THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 29, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Cold Feelings by Social Distortion
Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash
Strange Woman by June Carter
California Stars by Billy Bragg & Wilco
Someone Else's Song by Wilco
Cocktail Desperado by Terry Allen
Running Gun by Michael Martin Murphey
Taxes on the Farmer Feed Us All by Ry Cooder

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by Hayseed Dixie
I'm Gonna Dig Up Howlin' Wolf by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
My Wife Thinks You're Dead by Junior Brown
Waitin' On a Train by The Bottle Rockets
Daddy's Cup by Drive-By Truckers
24-Hour Store by The Handsome Family
Jesus Rolled Over by Hundred Year Flood
Can Man Polka by Joe West

You're Gonna Miss Me by Hasil Adkins
Hot Rodding in San Jose by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Miss Missy From Old Hong Kong by Webb Wilder
You Ought to See Pickles Now by Tommy Collins
(This Isn't Just Another) Lust Affair by Mel Street
Walk on By by Charlie Pride
Lead Me On by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
Whoa Sailor by Hank Thompson
Big City by Merle Haggard
Red or Green by Lenny Roybal

Potato's in the Paddy Wagon by The New Main Street Singers
Nothin' Wrong With Me by NRBQ
Statue of Jesus by The Gear Daddies
Pity the Wandering Man by Hank & Nancy Webster
Hope Fades by Ronny Elliott
Fight or Flight by Shine Cherries
Moves Me Deeply by Peter Case
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

BACK TO THE CROSSROADS

I just watched a movie that I hadn't seen since the 1980s -- Crossroads, a 1986 picaresque blues fable and Voodoo allegory with echoes of Huckleberry Finn starring Joe Seneca and Ralph Macchio.

Seneca plays Willie Brown -- you might remember Robert Johnson mentioning him in his song "Crossroads" -- a cantankerous old bluesman wasting away in a New York City nursing home. Macchio plays Eugene -- later dubbed "Lightning Boy" by Willie. He's a nerdy Julliard student studying classical guitar, even though his true love is the blues. He locates Willie in a quixotic search for a mysterious "lost" Robert Johnson song. Willie agrees -- if young Eugene helps break him out of the nursing home and takes him back to Mississippi.

Besides Seneca's performance, the music is the main draw. It was put together by Ry Cooder. Sonny Terry plays the harmonica parts. The movie includes a performance by Frank Frost, whose band includes Otis Taylor on lead guitar. (But I'm not sure it's the same Colorado Otis Taylor of When Negroes Walked the Earth/White African fame. He sure doesn't look like the Otis I've seen and his bio doesn't mention Frank Frost or Crossroads.)Frost sings a jumping version of "Cotton Needs Pickin'"

The movie culminates in a "head-cutting" contest between Lightning Boy (Cooder's actually playing guitar) and a soul-selling hotshot played by metal monster Steve Vai. At stake are the souls of both Lightning Boy and Willie, who back in his youth signed at contract at the crossroads with the Voodoo god Legba. It's a cosmic showdown introduced by a surreal gospel quartet (featuring Bobby King)singing "Somebody's Callin' My Name." When the contest gets going the stage is graced by a sexy dancer (Gretchen Palmer) wildly prancing around the stage in a slinky black dress and red flower in her hair. She's not identified as such in the credits, but those with eyes to see will recognize her as Erzulie, Voodoo goddess of love.

Sure it's corny and you know who's going to win. But it's an enticing little melodrama.

Crossroads has been unavailable on DVD since it was quietly released last summer in that format. For the last few years if you asked for Crossroads at a video store, they'd think you were talking about that Brittney Spears movie of the same name. The real Crossroads is available at Netflix too. And Cooder's soundtrack still is available also, although it unfortunately doesn't have the head-cutting guitar showdown.

Hey Warner Brothers/Rhino -- isn't it about time for a deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition of the Crossroads soundtrack?

ACIE'S LATEST CDs

ACIE CARGILL
Coyote Kick Band
Acie Cargill’s Memorial Tributes
(Cobwebs Records)

Every time I hear folk-poet/picker/singer Acie Cargill, it feels like I’m listening to a true uncorrupted American voice. Cargill’s records seem like handmade artifacts -- no fancy production, and lyrics that, while sometimes clumsy and proudly corny, are so sincere they jolt you.

Coyote Kick Band is something of a departure for Cargill, who previously specialized in acoustic folk and country. But Coyote rocks with electric guitar and drums, as well as fiddle, banjo and mandolin.

There’s love songs, backwoods standards like the instrumental fiddle tune “Sally Goodin” a couple of mama songs (including a reprise of the Cargill classic “Dear Mother,” where mama gives advice like “Don’t you ever hit a woman, no matter what.” and “don’t you ever play gospel music in a tavern”) and topical songs.

“Baghdad Baghdad” shows Cargill’s inner conflicts about the war. It’s about a frightened soldier trying to communicate with Iraquis who hate him.

In mid April -- just days after the death of the Pope and just before the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing -- he released a new five-song EP of tribute songs. One‘s for “John Paul the Peacemaker” and one’s for the bombing victims (“Is this what you wanted, Tim McVeigh?”) Other subjects include NFL star Pat Tilman, (killed in combat in Afghanistan), Irish Republican Army martyr Bobby Sands and folksinger Dave Carter.

UPDATE: When I posted this review this morning I did so because I thought it was scheduled to run today in Pasatiempo's "Pasa Tempos" record review section. When I actually got the paper, I learned it was wrong. I usually wait for my New Mexican stuff to come out in print before I post it here. I guess this should just be considered a little free bonus preview for my loyal blog readers. Hopefully it'll see print next week.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BECK IS BACK

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 29, 2005

Beck fans rejoice! The enchanted wizard of rhythm has returned. His new album Guero -- while not quite up to Odelay, Mellow Gold or my guilty Beck pleasure Midnight Vultures -- is a solid work of sonic wonder. And most importantly, it’s strong evidence that Beck has got over his mopiness that marred his previous album Sea Change.

Pardon my digression: I know that lots of Beck fans and lots of my fellow denizens of criticdom absolutely loved Sea Change, Beck’s 2002 musical account of the demise of a love relationship. I forget which gushing rock scribe compared this self-pitying mess with Hank Williams.

Blasphemer! Thou shalt not take Hank’s name in vain!

Don’t get me wrong. A break-up is indeed legitimate ground to plough for songwriters. Think Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks or Tom Russell’s Borderland or Marvin Gaye‘s Here My Dear.

Beck’s morose little song cycle might have showed another side of the crazy kitchen-sink sonic trickster we loved, but the music came nowhere near these classic break-up records. It didn’t even match his own Mutations, a previous album of slower, more somber tunes.

Maybe I’m oppressing the artist. But when listen to Beck, I don’t want some sensitive troubadour, I want magic and hipster insanity.

But, back to the present:

With Guero (hey gringo, it’s pronounced “whetto” and it means “blondie.”) Beck sounds like he’s having fun again. It’s a return to Beck’s freewheeling, funky, clunky sound, mixing hip-hop, blues, porno-soundtrack rock and any other sound that isn’t nailed down. With his old pals The Dust Brothers producing, Beck sounds like he’s ready to go back to Houston and do that hotdog dance.

It starts off with a nasty, fuzzy guitar and heavy-handed drums on “E-Pro,” quieting down for Beck to sing the verses. And it sounds like he means business:

“See me comin’/to town with my soul/straight down of the world with my fingers/holding onto the devil I know all my trouble’s hang/on your trigger.”

A galaxy of sonic delights follows.

“Que Onda Guero” is pure Beckian fun. With Dust Brothers scratching and taunting Spanish voices in the background, Beck takes a picture of a gringo lost in the barrio. "Andelay joto, your popsicle’s melting …”

“Go it Alone” is a collaboration with The White Stripes’ Jack White. It’s a slinky bluesy number with a downright hairy guitar that keeps threatening to erupt. It might have been cool if Beck had shared vocals with White, who just plays bass here. But it sounds pretty cool as is.

“Farewell Ride” is a sweet nod to Beck’s folk roots -- a nasty slide guitar and harmonica over robo chain-gang percussion, with lyrics lifted from Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “One Kind Favor” (“Two white horses in a line/Two white horses in a line …”)

“Missing” has a bosa nova sound, while the chorus and distorted guitar sound on “Earthquake Weather” sounds like a postcard to Steely Dan.

Beck is at his Beckiest on “Rental Car” Some truly obnoxious guitar interplays with what sounds a harpsichord. In the middle a near metal jam is interrupted by Petra Hayden sounding like she’s auditioning for The Swingle Singers, chirping “La la la la La … ” You can almost see the interlude from some ‘60s movie with some groovy couple rolling in the daisies. Till Beck’s rasty guitar comes back.

It’s a good think that nasty guitar is back. And the silly samples and the crunchy percussion and the psychedelic joy-boy lyrics … Welcome back, Beck.

{Note: I snapped the photo of Beck, above, at Lollapaloza in Denver, 1995.}

Also Recommended:

The Lighthouse by Ana da Silva. I would bet that most of the fans of The Raincoats in this country came to them through the late Kurt Cobain, a devoted fan who talked them up in interviews.

For the uninitiated, The Raincoats was a British female punk band led by da Silva and Gina Birch. They disbanded in 1984, but, after Cobain-related publicity, reunited, toured with Nirvana in England and made a pretty fine comeback album called Looking in the Shadows -- before slipping back to the shadows again.

Now, a decade later, da Silva has resurfaced with this album. The Lighthouse is largely a self-made affair with da Silva as a virtual one-woman electronic band, playing keyboards, some guitar and singing.

The voice -- sweet, silky and extremely British -- is the main draw, thought the instrumental “Hospital Window” is gorgeous.

There are few overt traces of punk left here. The melodies are pretty and the music restrained.

There’s a little hint of menace in “In Awe of a Painting” where the shaky-handed singer is spilling coffee as she gazes at a lover. She sounds like the queen of electro-Wonderland in “Disco Ball” and like a less crazy Nina Hagen in “Two Windows Over the Wings.”

Then there’s “Modinha” a song written by Brazilian master Antonio Carlos Jobim that has echoes of Bjork and -- not as obviously -- Marianne Faithful.

I hope it doesn’t take another decade for da Silva to bless us with more music.

WILCO!

Just some stray thoughts about the Wilco concert I saw in Albuquerque last night.

I hadn't seen Jeff Tweedy and the boys in 10 years -- they came to Santa Fe's tiny Club Alegria in May 1995, soon after releasing AM. (Besides stuff from their first album, I remember them playing a great cover of The Texas Tornados' "Who Were You Thinking Of" and a botched, aborted stab at Neil Young's "Albuquerque.")

They were supposed to come to the Lensic in Santa Fe last year but cancelled due to Jeff Tweedy's rehab stint. "I was indisposed," Tweedy said from the stage last night.

I don't know if it was "worth the wait," but Wilco certainly didn't disappoint last night.

Though they started off slowly last night, opening with a questionable choice -- a slow,delicate "Muzzle of Bees" -- things soon picked up. By the third or fourth song, "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," the spell was cast.

Nels Cline is a great addition to the band. From some stray reports I'd heard I was afraid he'd dominate, but that's not the case. The two keyboardists also fill out the sound. (Anyone know their names? Post 'em on the comments section here.) Sometimes they suggested The Band, sometimes Brian Wilson.

Most the songs, unsurprisingly were from A Ghost is Born -- which is far from my favorite Wilco album, though I appreciate some of the songs better after hearing them live -- and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They also reached back for at several songs from Summerteeth ("A Shot in the Arm" and "Candy Floss" stood out),at least one from Being There ("Kingpin") and several quasi-acoustic tunes from the Mermaid Avenue records including a beautiful (how could it be otherwise) "Remember the Mountain Bed," "Another Man's Done Gone" and "California Stars."

For me the transcendental highlight was when the cacophony at the end of "Poor Places" melted into a lethal version of "Spider (Kidsmoke)"

It also was good seeing The Handsome Family. Unlike other times when I've seen them, they had a full band including Brett's brother Darrell on banjo and bass (switching off with Rennie) and Eric Johnson on drums (Both are from the Albuquerque group The Rivet Gang.) Rennie's raps about the various Wal-Marts in Albuquerque are getting even more funny.

The whole show made me happy.

By the way, at this writing it looks like nobody's posted the set list from last night's show on WilcoBase yet. If anyone was taking notes last night (not me -- I'm off work this week!) please share with the world.

Speaking of fine shows I had a great time Saturday night at Al Faaet's Martini Prophecies at the High Mayhem Studio. It was an evening of true New-Year's-Eve-in-the-nut-house music. The type of show that the devil inside of me fantasizes about seeing on The Plaza frightening unsuspecting tourists ...

(Full disclosure time, Al's a good buddy of mine and is in fact the drummer of my long dormant CHARRED REMAINS. The show included my baby brother Jack too. And for the record, deep in my heart, I do believe that J.A. Deane actually is the 14-year-old Perfect Master. Other than that, I'm completely unbiased.)

And as much as the music, I appreciated the sense of true community created by High Mayhem master Max Friedenberg and his sinister cohorts. It's a friendly, welcoming little scene and I hope it thrives.

I picked up a copy of the High Mayhem Festival 2003 CD and it's a great sampler of this kind of experimental, improvisational music. (I haven't had a chance yet to fool around with the CD-ROM, which includes complete performances of the artists on the CD.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 24, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now 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
Gimme Danger by The Stooges
Baby Please Don't Go by Them
The Kingdom of My Mind by The Mistaken
Holy Roller Novocaine by The Kings of Leon
From Blown Speakers by The New Pornographers
You Got the Silver by The Rolling Stones
Taitschi Tarot by Nina Hagen
Young Widow Polka by Bacova's Ceska Kapela

Buried the Pope by Stan Ridgway
Tangled Up in Plaid by Queens of the Stone Age
Mannish Boy by The Electrik Mudkats with Chuck D & Common
Hende Baba by Thomas Mapfumo
To You Kasiunia by Warsaw Village Band
Crackhouse Mayday Suicide by Stuubaard Bakkebaard
Game of Pricks by Guided by Voices

High Mayhem Festival 2003 Track 1 by My Country of Illusion
High Mayhem Festival 2003 Track 2 by Zimbabwe NKenya's Contrabass Quartet
Forbidden Fruits, New Mexico by Lisa Gill
Lost Boys and Pirates by Out of Context
Feet of Stone by Bing
High Mayhem Festival 2003 Track 18 by Invisible Plane

Hell is Chrome by Wilco
Murder's Crossed My Mind by Desdemona Finch
Little Floater by NRBQ
Song Against Sex by Neutral Milk Hotel
In Awe of a Painting by Ana da Silva
Now I Lay Me Down by Howe Gelb
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

KSFR WINS AWARDS

Santa Fe Public Radio, KSFR won 13 awards, including news station of the year from New Mexico's Associated Press Broadcasters.

One of those was a first place award for the station's coverage of last year's political conventions in Boston and New York. I'm proud to have been part of that team, which also included John Calef, Bradley Meacham and Zellie Pollon. I phoned in some reports from the conventions, which I was covering for The Santa Fe New Mexican.

News director Bill Dupuy deserves most the credit for these awards though.

Read about it HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 22, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Better Everyday by The Waco Brothers
I've Always Been Crazy by Carlene Carter
I Must Be High by Wilco
Interstate City by Dave Alvin
Arizona Siritual by Terry Allen
Johnnie Armstrong by Michael Martin Murphey
El Corrido de Emilio Naranjo by Angel Espinoza

John Paul the Peacemaker by Acie Cargill
Po' Boy by Bob Dylan
Tallacatcha by Alvin Youngblood Hart
Grapevine by Tom Russell
Sweet Rosie Jones by Jim Lauderdale
Mental Cruelty by Buck Owens & Rose Maddox
Rita by Vincent Craig
Incident in Juarez (Los Rubboardistas)by Cornell Hurd

Silver Dollar by Bone Orchard
How Lew Sin Ate by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
Beer Ticket Rag by Devil in the Woodpile
No Swallerin' Place by June Carter
Monkey on a String by Charlie Pool
The Prune Waltz by Adoph Hofner
Old Rattler by Grandpa Jones
Drivin' Nails in My Coffin by Larry Welborn
Mike the Can Man by Joe West

Chili Fields by Lenny Roybal
Love is No Excuse by Justin Trevino with Miss Norma Jean
Billy Joe by Audrey Auld Mezera
Street Walking Woman by Shaver
Linda on My Mind by Conway Twitty
So Round So Firm by Eddie Pennington
Church on Fire by Kev Russell
Give My Love to Rose by Johnny Cash
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: RISING TO THE DIGITAL AGE

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 22, 2005

Zimbabwe maestro Thomas Mapfumo has battled the old apartheid-style government of Rhodesia. He has openly attacked the corrupt dictatorship of Robert Mugabe -- a move that forced him into exile from his native land.

And now he’s challenging the music industry itself by releasing his latest album -- plus a previously unreleased live album -- exclusively on the Internet in the form of MP3 downloads.

Mapfumo’s new Rise Up! and his 1991 Afropop Worldwide Presents Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited, Live in New York are available at www.CalabashMusic.com, an extremely cool world music site known for their “fair trade” policy.

That means the recording artists get 50 percent of what you pay for downloading their songs.

Despite the Recording Industry Association of America’s hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing in claiming that illegal downloading rips off the poor artist, the big companies that make up the RIAA don’t pay anywhere near 50 percent. (And in fact countless performers and songwriters long ago lost their rights to their own music -- see my "Jazzmen" post below -- so don’t let the suits guilt trip you.)

Calabash charges 99 cents a track, so the complete Rise Up! will cost you just under $11, while the complete live album will cost less than $12 -- but this is for nearly two hours of music.

Both these albums of part of what Calabash is calling The Mapfumo Files -- 15 albums going back to the ‘80s that you can download as a set for $99.

The way of the future?

Releasing albums exclusively on the Internet reminds me of an old line by The Firesign Theatre: “If you asked for this record in the stores, they’d think you were crazy!”

Mapfumo, according to his publicists, is the first “world music” artist to release an album exclusively in MP3 form. The world’s a big place, so it’s nearly impossible to tell if that’s entirely true -- though it’s safe to say that he’s the first major world-beat star to do so.

He’s not the first name artist to do it though. That honor belongs to They Might Be Giants, who in 1999 released Long Tall Weekend exclusively on eMusic.

Despite the success of music downloading services like iTunes, I’m not sure lucrative a proposition it is to release entire albums exclusively as downloads. It’s hard to name any notable artists besides Mapfumo and TMBG who have done it.

In fact, some editors and critics in the world music realm reportedly balked at Mapfumo’s move, some saying that some of their writers are so computer-challenged they can‘t handle it, others saying that downloading is too much of a hassle.

“I am quite dismayed by this turn of events and the future it presages,” one editor whined. “Please consider the dinosaurs still left roaming the earth.”

While the technophobic implications here seem overblown, there are some points to consider. While more and more people do have computers these days, there are still many fans and potential fans who don’t. For these folks, download-only albums are more than a “hassle.”

And even for some with computers there are glitches. Unless you have a high-speed connection, downloading an album takes forever. (I usually start downloading right before I go to bed.)

And a few of the Mapfumo downloads I had to do over because the ends of the tracks somehow got clipped off by the time they reached my computer. Fortunately, Calabash doesn’t charge for re-downloading.

I’m of two minds on the issue of download-only albums. On one hand I like the idea of musicians bypassing the record companies, having more control of their products and taking a bigger cut of the profits. I also like the convenience of being able to click on a song and have it in my computer ready to burn instantly. (OK, with dial-up, it’s not really instant, but you get the point.)

On the other hand, doing away with finished manufactured products -- hard copies, cover art, liner notes, etc. -- is another nail in the coffin of old-fashioned record stores.

I love browsing through a great record store, gazing at all the colorful covers, trying to read as much information as CD packages allow, checking out the new releases, the used section, the bargain bins, listening to what the clerks are playing …

But maybe I’m being nostalgic here. Even before downloading music became a big issue, the reality of the locally-owned, independent record stores was grinding to a halt. Santa Fe hasn’t had a great one for years, since Rare Bear folded.

So maybe Web-exclusive albums are the way of the future. I just hope artists like Mapfumo and not the corporations benefit.

Mapfumo’s albums

No matter how it got to my ears, Mapfumo’s Chimurenga music is a joy. With out-front guitar and mbiras -- the plinking Zimbabwean instrument in which more than 20 metal keys are mounted to a hardwood soundboard -- and Mapfumo’s call-and-response with his female vocalists


No, I don’t speak Shona, Mapfumo’s language, so I don’t really know what he’s singing about. But even without the benefit of lyrics it’s obvious that Rise Up! has a somber tone. Maybe I’m reading too much into the fact that he’s been living in this country (Eugene, Ore. To be exact) for five years. But there seems to be a sadness permeating the sweet grooves of this album.

Live in New York on the other hand is far more energetic. It was recorded with Mapfumo’s band Blacks Unlimited, several of whom have since died.

The set starts off slow with “Nyamaropa,” a mbira song, but picks up quickly. My favorite here probably is “Jo Jo,” which starts off with a blast of the horn section and eventually melts into a glorious 10-minute jam.

THE SPEED OF SOUND

Back in the summer of 1970, just weeks after National Guard troops killed four students at an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University, the song "Ohio" became a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Neil Young wrote the lyrics, according to some accounts, the day of the killing and soon afterward got the rest of the guys in the studio. Within mere days, "Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming" was blasting over radios all over this great nation.

This quick musical response to big news stories doesn't happen much anymore. (Can you imagine "Ohio" getting past today's Clear Channel taste setters?)

But in the past two weeks two songs paying tribute to the life of Pope John Paul II.

Just today Stan Ridgway sent folks on his e-mail list a link to a free MP3 of "Buried the Pope (Blues for John Paul)."

Despite the funny picture, this is an earnest and sincere song in which Stan calls the late pontiff, "a man of peace and hope."

The other Pope song came out even quicker. Last Friday I received an CD from Chicago singer/songwriter/picker/poet Acie Cargill. It's a 5-song EP and among those to whom he pays tribute is John Paul II in a song called "John Paul the Peacemaker."

I can't find the EP on Acie's Web site, but if you scroll down to "singles & Shorts" section, you can buy a single of the song.

Unlike Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1970, Stan and Acie aren't going to get much airplay with their respective pope tunes. But I'll play Acie's tonight on The Santa Fe Opry and Ridgway's Sunday night on Terrell's Sound World. Both shows start at 10 p.m. Moutnain Daylight Time on KSFR, 90.7 FM.