Sunday, April 16, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Easter Everywhere by Julian Cope
Fire in My Bones by 13th Floor Elevators
Pretty Girls by Nobunny
Sick of You by Lou Reed
99 Things by Lynx Lynx
Golden Key by The Vagoos
Booga Chaka by Left Lane Criuiser
Dirt Preacher by Destination Lonely
Apocalyptica Blues by Blind Butcher
Can't Wake Myself Up by Laino & Broken Seeds
She's a Fool by Leslie Gore
Heaven on Their Minds by Murray Head
The Temple by Afghan Whigs
Damned for All Time by Scratch Acid
White Jesus by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Ballad of John and Yoko by The Beatles
I Shook His Hand by Gary Herffern
Peter Cottontail by Gene Autry
Dead in a Motel Room by Hickoids
Hillbilly with Knife Skills by The Grannies
Chem Farmer by Thee Oh Sees
Get on Board by Dead Moon
Today Again by Sad Girl
David by Courtney Barnett
Dusty Bibles and Silver Spoons by The Bloodhounds
The Other Two by Mark Sultan
A Young Girl by Noel Harrison
I'll Be Alright by Terence Trent D'Arby
Designated Fool by Sananda Maitreya
Look It Here by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Day Tripper by Otis Redding
The Cross by Prince CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, April 14, 2017 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
Wild Bill Jones by Acie Cargill
Nails in the Pine by Poor Boy's Soul
Help Me Joe by Dale Watson
See Willy Fly By by The Waco Brothers
Strange Heart by Banditos
3 Pecker Goat by Jesse Dayton
Cajun Moon by Phoebe Legere
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Eb Tit Fille by Jo-el Sonnier
I Got Your Medicine by Shinyribs
Kick in the Head by New Riders of the Purple Sage
Crazy as a Junebug by Paula Rhae McDonald
Botched Execution by Shovels & Rope
Cornbread and Butterbeans by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Only You by NRBQ
Only You by Carl Perkins
Back Street Affair by Webb Pierce
Where's the Dress by Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley
The Nail by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Forever Lasts Forever by Nikki Lane
Confession by Stephanie Hatfield
Just Someone I Used to Know by Buddy Miller with Nikki Lane
Nothin' Feels Right But Doin' Wrong by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Wish You Back by Stephanie Hatfield with Mariachi Sonidos del Monte
He's Sorry by John Wagner
I See the Want To in Your Eyes by Gary Stewart
Long Black Veil by David Allen Coe
When I Was a Cowboy by David Bromberg
Storms Never Last by Waylon Jennings & Jessie Colter
Dreamin' My Dreams by John Prine & Kathy Matea
King David's Last Psalm by Jessie Colter
Were You When They Crucified My Lord by Johnny Cash with The Carter Family 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
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican April 14, 2017
Here are three of my favorite albums by female singers to cross my reality in recent weeks.
* Sidelong bySarah Shook & the Disarmers. I don’t say this very often these days, especially when talking about emerging musicians, but Rolling Stone was right. Last summer, the magazine declared that this North Carolina outfit was one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.”
On my very first listen, I was a fan by the end of the first two tracks, “Keep the Home Fires Burnin’ ” (which has a beyond-catchy melody similar to the bluegrass classic “Rocky Top”) and “The Nail” (a love-gone-wrong honky-tonker with some fine guitar and lap steel in which Shook makes the wry observation, “Well, I ain’t your last, you ain’t my first/You can’t decide which fact is worse”).
With a fresh face like a young Jodie Foster and a voice with more than a hint of a whiskey rasp, Shook sounds as if she were born in an outlaw country song — or perhaps she’s the punk-rock granddaughter of Hazel Dickens.
In the country weeper titled “Dwight Yoakam” (which isn’t really about the singer by that name), Shook sings mournfully, “I’m drinking water tonight because I drank all the whiskey this morning.” Then in “Make It Up to Mama,” she playfully takes the persona of a bad hombre: “Well, I killed a man for lookin’ at me wrong … and I wasted my inheritance on hookers and booze/But I’m gonna make it up to Mama with this mother’s heart tattoo.”
I’m hoping that last one isn’t autobiographical, but I have a feeling that the preceding song — with a title that cannot be named in a respectable family newspaper like this one — might be based on personal experience: “I can’t cry myself to sleep, so I drink myself to death/I got cocaine in my bloodstream and whiskey on my breath/Ain’t a thing that I can change to get my luck up/I guess I’m just too much of a …”
Apparently Sidelong, originally self-released, has been out since late 2015, though Bloodshot Records is rereleasing it for national distribution at the end of this month.
* Traces by Stephanie Hatfield. Santa Fe’s Stephanie Hatfield just released her third and what I
believe to be her strongest album to date. This is music for late-night listening — with her sultry voice and heartfelt lyrics of love and longing.
Several tunes here, most notably “Stay Lover Strong,” “Wrap My Limbs,” “Season Too Soon” and “Exposed,” have a discernible Latin flavor. Aided by two members of a local group, Mariachi Sonidos del Monte (Eric Ortiz on trumpet and guitarist Santiago Romero), Hatfield creates a sound influenced by the band Calexico. And it works. On most of the songs the mariachi is more of a suggestion than the driving force. The driving force, as it should be, is Hatfield’s voice.
Some of my favorites on Traces are the mysterious, smoky “Talking to the Dead” and the soulful, gospel-informed “Sold and Stolen.” On the latter, Hatfield’s voice soars on the bridge while pianist R. Bruce Phillips offers sweet, subtle touches.
But even more satisfying is the minor-key slow-burner called “Confession.” At five and a half minutes, it’s the longest song on the album, but it’s time well spent. With her husband and co-producer Bill Palmer on guitar, the song builds and builds until the listener is virtually on the edge of his seat.
And the lyrics are even more intense than the music: “So I walk, I run, I hide in a bathroom down the hall/Sink to my knees and hold my head as if somehow I can stop the fall/He was gone and so I carried on, but I left most of me behind.”
My only disappointment is that this album doesn’t include Hatfield’s “Wish You Back,” her collaboration with the full Mariachi Sonidos del Monte. But don’t worry. You can download that one for a buck at Hatfield’s Bandcamp page.
* Highway Queen by Nikki Lane. Like Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson, Nikki Lane is a major voice in a loose-knit movement that I call “new country music that doesn’t suck.” And like Sarah Shook, she’s also got a punk-rock heart.
In fact, the first time I ever heard of Lane was when I saw her open for Social Distortion in Austin a couple of years ago. I walked away from that show with two songs ringing in my head: Social D’s cover of Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken” and Lane’s “Sleep With a Stranger.”
Released earlier this year, Highway Queen shows I wasn’t wrong in my initial impression of Lane as a strong, spunky, and important country artist. But some of the tunes seem to be hinting that the nonstop touring might be getting to her.
On the opening track, “700,000 Rednecks,” Lane sings, “Well, I travel around from town to town/I do the best I can everyday/I drive long hours and I don’t get to shower and I ain’t gonna brag about the pay.” Then, on the album’s title song, she sings, “Sixty thousand miles of blacktop/Countless broken hearts between/Winding lines of white that don’t stop/Living the life of the highway queen.”
But it’s not all complaints about the road. “Jackpot,” a snappy little country rocker, is raw joy, as is “Big Mouth,” an upbeat tune about small-town gossip.
And like all great country artists, Lane knows how to write a heartache song. “Forever Lasts Forever” is just stunning. In the refrain she sings, “We swore for better or for worse/And it was better at first, and worse at the end/But they say, forever lasts forever/’til forever becomes never again.”
Lane is scheduled to appear at Launchpad in Albuquerque on Monday, May 1. Tickets are $13.
Video time!
Here's Sarah
Here's a live-in-the-studio song from Stephanie (and Bill)
It's a song sung by a ghost, so it should not be a surprise that it's a song with an afterlife.
I'm talking, of course about "Long Black Veil." I first heard it by The Band. It's probably best known for its version by Johnny Cash. It originally was recorded by Lefty Frizzell. It was written by by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins.
American Songwriter in a 2013 article said the song began with Dill wanting to "write a folk song that would last for the ages." Writer Jim Beviglia said:
He was partially inspired by a newspaper story of a priest in New Jersey who was killed under a streetlight with witnesses watching. For the chorus, Dill drew from the song “God Walks These Hills With Me.” Perhaps most fascinating of all, Dill borrowed elements of the urban legend surrounding the grave of actor Rudolph Valentino. It seems that each year following the death of the legendary Italian screen star, a woman wearing a long black veil would lay a single red rose on the grave, drawing the attention of the press in the process. (The majority of the evidence points to the Valentino phenomenon having originated as a publicity stunt, which was then carried on in subsequent years by copycats.) Dill took his unfinished song to co-writer Marijohn Wilkin to hammer out the plot. What they came up with was a tale that transcended all of its disparate sources.
Indeed they did. Here's Lefty's version recorded in 1959:
The song has been covered by a wide range of folk, country and rock acts, from Joan Baez to Social Distrortion's Mike Ness to The Chieftains (vocals by Mick Jagger) to Nick Cave to Bill Monroe to Orion.
But before most of those, the song's co-writer, Marijohn Wilkin, cut a version from the perspective of the best friend's wife. She called it "My Long Black Veil."
Then in 2011 Jason Boland & The Stragglers recorded a song called "False Accuser's Lament" in which he revealed the murder beneath the town hall light was part of a conspiracy by the husband of the lady in the long black veil.
Somehow Boland's answer song didn't inspire its own answer song in which the ghost of the frame man seeks revenge on his former best friend.
Maybe that's next. But until then, here is Red Foley's country hymn, "God Walks These Hills With Me"
[UPDATE 6-29-17: Just a couple of months after this post, Foley's version has disappeared from YouTube. But here's a version by Don Gibson.]
And here are enough "Long Black Veils" to last you an eternity!
It was 40 years ago today Poison Ivy taught The Cramps to play.
Or something like that ...
Yesterday Norton Records co-founder and one-time Cramps drummer Miriam Linna posted on her Facebook page a video featuring eight lo-fi, early, early versions of Cramps songs.
And here's what she had to say: So, like it or whatnot, now is the 40th anniversary of the Cramps first studio recording session, no matter what any boob or youtube might say. This sesh was in April 1977 and it was at Bell Sound in NYC and it was booked and paid for by Richard Robinson who also shot a home movie in his living room a few days later. The cover shown here was for a Munster boot out of Spain many moons ago. I have no clue where they got the tape. That's all. You can debate the date all you want, but as Kim Brown's Renegades would say, "I Was There". Just the facts, that is ALL.
As you can see, both the Youtube she posted as well as the bootleg album cover she refers to says the session in question in 1976, the year of our Bison Tentacle.
But like Miriam wrote, she was there and she says '77. So I'll go with that. Miriam said it, I believe it. That settles it.
Anywho, here's that music. As I said, the fi ain't high, but you're listening to HISTORY being made so stop your sniveling!
This is the set list:
1. Don't Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk
2. I Was a Teenage Werewolf
3. Sunglasses After Dark
4. Love Me
5. Domino
6. What's Behind The Mask
7. I Can Hardly Stand It
8. TV Set
And in case you were wondering about the obscure reference to Kim Brown and The Renegades ...
Sunday, April 9. 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Man in White by The Taxpayers
Creature by Double Date with Death
Lizard People by Playboy Manbaby
The Straight Life by Mudhoney
Dinero by Ton Ton Macoutes
Mantrap by Thee Headcoats
Panic is No Option by Mission of Burma
English Civil War by The Clash
I'm a Big Man by Big Daddy Rogers
It's All Right / For Sentimental Reasons by Sam Cooke
Sing Me Back Home by The Chesterfield Kings
It Ain't Gonna Save Me by Jay Reatard
Take Me Aay by Willis Earl Beal
Spastica by Elastica
I'm Moving On by Yoko Ono
Who Shot the Druggies by Lynx Lynx
No Rock on Mars by The Vagoos
Claw Machine Wizard by Left Lane Cruiser
Pan by Ty Segall
Over and Over by The Moonglows
Youth Against Fascism byb Sonic Youth
Sacrifice/Let There Be Peace by Bob Mould
I Walk for Miles by Dinosaur Jr
Hanged Man by Churchwood
Land of a Thousand Dances by Little Richard
Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf
Don't Fuck Around With Love by Bernadette Seacrest & Kris Dale
The Fat Angel by The Jefferson Airplane
What Once Was Dead by Laino & The Broken Seeds
Is That You in the Blue by Dex Romweber Duo
Don't Blame Me by The Everly Brothers
Peace Like a River by Jerry Lawson CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, April 7 , 2017 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
They Call the Wind Mariah by Bobby Osborne
Dwight Yoakam by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Two Doors Down by Dwight Yoakam
Steve Earle by Lydia Loveless
Hardcore Troubadour by Steve Earle
Bottom Below by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
I Don't Give a Shit by Shinyribs
Border Town Blues by John Wagner
666 Pack by The Meat Purveyors
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
Bowling Alley Baby by Reach Around Rodeo Clowns
Mean Mama Boogie by Johnny Bond& His Red River Valley Boys
Patrick by The Misery Jackals
Pigfork Jamboree by The Imperial Rooster
Too Much Pork for Just One Fork by Southern Culture on the Skids
Carny Folk by The Saucer Men
I Drink by Mary Gauthier
Fishin' Forever by Mose McCormack
Season Too Soon by Stephanie Hatfield
Homeland by Lauria
Feelin' Haggard by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
He Won't Ever Be Gone by Willie Nelson
One Sweet Hello by Merle Haggard
Old Man from the Mountain by Eugene Chadborne with Bryan & The Haggards
I'll Fix Your Flat Tire Merle by Pure Prairie League
Take Out the Trash by Jesse Dayton
Who's Gonna Take Your Garbage Out by Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Long Old Time by Scott H. Biram
Southern White Lies by Marty Fields
Praise Ye the Lord by Jessi Colter
Second Coming Blues by Larry Kirwin
The Man in the Bed by Dave Alvin 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
Back in December 2014, just a few weeks after I started the Throwback Thursday
feature on this blog, I did a look at one of my favorite old songs from the
1920s,
"I'll See You in My Dreams."
Written by Isham Jones and lyricist Gus Kahn and published in 1924, and first
recorded by the Ray Miller Orchestra (vocals by Frank Besinger) in 1925, "I'll
See You in My Dreams" became an instant American classic.
Khan's lyrics seem almost like a mystical incantation, an opening of the door
into the world of dreams:
I'll see you in my dreams Hold you in my dreams Someone took you right out of my arms Still I feel the thrill of your charms Lips that once were mine Tender eyes that shine They will light my way tonight I'll see you in my dreams
You can find Ray Miller's version of "Dreams" and several others in that
original post.
But there have been so many wonderful covers of the song in the past 90 years or
so, I believe my original post deserves a sequel.
Let's start with Ella Fitzgerald, who recorded "Dreams" in the mid 1940s. That's
Louis Armstrong on trumpet.
Thrill to the charms of the ever-sultry Julie London, who sang it on her 1968
album, Easy Does It.
Fast forward to the 1990s and you'll find The Asylum Street Spankers singing it
on their first album.
British rocker Joe Brown sang it as the closing number of a tribute
concert for George Harrison at the Royal Albert Hall in 2002. [Update 5-29-22: That clip apparently was taken down off Youtube. This video is from a different show.]
Brown's cover inspired this moving version by a young British ukulele enthusiast
named Sophie Madeleine
There's a weird tradition in country music of novelty songs about Native Americans. It goes back at least as far Bob Wills' "Cherokee Maiden" (written by Cindy Walker) in 1941. The tunes are full of racial stereotypes and basically devoid of actual Indian culture.
Except perhaps for "Cherokee Maiden" and Hank Williams' "Kaw Liga" (which was about a wooden cigar-store Indian), you don't hear many of these tunes today. While they weren't written or performed in a hateful way, most of them were pretty clueless.
But there was one band that enthusiastically embraced these old songs -- an Irish "show band" -- cover bands that played Ireland's ballroom circuit -- called The Indians.
For most of the '60s the Dublin-based band was a journeyman group known as The Casino. But in 1970s, on the verge of breaking up. A prospective manager suggested The Casino needed a fresh gimmick. He recommended the group start wearing war paint and dressing up in headdresses and buckskins -- a proto-Village People style, basically.
So they did all that and and started playing all those Native-themed novelty tunes (though these actually are just a small part of their repertoire.)
The Indians are still around today, though most the original members are long gone. And apparently they still love those dumb-ass novelty songs.
Let's start wit "Kaw Liga." I don't think Hank done it this a way
One of the greatest pseudo-native songs in history "Running Bear."
Here's The Indians' interpretation of Hank Thompson's "Squaws Along the Yukon"
Here's The Indians' synth-marred version of the surf guitar classic "Apache."
This song didn't start out as an "Indian" song.
Finally, here's The Indians' version of Rex Allen's incest cautionary tale, "Son Don't Go Near The Indians."
Sunday, April 2. 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Kickin' Child by Dion
The Ode Trip to Jerusalem by The Mekons
Treat Her righ by The Blue Bonnets
Bo Weavil Laino & The Broken Seeds
Karate Monkey by The Woggles
Andres by L7
Strobe Light by The B-52s
Days and Days by Concrete Blonde
Angel Baby by Rosie & The Originals
Must be Voodoo by The Vagoos
Crazy to the Bone by Dead Moon
Black Eyed Dog by Destination Lonely
Get Straight by Lynx Lynx
Never Say Never by Romero Void
Apostle Island by The Blind Shake
Sexy Hell by Blank Generation
Memories Are Made of This by Little Richard
Sheela-Na-Gig by PJ Harvey
Now You're Gone by Mark Sultan
Hang Up by The Cramps
If I Had My Way by Evan John
Come Back Lord by Reverend Beat-Man
Never Stand If You Can Walk by Help Me Devil
Elephant Man by Meet Your Death
25th Floor/High on Rebellion by Patti Smith
Lips of a Loser by Black Joe Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Manny's Bones by Los Lobos
People Want to Go Home by William Bell
The Last Day of Our Acquaintance by Sinead O'Connor
Don't Blame Me by The Everly Brothers
And I Bid You Goodnight by The Persuassions CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, March 31, 2017 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 from the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
700,000 Rednecks by Nikki Lane
Cowboy in Flames by The Waco Brothers
Still Sober After All these Beers by The Banditos
Solitary Confinement by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Battle of Love by Mose McCormack
Beans & Make Believe by John Wagner
This Town Gets Around by Margo Price
Fuck This Town by Robbie Fulks
I'm Fixin' to Have a Breakdown by Dale Watson
Y'all Come by Minnie Pearl
Hands on Your Hips by Shinyribs
My House Has Wheels by Southern Culture on the Skids
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Jim & Jesse Flora, The Lily of the West by Tim O'Brien
Hey Little Darlin' by The Wilders
I Believe in Spring by Eleni Mandell
Sold and Stolen by Stephanie Hatfield Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
Who's Heart Are You Breaking Now? by Don Walser
Cajun Joe (Bully of the Bayou by Doug & Rusty Kershaw North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
I'd Like to Know by Jo-El Sonnier
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud Loud Music by John Prine & Amanda Shires
One Bad Shoe by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Wasp's Nest by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Crippled and Crazy by Scott H. Biram
Mercy and Loving Kindness by Jessi Colter
Commandment 3 by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Selfishness of Man by George Jones
You Don't Know Me by Willie Nelson
Crazy Moon by Merle Haggard
April Fool's Day Morn by Loudon Wainwright III 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
One hundred and fifty years ago today, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia to purchase what later would become the 49th state for $24 in beads.
Ooops. That was another land deal. Seward agreed to buy Alaska for $7 million -- which was about 2 cents per acre.
But while this still was a huge bargain, opponents mocked the deal as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Ice Box" or "Seward's Ice Capades" (Ok, I just made that one up.)
The U.S. Senate on April 7, 1867 ratified the treaty by a one-vote margin.
To celebrate, here's a musical tribute to the Last Frontier.
This is Alaska's official state song.
Here's what ought to be Alaska's damn state song:
Johnny Horton had a knack for Alaska songs
And finally some old fashioned Alaska-centric political incorrectness from Hank Thompson
It's springtime at the Big Enchilada. Birds are singing, bells are ringing and bitchen tunes are sprouting up like poisonous mushrooms awaiting their victims! Plus an inspired tribute to the recently ascended master Chuck Berry. So don't fall back, spring forward to the glorious sounds.
CHUCK BERRY TRIBUTE
Roll Over Beethoven by The Sonics
Let it Rock by The Animals
Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller by The Flamin' Groovies
Rock and Roll Music by The Red Elvises
Reelin' and a Rockin' by The Astronauts
The Promised Land by Dale Hawkins
Johnny B. Goode by Lolita #18
(Background Music: My Mustang Ford by Chuck Berry)
Sunday, March 26. 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Nutbush City Limits by New Diamond Heavies
Boogie Tale by Laino & The Broken Seeds
The Stranger Rides Tonight by Daddy Long Legs
Funeral by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Heart Attack and Vine by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Big Black Mariah by John Hammond
No Pussy Blues by Grinderman
Johnny B. Goode by Lolita No. 18
A Fix on You by Dead Moon
Pizza by Double Date with Death
Circus Freak by The Electric Prunes
Complication by The Monks
Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy by The Fall
Become A Monk by Modey Lemon
Ways to Get Along with You by Lynx Lynx
All My Lovin' by The Beatles
I Can't Dance by Singing Sadie
The Cuckoo by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Police Call by Drywall
Weakling by TAD
Lava by Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
Down on the Street by The Stooges
I Shot All the Birds by The Blind Shake
How to Fake a Lunar Landing by Alien Space Kitchen
The Other Two by Mark Sultan
Bounce Your Boobies by Rusty Warren
Don't Worry About Me (Opus 17) by The Four Seasons
Stay Lover Strong by Stephanie Hatfield
Up in Flames by Julee Cruise
Still Around by Scott H. Biram
Changes by Charles Bradley CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican March. 24 , 2017 “I’m here to tell you about something that just might save your life..”
Those are the first intelligible words you hear on The Bad Testament, the new album by Scott H. Biram — that dirty old one-man band from Austin — right after a few seconds of ambient radio noise and when the first song, “Set Me Free” actually begins. I can’t honestly say this album saved my life or will save yours. But it sure won’t hurt. The important thing is, this might be the best Biram album yet. While it boasts the basic Biram sound — his rough-edged voice over acoustic guitar and foot-stomping — as a songwriter, Biram just keeps improving. He can still rock hard and crazy, the best examples here being “TrainWrecker” and “Hit the River,” a wild instrumental. He’s not afraid to get obscene if the spirit says so, as he proves on “Swift Driftin’.” And he has always had a way with good-time drinking songs like “Red Wine.” (One can easily imagine Texas honky-tonker Dale Watson singing this one.) But what Biram really has going for him is a knack for writing downright pretty blues-soaked country songs, and The Bad Testament has plenty of those. “Still Around” is a minor-key song of a scorned lover, proud and defiant: “Go ahead and throw me down, I might be broke, I’m still around,” he sings. “I’m the weapon in your hand/I’m the stone that drags you down/I am the rock on which you stand/I am the one who hangs around.” The lyrics provide few clues as to what led to the singer’s angry words (“I have never been your friend/I’m just worn down by wind”), but the pain is audible. Plus there’s some pretty fancy near-flamenco fingerpicking in a couple of places here.
“Crippled & Crazy” could very well be autobiographical. Nearly 15 years ago Biram survived an auto accident — a head-on collision with a pickup truck — that basically broke every bone in his body. Those wounds apparently still haunt him, as do others. With a sad electric organ adding a little texture, Biram sings of being “crippled and crazy and out of control” as well as being “sober and stupid” and “sold down the river.” On the heart-wrenching bridge he cries, “Calling all angels, all heartaches and demons, calling all lovers that left for no reason, down through the chamber that echoed the screamin’; twisted and turnin’ I just quit believin’ in love.’’ “Righteous Ways,” with its own sweet fingerpicking, sounds as if Biram has been listening to some Mississippi John Hurt. It’s an introspective number on which he yearns for a spirituality he knows he may never achieve. “I struggle all the time in my mind and in my heart,” he sings. “There’s just never enough time for righteous ways.” But later on the album he makes a stab at righteousness, with “True Religion,” an a cappella tune that goes back at least as far as Leadbelly (and I suspect further). Biram’s probably being tongue-in-cheek here, seeing how the song is sandwiched between crazy religious radio samples. But in light of “Righteous Ways,” I suspect there’s a grain of earnestness too. Biram may seem a little bit touched at times, but I think the angels are among those who touched him.
Also recommended:
Front Porch Sessions by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. This “big damn band” consists of exactly three people: Josh Peyton on vocals and guitar; his wife, Breezy Peyton, on washboard and background vocals; and drummer Maxwell Senteney — three people and no more. So it might seem odd to describe this album as more stripped-down than previous albums, but that’s what it is. The record wasn’t really recorded on Peyton’s front porch. But it sounds as if it might have been. It could be the soundtrack of a great summer barbecue, where the music is as tasty as the ribs. There are not as many hard-chugging songs as on most of the albums by this Indiana trio. In some ways, Front Porch resembles the 2011 album Peyton on Patton, which was a solo album in which the Reverend played songs by blues pioneer Charley Patton. The new album has several covers of blues greats as well: Furry Lewis’ “When My Baby Left Me,” Blind Willie Johnson’s gospel stomper “Let Your Light Shine,” and “When You Lose Your Money,” which is based on Lewis’ version of the classic bad-man ballad “Billy Lyons & Stack O’ Lee.” Peyton’s originals are worthy as well. The sweet opening cut, “We Deserve a Happy Ending,” sung with Breezy, is a moderate tempo blues, accented by the Reverend’s slide, about marital joy. “Even when we’re losing, it feels like we are winning,” the couple sing. The mood shifts with “What You Did to the Boy Ain’t Right,” on which the singer scolds, “I don’t want to fight, but what you did to the boy ain’t right.” It’s never spelled out what exactly was done to whom. We just know the Reverend don’t like it. Then there is the slow “One Bad Shoe,” which works an existential metaphor about traveling unprepared, knowing there’s a good chance you won’t make it to your destination. In the tradition of previous Reverend Peyton food songs — like “Pot Roast and Kisses,” “Born Bred Corn Fed,” and “Mama’s Fried Potatoes” — the final track on Front Porch Sessions is “Cornbread and Butterbeans.” Here Peyton celebrates “eatin’ beans and makin’ love as long as I am able.” It’s a well-deserved feast. Let's see some videos
This little lady from Mart, Texas wrote so many classics it's uncanny.
And still today I'm frequently surprised when I realize that a song I love was
one of Cindy's.
And actually it's unfair to pigeon hole her as only a country songwriter. Her
songs have been covered by pop, rock and jazz stars as well.
In fact she got a recording contract after pitching a song -- "Lone Star Trail"
to none other than Bing Crosby.
As a gutsy 22-year-old on a trip to Los Angeles with her parents, she walked
into Crosby's office determined to get the song to Der Bingle. And she did.
Below are several Cindy Walker songs, some well-known, some not so much. Each
one is a jewel.
Woody Guthrie's not the only one who wrote Dustbowl ballads. This is an early
song by Cindy, ritten in the 1930s when she was a teenager. Bob Wills & The
Texas Playboys recorded it in 1941.
Some of Wills' most famous songs were written by Cindy, including this one:
She wrote this singing cowboy tune for Gene Autry. I first heard the version by
The Byrds on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
This Vietnam era recording by Jim Reeves is as moving now as it was in 1966.
This is one that was loved by doves as well as hawks. Cindy's lyrics cut to the
heart.
Ernest Tubb did "Warm Red Wine"
I recently posted a
video of Webb Pierce
doing this song, which was a hit for him the '60s. Here's a more recent version
by Ricky Skaggs.
She even wrote a song for Spike Jones, "Barstool Cowboy from Barstow."
Finally, this last song probably is my favorite Cindy Walker songs -- and one of
my favorite songs in general. I'm still partial to Ray Charles' version from
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. But Cindy's own version is
wonderful as well.
Monday was the 87th birthday of Ilene Goldman, better known in the Free World as Rusty Warren.
She was a comedian and a nightclub singer. And even though she graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, this brassy broad became the undisputed Queen Mother of what they used call "party records."
Or as she puts it, "I was one of the first loud-mouthed women who would admit we liked sex."
Rusty's off-color, sex-obsessed act managed to sell tons of records-- even though radio wouldn't touch albums with titles like Songs of Sin, Bottoms Up, Sin-Sational, Banned in Boston and -- her most famous -- Knockers Up!
Here is a trailer for a DVD Rusty was hawking a few years ago:
This one probably is her best-known song. Liberal talk-show host Randi Rhodes used to play it every Friday on her show.
I'm not sure why this video features a photo of busty Asian woman, but who am I to argue?
Sunday, March 19. 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Leave the Capitol by The Fall
Who Will Save Rock 'n' Roll by The Dictators
You're Gonna Miss Me by Dog Sahm & Sons
Staubsauger Baby by Blind Butcher
Fate of a Gambler by Laino & Broken Seeds
What They Tell Me by Mission of Burma
I Wanted Everything by The Ramones
On Broadway by Esquerita
Trainwrecker by Scott H. Biram
Corpse on a Roof by The Blind Shake
It's Fun by Lynx Lynx
Coyote Conundrum by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds
Don't Look in the Basement by The Devils
We Repel Each Other by Reigning Sound
Pony Tail and a Black Cadillac by King Automatic
Hollywood Swinging by Kool & The Gang
R.I.P. Chuck Berry 1926-2017
Hail Hail Chuck Berry!
You Can't Catch Me by Chuck Berry
Around and Around by The Animals
Too Much Monkey Business by Chuck Berry
Roll Over Beethoven by The Beatles
The Promised Land by Chuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode by Jimi Hendrix
Sweet Little Rock and Roller by Chuck Berry
Berry Rides Again by Steppenwolf
C.C. Rider by Chuck Berry with the Steve Miller Band
Carol by The Rolling Stones
You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry
Brown Eyed Handsome Man by Jerry Lee Lewis
Havana Moon by Chuck Berry
Whatever Happened to Jesus (and Maybellene) by Terry Allen
School Days by Chuck Berry
Something's Broken in the Promised Land by Wayne Kramer CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Back before he became known mostly for his sausage, Jimmy Dean was a country / pop singer famous mostly for creating a modern legend in the form of a mysterious coal miner named Big John.
Every mornin' at the mine you could see him arrive He stood six-foot-six and weighed two-forty-five Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip And everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to big John
Released in September, 1961 at the height of country music's "faux-folksong" craze (think Marty Robbins' "El Paso," Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans," Lefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil," Bobby Bare's "Miller's Cave," etc.) Dean became the ultimate white rapper with his hip, finger poppin' delivery on "Big Bad John." The subject of the song was a bigge-than-life Paul Bunyan / John Henry style hero who captured the nation's imagination by selflessly sacrifcing his own life to save his fellow workers in a mining disaster.
Then came the day at the bottom of the mine When a timber cracked and men started cryin' Miners were prayin' and hearts beat fast And everybody thought that they'd breathed their last, 'cept John Through the dust and the smoke of this man-made hell Walked a giant of a man that the miners knew well Grabbed a saggin' timber, gave out with a groan And like a giant oak tree he just stood there alone, big John ...
Here is Jimmy performing the song on his own TV show a couple of years after it became his biggest hit.
But Jimmy couldn't just leave Big John at the bottom of that pit. A few months later, in January, 1962, he released a sequel about Big John's long lost lover, the Cajun Queen.
All that gritty realism from the original is tossed out the window. In its place we get a bullshit tall tale that, if you told it to your grandchildren, they would immediately ask your doctors to up your meds. And they'd be right; clearly you need it.
Basically Queenie has so much magical sex appeal she has the power to raise the dead with her kiss.
Listen for yourself ...
Cracked concludes that "Jimmy Dean should have left poor John to rot alone in the mines, instead of artificially resurrecting him for the sake of a happy-dappy-sappy ending."
Maybe Jimmy agreed. In June 1962 he released a second sequel about the bastard spawn of Big John and the Cajun Queen, "Little Bitty Big John." And it was as if the magical resurrection that took place in "The Cajun Queen" never happened.
But Big John also made a gratuitous cameo appearance in another Jimmy Dean hit, "PT-109" which mythologized the World Wart II exploits of John F. Kennedy, who was president at the time. Check the very end of this song (which actually was released a couple of months before "Little Bitty Big John.")
But that's not the last we heard of Big Bad John or his woman. Dottie West released this "answer song" in 1964. It's a re-imaging of the Cajun Queen story.
Fortunately the next place the legend of Big Bad John played out in the tacky world of homophobic parody. A guy named Steve Greenberg turned the legendary coal miner into a swishy hairdresser named "Big Bruce"
Similarly, Ben Colder -- the comic persona of Sheb Wooley who was best known for the novelty tune "The Purple People Eater" -- turned the heroic coal miner into "Big Sweet John." Colder's hero not only was gay, but a hippie also well. A real knee-slapper.
A more worthy successor is Hank Penny's 1970 "Big Bad John" inspired song of racial understanding called "The Strong Black Man," who not only saves his fellow minors from a cave-in, but makes the narrator see the errors of his racist thinking.
Today is my oldest grandson's birthday. Happy birthday, Gideon!
And he shares that birthday with one of the greatest religious leaders of this era, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart. Today he's 82 years young. Happy birthday, Reverend!
A few things to know about Rev. Jimmy in case you haven't seen the light:
He's the cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis (also a cousin of country singer Mickey Gilley.)
In the mid '80s he was a leading voice in condemning rock 'n' roll, even Christian rock, as "the voice of the Dragon," a tool of Satan.
In 1988 he made a tearful televised apology for his sins after a rival preacher who had staked out Swaggart's favorite No-Tell Motel and found him in the company of a prostitute who told investigators that Swaggart was a regular customer.
Then in 1991, a cop in Indio, Calif. pulled him over driving down the wrong side of the road. He was in an unregistered vehicle and (gasp!) not wearing a seat belt. And yes, with another prostitute.
Sunday, March. 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Dizzy Miss Lizzy by The Beatles
Judgement Day by The Pretty Things
Baby Doll by The A-Bones
I Smoke Dope by The Gears
He's Making a Tape by Wild Billy Chyldish & The Musicians of the British Empire
Ded End Street by Urban Junior
Judy in Disguise by Jello Biafra & The Raunch & Soul All Stars
Pinon Lurker by The Gluey Brothers
The House of the Rising Sun by Nina Simone
You Can Count on Me by Deke Dickerson with Los Straitjackets
I Walk for Miles by Dinosaur Jr.
Teenage Thunder by The Chesterfield Kings
She Don't by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Fix That Broken Halo by The Ruiners
Go-Getter by KO & The Knockouts
Price Tag by Sleater-Kinney
Wowie Zowie by The Mothers of Invention
Arrington set Reog Doom by Arrington de Dionyso & Gal Lazer Shiloach
Witchcraft Rebellion by Old Time Relijun
Mani Malaikat by Arrington de Dionyso
Urge and Urge and Urge by Old Time Relijun
Manticore/Lion Tamer by Arrington de Dionyso & Old Time Relijun
I Create in a Broken System by Arrington de Dionyso'a Malaikat Dan Singa Arrington de Dionyso will be playing 7:30 pm Monday 7 p.m. Monday, March 13, at Fresh Santa Fe (2855-A Cooks Road; $10).
Ellegua by Dr. John
Papa Legba by Pops Staples with The Talking Heads
Legba by Malcolm McLaren
The Love We Got Ain't Worth Two Dead Flies by Swamp Dogg with Esther Phillips
Sexual Tension by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Hey Hey by Pat Burns with Cynthia Becker CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, March 10, 2017 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
I'm Home Gettin' Hammered While She's Out Gettin' Nailed by Jesse Dayton
Long Long Time by Guy Forsyth
Piss Up a Rope by Ween
Heal Me by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Bus Breakdown by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
Glendale Train by New Riders of the Purple Sage
I've Got the Railroad Blues by The Delmore Brothers
When You Lose Your Monry by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
A Certain Girl by Shinyribs
The Christian Thing by Jono Manson
Sold and Stolen by Stephanie Hatfield
Dog by The Bottle Rockets
Talk to Me Lonesome Heart by Miss Leslie & The Juke Jointers
Wild Side of Life by Charlie Feathers
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Righteous Ways by Scott H. Biram
Hard Core Troubadour by Steve Earle
Chords of Fame by Neil Mooney
Sister Kate by Oh Lazarus
Honky Tonk Girl by Eilen Jewell
Lose That Woman Blues by Johnny Dilks
Mama Hated Diesels by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
Look at Us by John Prine & Morgane Stapleton
The Ballad of Jesse James by Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber
Big Iron by Marty Robbins
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence by Gene Pitney
Any Old Time by Steve Forbert
Wasteland of the Free by Iris Dement
West Texas Waltz by Butch Hancock & Jimme Dale Gilmore
Muddy Waters by Nikki Lane
What Does the Deep Sea Say by The Handsome Family
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground by Willie Nelson
One Dyin' and a Buryin' by Roger Miller 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
