LATINO USA

I'd forgotten until Latino USA came on this morning that I was part of a panel discussing the illegal immigration issue and Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential candidacy.

You can listen to it HERE (MP3) or HERE (Real Audio)

THIRSTY EAR DAY THREE

Several times this weekend during the Thirsty Ear Festival I found myself sinking into the music, only to have my sweet mood rudely interrupted by hideous visions from the Gulf Coast -- bodies in the streets, people stranded on rooftops, people wading waste-high through sewage-tainted water.

No, Katrina didn't ruin the festival for me. Far from it. I'm pretty well convinced that this was the best Thirsty Ear ever. Still, those pangs of guilt and horror and anger put a hard perspective on the affair.

It was indeed fortunate that the climax of the festival Sunday night was a Louisiana band. Beausoleil didn't preach or mourn or rage. They did what they do best, play the music of their land and their people, play the vibrant, celebratory, sometimes mournful but mainly joyful music that for centuries has brought joy, comfort and pride to the Cajun people. Leader Michael Doucet spoke openly about the disaster. His underlying message was of hope and optimism, a faith that the people of Louisiana, to borrow a little Faulkner, would not only endure but prevail.

Earlier in the day, the professorly Doucet did a "workshop" in the Hotel on the history of Cajun music. He took questions from the audience, often playing fiddle and singing to illustrate his answers.

A few other thoughts on the festival:

* The Tarbox Ramblers: This trio was Sunday's big surprise. These are a bunch of old (well, not that old) bald guys from Boston who play a crunching, stomping stripped-down blues.

I'd never heard of these guys and wasn't expecting much from them. So I was pleasantly surprised, in fact amazed at how much fun they were.

Thirsty Ear had a questionnaire asking, among other things whether the festival should get bigger-name acts (which would mean a hike in ticket prices). I voted no. One of the things I love about Thirsty Ear is the opportunity to discover acts like The Tarbox Ramblers.

* Nels Andrews & The El Paso Eyepatch Undoubtedly the worst slot at Thirsty Ear is the opening act on Sunday morning. Even though it starts at 1:30 p.m., a good number of festival-goers haven't quite shaken off Saturday night. There's just a slow trickle of people and most of them seek refuge in the shade of the buildings of the old-west film set instead of in front of the stage, where performers like them to be.

That being said, Albuquerque songwriter Andrews got a good strong response with his poignant, often mournful tunes. My favorite songs from his album Sunday Shoes -- "Central Avenue Romance," "Lilli Marlene" -- sound even better live. Plus they do a rocking version of Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown."

*Alvin Youngblood Hart: The big old growling bear played a strong set on the main stage. Not quite as awe inspiring as his previous Thirsty Ear gig. Of course this year, the late Ralph Moore wasn't around to share his homemade brownies with me. Old Ralph was a hell of a baker.

Every time Alvin's played this festival he's performed Doug Sahm's "Lawd I'm Just a Country Boy in This Great Big Freaky City." This time was no exception. And now it's finally on an Alvin album, the new Motivational Speaker.

* Joe West This weekend started with Joe West, at his Human Cannonball CD release party at Tiny's Thursday. (Seems like months ago ...) So it was only appropriate to end it with Joe at his "Americana stomp" in the Eaves Ranch saloon.

Actually, I meant to hop back and forth between Joe's gig and the Alvin Youngblood Hart blues jam across the street, but either Joe's music was too captivating or I was too exhausted to move. So I stayed and I'm happy I did. Joe's way too young to be named a Santa Fe Living Treasure. But I know that's what he is.

All in all, it was a wonderful festival this year. KBAC's Luther Watts, who served as emcee, kept reminding people that Thirsty Ear didn't happen last year -- and people were afraid it wouldn't come back. I'm glad those fears were for naught and hope Thirsty Ear remains a Labor Day weekend tradition here.



My friend Dana and me at Thirsty Ear 2005

THIRSTY EAR DAY TWO

(Or should it be "Day One" since the real "Day One" was all at night?)

I've got to get ready to get back to Eaves Ranch because Jeff Dowd is doing his regular shift for KSFR's Sunday Blues show, so I've got to get the KSFR booth ready.

So just a few stray thoughts about the festival yesterday.

* Headliner Rickie Lee Jones performed solo, most with an acoustic guitar, then a few piano songs -- among them my favorite Rickie Lee song, "We Belong Together" from her second album Pirates. Unfortunately, the volume was a little low and my enjoyment of my favorite Rickie song was marred by some loudmouth jerk behind me who must have thought festival goers had paid their money to listen to his mindless chatter.

Rickie was about 20 minutes late taking the stage, then, surprising, refused to do an encore, even though the audience was cheering for one. She apparently was suffering some kind of cold or allergies, as at one point she had to stop and blow her nose between songs.

* This year's surprise hit probably was soul man Earl Thomas, described by my New Mexican colleague Natalie Storey as "an attractive man in tight pants and cowboy boots." (See Natalie's coverage, including a photo of Earl, HERE.) I wasn't familiar with Thomas (or his pants) until yesterday, but I was impressed. With his music, of course. The festival propaganda compares him to Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. I hear some Howard Tate in there too.

Thomas played with just an acoustic guitarist backing him. I can't help but think a full band would add a lot, but unplugged he still was quite enjoyable. My favorite song he did was a cover of "Ode to Billy Joe." (This reminded me of the late Joe Tex's cover, though Joe reworked the last verse: "And me I spend my time eatin' cold watermelon up on Choctaw Ridge/And I spit the seeds in the muddy waters of the Tallahatchie ...") Thomas said he hoped to come back to Santa Fe soon. I hope he's right.

* James McMurtry probably got the strongest audience response of the day. His deadpan drawl reciting sardonic lyrics over his loopy guitar and tough rhythm section, known as "The Heartless Bastards" is an irresistible combination. The highlight was the hilarious "Choctaw Bingo," a twisted tale of a family reunion for an Okie meth lab operator. Mike Judge should make a cartoon of this song.

* Otis Taylor also was mighty, though toward the middle of his set the rain finally convinced me to leave the area in front of the stage to the dry comfort of the KSFR booth. Otis is my favorite living bluesman (watch Pasatiempo during the next couple of weeks for my review of his excellent new album Below the Fold.) Taylor's new band isgood, though not quite as powerful as the lineup of Kenny Pasarelli and Eddie Turner, who played with him last time he performed at Thirsty Ear.

* Goshen has been around Santa Fe for 10 years or so, but yesterday was the first time I've ever seen them live -- and it was all I'd hoped it would be. Slide guitarist Grant Hayunga is the center of the group, which yesterday included Hundred Year Flood's Palmer boys backing him up -- Jim on drums, Bill on keyboards. They sounded like Bo Diddley on crystal meth.

Goshen and Flood are part of the Frogville Records clan (as is Joe West, ThaMuseMeant, etc.). Frogville definitely is the coolest thing going on musically in Santa Fe these days. I love seeing these guys out at each other's gigs, supporting each other, etc. Santa Fe has to support them too. Go to their shows. Buy their CDs.

Gots to go.

MANSIONS REDUCED TO MATCHSTICKS

My crony Chuck McCutcheon of Newhouse News Service last week flew over the Gulf Coast with a group of National Hurricane Center folks surveying Katrina's damage.

His story is HERE

THIRSTY EAR DAY (ACTUALLY NIGHT) ONE

Unfortunately duties at work kept me away from the festival until 8:30 or 9 p.m. I got to Eaves Ranch in time to hear the last two and half songs by Hundred Year Flood -- which made me sad. I'd been looking forward to seeing them again. What I heard though sounded tremendous and they really had the crowd going.

I'd also been wanting to hear Boris McCutcheon, a current Albuquerque resident, but I was way too late for that. Got to meet the boy though. He says he'll be doing a bunch of gigs at the Cowgirl in the near future.

And dammit, I missed the Chipper Thompson/Mason Brown/Roger Landes Zoukfest set that opened the show, though I got to hear a little of Chipper and Kim Treiber's acoustic set in the "Hotel" later in the evening.

So the only full set I got to hear was that of Alex Maryol. I hadn't hear him in about two years, and it seems the kid is only getting stronger and more confident. His music seems to be going from good-time bar blues toward an Ian Moore-like psychedelia, which I think is a good thing.

Alex's basic band consists of himself on guitar, Mark Clark on drums and Willie McGee on bass. But the set really came to life when they were joined by guitarist/singer and longtime Maryol partner Ken Valdez and Freddy Lopez on harmonica.

Valdez was just seething with energy. He looked like a rhino about to charge. He and Alex have a wonderful chemistry together. I know they have their own careers and ideas on music, but, to use an old cliche this is a classic case of the sum being greater than its individual parts.

I'll blog on Thirsty Ear more tonight -- unless I stay too late and wait til the morning.

KATRINA BENEFIT AT THE COWGIRL

I just got this press release from Nick at the Cowgirl:

Songwriter Chris McCarty, formerly of the Steve Miller Band is organizing and headlining a benefit performance for the Gulf Coast flood victims, which will be held at the Cowgirl, 319 S. Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe on Saturday, September 10th from 8pm on into the evening.

The cover charge of $10 will be donated directly to the American Red Cross.

As the lineup is being put together at this very moment, a subsequent press release will follow shortly with the musicians listed.

I'll update once I get the list.

FATS AND R.L.

It was one of the few bright notes coming out of the Hell hole that is New Orleans, but I was very relived last night when I found that Fats Domino had been found and was alive and well. The horror that is New Orleans is unimaginable, but the thought that Katrina had claimed Fats made it just that much worse.

But has anyone heard whether Irma Thomas has been found yet?


XXXXXX


I was very sad to hear about the death of R.L. Burnside though. I remember two grea shows of his at teh old Santa Fe Music Hall. I also recall that about six years ago Burnside had to cancell his headlining gig at the Thirsty Ear Festival due to health problems. Corey Harris said a prayer for him on stage at the festival that year. I'm sure more will be said this weekend.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: JOE & JOSH

{NOTE: This is being posted later than usual because I was out late at Tiny's for the CD release party of the first CD reviewed below. Joe and band and various pickers did a great show, including one of the most moving versions of Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" I've ever heard.}

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 2, 2005

Why should I review Joe West? He does a good job himself of summing up his musical outlook on his new album The Human Cannonball, on a song called “Jam Bands in Colorado”

“I’m a country singer, a little punk rock ‘n’ roll, I got a beatnik poet somewhere in the soul …”

West has earned his status as one of Santa Fe’s favorite singer/songwriters. His wry wit, laconic drawl and simple yet memorable country-soaked melodies provide an ongoing poignant -- and usually humorous -- of life in the southwest.

The Human Cannonball won’t disappoint old fans and hopefully will win him some new ones.

As usual, he’s got a good collection of musicians backing him up, including longtime crony Frank Rolla on banjo, Ben Wright (formerly of Mary & Mars) on guitar, and members of Frogville Records label mate Hundred Year Flood. On the banjo-driven stomper “Oklahoma Bound,” it sounds like everyone singing or playing is having the time of their lives.

There’s tunes of twisted love. The opening track, “The Combines Are Coming” an easy-paced hillbilly tune (that starts off with someone torching a trailer park) tells of an affair with a married woman. When the narrator asks about her wedding ring, the woman says her husband is working out of town. “And I love him more than you’ll ever know/But I’m not the type to kiss and tell.”

There’s tall tales like “Jimmy Joe the Wrangler,” the story of a “Philippino queen” who takes revenge on a group of Ted Nugent-loving redneck bullies in an Oklahoma bar.

There’s some sardonic topical songs that are fun, if relatively inconsequential. “Straight Man in a Gay World,” for instance. And there‘s “Jam Bands in Colorado” pokes fun of our northern neighbors’ String Cheese/Leftover Salmon neo-hippie scene. Some folks, he says have suggested West himself hook up with the jam banders. But he knows he wouldn‘t fit in. (Because he’s a country singer, a little punk rock ‘n’ roll …)

And there’s even 43 seconds of lo-fi political commentary called “Talkin’ Terror Yodel.” This offers sage foreign policy advice : “If you piss in the wind, it’s gonna come back at you.”

Since his earliest work, West has a wonderful knack at making fun of Santa Fe, its artistic pretensions and its realities that lurk beneath its hyped-up image. Sometimes he uses City Different images in a surreal way, such as in “Trotsky’s Blues,” in which he reports seeing the Russian revolutionary at Bert’s Burger Bowl.

In “Cowgirl Hall of Fame” West sings a slow, sweet tribute to one of his most frequent musical venues in town, even though the lyrics aren’t literally about the local bar and restaurant.

West likes to sing loving tributes to locals who can’t afford the proverbial “$2,000 Navajo Rug.” A few years ago he did Mike the Can Man, an entire E.P. about a local character who collects aluminum cans for recycling. On Cannonball, he signs of “Anita Pita,” about a single mom who vacuums art galleries for extra cash.

West, a veteran of the gospel brunch at the Cowgirl, ends Cannonball with a spiritual message. He might or might not be singing the song “Heaven” with a completely straight face, but I’d to think he’s sincere when he urges folks not to be jealous of successful friends or bitter about their own shortcomings because “Jesus and his angels are rootin’ for you.”

Not a complex message, but one worth hearing. I think Jesus is rooting for Joe West.

Also Recommended:

*Let’s Waste Another Evening by Josh Lederman y Los Diablos. Josh Lederman might just be the Joe West of Boston. I bet the two would have a lot to talk about.

Lederman’s band, with the Mexican-sounding name, has been described as the kings of “Jewish-Celtic Folk Punk.” Indeed, there’s an obvious Pogues influence here -- a prominent accordion and Irish-sounding melodies played rowdy but rarely sloppy.

They also can do rocked-out versions of other folk styles. The instrumental “Te Portki Tancuja” contains elements of Cajun music and polka.

But Lederman’s voice, which sounds like a hoarser version of John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, is one of the major draws.

He’s also a fine songwriter, telling stories of lost love and lost weekends.

“The Waltzing Ladies,” has a melody similar to “The Wildwood Flower” tells of poor girls gone wrong. “My Sweet Caroline” is an outright country kicker about “playing lots of cards and smoking cheap cigars” to get his mind off an absent lover.

“China Town,” probably the most Pogue-like song here, alternates between brutal and irresistible mandolin interludes. Lederman sings of heartache and debauchery, name checking Charles Bukowski in the process.

“Will I Miss the City” is a perfect album ender, about a ramblin’ guy about to pull up stakes.

“Will I sing the same songs over and over down the rail?/Will I find my way out when the rain has washed away the trail?/Will I ride the thunder, or come home slithering like a snail?/when the rain has gone and washed away the trail?”

My favorite tune here is a cover of a traditional Irish outlaw song, “Newry Highwayman.” It’s the same basic story of “Brennan on the Moor” or “Wild Colonial Boy.” But this song has echoes of the funeral fantasies found in American jazz and blues tunes like “Saint James Infirmary” and “Dyin’ Crapshooter Blues.”

“And when I’m dead and in my grave/A fancy funeral please let me have/Six highwaymen to carry me/Oh give them broad swords and sweet liberty … Six pretty maiden to bear my pawl/Give them white roses and garlands all/And when I’m dead,they’ll speak the truth,/ He was a wild and wicked youth.”

Indeed, this is a wild and wicked album.

GREAT MUSICAL WEEKEND

Lots of music ahead for Santa Fe this Labor Day weekend.

The big thing, of course is the Thirsty Ear Festival, Friday night then all day Saturday and Sunday. You probably can find me there at the KSFR booth, peddling propaganda about public radio.

But this weekend begins Thursday -- tonight -- at Tiny's Lounge where Joe West is having a CD release party for his new album Human Cannonball. (More on this CD real soon.)

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: THE GREENS BACK FRAN (WHEN ASKED)

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Sept. 1, 2005

Santa Fe Municipal Judge Fran Gallegos is one of two elected officials in New Mexico who is a member of the Green Party (the other being Gary Clauss, a member of the Silver City Town Council.)

But so far, the Greens have been mysteriously silent about Gallegos’ recent suspension by the state Supreme Court over what the state Judicial Standard Commissions says is “a myriad of ethical violations” on the judge’s part.

Until now.

I called one of the party’s two recently elected co-chairmen, John Otter of Santa Fe on Tuesday and asked whether the Greens had taken a stand on the Gallegos situation — and if not, why not?

Otter confirmed that the party hadn’t made any public statements about the case. He said he wasn’t familiar with the details of the case — which includes allegations of Gallegos altering drunken-driving case records to make her look tougher on DWI — but that he personally has the “highest respect” for the judge.

He also said party leaders would be meeting that night and that the topic was likely to come up.

On Wednesday, Otter said the basic consensus of the Greens about Gallegos was that “We have every confidence in her and her efforts to benefit the community.”

If Gallegos did make a “misstep,” Otter said, “we’re sure it wasn’t to benefit herself.”

“We need to know more about the current charges,” Otter said. “Nobody’s perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Her work has been very beneficial to Santa Fe.”

Not the most spirited, hard-hitting defense. But that’s what he had.

Otter said Gallegos hadn’t spoken with him or other Green leaders since the high court suspended her with pay for 90 days last month.

Carol Miller, a past state co-chairman of the Greens and a former Green candidate for Congress, also had praise for Gallegos, though she too said she wasn’t up on the specific case against the judge.

“My personal position is that she’s innocent until proven guilty,” Miller said Tuesday. “I have high regards for Fran Gallegos.”

Santa Fe elections officially are “non-partisan” — which means candidates don’t run as Democrats, Republicans or Greens. However, since she was first won her office in 1996, the Greens have touted Gallegos’ election victories as their own.

(For a couple of years, Santa Fe city government had three elected Green officials. But in 2002, City Councilor Cris Moore didn’t seek re-election. Later that year, Councilor Miguel Chavez switched from the Green Party to become a Democrat.)

Gallegos ran as a Green in her first political race. That was in 1994, when she gave Democrat Richard “Buzzy” Padilla a scare in a magistrate judge race.

Gallegos in July spoke to a state “Green Gathering." According to an item on the state party’s Web site, Gallegos, “spoke of her struggles with both major parties and her gratitude to Greens who gave her a home and helped her gain and retain office, and implement her successful and innovative programs.”

Could one of those “struggles” refer to her problems with the state Judicial Standards Commission, which would explode in public a month later?

Grist for the conspiracy buffs: This is probably just all coincidence. There’s probably nothing to it. I’m probably being terribly irresponsible for even suggesting there’s some dots here that have any possibility of being connected.

But what the heck ...

In early August, following a memorial service for a Santa Fe woman killed by a drunk driver, Gov. Bill Richardson said he was disturbed by The New Mexican’s investigation that revealed Gallegos had altered some DWI case records.

“I find the reports about the DWI records very troubling,” Richardson said. “I plan to seek advice from my legal counsel about what steps might be taken with (the Judicial Standards Commission).”

Soon thereafter the commission recommended Gallegos be suspended.

The JSC’s general counsel is Jim Noel, who is the husband of Richardson’s political director, Amanda Cooper.

The plot thickens.

This week Santa Fe Mayor Larry Delgado chose a substitute judge to take over during the 90-day suspension period. The substitute judge, Sonya Carasco-Trujillo, is a top aide to Richardson’s loyal Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

And if you really want to carry it to an extreme, Gallegos, before becoming a judge, also worked in the lieutenant governor’s office — though she worked for Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley, a Republican.