Saturday, June 30, 2007

JOHNNY & SATCH

Yes children, there was a time in which GIANTS WALKED HE EARTH!

This must be from Johnny Cash's ABC TV show circa '69-70. Here he sings Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #9," which Louis Armstrong orginally recorded with the Singing Brakeman in 1930.



KSFR GETS BIGGER SIGNAL

It's true, KSFR's signal is increasing and the station will be moving up to 101.1 on the FM dial.

Basically it means we can be heard from Taos to Albuquerque -- though I understand the signal will only penetrate the northern part of Albuquerque.

Here's John Sena's story in The New Mexican.

Here's the KSFR site.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 29, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Poor Me by Big Al Anderson & The Balls
A Girl Like That by Steve Earle
Close Up the Honky Tonks by Bill Hearne's Roadhouse Revue
The Old Man and the River by Johnny Paycheck
Don't Go Back to Sleep by Patty Booker
Yellow Mama by Dale Watson
My Many Hurried Southern Trips by Porter Wagner
Blistered by Johnny Cash
Collegiana by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Never Settle For Less/Movin' by Lovin' by ThaMuseMeant
New Delhi Freight Train by Terry Allen
Steeple Full of Sparrows by The Gourds
Too Many Rivers by Webb Wilder
Soba Song by 3 Mustaphas 3
You Took My Thing and Put it In Your Place by C.W. Stoneking

To Begin Again by Goshen
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Catch Me a Possum by The Watzloves
Jole Blon by Waylon Jennings
Born in 1947 by Ronny Elliott
Caves of Burgandy by Boris & The Saltlicks

Bayou Beauty by Ronnie Dawson
One Endless Night by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Exit 194 B by Richmond Fontaine
Can't You See I'm Soulful by Eleni Mandell
Underneath the Stars by Peter Case
Trying to Get Home by David Bromberg
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Friday, June 29, 2007

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BACK TO THE GARAGE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 29, 2007


The modern-day garage band refuses to die. In fact, some garage bands from the distant past refuse to die as well.

Here’s a look at some recent noise coming out of the allegorical garage.

*Hentch-Forth.Five by The Hentchmen. The Hentchmen is a Detroit band that arose in the mid-’90s steeped in the noble tradition of Michigan bands of previous eras such as The Stooges, ? and the Mysterians, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, and Amboy Dukes.

As documented on the 2001 compilation The Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit, bands like The Hentchmen, The Dirtbombs, The Von Bondies, and The Detroit Cobras got back to rock ’n’ roll basics in a most delicious way. However only one of the Sympathetic Sounds bands actually made it big — The White Stripes, a duo well on its way to glory when that compilation was released.

On Hentch-Forth.Five, originally released in 1998, The Hentchmen, led by Farfisa fiend John Hentch (aka John Szymanski, aka Johnny Volare), had a bass player named Jack White who went on to become singer and guitarist for The White Stripes. Detroit’s Italy Records has remastered the album, originally released on vinyl only, and rereleased it last week — on the same day The White Stripes’ new album, Icky Thump, was released. That’s a complete coincidence I’m sure, and if you don’t believe that, you’re probably one of those evil cynics who believe that campaign contributions to politicians are somehow connected to government policies favorable to the contributor.

But no matter what marketing forces might be behind it, I’m glad they made this album available again.

It starts off with a hopped-up guitar rocker called “Some Other Guy,” in which White and Hentch harmonize like the early Beatles. You can almost envision a John Lennon-like toilet seat around White’s neck as he wails.

And the music doesn’t let up. From there it goes into a song called “Psycho Daisies,” an obscure Yardbirds tune that namechecks American locales. Sample lyrics: “Down in Mississippi I’m told is nice/ But all the meals there, they come with rice.” There are actually two versions of this on the new version of the album, the “extended version” being one second longer than the shorter one.

The Hentchmen, who celebrate their 15th anniversary this Halloween, haven’t released a new album in about three years. Hope they’ve got more coming.

This record is available at the usual online sources. I downloaded my copy from eMusic.

* Los Valientes Del Mondo Nuevo by The Black Lips. I used to fantasize about recording a live album from the Spiral Staircase club in Juárez, Mexico. These Georgia rockers had a similar idea. They went and recorded a live album in a bar in Tijuana.

The Black Lips should team up with the San Diego group Deadbolt, whose 1996 album Tijuana Hit Squad might be a secret spiritual antecedent of this record.

Calling their sound “flower punk” (anyone remember the Frank Zappa song of that name?), the Lips are just a good, basic, primitive, lo-fi, minimalist rock ’n’ roll group with grimy echoes of “Psychotic Reaction” and the Blues Magoos. The Lips is basically a guitar group, colored sometimes by electric piano and harmonica.

The Lips get almost pretty on the early-’50s-sounding “Dirty Hands,” then recall the Rolling Stones’ “Mother’s Little Helper” on “Buried Alive,” which features a Middle Eastern-sounding guitar riff. The unison singing on “Fairy Stories” (“... my daddy has a gun ... ” ) reminds me of an even sloppier version of The Dead Milkmen. “Hippie Hippie Hoorah” is a slow-burning teaser that sounds as if it’s on the verge of exploding but never quite does.

Atmosphere is everything. On Los Valientes, you can hear the crowd going crazy, throwing bottles, heckling in two languages. Now and then stray mariachi music wafts through the proceedings. The liner notes describe the band meeting a “nylon-suit-clad mexi-sexual drug dealer” in the bathroom and local prostitutes performing lascivious acts onstage as the band plays.

Can’t wait for the DVD.

* The Remains. This is a bonus-fortified reissue of a 1966 album by a Boston band that never quite hit despite touring with The Beatles, having a major-label contract, and appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and Hullabaloo.

Barry Tashian, the singer in The Remains — not to be confused with the tacky local band The Charred Remains — went on to a respectable post-Remains career. He played on Gram Parsons’ first solo album and played for most of the ’80s with Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. He’s made several bluegrass-flavored albums with his wife, Holly.

According to their Web site, “The Tashians are available for all types of concerts, music camps, church services, workshops and festivals worldwide.” That’s a long way from the proverbial garage, but it beats the proverbial carwash.

The group, initially known as Barry & The Remains, wasn’t quite ready for music camp, but back in the ’60s it didn’t seem as wild and uninhibited as some of its proto-punk contemporaries like The Seeds, The Standells, etc. It’s not just the dorky suit and ties, as seen in The Remains CD booklet. The group’s sound was milder and a little slicker too.

The producer on several of the tracks is Nashville’s Billy Shirell, who is far better known for his work with George Jones and Tammy Wynette.

Still, there are some cool tracks here. One of my favorites is the first, “Heart,” a Petula Clark song (!) that starts out slow before it unleashes the rock. There are also fine covers of Charlie Rich’s “Lonely Weekend” and Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy” and original rockers like “Why Do I Cry” and “Time of Day,” which has an irresistible fuzztone.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

NATHAN & AIMEE
I was able to catch the first set of ThaMuseMeant's gig at the Santa Fe Brewing Company Wednesday night. Opening up with familiar songs like "Grow Your Own" and "Movin' by Lovin'," (which turns into an infectious hippie gospel revival), it didn't take long to remember what it is about this band that made me love them in the first place, 13 or so years ago when they lived in Santa Fe.

I hadn't seen them in I don't know how many years. Nathan said it had been a year and a half since they'd all played together.

And this was the first time I'd seen them with their newest member Enion. She was damned impressive. There was one of her violin solos where she was every bit as inense and hypnotic as Symphony Sid Page in Dan Hicks' "I Scare Myself."

The strangest part of the evening was when lightning apparently knocked out the electricity in the Brewing Company. There were a few moments in darkness, but when the lights and sound came back on, the group went right back into the song, picking up exactly where they'd left off as if nothing had happened.

This supposedly was ThaMuseMeant's only New Mexico gig this year. But I hope they don't stay away long.

My review of ThaMusemeant's latest album can be found HERE.

More photos of Wednesday's show can be found HERE.

ENION & DAVID

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: A GOOD ROAD TO DIE ON

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 28, 2007


Soon to be on Gov. Bill Richardson campaign literature near you: A national study that ranks New Mexico high — for something good.

An annual survey of state highway systems ranks New Mexico fourth in the nation for most cost-effective road systems. Our ranking hasn’t changed since the previous year, according to The Reason Foundation, a libertarian research organization. But seven years ago we were ranked 27th.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that as far as highway fatalities go, only seven states are worse than New Mexico.

Translation: You’re more likely to be killed on a New Mexico road than on the roads in most other states. But your death would take place on one of the country’s most cost-effective highway systems.

It fills a soul with pride.

“New Mexico is one of several rural, generally Western states that remain high in traffic fatalities,” David T. Hartgen, one of the study’s authors, said in a phone interview Wednesday. “You’ve come down, but you’re still above the national average.”

Hartgen is a professor in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, specializing in transportation planning.

New Mexico’s fatality rate is 2.036 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles.

The Reason Foundation, which has been conducting these highway studies since 1984, looks at a dozen categories to determine each state’s cost-effectiveness. These include traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs.

According to the most recent study, based on 2005 statistics, New Mexico reported 12,205 miles under state control.

This state was tied with 22 others for No. 1 in the category of rural interstate condition and toward the middle of the pack in terms of urban interstate condition.

We were the ninth lowest in urban interstate congestion, 12th for condition of bridges and 16th for rural primary pavement condition.

The road condition rankings are based on data each state submits to the federal government, Hartgen said.

New Mexico scored its worst ratings in administrative cost per highway mile (35th) and that pesky fatality category. But the study concluded, “New Mexico’s solid condition ratings are more than enough to offset its high fatality rate and administrative costs.”

According to the study, the state spent $67,581 per highway mile in 2005. More than $11,000 per mile of that was spent on administrative costs.

The study can be found HERE.



Giving credit: Last year in this column I reported that aspiring New Mexico filmmakers applying for state grants in a state program were required to “acknowledge Governor Richardson and the New Mexico Film Office’s New Visions/New Mexico Program in the end credits of the completed film.”

Apparently, that’s no longer the case.

This year’s application merely says, “Awardees are asked to acknowledge the New Mexico Film Office’s New Visions/New Mexico Program in the end credits of the completed film.”

They’re just asking — and rather politely. And the form says nothing about thanking the governor.

Last year when I talked to Film Office Director Lisa Strout about the requirement, she told me: “What’s important is acknowledging the state.” Specifically mentioning the governor, she said, “isn’t a requirement, in my mind.”

The Film Office this week announced a call for proposals for New Visions/New Mexico. The program will provide a total of $160,000 in contracts for New Mexico-based producers and directors to create narrative films, documentaries, animated and experimental works.

Applications are available HERE, and at the New Mexico Film Office, 418 Montezuma Ave.

I was a teenage colonel: I was not among the 519 recipients of a colonel-aide-de-camp certificate issued by Secretary of State Mary Herrera during days when she served as acting governor. And, because of my recent stories on that subject, (ClICK HERE and HERE)I’m not counting on getting one any time in the near future.

However, in the interest of full-disclosure, I should confess that I’ve been “coloneled” in the past. Walter Bradley, in December 2002, his final month as lieutenant governor, gave me one of the honorary certificates. I was never sure why, except that Bradley’s a nice guy who didn’t take offense when I teased him in this column about his affection for dreamcatchers.

And years before, back when I was in high school, I was declared an aide-de-camp to then Gov. David F. Cargo.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

WHY I HATE THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, PART 492

This from the Oregonian:

A disabled single mother from Beaverton has filed a federal lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America, claiming that she is the victim of abusive legal tactics, threats and illegal spying as part of an overzealous campaign to crack down on music pirating.

The recording industry sued Tanya J. Andersen, 44, in 2005, accusing her of violating copyright laws by illegally downloading music onto her computer. Andersen claims in a suit she filed last week in U.S. District Court in Oregon that the recording industry refused to drop its case after its own expert supported her claims of innocence.

Instead, industry officials threatened to interrogate Andersen's 10-year-old daughter, Kylee, if she didn't pay thousands of dollars. The intimidation included attempts to contact Kylee directly. A woman claiming to be Kylee's grandmother called the girl's former elementary school inquiring about her attendance, according to Andersen's suit.
If that doesn't disgust you enough, read the whole article HERE.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

SANTA FE BANDSTAND

The Santa Fe Bandstand folks have a good lineup of free concerts on the Plaza this summer. Lots of great local musicians (including the lovely and talented Handsome Family from Albuquerque on August 14), and national acts like John Trudell, Shannon McNally, Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble and Lubbock steel guitar great Lloyd Maines backing singer Terri Hendrix.

More info HERE

2007 Santa Fe Bandstand Schedule

AFTERNOONS: Tuesdays and Thursdays Noon—1:30
EVENINGS: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 6---8:30 pm

Thurs July 5 Noontime
Kumusha Women's marimba ensemble

6 pm
Opening Night
Elephant Revival, Funky gypsy soul folk
The Soul Deacons, Classic soul

Mon. July 9, 6 pm
Bill Hearne’s Roadhouse Revue Living legend acoustic country folk artist
South by Southwest Premier southwestern swing and country band

Tues. July 10 Noontime
Watermelon Mountain Jug Band, Eclectic mix of country and bluegrass

6 pm
Kev Lee and the Uprising, Smooth cool funky reggae
The Clan Tynker Family Circus, Juggling and magic
Robert Mirabal Band, Native roots and Americana, full-on tribal rockers

Wed July 11, 6 pm
Los Primos, Latino/Mexicano
Cheverendongo With Nacha Mendez ,Santa Fe’s Salsa Band… finally!

Thurs. July 12 Noontime
Fiddlin' Doc Gonzalez, Classic country swing

6 pm
International Folk Art Market Night
Matthew Andrae, Original groove music
Kaissa Putumayo Recording Artists-Cameroon afro-beat reggae jam band

Mon. July 16, 6 pm
Georgie Angel Blues Band, Feel good blues
Elana James and the Continental Two, Hot jazz/western swing trio

Tues. July 17 Noontime
El Musicano /Chris Abeyta & friends, Northern NM traditional and modern music

6 pm
Sugar Lips Six, piece all female blues & R&B band
The Clan Tynker Family Circus, Juggling and magic
The Jimmy Stadler Band, High energy rock

Wed. July 18 6 pm
Mariachi Buenaventura, Santa Fe’s first all female mariachi band
Radio La Chusma Rasta, Mexica/Chicano reggae

Thurs July 19 Noontime
Daniel Weston, Spanish classical guitar
Sol y Luna, Classical guitar duo with a Latin touch

6 pm
The 2bers w/ One Foundation, Live hip-hop and a twist of funk & reggae
Brother E & The Blue Rhythm Kings, Smokin' Soul and R&B Band

Mon July 23 6 pm
El Farol Blues Jam ,Santa Fe’s finest blues artists from the weekly Canyon Rd. jam

Tues July 24 Noontime
Holy Water & Whiskey, Traditional, folk, bluegrass, gospel

6 pm
Alphacats, Stylish, sassy, soulful, swingin’, jumpin’ jazz
Ron Helman Jazz Ensemble, Jazz music of the 50’s and 60’s

Wed July 25 6 pm
Spanish Market Night
Santa Fe Suzuki Institute, Young students playing strings and flute
Quemozo, Latin soul musica

Thurs July 26 Noontime
Laurianne Fiorentino, Powerful original acoustic music

6 pm
Trio Jalapeño de Antonia Apodaca, Keeping the spirit of Northern NM music alive
Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Spicy zydeco from Southwest Louisiana
JONO MANSON
Mon. July 30 6 pm
Cristen Grey and the Moving Dunes ,Peace love and rock & roll
Jono Manson, Santa Fe Legend with his rootsy rock 'n roll

Tues. July 31 Noontime
Chico & the Cherokee Gals ,Best of the southwest in three part harmony

6 pm
Sean Helean Band, Western rock
Busy McCarroll and the Ambassadors of Pleasure, Power jazz pop noir

Weds. Aug. 1 6 pm
Sol Fire, Pop rock with a Latin edge
Manzanares, Nuevo Flamenco meets Latin rock

Thurs. Aug. 2 Noontime
Chris Laterzo and Buffalo Road, Original Americana folk rock
HYF Felecia & Jim
6 pm
Boris McCutcheon & the Salt Licks, Psychedelic desert rat music
Hundred Year Flood, Rockin' Americana

Mon. Aug. 6 6 pm
Ryan McGarvey Band, Scorching blues guitar and classic rock
Hillary Smith & the Groove Tribe, Love blues and making it funky

Tues. Aug. 7 Noontime
Zach Maloof and Zoe Evans, Cutting edge multi-cultural acoustic

6 pm
Big Bad & The Wolf , Eclectic original rock
The HooDoos, Bluzrok

Wed. Aug. 8 6 pm
Ruben Romero Tribute :
Antonio Mendoza, Jocelyn Celaya, Wayne Wesley Johnson & Miguel Desoto, Daniel Jaramillo

Thurs. Aug. 9 Noontime
Carlos Aguirre, Spanish and English variety

6 pm
D Numbers, Instrumental electronic rock
Samba Fe, The beat of Santa Fe
Wagogo, World beat—Memphis to Mozambique to Mexico

Mon. Aug. 13 6 pm
Handsome Family, Haunting, primal and strangely heroic songs
Santa Fe All-Stars, Country and bluegrass with a rock n roll twist

Tues. Aug. 14 Noontime
Jed & Kelley, Soulful country duo

6 pm
Terri Hendrix & Lloyd Maines, Folk, roots-pop, country and scat jazz
Julie Stewart & The Motor Kings , High energy rockin' blues

Wed. Aug. 15 6 pm
Ballet Folklorico, Traditional Mexican Folk Dance under the auspices of Aspen Ballet
Buena Suerte, Cumbias, polkas, country, rock and oldies

Thurs. Aug. 16 Noontime
DL Raven, Native flute
Indige Femme, Tash & Elena- Navajo/Maori folk duo

6 pm
Indian Market Night
Tamara Podemski, Native American songstress (Aboriginal Music Award winner)
John Trudell & Bad Dog, Acclaimed Native spoken word artist rocks out!

Mon. Aug.20 6pm
Santa Fe Traditional & Bluegrass Music Festival Night
Albert & Gage, Austin’s Christine Albert & Chris Gage--High energy country-folk
Raising Cane, Original Bluegrass

Tues. Aug. 21 Noontime
The Santa Fakers, It’s only Rock & Roll but you’ll like them!

6 pm
The Pleasure Pilots, Rhythm 'n blues, jump and swing
Shannon McNally, New Orleans' soulful singer and entrancing songwriter

Wed. Aug. 22 6pm
Los Tropicales, Romantic Latin jazz
Los Wise Guys, Variety of golden oldies and Beatle covers

Thurs Aug. 23 Noontime
Miguel y Telma/The Love Buzzards, Classic Mexicana and traditional American roots

6pm
Y. Que, Latino rock world fusion
The Alex Maryol Band, Original rock 'n roll and blues

Monday, June 25, 2007

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 24, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Wooly Bully en Espanol by Rudy "Tutti" Grayzelle & Los A-Bones
Rag & Bone by The White Stripes
Some Other Guy by The Hentchmen with Jack White
Brown Paper Sack by The Reigning Sound
Stronger Than Yesterday by The Vicious Beatniks
Everybody's Doing It by The Black Lips
Parchment Farm by Blue Cheer
Nobody Spoil My Fun by The Seeds

Hip Priest by The Fall
Grinderman by Grinderman
Shockadelica by Prince
When the Lights Go Out by The Black Keys
Tuff Baby by Iggy Pop
This House is a Circus by The Arctic Monkeys

This Town by Frank Sinatra
Grease Paint and Monkey Brains by White Zombie
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
What If I Knew by Dinosaur Jr.
All the Girls by J. Mascis & The Fog
Stay Free by The Clash
Volunteers by The Jefferson Airplane
Those Fabulous Sixties by Christopher Guest
Magical Misery Tour by Tony Hendra

Oriental Hora by A Hawk & a Hacksaw with Hun Hangar Ensemble
Tu Veux Ou Veux Pas by Brigitte Bardot
Waveform Disturbance by Rumble Trio
Liberty Calls! by Mike Watt
Mohammed's Radio by Warren Zevon
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, June 23, 2007

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 22, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Cranky Mulatto by The Gourds
Rattlesnake by Ramsay Midwood
Loretta by Ray Campi
When Will I See You Again by The Watzloves
Come Back to Old Santa Fe by Bill Hearne
Story Behind the Photograph by Johnny Paycheck
The Hell That I've Been Through by Patty Booker
My Mangled, Blown-Up Head by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies

Bowling Alley Bar by The Handsome Family
On the Rise by The Meat Puppets
Highways and Cigarettes by Son Volt with Shannon McNally
Black Road by Richmond Fontaine
Peggy Legg by Terry Allen with Jo Carol Pierce
Catfish by Bob Dylan
Gun Blue by Goshen
Rancho Grande by Carolina Cotton

Motorcade by ThaMuseMeant
Help Wanted by Nathan Moore
My Idaho Home by Carolyn Mark
I Like 'em Fat Like That by Cornell Hurd
Waxahachie Drag Race by Ronnie Dawson
Born in Louisiana by Dale Hawkins
There's a Tear in My Beer by The The
Watch Who You're Hurtin' by Mike Montiel

Kid from Spavinaw by Tom Russell
Every 24 Hours by Peter Case
O Mary Don't You Weep by Bruce Springsteen
The Streets of Laredo (Cowboy's Lament) by Webb Wilder
Study War No More by Michelle Shocked
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Friday, June 22, 2007

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: FOR YOUR THAMUSEMEANT

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 22, 2007

ThaMuseMeant at 1999 Folk Alliance conference, Albuquerque, NM

ThaMuseMeant fled Santa Fe for the Pacific Northwest a few years ago, but their fans here still think of them as local (just as we did a few years before that, when they fled Santa Fe for Austin, Texas).

They’ve been together in various configurations for nearly 15 years. Original members Nathan Moore, Aimee Curl, and David Tiller are still there. I do miss drummer Jeff Sussman, who made the band rock in the early days. But Enion Pelta, who has been in the group for the last four or five years, is a strong addition. Her gypsy-style violin plays off Tiller’s mandolin to give ThaMuseMeant its special flavor.

The group’s latest album, Never Settle For Less, shows that Moore is still writing some well-crafted and occasionally hilarious songs.

The one that nearly made me wreck my car last week is “Unprotected,” which begins with Moore, sounding more like Dean Martin than he ever has in his life, crooning, “I’ve had unprotected sex tons of times.” The lyrics go on to praise psychedelic drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and all sorts of vices. This is terribly irresponsible and sends a terrible message to the children. I think it’s my favorite track on the album.

Curl’s strongest moment comes in “Nowhere From Here to Go,” a slow, lonesome folksy/country tune suited perfectly to her backwoods warble.

If you want more of Moore, he’s got a new solo album, In His Own Worlds, featuring various Frogville Records regulars and other local music luminaries.
NATHAN MOORE “Understand Under” is a Dylan-ish, bluesy rocker about scrambled ambitions. “I want to be fluent in every language/ I want to be a painter, the next Abbie Hoffman/I want to be the mayor of my hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains/I got to get there more often.”

All the songs here are originals, save “Wandering Aengus,” an adaptation of a William Butler Yeats poem. The late Dave Van Ronk did a version of this, but Moore’s is far more upbeat. There’s a short but head-turning violin solo by Pelta.

The dual CD release party for ThaMuseMeant and Nathan Moore is at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, at Santa Fe Brewing Company. The cover charge is $10.00 at the door. Also playing is Tiller and Pelta’s group Taarka. It’s the first (and probably will be the only) performance by ThaMuseMeant in New Mexico this year. For information, call 424-3333.

Also recommended:
GOSHEN
*Lioness by Goshen. Like ThaMuseMeant, Goshen is one of the founding Frogville Records bands. Basically, Goshen is singer/songwriter/guitarist Grant Hayunga plus the fabulous Palmer brothers from Hundred Year Flood (Bill on keyboards, Jim on drums).

During Goshen’s intense late-night performance at last year’s Thirsty Ear Festival, I had the revelation that this music is what people who condemn the blues hear right before they die and go to Hell. Lioness only reinforces that.

For the rest of us, Goshen can be heavenly. Hayunga’s crazy slide guitar and his voice, gliding between inspired mumble and sweet croon, are irresistible.

This album seems to be more sonically diverse than past Goshen efforts. There are still the frantic, sweaty rockers I love so well (“Hate to Say Goodnight,” “Jackrabbit,” “They Grew Wild For You”), but there are plenty of mid-tempo and slower numbers, too. And Hayunga seems to be paying more attention to his vocals here. Some of the songs sound downright pretty.

One of my favorites is “Gun Blue,” an easy-paced tune where the slide guitar slithers like a snake. You expect it to turn around and pounce any minute.

Then there’s “To Begin Again,” which starts off as a 90 mph joyride to doom then slows to a screeching halt, with Bill Palmer playing organ like Lurch on The Addams Family. It goes through this cycle at least a couple of times and before you know it, the song melts into the next track, the slow, foreboding, organ-heavy “Son of a Gun,” a psychedelic masterpiece lost in time.

*Heartaches & Honky-Tonks by Bill Hearne’s Roadhouse Revue. The Frogville factory apparently has been cranking around the clock in recent weeks. Hearne is a longtime Santa Fe favorite, and hard-core honky-tonk is his specialty. As the title implies, he’s in his element here.

BILL HEARNE & CATHY FABERHe’s got a hot little band behind him — Augé Hays on steel, Bob Goldstein on guitar, Cathy Faber on bass, and rotating drummers who include Pete Amahl, Chris Carpenter, and Mark Clark. Plus, there’s a bevy of guest musicians including fiddle great Johnny Gimble. Hearne’s wife and longtime musical partner Bonnie shows up for a duet with Bill on “Somewhere Between,” a Merle Haggard/Bonnie Owens song.

And as the name of the group suggests, this is a review. Bill Hearne steps back and lets Faber sing lead on a couple of tunes, which is a real treat. My favorite Faber track here is “Wishful Thinking,” an old Wynn Stewart two-stepper.

Some of the songs might seem overly familiar — “Close Up the Honky-Tonks,” Sing Me Back Home,” “Wine Me Up.” But Hearne loves this music so much and he puts so much of himself into the material that he gives these standards a freshness that lesser performers could never reach.
For more information on ThaMuseMeant, Goshen, and Bill Hearne’s Roadhouse Revue, see The Frogville site.

*Lucky 13 by Mike Montiel. Here’s an artist who grew up in Santa Fe and has played guitar in bars around here probably longer than he’d like to admit. I think the first time I saw him was in the ’70s in the Turf Club, when he was with The Ozone Express.

On his first solo album, which he co-produced with Española singer Steve Chavez, Montiel presents 13 original tunes in various styles.

There are blues rockers like the opening song “You Can’t Trust a Woman” and “Watch Who You’re Hurtin’”; acoustic blues like “Been Gone So Long”; country tunes like “I Thought You Were Somebody Else” and “You Don’t Care,” which sounds like a long-lost Mavericks track; outright rockers like “Redemption” (where he lets loose the wah-wah); and Spanish-flavored songs like the instrumental “After the Gunfight.”

Several cuts here are instrumentals, spotlighting Montiel on electric as well as acoustic guitars.

My favorite is a breezy blues ballad called “Love Me Again.” Montiel “cries” some of the lines. It’s pretty and tough at the same time.

For more information e-mail Montiel.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

MY PHOTOS ARE GREAT FOR THE RADIO

A few of my photos from my recent trip to New Hampshire have been posted (with my permission) on the Web site of New Hampshire Public Radio.

It's part of their collection of photos from the 2008 New Hampshire primary.

My photos start HERE . (Click "Next" to see the others.)

THE UNION STREET KIDS LOVE RICHARDSON

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: FIELD OF NIGHTMARES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 21, 2007


In his autobiography Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life, Gov. Bill Richardson wrote that baseball was “the ruling passion of my young life.”
BATTER'S UP!
Reminiscing about coming to the U.S. from Mexico to attend a private boarding school in Concord, Mass., Richardson’s book recalls how his baseball skills helped him overcome his feelings of being from a different country. “I still felt like an outsider. But as it had been in Mexico, baseball rescued me,” Richardson wrote.

I thought about this earlier this week when the state Republican Party released its satirical 2007 Bill Richardson baseball card, which cleverly pokes fun at some of the governor’s position changes.

Seeing the double photo of Richardson (one in a Yankees cap, one in a Red Sox cap), I thought about this cruel irony:

While baseball was Richardson’s salvation as a youth, the national pastime has become a common thread in many of the controversies that have haunted his campaign for president.

First there was the draft/no-draft story. Richardson for years said he’d been drafted by the old Kansas City Athletics in the 1960s. He told me that in a 2002 interview. However, last year, a sports writer for the Albuquerque Journal checked it out and debunked the story.

Then there was his recent statement on Meet the Press that he’s a fan of both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees — teams that constitute probably the fiercest rivalry in modern Major League baseball. This caused a huge Internet buzz on both political and sports blogs. Fans of both teams were in a state of disbelief.

More recently was the profile of Richardson in The New Republic. Writer Ryan Lizza mainly focused on Richardson’s shifting positions on foreign policy issues. However, the part of the piece that received the most attention was the part describing Richardson at — yes — a baseball game in Iowa.

“As we get up from our seats to visit the play-by-play announcer’s booth, Richardson does something I’ve never seen any politician do,” Lizza wrote. “There are two women sitting in front of us. They are both young and attractive, probably in their twenties. The governor rotates his large frame sideways and shimmies out of his row. The two women smile up at him. As he passes, Richardson reaches down and places his fingertips on the head of one of the women, tickling her scalp as he opens and closes his hand. Then, as he reaches for the next scalp, his hand suddenly aborts its mission, as if the governor realizes this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
MOONRISE OVER ISOTOPES STADIUM
At least he didn’t say he was a fan of both the Albuquerque Isotopes and the Iowa Cubs.

It’s got to eat at Richardson to think that a game that once brought him acceptance and praise now is associated with some of the statements and incidents that appear to be holding him back from the major leagues of politics.

With all due respect: At a candidate forum in February in Carson City, Nev., Richardson made headlines by saying he and the other Democratic presidential candidates should sign a pledge not to attack one another.

However, earlier this week at a Washington, D.C., speech, Richardson was on the offensive, naming names in distinguishing his position on withdrawing troops from Iraq.

“With all due respect to my outstanding Democratic colleagues — U.S. Sens. (Hillary) Clinton, (Barack) Obama, (Christopher) Dodd and (Joseph) Biden — they all voted for timeline legislation that had loopholes,” he said at the Take Back America conference. “Those loopholes allow this president, or any president, to leave an undetermined number of troops in Iraq indefinitely. ... Clearly, my Democratic colleagues in this campaign think it’s responsible to have an ongoing military role in Iraq. They voted not once but twice to leave troops behind.” (See Youtube clip below)

It’s not really an attack, though. He did say “with all due respect” and call them “outstanding.”

However, Lizza — the same writer at that Iowa ballgame — pointed out in The New Republic political blog, The Plank, that one of those pieces of legislation was the Feingold-Reid amendment, which would have cut off funds for the war next March and which Richardson initially supported.

In a later blog post, Lizza quotes a rebuttal from Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley, saying Richardson only “conditionally” supported the amendment, without exceptions in the amendment for training Iraqi soldiers and other limited purposes.

Richardson has a new anti-war Web site called No Troops Left Behind.

His Take Back America speech is below:

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

HILLARY GOES FOR CELINE

Apparently writing off the rock 'n' roll vote, Hillary Clinton has gone and chosen a song by Celine Dion -- who isn't even an American -- for her campaign theme.

She managed to get a theme song even crappier than her husband's -- Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow."



There apparently was a vote on her Web site. I suspect Republican sabotage. What's Donald Segretti up to these days?

So come on, Bill Richardson. Here's your chance to pay tribute to good American music! . I made a lot of good suggestions for your theme song. Jean Knight, Howlin' Wolf, Emmett Miller, Warren Zevon, Angel Espinoza ... and my column readers made some good suggestions too. Any of them are better than Celine Dion!

Speaking of Republican sabotage, the state GOP today released its 2007 Bill Richardson baseball card.

Monday, June 18, 2007

PLAY FOR PAY

A group of big-name musicians, and, I assume, the major labels who love them, want radio stations to start paying to air their music.

Check this out:

Setting the stage for a new battle between radio broadcasters and the music industry, a group of recording artists have formed a coalition called musicFIRST to seek cash payments from local radio stations for the airplay of music broadcast over the air. Among the members seeking new performance royalties are Christina Aguilera, Jimmy Buffett, Celine Dion, Toby Keith, John Legend and Jennifer Lopez. The group plans to introduce its legislative plans Thursday.

Currently, broadcasters pay songwriter royalites to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, but not performance royalties. Broadcasters are required to pay performance royalties for music streamed over the Internet.


I believe this request should be honored.

Therefore, I hereby pledge to never play any songs by Christina Aguilera, Jimmy Buffett, Celine Dion, Toby Keith, John Legend or Jennifer Lopez on any of my shows. I hope other radio folk do the same.

Seriously, I hate to side with the National Association of Broadcasters on anything. But where would these "artists" be if radio didn't play their stupid music a jillion times a week?

eMUSIC JUNE

Here's how I spent my 90 eMusic downloads for the month of June.

* Dial "M" For Motherfucker by Pussy Galore. Jon Spencer is an obscene maniac. That's why I like him. This 1989 album came shortly before Spencer would form his Blues Explosion. In Dial M could be considered the fuse that led to that Explosion -- tasty guitar slop riffs, crazy caveman drums and no bass. The vocals, mainly by Spencer are buried, but the joy is naked.


*Sun Spots, vol. 2: Oddities and Obscurities by Various artists. You normally think of Sun Records as the wellspring of rockabilly. But before Elvis and Jerry Lee, Sun mainly dealt with blues and R&B artists from the Memphis area. Some well-known blues and R&B names are here -- Honeyboy Edwards, Sleepy John Estes, Little Milton and Ike Turner, performing with his first wife (or at least an early wife, Bonnie). There's also some cool hardcore hillbilly, gospel and rockabilly, mostly by folks you've never heard of. (Malcom Yelvington did a pretty good "Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.") . The Killer's spirit is all over the place, even though there's not any songs of his. There's a song by a young Linda Gail Lewis, There's one of those tacky cut-and-paste fake "interview" novelty songs, "The Return of Jerry Lee" in which questions about Jerry Lee's infamous trip to London and his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin are answered by clips of the singer's tunes and there's that famous religious discussion between Sam Phillips and Jerry Lee in Sun Studios. "HOW CAN THE DEVIL SAVE SOULS? WHAT ARE YOU TALKIN' ABOUT?"


*The Original Rockabilly Album by Ray Campi. Speaking of cool rockabilly, I recently saw a good little documentary on Netflix called Rebel Beat: The Story of L.A. Rockabilly. One of the featured artists was Campi, who inspired me to download this album.

I can't find much info about this album except that it was released in 2002 on a label called Magnum Force and earlier in England. The recordings sound pretty ancient, rough and raw, like rockabilly ought to be. According to one source all these songs were recorded in 1957 -- except obviously the spoken introduction to the first song "Catepillar," which was Campi's first rockabilly record, where Campi talks about the old days.

There's some familiar songs -- Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" and Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" -- but my favorite is a lo-fi wonder called "My Screamin' Screamin' Mimi."


* Pop A Paris: Rock N Roll Mini Skirts - Compilation 1 . The French have a saying:

"Ooo la la!"

That's a good way of describing the music from this album, a collection of rock and pop from the great nation of France in the swingin' a-go-go '60s. These mostly are covers of rock and pop hits from the U.S. and England. My favorites are Marie Laforet's "Marie Douceur Marie Colere," which you'll recognize as "Paint it Black," and "Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher" a version of Nancy Sinatra's biggest hit by someone called Eileen.


UPDATE: I forgot to mention, there's a song here by Brigitte Bardot! It's a mod-a-go-go ditty called "Tu Veux Ou Tu Veux Pas." I still like "Boots" and "Paint it Black" better.


* Live at Maxwell's by The Reigning Sound . This is a raw 40-minute set n which the band plays on desite the fact that guitarist Greg Cartwright keeps breaking strings. (thinking back to my own performing days, I can sympathize.) By the last song he's down to three strings.

Most the songs are relentless rockers. But the group slows down for a sweet version of Sam Cooke's "I Need You Now." That's not the only soul cover they do. The album starts off with a ragged, savage take on Sam & Dave's "You Got Me Hummin'."


A HAWK & A HACKSAW,
*A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble . This is an 8-song CD that H&H recorded with a group of Hungarian folk musicians, who add instruments including brass, woodwinds and Hungarian bagpipes.

My favorite song here is called "Zozobra," a quick-stepping duet with Jeremy Barnes (on accordion and percussion) and Balázs Unger on cymbalom, an instrument that sounds like a hammer dulcimer.

If you buy the actual CD, I understand, it comes with a DVD about A Hawk and Hacksaw.

* Several tracks from Greatest Hits of the National Lampoon. There's some great parodies of '60s and '70s rock stars, which I hadn't heard since my college days, by the likes of Christopher Guest, Gilda Radner, Tony Hendra and Chevy Case. No Beatles fan should be without Hendra's primal-scream Lennon spoof "Magical Misery Tour."

* "Gendhing and Ladrang Galagothang" a 20-minute track of gamelon music from The Sultan's Pleasure, Javanese Gamelan And Vocal Music From The Palace Of Yogyakarta. I guess you could say this is Java's version of The Gong Show.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 17, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Jackrabbit by Goshen
Black Shiny Beast by Buick MacKane
Death is the Only Real Thing by The Chesterfield Kings
Interstellar Hard Drive by Man or Astro-Man
Hand on the Hot Wire by Key
Guitar Shop Asshole by The Oblivians
Hippie Hippie Hoorah by The Black Lips
Rebel on the Run by Davy Allan & The Arrows
P-S-Y-C-H-O by Ben Vaughan

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead by Warren Zevon
I, Zombie by White Zombie
Mumbo Jumbo by The A-Bones
Love Train by The Yayhoos
Say You're Sorry by The Remains
For Crying Out Loud by Scratch Acid
Love Bomb by Grinderman
Fuzz Gun 2001 by Mudhoney

Stool Pigeon by The Soul Deacons
Can You Feel It? by The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker
Snake Eyes by David Holmes
Maybe Your Baby by The Dirtbombs
Chicken Heads by Bobby Rush
Dealin' With the Devil by Muddy Waters, Johnny Winters & James Cotton
Can Blue Men Sing the Whites by Bonzo Dog Band
Since I Stole the Blues by Mose Allison

Monsters of the Id by Stan Ridgway
Lady Madonna-Yuuutunaru Spider by Love Psychedelico
Martha Cecilia by Andres Landeros
Future Kings by Gogol Bordello
Anna by Arthur Alexander
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, June 16, 2007

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 15, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Absolutely Sweet Marie by Jason & The Scorchers
Bonnie Blue by John Anderson
Julia by The Flatlanders
Food, Water, Shelter & Love by Gurf Morlix
Action by Son Volt
Road Too Long by Bill Hearne's Roadhouse Revue
Waitin' In Your Welfare Line by Buck Owens
Tater Pie by Carolina Cotton with Tex Williams

Cracker Jack by Janis Martin
Snake Man by Ronnie Dawson
My Screamin' Screamin' Mimi by Ray Campi
You Are My Sunshine by Jerry Lee Lewis
Witchdoctor's Curse by The Frantic Flattops
Hi-Billy Music by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
No Good Robin Hood by Delbert Barker
Big Dwarf Rodeo by The Rev. Horton Heat
Peroxide Blonde by Hank Penny
Bottle Up and Go by Sleepy LaBeef
Let's Have a Party by Wanda Jackson

Unprotected by ThaMuseMeant
Understand Under by Nathan Moore
Don't Go by Hundred Year Flood
Seeds and Candy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Son of a Gun by Goshen
Are You Still My Girl? by Joe West
After the Gunfight by Mike Montiel

The Beautiful Waitress by Terry Allen
Million Dollars Bail by Peter Case
A Ghost i Became by Richmond Fontaine
The Losing Kind by John Doe
My Eyes by Tony Gilkyson
Ballpeen Hammer by Chris Whitley
8:05 by Moby Grape
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots
Radio list

Friday, June 15, 2007

HEY THAT'S MY SIDE OF THE STREET

Joe Monahan points out that a New Republic blogger is suggesting a campaign theme song for Gov. Bill Richardson.

Ahem! I said AHEM!

But Michael Crowley is suggesting a song that neither I not the readers who responded to my original column had thought of.

Bill Richardson advisor Steve Murphy just defended his boss on MSNBC. Asked by Tucker Carlson about the opening anecdote in Ryan Lizza's new TNR piece, in which Richardson bizarrely tickles the head of a woman he's never met at a baseball game, Murphy declared: "Everybody touches everybody!"

Here's the campaign theme Crowley suggested:

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: PLAY THOSE DEAD MEN'S SONGS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 15, 2007


Writer Carl Hiaasen sums it up best in the liner notes: “One of the most heinous crimes in rock ’n’ roll was the suppression, intentional or otherwise, of Warren Zevon’s mind-blowing Stand in the Fire.”

I’m not sure if it ranks up there with the murder of John Lennon and the fatal stabbing at Altamont, but the weird failure to release Zevon’s definitive live album on CD for all these years — who knows, and who cares why — indeed is a dirty, rotten shame.

But now, nearly four years after Zevon’s death, that wrong has been righted. Now, at a time when some music-biz pundits are actually contemplating the death of the CD format, Stand in the Fire is finally on CD. At his favorite barstool in Rock ’n’ Roll Hell, Zevon chuckles.

I can’t say it was “worth the wait,” but, dang, it’s great to hear this album in its entirety again (plus some bonus tracks). Every song is a jewel, and most of them just make me wish I had louder speakers.

One of the stranger ironies of Zevon’s twisted career is that while he sang wicked and brutal songs of murder, mercenaries, extremism, and vice, he sprang out of the ’70s Los Angeles wimp-rock scene. His truest champion was Mr. Sensitive, himself, Jackson Browne. And I’m sure more people are familiar with Linda Ronstadt’s renditions of “Mohammed’s Radio” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” than with Zevon’s. (That’s unfortunate, but as Zevon says in his introduction to “Hasten Down the Wind,” “This is the song that came along and intervened between me and starvation, thanks to Miss Ronstadt.”)

Zevon’s 1970s music established him as a respectable maniac as far as lyrics went. But his production, featuring elite Southern California studio cats, was restrained and subdued, not that much different from records by Browne, Ronstadt, The Eagles, etc.

But Stand in the Fire, released in 1981, mostly featured — instead of his regular sidemen — members of Boulder, a little-known Colorado bar band that reportedly specialized in Zevon covers. The result was ferocious. The Stand in the Fire versions are the way that songs like “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” should be heard. “Get up and dance or I’ll kill ya!” he shouts at his road manager in the frenzied final minute of the latter song. He sounded like he meant business. It could be the motto of the entire album.

Even “Mohammed’s Radio,” the only “slow” song on the original version of the album, crackles with a crazy, clunky energy it never had before. There’s even some offbeat political commentary on events of the day: “Ayatollah’s got his problems too/And even Jimmy Carter’s got them highway blues.” Most of the tunes here probably could be considered Zevon’s “greatest hits,” but there also are some Zevon tunes that aren’t on any other albums, such as the title song and “The Sin,” one of the most rocked-out assaults he ever recorded.

On the original LP, the closing number was a crunching cover of “Bo Diddley’s a Gunslinger.” That seemed like a fitting summation — Zevon neatly identifying himself with a founding father of rock with a song some might consider politically incorrect. But the CD has four bonus tracks following “Gunslinger.”

That messes with the symmetry a bit; perhaps some of them should have been interspersed among the original selections. But I’m glad to have these tunes on the album. The best bonus song is the underappreciated “Play It All Night Long,” a snarling insult to Southern living. “‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ play that dead band’s song,” goes the backhanded tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd that serves as the refrain.

Stand in the Fire’s new closer is “Hasten Down the Wind.” The band is gone, and it’s just Zevon at the piano. His voice is haggard, sometimes breathless, and you can almost smell the sweat. Grudgingly, I have to admit it’s a more satisfying conclusion than “Bo Diddley’s a Gunslinger.”

As the audience cheers, Zevon bids his fans goodnight. “Thank you very much,” he says. “Keep on rocking. And take my lung. And vaya con Dios.” A proper farewell and words to live by.

Also recommended:
*The Future Is Unwritten
by Joe Strummer. Strummer’s another rocker who left too early. But, unlike Zevon, there’s been no major lapse in reissuing and recycling just about everything that he recorded with The Clash.

This album is a soundtrack for an upcoming documentary about Strummer, who died in 2002. It’s a strange little collection. Many of the songs here are songs by other artists — Nina Simone, MC5, Tim Hardin, Eddie Cochran — with introductions by Strummer on his BBC radio show. (My favorites are Elvis Presley’s “Crawfish,” a bluesy tune from the King Creole soundtrack, and the accordion-driven “Martha Cecilia” by Colombian singer Andres Landeros.)

Some previously unreleased versions of Clash tunes are here. But special treats are songs by other Strummer bands. “Keys to Your Heart” is a peppy little number by the pre-Clash group The 101ers. But even better is “Trash City” by Latino Rockabilly War, a late ’80s Strummer band whose music featured great percussion.

His latter-day band The Mescaleros is featured on a couple of songs, the vaguely African sounding “Johnny Appleseed,” and “Willesden to Cricklewood.” The latter song could infuriate hard-core Clash fans. It sounds like a slow, dreamy lullaby. You can’t get much further from “White Riot.” I would have preferred to end the album with more Latino Rockabilly War.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: MORE SONGS FOR BILL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 14, 2007


My column about choosing an official theme song for the Richardson campaign got a big response from readers.

I wrote that because Hillary Clinton is sponsoring a theme-song contest on her campaign Web site. So far Richardson hasn’t followed suit.

I’m still partial to Jean Knight’s early ’70s soul hit “Mr. Big Stuff.” But many of you had other suggestions.

Emmett O’Connell of the America for Richardson blog suggested the Los Lobos classic “Will the Wolf Survive.” But of course he would. That was the original name of O’Connell’s Richardson blog long before the governor said he’d run. A reader named Mark also nominated that song. “With Richardson playing up his Hispanic background and his ‘lone wolf’ stance, and the odds of him surviving the first few primaries looking slim, this tune is a great choice for him.”

A Richardson fan named Sherry jokingly offered The Fifth Dimension’s song “Wedding Bell Blues,” which repeats the line “Won’t you marry me, Bill?” — but withdrew the nomination noting Richardson already is married. Instead, she suggested the song “From a Distance,” recorded by Bette Midler, Nanci Griffith and others. I assume she chose this song not because the title refers to how Richardson is governing New Mexico during this period of heavy traveling, but because of the idealistic lyrics: “From a distance we all have enough/And no one is in need/There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases/No hungry mouths to feed.”

Karen from Santa Fe suggested the song “Bill” from the musical Showboat, which she said would compliment his “I’m not a rock star” statements. I used to dream that I would discover/The perfect lover someday./I knew I’d recognize him if ever/He came ’round my way./I always used to fancy then/He’d be one of the god-like kind of men,/With a giant brain and a noble head,/Like the heroes bold/In the books I’ve read./But along came Bill, who’s not the type at all. … He’s just my Bill, an ordinary guy.”

Paige recommended “I’m an Old Cowhand” (from the Rio Grande), with slightly adjusted lyrics: “I rode in from the Enchantment State/And I sure do know how to legislate/Yippee yi o ki yay.”
An Ohio reader named Margot nominated the Cream song “Politician,” with the lines, “Come on baby, get into my big black car/And I’ll show you what my politics are.” Walt suggested “One for My Baby and One More For the Road,” though this might conflict with Richardson’s anti-drunken-driving stance.


Miriam nominated “Love & Hope” by Ozomatli, a Latino band from Los Angeles (that is appearing in Santa Fe in August). Sample lyrics: “The hope deep in his eyes are dreams he must let fly!”

Sean suggested several songs including Van Morrison’s “Back on Top” and “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” by Billy Joel. But that song is so full of historical inaccuracies (“Well, he started with a bank in Colorado. … Well, he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma …”) Richardson would have to appoint another task force to look into it, and Jay Miller would have to write another book debunking it.


Susan from Taos said she likes “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson), saying she “can readily envision Gov. Richardson entering a room-full of people, NOT tap-dancing (as I would), but smiling, with his endearing dimples and easy mien.”

Justin submitted a country song by Alabama called “I’m in a Hurry (and I Don’t Know Why)” because of the repeated line, “I’m in a hurry to get things done,” which he said, “conveys the gov’s biggest assets, his experience of getting things done.” However Richardson probably would want to delete the verse that begins, “Don’t know why I have to drive so fast/My car has nothing to prove.”

Speaking of which, another reader named Sean wickedly suggested Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55.” Apparently not a Richardson supporter, he also suggested others such as Bob Wills’ “Roly Poly” and the folk tune “Bully of the Town.”

Even harsher was Jay, who suggested "I'm an Asshole" by comedian Denis Leary, which has references to fast driving and Cuban cigars.

Selling Cabinet posts: She’s not governor yet, at least not officially, but Diane Denish is selling — that’s correct, selling — memberships in her Cabinet.

A recent mailer for the lieutenant governor says you can become a “founding member” of her Cabinet for just $1,000 a year.

But no, a thousand bucks doesn’t guarantee you a high government position, said Steve Fitzer of the 2010 Denish campaign. “It’s just a cutesy name we came up,” he said. “There’s the Richardson Roundtable and the Bingaman Circle.”

Membership in the Denish Cabinet get first notice of “key Denish events.” Members pay only base-cost for Denish fundraisers, so a $500 dinner might only be $50. There will be two members-only meetings a year.

The first Denish Cabinet event is a barbecue in Albuquerque tonight. There’s no charge for those under 18. I guess that makes them members of the Children’s Cabinet.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

ALEX MAGOCSI & DEEP ELLUM

I just got an e-mail from a Dallas documentary maker named Phil Lee, who recently learned of Alex's death.

Alex appeared in a short doc Phil did in 1991 about Dallas' Deep Ellum district. It's on YouTube and is just over 8 minutes long.

Phil was hoping to find Alex for another documentary he's working on when he came upon my obit.

"I will never be able to watch that Deep Ellum project again the same way, knowing that Alex is gone," Phil wrote. "He was an intelligent, caring soul, and he will be greatly missed."

All of Alex's friends have to watch this.

Monday, June 11, 2007

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 10, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Poor Poor Pitiful Me by Warren Zevon
Marie Doucer by Marie LaForet
Fall of the Kingfish by Gas Hufffer
The Interview by Deadbolt
Mercy Mercy by The Remains
Sea of Blasphemy by The Black Lips
Murder in My Heart for the Judge by Moby Grape
Evil Eye by Pussy Galore
Paper by The Kilimanjaro Yak Attack
The End of Christianity by The Stooges

We Repell Each Other by The Reigning Sound
Devil Dance by the A-Bones
Running Through My Nightmares by The Chesterfield Kings
Searching by The Monsters
Depth Charge Ethel by Grinderman
Viva del Santo by Southern Culture on the Skids
Don't Tease Me by ? & The Mysterians
The Rock Around by Esquerita

All the Nation's Airports by The Archers of Loaf
Love Jet by The Harry Perry Band
Funny Funny a Go-go by The Brothers Hawk
I'm 16 by Dengue Fever
Whiskey 'n' Women by The Clone Defects
Niki Hoeky by Bobby Rush
Are You Angry by Thee Midnighters
Coach and Horses by The Fall
The Ball Game by Sister Wynona Carr

Hate to Say Goodnight by Goshen
The Barren Fields by Hundred Year Flood
It's Me by Dinosaur Jr.
Come on in This House by John Hammond
Outlaw Blues by Bob Dylan
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, June 09, 2007

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 8, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Crazed Country Rebel by Hank Williams III
Progressive Country Music For a Hollywood Flapper by Hank Penny
High and Wild by Ray Condo & His Ricochets
Snatch It and Grab It by Deke Dickerson
Have Love Will Travel by The Sharps with Duane Eddy
Drinkin' Wine Spo-De-O-Dee by Malcom Yelvington
Miss Froggy by Warren Smith
Nervous Breakdown by Eddie Cochran
Buddy I Ain't Buyin' by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Old Man From the Mountain by The Gourds

Jesus Loves a Jezebel by Goshen
Rich Man's War by Hundred Year Flood
Trotsky's Blues by Joe West
Standin' So Still by Boris McCutcheon
Room 100 by Ronny Elliott
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain by Carla Bozulich


Intro/The Border/Moving Back Home # 2/ $87 and a Guilty Conscience That Gets Worse the Longer I Go by Richmond Fontaine
Slow Hearse by Son Volt
Madalyn's Bones by Gurf Morlix
Four Strong Winds by Neil Young with Nicolette Larson
You Don't Care by Mike Monteil
Wine Me Up by Bill Hearne's Roadhouse Revue
Brown Liquor by John Anderson
The Ghost and Honest Joe by Pee Wee King

Opportunity to Cry by Willie Nelson
The River Bed by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Sorry Willie by Roger Miller
Jason Fleming by The Sadies with Neko Case
Ain't No God in Mexico by Waylon Jennings
Round the Bend by John Egenes
In Good Old Days When Times Were Bad by Dolly Parton
The River Hymn by The Band
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Friday, June 08, 2007

COFFEE WITH CHARLIE, PUNCH IN THE SENATE

Tampa rocker Ronny Elliott writes about an encounter with the great Charlie Louvin on a cool little Web site called The Brink.

Last time I saw Ronny we were in the Austin airport. He was standing in line for ice cream and he'd just seen Karl Rove. But that's another story.

Speaking of political encounters, I wish the New Mexico Legislature was as fun as the Alabama state Senate yesterday.

Check out this story and make sure to watch the video. It might make us New Mexicans long for a rematch between Rod Adair and Raymond Sanchez.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: SONGS FOR DESERT ROADS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 8, 2007


In some respects, Thirteen Cities, the new album by the Portland, Ore.-based band Richmond Fontaine, sounds like a soundtrack record. Not for a movie; maybe for a book. Fontaine singer Willy Vlautin is a novelist whose book, The Motel Life, was recently published by Harper Perennial.

The title of the book is referenced in the song “Westward Ho”: “The Rancho and Sutro, the Time Zone and don’t forget/The Everybody’s Inn or the Monte Carlo/Motel life ain’t much of a life, and a motel ain’t much of a home/But I found out years ago that a house ain’t either.”

I haven’t read the book, but if it’s anything like Thirteen Cities, it has to be a cross between Steinbeck, Bukowski, and — I dunno — Gram Parsons?

This album is a literary work in itself. It’s a song cycle (alt-country opera?) about that motel life — character sketches and short stories, mostly in first person, of drifters adrift in the American West. Vlautin strips away all romantic notions of the West, portraying a dusty, windblown world of truck drivers, aimless hitchhikers, fugitives, illegal immigrants, tough bars, and mixed-up kids.

Musically the band sounds something like Wilco (Vlautin’s voice calls to mind Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy) colored by Calexico. There are reasons for that. Calexico’s Joey Burns plays bass and accordion on some songs, and that band’s Jacob Valenzuela lends his trumpet on some numbers. The album was recorded in Tucson, Ariz., so it’s only natural that local alt-rock godfather and Giant Sand-man Howe Gelb guests on piano on one song. There’s lots of moody steel guitar, giving a ghostly edge to sad melodies.

After a short instrumental prelude, Thirteen Cities’ first full-fledged song, “Moving Back Home #2,” with its quick rhythm and blaring trumpets, is more upbeat than most of the others, but the lyrics set the emotional mood. The narrator has been living in his mother’s basement, constantly bickering with her, and losing money at off-track betting. He is sitting on top of a parking garage and contemplating suicide. You know he won’t be in Mom’s house much longer, but there’s no real hope that a change of scenery will improve his outlook.

The characters in these songs don’t burn, burn, burn like Kerouac’s mad highway angels. They’re sad refugees from oppressors who are never quite identified, seeking some better place that’s most likely a desert mirage.

"I started having dreams of the desert so real they haunted me/Always sunny and never gray no noise just wind and sage,” Vlautin sings in one song. “I began taking vacation days and driving out as far as I could/The people around me said I drew away that a ghost I became.”

One song, “$87 and a Guilty Conscience That Gets Worse the Longer I Go,” takes place partly in New Mexico. It starts out at a boxing match in Albuquerque. “The referee wouldn’t stop the bout/The kid’s blood hit the fifth row ... that was the night I gave up the fights.” The narrator and his traveling companion encounter an overturned semitrailer on Interstate 25 near Las Cruces. “We pushed in the windshield and pulled the guy out/ We left him on the side of the road/My friend said we had to leave before the cops showed/What he’d done I didn’t know.”

By the next verse the travelers are in Arizona, where they pick up a teenage hitchhiker. "Saddest eyes and rotten teeth/Said she was only 16.” The narrator’s friend stops at a motel and gets a room for himself and the girl — an act that outrages the narrator and effectively ends the friendship. You don’t know whether it’s moral outrage or jealousy. All you know is that he feels guilty when he calls the police.

Vlautin looks at the ugly current that rages inside the national immigration debate on a song called “The Disappearance of Ray Norton.” It’s spoken-word song over a wistful backdrop of guitar, bass, and clarinet; in it the narrator tells of a friend who hated Mexicans. “He started going on and on about it, how they’re all moving in, buying and renting all the houses around us, how they’re ruining the property values, how they’re ruining everything. He’d get real upset about it, start saying crazy things.” Ray, the friend, moves in with “a group of guys ... they all had shaved heads and tattoos.” That arrangement ends badly and eventually Ray disappears, shunned by his father, his employer, and his ex-girlfriend. But you get the feeling that the next time anyone hears of Ray Norton, it’s going to be tragic and ugly.

Immigration is the subject of another song, “I Fell Into Painting Houses in Phoenix, Arizona.” The narrator quits his job when he realizes an undocumented co-worker was stiffed by his employers for five days of work. The song ends with reflections on headlines dealing with “a family left in the trunk of a car, or a family abandoned in the desert alone.”

There’s a ray of hope in the upbeat “Four Walls.” The narrator is in love and wants nothing to do with anything from the outside world: “We’ll just lay around and our hearts will sing like mariachis.”

But that mood quickly dissolves in the last song, “Lost in This World,” in which Vlautin moans over Burns’ stark piano, “I barely know where I am/I’m sorry I ain’t called you in days/Maybe I’ll never get over Wes and the hospital/And now I don’t even have bus fare home.”

But you know he’s out there on some highway in Utah or Wyoming, nursing a beer and a broken heart, sweeping the floor in some back-road joint, playing the horses, and wondering if he’ll ever get back home — living the motel life and wondering how long it’s going to last.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: THOUGHTS ON SUNDAY'S DEBATE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 7, 2007


Gov. Bill Richardson’s debate performance in Manchester, N.H., on Sunday was a vast improvement over his initial debate showing in South Carolina in April.

He was more relaxed and less inclined to grimace or scowl. And despite the New Hampshire humidity — which I’ll personally testify is an inspiration to perspiration — he didn’t appear to be sweating nearly as much as he did in that first debate.
RICHARDSON
Still it would be a mistake to call Sunday’s debate a big breakthrough for Richardson.

While he might be eligible for the “most improved” award, he still got some bad reviews. Even worse, he barely got mentioned in many national stories.

That might be less the fault of Richardson than CNN, which organized and televised the event. Many commentators pointed out the format seemed to favor the front-runners — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

One problem managing these debates is the sheer number of candidates. I started having ugly flashbacks of those unwieldy candidate forums years ago when Santa Fe had a dozen candidates for mayor.

Richardson wasn’t asked a question until 18 minutes into the debate. I could feel his pain when the question about making English the nation’s official language came up. Here was a chance to brag that he is governor of a state that has always had two official languages. But he didn’t get a chance to respond.

When Richardson was called on, however, his answers almost always reverted to his standard campaign rhetoric and meandered off subject.

When someone asks him a question on an issue, he starts shotgunning all his soundbites on that general topic. Thus, when asked Sunday about providing health insurance for all without raising taxes, he started talking about child immunization and getting junk food out of the schools.

He had a couple of good moments. His idea to threaten a 2008 Summer Olympics boycott to pressure China into helping stop the violence in Sudan might not turn out any better than Jimmy Carter’s 1980 Olympic boycott. But it’s an idea that might have made national headlines had Clinton or Obama suggested it.

Richardson also gave a good, concise answer on veterans’ health care. His idea of a “hero health card,” which would allow veterans to get care at any hospital, deserves more discussion.

But, several times in the debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer had to cut off Richardson or try to steer him back on course. That happened to other candidates as well, but Richardson wasted much of his precious television time this way.

Must be doing something right: Polls show Richardson gaining, though still a second-tier candidate. A WBZ/Franklin Pierce College poll taken the day after the debate shows the only two candidates gaining significant strength in New Hampshire are Clinton and Richardson.

Clinton has picked up 6 points since March, putting her at 38 percent. Richardson gained 5 points, putting him at 8 percent. He’s tied with Al Gore — who hasn’t declared he’s running — but still lagging behind Obama and Edwards. Joe Biden has moved up slightly since March, to 4 percent from 1 percent.

This poll showed 60 percent of the people who had watched the debate and read, saw or heard media reports thought Clinton won the debate. One percent said Richardson.

The numbers are based on telephone interviews Monday with 424 likely Democratic presidential primary voters. The margin of error is 4.8 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the latest Rasmussen poll, released Wednesday, showed Richardson gaining on Republican candidates. The poll, taken two days after Richardson’s May 27 Meet the Press appearance, showed him trailing Rudy Giuliani by only 4 points, 43 percent to 39 percent.

Meanwhile, John McCain was ahead of Richardson by 5 points, 43 percent to 38 percent.
This national telephone survey of 800 likely voters has a 4-point margin of error.

“Richardson has improved significantly against both candidates over the past several months,” according to the Rasmussen Report Web site. “In April, Giuliani was leading Richardson by 17 percentage points, 51 percent to 34 percent. In late February, Richardson trailed McCain by nine points, 36 percent to 45 percent.

“Richardson’s competitive showing is as much a function of soft support for the leading GOP candidates as his own viability as a runner-up Democratic candidate. At least 18 percent in each match-up are undecided or prefer a third party option.”

The bad news for the governor from Rasmussen is that Richardson’s disapproval number is bigger than his approval number — 42 percent to 31 percent.

Worst-case scenarios: One of the cheesiest aspects of the presidential debates this season are those questions that seem ripped out of Tom Clancy novels or episodes of the TV series 24.

On Sunday, a question initially posed to Dennis Kucinich was “if you were president of the United States and the intelligence community said to you, ‘We know where Osama bin Laden is. He’s in Pakistan. We’ve got the specific target. But he’s only going to be there for 20 minutes. You’ve got to give the order yes or no to take him out with a Hellfire missile, but it’s going to kill some innocent civilians at the same time: What would be your decision?”

Such questions are irritating and probably make a sad comment about the mentality of today’s electorate. But I bet they’re fun to write.

Here’s my suggestion for the next debate: “What if a giant meteor were heading toward Earth and the only one who could stop it was God, and the only way He’d do it was if the U.S. agreed to allow children to pray in public schools. Would you do that? Raise your hands if you’d allow it.”

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Laurell filled in for me on the Santa Fe Opry Friday when I was in New Hampshire. Here's her play list.

I don't know whether Dan did a play list for Sound World Sunday. I heard a little bit of his show via the Internet just in time to hear my favorite Archers of Load song, "All the Nation's Airports." If he does have a play list, I'll post it when I get it.

Thanks, Laurell and Dan. Good job, both of yas.

Friday, June 1, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Laurell Reynolds


Ed's Place - Horace Heiler
Jubilee - Patti Smith
Mississippi Queen (Live)- Mountain
97 Men In This Here Town- Buffy Sainte-Marie
Back In the Saddle Again- Gene Autry
8 Weeks In A Barroom - Ramblin Red Bailey
Drinking All My Troubles Away- Paul Howard & His Cotton Pickers
Enchanted Forest - Mohawk & The Rednecks
Women Do Know How To Carry On- Waylon Jennings
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - B.J. Thomas
Nat'l Weed Grower's Assoc. -Michael Hurley

Blue Moon - Cowboy Junkies
Blue Moon of Kentucky - Elvis Presely
Blue Moon Nights - John Fogerty
Cattle Call-Eddy Arnold
Too Many Pills- Arkey Blue
Beer Bottle Mama- Andy Reynolds & His 101 Ranch Boys
Don't Touch Me - Jeannie Seely
I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again - The Maddox Brothers & Rose

Country Pie- Bob Dylan
Santa Fe- Bob Dylan
Same Old Man- The Holy Modal Rounders
Down And Out - Chuck Wells
Dolores- Eddie Noack
Spanish Pipedream- John Prine
Black Cadillac -Rosanne Cash
Still Doin' Time- George Jones
Beautiful- Gordon Lightfoot
Gentle On My Mind- John Hartford
Magdalene Laundries- Emmylou Harris

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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