Welcome once again friends, this weekend we have a little something from the road less travelled as you might say. Y’all know how the good lord sure does work in some mysterious ways for one thing, and he inspires folk to all kinds of mysterious behavior for another. I ain’t talking about the plain non-sense and downright, mean-spirited hatred some folk will talk in his name here neither. No friends, today I’m a-talkin about the more idiosyncratic path a true believer might take when expressing their faith in the form of artistic endeavour. This ain’t exactly gospel music we got here today, it’s more like a cross between a carnival act and church service or somethin’. Ain’t no instrument too novel or dumb soundin’ to be pressed into service for the lord by the amazin’ Betts, so we gots four, count ‘em! Four tunes here for y’all this morning to take in the breadth, and relative obscurity, of their acheivements. Have Mercy! Their version of old hymn ‘Rock Of Ages’ features some pretty lovely and laid back Hawaiian guitar stylings. It’s like something you might hear in a quiet undertakers office out in west texas or somewhere. In stark contrast, they lovely a clangy ringin’ bell and they come to the fore on the almost appropriately titled ‘Ring The Bells Of Heaven’. I gots to say though, that it don’t sound a whole bunch like heaven’s bells to me. I’m just sayin’ is all. Next up we got the musical marvel that is the singing saw on ‘Jesus Loves Me’ which has more of  an undertakers on mars vibe to it. Lastly the downright weirdest of the bunch ‘Grumblers’ is a light hearted tirade against complainers, particularly in church. Apparently grumbling’ll keep you out of heaven. So we all best look out now. Me an Randy we sure do love a grumble. Y’all ever wonder what would happen if Sesame St. got a religious-right wacko in to write the songs? Check it out friends.

Rock of Ages-The Lord Will Take Care Of You

Ring The Bells Of Heaven

Jesus Loves Me-Jewels

Grumblers

Well, probably won’t suprise too many of you friends that sister Etta started out singin’ in church from just 4 or 5 years old. As mentioned yesterday she went an auditioned for Johnny Otis with a couple friends. He was so taken with her voice he took her to L.A. to record the next day. Etta lied and told him she was 18 (she was 15) and when Otis insisted on her mama’s consent she went home and forged it as her mama was in the big house anyways. How rock ‘n’ roll is that? Tough life that she had she didn’t exactly turn out a regular church goer by any means but she did record some gospel tunes and in her memory we got a couple for you here today. As y’all might expect, they pretty fiery. Proper too, choir, keyboards, all that. A little shiny on the production if you wanna gripe but seriously, it’s great stuff. She does a bunch of real familiar standards but these are among the less well known songs and they just as good.

To My Father’s House

We’ll Fly You To The Promised Land

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01. The Swanks – Ghost Train

02. PW Long With Reelfoot – Signifyin’ Honky

03. Billy Ward – 60 Minute Man

04. Julia Lee – King Size Papa

05. Cher - I Walk On Gilded Splinters

06. Beck - Burro

07. The Flying Burrito Brothers – God’s Own Singer

08. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – Arms

09. The Exciters – He’s Got The Power

10. Alabama Shakes – You Ain’t Alone

11. Bill Withers – Who Is He?

12. Max Werner – Nuh Fire It

13. Serge Gainsbourg – Des Laids Des Laids

14. Lee Hazlewood – Forget Marie

15. Dusty Springfield – If You Go Away

16. Basil Kirchin – I Start Counting

17. The Almanac Singers – Liza Jane

18. The Thrasher Wonders – Moses Smote The Water

19. The Carolina Chocolate Drops – Reynardine

20. John Fahey – March For Martin Luther King

21. Ivor Cutler – Linnet

22. Sons Of The Pioneers – Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Been a rough week for the rhythm and blues friends. Johnny Otis and Etta James both passing on. Although as Otis was 90 and Etta 73 and deathly ill we shouldn’t be too downhearted about it. Johnny Otis got up to so much during his career I don’t even know what to write about. He discovered Etta James for one thing, but I already wrote about her just the other day and we’ll get back to Etta tomorrow, don’t worry. He produced Big Mama Thornton’s original take on ‘Hound Dog’ and also discovered Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John and Hank Ballard among others, even Little Richard according to some sources. He was also an influential radio DJ and, of course a bandleader. This guy ever sleep? First I heard of him myself was on ‘Watts Breakaway’ which is a great 70′s funk number pretty much and I had him pegged as kinda a sixties soul musician who’d started leading a band an doin’ funk in the seventies. Probably more like his son Shuggie. It was a while before I found out he was ‘The Godfather of R&B’ and had been around forever. Greek by birth he changed his name and declared himself ‘black by persuasion’ having grown up in a largely african american neighbourhood. For some contrast here  ‘Sittin’ Here Drinkin” is a much older tune from the early 50′s. Anyways, he done all kinds of stuff in his career and most everything he done is pretty darn good. So y’all should go check it out is what I’m saying, there’s a world of good music waiting for you there. Late on he got with the good lord himself and founded and led the Landmark community gospel church in California. Far as I know, he never recorded no gospel numbers but I’d love to hear it if he did.

The Watts Breakaway

Sittin’ Here Drinkin’

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(the download link is at the very bottom of the page)

mixed live at the House Of Stagger

01. Rocket Science – Burn In Hell

02. Elvis Presley – Money Honey

03. The Bangers -Baby Let Me Bang Your Box

04. The Left Banke – Walk Away Renee

05. The Tammys – Egyptian Shumba

06. Lulu - Here Comes The Night

07. Mina - Ta Ra Ta Ta

08. Pokey LaFarge – Mississippi Girl

09. The Rockingbirds – Standing On The Doorstep Of Love

10. Meschiya Lake & The Little Big Horns - Comes Love

11. Norris Reid – Protect Them

12. Ward 21 – Jump & Skip

13. Garnett Mimms – It Was Easier To Hurt Her

14. Al Green – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

15. Robert Earl Keen – The Front Porch Song

16. The Sela Jubilee Singers – I Saw The Light

17. The King’s Sacred Quartet – This World Can’t Stand Long

18. Ivor Cutler – The Darkness

19. Elvis Presley - Tomorrow Is A Long Time

It’s that day again friends, break out the peanut butter and banana sannitches. We love Elvis here, ain’t no secret about that! Join with us as we celebrate his birth with a day long Elvis-fest fo music movies and fatty fried foods. Keepers of the keys to the kingdom, RCA, for their part are repackaging yet more previously available material in the ‘legacy’ edition of ‘Elvis Country’. Like last year’s ‘Young Man With the Big Beat’ these things are nice if you gots spare cash and, at least they ain’t chucking it all out on super cheap reissues an such but hell, Elvis don’t need no more money do he? Whatever, ‘Elvis Country’ came out 40 years ago and here’s one o’ the extra tunes on the second disc you get now, it’s already familiar to you from various other packages no doubt. Elsewhere on the record Elvis claims to have been born 10,000 years ago which plainly ain’t the case. Still, it makes you think don’t it? Also today we got y’all a great live reading of Nick Cave’s ‘Tupelo’ which builds a near biblical myth from out of an old John Lee Hooker blues and the story of Elvis’ birth in a tiny Tupelo shack…

Elvis – Cindy, Cindy

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Tupelo (live melbourne 2009)

We ain’t really here to dwell on the end of a life well lived though, if’n you don’t know her wonderful voice and great stuff on chess records then you could make your life a little better today just by finding out about that. This tune is a version of a Otis Redding number, one of two on her final album ‘The Dreamer’ – it’s great.

Etta James -  Cigarettes & Coffee

So this is all tunes from 2011, there’s more country than usual cos country (in all its flavours) is just a little bit more vibrant than, say, soul (outside Eli Paperboy Reed and Sharon Jones and the like, there just ain’t much going on, least to my way of thinking). Anyways, hope you enjoy it.

(This one’s a bit longer than the usual hour, but it’ll still fit on a CD)

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01. Tom Waits - Satisfied
02. Kid Congo Powers - Hills Of Pills
03. Mama Roison – Le Pistolet
04. Rebecca Pronsky – Hard Times
05. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Black Betty
06. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – A Smashing Indictment Of Character
07. Dirt Daubers – Trucks, Tractors, Trains
08. Mariachi El Bronx – Norteno Lights
09. Laura Veirs – King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O
10. Jeffrey Lewis - Cult Boyfriend
11. Jonny & Lucy - Stand Up Show
12. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – Messing With My Life
13. Hollie Cook – Walking In The Sand
14. Jimmy Cliff - Guns Of Brixton
15. Laura Cantrell – It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
16. Lykke Li - Unrequited Love
17. Iron & Wine - Walking Far From Home
18. Jessica Lea Mayfield – Our Hearts Are Wrong
19. Lydia Loveless - Steve Earle
20. Singing Adams – Giving It All Away
21. Maggie Bjorklund – Coming Home
22. Low - Especially Me

Randy has kind of a thing about Texas, he likes that whole ‘fierce independence’ type deal they got going on down there. Me, I just tend to get stopped by the cops every time I’m in Austin. Not arrested thank the good lord although that’s probably ‘cos I ain’t black or mexican to tell the truth. Oh come on, you know it’s a factor. Still, they just plain don’t like my face, jealous I’m so darn purty I reckons. Anyways, Willie might have written the deathless anti-littering campaign ditty ‘don’t mess with texas’ but when it comes to christmas there is one texas tune that rules them all. I’m a talkin’ about Robert Earl Keen’s ‘Merry Christmas From The Family’ here friends. Solid gold work of wonder – if it ain’t part of your christmas this is the year you start. Now, Keen ain’t all that well known and it’s mostly for this song but there’s other stuff worth checkin’ out. He kinda sounds like Dale off of King Of The Hill a bit for one and he suffered from some pretty ugly production crimes on his records (like a lot of country guys in the 80′s) but he’s got a way with words so here’s another seasonal type tune from his first record so y’all at least know two of his songs now…

Robert Earl Keen  – Merry Christmas From The Family

Robert Earl Keen  -  The Coldest Day Of Winter

So playing that Ventures christmas record a bunch over the weekend took me back to some good times long years back, and a little nostalgia is a big part of christmas ain’t it? Back when me and Randy was just little guys the stereo we had in our house was this big old thing with kinda fake wood panelling effect on it, like a station wagon. The older readers will remember this but for the young ‘uns, back then a record player had four speeds – 16 and 78 as well as the 45 and 33 yer used to if you even know what a record player is these days. Anyways one year we decided that Ventures record was too sprightly for it’s own damn good, or we was just monkeying around, whatever we spent many long hours and a good few christmasses playing that thing at 16rpm and all manner of our parents records at the wrong speed. We got a lot more amusement out of it than you might expect. Maybe this explains why we love Earth so very much. Whatever, we had these singles in the house that came out every christmas that was s’posed to be lil’ girls singin/tellin’ a story. I can’t remember now if’n we worked out it was adult voices speeded up or we played ‘em slow and decided that’s what it was. There was a bunch of this foolishness back then I guess, I mean the thing of writing overly sentimental songs from a young ‘uns point of view is pretty established in country music. But country music alone I think goes in for this and these were kind of a dumb extension of that whole thing. Anyways as a special christmas gift to you here’s two of ‘em in all they scratchy slowed down 33rpm glory. They still short and it’s definitely adults check the singin’ part on Merry Christmas Elvis…

Little Cindy  -  Happy Birthday Jesus

Michele Cody  -  Merry Christmas Elvis