TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 2, 2006
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
Remember by John Lennon
Everything/Anything by The Yayhoos
Dogfood by Iggy Pop
Big Damn Roach by The Immoral Lee County Killers
Eagleeye by P.W. Long & Reelfoot
Ding Dong by Johnny Dowd
Fake Blood by Mission of Burma
Bonnie Brae by The Twilight Singers

Poland Hasn't Died Yet by Kazik
From the Archive of Polish Jazz by Kult
What a Wonderful World by Nick Cave & Shane MacGowan
Another Glass of Wine to Give Succor to My Ailing Existence by Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
Lookin' Good Polka by The Polkaholics
From Black to Purple by Mbconn
New Orleans Fuzz by David Thomas & Two Pale Boys

Waila Set
Song From Way Back by The American Indians
Little Wild Pony by El Conjunto Murrietta
Ten in One by Crow Hang
Cholla Polka by Mike Enis & Company
A Minor Cumbia by Santa Rosa Band
Lizard Dance Polka by Los Papagos Molinas
Waila by Jam Band D
El Gallo by Elvin Kelly & Los Reyes

Lowdown by My Morning Jacket
Sex, Fashion and Money by The Grabs
I Slapped My Wife in the Face by Big Jack Johnson
When She Was My Girl by The Persuassions
Streets of Fire by The New Pornographers
Patriot's Heart by American Music Club
Green Eyes by Mark Eitzel
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TIME OF THE SEASON

The sheriff spills the beans (or spills something) about President Bush coming to Santa Fe next week.


Read all about it HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 31, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Soba Song by 3 Mustaphas 3
Middle Man by The Bottle Rockets
Easy On Yourself by Drive-By Truckers
Who Were You Thinking Of by The Sir Douglas Quintet
Matadora by Cordero
Silver City Waltz by Bayou Seco
Blue Angel by Hundred Year Flood
Nashville Radio by John Langford

Oh Carolina by Raising Cane
Star Witness by Neko Case
Back Street Affair by Van Morrison
Large Marge by Bob Cheevers
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on The Skids
Just Squeeze Me by Janis Martin
Kung Fu Cowboy by Alan Vega
Brain Damage by The Austin Lounge Lizards


Buck Owens Tribute Set
All songs by Buck unless otherwise noted
Excuse Me (I Think I Have a Heartache)
Only You (Can Break My Heart)
Big Game Hunter by Cornell Hurd
Together Again
Play Together Again Again by Buck & Emmylou Harris
Before You Go by Doyle Holly
Beer Can Hill by Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Bob Teague & Buck
Big in Vegas
Don't Let Her Know by Ray Charles
You Ain't Gonna Have Ol' Buck to Kick Around No More

Tiger Whitehead by Johnny Cash
Mercenary Song by Steve Earle
Girl Who Never Smiled by Eric Hisaw
Gather the Family 'Round by Ed Pettersen
That Loving You Feeling Again by Roy Orbison & Emmylou Harris
The Show Goes On by Kris Kristofferson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

MIDGETS & MUDBOGS

Looks like Gov. Richardson's efforts to bring major sporting events to New Mexico are starting to pay off.

Tomorrow, Socorro, N.M. will host a mudbog with actual midget wrestling during the intermission.

This is not an April Fool's joke.

This from The Albuquerque Journal, (New Mexico's #1 source for midget wrestling news!):

Puppet the Psycho Dwarf opens the show with a comedy routine, then there will be a 45-minute no-holds-barred midget wrestling match. Puppet insists the wrestlers on the tour are to be called midgets - including himself. Nobody, he said, wants to see "Little people wrestling." ... The show, which is probably the most UN-PC two hours of anything, will be the half-time act during the annual New Mexico Tech Off Road Club 2006 Mudbog, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 each, or $10 per car ...

If you can't get to Socorro tomorrow, at least check out the trailer for Half Pint Brawlers Volume 1.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: WAILA UBER ALLES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 31, 2006

Are you ready for Native American polka?

Some of the craziest, most infectious high-energy dance music of the Southwest is waila, sometimes called “chicken scratch,” created and perfected by the Tohono O’odham tribe (formerly called Papago) of southern Arizona.

There’s even a Waila Festival that takes place every May at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Canyon Records, that venerated purveyor of American Indian music both traditional and contemporary, recently re-released four of its classic 1970s waila albums on two CDs.

Waila! consists of the groundbreaking Chicken Scratch! (featuring two bands, El Conjunto Murietta and Mike Enis & Company) and its sequel, Chicken Scratch with Elvin Kelly y Los Reyes & Los Papagos Molinas. Both were originally released in 1972.

Then there’s The American Indians Play Waila, which consists of the first two albums by the Tohono O’odham band called The American Indians.

Waila — a word that comes from the Spanish baile (dance) — is predominantly instrumental music in which the lead instruments typically are the saxophone and accordion. At least since the rock ’n’ roll era, waila bands usually also include electric guitar, electric bass, and drums.

The history of waila is one of those tales of cultural cross-pollination that make America great. When German immigrants moved to Texas and introduced the accordion to the Mexicans already living there, the resulting proto-Tex-Mex sound swept the American Southwest (and northern Mexico, for that matter).

Tohono O’odham musicians, who had been introduced to European instruments by Catholic missionaries, took up the new sound, though the accordion wouldn’t become a staple in Tohono O’odham dance bands until the last half of the 20th century.

According to the Waila! liner notes, until the late ’40s, the typical band consisted of a fiddle, an acoustic guitar, bass drum, and snare drum. Sax and accordion came later — as did the wah-wah pedal, which American Indian John Manuel hooked up to his accordion in 1976 to produce some otherworldly sounds.

The nearby Pima tribe also embraced waila. Most of Los Reyes’ members, for example, are Pimas.

The songs come from old tribal melodies, Mexican songs, and European sources. Waila bands play a number of styles — polka, mazurka (originally a Polish folk-dance style), chote (a form of the German schottisches), and Mexican cumbia.

On some recordings, the guitars seem just slightly out of tune and the drums just a little clunky. I’m not sure if this is done intentionally, but the effect gives the music a strong DIY edge, an aura of roughness that distinguishes it from some of the squeaky-clean, overly precious polka records out there.

Also recommended

* Polka Uber Alles by The Polkaholics. Did I say something about “squeaky-clean, overly precious polka”? I sure wasn’t talking about The Polkaholics, a Chicago band that once declared itself “Polka Enemy Number One.”

This is basically a guitar-based (No accordion! No sax! No tuba!) power trio led by "Dandy" Don Hedecker.

Basically, The Polkaholics are to polka what The Pogues and The Dropkick Murphys are to traditional Irish music.

They’re loud, drunk, rowdy, and irreverent. But Hedecker knows his stuff about polka. For instance, he’s a fan, friend, and champion of Li’l Wally Jagiello, the old Chicago polka king whom Hedecker has referred to as the Elvis Presley or Muddy Waters of polka.

These polka punks play extremely hopped-up, hyperdrive polka melodies that celebrate the trappings of the polka lifestyle — crazy dancing, greasy sausages, polyester clothes, and, of course, beer, beer, and more beer. Song titles include “Let’s Kill Two Beers With One Stein,” “Beer, Broads and Brats,” and “Beer, Breakfast of Champions” (which has a melody similar to “Did You Ever See a Lassie” and a chorus of “So drink chugga lugga, drink chugga lugga.” )

My personal favorite on this album is “Too Smart Polka,” which contains the immortal line, “She’s sophisticated; I’m intoxicated.”

Sure, they’re a novelty group in their bowties, frilly vests, and Revenge-of-the-Nerds glasses. But there’s no denying that The Polkaholics are fun. As the song says, “Polka Your Troubles Away.”


*Carnival Conspiracy: In the Marketplace All Is Subterfuge by Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars. Why should I review this album? London says it all in his liner notes:

“Esteemed reader, you have purchased the greatest recording of all time, a CD so powerful that it will cure you of all ailments from impotence to flatulence. Let my bowels be ripped out and roasted if I am exaggerating. Simply carrying this disc on your person will lead to untold fortunes! Wrap this compact disc in warm, moist linen and apply it directly to any afflicted area of your body. It has the strength to cure Toothache, Ulcer and STDs. Is this nothing?”

No, it’s something. While I don’t know about its medicinal value, this might just be the coolest klezmer album I've ever heard.

With the help of “40 artists from eight countries,” trumpeter London, a founding member of The Klezmatics, has infused Jewish jazz with Brazilian carnival music, marching-band music, and even a little Mexican conjunto. At its best, it sounds like mad circus music from another dimension.

London, besides his talents as musician and arranger, has a wonderful sense of the surreal, as evidenced in his song titles: “Oh Agony, You Are So Sweet Like Sugar I Must to Eat You Up,” “Another Glass of Wine to Give Succor to My Ailing Existence,” and “In Your Garden Twenty Fecund Fruit Trees.”

WON'T WAIT FOR '08

I meant to blog this a couple of weeks ago. (Guess I was too busy gearing up for my Austin trip.)

This image to your right was on a March 10 e-mail from the Democratic Governors Association, signed by our gov. who is chairman of that group.

The actual text deals with supporting the National Guard. ("Tell the White House that you won't wait for '08 to support the Guard ... ")

But, as suggested on today's The Hotline , something subliminal might be at work here.

"Around this time in the election cycle, presidential candidates always answer the '08 questions with something like, "I'll decide after the midterms," or "Never look past the next election." They typically keep their distance from the '08 label to keep the press pumping on their potential candidacy.

"Not Gov. Bill Richardson. The DGA head took a less subtle approach in the most recent fundraising email sent out on the Democratic Governor's Association listserv ... while the message is from the DGA, the picture says a thousand words about Richardson."

LARRY'S CRYSTAL BALL

Political pundit Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center For Politics comments today about Senate and gubernatorial races.

No big surprises, but here's what he says of New Mexico:

Senate race:
Outlook: Solid Democratic

Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman, a four-term veteran, was on the verge of retiring, but pulled back and has now launched his campaign for re-election. He will likely win his fifth term. GOP Congresswoman Heather Wilson would have been tough competition, but she is running for re-election this time around.

Governor's race:

Outlook: Solid Democratic

Governor Bill Richardson (D) is still the favorite to win his second term, but he has had some problems recently, not least the controversy over his frequent traveling and the decision to buy a new, expensive state jet. Possible Republican nominees have been hard to come by so far, but it's still early.

Our bet stays with Richardson, but it matters how well and easily he wins, if he intends to be a serious 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.

Did he say the state jet was a potential problem for the gov? Just after reading that, as if by magic, I received this press release from the Department of Public Safety:

Santa Fe—Governor Bill Richardson has offered the state jet to fly a Bernalillo County Sheriff official and a State Police investigator to Washington D.C. to participate in the television show America’s Most Wanted. The program will feature efforts to apprehend accused killer Michael Paul Astorga who police believe shot and killed Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy James McGrane, Jr. during a traffic stop on March 22nd. The show will air live on KASA-TV at 8:00 p.m. local time Saturday night.

ROUNDHOUSE BLUES: ENERGY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 30, 2006

It’s been more than a year since The New Mexican published an op-ed piece with Gov. Bill Richardson’s byline. The last one I could find was from January 2005 where the guv opined on Medicaid.

But that doesn’t mean Richardson hasn’t peddled his punditry to other publications.

In fact, not quite two weeks ago, he had an op-ed published in another paper.

In New Hampshire, in The Manchester Union Leader, the daily paper in the Granite State’s largest city. In the old days, under its late former publisher William Loeb, that newspaper was so right wing that it made Fox News look like The Vegetarian Times.

The paper published a Richardson piece March 18, the same day he went to that state officially to participate in a St. Patrick’s Day parade and to campaign for local Democratic candidates. But really, he made the trip to get better acquainted with the good folks of New Hampshire, which hosts the first presidential primary every four years.

No, the op-ed wasn’t about Irish pride.

It ran under the headline: “A plan for American energy independence.”

Richardson, a former U.S. Energy Department secretary, told his New Hampshire readers: “We must implement a comprehensive-energy plan, not just pop holes into every prairie, plain, tundra and shoreline — no matter if those pockets would have any significant effect on our national-energy needs.”

He didn’t forget the state in which he currently resides.

In a paragraph that surely will be repeated in dozens of stump speeches later this year, Richardson boasted: “No other state has made as many advances in clean-energy policy as we have over this period. And I’m proud to say that people now look to us as a leader on clean and renewable energy. We have succeeded because people want energy diversification, they want clean energy, and they want the jobs and growth that will come from replacing $250 billion a year of foreign oil with clean, American-made energy.”

Then he localized it, adding, “New Hampshire families know how important this is.”

The critics rave: The only reaction I could find to the Union Leader op-ed didn’t come from New Hampshire. It was from a blogger in Seattle.

“The piece itself verges on parody, it is such a generic recitation of Democratic talking points on energy,” the blog says. “ ‘Foreign oil,’ check. ‘Apollo-like project’, check. ‘Can’t drill our way out of the problem,’ check. ‘Big oil companies with record profits,’ check.”

Grumblings from some grumpy Republican?

No, this blogger was David Roberts, assistant editor of Grist Magazine, an environmentalist journal.

Referring to Richardson’s “Apollo-like” rhetoric, Roberts wrote, “Of course, I think it’s all to the good that this has so quickly become conventional wisdom. It’s all true. But Richardson has always struck me as a bit smarmy and unimaginative. This piece of writing, which may as well have come from the Democratic Central Computer’s Energy Phrase Generator, only reinforces that impression.”

Gallows humor: The Union County Democratic Party has an important rule that candidates must follow to participate in the party’s upcoming pre-Primary Enchilada Supper: The Francesca Lobato Rule.

The rule, as stated in a recent news release, is simple: ”Any candidate who makes a vicious attack on another Democrat will be lynched.”

Yikes!

“The rule arises from an enchilada supper at which Ms. Lobato made such an attack on Sen. (Jeff) Bingaman,” the news release explains. “The county chairman was heavily criticized for preventing the lynching of Ms. Lobato. No such protection is now afforded and a rope is available.”

Perennial candidate Lobato has run for Senate several times. She’s been a Democrat, a Green and an independent. Last time we looked, Lobato was suing to get on the Republican primary ballot for the U.S. Senate race, where three other candidates are competing to run against Bingaman.

The Union County Democratic Party’s Pre-Primary Enchilada Supper is scheduled for May 2 at the Airpark in Clayton.

Rave on!: A couple of items in the capital-outlay bill that escaped the governor’s veto pen will provide $350,000 to buy a theater and studio in Clovis once owned by Buddy Holly producer Norman Petty and turn it into a performing-arts center and Petty museum.
But hold on, Peggy Sue.

The building in question isn’t the actual studio where Buddy and The Crickets, Waylon Jennings and Roy Orbison recorded in the 1950s. The state is buying the old Mesa Theater, where Petty later moved his recording business, said Ken and Shirley Broad in a recent interview. The late Vi Petty, Norman’s wife, donated the theater to Clovis Community College.

The Broads own the original Norman Petty Studio on 7th Street in Clovis and manage the vast music catalog Norman Petty owned.

The Broads still conduct tours of the old studio if you call them in advance.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 26, 2006
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
King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Ride Away by The Fall
Cradle of Lies by Johnny Dowd
Feeling Strange by The Plimsouls
Teenage Wristband by The Twilight Singers
Sing Me Spanish Techno by The New Pornographers
My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found by The Fiery Furnaces
Act Naturally by The Beatles

Signifyin' Honky by P.W. Long & Reelfoot
Good Man by The Grabs
Shotgun John by Hundred Year Flood
The Ballad of Johnny Burma by Mission of Burma
Desert Search For Techno Allah by Mr. Bungle
Red Hot by Ellegarden
Baby Got Back by Richard Cheese

Too Smart Polka by The Polkaholics
La Sanja by El Conjunto Murrietta
This City is Very Exciting by 3 Mustaphas 3
Shamisen Boogie Woogie by Umekichi & Otemoto Orchestra
Nana(N.J. 1920-2002) by Kultur Shock
The Cry of the Wild Duck by The Klezmer Conservatory Band
Blackwater Polka by The American Indians
Gilligan's Island by Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole

Danny Boy by Black 47
Little Drop of Poison by Tom Waits
My Pet Rat St. Michael by Mark Eitzel
Her Ambition by Mecca Normal
Clowns & Jugglers (Octopus) by Syd Barrett
Baby It's You by The Shirrells
Crying Time by Ray Charles
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

R.I.P. BUCK

Buck Owens is dead.


from Reuters:
Country-music innovator Buck Owens, who sold more than 16 million albums and popularized country entertainment on television as host of "Hee Haw," died on Saturday at age 76.

Owens died of heart failure at his home near Bakersfield, a California city he helped put on the country-music map, his keyboard player Jim Shaw said. Owens performed the night before at his club, "Buck Owens' Crystal Palace" for about 90 minutes, Shaw said.

"He was one of the true innovators; he did it his own way, an outside gunslinger type who used his own band and made music in Hollywood rather than Nashville. That free spirit made him important to a lot of people," Shaw said.

My brother just sent me "The Buck Owens Pledge, which appeared as a paid ad in Music City News back in March, 1965:

I Shall Sing No Song That Is Not A Country Song.

I Shall Make No Record That Is Not A Country Record.

I Refuse To be Known As Anything But A Country Singer.

I Am Proud To be Associated With Country Music.

Country Music And Country Music Fans Made Me What I Am Today.

And I Shall Not Forget It.

Buck will get a proper tribute from me next Friday on the Santa Fe Opry.

God, I loved his music!

Here's my review last year of The Buck Owens Ranch Show DVDs

UPDATE: (Sunday morning) This piece by Peter Cooper of The Tennessean is a much better tribute to Buck. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was pissed off by all the headlines that emphasized Buck's role in Hee Haw.

ONE MORE UPDATE: (Later Sunday Morning) Here's a good radio tribute to Buck on NPR's Sunday Weekend Edition. I like how Buck describes "The Bakersfield Sound" as "A mix of Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys and Little Richard."