Ray Ray Raydio Episode 6 Airdate 5-29-20

Behind the scenes inside take
on Ray Ray Raydio episode 6.

Ray Ray Raydio 

Episode 6 

Airdate: 5/29/2020

Hello Again, the first song of episode 6 is Meatman by Jerry Lee Lewis. It is on this amazing record called Southern Roots produced by Huey P. Meaux and filled with top notch players like most of the MGs and Tony Joe Wight and Augie Meyers.
King Rider’s Boogie by Memphis garage godfather Monsieur Jeffery Evans & His C.C. Riders is next. This is just lofi fun rawness. Freddie King’s Boogie Funk keeps the tempo up and I love the organ in this barn burner. I end the first 15 minutes with Buddy Guy’s take on the old classic Money, this performance is live and can be seen in the movie doc Festival Express about a series of planned shows across Canada with the artist being transported by train. 

     The next 15 minutes are also filled with blues Bang Bang Bang Bang by John Lee Hooker from his Live at Soledad Prison album recorded in 1972. A lot of blues purists don’t like that 70’s blues, but I love it. I never got to see John Lee Hooker play live and it’s a huge regret of mine.

Blow With Ry is a few Rolling Stones jamming with Ry Cooder and Nicky Hopkins, it’s from the album Jammin’ With Edward. I really like Mick’s harmonica playing on this song and the weird lyrics that might be about an undead lover walking the night.

The focus now turns to songwriters starting with Willie Nelson and his song Devil In A Sleepin’ Bag from the Shotgun Willie record that was released on Atlantic records. When I was working at Antone’s Nightclub I got to meet his ex-wife Connie who is mentioned in the song and the day I realized that was a big kick.

My favorite part of 11 Months 29 Days by Johnny Paycheck is that it is set in Austin,Tx. I also like the line “Keep the Lone Star cold, The dance floor hot while I’m gone, Keep your hands off my woman, I ain’t gonna be gone that long”.

One of my favorite current local Austin acts is Nick Allison & The Players Lounge and they put a record earlier this year and this is probably my favorite song off of it, but I like the whole album. Nick blends the post-garage Memphis rock sound of the 2000s with early seventies Dylan for a less bro americana vibe.

Zuma is currently my go to Neil Young album, and this song is kind of funny in that my band put out an album last year and this one reviewer said the title track was kind of neil young-ish and we all thought the guy was nuts, but then a little while later the guitarist was like, I think we might have ripped the song Don’t Cry No Tears off, and sure enough there was a little similarity there and then one day i was listening to our song again and I realized that my vocal delivery on that song did have that broken quiver thing that he does…so, there you go. 

Lightnin-Bar Blues is off of my favorite Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen LP it was produced by Hoyt Axton and I think it’s there most consistent release.

A lot of people might think I’m crazy for like John Sebastion, but I do, for the longest time I didn’t understand why that two hit wonder was on every documentary of 60s music until it finally clicked in my head about how the Lovin’ Spoonful was actually pretty deep in the folk rock vanguard. He’s a really good solid songwriter as well, but the record this comes off I love for a whole different reason. It is called Live and it’s on MGM and it is a total revenge release by the label. John had left Lovin’ Spoonful right when MGM bought Karma Sutra records and they were the best selling act on Karma Sutra. John had signed with another label and was planning on releasing a live album, so MGM released the one they had first, and when you listen to that record you’re like no way did the artist sign off on this, It is sloppy with no back up band and an amplifier that buzzes off and on throughout the set. He even gets into it with a heckler during this version of Red Eye Express. That being said, it’s a fun show and I love his carefree attitude and the well-written songs shine through the performance.

The Barbaras were a band of young kids from Memphis in the early 2000s who loved Brian Wilson, this song is called Breathing Underwater. The Hunnies were college age kids in Austin,TX at the same time and this Ghostbusters inspired song (Hunnies Vs. Gozer) sums up everything I loved about them. Cowabunga Babes was the perfect slacker band of those early 2000s and Beach Babe is my favorite song on their self-titled EP (?), the band had Clarke Wilson from Those Peabodys in it and Mike Bova (who is now in Cactus Lee).

Leather Girls is a current psych-garage band from Austin,TX. If you can see them live, you should; maybe they’ll play this song (Card Catalog). I don’t remember how Bells by Sic Alps ended up in my iPod and I don’t remember if I saw this band live, but I like the song. I know so many people who are burned out on Thee Oh Sees and it’s hard to keep up with their output of recorded material, but most of the time I’m going to like what they do,Time Tunnel is a perfect example of the 60’s inspired freak music they crank out and that’s one of the things I dig.  (Living In The) Panther’s Cage is another example of how great Ian Svenonius is at writing this simple sounding 60’s-esque ditties that are so clever on many levels, I love Chain & The Gang almost as much as I loved the Make Up. I finished this group of songs by actually using one by a band from the 1960s, The Troggs, and what I really like about 66-5-4-3-2-1 is that weird, but driving, bass line combined with that flat drum thump.

     Springtime Don’t Call (Pts. I & II) is the title track of the first record by Austin indie supergroup High Heavens, this song reached out to me with it’s strong vocal delivery and haunting synth bridge. One of the fun things about making these radio shows is that you come across buried treasure in tracks, like this Beach House song, Master of None. I don’t listen to this record by them all that much, they’re one of those bands you need to be in a specific mood for, I did see them many times when I worked at Emo’s and they were always great and also super nice. But, this song, I just love that vocal melody. Knife In The Water is one of the best bands to come out of Austin in the late 90s and early 2000s (they still perform live with a different line up) anchored by the songwriting of Aaron Blount. Better Watch Your Back is off their strong sophomore album Red River and at the time it perceived as having a  little edgier of a sound then their debut album.

    David Israel is a perfect example of a talented songwriter and a unique artist that can play all the time in the slacker dives of Austin,TX to a small band of fans and disinterested professional drunks. His songs are twee and clever and heartbreaking and fun, sometimes in one song, like the song Say Goodbye To Sorry. Love Child was a late 80s band filled with kids that went to Vasser. Company is off Okay? (Homestead, 1991) and it is a very, very early 90s album and it takes me right back to working at Thundercloud Subs with 1/4th the worries I have today.

If you’ve ever had the chance to see Colleen Green play I hope you enjoyed it, most of the time it’s just her and her guitar and her ray-bans, Darkest Eyes is a perfect example of her solo throwback pop alternative craftsmanship. 

James The Gentle Dreamer is a song off an album that The Golden Boys (another Austin band, I went Austin crazy this show) put out on monofonus press. I pretty much love everything the Golden Boys do, they have like four principle songwriters in the group crappin’ out hits. This is a sweet song.

Speaking of bands that I pretty much liked everything they did, I love The Strange Boys, Walking Two By Two is off their album called Live Music (which is not a live album). It’s my favorite Strange Boys disc though I guess it wasn’t as well received by their fanbase, most likely because there was a shift to more piano based music, but those kids are missing out on hearing a band grow up and spread its wings.

Somebody Nobody Knows is off Kris Kristoferson’s concept album Border Lord, I first listened to this up at the record shop I work at because a crazy song that Ray Price covered was from it. It’s a great album, check it out.

Bob Dylan’s Billy 4 is from the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack, not a lot of songs on that record…but, man, doesn’t this song conjure up the feeling of being a bandito? If you haven’t figured it out I’m a Moby Grape fan, this song Apocalypse is from their 1971 reunion album, 20 Granite Creek. Beautiful and sad, I’m a sucker for those strings and those jangly guitars. The very last bit of music is a fragment of the song Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen by the always amazing Staple Singers. This early stuff where Pop Staples guitar is the only accompaniment melts my heart and soul every time.