eMUSIC DOWNLOADS (MAY, APRIL, MARCH)

Just for the Hell of it, I'm going to start posting my eMusic downloads every month.

This month I was like a kid in the candy store. I reached my 90-track limit less than a week after my account refreshed. No self control -- but some great tunes.

Here we go:

The Main Event: Live At The Maple Leaf by ReBirth Brass Band. I just saw these guys in Robert Mugge's new film New Orleans Music in Exile. This is a 1999 concert.

American Primitive, Vol. 1 - Raw Pre-War Gospel 1926 - 1936 This is a Revenant -- John Fahey -- collection. Mostly very obscure artists, though Charlie Patton has a few tracks here. There's some real crazy stuff here, such as "Good Lord (Run Old Jeremiah)" by Austin Coleman with Joe Washington Brown, which sounds like a voodoo ceremony. Some of the tracks are pretty scratchy, but sometimes even the scratches tell a story.

27 fairly obscure Jerry Lee Lewis tracks from various Sun Records compilations, including "My Pretty Quadroon," "The Crawdad Song," "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia," "Old Black Joe" and an instrumental version of "The Marine Hymn."

Early Movie Hits by Maurice Chevalier. A real French tickler.

'Sno Angel Like You by Howe Gelb. Sounds like Giant Sand with a big ol' gospel choir.

Town Hall Concert by Charles Mingus. Plus a 23-minute cut called "New Fables" from another album, Right Now: Live At The Jazz Workshop.



Here's my April downloads:

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case. It's almost as good as everyone says it is.

16 tracks from A Case for Case, the Peter Case tribute

Gogol Bordello Live at Maxwells plus the East Infection EP and some stray cuts from other Gogol albums. If the Pogues were gypsies ...

A Toast to You by American Music Club. This is from AMC's 2004 reunion tour. It has two of my favorite AMC songs, "Johnny Mathis' Feet" and "Patriot's Heart."

Daddy When is Mama Coming Home? by Big Jack Johnson . He's modern Mississippi soul blues and another artist to whom I was turned on by a Mugge film.

Good To Me: Recorded Live At The Whiskey A Go Go Volume 2 by Otis Redding. Otis live!

An Evening With Sammy Cahn. One hour-plus cut featuring one of Tin Pan Alley's finest.

plus the song "Across the Wire" by Calexico (which I included in a recent column about immigration songs.)

My March downloads included:

Texas Tornado Live by Sir Douglas Quintet. This is the early '80s SDQ, with fiddler Alvin Crow. Good early version of "Who Were You Thinking Of?" They even do "Wooly Bully." Would that make Doug "Sahm the Sham"? (plus a stray SDQ version of Butch Hancock's "I Keep Wishing For You." from Takoma Eclectic Sampler Volume 1)

Keys to the Kingdom by Washington Phillips: Wow! I'd never been hip to this guy before now. Where have I been. He's a gospel singer and preacher who recorded in the 1920s, singing original songs and playing a mysterious instrument that sounds a little like an autoharp and a little like a hammer dulcimer. According to the All Music Guide Phillips played:

what was believed to be a dolceola, a zither-like instrument with a small keyboard invented by Ohio piano tuner David P. Boyd in the 1890s. Only around a hundred of this odd instrument were ever made, leading to the question of how a route preacher in East Texas ended up with one. Recent studies suggest that Phillips may have actually played a modified fretless zither on his recordings rather than a true dolceola, and in fact, he may have been playing two such instruments at the same time, one with the left hand and one with his right."

Whatever it was, it was heavenly.

Phillips' songs include "Lift Him Up, that's All," covered recently by Ralph Stanley and "Denomination Blues," covered a million years ago by Ry Cooder.

Body of Song by Bob Mould. Mould's guitar rock comeback from last year. Not bad, though no Black Sheets of Rain.

Vs. by Mission of Burma. I'm a newcomer to Mission. Maybe I was always too wary about a band featuring a singer named Roger Miller who wasn't the Roger Miller I know and love. But I'm loving this album. I hear the seeds of Dinosaur Junior and Afghan Whigs (who come to think of it, once had a member named Steve Earle.)

First Songs by Michael Hurley. These are from the mid '60s. He hadn't quite developed his loveable kooky personna at this point, but he was working on it. ("I like my wine, yes I love my wine, but it ate my stomach out ...")

Kultura-Diktatura by Kultur Shock. A "world-beat" band (based in Seattle) designed to frighten your average world-beat weenie. Sounds like a cross between 3 Mustaphas 3 and Mr. Bungle. Anyone remember the Man From U.N.C.L.E episode when some Eastern-Block rock band sang a song called "My Bulgarian Baby"? I think I've found that band's spiritual heirs.

Ornette Coleman on Unique Jazz, a 1971 Berlin concert with some of the songs from Science Fiction. Plus a 23-minute track called "The Ark" from Coleman's Town Hall 1962 album.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 5, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

(A strange night. Lightning struck KSFR's tower during my first song. We went off the air for about 45 minutes, though we kept webcasting straight through.)

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Fishin' Hole by Henry Kaiser
Black Smoke a Blowin' Over 18 Wheels by Cornell Hurd
Tearin' Up the Town by The Stumbleweeds
Act Like a Married Man by Robbie Fulks
Dirt Track Date by Southern Culture on the Skids
Stupid Boy by The Gear Daddies
Pay Me My Money Down by Bruce Springsteen
Pine Leaf Boy Two Step by The Pine Leaf Boys

Cinco de Mayo set
Guacamole by The Texas Tornados
La Mula Bronca by Al Hurricane
El Mosquito by Eddie Dimas
Fiesta by The Pogues
El Corrido de Emilio Naranjo by Angel Espinoza
Pepito by Baby Gaby
Matadora by Cordero
Deportee by The Byrds

After We Shot the Grizzley by The Handsome Family
Scar on Her Cheek by The Rivet Gang
The Ledge by Trilobite
I Can't Be Satisfied by Hot Tuna
Traveling Light by Todd Snider
Maybe Sparrow by Neko Case
Crackerjack by Janis Martin
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson

The Farmer's Daughter by Merle Haggard
Dollar Dress by Jon Langford
The House is Falling Down by Johnny Cash
A World of Hurt by Drive-By Truckers
Remain by Jon Dee Graham
Mr. President (Have Pity on the Workin' Man) by Sam Bush
Waitin' Around to Die by Townes Van Zandt
I Still Sing the Old Songs by David Allen Coe
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: LONG MAY HE RAGE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 5, 2006

Neil Young is righteously pissed again.


His latest album, Living With War, is a hard-rocking electric tirade against the war and the Bush administration.

“Won’t need no shadow man running the government/Won’t need no stinking war ... after the garden is gone,” Young sings in the opening song. “And on the flat-screen we kill and we’re killed again/and when the night falls, I pray for peace” goes a verse in the title song.

There are songs about soldiers and their families and titles like “Shock and Awe” and “Flags of Freedom” (with a melody similar to Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom”). There’s a song that calls for Bush’s impeachment and one calling for new leaders to arise. There’s a beautiful, soulful rendition of “America the Beautiful” featuring a choir of 100.

Forgetting the politics and the lyrical content for just a moment, this album is a welcome return for those of us who are mainly fans of Young’s Ragged Glory/Crazy Horse side.

I assumed it was Crazy Horse the first time I heard Living With War, but actually it’s a couple of guys named Chad Cromwell (drums) and Rick Rosas (bass).

The singer underwent brain surgery last year. I was afraid someone had pulled a Clockwork Orange on him. His last album, Prairie Wind, was a snoozer, as far as I’m concerned. And Jonathan Demme’s recently released Neil-cumentary Heart of Gold also shows Young’s mellow side.

But Living With War shows it takes more than brain surgery to keep a good rocker down.

Most of the record was recorded over a five-day period in late March and early April, with a few stray overdubs and “America the Beautiful” added a few days later.

That’s right —recorded a month ago and coming through computer speakers all over the world days later. (“Hard copy” CDs come out next week.)

Obviously, Young wanted these songs out immediately. And it’s that urgency that gives Living With War much of its power.

Actually, this has been Young’s modus operandi before. Back in 1970, after National Guard troops at Kent State University shot and killed four war protesters, we were rocking and rolling to “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming” in a matter of weeks, after Young rushed to record and release “Ohio.”


Less remembered is “War Song,” another political rush job — released in May 1972 — by Young and Graham Nash. “There’s a man who says he can put an end to war,” Nash and Young sang. With images of jet fighters, napalm, and even the George Wallace assassination attempt, the song was meant to raise money and awareness for anti-war candidate George McGovern.

Zap ahead nearly 30 years to Sept. 11, 2001. Young, inspired by an account of the passenger revolt aboard the hijacked Flight 93, writes and records “Let’s Roll.” By now there was an Internet, so within days, Young released it as a free download. (Months later, he included it on his Are You Passionate CD.)

“No one has the answer/But one thing is true/You’ve got to turn on evil/When it’s coming after you,”

Some of Young’s lefty fans thought this song was an endorsement of Bush’s war policies. Indeed, Young’s politics through the years have been complicated. At one point in the 1980s he was praising Ronald Reagan. But by 1989, Young was angrily mocking some of George Bush the First’s most famous rhetoric. “We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man/We got a kinder, gentler machine-gun hand.” (I always thought Peggy Noonan should have been listed as a co-writer of “Rockin’ in the Free World.”)

Even on this album, there’s at least a token bipartisan gesture. On “Lookin’ For a Leader” (“Someone walks among us ... and I hope he hears the call”), Young nominates two possibilities: “Maybe it’s Obama, but he thinks that he’s too young/Maybe it’s Colin Powell to right what he’s done wrong.” (What, no mention of Bill Richardson?)

But there’s no mercy shown for Bush: “Let’s impeach the president/For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected/Dividing our country into colors/And still leaving black people neglected.”

Of course, cynics say Young is playing it safe, waiting until Bush’s popularity has sunk to the point that there’s no real danger of a Dixie Chicks-like backlash. (The same is being said for Pink, who just released “Dear Mr. President,” and Pearl Jam, who just released the anti-war “World Wide Suicide.”)

Give me a break. Does anyone really think that Neil Young is looking at poll numbers?

A common right-wing beef against the album is that Young is not really an American but a (gasp) Canadian. Next thing you know someone’s going to want to rename a popular pizza ingredient “freedom bacon.” Besides the fact that Young has paid American taxes for 40 years or so, sometimes we can get insights about America by listening to foreigners. Remember, The Band was four-fifths Cannuck.

The immediacy of Living With War and the near-subversive spirit in which Young got it out help make the project exciting. But there’s that nagging question about political works in general: Will it pass the test of time? Will it be remembered like “Ohio” or forgotten like “War Song” (or John Lennon’s Sometime in New York, a dated political curiosity that did have some rocking moments)?

Actually, I don’t think it matters, and I’m pretty sure Young’s not that concerned about whether this album is enshrined as a classic.

Sometimes it’s the now that’s important.

Right now Neil Young is raging.

You can listen to Living With War for free HERE. There’s a lot of information on the album HERE.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: BELTWAY TAKES NOTICE OF N.M. SCANDALS

A version of this appeared in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 4, 2006

Attorney General Patricia Madrid’s political headaches stemming from the Robert Vigil trial and the Eric Serna scandal are getting attention from the inside-the-Beltway press.

Madrid is running for Congress against incumbent U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson in the First Congressional District.

Under the headline “Scandals May Cloud Madrid’s Bid Against Rep. Wilson,” Roll Call (“The Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955”) on Wednesday observed, “Two developing political scandals in New Mexico threaten to singe one of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s top recruits of the election cycle.

“The scandals — one unfolding in an Albuquerque courtroom, the other in the state bureaucracy in Santa Fe — involve current and former Democratic officeholders,” the story says. “Depending on how they’re resolved, they could diminish what had been expected to be a promising election year for Democrats in the Land of Enchantment.”

The article was written by Josh Kurtz, a former writer for The Santa Fe Reporter, now Roll Call’s political editor.

Kurtz’s story talks about the ongoing trial of former state Treasurer Vigil.

“When the Vigil scandal first broke last fall, Madrid and Gov. Bill Richardson (D) — who could also face some collateral damage — were criticized when they signed off on a deal that enabled Vigil to temporarily step down with full pay and benefits,” Kurtz writes.

He also mentions Taxation and Revenue Secretary Jan Goodwin’s testimony last week that as director of the Board of Finance in 2002 she’d written Madrid calling for an investigation of possible hanky-panky with treasurer’s investments. (Madrid’s office said it never received the letter.)

Richardson “could also face some collateral damage,” Kurtz writes.

The Roll Call story talks about Madrid’s ties with state Insurance Commissioner Serna, who currently is on paid leave while being investigated for his dealings with Century Bank, which received a state contract after contributions to Con Alma — a health-care nonprofit that Serna and Madrid co-founded. Serna stepped down as president of Con Alma after the story about Century Bank broke.

The story quotes “one plugged-in Democratic lobbyist in Santa Fe” saying that Serna and Madrid are “two peas in a pod ... They created Con Alma together.”

It’s clear, Kurtz writes, “that the political implications for Madrid’s high-stakes battle with Wilson — a perennial target in an Albuquerque-based district that leans modestly Democratic — are staggering.”

That chicken won’t fight: Also getting national attention is Richardson’s bold and innovative refusal to take a stand on the perennial issue of cockfighting.

The question was brought up this week at a White House press briefing. But as you can see in this transcript from the White House Web site, outgoing spokesman Scott McClellan, in answering questions from an unnamed reporter, is just as slippery as our governor on this issue.

Question: The AP reports from Blackfoot, Idaho, the arrest of 17 people from Idaho, Utah and Nevada for being involved in a cockfight. But in New Mexico, which, with Louisiana, is one of only two states where cockfighting is legal, for any old presidential contender, a Democrat, Gov. Bill Richardson, said of this brutal and deadly, activity, “I have not made my mind up on that,” reported the Las Cruces Sun News. And my question: Does the President have any such indecision on this brutality, as Gov. Richardson does?

McClellan: Well, we really haven’t (had) a conversation about cockfighting lately. (Laughter.) But there are —

Question: The AP reported this, and it’s going on —

McClellan: I hate to inform Terry Hunt that I don’t read every AP article that is out there, but there are laws on the books, and the laws are there for a reason. And I think the President believes that laws —

Question: What does he think of Gov. Richardson —

McClellan: I think the President believes laws ought to be enforced.

Question: What does he think of Gov. Richardson —

McClellan: Well, he knows Gov. Richardson, and I think that they’ve had a fairly good relationship. They certainly have disagreement(s) on a number of issues. But I think they’ve had —

Question: They disagree on this then?

From there, McClellan went on to an easier question.

One about the situation in Darfur.

Sometimes you can get straighter talk from comics than politicians.

Jay Leno recently brought up the issue in his Tonight Show monologue: “In New Mexico, Gov. Bill Richardson — this is unbelievable — Gov. Bill Richardson said he is still undecided about cockfighting, which is not banned in New Mexico. It’s still legal. This is what he said, he said there are arguments on both sides.

Really? What is the good argument for cockfighting? Does this keep the roosters off the street?”

Support Guy’s Kids: Democratic attorney-general candidate Gary King is the latest recipient of investor Guy Riordan campaign contributions to donate Riordan money to charity.

King, who ran for Congress in 2004, received $500 from Riordan. King said Tuesday he’s giving that to the New Mexico Children’s Foundation.

Riordan started a charity stampede a couple of weeks ago after former State Treasurer Michael Montoya testified at the Vigil trial that Riordan had given him kickbacks, sometimes in restroom stalls.

“My guess is that time will tell whether what Michael Montoya said about Guy Riordan is true,” King said.

King said he hadn’t returned my phone calls last week because he’d been in Switzerland speaking at a conference on aviation and the environment.

LIVING WITH WAR

In case you haven't found this already, you can listen to Neil Young's Living With War HERE

THE COYOTE HOWLS

Thanks to Mario and his well-honed blog radar for pointing out a new Enchanted Land political blog "New Mexico Politics and Politicos."

It's published by a Santa Fe guy who calls himself "Coyote." All we know about him is that he also publishes a real-estate blog.

So far the blog seems to be concentrating, naturally enough, on the Robert Vigil trial. "This site is neither for Democrat or Republican. As long as there is corruption in New Mexico I plan on treating all politicians the same," the blog's masthead says.

He also compares Gov. Bill Richardson and Attorney General Patricia Madrid to well-known sitcom characters.

Welcome to Blogville, Coyote.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 30, 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
Where's Your Boyfriend At by The Yayhoos
Pimps of Polka by The Polkaholics
Nobody Cares by The 88
Centre for Holy Wars by New Pornographers
My Pretty Quadroon by Jerry Lee Lewis
Go to Hell on Judgment Day by The Immortal Lee County Killers
Bob's Party Time Lounge by Primus
Mimi by Maurice Chevalier

Let Freedom Ring by Terry Allen with Surachai Jantimatorn & Caravan
Gauntanamera by Los Lobos
An American is a Very Lucky Man by Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians
Pissed Off by The Rodeo Carburettor
Praise God by Johnny Dowd
Bow Wow by The Fiery Furnaces
Plastic Fantastic Lover by Jefferson Airplane
The Farm by Howe Gelb

Roll With Me Henry by Etta James
Chained and Bound by Otis Redding
United States Got Us in Bad Shape by Big Jack Johnson
Will it Go Round in Circles by Billy Preston
Mean Old World by Sam Cooke
Two Little Fishes, Five Loaves of Bread by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Night Train by King Curtis

Clouds Through Flame by Mbconn
Three Stars by KULT
Strange Uncles From Abroad by Gogol Bordello
The Sound of Failure by The Flaming Lips
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis