Sunday, Sept. 18, 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
Mean Evil Child by The Raunch Hands
Jack Pepsi by TAD
The Tasteless Blues by Musk Ain't You Hungry by James Leg
My Baby Does the Bird by Deke Dickerson & The Trashmen Amazons and Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Where Wolf by Gino & The Goons
Whiskey and Wimmin by John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat
Jump into the Fire by Psychic TV
Last Laugh by Johnny Dowd
When Fate Deals Its Mortal Blow by Meet Your Death
Skylab by The Grannies
CIrcus by Left Lane Cruiser
The Gay Pirate Dance by Ray Stevens
Get the Wow by Shonen Knife
Going South by Dead Moon
Let's Get Funky by Hound Dog Taylor
Flat Foot Flewzy by NRBQ
Standing on the Verge of Getting It On by Funkadelic
I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body) by Parliament
Little War Child by Oblivians
Shady Grove by Quicksilver Messenger Service
The Thin Man by Archie & The Bunkers
Go Home Girl by Frank Black & Gary U.S. Bonds
Sinnerman by Nina Simone
Smile by Dex Romweber
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell with special guest co-host Scott Gullett 101.1 FM
So I sat down at my laptop Tuesday morning to Google the meaning of life and I noticed up by the Google logo this picture of a woman in colorful ethnic garb surrounded by musical notes.
I didn't recognize the lady and I couldn't figure out what ethnicity her costume represented, So I couldn't resist clicking on her picture.
And I'm glad I did. I soon learned that this was a South American singer with an amazing
voice, Yma Sumac.
She was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri Del Castillo in the mountains of Peru on Sept. 13, 1922. According to her official website she "is the only singer known to possess close to a staggering 5 octave voice. While less than a handful of singers have managed to capture Sumac's high notes, none have managed to acquire those notes including Sumac's lowest registers. More amazing, is that Yma Sumac had no formal training! It has been said she is unable to read musical notes!"
Apparently five octaves really draws out the exclamation points!
More from her bio:
Around the age of 9 she could often be seen high atop a mountain in the High Andes singing ancient Peruvian folkloric songs, to a group of rocks, which she pretended was her audience. Entranced by the beautiful birds that sang nearby, she began to imitate them, by incorporating their high pitched sounds into her"repertoire."
At the age of 13 she began appearing on Argentine radio, which led to a recording career. She and her husband, conductor Moises Vivanco, moved to New York. With her group Inca Taqui Trio she performed on the Arthur Godfrey's television show. According to the Allmusic Guide, the trio "became a fixture on the Borscht Belt circuit and the Catskills."
Sumac was discovered by a talent scout from Capitol Records. In 1950 Yma recorded the album Voice of the Xtabay, considered to be a classic in the sound that later would be known as exotic.
So what did she sound like? Glad you asked.
Here's a song she did in the 1954 Charlton Heston movie called The Secret of the Incas.
She did a mambo album in 1954. Here's a song from that called "Five Bottles Mambo."
Here she performs a song called "Midnight in Moscow" in a 1960 concert in Russia.
This is one from her "psychedelic" album Miracles (1972), which she recorded with bandleader Les Baxter.
She appeared on Late Night with David Letterman in 1987.
Sumac lived until 2008. She died in Los Angeles at the age of 86.
Yes, there are only three shopping days before what would have been Hank Williams' 93rd birthday. In a world that hadn't gone insane, this would be a national holiday.
Hank's songs are beloved by all true Americans. But even though we claim him as our own, love for Hank Williams does not stop at our borders. Truly, he belongs to the world as the following videos will attest.
Happy birthday Hank!
Juáner Dominguez takes us to the bayou country ... of Spain
Yes, they have Hank in Thailand. Apparently they also have chipmunks. Here's a band called Pairote.
Some Swedish hillbilly sounds on a much-loved Hank song by The Long Gone Smiles Band
In Brazil, The Fabulous Bandits see the Light!
Sabah Habas Mustapha, aka Colin Bass, is an Englishman who was in a wonderful faux Balkan group 3 Mustaphas 3, then in the '90s recorded several albums in Indonesia. Here's his Dangdut cover of "Lost Highway" (written by Leon Payne but made famous by Hank.)
Brace yourself, Bridget, here's a Tuvan band called Ya-Kha doing "Ramblin' Man."
And back to "Jambalya" with a Jakartan hip-hop take on Hank's faux Cajun classic.
Sunday, Sept. 11, 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
Low Life Baby by DD Owen
The Wolf by The Bloodhounds
Bollywood Woman by The Above
Bleed Me by The Upper Crust
White Glove Service by The Grannies Froggy by The A-Bones Dogjaw (Do Some Things You Say) by James Leg
What Happens When You Turn the Devil Down by The Mystery Lights
Atom Spies by The Fleshtones
Mystic Eyes by Them
Rats in the Gas Tank by Ex-Cult
Glendale Junkyard by GØGGS
Trouble of the World by Dex Romweber
Plastic Plant by Thee Oh Sees
Unease and Deviance by Johnny Dowd
When Death Deals It's Mortal Blow by Meet Your Death
Meanwhile, Back in the Jungle by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
She Ain't No Child No More by Sharon Jones
Trouble in the Land by Charles Bradley
Bitch I Love You by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
All the Way Wrong by Wiley & The Checkmates
What Have You Done by Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens
Baaad News by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Burn it Down by Charles Walker & The Dynamites I'm a Millionaire by Lee Fields
I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse Jon E.'s Mood by Jon E. Edwards
Ain't a Sin by Charles Bradley
Lying Lying Lying Woman by Swamp Dogg
This Land is Your Land by Sharon Jones
Moonbeam by King Richard & The Knights
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Sept. 9, 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
I Gotta Drive by Dale Watson
Slingin' Rhythm by Wayne Hancock
I'm a Nut by Leroy Pullens
Wildwood Flower by Mike Ness
Straight Tears, No Chaser by Paul Burch
Lonesome Road Blues by Martha Fields
Lord, Mr. Ford by Jerry Reed
Blue Collar Dollar by Kevin Gordon
Drinking Problem by Audrey Auld
Sweet Virginia by The Rolling Stones
The Color of a Cloudy Day by Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires
Corn Money by The Defibulators
One More Night Alone by Dan Whitaker & The Sidebenders
Granny's Got the Baby ('Cause Mama's Doin' Time) by Trailer Radio
Loners for Life by Hank 3
Everybody's Had the Blues by Merle Haggard
Poison by The Waco Brothers
Payphone by Eric Hisaw
Where Do You Roam by Dex Romweber
I'm Gonna Dress in Black by Eilen Jewell
Cheap Whiskey by Patty Loveless
Europe by Lydia Loveless
What Do I Care by Eddie Spaghetti
Days of '49 by Bob Dylan
Green Willow Valley by The Handsome Family
Hello Stranger by Carolina Chocolate Drops
Tennessee Blues by Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur
Lord I Need Somebody Bad Tonight by Rhonda Vincent
Takin' Names by Josh White
Black Jack David by Loretta Lynn CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Sept. 9, 2016 Even before soul singerSharon Jones’ triumph over cancer, her story was one of the most inspiring tales in modern popular music. First, it’s the story of talent and determination overcoming show-biz shallowness. When she auditioned for Sony Records back in the 1980s, some cretinous executive rejected her, telling the young singer she was too black, too fat, too short, and too old. That was a setback for certain. She had to work at a series of day jobs — including as a corrections officer at Rikers Island — before she began her recording career. Jones was in her forties when she released her first album, in 2002, on the musician-owned Daptone Records. The fact that she built a respectable career with millions of fans and critically acclaimed work — without the help of a major record label or commercial radio — is heartening in itself. So it’s only logical that Jones’ battle against cancer would also be an inspirational story — and that’s the main focus of Barbara Kopple’s documentary Miss Sharon Jones!
In 2013, Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This was before the release of her album Give the People What They Want. After a brief montage of music clips and biographical narrative, one of the first scenes of the documentary shows Jones in a barber shop getting her head shaved. After that, she tries on various wigs — one, she jokes, makes her look like Tina Turner, another like Oprah. But that’s about the last time we see her in a wig. During her chemo treatments, she prefers to be defiantly bald. Not surprisingly, this movie is not always pleasant. We see Jones at her highs — like when she finds out she’s booked for an appearance on Ellen, one of her favorite TV talk shows. And we see her lows, such as the scene where she lashes out at her band, the Dap-Kings, because their Thanksgiving dinner was canceled. One of the most moving scenes is an interview in which Jones, full of shame, talks about a low point when she wrongfully accused her loyal, longtime manager Alex Kadvan of being more worried about the money the band was losing than about her health. But the truth is that Jones’ cancer was a huge financial strain on the Dap-Kings and others who work with her — all of whom depend on performing with Jones to make a living. For starters, the band’s tour was canceled the summer she was diagnosed. Dap-King guitarist Binky Griptite tells how the news of Jones’ condition came right after he and his wife decided to split. All at once he realized he was “divorced, laid off, and my friend had cancer.” And bassist Gabe Roth tells how a couple of banks balked at refinancing his home after they read about Jones’ illness. After viewing Miss Sharon Jones! the first time, my initial criticism was that Kopple spends too much time in Jones’ chemo clinics and not enough time at concert halls. My knee-jerk reaction as a fan of her music was that I’d much rather watch two hours of Jones and her band doing what they do best, proving that good old-fashioned funk and soul never die, no matter what the musical industrial complex is trying to sell you at the moment. But watching the documentary a second time softened that reaction somewhat. While I’d still like to have more music in the film, I realized that seeing the energetic, confident Jones at these moments of weakness, exhaustion, and frustration is important in understanding the singer. Kopple intersperses bits of Jones’ biography into the film. We hear Roth talk about how back in the ’90s, he and Jones themselves remodeled the building that would become Daptone Records, even doing the electrical wiring themselves. The film takes us to North Augusta, South Carolina, where Jones was raised, along with nearby Augusta, Georgia, where Jones tours a museum dedicated to another famous musician from the area, James Brown. And Jones talks about growing up in the South during segregation, remembering how a cruel shopkeeper taught a parrot to say racist slurs anytime a black child entered the store. And there are powerful musical moments in this film. At one point, Kopple literally takes us to church. Jones sings a mighty version of the old hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow” (best known for versions by Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson). Jones is winded by the end of the song, but then again, it also has a breathtaking effect for those of us who are listening. Unfortunately, this song is not on the soundtrack album for the movie. We see Jones backstage at New York’s Beacon Theatre, where she kicked off her comeback tour in February 2014 —a tour that included a sold-out show at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe. As guitarist Griptite goes through his soul-show spiel announcing her entrance, we see Jones’ stage fright poignantly illustrated by her hand shaking uncontrollably as she grips a paper cup. But only seconds later, she walks onstage and transforms into the superheroine her fans know best, visibly soaking up the applause, the cheers, and the love. Spoiler alert: Miss Sharon Jones! has a happy ending, in which Jones is cancer-free and the Dap-Kings are again going strong. However, after the film was made, the cancer returned. Jones had to resume chemo treatments last year. Early last month, she was forced to cancel a European tour. “Sharon is doing well, but must undergo a medical procedure related to her cancer and the recovery time will conflict with these European dates,” her website says. However, it also says that an American tour scheduled to begin this month will go on. Miss Sharon Jones! opens Friday, Sept. 9, at The Screen on the campus of Santa Fe University of Art and Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive. Video time! Here's a song from Give The People What They Want called "Retreat!"
Here's Sharon at South by Southwest in 2010.
And here is the official Trailer for Miss Sharon Jones!
The Deep Ellum district in downtown Dallas started out as a African-American commercial area in Dallas. In the early part of the last century it was known as a hotbed of blues and jazz. Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lead Belly worked there as street musicians.
And apparently, during an era of segregation, it was a place, where black and white musicians played together before integrated audiences. A 10-minute 1985 documentary by Alan Govenar features folks who were there talking about those times. (The documentary disappeared from YouTube since I first posted this. but you can rent it for 99 cents HERE, and below is a trailer:)
But outside of Dallas, fans of blues, country and rockabilly might best know Deep Ellum from a great American tune that celebrates the neighborhood as a red light district, a place where you can find redheads who "never give a man a chance"; where you have to keep your money in your shoes and where police officers expect $15 bribes. A sinful place where preachers lay their Bibles down and good gals become hardened.
It's been covered by Les Paul, Doc Watson, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Red Allen & Frank Wakefield, Rory Gallagher, Hot Rise, The Asylum Street Spankers, And apparently Jimmie Dale Gilmore could see Deep Ellum from a DC-9 at night.
Most versions of the song are called "Deep Elem Blues" or "Deep Elm Blues" (which actually makes sense because "Ellum" came from Elm Street in Dallas. Most the singers who recorded this song were white.
But the song started out as an ode to a wild place in Georgia called Black Bottom. Here's a 1927 version by a group called The Georgia Crackers.
In the early '30s a Texas group called The Shelton Brothers changed the locale of this song to Deep Ellum.
Country singer Hank Thompson did a rocking version in the late '60s.
Jerry Lee Lewis also recorded it in the '50s.
But probably the most popular version in recent decades was done by the unplugged version of The Grateful Dead.
Sunday, Sept. 4, 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
Pills by Chesterfield Kings
Kill Zone by James Arthur's Manhunt
It's Mighty Crazy by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
I Wanna Be Your Busyman by The Fadeaways
Somethin' Else by The Flamin' Groovies
Follow Me Home by The Mystery Lights
I'm Your Man by Muck & The Mires
Yeah! by The Cynics
Obeah Man by Meet Your Death
A Public Execution by Mouse
Wax Dummy by John Spencer Blues Explosion
Wild Snakes by The Thick 'Uns
King's Highway Sulphur City
Juicy Lucy by LoveStruck
Backstreet Girl by Social Distortion
Nest of The Cuckoo Bird by The Cramps
Timothy by The Buoys
Modern Woman by Johnny Dowd
Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus
Head Holes by Lonesome Shack
LABOR DAY SET
Plenty Tuff and Union Made by The Waco. Brothers
Working at Working by Wayne Hancock
Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live by The Del-Lords
Don't Look Now by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Working Man by Bo Diddley
Mr. President Have Pity on the Working Man by Randy Newman
Gelatinous Cube by Thee Oh Sees
Alien Agenda by Alien Space Kitchen Joan of Arc by The Melvins
Baby's Going Underground by Helium
Adios Amigo by Dan Penn & Donnie Fritts
September Song by Lou Reed
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Sept. 2, 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
Amos Moses by Dale Watson
She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft) by Jerry Reed
Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll by Janis Martin
Killed THem Both by Wayne Hancock
I Ain't Never by Headcat
I'm Going to Memphis by Paul Burch
Drinkin' Wine and Staring at the Phone by Dave Insley
Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller
100% Pure Fool by The Derailers
Get a Load of This by R. Cumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders
I Am My Own Grandpa by Asylum Street Spankers
I'm the Only Hell My Mama EverRaised by Johnny Paycheck
The Breeze by Banditos
Marijuana by Reverend Horton Heat
Honey You Had Me Fooled by Defibulators
Walk Right In by Otis Taylor featuring Guy Davis and Corey Harris
Fishing Blues by Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur
Buglight by The Flat Five
Western Trek by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Strangers by San Antonio Kid
Elvis is Haunting My Bathroom by The Royal Hounds
She Still Comes Around by Jerry Lee Lewis
The Way I Walk by Ruby Dee & The Snake Handlers
Country Singer's Prayer by Buck Owens
Shadow My Baby by Ray Condo & His Richochets
Banjo Lovin' Hound Dog by Johnny Banjo
Hard Times by The Bubbadinos
Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yay by Clothesline Revival
Tell Me a Swamp Story by Tony Joe White
Back in My Day by The Handsome Family
Summer Wages by David Bromberg
Jack O Diamonds by P.W. Long & Reelfoot
Blind Willie McTell by The Band CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Cartoonist and old-time music enthusiast Robert Crumb turned 73 this week. Last year around this time in honor of his birthday I posted a bunch of songs by Crumb, most of them with his Cheap Suit Serenaders. (Check that out HERE.)
This year I'm posting original -- or at least older -- versions of songs recorded by Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders.
So happy birthday, Mr. Crumb!
Crumb and the band based "Get a Load of This" -- one of their best-known tunes from the early '70s -- on Charley Jordan's "Keep it Clean." Crumb and the lads added some modern references -- "Bowling for Dollars," "pink burritos" etc. -- and, for reasons unclear to me, they changed Coca Cola to R.C. Cola. But you still hear a lot of the original in Crumb's version.
Here is one the better known songs that Crumb and band covered. "Singing in the Bathtub" was written by Herb Magidson and Ned Washington, It first was performed by Winnie Lightner in the 1929 movie Show of Shows. British Music Hall vet Gracie Fields recorded it around the same time, (I think I know now where Singing Sadie got her shtick.)
Here's one Crumb got from this amazing old string band from Texas led by mandolinist Coley Jones.
Crumb picked up this entendre-laden masterpiece from Harry Roy and His Orchestra.
Get a load of -- and try to keep track of -- the twisted family trees presented in these songs.
Let's start with this Spoke Jones soap opera send-up in the 1940s: "None but the Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta)"
Reverend Beat-Man, Supreme Commander and President for Life of Switzerland's Voodoo Rhythm Records, describes an even more convoluted -- and degenerate -- family in "I See the Light" from his album Surreal Folk Blues Gospel Trash Vol. 2
Finally, here's the grandfather of all such songs, as performed by Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones .
Originally recorded by Oscar and Lorenzo in 1947, the song, according to this item in Ancestry.com actually is based on a true story originally published in the early 1880s.
(According to Ancestry.com, I am Reverend Beat-Man's great grand step niece twice-removed.)
Sunday, Aug. 28, 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
Elephant Man by Meet Your Death
Coitus Interuptus (From a Priest) by The Devils
The Hunter by The Gospel Truth
On the Run by The Cynics
Avaler La Couleuvre by Thee Verduns
Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
World Ain't Round by Musk
Busload of Faith by Lou Reed
Baby Please Don't Go by The Amboy Dukes
Kill Zone by James Arthur's Manhunt
Ain't You Hungry by James Leg
WIthered Hand by Thee Oh Sees
Swimmin' in the Quicksand by JD Pinkus & Nik Turner
Falling In by GØGGS
When the Levee Breaks by Mojo Nixon & The Toadliquors
Whiskey Ate My Brain by Johnny Dowd
Venice with Girls by The Fall
My Dear Watson by Thee Headcoats
Sunglasses After Dark by Archie & The Bunkers
When the Lights Go Out by The Black Keys
Blank Reflection by Nots
25th Floor/High on Rebellion by Patti Smith
Junior Barnes by King Khan & The Shrines
Morning After Blues by Andre Williams
Retreat by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Old Man Mose by Pierre Omer's Swing Revue
Heaven by Talking Heads
God's Comic by Elvis Costello
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Aug. 26, 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
Let it Roll by Dinosaur Truckers
There Stands the Glass by Van Morrison
Bosco Stomp by The Cajun Playboys
I'm Not Drunk Enough by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Booze is Good by Dan Whitaker & The Sidebenders
Bloody Mary Morning by Willie Nelson
Bashful Rascal by June Carter
Dirt Queen by Country Trailer
Do as You Are Told by Martha Fields
White Lightning by The Waco Brothers
Train Kept Rollin' by The Royal Hounds
Get it on Down the Line by Danny Barnes
Lyin' to You Lying with Me by Kyle Martin
Just Tell Her I Loved Her by Joe Swank & The Zen Pirates
I Don't Know by Dex Romweber
The Toad Lickers by Thomas Dolby with Imogene Heap
When I Steal by Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers
Psycho by Eddie Noack
The John Birch Society by The Chad Mitchell Trio
Eight Piece Box by Southern Culture on the Skids
Angel Along the Tracks by The Dirt Daubers
Old Fashioned Love by The Western Flyers
Poison in Your Heart by Laura Cantrell
She Left Anyway by Jim Jones
What's Money by George Jones
Diamond Joe by Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur
Comet Ride by Ricky Skaggs
Underneath the Falls by The Handsome Family
Rain Crow by Tony Joe White
Touch of Evil by Tom Russell
It's Our Home by Joe West CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Aug. 26, 2016 Indulge me in belaboring the obvious for a moment: Memphis, Tennessee, is an important city in rock ’n’roll. But that didn’t stop with Elvis, Sun Records, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, Al Green, Stax Records, or Chuck Berry’s uncle writing messages on the wall.
Memphis is still an important city for rock. For years it’s been home to a vibrant “underground” rock scene, thanks largely to Goner Records (the store and the label), an associated festival called Gonerfest (coming up in late September), and bands including The Reatards, The Oblivians, and all of their offshoots.
My favorite group to emerge from this Memphis stew in recent months isNots, an all-female punk band whose screaming new album Cosmetic is a wild delight.
Fronted by singer Natalie Hoffman, this is basically a guitar group — except they’ve got a keyboard player, Alexandra Eastburn, whose fearsome synthesized blips, bloops, wiggles, and squiggles remind me of Allen Ravenstine, the keyboard maniac of early Pere Ubu.
This is the most urgent-sounding music I’ve heard in a long time. Though it’s not always easy to understand the lyrics, it’s impossible to escape the intensity of the sound. Drummer Charlotte Watson deserves much of the credit for this. For the first few seconds of “Rat King” and “Cold Line,” she almost sounds like a hopped-up surf-band drummer ready to explode.
Nots really stretch out on a couple of tracks on Cosmetic. The five-and-a-half-minute title song begins with what might be described as a distorted blues riff. It starts off slow, but about three minutes in, the pace suddenly takes off and becomes a frenzied race to the finish.
Even better is the seven-minute closing song “Entertain Me.” In a recent interview with Stereogum, Hoffman said the lyrics deal with “the grotesque horror show going on in American politics and how they are portrayed — the rise of Trump, the reality-TV-like nature of American news, the almost-forced compliance of the viewer. ...” Indeed, this is entertainment!
Cosmetic will be available September 9.
Gøggsby Gøggs. A lot of people are referring to this as Ty Segall’s latest band, but actually it’s a collaboration among Segall, Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult — a Memphis band of which Nots’ Hoffman was a member — and Charles Moothart from Fuzz, another Segall group. Shaw handles lead vocals — he’s a shouter more than a singer — while Segall concentrates on guitar, though he and drummer Moothart switch instruments on a few tracks.
It’s hard to tell what you’re going to get with each new release from the prolific, restless Segall — the Stooges-like craziness of Slaughterhouse, mellow introspection like Sleeper, or the soul-tinged, almost-poppy fare like Manipulator. Gøggs is closer to Slaughterhouse, or whatever Segall was up to when he raged at High Mayhem in Santa Fe a few years ago. It’s loud, rough, raw, and noisy. And yet it’s a friendly-sounding assault — it’s the sheer fun Segall, Shaw, and Moothart seem to be having as they pound out these 10 tunes.
Highlights here include the harsh, hard-hitting “Assassinate the Doctor” (perhaps inspired by “Fearless Doctor Killers,” Mudhoney’s protest against “pro-life” violence); the riff-heavy garage-punker “Smoke the Wurm”; and “Final Notice,” which features insane screaming and, like the Nots’ record, is driven by crazy keyboards.
* Swing Cremona byPierre Omer’s Swing Review. Omer used to be in a Swiss group called The Dead Brothers, who billed themselves as a “funeral band.” And indeed, there was something spooky and a little morbid about that group. But Omer’s latest band is much more upbeat.
This music is closer in sound to groups like the Squirrel Nut Zippers. They play a little hot jazz, a little vaudeville, a hint of calypso, a whiff of klezmer, and more than a touch of Weimar Republic decadence. It’s a four-piece band (guitar, stand-up bass, drums, and trumpet). But it sounds much bigger than it is.
Probably my favorite song here is “International Man of Mystery,” which makes me wish that Cab Calloway would return from the dead to sing in it and that Max Fleischer would come back and do a cartoon for it. Omer’s music spans the globe. He plays a “Russian Lullaby,” goes tropical with “Coconut Island” — try to listen to this all the way through without hearing Leon Redbone singing along — and strips “Misirlou” of any trace of surf music, taking the song back to its Middle Eastern roots (the way Dick Dale discovered it).
And speaking of Max Fleischer, the famed animator did a Betty Boop cartoon of “Mysterious Mose,” which is a variation of another song on Omer’s album, “Ol’ Man Mose.” That song, attributed to Louis Armstrong, has a rich history. A 1938 version of the song by Patricia Norman with the Eddie Duchin Orchestra is notorious for featuring the repeated use of a certain dirty word — in the refrain that goes “Mose kicked the bucket ...” Omer resists the temptation to work blue, however, so you can safely play his version for the children.
* San Antonio Kid by San Antonio Kid. This is a German group that has a strange obsession with the American Southwest. SAK plays an alluring, moody, noirish spaghetti-Western style of country rock. (Maybe we should coin a new category: sauerkraut Western?) There’s lots of twang and reverb and dreamy melodies packed into this 34-minute, eight-song record.
The whistling that opens the song “Strangers” sounds straight out of Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars. San Antonio Kid reminds me a little of Calexico — without the marimbas and trumpet. And the harmonica on “Same Old Sound II” has echoes of Call of the West-era Wall of Voodoo.
We only hail the hero from whom we got our name We're not sure what he did but he's our hero just the same from "The John Birch Society" by Michael Brown
Seventy one years ago today, just days after the end of World War II, a group of Chinese communists captured then killed a 27-year-old American Baptist missionary -- who also was working for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services -- named John Birch.
Birch, who spoke fluent Mandarin, had been sent, along with a group of Chinese Nationalist and American officers to accept the surrender of a Japanese base in eastern China.
According to a review in the Wall Street Journal review of the biography John Birch: A Life by Terry Lautz (2016, Oxford University Press) Richard Bernstein talked about Birch's career in China:
Birch bravely spent weeks and months at a time behind enemy lines helping to select targets for American bombers. After the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, he was sent on a mission to scout territories in eastern China being evacuated by the Japanese. There, he and his men ran into a detachment of Communist guerrillas who, after a heated verbal exchange, shot and killed Birch. The date was Aug. 25, 1945.
He was a missionary. He was an officer in the OSS. But one thing John Birch never was: a member of The John Birch Society.
In this book review, Bernstein wrote about what happened to Birch's name after his death:
As a devout Christian, Birch would have found Communist values and practices deeply objectionable, but he didn’t live to witness Communist rule in China and was never an anti-communist fanatic. Yet in 1958, Robert H.W. Welch Jr., a wealthy candy manufacturer, founded the John Birch Society, seizing on the notion that the noble American war hero Birch was the first victim of a war declared against America and Christian civilization by the international Communist conspiracy. This was a war aided and abetted, in Welch’s post-McCarthyite view, by a coterie of highly placed American traitors. Dwight Eisenhower, he wrote, was “a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy ... his untimely death [was] followed by his involuntary enlistment in a paranoid club that reduced a cause that might otherwise have gained his sympathy to a jokey kind of historical footnote.
Indeed, in the world of popular music you only hear Birch's name in a couple of jokey songs -- jokey folkie songs -- from the early 1960s.
Those songs are below. But remember when listening to them that the John Birch Society is not John Birch.
First there's "The John Birch Society," as performed by The Chad Mitchell Trio.
Then there is Bob Dylan's "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues."
Ironically, this song proved that paranoia was not the exclusive property of the Birchers. Dylan was going to sing this on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963,
Dylan had auditioned “John Birch” days earlier and had run through it for Ed Sullivan himself without any concern being raised. But during dress rehearsal on the day of the show, an executive from the CBS Standards and Practices department informed the show’s producers that they could not allow Dylan to go forward singing “John Birch.” While many of the song’s lyrics about hunting down “reds” were merely humorous ... others that equated the John Birch Society’s views with those of Adolf Hitler raised the fear of a defamation lawsuit in the minds of CBS’s lawyers.
Dylan refused to alter the lyrics or play another song. So he gave up his chance to appear on Ed Sullivan. Sullivan himself later denounced the idiotic decision by the CBS suits.
Leon Payne, the blind bard of Alba, Texas, is best known for writing the Hank Williams hit "Lost Highway." Personally, I think he should be remembered more for "Take Me" by George Jones or "Selfishness of Man," a gut-puncher recorded by Jones, Bobby Osborne, Buddy and Julie Miller and others.
But neither of those are the Leon Payne song I want to talk about today. I want to talk about one that has always seemed to be somewhat out of character for Leon.
"Psycho"!
I first heard this tune at Cafe Oasis in the early '90s, the first time I saw ex-Angry Samoan Gregg Turner play. It's a perfect song for Turner, a pretty tune full of black humor and strange plot twists. I assumed he'd written it. But he told me it was the work of "some old country guy" and that Elvis Costello had recorded it.
Actually a couple of old country guys recorded it -- first Eddie Noack back in the late '60s. He was a friend of Payne's. Then a Michigan singer named Jack Kittell in the early '70s. Costello didn't get to it until the early 80s during his Almost Blue period. (It can be found as a bonus on at least one version of Almost Blue.)
Here's Noack's version, followed by Costello's:
And many others followed. As Randy Fox wrote in Nashville Scene in 2012, "Psycho" became "a favorite cover song for many alt-country bands that skew to the weirder and darker side of country. Thus proving a great country song will always find its audience, once the world gets weird enough."
In his "Psycho" article Fox interviewed Payne's daughter Myrtie Le Payne, who told how her dad came up with this macabre song.
"Jackie White was my daddy's steel guitar player," [ Myrtie Le] says. "He started working with him in 1968, and the song came out of a conversation they had one day."
Fans of "Psycho" should recognize that name:
I saw my ex again last night mama / She was at the dance at Miller's store / She was with that Jackie White mama / I killed them both and now they're buried under Jenkins' sycamore
Fox wrote, "According to the story related by White, in the spring of 1968, he and Leon Payne were discussing the Richard Speck murders. Speck murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in July 1966 and was convicted and sentenced to death the following year. Being a history buff, Payne was familiar with the cases of many notorious mass killers, and the discussion soon turned to other famous cases — Charles Whitman, Ed Gein, Mary Bell and Albert Fish. That conversation directly inspired the song."
According to this, the opening line, "Can Mary fry some fish, Mama?" is a sly reference to Mary Bell, a child killer who was a child herself. Her life story makes me wonder whether she's the inspiration for Nick Cave's "The Curse of Milhaven."
Indeed, "Psycho" was an unusual song for Leon Payne. But maybe the seeds of it came from an earlier song, one I mentioned above, "Selfishness in Man":
Little children painting pictures of the birds and apple trees / Oh, why can't the grown up people have the faith of one of these / And to think those tiny fingers might become a killer's hand ...
You think that's psycho, don't you ...
Any way, here are a couple of more versions of "Psycho," first by an Australian band called The Beasts of Bourbon
And here's a fairly recent one I like a lot by another Australian, Mojo Juju
And here are more, including covers by Jack Kittel, T. Tex Edwards, Andre William & The Sadies, and more. Sorry, I couldn't find a Gregg Turner version anywhere.
It's honky-tonk time at the Big Enchilada, so come on in for a brand new hillbilly episode. You'll hear country music, old and new; songs of joy and songs of shame; songs touched by the Lord and songs scorched by the Devil's hellfire ... As my friend, the late, great Kell Robertson used to say, come on in, it's cool and dark inside!
Sunday, Aug. 21, 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
Sinner Man by Esquerita
Human Lawn Dart by James Leg
Tracking the Dog by Meet Your Death
Shaking Satan's Balls by The Devils
Wild Man by Hollywood Sinners I'm Cryin' by The Animals
Black Jack by The Hives
Psychotic Reaction by Brenton Wood
Final Notice by GØGGS
Entertain Me by Nots
One Evening by Jesus Lizard
Before I Die by The Sloths
Hey Ya'll by Blaine Cartwright & Ruyter Suys
Pucker Up Buttercup by Paul "Wine" Jones
Don't Be Afraid to Pogo by The Gears
Priestess of the Promised Land by Stan Ridgway & Pietra Wextun
Sexual Revolution by Johnny Dowd
Mexican Garage by Archie & The Bunkers
A Million Times by The Soulphonics
Puddin' Truck by NRBQ Welcome to Star 65 by Alien Space Kitchen
Psykick Dancehall by The Fall
Wish I Was a Catfish by T-Model Ford
The Trip by Donovan Frankie Baby by Mojo Juju
I Lost My Smile by Pierre Omer's Swing Revue
Frida by Cankisou Still I Dream of It by Brian Wilson CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Aug. 19, 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
John Wesley Hardin by Jimmie Skinner
Hot Dog by Rosie Flores
Old Man From the Mountain by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugene Chadbourn
Great Shakin' Fever by Ray Condo & The Ricochets
Gettin' High for Jesus by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Tunafish Every Day by Southern Culture on the Skids
Southern White Lies by Martha Fields
Ghosts of Hallelujh by The Gourds
Country Fool by The Showmen
Big Fake Boobs by The Beaumonts
The Way I Walk by Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers
Tomorrow's Just a Trainwreck Away by Joe Swank & The Zen Pirates
On the Verge by The Royal Hounds
What You Gonna Do, Leroy by Brennen Leigh
Party Dolls and Wine by Eddie Spaghetti
All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down by Supersuckers
Mr. Wiggly by Reverend Billy C. Wirtz
Jimmy Joe the Hippy Billy Boy by Ed Sanders
Bright Lights, Big City by Sleepy LaBeef
San Antonio Romeo by Cathy Faber & Her Swinging Country Band
It's No Secret by Mose McCormack
Carroll County Blues by The Western Flyers
The Bass Player is a Junkie by Joe West
Sweet Thang by J. Michael Combs
The Silver Light by The Handsome Family
Where the Soul of Man Never Dies by Hank Williams
How in Heaven by The Whites
Clumps by Lydia Loveless
It Just Doesn't Seem to Matter by Dallas Wayne & Jeannie Seeley
Bury Me by Dwight Yoakam with Maria McKee
I Had a Dream by Dex Romweber
Iowa City by Eleni Mandell
Raise a Ruckus by Josh White CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Tomorrow marks the 121st anniversary of the killing of John Wesley Hardin, a true bad-ass Old West gunslinger. He was a cowboy, a fighter against reconstruction and an actual jailhouse lawyer who studied law while serving time for killing a sheriff's deputy in Brown County, Texas. He claimed to have backed down Wild Bill Hickok, who was sheriff of Abilene.
He was shot and killed in the Acme Saloon (no, this wasn't a Roadrunner cartoon) in El Paso on Aug. 19. 1895. Killed by a guy he'd previously hired to kill the husband of his girlfriend.
Hardin, the son of a Methodist preacher, claimed to have killed more than 40 people (though only 27 were confirmed.) One of his victims was a friend he killed for snoring.
Hardin was an unusual type of killer, a handsome, gentlemanly man who considered himself a pillar of society, always maintaining that he never killed anyone who did not need killing and that he always shot to save his own life. Many people who knew him or his family regarded him as a man more sinned against than sinning.
Or as Bob Dylan might say, "he was never known to hurt an honest man."
Actually Dylan did say that in a song titled "John Wesley Harding." Dylan added a "g" to the outlaw's name and basically turned him into Robin Hood, a "friend to the poor" who "was always known to lend a helping hand." Though the hero of Dylan's 1967 song bore little resemblance to the real Hardin, it's still a fine little tune.
You can play it here:
But about eight years before Dylan's song, a hillbilly named Jimmie Skinner did a slightly more historically accurate account of Hardin's life. For example, the song correctly says Hardin "shot a man dead at the age of 15" and it does have him going to prison for killing a law enforcement officer (though in real life, Hardin was pardoned after serving 16 years of his 25 year sentence for kiling Deputy Charles Webb.)
If that melody sounds familiar, that's because Webb lifted it from another outlaw song, "John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man," recorded in 1928 by The Carter Family (and a million others after them and a few before them). John Hardy was completed unrelated to John Wesley Hardin. Hardy was a black man who was hanged for murder in 1894 in West Virginia. He'd killed another guy in a craps game. (Holy Stag-o-lee, Batman!)
Finally, I'm not sure what this last song is about. Maybe the singer who called himself John Wesley Harding. On;y Wesley Willis knows for sure and he's not talking anymore.
