud" between The Ramones and Sha Na Na. That in itself would make a good Wacky Wednesday. But they had it first.
While reading the post I couldn't help but notice an air of condensation on the part of writer Christopher Bickel toward Bowzer and the boys.
And the first thing to cross my mind was I know a band who would disagree ...
That of course is The Dead Milkman, whose song "In Praise of Sha Na Na" has been a favorite of mine since I first heard it 25 years ago.
Sha Na Na were the kings of Woodstock
You know, it's true deep in your heart
Greasy guys in gold lame
If only Hendrix had been so smart
And remember ...
You can move to Montana
And listen to Santana
But you still won't be
As cool as Sha Na Na
So take that, Dangerous Minds!
Of course this got me thinking about what an under-appreciated band The Dead Milkmen is.
The Dead Milkmen can wear my fez ...
These Philadelphia group got together in the early '80s, playing a light-hearted, if often fierce brand of punk rock. They rose, they thrived for awhile, and they even played the old TAC Club in Santa Fe sometime in the mid '80s. (Another storied local show I missed!) They broke up in 1995 but reformed, with three of the four original members, back in 2007 or '08.
Here's a song that actually got played a lot on MTV in the late '80s. (I still think it's cool rhyming "punk rock girl" with "Minnie Pearl," but it took me a couple of years to learn to overlook the fact that "California Dreamin' " is not a Beach Boys song.)
The early '90s grungequake remains one of my favorite periods of rock 'n' roll. Sure there was a ton of crap, and yes "Alternative Rock Radio" quickly became as pathetic as Top 40 pop or Hot New Country.
But still, it was a time of many great bands and exciting albums. And that was the period that inspired me to want to do my own radio shows.
To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with the list by Julie Anne Exter. Too many useless bands like Bush and Stone Temple Pilots and too many obvious choices like "Jeremy" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
You know me I usually shoot for more obscure and more obnoxious sounds.
But Exter's piece got me thinking ... So here, in no particular order, are the top 10 songs I would choose for this theoretical '90s Alt Rock cover band. I'd definitely pay the cover charge to see any band that did decent versions of the following;
1 "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains. This is the only song that Exter and I have in common. It's the first Alice in Chains song I ever heard and for my money, the best thing they ever did.
2 "Jack Pepsi" by TAD. As stated above,the original cover of 8-Way Santa got TAD sued. And this song, the best track from that fine album (and, in fact, the greatest of TAD's career) got the group a nice cease and desist from Pepsi Cola because they decided to use a version of the soft drink's logo when they released the song as a single.
3 "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden. I know"Black Hole Sun" was their big hit. But that dreary dirge sounded better by Steve & Eydie.This was Soundgarden at their fiercest.
4 "Jesus Built My Hotrod" by Ministry (with Gibby Haynes) Another song for the Lord ...
5 "Andres" by L7. This was Suzi Gardner's greatest moment with this band. I always wanted to know what exactly the "problem" was with long-haired Andres.
6 "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry" by Nick Cave. This is like a grim update of Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall." But it makes Dylan's tune seem like a quaint little political morality play by comparison. There is no "Ban the Bomb" message here. It's a young man cast into a world of "lynch mobs, death squads, babies being born without brains ..." The bittersweet refrain of "Papa won't leave you, Henry" seems like nothing more than a broken promise remembered in bitter nostalgia. But the damned kid keeps going on down that road.
7 "The Wagon" by Dinosaur Jr. When this band was rocking, they sounded like an explosion that never stopped.
8 "My Name is Mud" by Primus. Les Claypool's bass-centric band created rock 'n' roll's answer to Deliverance.
9 "Buckskin Stallion Blues" by Mudhoney & Jimmie Dale Gilmore. A couple of years before anyone was talking about "alternative country," Mudhoney teamed up with Texas singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore for a split EP with Mudhoney doing a Gilmore song, Gilmore doing a Mudhoney song and the two acts teaming up on this old Townes Van Zandt tune. Made me proud to be an American.
10 "Serve the Servants" by Nirvana 'Teenage angst has paid off well. Now I'm bored and old ..." When I first heard these lyrics, the first line of the first song from In Utero -- Nirvana's much anticipated follow to Nevermind -- I though Kurt Cobain had weathered whatever psychic typhoons he'd had to endure with grace and humor .
Sunday, September 13, 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
We Live Dangerous The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Heavy Honey by Left Lane Cruiser
Heebie Jeebies by The Gun Club
Flesh Eating Cocaine Blues by Daddy Long Legs
Rattle Snakin' Daddy Dave & Phil Alvin
Mississippi Drinkin' by John The Conqueror
I'm Cryin' by The Animals
I'm Insane by T-Model Ford
Don't Save it Too Long by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends
Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White by The Standells
Chillidos de la Noche by Los Eskeletos
A Question of Temperature by Balloon Farm
Lesson of Crime by YVY
Johnny Gillette by Simon Stokes
Strychnine by The Fall
Livin' in Chaos by The Sonics
Used to Be Cool by Sons of Hercules
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! by Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows
I'll Be Alright by Terrence Trent D'Arby
Psychologically Overcast by Fishbone
2 Nigs United 4 West Compton by Prince
Three Hairs and You're Mine by King Khan & The Shrines
Incarceration Casserole by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Man With Soul by Alex Maiorano & The Black Tales
Everybody Wanna Get Rich Rite Away by Dr. John
Meth of a Rockette's Kick by Mercury Rev
Me and Max by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Widow's Grove by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
UPDATED: I corrected the date of the Sons of Royalty show! A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican September 11, 2015
Bobby Tench, Papa George, Pete Rees of Sons of Royalty
A ragtag band of British bikers on holiday are tearing through the West — from San Francisco to Santa Fe — while trying to live some crazy rock ’n’ roll dream. The tour features The Sons of Royalty, a grizzled group of rockers whose members have backed an amazing array of famous acts.
How can we stop this hog-riding menace?
Don’t stop ’em. Join ’em.
For one thing, even though they’re bound to raise some hell, they’re also raising money for charity. The Sons of Royalty will be hitting Skylight in Santa Fe next Saturday, (Sept. 19), for a night of blues-rock and good times.
The British bikers (and participants who choose to travel by car) who are taking part in the tour have agreed to pledge at least 1,000 pounds to the ChildLine Rocks program, which is a free, confidential helpline for children and teenagers in the United Kingdom, part of Great Britain’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In Santa Fe, proceeds from ticket sales will go to La Luz de Santa Fe Family Shelter.
According to the Sons’ website:
“This year is the fifth Great British Invasion and sees the event head to the west of America for more Harley-based japes involving incredible rides and, quite possibly, the firing of guns (legally, of course). You’ll fly into San Francisco in mid-September and from there it’s an 11-day exploration on two wheels, taking in Yosemite, Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Route 66, the Sandia Mountains, and New Mexico (Breaking Bad country).”
The trip has been dubbed “Standing on the Corner: In the Footsteps of Bobby Troup.” If you don’t get the reference, he’s the guy who wrote the song “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66.”
Last year, the invasion was a trip through the South, including stops at Sun Studios in Memphis and actor Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Freeman himself appeared at that event, and the Sons of Royalty website implies that he might show up this year, telling potential travelers to bring extra cash for “all the drinks you’ll want to buy Morgan Freeman.”
I dunno.
You might not be familiar with the names of the individual Sons of Royalty, who have also played together under the name the Barnes Blues Band. But they have backed several big-time stars.
Mama Royalty's baby boys
Guitarist and singer Bobby Tench, for example, has been a member of the Jeff Beck Group and he has recorded with the late Texas blues great Freddie King, Van Morrison (he played lead guitar on the Wavelength album), Eric Burdon, Humble Pie, reggae singer Junior Marvin (best known for his Clash-covered song “Police and Thieves”), and too many others to count. But having just recently seen the documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, I’m most impressed with the fact that Tench played, under the name Bobby Gass, on a 1972 Ginger Baker album (Stratavarious) with Nigerian wizard Fela Ransome-Kuti.
Keyboardist Tim Hinkley has earned a reputation as an ace studio musician, appearing on the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls album, the Who’s Quadrophenia film soundtrack, and records by R & B great Esther Phillips, Thin Lizzy, Humble Pie, Bad Company, and Alvin Lee. Hinkley also once backed Tom Waits on a British television special.
The other Sons aren’t slouches either.
The second guitarist/singer in the group, Papa George, has built a cult following as a blues artist. He started playing as a teenager at a Knightsbridge restaurant called the Borshtch ’n’ Tears. (Now that’s the blues!) And here is a local connection: In 2004 the guitarist played on the soundtrack of a movie called World Without Waves, which won the Best Southwest Film award at the Santa Fe Film Festival that year.
Sons bassist Pete Rees was a member of British bluesman (and former Thin Lizzy guitarist) Gary Moore’s band for 13 years, while drummer Darby Todd has backed the likes of Robert Plant, Ronnie Wood, and founding Animal Alan Price on stage.
The Sons of Royalty will be hitting Skylight (139 W. San Francisco St.) 7 pm Sept. 19, Tickets are $20.
Early this year, guitarist Josh Peyton and his band (wife Breezy Peyton on washboard and vocals and Ben Bussell on drums) unleashed their latest album, So Delicious, on the reconstituted Yazoo label. (The original Yazoo, which started in the 1960s, specialized in compiling old blues, hillbilly, and early jazz 78s.)
That seems appropriate for the Peyton crew. While the musicians are from Indiana, their heart is in the Mississippi Delta, and their sound harks back to those earthy sounds that came out of that region 80 years ago.
Rev. Peyton in Santa Fe a few years ago
So Delicious continues the basic sound the Big Damn Band is known for, kicking off with the chunka-chunka rhythm of “Let’s Jump a Train,” which has a guitar hook similar to that of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Green River.” There is some (so) delicious slide guitar on “Raise a Little Hell,” while “Pot Roast and Kisses” continues Peyton’s tradition of linking romance and food. (See “Mama’s Fried Potatoes” from their 2008 album Whole Fam Damnily.)
Strangely, the most mellow song on the new album is called “Scream at the Night.” It’s downright pretty.
So Delicious is a fine album, and I’m hoping that at the Albuquerque show, the Reverend reaches back and does what I still consider the group’s greatest song: “Your Cousin’s on Cops,” which, yes, is about realizing the bad boy being busted on the TV show is a relative.
xxxx
As for The Imperial Rooster, word is the Rev. Peyton gig will be their last one for some time. They've been playing only occasionally for the last year or so.
Another thing: I just found out last night -- way after I filed the print version of this column -- that none other than Slackeye Slim will be sitting in with the Rooster -- on music saw! Video time!
Here is The Sons of Royalty's Tench and Papa George in action a couple of years ago.
Here's some Pot Roast and Kisses by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Bad
And here's our beloved Rooster playing at last year's Muddy Roots Festival
This month marks the 122nd anniversary of the birth of Blind Lemon Jefferson (Sept. 24) and the 70th anniversary of the death of Blind Willie Johnson (Sept. 18).
Sounds like a good time to celebrate the music of blind American country bluesmen.
There have been blind musicians basically every since there has been music. But in the American South in the early part of the last century there arose a tradition in which visually-impaired blues singers proudly proclaimed their disability and added "blind" to their names.
Or at least their record companies did.
I'm not sure whether being known as "Blind" Blake or "Blind"
Willie McTell actually helped record sales in those days. But these singers and the others below created some mighty fine tunes and American music would have been much poorer without them.
Let's start with Mr. Jefferson (1893 to 1929), a Texan who, yes, was really named "Lemon." He sang gospel as well as the blues. He began recording in 1925. This one comes from 1926
Blind Blake, aka Arthur Blake (1896-1934), came from Florida or virginia, depending who you believe. He recorded about 80 tracks for Paramount in the 20s and early 30s. Here he's singing a song that's been covered by lots of blues, jazz, jugband and country singers.
Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945) also came from Texas. Most of his songs were religious but his slide guitar was pure blues.
The other Blind Willie probably is better known, Bob Dylan said it best: "I know no one can sing the blues / Like Blind Willie McTell." McTell (1898 to 1959) hailed from Georgia. He was known for picking a 12-string guitar. Here's a snappy little murder ballad that's best known for its versions by Johnny Cash.
Blind Boy Fuller (1907-1941) was a North Carolina bluesman whose real name was Fulton Allen. He wasn't born blind, but began to lose his eyesight as a teenager. He became known for his "hokum" numbers -- i.e. dirty songs. And he was good at it. Here is one of my favorites.
My token Caucasian here, Blind Alfred Reed, (188--1956), was an influential hillbilly singer from West Virginia. This next song has been covered by Ry Cooder and The Del Lords among others. It's a true anthem of the Great Depression.
Besides blind singers, in the realm of gospel music there also have been blind vocal groups. The most famous is The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. Leader Clarence Fountain still has an active group by that name. But my favorite is Archie Brownlee & The Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Brownlee was born in 1925 and died in 1960. He was discovered by Alan Lomax singing with other students at Mississippi Blind School for Negroes, which was part of Piney Woods School near Jackson, Miss. Lomax recorded them in 1937. Heres a Blind Boys classic.
If you live in Chicago and you love rock 'n' roll, chances are you're well acquainted with a cable access show called Chic-a-Go-Go. The show bills itself as "Chicago's Dance Show for Kids of All Ages."
Drawing from legendary dance programs like Soul Train and American Bandstand, as well as Chicago's own 1960s shows Kiddie-A-Go-Go and Red Hot and Blues, CHIC-A-GO-GO combines classic TV entertainment with an original, quirky style. And unlike its dance show ancestors, CHIC-A-GO-GO takes advantage of its non-commercial home on the Chicago Access Network to create a diverse TV world that does not have to focus on a single demographic. People of all ages, colors, and backgrounds, linked by their love of music, dance together in harmony on the CHIC-A-GO-GO set. The dancers, who range in age from newborns to youthful seniors, move to the latest Hip Hop music, as well as classic R&B, Rock & Roll, Punk, Funk, and all points in between.
Nobunny does it for the children
The show was the brainchild of Roctober magazine's Jake Austen after writing an article on Kiddie-A-Go-Go.
I'm not sure whether Chic-a-Go-Go is still a going concern, Neither its website nor Roctober's has been updated in more than a year.
But YouTube gives al things a measure of immortality, so on this Wacky Wednesday enjoy some of my favorite clips from Chic-a-Go-Go.
First, there's the ever delightful Nobunny who urges the kids to "Bang a gong to the Son of Sam ..." The kids here seem a little apprehensive -- except the little girl wants to squeeze his snoot.
Hunx & His Punx have played on the show many times
Neil Hamburger does his best to depress the kiddies with one of his sad country songs.
There also are interview segments with an obnoxious puppet named Lil' Ratso. Here, in this 2008 clip, Ratso meets The Cramps.
Here's an interview by Lil' Ratso with Pere Ubu's David Thompson. Thomas warns the children to stay away from musicians, and don't become a musician: "Self expression should be left to the professionals. We're the only ones who can deal with the disappointment."
Then, watch the kids dance to a song by Pere Ubu. Later there's an appearance by a band called Zolar X that sounds pretty cool
Shortly before I left my house to go do Terrell's Sound World at KSFR last night, I stumbled upon a two-part article by Steven L. Jones on the ever-bitchen Murder Ballad Monday blog: "How Charles Manson Murdered the '60s."
I've been a fan of that blog since earlier this year when I was writing about a bloody old murder ballad for a Throwback Thursday.
Murder Ballad Monday is part of The Sing Out website. Sing Out is a decades-old folk music publication, and indeed, most of the murder ballads covered there are traditional folk tunes. But not all of them.
Part one of the Manson story I found last night started out talking about an old Sonic Youth tune, "Death Valley '69" from their Bad Moon Rising album. (I got this vision of a frantic Pete Seeger having a Newport flashback and trying to unplug Sonic Youth with an ax.)
And hey, I just noticed that the first comment on Part One was none other than Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family! (She's a fellow New Mexican too.)
Anywho, Jones' Manson pieces inspired me to slap together a set for my radio show last night, using some of the songs he talked about plus some other tunes. I just posted that set on Mixcloud.