The Kingston Coffee House 3/3/26 Replay and Playlist
“I been around that trashy behavior all my life. Getting tired of puttin’ up with it.” – Sam the Lion
By Mike Stevenson | WRIU
On tonight’s Kingston Coffee House, I’ll be playing a set from one of my favorite songwriters from the ’60s, the blue-eyed soul man Dan Penn (“The Dark End of the Street,” “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” “I’m Your Puppet,” A Woman Left Lonely”) Penn also produced the classic The Letter for the Box Tops.
Later in the show, I’ll play idiosyncratic selections from three women who never achieved great success in terms or record sales, yet produced some truly remarkable records: Judy Henske, Linda Perhacs, and Judee Sill.
I start the show off with a set I call “Cowboys, Candles, and Cowards.”
MARCH 3 REPLAY (AVAILABLE FOR 2 WEEKS FROM AIRDATE)
COWBOYS, CANDLES AND COWARDS
– Ry Cooder “Dark End of the Street” (D Penn) Boomers Story, 1972
– Harry Nilsson “Cowboy” (R Newman) Nilsson Sings Newman 1970
– Dialogue from The Last Picture Show (actor Ben Johnson as “Sam the Lion”)
– Jennifer Warnes “Ballad of the Runaway Horse” (L Cohen) from Rob Wasserman Duets, 1988
– Bob Dylan “Goodbye Jimmy Reed” from Rough and Rowdy Ways, 2020
– Carla Morrison “Eres Tu” Déjenme Llorar, 2012
– Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris “Light a Candle”, 2026
– Bonnie Prince Billy “Guns Are for Cowards”, The Purple Bird 2025
– Martin, Bogan & Armstrong “You’ll Never Find Another Kanacka Like Me,” 1974
– “Meet the Boys” from the film Little Caesar, 1931
CAT CLYDE & BONNIE
– Cat Clyde “Man’s World” Man’s World, 2026
– Cat Clyde “Another Time” 2026 Man’s World, 2026
– Cat Clyde “Wild One” single, 2025
– Georgie Fame “Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde,” 1968
– The Band “Theme from The Third Man” Moondog Matinee, 1973
Soulful songwriter Dan Penn
DO RIGHT MAN
– Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham “Sweet Inspiration” Moments from This Theater LIVE, 2005
– Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham “I’m Your Puppet” Moments from This Theater LIVE, 2005
– Booker T & the MGs “The Letter” (W Carson)
– Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham “Ol’ Folks” Moments from This Theater LIVE, 2005
OH, CAROLE
– The Cowsills “Thinking of You” Cocaine Drain, 2025
– The Continental Drifters “I Can’t Make It Alone” (Goffin/King) The Continental Drifters, 2001
– The City with Carole King “Hi-De Ho” (Goffin/King) Now That Everything’s Been Said 1968
– 5th Dimension “Working On a Groovy Thing” (Sedaka)
FRIENDS / MIGHTY STORM
– Ken Lyon “He Was a Friend of Mine” (trad) In Concert, 1974
– Matt Berninger & Roseanne Cash “Who Loves the Sun” (L Reed, 1970) rec.2026
– Emer Kenny “Golden Brown” (the Stranglers) 1997
– John Hammond “Milkcow Calf’s Blues”
– Tom Rush “Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm” (trad) New Year, 1982
THREE WOMEN
– Judy Henske “High Flying Bird”(Billy Edd Wheeler), 1964
– Judy Henske & Jerry Lester “Three Ravens” (Henske/Yester) Farewell Aldebaran, 1969
– Whiskeyhill Singers “Soy Libre” (trad)
– Linda Perhacs “Parallelograms” (Perhacs) Parallelograms,1970
– Linda Perhacs “Sandy Toes” (Perhacs) Parallelograms,1970
– Judee Sill “Lady O” (J Sill) 1971
– Judee Sill “The Kiss” (J Sill) Heart Food, 1973
GOODNIGHT / A LARUM
– Dillard & Clark “Train Leaves Here in the Mornin'” (Leadon/Clark) The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark 1968
– Johnny Flynn “Brown Trout Blues” A Larum, 2008
– Shannon Pearl “Kulning”, Fae Fälla 2025 **
– Johnny Flynn “Wayne Rooney” A Larum, 2008
SHOW NOTES
• On Judy Henske: LA producer Jack Nietschke called Judy Henske “Queen of the Beatniks.” Henske arrived in Greenwich Village from Chippewa Falls, same as “Annie Hall” (no coincidence, Henske is said to have inspired Mr. Allen’s famous character played by Diane Keaton.) In New York, she opened for Woody, as well as comedian Lenny Bruce. After moving to LA, Henske appeared on The Judy Garland Show and also in the 1963 feature film Hootenanny Hoot where she sings a centuries-old murder ballad dressed in a bikini.(!)
She died on April 27, 2022, at the age of 85 in Los Angeles. Rhino Handmade Records issued a great retrospective of her career, Judy Henske, How Far This Music Goes 1962 -2004.
• On Judee Sill: She struggled with addiction through much of her life and died of a drug overdose in 1979. She was 35 years old. On a BBC documentary on Judee Sill, XTC’s Andy Partridge began to play her song, “The Kiss,” he had to stop it. “Those notes climbing under her voice … Sorry; I can’t do it … It’s just too beautiful.”
In 2024, the documentary film Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill, by Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom was released .
• On Linda Perhacs: She released her debut album, the acid-folk classic Parallelograms, in 1970. Her second album, The Soul of All Natural Things, came 44 years after the inauspicious debut that bloomed into a cult favorite. Listen to an NPR story on the musical journey of Linda Perhacs.
• Johnny Flynn’s debut album title “A Larum” comes from Shakespeare’s stage directions. He says that the word would appear every now and again as “alarum off,” meaning that some commotion was happening just offstage. “I quite liked the idea that the noise happening offstage was this album.” | Listen to 2008 NPR interview with Johnny Flynn.
• “Kulning” is an ancient Swedish and Norwegian vocal technique, traditionally used by women to call livestock (cows, goats) home from grazing in forests and mountains. It is a very loud, high-pitched, and often hauntingly melodic, non-vibrato singing style that travels long distances
CONCERT DATES:
- Cat Clyde will appear at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA on May 19
- Dan Penn will perform LIVE on May 5 at New Orleans’ Chickie Wah Wah (approximately 21 hours, 59 minute drive from the WRIU transmission tower)