Hound Howl #005: Aircheck & Playlist

Show #5

Aired 02/03/2019
Length 1:58:20

– Set List –

Instrumental

1) Nick & The Jaguars – Ich-I-Bon #1
2) Young Guitar Red – Red Hot Red
3) Al Browne feat. James (Wild Jimmy) Spruill – Buggy Boo
4) Cobras – Hammerhead
5) Young John Watson (Johnny “Guitar” Watson) – Space Guitar

Set Break
11:33 – 15:10

The 60th Anniversary +

1) Buddy Holly & Bob Montgomery – Down The Line
2) Peppermint Harris – Angel Child
3) Jape Richardson & The Japettes – Crazy Blues
4) Amos Milburn Jr. – Gloria
5) Arvee Allens (Ritchie Valens) – Fast Freight

Set Break
25:40 – 29:24

3rd Set

1) Slim Dortch – Big Boy Rock
2) Clarence Walton & Walton Brother Band – The Cat
3) Lee McBride – Confusin’
4) Trojans w/ Ike Turner & Orch. – I Wanna Make Love To You
5) Rampages – Alligator Stomp

Set Break
40:20 – 42:33

Blues Hangover

1) Arthur Griswold & The Organics – Pretty Mama Blues
2) “Sugarcane” & His Violin (Don “Sugarcane” Harris) – Elim Stole My Baby (Boo Hoo)
3) James Williamson – Homesick
4) Cleo Page – Red Nigger
5) Howlin’ Wolf – I’ll Be Around
6) Bobby Van Hook & The Night Owls – Down In Alabama

Set Break
1:01:43 – 1:04:43

5th Set

1) Earl Williams & His Quintette – You Ain’t Puttin’ Out Nothin’ But The Lights
2) Charades – Flamingo
3) Billy Wright – Mercy, Mercy
4) Lucky Plank – Hey Hey Baby
5) Jimmy Williams (Mr. Blues) – Big Legged Woman

Set Break
1:16:10 – 1:18:16

6th Set

1) Roscoe Gordon – We’re All Loaded
2) Johnny Powers w/ Stan Getz & Tom Cats – Rock Rock
3) Charts – Deserie
4) Rangers – Justine
5) Rudy Ray Moore – Rally In The Valley
6) Keith Courvale – Trapped Love

Set Break
1:32:29 – 1:35:21

7th Set

1) Jett Powers (P.J. Proby) / Vince Parle & The Raunch Hands – Go, Girl, Go
2) Buddy & Bobby – What’s The Word – Thunderbird
3) Jiants – Tornado
4) King Charles – But You Thrill Me
5) Country Lads – Salty Tears
6) Wailing Bethea & The Captains – Rockin’ In The Jungle

Set Break
1:49:00 – 1:50:41

8th Set

1) Bob Gaddy – Rip And Run
2) Lou Millett – Slip, Slip, Slippin’ In

Set Break/Outtro
1:55:13 – 1:55:55

Johnny “Guitar” Watson – Cuttin’ In

End

Hound Howl #005 Preview

A birthday shout-out to sonic space rocker Johnny Guitar Watson (Space Guitar on 78 RPM and other goodies…) and maybe we’ll figure out a way to get the 60th anniversary of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens deaths in there…

Join every Sunday, 3 – 5 PM EST, for LIVE radio. If you miss it, catch re-runs daily, same time slot. Then the show becomes available on the BLOG page of thehoundnyc.com.

The Hound brings you 100% wild screaming rock’n’roll, greaseball classics, moronic obscurities, hedgehog hop, rhythm & booze streaming 24/7 from a deep personal archive, featuring the WFMU (1985-97) years, the Little Water Radio show (2017) and our NEW Hound Howls.

Tune in and discover records you never dreamed existed…

Hound Howl #004 Preview

Today at thehoundnyc.com is a new live blast with special guest Bruce “Il Bruce” Bennett, 3-5 PM EST, followed by Crashing the Party w/Marc & Miriam with greaseball classics in stacks of wax all over the place.

I’ll be celebrating Bobby Blue Bland’s and Elmore James’ birthday at two speeds– 78 and 45 RPM.

Tune in or catch the re-runs daily at 3 PM EST… or right here starting tomorrow afternoon…

Hound Howl #003: Aircheck & Playlist

Show #3

Aired 01/20/2019
Length 1:57:19

– Set List –

Instrumental

1) Royal Earl & The Swingin’ Kools – Royal Earl Shuffle
2) King Charles – Bop Cat Stomp
3) Phillip Walker Band – Louisiana Walk
4) Sonny & The Premiers – Peep-ing
5) Earl “Zeb” Hooker – Frog Hop
6) Ed (Lowman) Pauling & The Exciters – Soul House

Set Break
15:50 – 18:31

2nd Set

1) Phillip Walker Band (feat. Lindy Lou Adams) – I Want You For Myself
2) Echotones – My Baby Doll
3) Roland Bennett – Tore Up
4) Rico & The Ravens – Don’t You Know
5) Juke Boy Bonner – Rock With Me Baby

Set Break
31:05 – 33:27

Blues Hangover

1) School Boy Cleve – New Kind Of Loving
2) Elmore James – Done Somebody Wrong
3) Tampa Red – Big Stars Falling Blues
4) Richard Brothers – Drunk Driver’s Coming
5) John Brim & His Combo (feat. Gracie Brim) – Strange Man
6) Koko Joe & The Jobhunters – Depression
7) Booker Lee, Jr. – Rockin’ Blues

Set Break
52:02 – 56:00

4th Set

1) Nadine Renaye – I Like the Way You Walk
2) Junior Gravley with The Rock-A-Tones – You Lied To Me Honey
3) Royal Demons – What’s The Matter Baby
4) Gene Terry & His Kool Kats – The Woman I Love
5) Bogard Brothers – She Keeps On Knocking
6) Maddox Brothers & Rose – Water Baby Boogie

Set Break
1:10:30 – 1:13:43

5th Set

1) Johnny O’Keefe with The Dee Jays – Real Wild Child
2) Drink Small – Keep On Your Wig
3) Cokie & The Ty Rones – Josephine
4) K.C. Mojo Watson – Love Blood Hound
5) Marty Roberts & His Nightriders – Baby
6) Sa-Shays – Boo Hoo Hoo
7) Tyrones – Pink Champagne

Set Break
1:32:10 – 1:34:55

6th Set

1) Joe Lyons & The Arrows – Shufflin Jive
2) Virgil Holmes – Ghost Train
3) Pearlettes – Duchess Of Earl
4) Rhythm-Addicts – Hey! Whatcha Say Babe!
5) Earl Hooker & His Road Masters – Do The Chickin
6) Marcel St. Jean – The Big Black Jacket

Set Break/Outtro
1:49:16 – 1:51:18

7th Set

1) Robert Nighthawk & His Nighthawks Band – Maggie Campbell
2) Chantels – The Plea
3) Tarheel Slim & Little Ann – It’s Too Late

End

Hound Howl TODAY

All new HOUND HOWL today at thehoundnyc.com 3-5 PM… the original, wild screaming rock’n’roll, savage R&B, greaseball classics, hedgehog hop and other moronic obscurities….old records you ain’t never heard or heard of… tune in live, or catch the re-plays every day this week at 3 PM EST or right here along with the playlist….

Nite Riders

Nite Riders, only known photo, Doc Starkes top right.

 Nite Riders, doin’ biz as the Nightriders and Night Riders.

The Nite Riders aka The Nightriders, the Night Riders, sometimes with Doc Starkes (aka Starks) or Melvin Smith’s name out front, formed in 1954, put together by bassist James “Doc” Starkes, and was made up of seasoned R&B pros, all of whom had plenty of previous experience. Vocalist Melvin Smith had recorded for RCA with honker Clyde “Blow Top” Smith’s Houserockers, and for RCA’s Groove subsidiary as a solo act. Guitarist Harry Crafton has recorded many rockin’ sides for Gotham and Oscar.  The rhythm section featured piano man Harry Van Walls (who can be heard on Stick McGhee’s Atlantic recording of Drinkin’ Wine Spo-De-O-Dee), and seasoned session man Jimmy Johnson on drums. Joe Sewell played tenor sax. In the next ten years they recorded at least 29 singles (maybe more) for small labels, they varied in quality from great to mediocre, but most are quite good.
  They were not kids, these were seasoned professional musicians, all had extensive recording experience in the R&B field and felt the oncoming onslaught of rock’n’roll. Starkes knew a tight, pro rock’n’roll band could find steady work, and maybe even a hit record. The first they found in abundance, the latter alluded them for the ten years that they existed. Formed in Philadelphia, they eventually were based in Hartford, Connecticut, with extended stays in Montreal, Quebec (where it seems Harry Van Walls settled in to form his own band) and the Jersey Shore, although they were booked almost constantly up and down the eastern seaboard. They went through the usual dozens of personal changes, Starkes and Mel Smith being the constant members. They received almost no press coverage then or now and facts are hard to come by. No one thought it important to interview Doc Starkes, or Mel Smith. Crafton and Van Walls careers were covered, the former on the liner notes to the Krazy Kat re-issue LP of his Gotham sides, the latter in the old Wine Women and Whiskey R&B zine.  What we have to tell the story are the discs they left behind.
 Their recording debut was backing up female R&B singer Fay Simmons which appeared on Grand in 1954– Whim Wham Whop b/w Making A Fast Getaway. The same year came their first disc as the Nite Riders, perhaps their best and easily their hardest rockin’ — Women & Cadillacs b/w Say Hey (the flip being a tribute to baseball great Willie Mays), it was issued on New York’s Apollo label, where the “5” Royales and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins got their start.  The same year Apollo released another double sided rocker– Rags b/w Doctor Velvet. A year later they were signed to the Phili based Teen label, and billed as Doc Starkes & his Nite Riders came Apple Cider b/w Way In The Middle Of A Dream. A somewhat toned down affair that seemed aimed at teens. Teen put forth six more singles that year without Starkes top billing– I Know You’re In There b/w Starlight and You followed by Got Me A Six Button Benny b/w Don’t Hang Up The Phone, and then Waiting In The School Room b/w When A Man Cries. Their final single of ’55 came out on Teen’s Sound subsidiary with Starkes name again restored to top bill, a pair of Night Train style instrumentals– The Vacation Train b/w Night Ridin’, it was their best seller was leased to Capitol and sold well in the North East. Their final single for Teen/Sound was Tell The Truth b/w Never. The year of 1956 passed with no new vinyl from the Nite Riders but in ’57 they appeared for one disc on MGM with Sittin’ Sippin’ Coffee b/w Tank Town, the a- side a sort of jiver, the flip another Night Train styled sleazy sax instro, while Swan re-issued  Teen’s Apple Cider with Got Me A Six Button Benny on the flip. A fine hard rocker followed in ’58 on both the Linda and Modern Sounds labels– Love Me Like Crazy b/w Rockin’ To School. Once again, it disappeared without a trace. The next three singles were on Juggay Murray’s New York based Sue label (which released several excellent Ike Turner instrumentals as well as Ike & Tina’s early hits): The first, and best was a frantic Bo Diddley styled rocker Pretty Plaid Skirt (and Long Black Socks) b/w I’ll Never Change. The a-side might have been a hit had it been issued in Japan. It came out in the spring of 1959, followed by Lookin’ For My Baby b/w St. Loo, and
a remake of Night Ridin’ b/w Talk To Me Baby later the same year. They kept recording, in the early 60’s just before splitting up they cut sides for Cherry and Courtesy, neither of which I’ve ever seen or heard.
  In this day and age of over documentation,  when every knucklehead with who needs to express their precious feelings in public can be found on Youtube and their mom’s phone, it makes it even harder to grasp that their is no film footage, photos, or live recordings of a great band like the Nite Riders (or Guitar Slim, Esquerita, ad infinitum). Perhaps in some one’s basement lurks such an entire box of such ephemera,  perhaps some day we’ll all see it. For now, I’m just glad we have the discs.
A full discography including solo sides can be found at the great Wang Dang Dula site.

Rev. Utah Smith

Rev. Utah Smith and wings…
Pre-flight warm up.
Wrecking the house in Houston.
Utah Smith brings eyesight to the blind.

          Rare 45 pressing of his first disc, originally on Regis (78 only)




 Utah Smith was born in 1906 in Cedar Grove, Louisiana,  in the countryside outside of Shreveport. He was schooled to the third grade, then took a job as a water boy in the cotton fields before graduating to picking cotton. He later worked in a chicken plant plucking and cleaning chickens, a job he was fired from.  In 1923, he took up the calling and became an evangelist in the Church of God In Christ, usually just called the Holiness or Sanctified Church. He was  married in 1929, set up a home in Shreveport, but was on the road by 1925 where he’d spend most of the next forty years.
  Smith had taken up harmonica as a teen, soon switching to a steel guitar, and finally an electric guitar. He also had noticed that he, as many were later to testify, had healing powers, and an ability to tell jokes. Early on he was billed as  “God’s Funny Boy” and was heard preaching the Devil’s funeral and attempting to move trees which of course didn’t budge as well as “laying on the hands” healing the sick and maimed.  By 1938 he was using his electric guitar in his revival meetings,  his daughter for one claiming he was the “first black man to own one”, and if he was not the first, he was certainly among them. Folks would travel for miles just to see the thing.
  On the gospel highway, Reverend or sometimes Elder Utah Smith proved to be a popular attraction and he criss crossed America for four decades, his photographs appeared in not only the major black publications but also Newsweek, the New York Times, in folk music publications and he was recorded and broadcast for the BBC in 1947 as part of a audio documentary called “The Story Of New Orleans Music”.
He would make three commercial recordings, which would be issued on at least six different labels, three of which were versions of his theme song– I Want Two Wings. First came a 78 RPM for Regis, recorded and first issued in 1944, then re-issued on Manor (1949), Arco (1950) and on 45 rpm on Kay-Ron (1958): I Want Two Wings b/w  God’s Mighty Hand. The second disc came in 1947 and was self issued on his own Two Winged Temple label out of New Orleans– (I Got) Two Wings b/w Glory To Jesus I’m Free, this is the rarest of his commercial discs, it was pressed as a 78 and later on 45.
In 1953 he cut a session for Checker in Chicago, two songs were released– the third rendition of Two Wings and on the flip side Take A Trip, which is a re-working of the old gospel standard Gospel Ship.
All these discs feature his crude, open tuned guitar prominently, and he is backed by a small female choir on all of them. There also exists at least two other versions of Two Wings he recorded that exist on single copy acetates.
   Rev. Utah Smith ran his own Church in New Orleans, the aforementioned Two Winged Temple (the first location was torn down to build the Calliope projects, the second was on Octavia off Magazine), but was best known for holding revival meetings, many of which were covered in the pages of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper.  He was fairly famous in and around New Orleans, but traveled from coast to coast, catching the attention of composer and New York Tribune music critic Virgil Thomson while appearing in Newark, N.J. in ’41.  Thomson approved of what he saw calling him “an interesting musical manifestation”. Indeed. The same year he appeared at one of NYC’s Museum Of Modern Art’s “Coffee Concerts”.  In the 1950’s he toured with gospel stars like Mahalia Jackson, the Bells Of Joy and Brother Joe May, the Thunderbolt Of The Mid-West (for a time May’s pianist was Esquerita, could Esquerita and Utah Smith have met?), knocked ’em dead in Atlanta, Memphis and Dallas, and generally made a big impression on everyone who saw him,  sometimes wearing gigantic white paper wings and always blasting away on a Gibson electric guitar.
  The gospel highway is rough on the body though, and Smith suffered from diabetes (he was said to eat twenty biscuits in one sitting) and glaucoma, and in 1961 he retired to the Octavia Street Temple’s basement where he died on January 24, 1965, blind and no longer able to play his guitar, it was said  he’d taken to drink and fell down the stairs.        
   The life and times Of Rev. Utah Smith were fascinating, and for a more detailed look I refer you to Lynn Abbott’s biography– I Got Two Wings (Incidents and Anecdotes Of The To Winged Preacher and Electric Guitar Evangelist Elder Utah Smith) (Case Quarter, 2008) which also comes with a CD of his complete recordings. Amen.

Gillian’s Found Photo #67

Today’s found photo from the Fang bears the date, printed on the right side of the border, of December ’69, as if we couldn’t have figured that out our self. Yes, this was taken at Altamont, the all time rock festival bummer and setting for still the greatest of all rock snuff flicks Gimme Shelter. Too bad it’s not a picture of the Stones, but since they went on after dark they probably wouldn’t have shown up on a snap shot.  Onstage is Sam Cutler trying to restore order, and the Jefferson Airplane, whose Marty Balin (far left) would soon be knocked unconscious, a few Hells Angels, and a whole bunch of folks who just wandered onstage. Whose idea was it to make the stage two inches off the ground?
Well, I was never much of a Jefferson Airplane fan but I do remember working security at one of their concerts as a teen and being quite impressed that the band and crew called Paul Kanter “Das Fuhrer”, a title he happily responded to.  The best thing I ever read about Altamont was in the (now quite rare) Avon paperback original– The Forgotten Festival- Altamont: Death Of Innocence In The Woodstock Nation, edited by Jonathan Eisen (Avon, 1970) which contains a first hand essay by one Lars Tush, aka Richard Meltzer titled “The Terror Beyond Death”, from which I quote–“Some people are going to say it was just a matter of alcohol in the wrong hands. That’s all well and good and true, but whose wrong hands do they mean? Can they mean the Angels? They might mean them and in so doing forget about incidents of violence that were going on all afternoon, all morning and the night before, even in spots where a Hells Angels never showed his face during the entire festival if you can call it that.” He later proceeds to describe watching a bunch of college jocks pummel some poor kid into “a pile of his own blood and bones”. As Keith Richards said “Altamont, it could only happen to the Stones man….”

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