Satan Is Real

Well, we're off to The Deep Blues Festival. We've got some interviews set up for future posting, and hopefully we'll return with some more goodies and news for all y'all's enjoyment. Keep an eye to this space over the next five days, as we'll attempt some live blogging, if time and sobriety permits.

In the interim, we've got a super duper little mix for ya. As voted in the last poll, the forces of darkness won out over the competition. Satan takes over the Mountain. Watch out for lighting!

And yeah, we skipped some obvious choices (AC/DC, Charlie Daniels Band, Rolling Stones, Roky Erickson, etc.). Figgered those were too easy.


Does the Devil really have all the good music? Maybe we'll have to concoct another Sin and Salvation mix to decide.

Devil Horns! Devil Horns!

Big Rock Candy Mountain Presents: Satan Is Real(A Devilish mix)
(Link to mix follows track listing)

1. Satanville (The Gibson Brothers)
2. Devil Is Watching You (Lightning Hopkins)
3. Sinner's Dream (Eugene Fox)
4. Satan Is Real (The Louvin Brothers)
5. Devil Do (Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs)
6. Idle Hands Are the Devil's Playtings (Palace Brothers)
7. Wrestling With Satan (Lightning Beat-Man)
8. Deacon Brown Vs. The Devil (The Holidays)
9. Chased Old Satan (The Woodie Brothers)
10. Race With The Devil (Gene Vincent)
11. Satan (The Dwarves)
12. Satan's River (Porter Wagoner)
13. Me and the Devil Blues (Robert Johnson)
14. Say No To the Devil (Rev. Gary Davis)
15. Go Away Devil (Little Axe)
16. I'll Never Let the Devil Win (Sleepy LaBeef)
17. She Belongs To the Devil (Wasboard Sam)
18. (censored)
19. Old Red Devil (Hollis Champion)
20. Devil's Gonna Get You (Bessie Smith)
21. Get Behind Me Satan and Push (Billie Jo Spears)
22. Devil Is Mad (Dorothea Fleming)
23. Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down (Uncle Tupelo)
24. We've Got the Devil On the Run (Elder Lightfoot)
25. Satan Sold Out (Them Ranch)
26. Workin' Like the Devil For the Lord (Del Reeves)
27. Send My Soul To the Devil (Frankie Lee Sims)
28. I've Got A Devil In Me (Big Foot Chester)
29. Satan Wears a Satin Gown (Frankie Laine)
30. Last Song About Satan (Slim Cessna's Auto Club)


Satan Is Real (mp3)

Please support your local, independent demon and/or coven.

Six Pack To Go

Hey, hey! Gonna pound on yr eardrums today with another exciting installment of our 6 Pack series. Six fantabulous tunes ripped from glorious vinyl for your enjoyment and consumer needs. What's this all about? Well check out our previous six pack post for the full skinny.

So, here's our vinyl stars for the day. Next time we do this it'll be an all 7" day, so let the ladies know (ah ha ha ha...ha...hee hee...oh, forget it).

First up is a slab of pre-punk, soul punk from the awe-inspiring, recently unearthed Death (not the death metal band) courtesy of Drag City Records. More on these guys later.

Hard to follow Death, but legend Jack Oblivian (nee Yarber) and his Tennessee Tearjerkers kick a sweet sweatboozemidnightramble tale from their new rekkid, The Disco Outlaw on (label of the year) Goner. Note that no disco, or anything remotely associated with it, actually appears on the rekkid. Jack Oblivian retrospective coming soon on this very site.

Lo-fi (don't hate the label, embrace it as a sign that no jackass producer mucked around with the proceedings) genius Bobby Ubangi clocks in next with a fast and furious little ditty that has us jumping around the living room in sheer bliss. Song's on "Inside The Mind of Bobby Ubangi" on Rob's House Records.

Halfway through we have an African groove courtesy of Mississippi Records' album Love Is Love. If you're not grabbing every release by this label, well, there might be something wrong with you. This might be our favorite song posted today.

For you sleaze-blooze-trash fans, The Touch-Me-Nots, a two piece husband and wife duo, take you to the darker side with a track off their killer Sheldon Munn 10" on Yakisakana Records.

And, finally, a little noirish, late-night drinking song from Country chanteuse Sammi Smith . From a record that's no longer in print, "The Toast of 45", but well worth hunting down.

As ever, the songs are not in any order of quality or greatness. We just lined 'em up in a convenient mix-tape sort of way. Grab 'em all, and support the artists if you can.


Death: Keep On Knockin' (mp3)

Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers: Walk of Shame (mp3)

Bobby Ubangi: Another Girl Like You (mp3)

S.E. Rogers - Toomus Meremereh Nor Good (Sierra Leone) (mp3)

The Touch-Me-Nots: Imbe-Style (mp3)

Sammi Smith: The Toast of 45 (mp3)


Please support your local, independent record stores. Please.

Moan and Howl

With the Deep Blues Festival only a week and a half away, we figger you're either going or you're not. But, hell, I thought I'd give a last ditch effort. Independent music festivals are becoming harder to come by. The Deep Blues Festival represents all that's good about music festivals. A chance to check out legends and unsigned artists alike, minus the mega-corporate sponsors, 5 dollar bottles of water, sweaty frat boys, and trendy hype from hipster websites. It's all about the music and the love of a guitar, a trap set, and a voice howling in the dark.

We sort of figger that we haven't done our job properly around these parts in promoting the festival. We should have posted about it daily, or sumsuch. What could we have done better to spur yr interest beyond a casual looksee? The lineup is impeccable, and we're sure to return with a stack of records to share with y'all.

In this economy, it's surely hard to justify travel to a festival far from home. Hell, we're blowing our entire Spring/Summer budget on it. But we feel it's worth it, if only to support the concept, and rage, rage against the dying of great music for the sake of radio play list homogenization. Do you really want to overpay to see yet another Depressed Mode reunion or a Flaming Lips show where, I bet, they'll have balloons and bunny rabbits while working through a current prog-rock fascination? Maybe so. What the hell do we know? We'd rather see a band kicking out with the nasty in a small club or in a tiny outdoor stage ripping shreds of sonic desperation. We could be wrong here, and we often are. Maybe we don't know what we're talking about. Maybe the future of music is in easily categorized genres, and an artist only has to be "good enough" for it's intended demographic. We don't think so, though. We think there's plenty of folks out there looking for something a little more.

When music becomes safe, and functions as wallpaper for an SUV trip to the mall, it loses its power to move, maaaaannnn. And so, and verily, let it be.

The previous was just our opinion, and in no way reflects the views of the organizers of any festival or the artists involved.

But, yeah, we've got opinions. Why not?

The Deep Blues Festival features such luminaries as Elmo Williams, T-Model Ford, CeDell Davis, and Pure Country Gold. But here's some more of the artists that will be there that we're pretty enthused about. By the end of the festival, we'll probably have even more. Check 'em out, and let yr ass boogie the way to the promised land.


Black Smokers: Little Nasty Girl (mp3)

Left Lane Cruiser: Big Mama (mp3)

Reverend Deadeye: Pentecostal Rattlesnake Shake (mp3)

High Plane Drifters: I Her Moan and Howl (mp3)

Black River Bluesman: Cardboard and Plastic (mp3)

Honkeyfinger: Burning Skull Blues (mp3)

Chooglin': Hal's Haberdashery (mp3)

Left Lane Cruiser: Set Me Free (mp3)

Please support yr local independent music fests. Otherwise yr stuck with corporate-mandated music for the masses.

Drinkin' Thing

Been ignoring the Country, haven't we?

Well, in acknowledgment of this weekend, what could be more 'Merican than songs about drinking and cheating? Particularly if they take place in the same tune?

Gary Stewart, while beginning his arc in the 60's, really got his honky tonk ball rolling in the 70's, when Country became more explicit with it's demons. The decade of swingers, the Rhinestone Cowboy (the song and culture, not the movie) and Countrypolitan produced some of the most hedonistic music available. And all from the "family values" arm of Nashville, and dripped in saccharine instrumentation. (Someone should really write a book or essay on the whole 70's Country culture).

Into all this relativism Gary Stewart dropped some records of hardwood honky tonk, while still winking and nodding to the changing culture. Not quite an "Outlaw" alongside Willie, Johnny, Waylon, et al, Stewart still hewed to a traditional style, his voice sharing similarities with George Jones. Stewart got his start, like many in Nashville, as a songwriter, penning tunes for Stonewall Jackson, Billy Walker, and Cal Smith, among others. He's one of the last greats of the Music Row production line, penning classic songs that last beyond a three-month chart trajectory. Of course we have to deal with the label-mandated production and arrangement, which can get a bit much at times (much the way 80's pop suffered from a tin-eared flatness), but Stewart imposes his hardwood sensibility to each song imbuing his records with a classic sound and lyrical phrasing of a bygone time.


Loneliness is a recurring theme, even couched in the "good time" stompers, which makes Stewart's suicide less than a month after his losing his wife to pneumonia all the more telling.

It's his broad range of drinking songs that Stewart is most remembered for these days (and there's alot of them). "Drinkin' Thing" and "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinking Doubles)" are acknowledged classics of the genre. Our favorite song by Stewart, though, is "In Some Room Above the Street", which borders on pure honky tonk poetry.

So how about letting Gary Stewart help you through your Holiday weekend. It's as American as apple pie, cheap beer, and infidelity.



Gary Stewart: Drinkin' Thing (mp3)

Gary Stewart: She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles) (mp3)

Gary Stewart: In Some Room Above The Street (mp3)

Gary Stewart: Your Place Or Mine (mp3)

Please support your local, independent swingers bar and no-tell motel.

Delta Land

Got some more Deep Blues Festival love for y'all today. I know there's at least 3 of youns' gonna be there, but what about the rest of ya, slackers all? Honestly, can you convince us that there's a better value for yr hard earned buck out there? They even have camping available. Bet they'll be some picking and grinning going on with a few cans of something tasty to drink. Are you really gonna waste yr money on another Telluride corporate cash grab? Jaysis, just check out the line up!

Well, here's another feller to whet yr appetite. Jim Mize is a favorite 'round these parts. We posted, briefly, way back when, when his last record "Release It To The Sky" made our Top 10 Albums of the Year. Our opinion hasn't changed one bit. In fact, the record's gotten better with age. Here's what we said then:

Mize is a beer-drinking juke and VFW honed singer and musician in the vein of other Mountain favorites like Seasick Steve, Tom House, Cast King, and James Hand. He's been in the trenches too long to be pretty. Ostensibly, Mize is a blues singer, minus the guitar solos and throaty wails. He's taking you to a darker place, a wellspring of down and out beyond the cliches of the genre. His voice has a cracked weariness that matches his neon-lit, southern observations. A dark album that rocks, taking you to closing time with a shot glass and loneliness.

That just about says it all, then, really. Check it out.

Jim Mize: Delta Land (mp3)

Jim Mize: Acadian Lullabye (mp3)

Jim Mize: Disappear In America (mp3)

Please support your local, independent...well...anything. In these tough economic times, it's yr local businesses that need the most help. Wal-Mart's gonna be just fine, thank you very much. Help your neighbor out, instead.

A Day That Will Live In Infamy

Well...why the fuck not? Hooray for me!

Oh, and none of these songs are the "traditional" one. Probably goes without saying...

Clem Snide: Happy Birthday (mp3)

Wild Billy Childish and the MBE's : Birthday Boy (mp3)

Sugarcubes: Birthday (mp3)

Cracker: Happy Birthday To Me (mp3)

Buy a Cake!

Six Pack

Howdy folks, and gather 'round. Gonna try something today, and perhaps it'll turn into something regular-like in these parts. Call it a way to get more posts up without having to worry about all that messy exposition 'n' all.

We tend to buy way more records than is probably healthy. We've been slowly "digitzing" these swell little frisbees, which is nifty since a record demands a closer ear than a cd with it's "next/skip" function or an mp3 download with the always handy "delete" button. That's neither here nor there, really, just pontificating.

What we'd like to do every week or two is toss up a quick "six pack", appropriately enough, of some fine tunes we've culled from our vinyl obsessiveness. Some of the songs come from classic albums by artists we'd like to cover more closely in the future, some are from crappy records with one killer track, and some are from super duper records that have fallen under the radar. We're gonna have brand spanking new stuff and older stuff with varying degrees of scratchiness. We'll have tracks off of 45's, LP's, and EP's. 7 inches, 10 inches, 12 inches, whatever your, ahem, preference is (Sorry, couldn't resist). Sound quality will be, as can be expected, in varying degrees, but, hell, isn't that supposed to be some of the charm?

Let me know how this works for all y'all. Yea or Nay?

Our first six pack starts off with a David Allen Coe track pulled off the soundtrack to the vile film, "Take This Job and Shove It". Kurt Vile gives us a perfect summer driving song courtesy of his 2008 record, "Constant Hitmaker". More summer holiday fun follows from disturbed, masked, and,apparently, smelly sleaze-trash god NoBunny from his record "Love Visions". After that we need to cleanse our souls with a superb track from Numero Group's recently issued Local Customs: Downriver Revival double LP. Rounding things off, we've got a couple of 7" tracks: a garbage can Country lament from the immortal DM Bob and the Deficits, and then back on the road with a hitchhiker's tribute from the legendary Bob Luman.

Songs are not arranged in any kind of "best" to "not best", so check 'em all out.


David Allen Coe: You Can Count On Beer (mp3)

Kurt Vile: Freeway (mp3)

NoBunny: Chuck Berry Holiday (mp3)

Gospel Supremes: Sinner Man (mp3)

DM Bob and the Deficits: Blind Man With A Pistol (mp3)

Bob Luman: Interstate 40 (mp3)

Please support your local, independent record store.

Going For Broke

Well. Gonna be a bit of a homer today. Normally I avoid covering local bands for fear of accusations of bias, which of course is silly, since we're completely biased in terms of the music we post. We've got...opinions.

So The Black Oil Brothers command our complete attention.

From their website:

"Before the blues found its way to Chicago and redefined itself with electric guitars and drummers, bluesmen were minstrels playing juke joints in the Mississippi Delta armed only with their guitars and voices while the crowd kept the rhythm by stomping their feet in time. Born and raised in Chicago, The Black Oil Brothers aim to channel that kind of boot stompin' blues that doesn’t need a backline or distortion pedals to make it cook. Resonators played with steel slides, wailing harmonicas, 3 part harmonies and the righteous twang of acoustic guitars and mandolin strings define our music (and very well may be saving our souls at the same time). Let us save yours."

As ever, we ask the question: Why Should You Care?

Well, you should care because the Black Oil Brothers create an amalgam of Country and Blues not beholden to contemporary "alt" whatever, forging their sound from a deeper well, stripping away the trappings of contemporary naval-gazing to find a purer sound. Strapped to the concrete acreage of the big, big city, the Black Oil Brothers find the wide open spaces of beyond, and the smallness of life lived in overgrown yards and back porches lit by fireflies.

Regret and bad choices made in the midnight hour, then. The kind of Country record we love so dearly.

On their new record, Long Way From The Delta (scroll down for album link), the Black Oil Brothers pile us into the pickup truck and take us down the road a fur piece to the end of the line, literally and figuratively. On "Going For Broke", we get a loose-string laden chugging meditation on love and loss. "Robert From Hibbing" (our favorite tune) is a classic drinking song that posits the relationship between the aspiring songwriter and the immortal bard, Robert Zimmerman, and features the classic lines, "I want to be Bob Dylan/But I play the guitar wrong/So I guess I won't be singing her this song". And "Wednesday Afternoon" is a gloriously muted, mandolin-driven hoedown that's guaranteed to find you on the rare mid-week day off, feet kicked up, beverage of choice gripped in hand, singing lustily to the sky.

If you're in the Chicago area at the end of June, be sure to check out the band for their record release party at Quenchers on June 26th. We'll be there.



The Black Oil Brothers: Going For Broke (mp3)

The Black Oil Brothers: Robert From Hibbing (mp3)

The Black Oil Brothers: Wednesday Afternoon (mp3)

Please support your local, independent, string shucking Country/Blues band.

Stitched In Sin

Edit: It is very highly recommended that y'all check out the first comment on the post below. Good news for anyone sitting on the fence about the Blues Fest. And make sure you say thank you.

More Deep Blues Festival today. They've announced the full lineup and daily schedule, and also have made single day tickets available. So what's your excuse? Do you really need to see a reunion of some crappy, overly-precious band from LA at LollipopAlooza? We think not. You need to hear some deep blues, all throbbing distorted hoot an holler. This aint no pussy-assed Blues, this is the real deal, from octogenarian shouters from Mississippi to snotty whippersnappers with a blues punk urge.

Got yer perfect example of the latter right here.

The Black Diamond Heavies hail from, ahem, "the Southern States of America" (Nashville?), and make an unholy mess of rumbling sweat-drenched gut-bucket blues noise. A duo (yes, one of those...), vocalist/guitarist/organist James Leg sounds like the bastard son of Howlin' Wolf and rips off shreds of filthy guitar scunge. But then he hits the organ (or keyboard of choice), and the whole affair goes swingslut soul. Drummer Van Campbell keeps it slime-oozed tribal and rumbles yr ass like god on vacation in hell. They're, like, heavy, maaaannnnnn. A fucked up excursion into the dark heart of the crossroads, swinging like a sharecropper's reaper through the brush and twisted weeds of the devil's favorite swampland. Tasty like a green-fuzzed peach.

The Black Diamond Heavies are playing on the Saturday portion of the Festival. Take a listen to the following killer tracks and start making your travel plans.

Black Diamond Heavies: Poor Brown Sugar (mp3)

Black Diamond Heavies: Take A Ride (mp3)

Black Diamond Heavies: Stitched In Sin (mp3)

Black Diamond Heavies: Numbers 22 (Balaam's Wild Ass) (mp3)

Please support your local, independent holy ghost shouty types.

Oh Pioneer!

Hey! Please vote in the poll over on the side. Help me help you.

Now. Goin' back to that old-timey stuff today, home on the range, and all that.

The Sons of the Pioneers are perhaps best known nowadays, if known at all, for the classic cowboy tunes "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water", both composed by Bob Nolan.
They also, for a time,and seminally , featured a feller named Leonard Slye, better known as Roy Rogers.

It's interesting to question the mythology ensconced in the songs of The Sons of the Pioneers, in the same way we question the adventures of Gene Autry, Tom Mix,John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all. Did hardened cowpokes really sit around the campfire singing songs about their day as the sun set in the canyons around them? One would guess the answer as no, as many of these men were probably barely literate and not given to sentiment. But it's mythology, innit?

The Sons of the Pioneers created, or perhaps perfected (cuz someone always did it first, right?), the cult of the singing cowboy, the traveling horseback rider with guitar in hand (and how in the world did they steer the horse?), taking note of the shadows, the sun, the desert sage. A world where some wacky character always had a tin of beans prepared at the end of a hard day rustling, the dust and sweat miraculously purged, and always a campfire prepared by the hand of god himself.

The above is quite the opposite of disparagement, as The 'Pioneers' brand of deep canyon pining is one of our favorite music genres. A dreamscape in clay and open sky, moons and fire, drifting through the neverwas with a yodel.

"Blue Shadows On The Trail" is a particular favorite, perfect for your next twilight reverie, where sleep beckons, but the twinkle of a far off star holds you still.

Sons Of The Pioneers: Blue Shadows On The Trail (mp3)

Sons Of The Pioneers: Tumbling Tumbleweeds (mp3)

Sons Of The Pioneers: Old Man Atom (mp3)

Sons Of The Pioneers: Bound For The Rio Grande (mp3)

Sons Of The Pioneers: Ridin' Down The Canyon (mp3)

Please support your local, independent lasso ranger.