Oh Mama: I Wanna Be Your Mama Again

[photo by blakemayday984]

Sir Douglas Quintet - I Wanna Be Your Mama Again (Mendocino version) [purchase]

A few weeks ago at Groover's Paradise, I talked up Los Lobos' cover of the Sir Douglas Quintet track, "It Didn't Even Bring Me Down." It's one of several excellent cuts on the new Doug Sahm tribute disc [get you some]. I said then that the SDQ original was a bit of an orphan on Mendocino because it was the only song to have the jazzy flavor heard on Honkey Blues.

I'd like to semi-retract that statement. "I Wanna Be Your Mama Again," like many of the tracks on Mendocino, is basically a country song. However, the piano is curiously set to 'Erroll Garner'. Everything I've ever read indicates Augie Meyers was on the keys, but it wouldn't totally shock me if it was Wayne Talbert, Doug's piano man on Honkey Blues. Whatever the case, the florid, moody piano runs add a great texture and depth to the song. The Leslie-fied guitar is probably unnecessary and the freaky echo and other effects are a little dated, but this is still a standout tune. I especially love when Doug shouts out the chord change: "B7!"

Incidentally, "Mama" was a bridge between the two albums. It was the B-side to the "Mendocino" single, released a few months after Honkey Blues and a few months ahead of the titular album.

Sir Douglas Quintet - I Wanna Be Your Mama Again (Live)
Philadelphia (PA) Folk Festival [view program]
August 22, 1969

Good performance of "Mama," a little restrained, but included because of Doug's great intro. Wish the quality was a tad better, but hey, you can't beat the price. And it's not like the world's overrun with live Doug Sahm recordings.

Tangentially speaking, look at the date of this show. How would you like to have booked a music festival a week after Woodstock?!?! Ouch. I realize folk festivals and rock festivals have different fanbases, but it's not like there hasn't always been crossover. Hell, what was the SDQ doing there if it was pure folkie? Actually, why was the SDQ there and not Woodstock? I could just hear the pitch from the band's management. "Woodstock? More like Schmuckstock. All hype. The Philly Folk Festival's gonna be HUGE! We're gonna be talking about it 40 years from now." Well, I guess that last part is technically true ... heh.

Damnations - I Wanna Be Your Mama Again
Cactus Cafe, Austin, TX
July 27, 2002

The Damnations cover this on Where It Lands, but I think this live version is better. And while Doug's gender-bendery is amusing, I'd much rather hear Amy and Deborah say they wanna be my mama again. No offense, Doug.

Taken from the same Cactus Club show where they performed "What Does The Deep Sea Say?" [view that Star Maker post], the vocal harmonies of Deborah Kelly (lead vocal; acoustic guitar) and Amy Boone (bass; backup vocal) makes this performance special. I'm almost positive that's Conrad Choucron on drums, which reminds me that I don't see him play nearly enough. Anyone who can get in the pocket for the Damnations and sit in with Mandible is, by definition, a badass.

If I have one complaint it's that I wish the whole band was a little higher in the mix, especially Rob Bernard's magic Tele. Of course, that's my answer for pretty much everything.

"LD, what did you think of Wilco's last album?"
"Not enough Rob Bernard."

Bodies of Water: What Does The Deep Sea Say?

Bill Monroe & Doc Watson - What Does The Deep Sea Say? [purchase]

What does the deep sea say?
It moans, it groans, it splashes and it foams,
And it rolls on its weary way.

Charlie and Bill Monroe first recorded this tune in 1937, way back when older brother Charlie was the dominant Monroe. But, Bill was no man's second fiddle, so to speak. The group split up in 1938, Monroe joined the Opry in '39, and everything was rosins and bows until Elvis came along and dropped a wiggling turd in the punchbowl. Almost overnight, bluegrass music became quaint and old-fashioned.

Then, in the late 1950s, quaint and old-fashioned music surged in popularity, especially on college campuses. Old was the new new. Bill Monroe was one beneficiary of this so-called folk boom. Doc Watson, the sightless wunderkind of flatpick guitar, was another. When they recorded this duet in May 1963 at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, Watson was two months away from a performance at the Newport Folk Festival that would put him on the national map for good. Monroe, meanwhile, was already an elder statesman of old-timey, but was about to enter the bluegrass festival era, when he would stand as the genre's livingest legend.

On a sidenote, I'd be willing to bet that in the audience at this Ash Grove show was a young guitar picker named Clarence White. According to Kentucky Colonels bassist, Roger Bush, Clarence called him from the Ash Grove in March 1962, excited about hearing "a blind guitar player from Deep Gap, North Carolina." The KCs actually played the Ash Grove in April 1963, so chances are good they were in town. And if you were in town, why in god's name would you pass up the Bill Monroe/Doc Watson gig??? Trick question ... you wouldn't.

Follow-up dispatch from the "lattice of coincidence":
Within hours of posting this track, Crawdaddy ran a phenomenal profile on Ed Pearl, owner and operator of the Ash Grove nightclub ... who, by the way, singles out Bill Monroe and Doc Watson as career highlights.

Damnations - What Does The Deep Sea Say? [personal recording; not available for purchase]

A beautiful rose, one day,
I placed on the crest of a wave.
I said, "Take it, please, and let it settle home
Above his watery grave."

I've discussed the greatness of The Damnations before, and it was they who turned me onto this obscure chestnut. Though never formally recorded, "Deep Sea" was a regular part of The Damnations setlists. This particular version came from a July 2002 show at the Cactus Cafe in Austin and I was lucky enough to capture it on mini-disc. As usual, sisters Amy Boone (pictured left) and Deborah Kelly (center) provide the killer, downhome harmonies, but it's Rob Bernard's heavy, percussive banjo and Conrad Choucroun's train beat drums that push the song into breakneck, cowpunk territory. Incidentally, after crunching the numbers on Amazon, it turns out you can buy both Damnations albums for a whopping $5!. Get you some.

The Moon: Half Mad Moon

Damnations: Half Mad Moon [purchase]

I first talked about The Damnations during Fifty States Week, so for a brief overview of the band, check out that post.

This has always been one of my favorite Damnations numbers, a lovely, staggering, Waits-ian drink of a song. Great lyrics, with a pre-WWII, almost ragtime kinda feel to it. Throw it on scratchy vinyl and you'd think you'd have a lost Harry Smith track. Really, the only thing that might be missing is a saw solo to give it more haunting Old World flavor.

"Love is one of those unstable chemicals,
Beyond all reason it's just divine invention,
It's a gift of contradiction,
A hellish kind of heaven.

That man's the only one who knows his own formula,
There's no equation for random disorder,
He's got the gift of the gab,
And the curse of the bottle.

Take all the chairs and throw 'em out,
Go buy a saddle and tie yourself,
On back of that old yellow round,
No, you can't shoot down that half mad moon upstairs.

It's been a long time let's have ourselves a quarrel,
Let's go and sit upon our drunk and lazy laurels,
It's a gift to find a laugh,
To cure and clear our old debts.

So, take all the chairs and throw 'em out,
Go buy a saddle and tie yourself,
On back of that old yellow round,
No, you can't shoot down that half mad moon upstairs."

Fifty States: Kansas

Damnations: Kansas [purchase]

So, I go from posting about The Jayhawks to posting about the Jayhawk State. The Damnations, however, were not from Kansas. In fact, they were a group of Austinites, led by a pair of gorgeous, folk-singing sisters originally from upstate New York. Bassist Amy Boone sings lead on this tale of "Bleeding Kansas," with acoustic rhythm guitar and harmonies provided by her sister, Deborah Kelly. Meanwhile, Rob Bernard (also of Prescott Curlywolf) takes a break from his Eddie Van Halen meets D. Boon guitar badassery to hunker down on banjo and mandolin, while fellow Prescott moonlighter, Keith Langford, holds down the drum kit. (Soon after this recording, Langford would leave both The Damnations and Prescott Curlywolf to join The Gourds full-time, where he remains to this day). Finally, a subtle fiddle part is added by Eamon McLoughlin, now of The Greencards.

Sadly, this 1999 recording captures The Damnations at their short-lived peak. As the new millennium dawned, it seemed like the band was poised to break out. They had the sirens up front, songs that ranged from hoe-down country to melodic pop to cowpunk, and were gradually building up a devoted following. Unfortunately, within a year of releasing their debut album, Half Mad Moon (linked above), their label, Sire Records, merged with London and the band got lost in the promotional shuffle. Not only that, they recorded their second album just as the Sire-London partnership ended, leaving the band with no options as they were legally bound to the label that was itself in financial and legal limbo and had no interest in promoting them. By the time they released Where It Lands, their sophomore follow-up, the band existed in name only. RIP The Damnations.