Friday, January 01, 2016
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: My Favorite 2015 Albums
Happy New Year, dear friends! Here is a list of my favorite albums of 2015. This list is in no particular order, but at some point throughout the past year, each one was my number-one favorite for at least a few days.
1) This Is The Sonics . Unlike The Standells, Question Mark and The Mysterians, Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs, and other giants of the garage-rock era of the mid-1960s, The Sonics didn’t get much radio play where I grew up. Thus, I didn’t really get exposed to them until well into my adulthood. And I didn’t become a complete babbling devotee of their cult until just a couple of years ago when I saw The Sonics — with three original members — rage, ravage, and conquer the Ponderosa Stomp festival in New Orleans. This is the band’s first studio album of all-new material in nearly 50 years, and it rocks harder than anything by any young whippersnapper I heard all year.
2) Mutilator Defeated at Last by Thee Oh Sees. John Dwyer is a miserable failure at hiatus. His attempt at putting Thee Oh Sees on the shelf only lasted a few months before he was back with a new line-up, which I begrudgingly have to admit is just as ferocious as the previous incarnation. The sound of Mutilator is unmistakably Oh Sees: rubbery post-psychedelic guitar-based excursions into the unknown with distorted echoes of garage rock, punk, and noise-rock.
3) Freedom Tower — No Wave Dance Party 2015 by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. This album, the Blues Explosion’s second since the band’s resurrection with 2012’s Meat + Bone, is a loving song cycle about New York City. In several tunes, the band indulges in a little well-earned nostalgia about the sleazy, crime-ridden era of the ’70s and ’80s, those gritty days when punk rock, hip-hop, and yes, “No Wave” were born. Jon Spencer and the boys are as loud, frantic, and joyful as they were in their mid-’90s heyday.
4) The Ruffian’s Misfortune by Ray Wylie Hubbard. Once again, Ray Wylie Hubbard has given the world a swampy, blues-soaked collection of tunes in which, in his trademark Okie drawl, he tells stories of sin and salvation; gods and devils; women who light candles to the “Black Madonna;” undertakers who look like crows (“red-eyed and dressed in black”); and hot-wiring cars in Oklahoma.
5) No Cities to Love by Sleater-Kinney. These women are far better at hiatus than Thee Oh Sees. Sleater-Kinney’s little break lasted about 10 years. They roared back this year, though, with a mighty tour (including a memorable show in Albuquerque in April) and this new album. It’s brash, urgent, and emotional. And they make it seem so easy.
6) Long Lost Suitcase by Tom Jones. No, I’m not being ironic here. In 2015, Tom Jones — the old British pop star who sang “It’s Not Unusual,” the cheesy ’70s TV star and Las Vegas sex symbol at whom grown women threw their underwear — made one of the year’s finest albums. I was drawn in by his haunting cover of Gillian Welch’s “Elvis Presley Blues,” but I stayed for his rocking version of Billy Boy Arnold’s “I Wish You Would,” and Los Lobos’ “Everybody Loves a Train” – not to mention his stark take on one of my favorite early Willie Nelson tunes, “Opportunity to Cry.” I was so impressed, I sought out Jones’ previous albums with producer Ethan Johns — the gospel-drenched Praise & Blame and Spirit in the Room. Jones’ powerful voice is still in impeccable form and his taste in material has never been better.
7) Giving My Bones to the Western Lands by Slackeye Slim. On his latest album, Joe Frankland, aka Slackeye Slim, continues his exploration of the shadows. As usual, many of his songs are frequently cast in an Old West setting, though his themes of sin, redemption, loneliness, desperation, and freedom are universal. Slackeye lived among us in New Mexico for a few months, forming a sinister musical alliance with The Imperial Rooster, an EspaƱola band. He’s moved back to Colorado, but promises he won’t be a stranger.
8) Walk on Jindal’s Splinters by Jello Biafra & the New Orleans Raunch and Soul All-Stars. This is a live New Orleans concert by former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra that was reportedly done on a dare. Teaming up with a rootsy but raucous band (including a horn section), the West Coast punk-rock icon blasts his way through a bunch of Big Easy R & B classics.
9) Bailazo by Rolando Bruno. This is my choice for world-beat heavyweight champion of 2015. Rolando Bruno’s label, Voodoo Rhythm Records, describes his sound as “Full Blast Psychedelic Latino Cumbia Garage with a very Cheesy Touch of a ’70s Supermarket!!!” Bruno, a former member of the Peruvian garage-punk band Los Peyotes, also throws in Middle Eastern riffs, kung-fu movie soundtrack sounds, and other surprises to create a wacky but very danceable brew.
10) Coulda Shoulda Woulda by Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs. Holly Golightly and her partner “Lawyer Dave” Drake continue their streak of bare-boned funky-clunky country bluesy albums. Golightly is a native Brit, but this is a big sloppy homemade American mess, which of course I mean as a compliment. The whole album is packed with crazy fun.
Honorable Mentions
* Lost Time by Dave & Phil Alvin
* Under the Savage Sky by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
* So Delicious by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
* Banditos
* Ballsier by The Grannies
* Supay by Cankisou
* O How I Wish My Bad Heart Was True by Chipper Thompson
* That’s Your Wife on the Back of My Horse by Johnny Dowd
Thursday, December 31, 2015
THROWBACK THURSDAY: New Year's Blues
Father Time's got the New Year Blues |
OK, enough of this Auld Lang Syne crap! As this year goes down the tubes of eternity, let's get down down with some New Year's blues with some of the great blues artists from the last century.
Let's kick it off with Blind Lemon Jefferson and this song from the late 1920s.
Lightnin' Hopkins did this jaunty little jumper in the early 1950s
Back in 1962 Roosevelt Sykes sang about his troubles keeping New Year's resolutions.
Also in the early '60s Lonnie Johnson had some New Year's blues
This 1935 recording features Mary Harris on vocals, Charley Jordan on guitar and Petey Wheatstraw (William Bunch) on piano.
Finally, also from 1935, here is some Tampa Red.
May your New Year not be so blue!
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
WACKY WEDNESDAY: The Auld Lang Syne Variations
The new year is nearly upon us, so it's important to remember that there's more than one way to tip a cup of kindness with "Auld Lang Syne."
For instance, there's the Japanese one-man band way.
Here is another street musician, this one from Texas. "Folkie Kay" doesn't normally dress this way. She was wearing a costume that she says was "made for a production of Shakespeare's play Richard III at the University of Texas in the early 50s." Listen close and you'll hear a kazoo in the background.
Then there's this guy, performing what Dangerous Minds calls a "David Lynchian" version of Auld Lang Syne" on a theremin.
There's the slasher-movie/serial-killer way ...
And finally, here's how you do it if you're a cigarette-smoking cartoon lamb working for an Christian e-card company ...
For more on Auld Lang Syne CLICK HERE Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 24, 2015
THROWBACK THURSDAY: A Very Autry Christmas
But Autry also wrote this song, which he sang in the 1949 movie "The Cowboy and The Indians," in which Autry helps the Navajos, including Jay Silverheels (who also played Tonto in The Lone Ranger) against an an evil trading post operator. The movie poster says, "Autry Blasts Pale Face Renegades."
And while Autry didn't write this next song, he was the first to record it, back in 1950
Have a very merry Gene Autry Christmas !
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Santa Claus in Outer Space
A disco-era Tiny Tim gave us a a Yuletide outer space tune. It rocketed to instant obscurity.
This next one is featured on my new Big Enchilada Christmas Special. It's by Bobby Helm, best known for "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." (Hat tip to my brother Jack)
And for all sorts of wacky Christmas songs, check out my Christmas Specials at The Big Enchilada Podcast.
Sunday, December 20, 2015
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, December 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
Repo Man by Iggy Pop
Buy Before You Die by Figures of Light
Hillbilly with Knife Skills by The Grannies
Don't Be Angry by Nick Curran & The Nitelifes
Mr. Good Enough by JJ & The Real Jerks
The Claw by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
I Got Your Number by The Sonics
Funeral by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Smell of Incense by Southwest FOB
So Much in Love by The Persuassions
Dig That Crazy Santa Claus by The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Party World by Carbon/Silicon
Hey Darling by Sleater-Kinney
The 99s by Dead Moon
Hey Santa Claus by The Chesterfield Kings
Still Sober After All These Beers by The Bad Lovers
Get Away by Miriam
I Wish You Would by Tom Jones
Just Let Me Know by Any Dirty Party
Christmas in Jail by The Youngsters
Christmas Island by Leon Redbone
Land of 1,000 Dances by Jello Biafra & The Raunch and Soul All Stars
People Look Away by Death
Tomboy by Acid Baby Jesus
Santa Came Home Drunk by Clyde Lasley & The Cadillac Baby Specials
Sock it to Me Santa by Bob Seeger & The Last Heard
Sztos by Kazik & Kwartet ProForma
Smoked All My Bud by King Mud
Hurray for Santa Claus by The Fleshtones
Lupine Ossuary by Thee Oh Sees
We'll Be Together Again by Dex Romweber Duo
Chocolate Jesus by Raw Death
Taxidermy Porno by The Hex Dispensers
The Mystery of Love by Marianne Faithful
O Holy Night by Brian WIlson
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
Saturday, December 19, 2015
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BIG ENCHILADA!!!
(Background Music: Santa or Astro-Santa? by Los Esquivitos)
Champagne of Christmas by The Fleshtones
Santa Was a Trucker by Erich McMann
I'm Givin' You the Blues for Christmas by Thee Fine Lines
Ain't No Chimney in the Projects by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
We Wish You a Merry Christmas by Music Infection
Merry Christmas to Me by The Waco Brothers
(Background Music: Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Los Straitjackets)
Saint Nick's Farm by The Gay Sportscasters
Oranges for Christmas by El Vez
Christmas Blues by Washboard Pete
Run Rudolph Run by Reverend Horton Heat
Christmas is a Lie by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Christmas by Little Marcy
(Background Music: It Came Upo a Midnight Clear by Beausoleil)
Captain Santa Claus and His Reindeer Space Patrol by Bobby Helms
Hanukkah O Hanukkah / Carol O' The Bells by Unhung Heroes
Hang Your Balls on the Christmas Tree by Kay Martin & Her Body Guards
It's Christmas Time Ebeneezer by The Len Price 3
Christmas in Jail by The Mighty Soul Deacons
The Boner (Christmas version) by Santa Geil and His Red Nosed Pimps
(Background Music: Sleigh Ride by Squirrel Nut Zippers)
Play it here:
Friday, December 18, 2015
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, November , 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
Captain Santa Claus and His Reindeer Space Patrol by Bobby Helms
Six Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used to Do by Tom Jones
C'Mon a My House by The Satellites
Hands Off My Whiskey by Kady Bow
Satan and the Saint by The Malpass Brothers
40 Miles to Vegas by Southern Culture on the Skids
Smash that Radio by The Electric Rag Band
Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy by Buck Owens
Santa Lost a Ho by The WhiskeyBelles
Out Yonder by Luke Reed
St. James Infirmary by Oh Lazurus
Cat head Biscuits and Gravy by Nancy Apple & Rob McNurlin
I Gave Up All I Had by Gurf Morlix
Cold and Bitter Tears by Ted Hawkins
One Hundred Miles by Tim Easton
Rat's Ass by Danny Barnes
Santa Can't Stay by Dwight Yoakam
LEFTY FRIZZELL Set
How Far Down Can I Go by Brennen Leigh
If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time by Willie Nelson
Long Black Veil by The Band
Always Late With Your Kisses by Merle Haggard
Mom and Dad's Waltz by Bobby Osbourn
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
I Love You a Thousand Ways by Lefty Frizzell
You Want Everything But Me by Brennen Leigh
She's Gone Gone Gone by Lefty Frizzell
Please Ask That Clown to Stop Crying by Neil Hamburger
Lonely Christmas Call by George Jones
Velveteen Matador by Freakwater
Abolition by Cynthia Becker
Carolina by Stevie Tombstone
You Put the X in Xmas by Dead Man's Hollow
Oh Susana by Ronny Elliott
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Tributes to Ted and Lefty and other Fun New Music
December 18, 2015
When I first heard about a tribute album in the works for Ted Hawkins, my reaction was, “About damn time!” And when I heard Cold and Bitter Tears: The Songs of Ted Hawkins, my two-word summation was, “Well done.”
Unfortunately, your reaction while reading this might be “Ted who?” So I guess I better give my Ted talk.
Hawkins was a busker — a street musician who did some of his best work singing for tips at Venice Beach. He was born in Mississippi, spent too much time in jail, and had a voice that sounded like a grittier version of Sam Cooke’s. He was discovered and rediscovered a couple of times by show-biz heavies. And he died just months after the release of his first major-label album.
If you believe in signs from the universe, consider this: He died in 1995 on New Year’s Day. Died on New Year’s Day, like Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt.
Cold and Bitter Tears is mostly populated by alt-country singers, many of them from Texas. Like most tribute albums, most of the songs don’t compare — and shouldn’t be compared — with the original versions. But there are some real gems here.
Gruff-voiced Jon Dee Graham captures the spirit of “Strange Conversation,” while Sunny Sweeney, who I’d never heard before, makes you wonder why “Happy Hour” didn’t hit the country charts. And Shinyribs (Kev Russell of The Gourds) turns “Who Got My Natural Comb?” into a crazy soul rave-up.
Mary Gauthier nails “Sorry You’re Sick,” complete with slinky, swampy guitar. The refrain of this tune, “What do you want from the liquor store/Something sour or something sweet?” is jarring. After promising to do whatever it takes to heal a seriously ailing lover, the answer can be found at a liquor store? But as Gauthier recently told the Los Angeles Times, “There is nothing to me as heartbreaking or compelling as one addict’s compassion for another who is dying of addiction.”
The finest track on this tribute is sung by Hawkins himself.
Judging by the tape hiss, “Great New Year” is from some long-lost homemade recording. It starts off as a typical nostalgic holiday tune, with the singer fantasizing about his family gathering around and the children opening presents just like the old days. But reality starts revealing itself with the singer confessing that this family scene probably won’t happen, and probably didn’t happen even in the good old days. Hawkins wonders if his kids even remember him and sings, “I was cruel, mean and selfish/I didn’t show no fatherly love./Now they’re all with their mother/Giving her all the love.”
It stings. Just like Hawkins’ best tunes.
Here's a video of Shnyribs, Sunny Sweeney, Tim Easton and Randy Weeks doing a live version of a Hawkins song.
And here's Ted himself teaching some European buskers how to busk better
Also recommended:
* Brennen Leigh Sings Lefty Frizzell. I’m most familiar with Texas songbird Brennen Leigh by way of a couple of duet albums with male singers — 2014’s excellent Before the World Was Made, which she performed with Noel McKay, and Holdin’ Our Own and Other Country Gold Duets, which she made in 2007 with Austin country crooner Jesse Dayton.
On her new album, Leigh has a silent partner, the late William Orville Frizzell, better known as “Lefty.”
She’s hardly the first to pay homage to this country music titan. Merle Haggard did a tribute album, as did Willie Nelson. This might be the first by a woman, however.
And if you’re familiar with her albums with McKay and Dayton, it should be no surprise that she stuck to a good, clean honky-tonk sound, which suits her sweet, sexy voice as much as it suits Frizzell’s songs.
Leigh covers many of the lofty Lefty’s best-known songs — “Saginaw, Michigan,” “Mom and Dad’s Waltz,” etc. But my favorites are the lesser-known nuggets from the Lefty catalogue, songs like “Run ’Em Off,” “My Baby Is a Tramp,” and “What You Gonna Do, Leroy?”
Interesting fact: Lefty Frizzell served some time in New Mexico. At the age of nineteen he wrote one of his greatest songs, the first song on the Leigh tribute, “I Love You A Thousand Ways,” in 1947, while locked up in the Roswell jail on a statutory rape charge.
“The song was a plaintive apology to his wife, Alice, for his misdeeds,” musician Deke Dickerson wrote in his liner notes for a Frizzell box set on the Bear Family label
And, according to Dickerson, Lefty landed in the pokey only eight days after the fabled UFO crash near Roswell.
Coincidence? You tell me!
From the Roswell jail to Brennen Leigh ...
* Walk on Jindal’s Splinters by Jello Biafra & The New Orleans Raunch and Soul All-Stars.
This is a live New Orleans concert by former Dead Kennedys frontman Biafra that reportedly was done on a dare.
Teaming up with a rootsy but raucous band (including a horn section), the West Coast punk lord blasts his way through a bunch of Big Easy R & B classics including “Ooh-Poo-Pah-Doo,” “Mother-in-Law” and “Working in a Coal Mine.”
Jello puts his stamp on Rockin’ Sidney’s zydeco anthem, “(Don’t Mess With) My Toot Toot,” does an intense version of “House of the Rising Sun,” and pays tribute to the late Alex Chilton, a New Orleans resident, with “Bangkok.”
My favorites include a properly spooky, near-13-minute version of Dr. John’s hoodoo-soaked masterpiece “I Walk on Guilded Splinters” and a wild romp through “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses),” originally done by John Fred & His Playboy Band.
The whole album is downright insane. And I can’t get enough of it.
Here's Jello in disguise ...
* Bloodshot Six Pack to Go: Working Songs for the Drinking Class. Speaking of The Dead Kennedys, there is a dandy DK cover on this new Bloodshot Records compilation.
Elizabeth Cook does a countrified take on the Kennedys’ signature “Too Drunk to Fuck.” It’s a beautiful thing.
And in another salute to a West Coast punk band, banjo picker Al Scorch does a crazy version of Black Flag's “Six Pack."
There also are songs by Texas honky-tonker Dale Watson, Banditos, Bobby Bare Jr. and a creditable cover of The Pogues’ “If I Should Fall from the Grace of God” by Deer Tick.
The compilation is available as seven 7-inch vinyl records or as digital downloads.
Here is Deer Tick falling from grace
Thursday, December 17, 2015
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Songs That Leon Taught Us
When Leon Redbone released his first album On the Track in 1975, it was as if he walked out of a time warp from some haunted vaudeville theater. With his natty white suit, Panama hat and ever-present sunglasses, he looked the part of a traveling songster from some forgotten era.
And his music seemed familiar, yet, with his sometimes mumbled baritone vocals, somehow other worldly. He played old blues, jazz, a little country (he was especially fond of Jimmie Rodgers, an ocassional folk song like "Polly Wolly Doodle," English music hall tunes, 1920s crooner's material.
His arrangements were subtle, never cutesy. Every time I'd hear a Leon song on the radio, (yes, for awhile there in the mid '70s they'd actually play him on the rock stations -- probably because Bob Dylan had said nice things about him in Rolling Stone.
Earlier this year his website announced that Leon was retiring from recording and performing due to health reasons. So this might be a good time to pay tribute to him by taking a look and listen to some of the wonderful songs that I first heard through him.
Let's start with the title cut of one of Leon's early albums, Champagne Charlie. The song goes back to the mid 1800s, during the English music hall era. A singer named George Leybourne wrote the words while one Alfred Lee wrote the melody. But my favorite version was recorded by bluesman Blind Blake in 1932.
This is a Leon favorite, "My Walking Stick," written by Irving Berlin and recorded by Ethel Merman in 1938:
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
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