Category Archives: Country Music

Rotober Random Revelations Mixcloud

Gotta lil’ bored and needed to share some quarantunes with my peeps online… If yer around me in the house, you’d know I spend hours everyday regurgitatin’ through thousands of albums . For those that don’t have the pleasure of me drunkenly thumbing through the shelves and pulling out obscurities I created a digital simulation. This is an official 2 Hour Guided Missile Of a Mixtape, literaly pounds upon pounds of platters painstakingly plopped under yr Spin Doctor’s new needle. (NOTE: long before a hippie jam band in NYC used the name Spin Doctors, I was using the Spin Doctor moniker on flyers for my DJ gigs around San Francisco. I eventually gave up because you know, Little Miss Can’t Be Blecch was getting way too much MTV time, and killed my buzz).

We Begin With Members Of The Dils Cowboy Nation Covering Dave Alvin of The Blasters And End With Wanda Jackson Imitating Charlie Rich. In The Middle We Get Tales Of The Big Boys Playing With Trouble Funk & Gwar Being Banned From The Club For Life At Their Very First Show. There’s Cosmic Sounds Of The Zodiac, BT Express, Flo & Eddie, Kendra Smith, Tom T. Hall, Chuck Prophet, Nick Lowe, The Mexican Hat Dance, Stax Soul Icons & Successful Major Label Heavies Revisiting Their Punk Roots. A Rarely Heard Hip-Hop Collab Between Lil’ Jon, Jay Z & Too Short, Indie Rock Rarities From The Incredible Casuals, And Beatnik Beatch, Plus Hawaiian Islander Protest Music From Israel Kamakawiwo’ole & Michael Kahikina. Dusty Springfield vs Tony Joe White, Hank Ballard vs Kris Kristofferson, Roberta Flack vs Les McCann …So, Uh, Yeah It’s A Thing & It’s All Happening Deep Inside The Random Revelations Rotober 2020 Mix.

Anyhow the the turntablist spins sonic stories for the masses in my latest Illegal , Immoral & Fattening mix…






Culture Club – The Truth Is A Runaway Train

In 2015, Culture Club reformed and made a tour stop at The Greek Theater in Berkeley, before the tour had to be cut short due to Boy George O’Dowd suffering some vocal polyp issues. They eventually came back with a new album called LIFE, in 2018 with this song on it, but with a somewhat different arrangement, but that still namedrops Michelle Obama.

Here is the original version of “The Truth Is A Runway Train”, which I assembled as a slideshow montage.

This original Johnny Cash country folk influenced sound of this song differs greatly from the more glossy gospel/soul style version that they ended up putting on their next album, and even did an upbeat sort of gritty Philly Soul/Stax style remix featuring Gladys Knight who also joined the band onstage at The Greek Theater in LA.

Culture Club – The Truth Is A Runaway Train (original version)

Boy George & Culture Club toured the US in 2015 and this is their original country flavored version of Truth Is A Runaway Train, that later was arranged differently for a more soul feel when the album officially came out.

Recorded at The Greek Theater in Berkeley CA

Gary Floyd’s Buddha Brothers …it was the happiest day of their lives

Live at The SF Eagle

“Franklyn & Susie got married…it was the happiest day of their lives”

…and then some sh/t went down…

Just another folk fable as sung by the mighty Gary Floyd. A true San Francisco via Texas music icon, since arriving in the city by the bay with his band The Dicks in the early 80’s, Gary Floyd has painted with many musical colors, from the red , hot & fierce roars of bands like Black Kali Ma, to the more subtle swamp tones he tends to hit here with The Buddha Brothers. Whipping up wistful folk with some sweet & occasionally nasty down home blues elements, imagine Gary and the boys on some shaded country front porch obliviously jamming as the day passes by. Gary’s mournful howls rise above the sound of squealin’ baby pigs in the nearby sty, and his Buddha Brothers keep happily hammering home harmonies, and rapturous riffs a-plenty long after the sweltering sun goes down.

Shot at their seeming home away from home, the SF Eagle, in this video Gary’s Buddha Brothers are Gary Floyd, Greg Dale, Chewy Marzolo, Edgar San Gabriel, Mark Smotroff and Pokechoppums

Check out these links below to Bandcamp and search for Buddha Brothers music, you can find at two separate releases from this informal amalgamation of San Francisco Bay Area musicians.

The most recent release basically features the lineup in this video, and was recorded by Donny Newenhouse at El Studio in San Francisco in 2018 on fat two inch analog tape and includes a striking cover of Karen Dalton’s “Something On Your Mind” https://chewymarzolo1.bandcamp.com/album/buddha-brothers-2018

The  first Buddha Brothers digital collection was recorded a couple years earlier by Doug Hilsinger who played some pedal steel along with a lineup that included

  • Gary Floyd: vocals, harmonica
  • Edgar San Gabriel: bass
  • Jeff Hashfield: piano, organ
  • Danny Roman: guitar
  • Elliott Shannonhouse: guitar
  • Josh Walker: drums
    and Ms Caroleen Beatty on backing vocals

    https://garyfloydandthebuddhabrothers.bandcamp.com/album/buddha-light

  • Robbie Fulks Trio – Long To Ride

    Robbie Fulks Trio featuring Shad Cobb on fiddle performing the song “Long To Ride” from the Bloodshot Records album ” “Gone Away Backward” in a house concert

    Fulks has long been a Bloodshot Recording Alt-Country artist based out of the Chicago area , originally via North Carolina who puts an urbane spin on his finely craafted Appalachian Bluegrass Edged Country tunes that are seemingly unwelcome in Nashville or LA.

    #Bluegrass #ShadCobb #Fiddle #RealCountryMusic #AltCountry

    Carlos Guitarlos & Chuck Prophet – Ramblin’ On My Mind Jam at the SF Eagle

    Bad ass bar room blues guitarist Carlos Guitarlos (Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, Bottom Of The Can Band) joined Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express onstage in early 2002 at legendary leather bar the SF Eagle. They jammed on this version of a storied blues refrain “Ramblin On My Mind”.

    I got ramblin’
    I got ramblin’ on my mind
    I got ramblin’
    I got ramblin’ all on my mind
    Hate to leave my baby
    But you treats me so unkind
    I got mean things
    I got mean things on my mind

    When I recorded this clip back in 2002, Chuck Prophet’s backing band The Mission Express included Max Butler on guitar, “Teenage” Rob Douglas on bass, Paul Revelli on drums, and Chuck’s amazing wife Miss Stephanie Finch on keys.

    #CarlosGuitarlos can be found on the web at http://facebook.com/CarlosGuitarlosMusic

    #ChuckProphet at http://ChuckProphet.com

    @LilMikeSF Media Maker Myriorama