The latest from our Mariachi band, Un Grupo de Mexicali, comes by way of a recording done in a professional studio in Mexico. The song Traición (Betrayal) of course deals with betrayal in a love affair, something the Latino soloist sings passionately about. The group shows they are capable of adapting their sound from a traditional Mariachi sound to take advantage of the setting of a pro - fessional studio. Miguel Navarro is the fine voice we hear in the recording, and he is one of the founders of the group.
Un Grupo de Mexicali continues to show us at Big And Tall Records the musical versatility of a good Mariachi band. Frankly, the only exposure most of us here have had with Mariachis is in the settings of Mexican restaurants! These are fine, gifted musicians that continue to offer up Mariachi music to our Latino fans, as well as the rest of us!
All of us at Big And Tall Records give Percy McCoy credit for growing as a recording artist, and sharing aspects about himself that sometimes have not been the most flattering. Perhaps it has been a type of catharsis to aide in learning more about himself to try and explain his failures in life. Anyone who's been married 4 times and is only 42 years old has something going on, if nothing else but poor judgement.
This latest by Percy comes right out and says, under no uncertain terms, that he's fallen in love with a little person. It remains to be seen if he really understands the difficulties he's going to have in this relationship, regardless of the feelings they may have for each other. He's already got a sample of that from his 'buddies' when they were noticed one night out, and the guys made stupid small jokes. What started out as a somewhat comical encounter with the woman through midget bowling as told in his song Somethin' To Do With My Time, has turned into a true affair of the heart...for both of them! We're happy to see that he's savvy enough to not mention her name in the song, or anything else about her outside of her size, marital status, and mutual affection. It's a strange world, and the last thing a little person needs is even more abuse heaped on them because of exposure in a record company. No doubt she's seen a lot of abuse, upfront and behind the scenes. If he would have ,we would have insisted on is removal before release.
It's obvious Percy moves fast. Four marriages in 20 years is not the sign of someone who moves slow and steady! But if his lyrics are honest (and he's been nothing but honest in his songs, sometimes to his possible detriment) this lady is more down to earth, and telling him they need to go slow. We wish nothing but the best for Percy and his Little Lady, and the nosy part of us hopes we hear more about their love affair!
Tried to talk ‘bout it with some buddies
All they did was make fun of it all
(Be a short love affair we all agree!
That’s our opinion, the long and the small!)
Everbodies a damn comedian!
I’m serious think I am in love
Try to talk it over with someone
But none of ‘em never ever heerd of
Fallin’ in love with a little blonde lady
Shore feels like it’s the real Mccoy
They all look at me, as if I’m shady
No, I ain’t using her for just a toy!
They’re pissin’ me off, won’t here me plain
Keep on tryin’ really gettin’ nowhere
Some saw us together, the other night
Met with laughin, smirkin’ and dumb stares
She told me later, didn’t bother her
Lived with so much crap all of her life
She’s more worried ‘bout how I’m doin’
I blurted out “WANNA MAKE YOU MY WIFE!”
Fallin’ in love with a little blonde lady
Shore feels like it’s the real Mccoy
They all look at me, as if I’m shady
No, I ain’t using her for just a toy!
She got real quiet, looked away from me
I hope I hadn’t hit a sore scar
Been on my mind, just blurted it out
I felt like I had gone way too far
She looked back at me, tears in her eyes
Held my face and give me a big kiss
She put her sweet little head, on my chest
Hoped I wasn’t in the abyss
Fallin’ in love with a little blonde lady
Shore feels like it’s the real Mccoy
They all look at me, as if I’m shady
No, I ain’t using her for just a toy!
We sat for a while, didn’t say a word
And I felt the warmth of her sweet cheek
Finally she sat up, looked me in the eye
And said, “Answers gonna have to seek!”
Both of our pasts have left lots of scars
I don’t want us to mess up what we got
We need to slow it down, figure things out
All I know is I sure love you a lot!
So we both breathed a great big sigh
Lots of things on both of our minds
I have to come to terms with all the jeers
That will come from them with puny minds
What we got goin’ for us is
Our love and commitment for each other.
We go forward with that, and work it out
Maybe things won’t be such a bother!
Melvin and The Boys seem to be going through another phase. This song, Garage Band, is a song that reminisces about the music scene of the 1950's, an era when none of the group lived in, but they have a good feel for the time. This song's lyrics continue that, but the music itself is more intense, closer to more current hard driving sound. We'll see where it takes them. They're all talented musicians, so it'll be interesting.
Tugboat Jackson's latest deals with generation labels, and how they can be used as a wedge between groups. In Tugs own words:
I was spurred to write Gen Z when I read an article about how generations after the Baby Boomer generation have it rougher than we did (I'm a Baby Boomer!) We're using up all Social Security funds, as there's more retired people now, and they don't like it that they have to pay into something that will be run out by the time they come of age to collect it. That's but one of their grievances, but it's the one I've read the most about. I agree with them! The system was created under different circumstances, and hasn't really been changed to accommodate modern times. The SS system itself needs to increase funding by raising the maximum amount you have to pay on. As of 2025, according to the article, the amount of income that a wage earner has to pay SS tax on is $176,100, and only 6% of wage earners make over that amount of money. Imagine if SS withholding would be raised to a max of $335,891, which is 5% of wage earners. That alone would help the solvency of SS! Of course the higher up the food chain income wise, the more tax resistant many seem to be, but it seems that without a raising of the cap, SS is doomed!
Many in government still hold to the notion that we can't tax the rich without the economy tanking. Those that have, want to keep it and get more. Not all of them, but many of them. Some folks say my songs are too 'preachy', and dammit, I'm guilty as charged! Hence my songs about greed and the corruption of too goddam much money in a minuscule percentage of the populace. The time honored strategy of divide and conquer is still being used, and can be used pitting generation against generation, when the real problem is the amassing of wealth! I stand with my brothers and sisters of Gen Z, Millenials, and any other fabricated label to stand together, and demand the change we want and need! Damned right I'm preachy! I worried about what kind of world my kids were inheriting, and about what kind of world my Grandbabys are inheriting as well!
A personal observation from some of us at Big And Tall Records - We notice Tugboat seems more drawn and tired when we see him these days. We hope he's doing alright and not starting to burn out! He's one of our main artists, and speaks with a voice we agree with totally!
We got the lowdown about Gummer Beaudine from our main man, Big Marv. They met so she could get permission from him to do a version of Marv's song Stanky Thang. He gave her the okay, but talked her into putting the project on hold, as he thought she'd do better with an original song. So Marv wrote the music for Let's Go Honky Tonkin' while she wrote most of the lyrics.
Her first name is really Patty. She got the Gummer moniker from an incident in her earlier life. Seems she got hit square in the mouth with a shovel! Her boyfriend at the time was a big drinker, get lit up and wail on her, and one night he started digging a big hole in the back yard, and when she went out to see why he was doing it, he took the shovel and hit her on the head and across her face with it! She vaguely remember that he said he was digging her grave! He got as far as rolling her unconscious body into the hole and started throwing dirt on top of her when a neighbor came over to see what the ruckus was about. The neighbor happened to be a weight lifter, and subdued her boyfriend handily, and called the police. He was charged with attempted murder, convicted, and sits in jail. Seems he had a long list of assault cases on top of this one, so he's not getting out real soon, if ever. Patty spent a long time in the hospital, went through facial reconstruction surgery multiple times as well as losing all of her teeth. She had to go without any denture for a while until her jaw healed, so her friends at the bar gave her the name. She adopted it, and goes by it in her life without any problem.
Marv told us she was a pretty tough customer! He had to use all his powers of persuasion to get her to wait on using his song. He felt that after her first song, Pocket Rocket, it'd be good if she recorded something a little different. Ends up it turned out to be not that different, as it's her style to have a rough house sound. She told him she started out playing in bars that would have chicken wire strung up between the audience and the band for safety! She said beer bottles, ashtrays, shoes, you name it would be thrown at the stage if the crowd didn't like the music!
The Irish group Craic Agus Ceol has an affinity for sea shanties of their own devising. Traditional in form somewhat, but totally original. Their shanty Flense The Blubber Off The Carcass deals more with the aftermath of catching a whale, mainly reducing the carcass to whale oil a very valuable commodity in the 19th century. The blubber would be flensed, cut off, the carcass and boiled in water in great pots on the deck. A dangerous job in itself, as open fired on the wooden deck was a hazard, as well as the oil itself which was highly flammable.
The literature states that the average number of barrels (which were between 35-45 gallons) was 45. The price of a gallon of whale oil was between $2.50 to .50 in 1850, so a barrel could be worth as much as $120, depending on what kind of whale it came from, as the quality was different. Some sources give the range of 2,500 to 3,500 barrels of oil accumulated on a whaling voyage, so it could be highly lucrative, mainly for the owner vessel, but the crew made decent money for the times as well.
But they earned what money they made. A long voyage (up to 3 years) on board a ship with cramped, overcrowded, unsanitary quarters led to disease and death. Sailing ships expected the crews to climb the masts, straddle the spars for sail work, which saw death from falls. And then there was the prey themselves. Smaller boats would be dispatched from the main ship with a few men to harpoon the whales. Boas were overturned, and a harpooned whale didn't die immediately. They would become vicious and kill any sailors that fell overboard.
The oil was used for illumination and lubrication, and before oil from wells came about, whale oil was one of the best choices for both uses. Whale oil burned bright in lamps and didn't smoke as bad, or smell as bad either, although it did have a slight fishy smell. Once oil from wells was refined and kerosene derived from it, the demand for whale oil dropped, as those products were considerably cheaper. But whaling didn't stop altogether, and still goes on to this day in a very limited industry. The oil is used for cosmetics and the pharmaceutical industry, but there are more and more substitutes being used.
We couldn't sit on this recording any longer! Doyle Harseth recorded it shortly after Delmar Gentry released his song Ballad Of The Hungry Horse. It's the same situation in both songs; the abuse and rescue of a horse by the two of them. Delmar's song is more restrained, although still condemning animal abuse, while Doyle's isn't We'll let Delmar tell the story:
Never seen Doyle so angry, but when someone loves horses as much as he does, he hates seeing them not being taken care of. The day we went and got him, we had papers from the police that gave us legal authority to pick the animal up. We had no problem with the owner, as he wasn't there. And I was glad he wasn't. Doyle was so crazy angry, I don't know what he might have done, and I hate the thought that I maybe would have had to go bail his assout of jail for beating hell out of the owner!
As I'm not a member of the Arizona State bar, I couldn't officially help try the case, but I did a lot of assistance with the para-legals getting all the paperwork done. Arizona does not take kindly to animal cruelty. Cruelty to animals can mean the individual that's cruel to animals can also be more likely to be cruel to people. Prisons are full of people that did serious crimes to others that had a history of animal cruelty. This particular owner already had two cases of serious animal cruelty brought against him in years past, so this time it was a felony. He's a rich bastard, so he bought the best of defense, but they couldn't save him. He's still out of jail on appeal, but he had to fork over a big chunk of money to do that! The verdict, after a long, drawn out trial, was guilty of a whole slew of counts, with the penalties being pretty rough - 5 years in prison, 10 years probation, $500,00 to be distributed to the new owners of the animals to assist in the animals care until the end of life, a $250,000 fine, and a court order banning him from ever owning any animal of any kind ever again!
Bill The Percheron
The defense came up with all kinds of bogus reasons, from hardship (hardly!) to blaming others he hired to care for the animals, and other bullshit. Truth is, he doesn't give a shit about animals, and I don't know why he insisted on having any! Besides the horse, there were a Shetland pony, pair of goats, small herd of alpacas, 3 donkeys, and an investigation ongoing that's trying to determine if he had another horse and three dogs missing that he used to own. If they find any remains of the animals buried or otherwise disposed of, and it can be determined they died of neglect and/or abuse, this guy's in more legal trouble. Doyle and I were at the trial every day, I was called as a witness, but thank goodness Doyle wasn't. He had a hard enough time holding his temper when he heard some of the defense's pleas. There were some days when we have to leave early. Last thing a spectator wants to do in a trial is to stand up and beller obscenities at the alleged guilty party!
Doyle helped me with the song I wrote, and after I had it all recorded, he asked me if hecould record his own on the subject. Well, it took us about a week of long sessions in the studio writing and trying out the song before Doyle could calm down enough to lay down his vocal. It was just Doyle and I, late one night that recorded it. He just wanted me to play a jazzy piano for him to sing with, and it worked out okay. It helped him get it all out of his system, so I'm glad we did it. The Percheron is doing well, put a lot of weight on since we've had him, grown even taller. He looks really good, and waits for Doyle and I to come see him every day. When Doyle's three Grandkids come to visit they make a beeline to see Bill. Yep, his name's just Bill, but it seems to fit him! He'll hang his big head low enough for the kids to scratch his chin!
A happy ending for this horse, that's for sure! The passion Doyle has for this animal can be heard in the recording. Delmar said it took a lot of takes for Doyle to calm the language down to the cussing that's on the recording!
The Burgoo Boys 2nd recording with Big And Tall Records, Up To Yer Ass In Alligators, is some advice about being persistent and some examples of people in history that didn't give up. This makes sense after we found out that one of the players in the group has a Bachelor's degree in history. Plenty of knowledge there that can be used for examples. At the recording sessions, the boys kept doing take after take, trying to get the performance better. all the members of the group are virtuosos of their instruments, and they blend together for a very fine Bluegrass band. One of the takes was over 8 minutes long! The boys got through passing tunes around amongst each other! And the tempo was break neck! We finally decided to use a shorter take, as between the length of it and the speed it was played (articulation was crisp, words were plainly sung, but we were afraid it was too much for the average listener.) The recording we chose is pretty fast as well, anjd the boys are sue up for it! The Burgoo Boys have already started working on their next recording, which will be about Burgoo, their name sake dish!
Amos Carter's latest tells the tale about one of his band members; Stu Milligan, rhythm guitar player. At least a certain part of Stu's anatomy, mainly his slew feet. Now being slew footed means your toes point out towards the side, the opposite of pigeon toes where the toes point inwards. Stu's had the nickname Slew Foot for a long time, since he was in the Army. He takes it with good humor, and even contributed to the writing of this song, Slew Foot Stu's Boogie. Amos told us Stu came up with the chorus for the song.
The song was recorded at Delmar Gentry's studio in Flagstaff, and Delmar produced it as well as filled in on piano for their regular piano player who couldn't make the session. Amos and his band keep adding to their original songs they can play at their gigs, as well as doing numerous covers. Amos handles the double bass and lays down a solid bass to the song as usual. Amos' band has played quite a few gigs in the Flagstaff area this past winter. Amos still works at the horse ranch since Delmar bought it, but it's not a full-time horse barn like it was before, with horses being bought, sold, and bred. So he's got a lot more time on his hands to devote to the band.
Delmar continues to support three people from his horse ranch that have made recordings. Doyle Harseth, the former owner of the ranch has more recordings in the works, Amos is always working on a new song, with Marie Flores being occupied with her mother temporarily living with her on the ranch with no foreseeable plans to record, although Delmar has said that he's working on some ideas for her when she's free.
Delmar Gentry has been busy on his horse ranch and his own recording studio producing other artists, so we didn't hear much from him for a spell. Plus, a new development that he's involved in, the subject of this song. Ballad Of The Hungry Horse deals with him rescuing a neglected horse from a farm about 50 miles from his. The local animal cruelty offices contacted Doyle Harseth, as he was a contact member for thew organization when he owned the ranch. He passed on the information to Delmar, and they got involved with rescuing the animal.
The horse is a draft horse, a Percheron. Delmar's got little experience with draft horses, but Doyle has had a few off and on over the years. Doyle kept all the tack and hitches to a big wagon he used to use his draft horses with to do chores around so the rescue was a good fit. Doyle's been working with Delmar with the new member of the herd to help him settle in. Some words from Delmar:
It would've broke your heart to see what we saw when we drove out there to see the horse. Doyle told me that we best take the horse trailer with us. He said if the horse was in trouble he wouldn't leave without him! So we see this tall horse, big hooves like Percheron's have, but he was thin. Way too thin. Able to count his ribs thin! So we backed up the trailer, and proceeded to load him up! We had a document from the ASPCA to take the horse, with or without the owner's consent. No one was around, so we managed to get a bridle and lead on him, mostly because we'd brought a bag of feed with us. Poor guy was really hungry! No grass in the area they had him in, no water. He was really leery of us, but Doyle's got a way with horses, and he managed to coax him into the trailer. Doyle's not a big man, only about 5 foot 6 or so, don't weigh 150 pounds soaking wet with rocks in his pockets, but he knows horses, can think like 'em!
We got him home, turned him out into the pasture by himself at first. The other horses were curious, came up to the fence, but he stayed far down the pasture. Took some time, but he's one of the herd now. Putting on weight like he should, lets the vet check him over. So I think we got to him before serious trouble started.
I'm working with the ASPCA lawyers pressing charges against the owner, and it doesn't look good for him! He's got a farm with other animals that they've taken away, and he could be looking at some serious jail time! Arizona does not fool around with animal abusers!
No doubt we'll here more about this as it happens. And what we know about Delmar (and Doyle second hand) the horse couldn't be in better hands!
The Nude Polka Kings keep coming up with new and different polka songs, at least the lyrics to them. They've written songs that include beer drinking in them, and for sure in the polka culture there is a penchant for it. But now they warn about too much beer, rather tongue in cheek perhaps, but nonetheless. This song has more instrumentals at the beginning and end, with some rather different sounds coming from a polka band. The vocalist is one of the founders of the group, Sammy Smitz, who has a very pleasing baritone. He also was the soloist featured in their song Pigs In A Polkaas well as others.
The Kings are wrapping up their spring tour in 3 weeks, and they'll be getting ready to play their Nudie Polka Tour, a unique tour of the band in venues where nudity is permitted, and in some places mandatory. They have their own polka hall, Beer and wine bar, and a fine Polish/German restaurant outside of Chicago. It is unique as it is the largest (and only) mandatory nudist polka hall in the U.S. , maybe the world. They'll be there periodically through the summer and fall, while playing other concerts occasionally. They prefer performing in the nude, but outside their own hall they will take gigs clothed as well. Our associate that's been there says it is a really fun place once you get accustomed to the nudity, and their restaurant has some of the finest food he ever ate! No doubt they'll open up with their song The Nudie Polka as they do with every concert they give.
You’re drinking too much beer
And you're dancing way too fast
You might just slip and slide
And proceed to bruise your ass
When you fall down on the floor
Here's what you should do
Release your partner from your grasp
Or she'll get bruised up too
Too much beer gives you crazy thoughts
That can tie your feet into clumsy knots
You've had too much beer it's really not a crime
Just sit and listen be so sublime
Too much beer polka we play it every time
Too much beer polka cuz we all like a good time
We dance and sing and drink they are remedies
Too much beer polka soothes all our maladies!
We all enjoy the music and the camaraderie
It helps to cope with the strife of living
A few hours in a dance hall relaxing
Can help make life worth living
But too much of it they say isn't good for you
Pork fat, salt, sugar, alcohol, all the stuff that's good
In some ways, Buzzy Carlyle's lucky day was when he was taken by ambulance to a hospital near death. After they got him stabilized and tested, a heart condition was found that was so dire it warranted open heart surgery. His surgery went well, but it took him a long time to recover. His body was so wasted from alcohol and drugs that it took lots of care to bring him around. Now, the lucky part of all this is that his cardiologist is a huge blues fan that had heard Buzzy play years before when the Doctor was a student. As soon as Buzzy was able, the Doctor brought him a brand new guitar, and told him part of his rehabilitation was to play on it. Everyday, and slowly get back his chops. The Doctor admitted he wasn't sure if his voice would ever be able to come back enough to sing.
Buzzy took it seriously, played the guitar every day, sometimes laying flat on his back in bed. He started singing, and his voice shaped up along with his guitar technique. The first song he recorded a few months ago showed that his voice was still there, pitch had dropped, and he got out of breath when he sang too many high notes.
He's still in rehab. Doctor told him he might not ever really get out, due to his chronic fatigue and damage to his internal organs. The Doctor has put him into a rehab/patient assistant home (that the Doctor is helping to foot the bill for) so he could get out of the hospital, and Buzzy's doing well. He has an issue here and there, and has had to go back to the hospital a few times, but he's hanging in. And his guitar playing is in fine form, and as can be heard in this recording, his voice is in fine form as well. We've never heard him sing so well since we've known him.
The Doctor urged us to bring him into the studio for an afternoon to record a song, and we worked around the Doctor's schedule so he could be there. Buzzy told us his favorite 'ol' axe' got lost in the shuffle, a guitar he played for years, and that the one the Doctor gave him was the finest instrument he'd ever seen, let alone played. The Doctor also brought a tuning device for Buzzy, and it pissed Buzzy off! "Don't need one a them goddam things!" he said. The Doctor watched as Buzzy tuned his guitar by ear, and was amazed that he was spot on pitch when he checked it with the tuning device! Buzzy was good for about 3 hours in the studio, then he got really tired so we took him home. He laid down a lot of tracks, this we think is the best one, My Time To Go.
Wow! Must've been his wife Sheila that persuaded him to sing this, as Big Marv doesn't like to sing that much. True, his voice is more of a growl (as he admits), but he brings a musician's sense of timing to a song. There's more to music than just a nice voice! Truth be known, this song started out to be something for a different artist, but somewhere along the line Marv was convinced to write one for his wife and himself. And this song could be considered as an answer to the song his wife just recorded Big Daddy. Big Marv did say he was working on a short song to put on the answering machine of their catering/music business. Imagine, with everything else he does, he and his wife still do a lot of work for private parties, and have quite a backlog.
Well, it happened. What we at Big And Tall Records thought was a one-off recording of an owner of a famous Polka/Beer hall, n ow has a repeat performance. The gravel-voiced Zbig Szafranski is on tour with The Nude Polka Kings in honor of his 84th birthday. He sits in the crowd, drinks beer while The Kings play, and after he gets lit up enough, he takers the stage to sing. He barely makes it through one song, but the crowd usually gives him a storm of applause.
To say that Zbig is uninhibited would be an understatement. He's led such a varied, and sometimes dangerous, life that probably contributed to that part of his personality. The man actually faced death in his native Poland due to his rabble rousing. The Soviet Union didn't take kindly to any kind of insurrection, and he had a breath-taking escape from certain execution. The Kings recorded one of his impromptu songs at a concert and sent us the recording. Zbig got a big kick out of the first recording he did for us, so in honor of him we're offering this one up as well. At the end he says some words in Polish. According to The Kings that translated it, he says: " We get drunk! We find Polish sluts! We fuck and fart all night long!"and promptly raises his leg and lets go a ripper for emphasis! The reports we're getting from The Kings confirm that is more than an ending for a song; it's his motto for the rest of the night. Each night after a concert The Kings take turns going with the old man on his escapades as they feel responsible for his welfare. At 84, with numerous physical ailments, there seems to be nothing wrong with his libido!
