THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 12, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
This show is dedicated to Dave Klug. Hang in, Dave!

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
All American Girl by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
I'm Just a Honky by The Ex-Husbands
TTT Gas by The Gourds
Then I'll Be Moving On by Mother Earth
Agony Wagon by The Legendary Shack Shakers
O Babe, It Ain't No Lie by Bingo
Billy's First Ex Wife by Ronny Elliott
Darktown Strutters Ball by (unknown home recording)

La La Land by Goshen
Love and Lust by Hundred Year Flood
The Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
Must You Throw Dirt in My Face by Elvis Costello
Just Like Geronimo by Marlee MacLeod
Never Gonna Change by Drive By Truckers
Hand to Mouth by The Flying Burritto Brothers
Cans, Copper & Car Batteries by Joe West

The Old Gospel Ship by Iris Dement
Gospel Train by The Wright Brothers
Christian Automobile by The Dixie Hummingbirds
The Tigers Have Spoken by Neko Case
I've Got a Tiger By The Tail by Buck Owens
Tiger in Your Tank by Muddy Waters
Tiger Man by Elvis Presley
The Preacher and the Bear by Sid Hausman & Washboard Jerry
Bears in Them Woods by Nancy Apple

Got the Bull by The Horns by Johnny Horton
Blessed With Happiness by Geraint Watkins
We're Gonna Live in the Trees by Robyn Hitchcock
Is That You by Buddy Miller
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
It's a Big Old Goofy World by John Prine
Together Again by Ray Charles
My Reasons Why by Blaze Foley
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: OUT OF THEIR GOURDS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 12, 2004

On their sixth or seventh album Blood of the Ram, The Gourds stretch out. You hear a wider array of influences -- ‘60s garage-band, ’70s soul, a touch of Irish folk.

This is hardly the first time this Austin band has painted with colors beyond their basic American roots pallet. After all, they first became notorious a few years when they did a version of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” in their trademark Cajun-touched, south-Texas country sound with that unique hopped-up but clunky style.

So it makes weird sense when you hear echoes of Al Green on “Escalade,” or when you think of Pigpen-era Grateful Dead when you hear the organ on “Triple T Gas” or you wonder whether you’ve stumbled upon a long-lost aborted Rolling Stones collaboration with some unknown hillbilly singer on the hilariously crude “Turd in My Pocket.”

Indeed there are wicked references to The Gourds’ musical forbearers here.

“Spanky,” apparently inspired by shoplifting tykes in the fishing section of a discount store, is a countrified version of The Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat”; “Illegal Oyster” contains a Bizzaro World nod to Gershwin’s “Summertime,” in the lines “Well, your daddy’s broke/And your mother’s homely”; and the title song, sung in a pseudo Waylon Jennings register, can trace its roots to Sam the Sam & The Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully.” (“He had great longhorns, harder than a pony keg/2 comin’ out of his head, one between his legs.”)

But the main reason Blood of Ram is such a kick is because it sounds like The Gourds.

You’re not always sure just what Kev Russell or Jimmy Smith, the main Gourd vocalists are singing about. Their lyrics are a jumble of picaresque tales, mystery oracles and half-formed dirty jokes.

“Wafer of bread, my last poker chip/Curse to you Chairman Mao crackin’ the whip,” Smith sings on “Triple T Gas.”

“31 days my fingers feel like rain/This jail was built on cracklins and cocaine,” is how Russell starts his surreal I-Fought-the-Law fantasy called “Cracklins.”

But with the irresistible musical backdrops, colored by Claude Bernard on accordion and Max Johnston (formerly of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco) on fiddle and banjo, it all makes sense.

Blood of Ram is full of what are bound to become Gourd standards. They’ve been together 10 years now and they just keep getting better.

Also Recommended:
*Dial W For Watkins by Geraint Watkins.Here’s another rootsy musical eccentric conjuring simple but irresistible aural magic.

Watkins, a 50ish picker from Wales, is mainly known as a sideman. He’s done studio work with Van Morrison, Paul McCartney and Tom Jones (!) and has toured with Nick Lowe (who plays bass and sings background on some cuts) Surprisingly this is his first American solo disc.

There are some tunes that are bound to twist your head off.

The album starts out with a slow, churchy minute-long tune called “Two Rocks,” which features Watkins crooning over soft organ chords. Then suddenly it turns into a Delta stomp called “Turn That Chicken Down” featuring a saxophone and harmonica over a National guitar. Watkins sings like he’s channeling T-Model Ford with a repeated refrain, “turn that chicken down, turn it down …” There’s a techno bridge. It ends with some trombone blurts.

The first tune that really sold me on this album was Watkins’ cover of the Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks classic “Heroes and Villains.” It’s done jump blues style, complete with scat singing, as if Louis Prima took a stab at Smile.

While “Chicken” and “Heroes,” as well as the cowboy swing of “Go West” are impressive novelties, it’s actually Watkins’ original soul ballads that give this album its staying power.

He’s got a lot in common with Lowe in his ability to nail smoky love songs like “I Will” and bitter heartache tunes “Bring Me the Head of My So-Called Lover.”

Watkins might also remind listeners of white soul songster Dan Penn on songs like the sad, soulful “Only a Rose” in which Watkins sings over a tremolo guitar, and “The Whole Night Through,” an upbeat, pretty, country-flavored declaration of devotion.

This is timeless music. Watkins might be a late bloomer at the age of 53, especially in a business still dominated by youth-culture. But I’m just glad he bloomed at all.

*Oval Room by Blaze Foley. Lucinda Williams eulogized him in her song “Drunken Angel” as Townes Van Zandt did in “Blaze’s Blues.” Merle Haggard immortalized him in his heart-wrenching cover of “If I Could Only Fly.”

But surprisingly, Austin singer-songwriter/character Blaze Foley -- who was shot and killed in a drunken argument in 1989 -- is next to impossible to find on CD. Live at the Austin Outhouse is out there somewhere. And now there’s this album, consisting mainly of Outhouse outtakes, produced by Gurf Morlix and John Casner.

There are several political tunes here, including the title song, which, written in 1988, proves that despite what you saw on t.v. this summer, not everyone loved Ronald Reagan.

Then there’s WW III, which is disturbingly timeless with lyrics like “I’ve been thinking, Uncle Sam, it’s time we went to war … If you don't hurry, sure enough/all these kids'll be grown up/be too old to die for you, so get 'em if you're going to."

Then there’s “Springtime in Uganda,” a diatribe against dictator Idi Amin that shows a shocking cultural insensitivity toward fundamentalist Islam and cannibalism.

But Blaze is at his best with his heartbreak songs. “My Reasons Why,” “Cold, Cold World” and -- especially -- “Someday” (with back-up here by the Texana Dames) are just waiting to be covered by George Jones or Haggard, who allegedly has made noises about doing an album of Foley songs.

Hear music from these CDs on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. to midnight Friday on KSFR, 90.7 FM and streaming on the web at www.ksfr.org.

STEALING THE ELECTION

I'm on vacation this week, so no political column. (I wrote this week's Terrell's Tune-up early, so look for that tomorrow.)

However for political junkies like me, there's never a real vacation from politics.

Since the election, probably 14 friends have e-mailed me links to Greg Palast's article that John Kerry actually won the election in Ohio and (gulp!) New Mexico, due to ballot spoilage and Republican dirty tricks.

The one part of Palast's article that struck me was his analysis of New Mexico's Chaves County, with his quaint image of "brown people" who "drive across the desert" to vote." Palast finds it surprising that Kerry lost to Bush by a big margin in Chaves County despite a large Hispanic population. Gee, does that mean that conservative Chaves County Republicans like state Sen. Rod Adair and Rep. Dan Foley have won by voter fraud too? Rise up Roswell liberals, wherever you are!

(And Palast apparently doesn't know -- or believe -- that Bush got about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in this state. Some of those "brown people" apparently drove across the desert to vote Republican.)

I've talked to so many Santa Fe folk who refuse to believe that a majority -- albiet a very slight majority -- of people in this state and the country would actually favor George W. Bush. As one friend, who believes the election was stolen by GOP voting machines, told me, "I just can't believe that so many people are so stupid."

Here's my personal nutball election conspiracy theory: All the lefty whining about the "stolen" election is being fed and orchestrated by none other than Karl Rove. It's his evil plan to forment mistrust and distrust of the election process itself, so in the future they'll just stay at home.

But seriously, for a good sober look at some of the election conspiracy theories, check out this story at Salon.com . (If you're not a subscriber, you'll have to get a "day pass" which involves looking at an advertisement. It won't kill you.)

Of course there are those who will only argue that the liberal Salon.com is now part of the right-wing election-stealing conspiracy. (Excuse me, I have to catch a plane to spray some chemtrails on innocent citizens.)

I'm not saying that the country doesn't need to take a good look and serious study of the very real problems in the election -- the long lines, the whole provisional ballot mess. There are many improvements that must be made.

But waddling in conspiracy theories is a self-defeating waste of time.

(There's a comment button on this blog. Flame on.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 7, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Mozambique by Bob Dylan with Emmylou Harris
Dummy by NRBQ
Hotel Senator by Minus 5
Remember A Day by Pink Floyd
Hate Is The New Love by The Mekons
Now We Have The Bomb by Sally Timms
Wasted Union Blues by It's A Beautiful Day
Working Class Hero by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band

Don't Go Into That Barn by Tom Waits
Hard Time Killin' Floor by The Twilight Singers
Hellbound 17 1/2 by Primus
One Sunny Day by Fleetwood Mac
Who Makes The Nazis by The Fall
Oklahoma by Bone Pilgrim
Chimes Of Freedom by The Byrds

NICK CAVE SET
All Songs by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
(See review of Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus a couple of posts below)
The Lyre of Orpheus
Do You Love Me?
Pappa Won't Leave You Henry
The Weeping Song
Hiding All the Way

Babe, I'm on Fire
The Curse of Milhaven
O Children
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 5, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Bad Times (Are Comin' Round Again) by The Waco Brothers
Oval Room by Blaze Foley
Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms by Flatt & Scruggs
There's a Higher Power by Buddy Miller
Cracklins by The Gourds
Burn, Burn, Burn by Ronny Elliott
Living in the U.S.A by Acie Cargill

Mother Earth by Mother Earth
Let's Make Believe We're Sweethearts by The Light Crust Doughboys
Sister Kate by The Ditty Bops
I Love Onions by Susan Christie
Don't Fence Me In by Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry
The Tigers Have Spoken by Neko Case
Reprimand by Joe West
Tonya's Twirls by Loudon Wainwright III

Sugar Sugar (In My Life) by John Fogerty
When You Sleep by Tres Chicas
Tell Me True by Grey DeLisle
I've Got $5 and It's Saturday Night by George Jones & Gene Pitney
Jones on the Jukebox by Johnny Bush with Tommy Alverson
I Love You by C.C. Adcock
Don't You Want Me by Moonshine Willie
Goddamn Lonely Love by Drive By Truckers
Moon River by The Bubbadinos

F the CC by Steve Earle
Dark Hollow by Bill Monroe
Follow You Home by Kasey Chambers
Charmers by Richard Buckner
A Kiss on the Lips by Julie Miller
Be My Love by Geraint Watkins
Wings of a Dove by Lucinda Williams & Nanci Griffiths
Feel Like Going Home by Charlie Rich
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. NICK

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 5, 2004

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' new double-disc set Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus is an exhilarating double blast of joy, rage, dour Aussie blues, back-alley philosophy, dark-end-of-the-street religious revelation, death-row humor, profound profanity - and even a touch of sweet sentimentality.

In other words, it's everything that those of us who love Nick Cave love about Nick Cave.

This set is the strongest music Cave has released in nearly a decade. Between 1992 and 1996, Cave released, right in a row, the three greatest albums of his career, Henry's Dream, Let Love In and Murder Ballads. (There was an excellent concert album, Live Seeds, in there too.)

Since that time, his albums have all been worthy. But, beginning with The Boatman's Call, Cave's efforts were lower key, gentler, though no less dark meditations, lacking the fire and ferocity of those earlier works.

We should have known though that something amazing was afoot after Cave's last album, 2003's Nocturama, an otherwise sedate work that was carried by the concluding track, a crazy, obsessive, hard-punching 15-minute odyssey of lust and depravation called "Babe, I'm On Fire."
This new effort proves he was right.

Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus are separate albums, even though they're sold together. (Don't whine. The set costs about as much as a single CD.)

In general, Abattoir is louder and more raucous, while Lyre, at least in form, is softer and mellower -- though that rule was made to be broken by the frantic Lyre tune "Supernaturally."

I probably ought to insert here the boilerplate rockcrit admonition against double albums -- how with some judicious editing, two good albums could have been boiled down to one great one. Well, maybe that's true here, but the fact is, each track is worth listening. I'm happy that every song is on here.

Of the two albums, I prefer Abattoir, mainly because it recalls Cave's harder rocking days.

It kicks off with "Get Ready For Love", a hard-charging gospel tune. "Get Ready for love!" Cave bellows as the London Community Gospel Choir answers, "Praise Him!" Organist James Johnston (a new Seed) makes his instrument scream with ecstasy, while Mick Harvey's guitar plays hopped-up Yardbirds riffs. Meanwhile Cave shouts about God's face burning in your retinas.

The full promise of Cave's newfound rock 'n' roll fervor, however isn't realized until the tough, crunching "Hiding All Away." It's the story of a man hiding from his lover - we're never told exactly why - with each verse a tale of abuse and frustration for the hapless searcher, the victim of a series of dirty jokes. But in the last verse, the song shifts as Cave sings "And we all know a war is coming/ Coming from above/" The Bad Seeds turn it up to 11 as Cave and the choir repeat "There is a war coming! There is a war coming!"

One of the most touching songs here is "Let the Bells Ring," Cave's tribute to the late Johnny Cash, (who recorded Cave's electric chair horror "The Mercy Seat.")

Unlike some Cash tributes, The Bad Seeds don't try to imitate JC's trademark chunka-chunka sound. Instead it's a stately eulogy that Bono would have given his left testicle to have written.

"Your passing is not what we mourn/But the world you left behind," Cave sings. "Those of us not fit to tie the laces on your shoes / Must remain behind to testify through an elementary blues."

The Lyre of Orpheus, while quieter than the other album, has some destined-to-be-classic Cave songs. The title song featuring a sinister mandolin by Warren Ellis, sounds like Cannon's Jug Stompers fronted by a grim Australian singing obscene versions fo Greek myths.

But Cave shows his tender side in "Breathless," a light - especially for Nick Cave! - tune, which with its flute and acoustic guitar recalls The Incredible String Band.

My favorite tune on Lyre has to be "Babe You Turn Me On." With acoustic musical background that sounds like a long, lost outtake from Astral Weeks (except something here -- is that Conway Savage's piano? -- sounds like steel drums), Cave moans lustily to a lover. And you have to admire a songwriter who can use the words "nightingale" and "panties" in the same verse.

Some songs on Lyre -- slow, piano-driven ballads like "Easy Money" and "O Children" -- show that Cave hasn't completely turned his back on the more contemplative style he showed in late '90s works like The Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part. In fact these songs will remind fans of Cave's more hard-edged work exactly what was admirable about those softer albums.

"O Children," especially is powerful. It's built on the old gospel train metaphor, but this it's hard to tell whether this train is bound for glory or doom.

The beat of this 7-minute dirge starts out kind of plodding, the intensity starts to build as the choir starts singing "O children, lift up your voice, lift up your voice/Children/Rejoice, rejoice."

But this only seems seems to provoke Cave, whose gloomy verses ("Poor old Jim's as white as a ghost/he's found the answer that was lost/We're weeping now, weeping because/There ain't nothing we can do to protect you") contradicts the call for joy. Cave moans in resignation, the ecstatic glory of "Get Ready For Love" turned sour, as the choir signs, "Hey little train wait for me/I once was blind but now I see/Have you a seat left for me ."

Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus proves that Cave still is in prime. He's a dirty-minded disciple, an oracle of the slaughterhouse, a poet, a preacher, a prophet -- and a damned powerful rocker as he pushes 50.

Nick on the radio: Terrell's Sound World will present an hour of Nick Cave music, including many from these albums Sunday night on KSFR, 90.7 FM (and streaming live on www.ksfr.org). The show starts 10 p.m. Sunday, the Cave segment will begin right after 11 p.m.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: NEW VICTIM CLASS -- SF GOP

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 3, 2004

The atmosphere at Fox’s Upstairs Bar & Grill was festive Tuesday night as local Republican activists toasted President Bush’s New Mexico lead and impending national victory.

Celebrating with them was a local Democrat, City Councilor David Pfeffer, whose decision to back Bush angered many of his fellow party members and constituents.

Pfeffer was sitting by himself drinking a beer and watching the results come in on Fox News.

“You know what I have in common with these folks here?” Pfeffer asked a reporter.

The fact that you support the same candidate?

“Not just that,” Pfeffer said. “They and I share the same feeling of oppression.”

Funny, the reveling Republicans didn’t seem all that oppressed as they downed their beers and ate tacos and posole at the St. Michael’s Drive nightspot. In fact, they seemed pretty happy that their party was about to cement its hold on all three branches of the federal government.

But the “oppression” of Republicans in Santa Fe, a town with a 3-to-1 Democratic registration edge — has been a constant drumbeat of the local GOP for several months. Local Bush supporters have complained loudly about the destruction of Bush-Cheney campaign signs and told anecdotes about vehicles with Bush stickers getting “keyed.”

(For the record, I’ve heard similar tales from local Democrats. Santa Fe police, meanwhile, say there was no noticeable upswing in political vandalism this year.)

Pfeffer continued.

“It’s that monolithic liberal mind-think you find in Santa Fe,” he said. “It’s not just a one-party system here, but lots of people in Santa Fe think it should be.”

Pfeffer compared his decision to go public with his endorsement of Bush with “coming out of the closet.”

“There was such a negative reaction,” he said. “You know, I’m not stupid. I do read. I have a right to express my own opinion without getting sneered at.”

Pfeffer, who this week purchased a full-page ad endorsing Bush in this newspaper, said the ad got two types of responses from local Dems.

“There were those who were upset and reacted with name-calling and in-your-face hostility,” he said.

But then, he said, there were those who were grateful for him taking such a stand. These Democrats, he said, reacted “with a humility in their voice.”

Pfeffer, who spoke at a Bush rally in Albuquerque this summer, said he gave his two V.I.P. tickets to two women he described as “open-minded Democrats.”

Both, he said, said they had no idea that Bush could get such a positive reception in New Mexico.

Of course both campaigns here were pretty good at making sure that the overwhelming number of people who got into their rallies would give their respective candidates an enthusiastic reaction.

Many local liberals were already angry with Pfeffer over his role in the last city election.

He admitted to proofreading a newspaper ad for a pro-development group called Santa Fe Grass Roots that was highly critical of three councilors seeking re-election. Some of those councilors characterized the full-page advertisement, which ran in this paper, as an “attack ad,” saying it contained inaccuracies concerning their council records.

The Bush endorsement only added to their displeasure with Pfeffer. Although municipal elections are, in theory at least, non-partisan, some say the endorsement cast serious doubts on Pfeffer’s re-election. His seat is up for re-election in 2006.

Will Pfeffer seek re-election? Will he formally abandon the party he says has abandoned him and join the party that has embraced him?

“That’s not on my front burner now,” he said. Pointing to the red and blue map on the television screen — which was getting redder every few minutes — he said, “Right now this is my main concern.”

***

For my story on the latest numbers from New Mexico, CLICK HERE

WHO WAS THAT NADER GUY?

A shorter version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 3, 2004

So what happened to Ralph Nader in New Mexico?

Democrats state predicted doom and gloom if Nader, who ran this year as an independent, would be able to split the progressive vote. They fought tooth and nail in court — but ultimately unsuccessfully — to deny him a place on the ballot.

Apparently some Republicans here felt the same way. Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, distributed ballot petitions for the Nader candidacy. GOP lawyer Pat Rogers volunteered his services to represent Nader free of charge in his court battles.

(Both Adair and Rogers insisted their only interest was providing a wide choice to New Mexico voters.)

Four years ago, when Democrat Al Gore edged out George W. Bush in the state by a mere 366 votes, Nader, who ran then as the Green Party candidate got more than 21,000 votes or four percent of the total.

However, by 1 a.m. Wednesday with more than 90 percent of the vote counted unofficial results showed Nader drawing only one percent of the vote. Nationwide he wasn't doing significantly better.

Nader’s New Mexico coordinator Carol Miller, interviewed Tuesday before the polls closed, said she thinks Nader was the victim of a “four-year dirty-trick campaign” by Democrats and a “blackout” by state news organizations.

“It’s one of the saddest moments in American history,” Miller said. “Taking Ralph Nader, a true national leader who has done so many good things, and tell so many lies about him.”

As far as media coverage goes, Miller said, “Nader was never treated like an equal candidate.”

Miller said the real agenda of Nader foes was “to get rid of anyone who stands up to the corporations.”

However a spokesman for the state Democratic Party said that Nader’s “Diminishing support reflects the fact that his campaign in New Mexico was nothing but a Republican phenomenon.”

Matt Farrauto noted that some Green Party leaders joined the Kerry campaign. These include David Bacon, the 2002 Green Party gubernatorial candidate, who changed party registration to Democrat; and Abe Gutmann, a past Green candidate for U.S. Senate who became a leader of a national group called Greens for Kerry.

NM: LEANING BUSH, BUT TOO CLOSE TO CALL

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 3, 2004

Once again, the battleground state of New Mexico was too close to call in the presidential race by the end of election night on Tuesday, and both sides remained optimistic.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, unofficial figures from The Associated Press, with 94 percent of precincts reporting, showed President Bush leading U.S. Sen. John Kerry 52 percent to 47 percent in the race for New Mexico’s five electoral votes.

However, Gov. Bill Richardson noted that many strong Democratic precincts in Northern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation had yet to be counted.

“I think he’ll pull it out,” Richardson said of Kerry late Tuesday. But speaking to reporters at the secretary of state’s office, he predicted a very narrow win for the Democratic candidate.

“I think he’ll win by about 1 percent,” Richardson said. “I’ve said that all along.”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the state Bush campaign predicted a victory for the president in New Mexico.

“We’re up by 20,000 votes,” Danny Diaz said in a telephone interview. “We’ve run the strongest Republican campaign this state has ever seen.”

Diaz was interviewed shortly after national news networks had called Ohio and Alaska for Bush, pushing the incumbent president’s electoral college count to 269, one electoral vote shy of victory.

“This state could deliver it to Bush,” Diaz said. “We’re trying to beat Nevada to the punch.”

Santa Fe County apparently chose Kerry by a wide margin. With 86 of 87 precincts reported, Kerry was winning this county by better than a 2-to-1 margin.

However, the Bush campaign chairman in Santa Fe County, Bob Parmelee, said he was very optimistic about Bush winning statewide. “The Democrats are digging themselves into a hole by moving further to the left,” he said. “I hope they keep digging.”

Despite losing the county, local Republicans, who watched election results on televisions at Fox’s Upstairs Bar & Grill on St. Michael’s Drive, seemed to be far more upbeat than Democrats who attended election parties at the Eldorado Hotel and The Paramount, a downtown nightclub.

The crowd at Fox’s cheered loudly every time good returns for Bush were announced on television.

One local Democrat activist, who asked not to be identified, said Tuesday he was frustrated by friction between the national Kerry campaign operating here and local Democrats.

“The Kerry campaign played by the playbook instead of by New Mexico rules,” said the man, who described himself as a “disgruntled foot soldier” in the Kerry campaign. “The Bush campaign was better at playing by New Mexico rules.”

“The Kerry campaign wasted people by putting poll watchers in Northern New Mexico,” he said. “They should have had those people in places like Clovis.”

Richardson and Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron said that despite fears of problems at the polls, the election ran relatively smoothly in the state.

“There were no cases of harassment or intimidation,” Richardson said.
Vigil-Giron predicted the final turnout figure would be a record 75 percent of registered voters.

Denise Lamb, director of the state Elections Bureau, said election officials in Cibola County couldn’t locate provisional ballots for some time. Vigil-Giron said voters in Albuquerque’s Paradise Hills were still lined up to vote an hour after the official closing time.

Matt Brix, director of New Mexico’s Common Cause, said there were only sporadic reports of election problems in the state.

Some polling places in Albuquerque had three-hour waits, he said. In Las Cruces some polling places ran out of provisional ballots, Brix said.

Ever the state booster, Richardson told reporters that “the real winner tonight is New Mexico. We got an unprecedented amount of attention.”

The governor noted that in the past, New Mexico “was just a small state that was ignored in the presidential sweepstakes.”

This election was different, however.

Richardson was responsible for part of the national attention. He helped persuade the national Democrats to hold the first televised debate among the Democratic presidential contenders in New Mexico in September 2003.

He convinced the state Legislature to allow parties to have a presidential caucus in February. This attracted visits by most of the Democratic candidates.

Richardson also was chairman of the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July.
But what attracted the most attention was the fact that New Mexico is such an evenly divided state politically. In 2000, Al Gore beat Bush by a mere 366 votes.

Both Bush and Kerry, their running mates, family members and numerous surrogates made visits to the state this year. Bush appeared in Albuquerque as recently as Monday night, while former President Bill Clinton and Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, led weekend rallies in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Oct. 31, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Halloween Hootenanny by Zacherle
Bloodleting by Concrete Blonde
Monster Rock by Screaming Lord Sutch
Don't Shake Me Lucifer by Roky Erickson
Big Black Witchcraft Rock by The Cramps
The Munsters Theme by Los Straitjackets
Frankenstein Conquers the World by Daniel Johnston & Jad Fair
Night Visit by Stan Ridgway & Pietra Wexstun

I Drink Blood by Rocket From the Crypt
Halloween by Sonic Youth
I Put a Spell On You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
House of 1,000 Corpses by Rob Zombie
I Scare Myself by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Ghostyhead by Ricki Lee Jones
Halloween Spooks by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

Give Me Some Truth by John Lennon
There Is No Time by Lou Reed
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Country at War by X
Rich Man's War by Steve Earle
Faraway by Sleater-Kinney
Shepherds of the Nation by The Kinks
Civil Disobedience by Camper Van Beethoven

Papa's Got a Brand New Baghdad by The Capitol Steps
American Question by Jason Ringenberg
Misguided Missiles by NRBQ
Something Broken in the Promised Land by Wayne Kramer
The Bush Boys by The Mammals
Rockin' in the Free World by Neil Young
People Have the Power by Patti Smith