They didn't start in Austin. And they're not really lizards.
Here's a Wacky Wednesday cheer for a little string band from deep in the heart of Texas.
Actually, however, the group's origins go back to the late '70s when two Princeton students, Conrad, Deisler and Hank Card met and began playing country, folk and bluegrass. They moved to Austin in 1980, teamed up with banjo/dobro player Tom Pittman and The Austin Lounge Lizards were born.
The line-up of the band has shifted through the past, but they've faithfully kept their original vision, which, according to their website is "spoofing topics American families try to avoid at the Thanksgiving table: subjects like politics, religion, romance, and themselves."
I'll go ahead and quote their website again: "The Austin Lounge Lizards are arguably the perfect pairing of their hometown’s slogan, `Live Music Capital of the World,' and its unofficial motto, `Keep Austin Weird'.”
The first two songs I'm going to post here are the songs that made me realize I was an Austin Lounge Lizards fan. A friend of a friend played these at a pickin' party I went to sometime in the mid 80s. The FOF (whose name I forget) explained the tunes were from an album called Creatures From the Black Saloon .
The Lizards do bluegrass justice to this Pink Floyd classic. Truly they are a band less reverent than Spike Jones, but more punctual than George ...
And through the years, the Lizards have sung more than their share of stupid songs about Texas ...
Sunday, September 16, 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
The Devil's Trick is Not a Treat by The Devils
Born to Die by King Khan
Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven by Trixie & The Trainwrecks
I'm Gonna Kill My Baby Tonight by The Mummies
So Long Johnny by Charlie Pickett
Gung Ho by Black Lips
Walk a Mile by Holly Golightly
Spice Girls by Period Pain
Black Metal by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Delilah by Jon Langford & Sally Timms
Burning Hell by Tom Jones
Ride With Me by Sulphur City
Buzz Buzz Buzz by The Blasters
You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erikson
The Roaring 20s by Archie & The Bunkers
Put That in Your Pipe by The Mobbs
Cheepnis by Frank Zappa
Girl Scout Cookies by Blaze Foley
Old Friends by Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard
When Two Worlds Collide by Flatt Lonesome
I Wish I Could Fall in Love Today by Roger Miller
Oo-De-Lally by Ben Dickey & Alia Shawkat
One Dyin' and a Buryin' by David Yow
Pardon This Coffin by Jon Rauhaus
You Can't Do Me This Way by Dean Miller & The McCrary Sisters
Lock, Stock and Teardrops by Mandy Barnett
Invitation to the Blues by Ray Price
Train of Life by Merle Haggard
The Moon is High by Neko Case
The Last Word in Lonesome is Me by Roger Miller
Lo-Fi by Bottle Rockets
25 Times by Maiorano
Gone Deep Underground by Stan Ridgway CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Sept. 14, 2018
He enlightened us with the hillbilly zen wisdom of avoiding rollerskating in a buffalo herd. He introduced us to the concept of “maple surple.” He struck an early blow in support of transgender people with his song “My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died.” Growing up in Oklahoma, Roger Miller was a member of my Holy Okie Boyhood Heroes Trilogy, along with Mickey Mantle and Leroy Gordon Cooper.
“My name is Roger Miller, probably one of the greatest songwriters to ever live … I have written a few songs, probably eight or 900 in my professional career, and we’d like to do about 700 or 750 here tonight.”
That’s a little Miller stage banter that kicks off the new various artists tribute album, King of the Road: A Tribute to Roger Miller. It’s true that most tribute albums suck the warts. But partly because Miller really was one of the greatest songwriters to ever live — and partly because of the caliber of the talent that producer (and Roger’s son) Dean Miller has wrangled for this project — nearly every track is a winner. The songs capture Roger’s wide emotional range: the funny tunes, the cool anthems, the honky-tonk stompers, the surprisingly powerful heartache songs.
Among the various artists here are classic country cronies of Miller’s, a few current commercial country singers, a couple who fall into the basket called “Americana,” and some truly offbeat but enjoyable choices, including Ringo Starr, actor John Goodman, and alt-rock bands like Cake and Toad the Wet Sprocket. And here’s the news: Huey Lewis sings “Chug-a-Lug,” backed by Asleep at the Wheel, and does a credible job.
Roger Miller at home in Tesuque, N.M., 1980
Photo by Pam Mills
There are several artists here I’d never heard of, and I consider some of them to be important discoveries. For instance, the female-fronted band Flatt Lonesome does a stunning bluegrass cover of “When Two Worlds Collide.” And Lily Meola, who I don’t believe had ever graced my eardrums before, sings a soulful take on a little-known Miller song called “I’ll Pick Up My Heart and Go Home.”
I haven’t heard all 900 of Roger’s songs — probably only 650-675 of them — but I’ve heard enough to realize that for every Miller that makes you chuckle, there’s at least one that’ll rip out your heart and stomp on it.
And even though songs like “Dang Me” and “Chug-a-Lug” are what first drew me to Miller, it’s those sad ones that made me stay. Many or most of them were written back when Miller was a sideman for country stars like Ray Price and Minnie Pearl (!) while writing hits (and occasional misses) for the likes of George Jones, Faron Young, and Jim Reeves — long before he broke out as a solo artist.
Besides those tracks by Flatt Lonesome and Lily Meola, my favorite cry-in-your-beer songs on King of the Road include “The Last Word in Lonesome in Me,” a hit in the mid-’60s for Eddie Arnold and sung here by Dolly Parton and Alison Krauss; “You Oughta Be Here With Me,” sung as a medley with “I’ve Been a Long Time Leaving” performed by Krauss with The Cox Family; Loretta Lynn’s heart-stopping version of “Half a Mind”; “World So Full of Love” by Rodney Crowell.
And at this writing, my favorite song on the whole double-album, “Lock, Stock, and Teardrops” sung by Mandy Barnett. It’s slow, a little jazzy, and a lot countrypolitan. Every time I hear it, the song conjures an image of Roger and Patsy Cline smiling down on me from Hillbilly Heaven as Miller reflects, “We could have left it in a lot worse hands.”
There also are many notable upbeat songs on King of the Road. Dean Miller, backed by The McCrary Sisters, turns his dad’s “You Can’t Do Me This Way” into a soulful romp. Kacey Musgraves’ contribution, “Kansas City Star,” concerns a local celebrity who believes that big fish often do better in small ponds, even if you have to decline more money, all expenses paid, and a car.
Dwight Yoakam sings a tune he co-wrote with Miller, “It Only Hurts Me When I Cry.” John Goodman, who appeared in Miller’s 1985 Broadway musical Big River, sings — or, actually rants — the song “Guv’ment,” which he performed in that production.
And now, here’s the conventional part of a tribute album review in which the critic whines, “But they left out one of my favorite songs.”
In this case, it’s “The Moon is High (And So Am I),” which was one of Miller’s funniest from his early solo career, as well as being an early showcase of Miller’s mad genius at wordplay: “Well, the moon is high and so am I, the stars are out and so will I be pretty soon ... But come the dawn and it will dawn on me you’re gone ...”
That omission aside, Miller fans should love this album. It was put together by folks who loved Miller and his musical legacy. But unlike many tribute albums, before King of the Road can get too close to being overly sentimental, an interspersed, irreverent sound clip of Miller onstage brings it back to ground.
Hopefully this album will attract new fans who can enjoy discovering the source material.
Smarter (and more sentimental) people than I have lamented the lost art of letter writing in this age of email, texting, and other technological advances.
Kids these days ... they only know the U.S. Postal Service as the deliverer of bills and junk mail.They don't know the fear and frustration of waiting day after day for that letter from the one you love and watching the mailman walk past your house -- or the joy you felt when the letter finally arrives.
But not that long ago, handwritten letters, empty mailboxes and even postal workers frequently appeared in popular song.
Just recently I posted here on Ketty Lester and her haunting obsession with love letters (straight from your heart). Here are a few more of my favorite songs about the mail.
Let's go back to Son House, whose best-known song probably is "Death Letter Blues."
The Marvelettes in 1961 captured our hearts with their desperate teenage pleas to a certain federal employee.
Elvis knew a thing or two about the Post Office
The King also recorded this song about tampering with the mail (or the male) in the late '60s
A little 1967 garage-pop here from The Five Americans, who for some reason assumed that zip codes, which were adopted by the U.S. Postal Service just few years before, would improve the communication lines of love.
The Box Tops, featuring a youthful Alex Chilton, a Tennessee teen who sounded like Tom Waits' grandpappy. Joe Cocker later covered it. But here's an obscure version by Al Green
From deep in the heart of Texas, here's country weeper by Asleep at the Wheel in the 1970s.
Finally, Taj Mahall wanted to move up to the country and paint his mailbox blue. I wonder if he ever really did that.
Sunday, September , 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
Rattle Your Mind by Gogo Loco
Abuelo del Skate by Hollywood Sinners
I'm Leaving by Fiery Furnaces
Done Got Old by Junior Kimbrough
Tangled Up in Bush by Left Lane Cruiser
Rosie and Billy by Charlie Pickett
Coffin Nails by Mark Sultan
The Saddest Girl on Earth by The Legendary Tigerman
Hootchy Kootchy by Gene and Eunice
Sit With the Guru by Strawberry Alarm Clock
Just a Sign by Maiorano
Rock and Soul Music by Country Joe & The Fish
S.O.B.by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats
Broken Bones and Pocket Change by Saint Paul & The Broken Bones
Took My Lady To Dinner by King Khan & The Shrines
Let's Go Crazy by Prince
Mystery Train by Rocket 808
Town by Harlan T. Bobo
Come and Get it by Mean Motor Scooter
Dirty Photographs by The Bonnevilles
Riot on the Strip by James Williamson & The Pink Hearts
I Got Nothin' by Iggy Pop & James Williamson
Are You a Wally by Spartan Dreggs
Why You Gotta Be So Mean by The Reverberations
Short Fat Fanny by Larry Williams
Bless You by Devil Dogs
Violent Shiver by Benjamin Booker
Knocked Down by Salty Pajamas
Reincarnation by Cake
It's All in the Game / Sitting in the Park / Make It Real One More Time by Van Morrison
The Ways of the World by Waylon Jennings
September Song by Jimmy Durante CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Theodore Walter Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City. He grew up in Harlem not far from the Savoy Ballroom, the Apollo Theatre, and the doorstep of his idol, Coleman Hawkins. After early discovery of Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, he started out on alto saxophone, inspired by Louis Jordan. At the age of sixteen, he switched to tenor, trying to emulate Hawkins. He also fell under the spell of the musical revolution that surrounded him, Bebop. He began to follow Charlie Parker, and soon came under the wing of Thelonious Monk, who became his musical mentor and guru. Living in Sugar Hill, his neighborhood musical peers included Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew and Art Taylor, but it was young Sonny who was first out of the pack, working and recording with Babs Gonzales, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell and Miles Davis before he turned twenty.
But enough talk. Let's get on with the music.
Here's a 1956 recording he made with John Coltrane, "Tenor Madness."
Here are Sonny and Diz in 1987
A couple of years later, Sonny appeared on my favorite TV show, Night Music.
And now for something completely different. In the early '80s, Sonny played sax with The Rolling Stones on "Waiting for a Friend." (He's not in the video, which is a shame.)
