Playlist for May 24, 2008 from 11:59PM - 03:00PM

I play this cd every show I'm on because Danny's playing was so spectacular. The over-the-top-appreciative crowd sounds gives you an audio picture of a Gatton show in the juke joints and road houses of his hometown Washington, D.C.. The cd cover photo has Danny using his in-service Lone Star beer as a slide, a mental picture that remains for anyone who saw him play.

Candye's answer song to Seven Nights to Rock. Stop what you are doing and Google Candye Kane, she is one of those rare people who have both an extremely unique and a completely reasonable every(wo)man perspective on the life we live. Her story is amazing but I'm not going to cheapen it by summarizing such a nuanced person. Really, Google her now. Her story is much more interesting than my playlist.

Recalling the latest Ponderosa Stomp where this band brought a late-night, exhausted crowd to its feet. That "vox organ sound" refrain that makes this song so distinct is the hallmark of a long set/show I'll put together (soon!) about the Chicano Soul music of 1960s West Side of San Antonio. This sound combined a couple uniquely regional musics (Tex-Mexican-American and the Big Beat sound out of New Orleans) in attempts to reach an anglicized national audience. They dropped their Spanish surnames and Baltimore Huerta became Freddy Fender. The vox organ of 96 Tears replaced the accordian and group names like ? and the Mysterians, Danny and the Dreamers, The Royal Jesters, Sunny and the Streamliners, Spider and the Playboys, etc masked the musician's Mexican identity. And these San Antonians broke into the national spotlight with a brassy New Orleans sound as opposed to the California Chicano soul sound that was influenced by guitar heavy surf music. For example, Santana. Okay, so give me a couple weeks to prepare this show....

Dave the Spazz from WFMU recorded this at the 2005 Ponderosa Stomp in the Bowl Me Under basement of the Midcity Rock and Bowl. Alex Chilton on guitar and a vocal chorus of hundreds, including me, screaming the lyrics.

Remember the dark days after Katrina when WWOZ was off the air? Remember when WWOZ finally returned to the internet and gave us that hope that our culture would come back? It was Ken Freedman, GM of WFMU in East Orange, NJ who contacted David Freeman, GM of WWOZ in exile and arranged to carry WWOZ's signal on the WFMU internet stream. To complete this circle from you to New Jersey and WWOZ, Dave the Spazz does a show on WFMU and he lugged his recorder to Rock and Bowl to capture this 2005 show. I can almost guarantee that the screaming chorus for Woods includes my voice.

Ever notice that Chaz often includes a Rob McLaren song on his cds and that the McLaren song often becomes the most popular song on the cd? Remember a couple weeks ago when we played the surf band, The Astronauts, with the heavy bass fuzz. Rob was in the Astronauts and I'm hoping Dr. Ike of the Ponderosa Stomp works the Chaz angle to get Rob and the remaining Astronauts together for a reunion concert at the next Ponderosa Stomp.

Gotta get off this musical topic of shooting people. There are far too many songs about this creepy topic.

Double album vinyl complete with 38 years of scratches and it sounds okay to me. I think the claims about cds superior longevity and clarity benefits are hokum. And there is something very satisfying about putting a needle down anywhere along a spinning disk to preview the music.

Jerrry has some serious recording history in his background and it is nice to see him in the studio again and recording under his own name. Watch for him at the Spotted Cat.

The CBC goes on strike and when everyone walks out on this small station serving a remote eskimo village, the janitor finds himself in all of our dream situation - having a radio station of our own. He first gets on the air and makes a bunch of noises and shout outs to test the novelty of his situation. Later starts taking himself seriously and gathers a couple friends to perform live music such as this Louisiana classic sung in his native language. There are plenty more of his performances on the wfmu.org website and plenty more great downloads and musics at this site. Note, many of the interstitials I play come from wfmu.org

Sounds like the basis of a show where in a post-Katrina flooded city, I loot music and play it on the abandoned radio station.

Dr. Ross is a one man band, of course without overdubs. Unlike the novelty impact of too many one man bands, Ross has this great blues sound with a primitive emotive impact. Works so good, we have to hear two Dr. Ross songs.

Still with that rural feel these guys have been knocking out folk blues for decades. During their run, the electrified blues bar bands have multiplied faster than the coffin flies in my refrigerator after Katrina. There are less unplugged blues musicians taking Spider John Koerner (and company's) lead but here in New Orleans we are lucky to have Washboard Chaz and others keeping this style of music alive. These guys are good and unique.

I think Little Freddy King has been playing better than ever and I really like his live shows. This is a good recorded collection too but it sounds like they used too much compression to level out the highs and lows and thereby sacrificed King's dynamic range for subjective loudness. Hey producers - King does not need this commercial radio gimmick to sound great.

Yes, those Modern Lovers with the quaalude singing style doing this treatment of 96 tears and yes, it does work.

The Dear John letter that retains the same text and meaning even after repeated drinkings. A perfect song for the post-2 a.m. listeners of WWOZ.

For all of us working that midnight shift and especially those trucker passing through town wondering whether to stop here and enjoy or burn up the night and ruin the day.

From an anthology of Newman songs that includes all the must-haves that we can not quit singing once they resonate with our brain stem. It must be something about this Memorial Day environment as I did the gun shot set earlier and now comes the atomic bombing set complete with Slim Pickens dialog from Dr. Strangelove.

The dramatic strings on this piece flow into the Bam Brown bowing/singing on B-19 so we will take an instrumental bridge to

Someday, someday I am putting together a show devoted to hours of Dan Hicks music (guaranteed to clear the ear canal of waxy buildup and brain-eating insects!)