Sunday, September 15, 2019 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
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man by Bob Seeger
Someone Else is in Control by The Mystery Lights
Fire Bug by J.D. McPherson
The Joker is What They Call Me by Billy Myles Let it Come Down by Alien Space Kitchen
Betty vs the NYPD by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Sucka Punch by DiNOLA
Want You Around by Råttanson
CBD by The Toy Trucks
Unaccompanied by Sleeve Cannon
Stole Away by REQD
Double Dirty Mother by Roosevelt Sykes
She's Wild by The Vagoos
Jenny Jenny by The Night Beats
Scarla by Jack Oblivian & The Dream Killers
Git Back in the Truck by Hickoids
Mother-in-Law by Ernie K-Doe
Daniel Johnson at The Electric Lounge
Austin, Tx, SXSW 1998
R.I.P. Daniel Johnston
(All songs by Daniel, except where noted)
Grievances
Frankenstein Conquers the World by DJ and Jad Fair
Like a Monkey in the Zoo
Psycho Nightmare
Speeding Motorcycle by Yo la Tengo
Scary Monsters by The Electric Ghosts
I am a Baby in My Universe by Kathy McCarty
Devil Town
You Hurt Me
I Save Cigarette Butts by P
King Kong by Tom Waits
Funeral Girl
True Love Will Find You in the End
Ain't Nobody Perfect by The Mighty Hannibal
It's Twilight Time by The Platters CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican September 13, 2019
It was a leisurely Thursday morning in the French Quarter of New Orleans. I’d just finished my breakfast, a crawfish omelet, and had planted myself on a park bench in Jackson Square to catch up on some reading. I was enjoying the sidewalk jazz set up by Café Du Monde across Decatur Street from the park. The band was right in the middle of “(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey” when all of a sudden they were drowned out by a loud, almost surreal calliope playing Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer.”
This was the second day in a row that I heard mysterious calliope music filling the air on Decatur. I’d heard it the day before, some spooky-sounding tune I didn’t recognize, in the late afternoon upon leaving my hotel. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.
A local friend, who lives right across the Mississippi River at Algiers Point, later explained to me that it was coming from one of the riverboats parked nearby.
Depending on the calliope player, she said, it can actually sound great.
The Mother-in-Law Lounge
But that morning on Jackson Square, I just found it annoying as it interrupted a band I’d been digging on. So I decided to cross the park and walk around some. There, on the street facing St. Louis Cathedral, was another brass band, this one made up of younger guys, and they were even better than the group over by Café Du Monde. And by this time the calliope had subsided.
I wanted to give them a tip but had no small bills, so I went one street over to find a place to break a 20. And, lo and behold, there was yet another sidewalk band — this one with a guy playing a jazzy electric guitar along with the horn blowers and drummer — and they were nearly as good as the kids over by the cathedral.
Just another Thursday morning in August in New Orleans.
Man, I love this town! Great food, voodoo — and music is everywhere. Even the airport is named after Louis Armstrong. Music seems to permeate the streets.
Hoofing it from the French Quarter to Treme, for instance, traffic islands have little shrines featuring brightly colored murals of local music heroes. The walls on some businesses and even some houses feature musical murals.
Bruce Daigrepont and his crawfish squeeze box
My absolute favorite was Kermit’s Treme Mother-in-Law Lounge on Claiborne Avenue.
Part of the building features current owner and jazzman Kermit Ruffins playing his trumpet as well as beloved local weirdo rock group Quintron & Miss Pussycat. That’s right next to a larger mural featuring former owner, the late R&B star Ernie K-Doe, hyphen and all (his big hit was “Mother-in-Law” back in 1961) and his wife Antoinette in full royal-highness regalia.
The first night I was in town, I found a little bar on Bourbon Street called Tropical Isle’s Bayou Club, where an accordion-and-fiddle-driven group called The Cajun Drifterswas playing. Led by singer Bruce Daigrepont, who plays a red accordion with a painted-on crawfish, they’ve got a good stompin’ sound that doesn’t drift far from traditional Cajun music.
I liked the Cajun Drifters so much I decided to go back to the Bayou Club my last night in town. Alas, they weren’t playing there the second time around, but another band, T’Canaille, was there.
Led by another singer/accordionist, Lance Caruso, this Cajun group also veers into “swamp pop” (basically R&B-infused Cajun music.)
Weeks after booking this trip, I was excited to learn that my Texas friends and cow-punk pioneers the Hickoids were playing NOLA while I was there. (Guitarist Tom Trusnovic is a Santa Fe boy.) They were at d.b.a., a club on Frenchmen Street, a district full of music clubs.
I’ve seen their show — always rocking, always hilarious, always filthy — a dozen times or more. But
this show was special. Only days before their New Orleans gig, while the band was touring Spain, head Jeff Smith, learned that his older brother Barry had died. Barry’s memorial service was the day before the gig.
So Jeff was the essence of “the show must go on.” It wasn’t easy, but he pulled it off with raunchy grace. (Here’s a little plug: The Hix just released a live album, All the World’s a Dressing Room on Saustex Media that’s a fine representation of their live show.)
Though the Hickoids isn’t a New Orleans band, their opening act, DiNOLA is. Fronted by singer Sue Ford (her husband Jimmy Ford is the drummer) DiNOLA has a hard-edged, sludgy sound has a pre-metal ’70s feel.
I was back on Frenchmen Street the next night to see Kevin Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers at a club called Blue Nile.
Louis Armstrong’s gone, Professor Longhair’s gone, Allen Toussaint’s gone, Fats Domino’s gone, Dr. John’s gone … Now Kermit with his trumpet and raspy voice is arguably New Orleans’ greatest living showman.
Kermit invoked Armstrong on his snazzy version of “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” then did a fantastic version of the ever-goose-bump-inducing “St. James Infirmary” (his arrangement had more Cab Calloway than Satch) and made the classic “Jock-A-Mo (Iko Iko)” his own.
As the show progressed, Kermit shared the stage with some of his friends, the most memorable being Judy Hill, daughter of Jessie Hill, best known for his 1960 R&B hit “Ooh Poo Pah Doo.” (Unfortunately, Judy didn’t play that song that night.)
I didn’t learn this until later, but Kermit, now in his 50s, started out his career playing for tips with friends in Jackson Square.
That means that one of the young players I saw there could grow up to become the next Kermit Ruffins.
Now for some videos:
Here's the Cajun Drifters at the same place I saw them.
Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous Hickoids
I'm glad DiNOLA didn't die when I was in New Orleans
I've been reading John Waters' latest book, Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder, which is, as are all things Waters, hilarious. But this Throwback Thursday was inspired by one particular chapter called "I've Got Rhythm," in which Waters expounds upon his wide-ranging musical tastes -- including hillbilly music."
A lot of people today claim country-western music ain't what it used to be, and I kind of agreed until I started listening to the Outlaw Country radio station on Sirius in my car. God, there were so many beyond-cool hillbilly musical gems before and after Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams and Ferlin Huskey that I had never known before. Sure I had hung around redneck bars all my life, but now I felt the weight of my faux-cracker musical ignorance. Suddenly I realized I was an old Caucasian listener who needed to stick his citified ears through the twanging glory hole of country music to have them rearoused.
Waters suggests making an 8-track tape (!) of several hillbilly songs he suggests to beef up your appreciation of hillbilly music old and new "... then play them over and over so they are drilled in your mind like the Catholic catechism."
I don't have the equipment to make an 8-track tape, so I'll just put 'em all in a blog post.
(So no, this is not your typical Throwback Thursday where most the music I babble about is several decades old. But as my favorite filth elder wrote in this chapter, "...retro is a state of mind,not a year."
He starts with this song, "Firebug" by J.D. McPherson. Says Waters, " `Burn it up, burn it down,' J.D. sings, and you can bet if there's a horndog arsonist listening anywhere nearby, he'll come sliding down your pole and ignite on contact."
Waters also suggested one of my favorite tunes by one of my favorite artists, Ray Wylie Hubbard, which he calls "a real mating call for the ill-bred."
This song by Kevin Fowler, "If I Could Make a Livin' Drinkin'," Waters says, "would be the perfect pickup song if you were looking for a date either in the welfare or unemployment office."
Turning now to some older stuff, Waters admires Hank Thompson's "Hangover Tavern." Says the author, "I told you a hangover can sing if you'll just let it."
Finally here's song Waters calls the "saddest, most heartbreaking, most ridiculous but touching down-home narration ...": Hawkshaw Hawkins' "Lonesome 7-7203."
Sunday, September 8, 2019 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:
(substitute) OPENING THEME: The Holygram's Song (Back from the Shadows Again) by Firesign Theatre
I Wanna Die in New Orleans by Dinola
Whatever by Ty Segall
Wild Honey by Weird Omen
My Life to Live by The Flesh Eaters
Driftwood-40-23 by Hickoids
Wild America by Iggy Pop
Jock-a-Moe (Iko Iko) by Kermot Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers
Jimmy Jones / Space Brother by Alien Space Kitchen
Questions by The Toy Trucks
White Lily by Ghost Wolves
Snack Crack by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
Evil Eye by Dead Moon
Raw Meat by Black Lips
Smooth Commander by Left Lane Cruiser
Ooh-Poo-Pah-Doo by Jesse Hill
Bad Neighborhood by Daddy Long Legs
One and the Same by The War & Treaty
Dog by The Bottle Rockets
Feel So Good by Shirley & Lee
Dirty Love by Frank Zappa & The Mothers
Rathole Guest by Rattanson
Plant the Seed by Imperial Wax
Big New Prinz by The Fall
Teenage Warning by Kazik & Zdunek Ensemble
Stole Away by REQ'D
You Cared Enough to Lie by Eilen Jewell
Dream Killer by Jack Oblivian & The Dream Killers
Cry On by Irma Thomas
I Wish I Was in New Orleans by Tom Waits CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
