Sunday, July 22, 2018 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
I Surrender by The Fleshtones
The Cutting Edge by Archie & The Bunkers
Before I Die by The Sloths
Shrunken Head by Deadbolt
This Dog is the King of the Losers by Bee Bee Sea
Beautiful Gardens by The Cramps
You're Humbuggin' Me by Ronnie Dawson
Second Fiddle by Bill Hearne
Black Metal by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Cuidad Muerto by Los Eskeletos
Poor and Broke by Trixie & The Trainwrecks
Bad She Gone Voodoo by Chief Fuzzer
Dirty Photographs by The Bonnevilles
Guts is Enough by The Devils
Fiesta Nuclear by Hollywood Sinners
Honeymooners by The Scuzzballs
Stealin' Stealin' by Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Bartholomew by The Silent Comedy
Oh Sinnerman by Black Diamond Heavies
I Came Back to Bitch by L7
Cry to Me by Solomon Burke
Pushin' Too Hard by The Standells
Bloody Hammer by Roky Erickson & The Aliens
Cold Studded Stunner by The Trouble Boys
Napoleon's Index Finger by The Common Cold
C'Mon a My House by The Satellites
Boogie Woogie Country Girl by Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis
Eminence Gris Gris by Churchwood
Rude by Dinosaur Jr.
Ghost Train by The Dead Brothers
Lonesome Friends of Science by John Prine
Circus of Life by Kinky Friedman CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican July 20, 2018
Let us now praise the fabulous seventies. No, I’m not talking about the 1970s, the decade. I’m talking about a bunch of new albums by country/folk/roots artists who are septuagenarians — Kinky Friedman (73), John Prine (71), and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (73), the latter of whom just released a duet record with a younger musical partner, Dave Alvin, a mere lad of 62. While none of these works reach the heights of the music that made us love these guys in the first place, all three albums are worthwhile and welcome efforts that deserve some time in your eardrums.
Cover by Jon Langford
* Downey to Lubbock by Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore. This is the first time Gilmore and Alvin have made a record together, but the Downey/Lubbock collection goes back decades. Back in the early ’80s, Alvin’s old band The Blasters toured with Joe Ely, who, along with Gilmore and Butch Hancock, was in The Flatlanders, Lubbock’s greatest act since Buddy Holly and The Crickets. Ely played on the same bill with The Blasters in 1982 at the Golden Inn.
Ten of the 12 songs here are covers, including those written by Woody Guthrie (a haunting “Deportee [Plane Wreck at Los Gatos],” sung by Gilmore); Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins (a nice and rowdy “Buddy Brown’s Blues”); Lloyd Price (“Lawdy Miss Clawdy”); Brownie McGhee (“Walk On”); and not one, but two from the vast songbook of The Memphis Jug Band (“Stealin’ Stealin’ ” and “K.C. Moan”).
Tracks from more recent artists abound. For instance, the Mexican-flavored tune called “The Gardens” is a sad number about violence in the barrio written by Alvin’s late sideman and crony Chris Gaffney. It’s a highlight of the album, as is the late Steve Young’s “Silverlake,” a lilting bittersweet blues.
Alvin wrote two new tunes for this album, including the title cut as well as “Billy the Kid and Geronimo.” This is about a fictional meeting between the two at some bar in Lordsburg. “Billy The Kid said, ‘We’re just the same./We’re cursed and we’re damned as they whisper our names’ … /Geronimo said, ‘No, We’re not the same, for the harm I have done, I feel great shame/I fought for my family, my tribe and my land/But we’ll pay the same price for the blood on our hands.’ ”
I could have done without the new version of the old Youngbloods hippie peace ’n’ love anthem, “Get Together.” (I thought it was sappy back in the late ’60s. It’s no better now.) But that doesn’t stop me from being happy that Gilmore and Alvin got together for Downey to Lubbock.
* The Tree of Forgiveness by John Prine. As has been true throughout his career, Prine’s goofy grin is practically audible in many of the songs on his new album — his first collection of new original songs in 13 years.
And he has a lot to grin about. For instance, the awkwardly titled “Egg and Daughter Night, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone).” Here Prine sings, “If they knew what you were thinkin’/They’d run you out of Lincoln/Just blame it on that ole’ crazy bone.”
“Lonesome Friends of Science” is a strange bird as far as songs go — even by Prine standards. I listened to it a couple of times and practically pulled out what’s left of my hair trying to figure out where I’d heard it before. Then it finally hit me that this is a sardonic, almost surreal rewrite of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty.” The melody is subtly similar to “Pancho,” as are a few lyrical turns. But Prine’s song is full of sublime nonsense. He laments the loss of planet status for Pluto, and sings about the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, Alabama: “Venus left him long ago/For a guy named Mars from Idaho …” And in the chorus, Prine sings, “The lonesome friends of science say/‘The world will end most any day’/Well, if it does, then that’s okay/’Cause I don’t live here anyway …”
In the final song, “When I Get to Heaven,” Prine sings with glee about the possibility of going to heaven. Speaking, not singing the verses, he says, “Then God as my witness, I’m gettin’ back into show business/I’m gonna open up a nightclub called The Tree of Forgiveness/And forgive everybody ever done me any harm ...”
Personally, I’m not a big believer in heaven. But albums like these make this earthly plane just a little more heavenly.
* Circus of Lifeby Kinky Friedman. Kinky has built a career on the outrageous, politically incorrect, funny, and raucous songs he recorded in the mid-1970s, tunes like “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” “The Ballad of Charles Whitman,” and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed.” So it may be surprising that this — Kinky’s first album of new original songs in more than 40 years — is dominated by slow, somber, and quiet tunes.
So if it’s the cigar-chomping, wisecracking Friedman you’re looking for, this ain’t the album for you. In fact, my initial reaction was this wasn’t the album for me. But after a couple of listens, these songs by the aging, more reflective Friedman started to grow on me. The title song is not about an actual circus. It’s about old people coming to grips with their lives of regret and desperation. Then there is “Jesus in Pajamas.” You might think this would be one of Kinky’s twisted religious parables. Instead, it’s about a destitute man at a Denny’s in Dallas.
While I’ll always remember Kinky for his funny stuff, Circus of Life is a sweet glimpse at another, deeper side of the artist.
Alright ...How about some videos?
Here are the wild blue Blaster and the old Flatlander ...
"The lonesome friends of science say/`The world will end most any day' ..."
Today 21 state governors are coming to Santa Fe for a meeting of the National Governors Association.
In honor of that here's a Throwback Thursday salute to a couple of governors from the past century -- Gov. Pat Neff of Texas and Gov. O.K. Allen of Louisiana,
These are the two governors who were honored with songs by singer Hudie Ledbetter, best known as Lead Belly, And both were known for freeing the singer after he'd flattered them in song.
Neff was governor of Texas while Leadbelly was serving time in the prison at Sugar Land for killing a relative.
According to their book The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (by Charles K. Wolfe and Kip Lornell, published in1999), Neff had regularly brought guests to the prison on Sunday picnics to hear Ledbetter sing. At the time of the pardon, Leadbetter had already served his minimum of seven years.
Ironically, Neff had run on a promise to be more strict on pardoning criminals.
The song "Gov. Pat Neff" sounds s if it might have been an existing tune onto which Lead Belly tacked on a verse about the governor. "Had the Governor Neff like you got me, I'd a-wake up in the mornin', I'd set you free," he sang. Judge for yourself:
By the 1930s, Ledbetter was in prison again, this time in Louisiana. With the help of famed folklorists John and Alan Lomax, Lead Belly once again worked his magic on a sitting governor, one Oscar K. Allen.
This time the appeal to the governor was front and center of the song: "In nineteen hundred and thirty two / Honorable Governor O.K. Allen, I'm pleading to you./ I left my wife wringing her hands and crying / `Honorable Governor O.K. Allen, save that man of mine.' "
Allen released him in 1934.
Speaking of Louisiana governors and music, surely the finest singer and songwriter to ever become chief executive of a state was Louisiana's Jimmy Davis. He's most beloved for his song "You Are My Sunshine." But I like his dirtier tunes even more.
Sunday, July 15, 2018 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
Repo Man by Those Darlins
Baby You Crazy by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes
One Bad Stud by The Blasters
Saddle Up a Buzz Buzz by the Cramps
I'm Out Nine by Dead Moon
Rama Lama Drama by Hollywood Sinners
The Man Whose Head Expanded by The Fall
Get Out of My Brain by Legendary Shack Shakers
Ain't Got No Sweet Thing by Ponty Bone
Slowly Losing My Mind by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
When the Levee Breaks by James Leg with Left Lane Cruiser
Sweet Loaf by Butthole Surfers
Saturday Midnight Bop by Jerry J. Nixon
Here It Comes by Phil Hayes & The Trees
The White Wolf is Back in Town by Reverend Beat-Man
Fuck the Bomb ... Stop the Drugs by Swamp Dogg
Heartbreak Hotel by Tony Joe White
Fat Angel by Jefferson Airplane
Jettisoned by Thee Oh Sees
Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely by Husker Du
Tunic (Song for Karen) by Sonic Youtha
Steve by Pere Ubu
Kung Fu by Frank Zappa
O'Malley's Bar by Nick Cave
A Few Good Years by Buddy Guy
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Seventy six years ago today, July 12, 1942, Jerry Williams, Jr. was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He grew up to be a songwriter, record producer and recording artist. In fact, at the age of 12 in 1954, Williams recorded his first song, "HTD Blues (Hardsick Troublesome Downout Blues)", for a label called Mechanic Records. In 1966, under the name "Little Jerry Williams," he had an actual minor hit, "Baby You're My Everything."
But by 1970, Williams transformed into something weird and wonderful: Swamp Dogg. As the artist later explained.
I became Swamp Dogg in 1970 in order to have an alter-ego and someone to occupy the body while the search party was out looking for Jerry Williams, who was mentally missing in action due to certain pressures, mal-treatments and failure to get paid royalties on over fifty single records ... Commencing in 1970, I sung about sex, niggers, love, rednecks, war, peace, dead flies, home wreckers, Sly Stone, my daughters, politics, revolution and blood transfusions (just to name a few), and never got out of character. Recording in Alabama and sincerely singing/writing about items that interested me, gave birth to the name Swamp Dogg.
So happy birthday, Mr. Dogg. Here are some of my favorite Swamp Dogg tunes:
The first time I saw him perform live -- at a South by Southwest in the late 1990s, his best song was a heart-wrenching take on this John Prine tune.
The next time I saw him was at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans in 2013. In the best tune of his set, Swamp Dogg proved you can even find soul in a Bee Gees song. As I wrote at the time:
At the end of the song, he stepped off the stage and walked out into the audience shaking hands while repeatedly singing the refrain, "I've just got to get a message to you / Hold on, hold on ..." Sometimes he'd complete the chorus, "One more hour and my life will be through ..." After several minutes of this I almost started to believe that he was going to take that whole hour.
This one, "Born Blue" is from Swamp Dogg's first album, Total Destruction to Your Mind. Here he asks the important question, "Why wasn't I born with orange skin and green hair like the rest of the people in the world?"
And speaking of the Ponderosa Stomp, here are a couple of songs from Swamp Dogg's set, "Total Destruction To Your Mind" followed by "Synthetic World."
Swamp Dogg autographs my CD at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans, October, 2013
Today for Wacky Wednesday, let's hear a few country acts covering punk songs. We'll start with the late Ralph Stanley doing a Velvet Underground classic.
Here's a Texas country-rock band called Two Tons of Steel covering The Ramones.
Sturgill Simpson sings Nirvana.
And finally, here's Dwight Yoakam playing one of The Clash's better-known songs. And that banjo you hear is by none other than Dr. Stanley. May the country/punk circle be unbroken!
