Boneyard Media

While Kendell was staying with a Hawaiian family that included 10 children during his time in L.A., he was able to meet the family’s grandmother, who was known affectionately - as many Hawaiian grandmothers are - as “Tutu.” This particular Tutu was the widow of a Catholic missionary who’d served on a South Sea island inhabited by cannibals. The revered matriarch’s visits from Hawaii were “anticipated with great delight,” and when she came, the children would traditionally gather at her feet and ask her to repeat once more the story of how she lived in the jungle with the cannibals. Kendell found this little ritual “both charming and amusing,” given the fact that he felt like he too was “living in the ‘jungle’ - right there in LA,” where the “‘natives’ were as exotic and perplexing” as any that Tutu had encountered. His tongue-in-cheek “Tutu and the Cannibals” would become a popular staple of Kendell’s live performances.

Kendell Kardt - “Tutu and the Cannibals”

This 40 yr old flick was Doris Day’s final one. And I don’t think the Grass Roots, taking their cues from the Stones’ “Under My Thumb,” ever sounded better.

This is Red Buttons’s last high profile performance before he passed away in July 2006. I saw it when it aired and laughed my head off, and now some modern day St. Francis (who I’m certain is no sissy) has gone and posted it.

Kendell’s experience with Columbia, as I’ve written about earlier, was a frustrating affair for him, full of crossed wires and efforts to hammer our star-shaped peg, apparently, into misshapen holes. Some fun stuff came out of it, though, including this collaboration with the honest-to-goodness Bar-Kays. It’s the same honky tonk piece we heard in the last post - just a tad bit snazzed up, and you can definitely hear Kendell’s kinship with Van Morrison in it. So enjoy it, folks - your very first taste of Kendell’s sessions for his second lost LP. I woulda bought it, how about you?

Kendell Kardt (with the Bar-Kays) - “Funky Song” (1972)

posted by Kim Simpson

Here’s another cut from that great radio session Kendell did at Chicago’s WFMT in ‘75. Notwithstanding its title, this song has “bar room ballad” written all over it - if your heart’s not aching when you press play, get ready for it to start up as you listen. Ah, sweet pain. And get this - as befitting its title, a version of “Funky Song” was actually recorded with the Bar-Kays for Kendell’s never-released ‘72 Columbia LP. Let’s see if that version surfaces sometime soon.

Kendell Kardt - “Funky Song” (live)

Some time ago I posted a great cut from the Lovemeknots, a proudly Indianapolis-centric “indie” rock band (never truer), who worked the downtown club scene inside and out during the 90’s before calling it good at the end of the decade. The band’s been back on its feet of late, thanks in no small degree to the relocation of one of the band’s key members - Kyle Barnett - to Louisville, KY, right down the street. They’ve recently posted four songs from their ‘06 Live at Zanie’s Too EP on their MySpace page, including a spirited, Velvet Underground treatment of fellow hoosier Leroy Carr’s “Naptown Blues.”

Carr, as you may know, was a smooth crooner who was wildly popular during the late 20’s and early 30’s. By the time he was thirty, the bluesman/boozeman’s life had careened to an unceremonious halt, but his records had a far-reaching influence long after he was gone, informing a range of legendary performers from Count Basie to Nat King Cole. Carr’s “Naptown Blues”, which showcases the local pet name for that Indiana capital, has the Lovemeknots written all over it (”nobody knows old Naptown like I do,” goes the opening refrain), and while the two versions come from pretty disparate musical approaches, I can’t think of a band more worthy of taking it on. As the Allstate 400 approaches in a couple of weeks, and I really start wishing I was there, I’ll likely post a few more Indiana classics Kyle has gotten me hip to.

Leroy Carr - “Naptown Blues” (1929)

The Lovemeknots - “Naptown Blues” (2006)

posted by Kim Simpson

…Paul Revere and the Raiders!

Gary Puckett and the Union Gap!

and the New Colony Six!

Here’s another live demo from the same 1971 session that brought us Kendell’s “Walk on the Water” and “Have a Cigar”, among others. This one was written during his time in San Anselmo, where he lived just up the hill from a popular club called “The Lion’s Share.” The club hosted all manner of bay area notables like the relocated Van Morrison, the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Sons of Champlin. When Kendell wasn’t gigging there himself, he’d frequently hang out until closing time. Kendell characterizes “Get in a Groove” as being among his “barroom ballads,” although it will probably lift your spirits a bit more than that category might suggest.

Kendell Kardt - “Get in a Groove”

posted by Kim Simpson

This is an extremely rare early Utah rock ’n’ roll treasure, and it comes to us courtesy of New Mexico record collector Jerry Richards. It was appropriately released on the Atomic label and recorded at Recording Arts, Inc. in Salt Lake City, the “Wall Street of Uranium Stocks” (RAI is no longer but until 1944 was run by future LDS church president Gordon B. Hinckley). It’s a great example of a record that spoke directly to its home region, which was Utah and the four corners area, and didn’t circulate much beyond that. It’s also high grade western swing-cum-early rockabilly featuring some of the sassiest of steel guitar riffage.

If you’re familiar with the Southeastern Utah area, you’ll catch the references to Grand and San Juan counties, which were true hotbeds of the post-WWII uranium mining industry, as well as Cottonwood, the southern canyon area near the Grand Staircase (not to be confused with Big or Little Cottonwood canyons, although they’d also work fine in a uranium mining context). And if you’re well-versed in atomic industry history, you’ll recognize acronymic nods to the Vanadium Corporation of America, the U.S. Vanadium Corporation, and the Atomic Energy Commission.

Richards found his own copies of the record in Helper, Utah, which makes perfect sense, as he puts it, “because Helper was, and still is, a mining town.” The record came out as a 78 and a 45, with the 45 version pressed in blue vinyl. Both came packaged in what Richards refers to as “brown paper bag sleeves.”

There’s still quite a bit of homework to be done regarding virtually everything else about this record and the folks who made it happen. The year, for example - I’ve seen it listed as anywhere between 1954 and 1957. The relaxed mastery of the musical idiom along with the casual appearance of “rockin” in the group’s name makes me assume it’s post-1956, but I’d absolutely love it if I were wrong. For now, though, strap on your rock ’n’ roll geiger counters and watch those needles fly.

Riley Walker and the Rockin-R-Rangers - “Uranium Miner’s Boogie”

posted by Kim Simpson

Forgotten UK guitar tamer Dave Evans stuck around in the early seventies long enough to put out four records, including the non-overdubbed, well-chiseled instrumental masterpiece Sad Pig Dance (1974). And I’m very pleased to report that he also managed to squeeze in this cheeky Old Grey Whistle Test appearance. Not long after this thing was taped he’d call it good with the record scene, go off to Belgium, and focus on building guitars. Enjoy this rarity while it’s up.

posted by Kim Simpson