Skip to main content

Rockabilly Radar Blips


Almost every single artist’s name in this week’s playlist is an unknown for me. Strange, but rockabilly has never been on my radar. Evidenced by the fact that after 136 weekly programs on RadioactivaTX I’ve only now given it a nod as a theme for the first time. And I tend to like the music. Sometimes I like it a lot! Go figure. Maybe it’s the Southern connection? With misguided distaste, I have long found most everything to do with White cultural mores, from Texas to Florida, anathema. I realize that is absurd and unfounded – especially in the case of danceable, down-to-earth rockabilly music. So, I hereby profess my ignorance and bias. Bring on the hate mail!  [continued...]

Al compás del mundo - programa #137, rockabilly

First broadcast July 18, 2024

01 Ben Hewitt - I Want a New Girl Now

02 Ray Smith - Shake Around

03 Keith Corvalle - Trapped Love

04 Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks - Mary Lou

05 Wanda Jackson - Fujiyama Mama

06 Curtis Hobock - Apron Strings

07 Johnny Burnette - The Train Kept a-Rollin'

08 Marvin Rainwater - Roving Gambler (Gamblin’ Man)

09 Tommy Sands - The Worryin' Kind

10 Sonny Fisher - Rockin' Daddy

11 Mac Curtis - If I Had Me a Woman

12 Charlie Feathers - Bottle to The Baby

13 Doug Dickens - Raw Deal

14 Carl Perkins - Dixie Fried

15 Paul Pigat - Rockabilly Guitar

16 Bo Walton - I Like It Like That

17 Carolina & Her Rhythm Rockets - Back Home

18 Marcel Bontempi - Dig a Hole

19 The Delta Bombers - The Wolf

20 JD McPherson - Scratching Circles

21 The Rhythm Shakers – Poison

22 Tony Dynamita y Los Diablos - Vete al Diablo


[...cont] I am, in fact, familiar with Wanda Jackson and Johnny Burnette, but only superficially. The rest came to be included here as the result of musical investigation and discovery. For example, Marvin Rainwater, playing off his supposedly Cherokee last name, appeared with a punchy, topical song, more hillbilly than rock, and it fits real well like a bottle-blond on a Dallas church council (there I go again!) Just review the titles and you’ll surmise that this is music of the people: “Trapped Love”, “The Worryin’ Kind”, “If I had Me a Woman”, “Dig a Hole”, “Poison”, etc. I’ve let my one long-time friend, Carl Perkins, create the segue between vintage and more contemporary artists. Not a lot has changed in sentiments and chord progressions from back in the day to the present. Rockabilly has stood the test of time. And what better tribute to this American tradition than finishing off with a Mexican take on the genre, Tony Dinamita’s “Vete al Diablo” (“Go to Hell.”) My sentiment exactly. JH

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Al compas del mundo, programa #92 - Japan

The Japanese historically have been a most creative people, excelling in aesthetic conventions like architecture, painting, culinary arts, theatre, music, and more. A craftsman’s care and an artist’s flair have come to define everyday household objects such as articles of clothing and kitchen ware, designed with a sensibility that imbues them with import and elevated status. After WWII in the United States however, an item inscribed “made in Japan” usually indicated a tchotchke of mediocre quality. A perfect example is the large number of Northwest Coast Native American-style bone totem poles made for the tourist shops in the Northwest. There is a distinctive difference in these “artifacts” from the real, home-made variety that illustrates someone from another culture tackling aesthetics they don’t fully comprehend. And that leads us to some of this week’s musical choices. Imitating Western pop, rock and jazz, Japanese artists have recorded many forgettable efforts – not unlike those o...

British blues of the 60s y 70s

  This has to be one of my favorite programs. The British blues scene gave us a healthy dose of reverential and, admittedly, imitative music that awakened a youthful audience suffering from pop fatigue on both sides of the ocean. Of course, the blues, as interpreted by young white musicians who couldn’t have been much further from the Mississippi Delta or the South side of Chicago, can be considered as cultural appropriation. At the same time, those involved in the scene have reminisced that playing the blues was largely a visceral reaction to a compelling combination of rhythm, lyrics and energy that was distinct from the British music scene up to that point. I don’t believe anyone at the time felt guilty playing the songs of their Southern US heroes. Does it make a difference that a number of these groups went on to earn far more money than the originators ever dreamed of? Probably, though many of the greats – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson and others – profi...

Nuyorican boogaloo cha-cha-cha

 I’m labelling this week’s playlist as “Nuyorican” music, the lion’s share of the players from Puerto Rico or of Puerto Rican ancestry.  Two notable exceptions are Joe Bataan, a Filipino-African American, and Mongo Santamaria born in Cuba. What they all have in common, however, was centered around the music scene of New York City where African American and Latino musicians forged a common ground in creating “boogaloo” dance music, mixing elements of R&B, Soul, and Latin dance rhythms. The boogaloo genre was fairly short-lived, enjoying popularity during the 1960’s before giving way to salsa, in what was largely an East Coast and Caribbean impulse. “Watermelon Man” and ”El Watusi” were early and major boogaloo hits, but truly, most of the titles included in the program were popular recordings in their day, whether cha-cha-chas like Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”, or GFyEN’s guajira. I’ve gathered them here for an hour’s worth of revelation for those too young to have heard thi...