Wednesday, March 16, 2016

SXSW Day 1

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A look behind Thee Oh Sees
AUSTIN, TEXAS _ As Roger Miller would say, my ears still ring from last night's show at Hotel Vegas over on East Sixth Street. The stars of Tuesday's show were Thee Oh Sees, which longtime readers of this humble blog should know is one of my favorite living bands.

This is the third time I've seen John Dwyer and his merry band. I first caught them during the 2012 South by Southwest festival in Austin before I even knew who they were, playing on a bill with The Gories and Kid Congo Powers. By the second time I saw them, a couple of years ago in Albuquerque, their album Floating Coffin was one of my favorites of that year. (It's still my favorite Oh Sees record, though they've done a couple of fine ones since.)

Of those three shows I've seen, last night's was definitely the fiercest, most aggressive and most intense. They started off on full blast warp speed and rarely eased up for the hour-plus they played. Dwyer, after putting Thee Oh Sees on a ridiculously short "hiatus" shortly after the last time I saw them, moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and put together a new version of the group.

The band I saw last night had two drummers (which also was the case when I first saw them four years ago), a bass player and, of course Dwyer on guitar, vocals and occasional keyboards.

Oh si!
This Austin crowd was extremely fired up, immediately forming a frenzied mosh pit, which inspired a seemingly endless stream of stage-divers/crowd surfers. It was as if the early '90s never ended.


And I've got to go on the record here as a hip and swingin' rock 'n' roll grandpappy and say that this crap irritates me. I've avoided the mosh pits since that night a few years ago I nearly lost my upper plate when some dumbass mosher thought it would be cool to slam into my back. One reason I hate it so much is that the quality of my snapshots suffer when I lost my place up front and center.

But all that geezer stuff aside, this show left me grinning. Not only was the show full of fire, the crazed other-worldliness of Dwyer's musical vision -- his distorted falsetto vocals, the crazy sci-fi guitar bleeps and blorches -- cuts to the bone.

It's all on a visceral level. I couldn't actually make out any of the lyrics he was singing and I didn't recognize many of the songs until several minutes in -- and many of them, I didn't recognize at all.
But you could feel the power, that call of the weird that rock 'n' roll fans crave.

If you're in Austin right now, don't kick yourself for missing this show last night. Thee Oh Sees have taken up residency at Hotel Vegas and will be playing tonight and every night through Saturday there. (Not sure of the times though.)

One disappointment: Another favorite underground band I love, The Night Beats, also was on the bill at Hotel Vegas Tuesday. However, they played hours before I arrived, around 5 p.m. (5 p.m.? What is this, the early bird special at Denny's?) So hopefully I'll catch them somewhere later this week.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, March 13, 2016
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

Accentuate the Positve / Things are Getting Better by NRBQ

Little Doll by The Stooges

I Got Eyes for You by The Gories

Ass Welt Boogie by The Bassholes

Bad Love by The Night Beats

Meat Juice Mustache by Made for Chickens by Robots

UFO, Please Take Her Home by The Coachwhips

Wild Man by The Mokkers

Romance by Wild Flag

Crazy for You by Dirtbombs

 

Dead Moon Night by Dead Moon

Voyage of the Trieste by Chocolate Watch Band

Lady Queen Bee by The Grandmothers

Bee Line by The Ugly Beats

Facebook Troll / No Xmas for John Quay by The Fall

Mean Ass Girlfriend by The Barbarellatones

Pre-St. Pat's Celebration (Celt Rock and more!)

Black and Blue by Kilmaine Saints

The Body of an American by The Pogues

Jack Dempsey by Scythian

Some Say The Divil is Dead by The Wolfe Tones

Hey What's Under Your Kilt by Celkilt

Full Moon by The Bloody Irish Boys

What's Left of the Flag by Flogging Molly

Jimmy Collins' Wake by Dropkick Murphys

Hit the Ground by Greenland Whalefishers

Whiskey Devil by The Mahones

Molly Malone by Sinead O'Connor

The Six Rat Rovers by Paddy & The Rats

Forty Deuce by Black 47

Carrickfergus by Van Morrison & The Chieftains

Substitute CLOSING THEME: Lucky Day by Tom Waits

 

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SXSW 2016: WATCH THIS BLOG

Love is in the air in Austin next week.
And The Waco Brothers will be there too

I'm headed down to Texas once again for the festivities surrounding South by Southwest. Please bookmark this blog and watch for my posts. Hopefully, if my grandsons allow it, I'll be posting ever day, starting Wednesday morning.

No, I didn't get a badge or wristband. But as any music fiend who has attended this Spring Break for the Music Industry knows, you don't need no stinking badge! There are plenty of unofficial, unsanctioned, unspeakable events to keep you thoroughly entertained.

The last time I was there, in 2014, there was a senseless, tragic crime in the streets of Austin that left four people dead (just a few blocks from where I was at the time.) A maniac named Rashad Owens plowed through Red River Street, which was full of pedestrians, leaving four people dead. this was near the Mohawk, where some musical acts I love, including X, The Black ANgels and Les Claypool were playing.

Last November a jury found Owens guilty of capital murder. Because the state didn't seek the death penalty, he received an automatic life sentence.

If anyone gives a rodent's posterior, you can find my posts from past years, going back to 2004 HERE.  And you can find a whole lot of my SXSW snapshots HERE

The bad news: No Wacky Wednesday or Throwback Thursday next week. But follow the links and catch up on some old ones.

Someone I won't be seeing next week is the late Davy Jones of The Hickoids. Davy died of cancer in November. But I bet his spirit will be there Tuesday night when Hickoids, Beaumonts, Churchwood, Stevie Tombstone and others play The White Horse.

R.I.P. Davy Jones





Friday, March 11, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, March 11 , 2016
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

String's Mountain Dew by Stringbean

Five Brothers by Marty Robbins

Cheatin'. Again by Whitey Morgan & The 78s

Rock my World by Jimmy & The Mustangs

Talk to Me Lonesome Heart by Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers

My Baby Don't Dance to Nothin' But Ernest Tubb by Junior Brown

Who Says God is Dead by Eilen Jewell

Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven by Loretta Lynn

Your Money and My Good Looks by Gene Watson & Rhonda Vincent

I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven by Eddie Dean & The Frontiersmen

 

When They Found the Atomic Power by Hawkshaw Hawkins

Why Can't He Be You by Patsy Cline

Hangman's Boogie by Cowboy Copas

Wasted Mind by Danny Barnes

Fist Magnet by Bad Livers

Sympathy for the Devil by Danny Barnes

Has My Gal Been Here by Devil in a Woodpile

My Gal by Jim Kweskin's Jug Band

 

Meridian Risng/Jimmie Rodgers set

Cadillacin' by Paul Burch

Dear Old Sunny South by The Sea by Jimmie Rodgers

Waiting on a Train by Steve Forbert

California Blues by Alejandro Escovedo with Jon Langford

Whippin' the Old TB by Merle Haggard

Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel by Jason & The Scorchers

My Blue-eyed Jane by Bob Dylan

Standing' on the Corner by Jimmie Rodgers with Louis Armstrong

Gunter Hotel Blues by Paul Burch

The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home by Iris DeMent

 

A Dark Road is a Hard Road to Travel by Ralph Stanley

Billy Dee by Kris Kristofferson

Katy Kay by Robbie Fulks

Pin in the Rope by Philip Bradatsch

Learning The Game by Leo Kottke

Happy Trails by Roy Rogers

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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Thursday, March 10, 2016

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Burch Sings of Jimmie

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
March 11, 2016


You know from the first words Paul Burch sings on his new album, Meridian Rising, that this is going to have a lot more attitude than most records honoring any country-music immortals.

“Let me tell you all about the place I’m from/Where the police tip their hats while they’re swinging their clubs. … You best mind where you go and watch what you say/I’ll visit your ma, but I’m not going to stay.” 

Yes, the sweet sunny South of romantic myth juxtaposed against the oppressive reality. I knew right then I was going to love this album.

That song “Meridian” is about Meridian, Mississippi, and the album is about that town’s most famous son, Jimmie Rodgers — America’s beloved “Singing Brakeman,” often called the “father of country music.”

But Burch, a honky-tonkin’ alt-country hero for more than 20 years, swings down the club on any notion that this is anything like any Rodgers tribute you’ve heard before. (And there have been some fine ones, such as Merle Haggard’s Same Train,A Different Time, Steve Forbert’s Any Old Time, and the Bob Dylan-instigated various-artist spectacular, The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers.) For one thing, there are no actual Jimmie songs here, though most the tunes are played in the Rodgers style that blends hillbilly, blues, and jazz.

Instead of merely covering his songs, Burch tells the story of Rodgers’ life — not as a literal biography, but with songs from Rodgers’ point of view in various situations. You find Rodgers on tour like a Depression-era rock star on “US Rte 49” —  traveling, picking, drinking, womanizing. “They put me up in a house after the show/The mayor’s wife and daughter came in the back door. … Girls did alright by me but I had to leave ’em on Rte 49.”

But the stories Burch tells aren’t all fun and games. “Poor Don’t Vote” shows Rodgers’ working-class sympathy with those hit hardest by the Depression — and his anger at politicians who exploited and looked down on them. “You think you’re safe ’cause the poor don’t vote. … You’d better be kind to this rabble/’Cause if you got my vote or not may be the least of your troubles.”
Jimmie likes it

Rodgers’ death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-five is foreshadowed in several tunes — even in the good-time “US Rte. 49,” there’s a quick road stop in a hospital.

On “Fast Fuse Blues,” the singer notes “Later’s coming earlier every day,” and makes a last request: “Take me to Coney Island, so the last thing in my eye/Is you way up on the Wonder Wheel waving me goodbye.” Indeed, Rodgers visited Coney Island the day before he died.

The beauty of these songs — the stories they tell and the emotions behind them — is that they stand on their own even if a listener knows nothing about Rodgers.

In the end, Meridian Rising makes me better appreciate both Rodgers and Paul Burch.

Also recommended

* Got Myself Together (Ten Years Later) by Danny Barnes. Banjo maniac Barnes first got famous — well, maybe not actually famous, but he achieved a certain level of underground acclaim — with the pioneering Texas alt/punk/weirdo-bluegrass outfit called Bad Livers in the 1990s.

The Livers broke up around the turn of the century after their commercially disastrous final album, Blood and Mood, basically scared and/or angered much of the Americana crowd. In my review back then I wrote, “Had Beck been raised in Mayberry as the abused stepson of Gomer Pyle …”

In other words, I loved it.

After that, Barnes left Austin for Washington State and began a solo career, sometimes collaborating with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and even Dave Matthews — yes, that Dave Matthews — and others.

In 2005, Barnes released a record called Get Myself Together. “It was kinda my last acoustic type effort heretofore (I launched pretty heavily into my electronic period),” Barnes wrote on his website.

I’m not exactly sure why he decided to release a new version of that album, but somehow I missed the original when it came out, so I’m glad he did. (Unfortunately, he left off his bluegrass version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” which was on the 2005 album, though he does have a new version of Bad Livers’ “I’m Convicted” as a bonus track on the new one.)

Barnes does most of these tunes solo, mainly just voice and banjo. His wry lyrics and his vocal phrasing make him sound like a modern John Hartford. You can hear that in the song “Wasted Mind,” a disdainful look at some kid going nowhere fast.

“He ain’t the first boy standing round a beat-up Chevy/Want to sing like Eminem,” Barnes sings while his fingers fly around his banjo. “On a first name basis at the police station/Where you spend a lot of lonely nights/Standin’ in the line-up lights.”

Incarceration for stupidity is the theme of another highlight here, “Get Me Out of Jail.” It begins “Well, I got drunk this morning/And I went off to work/By nine or ten I cashed it in/And threw up on my shirt/Then I lost your house keys/So I broke in with a rock/I keep my OxyContin baby/Way down in my sock.”

And things get worse from there.

If you’re interested in Danny Barnes, check out this 2009 Bad Livers’ reunion show HERE.


Video Time:

Here's a live performance of "Meridian" by Paul Burch



Here's "Fast Fuse Blues"



Here's Jimmie Rodgers -- at least that's the name on the tail of his shirt. And yes, that's Louis Armstrong on the cornet and his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano.


Here's Danny Barnes singing "Get Me Out of Jail" with Mimi Naja on mandolin and drummer Tyler Thompson live in Oregon last November.



And just for old time's snake, here's "Fist Magnet," my favorite song from The Bad Livers' crazed final album, Blood & Mood






THROWBACK THURSDAY: Three Country Stars

Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas
Last Saturday, March 5, marked the 53rd anniversary of a plane crash that killed three major country stars of the day: Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Patsy Cline. It was country music's equivalent to the crash a few years before that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper

These days, everyone knows Patsy. But Copas and Hawkins are far less known.

Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, an Ohio native first achieved stardom in the 1940s when he replaced Eddie Arnold in Pee Wee King's band. (I just played one of his hits, "Hangman's Boogie" on my latest Big Enchilada podcast.) Copas began his solo recording career King Records in Cincinnati.

That influential label in 1948 also signed long tall Harold Franklin Hawkins, better known as "Hawkshaw." Hawkins. whose wife was country singer Jean Shepard, began singing professionally after World War II. (An Army vet, Hawkins fought in the Battle of the Bulge.) Like Copas and Cline, he was a member of the Grand Old Opry.

I probably don't need to tell you about Patsy. At the time of her death she was one of the biggest stars of country music.

At the time of the crash, the three were returning from a benefit concert in Kansas City -- a show to raise money for the family of a disc jockey who had died a few months earlier. Also killed in the crash was the pilot, Randy Hughes, who was Cline's manager and Copas' father-in-law.

This story, published Saturday in The Tennessean, tells the story of the crash  and their loved ones who survived them. (Check out the video interview of Jean Shepard, who confesses to being resentful of the fact that Cline's death overshadowed that of her husband's.)

But first enjoy some music from these three country greats. We're fortunate that YouTube has live clips from all three. Here's Cowboy Copas.

 

Enjoy some Hawkshaw Hawkins:


Here's a fairly obscure -- but downright gorgeous -- Patsy Cline tune:



And finally, here's a rather maudlin tribute to Patsy, Hawkshaw and the Cowboy: "Three Country Stars" by Dick Heil





Wednesday, March 09, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Yuri Gagarin

Gagarin: Space is the place

America won the Space Race. We got to the moon before anyone else did.

So there.

U.S.A! U.S.A!

But back in 1961, that outcome didn't seem so clear. That was especially true on April 12 of that year when a Soviet cosmonaut became the first person to orbit the Earth.

His name was Yuri Gagarin. And today is his birthday. He would have been 82.

Gagarin joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955. Four years later he was training to become a cosmonaut.

On April 12, 1961 in spacecraft called Vostok 1 Gagarin circled the planet at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Unlike the American space flights that followed, Gagarin didn't land back on Earth in his spacecraft. He ejected from Vostok and parachuted to the ground.

Godless communist or not, that was pretty bitchen!

Gagarin was killed in a plane crash on March 27, 1968 -- more than a year before the U.S. moon landing. Gagarin never got to take a second trip to space.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left medals on the moon honoring Gagarin and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who also had been killed in a plane crash. A crater on the far side of the moon was named in honor of Gagarin.

Back when I was in college, some older friends of mine in El Paso honored Gagarin by inventing a drink named after him. I don't remember what was in it. Vodka I presume. A couple of bartenders down in Juarez would serve it when you asked.

In Russia, he was honored with this song. (Sung by Eduard Labkovskiy in 1975).



A website devoted to Soviet music provided the music. (Turned into English by Google Translate --  thus the Mad Libs / song poem quality of this rendition.)

We're leaving space to work,                    
Stykuya ships in orbit,                        
And all originates from the first flight,             
Gagarin first turn around the Earth.          

The commander of the ship, bright-eyed Russian guy,      
He smile his whole universe presented.            
No, not for nothing that went first in space Yuri Gagarin,     
It is a new road has opened for us.                   


Space miracle machines                         
Explore Venus and the Moon,                          
And if it is necessary, and we take off, guys,          
Climb into outer space any new ground.          

The commander, fighting a brave man,         
With the crew will go to Mercury and Mars.          
No, not for nothing that went first in space Yuri Gagarin,     
He opened a new road for us.                   

Floats Land expanses of the universe,                
Around the Sun holds its usual path,           
And we live, humans, daring dream          
Across the Solar System to walk someday.   

The commander, son of Earth, a great guy,     
Astronauts, scientists will deliver at Pluto.           
No, not for nothing that went first in space Yuri Gagarin,     
For the future they committed feat.

I have no idea what "For the future they committed feat" means.

Whatever ... Here is a more recent Gagarin song:

Sunday, March 06, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, March 6, 2016
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

Burn, Baby Burn by Stud Cole

Changing Colors by The BellRays

The Witch by Los Peyotes

I'm the One by BBQ

Anala by The King Khan & BBQ Show

Smoked All My Bud by King Mud

Startin' to Slip by Sons of Hercules

Cadillac Hips by Soledad Brothers

Must Be Desire by Mojo Juju

 

Springtime for Hitler / Don't Cry For Me Argentina by Billy Joe Winghead

Shortnin' Bread by The Cramps

Jenny Take a Ride by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

Buzz Buzz Buzz by The Blasters

Red Hot by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs

What's the Matter Now by The Oblivions with Mr. Quintron

Shoplifter by Quintron & Miss Pussycat

Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu

 

Almost Ready by Dinosaur Jr.

Silver Monkey by Copper Gamins

Busted by The Black Keys

Betti Moretti by King Salami & The Cumberland 3

Green Sin Bags by Alex Maiorano & The Black Tales

Broken Bones & Pocket Change by St. Paul & The Broken Bones

Red Cadillac by Johnny Rawls

Wild Wild Lover by The A-Bones

Feeling Great Now She's Gone by Lynx Lynx

No Control by The Manxx

 

Albuquerque Freakout by Holy Wave

Searchin' for You by Javier Escovedo

The Hole by The Soul of John Black

My Life by Harlan T. Bobo

Bang Bang by The Gaunga Dyns

As Time Goes By by Jimmy Durante

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, March 04, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, March 4, 2016
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
Back in the Saddle Again by Charlie Daniels
Mud by Legendary Shack Shakers
My Frijoles Ain't Free Anymore by Augie Meyers
Man of the Road by Wayne Hancock
The Race is On by George Jones
There Ought to Be a Law Against Sunny California by Terry Allen
Boomtown Boogie by Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Jo Carol Pierce & Joe Ely
Fools Fall in Love by Butch Hancock with Marce LaCouture
Heaven is the Other Way by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Whispering Sea by Loretta Lynn

Poor Don't Vote by Paul Burch
Pretty Girl by Miss Leslie
DIYBYOB by The Waco Brothers
Rats in My Amp by Salty Pajamas
America is a Hard Religion by Robbie Fulks
The Cold Hard Facts of Life by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Monkey Rag by Asylum Street Spankers

Beautiful Blue Eyes by Red Allen & The Kentuckians
Pick Me Up on Your Way Down by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
God Don't Never Change by Lucinda Williams
7 Devils by Goddamn Gallows
Let's Bounce by Supersuckers
Hillbilly Highway by Reagan Boggs
Need Somebody Bad by Rhonda Vincent
Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy by Red Foley

Velvet ine Matador by Freakwater
Touch of Evil by Tom Russell with Eliza Gilkyson
Blue is My Heart by Holly Williams
When I Was a Cowboy by Odetta
A Beautiful Thing by The Handsome Family
Tiny Island by Leo Kottke
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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NPR Loves a Terry Allen Song

Terry Allen at Plaza Bandstand, Aug. 19, 2009

Artist, musician and Santa Fe resident Terry Allen was honored this week when NPR featured one of his tunes on the Songs We Love segment.

The song is "Cortez Sails" from Terry's 1975 debut album Juarez. Jewly Hight of NPR writes:

 The album's longest track and gravitational center, "Cortez Sail" is a rickety waltz which pivots between whimsical road ballad and ominous war song, between Jabo's keenness to get back across the border into Mexico (homesick and ducking a double murder he'd committed in Cortez, Colorado) and 16th century conquistador Hernan Cortes's drive to brutally colonize the Aztecs. It's a dialogue between the freedom to move, to flee, to choose one's destination, and the power to dominate — or the powerlessness of being dominated.

I never can get the dadgum NPR embeds to work on this blog, so I'll just post a Youtube of the song:



No denying the majesty of "Cortez Sail." But if I were choosing the song that I love most from Juarez, it would have been this one:



Juarez is being re-released again in May, this time on a label called Paradise of Bachelors. You can pre-order HERE. The label also plans to re-release Terry's second album, Lubbock (On Everything).

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Albums Named for Unappetizing Food

O.K., I'll admit this is a pretty dumb idea.  It came to me yesterday after I ran into my friend Dan during my afternoon walk along the ...