NASCAR CANDIDATES

Longshot, dark horse, maverick Republican Congressional candidate Ron Dolin might face an uphill battle in his quest to unseat popular Democrat Tom Udall. And true, his blunt and often non-party-line talk about the issues has resulted in the state GOP establishment practically disowning him.

But Dolin continues to send the most clever and enjoyable press releases of the 2006 campaign.

This morning Dolin e-mailed his modest proposal for campaign finance reform:

The massive unchecked flow of money from corporations, lobbyist, unions, PACs, and financers to politicians has exploded in recent years. This legal, but potentially unethical, method of influence peddling mimics corporate sponsorship of sporting events.

"In sports," Dolin explained, "you know who the sponsors are because they name stadiums after corporations or place advertising logos around the venues. In politics, it is far less clear."

Dr. Dolin wants to help voters wade through the murky quagmire of political sponsorship by requiring all political letterheads, websites, emails, and campaign literature to prominently display the logos of their primary sponsors in a manner similar to the logo system used by NASCAR. This would also apply to newsletters incumbents send out under the auspices of legislative updates.

Having politicians publicly recognize their sponsors helps voters better anticipate how a candidate may vote on future legislation. At the same time, this NASCAR logo-like system helps explain an incumbent’s past voting record. ...

If implemented, political media would take on the artistic flare of a NASCAR automobile.

"The larger the sponsorship the larger the logo." Dolin said. "That way voters get visual confirmation of who a politician’s major sponsors are."

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BROWN & ALVIN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 1, 2006

Two artists with impossibly deep voices and a ruggedness not usually associated with the often precious and wimpy singer-songwriter and folk genres are appearing this weekend at the Thirsty Ear Festival.

Greg Brown, surely the finest songwriter to emerge from the jungles of Iowa, is playing at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, and Dave Alvin, lead guitarist of the Blasters in the early 1980s, is playing at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3, with his band the Guilty Men. Both have terrific new albums and are bound to perform material from them at the festival.

Brown’s new album, The Evening Call, produced by longtime guitar crony Bo Ramsey, is a punch in the face with a velvet fist. It’s a blues-drenched collection of wry, wistful, and sometimes weary songs that might remind a listener of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. That’s most obvious on Brown’s song “Bucket” (“Write it in your journal or prop it in a nook/It oughta be illegal when you give me that look”). With its recurring guitar blue note and standup bass, this song is a musical grandchild of Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain.”

A real sense of foreboding runs through the album. “The world we’ve made scares the hell out of me,” he confesses in “Eugene,” a spoken-word song about getting away from civilization and fishing in places where cellphones don’t work.

This existential dread is apparent in songs like “Treat Each Other Right,” which has some horrifying images (“Somebody killed a bunch of children, said it was about their godly way”) but ends on a note of uneasy hope (“My friend had a dream, it about made me cry/He said he saw two stone Buddhas rising where those towers had filled the sky.”

In “Cold & Dark & Wet,” Brown puts himself in the role of worried man and political cynic. “Jobs I guess are like wild geese/They went flying overseas ... Morning in America is cold and dark and wet.” But his humor is never far away. The song starts out with bitter memories of a “twisted girl” he’d loved. “She found a new man on the Internet/Wham I’m spam and it’s cold and dark and wet.”

“Kokomo” is a contemporary hobo ballad. Over a musical backdrop reminiscent of James McMurtry’s “Too Long in the Wasteland,” Brown growls, “With a payday loan and a migraine I crossed Contrary Creek/Looking for a gal that I knew as Sal, we were married once for a week.” Later in the song he sings of another woman. “You know she was just my type: deranged, middle-aged, and crude.”

In several places Brown is looking back on his rough and rowdy days. “I had my fun, my fun had me,” he sings in the title song. In “Pound It On Down,” he’s having a “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” moment. “I’m drinking one drink for each one tonight,” he sings.

One verse in “Joy Tears” just has to be about Brown’s wife, Iris DeMent. “When you start your singing, honey, the heavens open up with grace.”

But the album ends on a sweet if somewhat uneasy note. “Whippoorwill” is a love song, but it starts out on a pessimistic note: “If you ever leave, and I imagine you will ...”

Jolting, yes. But it’s that unpredictable quality in Brown’s lyrics that makes fans love him.

Dave Alvin’s new CD, West of the West, is a tribute to songwriters from his home state of California. He covers a lot of ground here, from Merle Haggard to Brian Wilson. There are songs by Alvin pals like Tom Russell and David Hidalgo and icons like Tom Waits, Jerry Garcia, Jackson Browne, Kate Wolf, and John Fogerty.

Fittingly, one of the best tracks here is “Between the Cracks,” a conjunto-flavored tale of crime and poverty co-written by Alvin and Russell. It’s the only songwriting contribution Alvin makes to this project. Although his skills as a songwriter have been impressive in recent years, Alvin seems to be conserving his original material. In the past decade he’s released two live albums, two cover albums (this one and Public Domain, a 2000 collection of old folk songs) and two albums of mainly original tunes (2004’s Ashgrove and 1998’s Blackjack David). But what an original idea it is to honor songwriters from a single state. (Someone should do that for New Mexico.)

My favorites are Alvin’s cool-blues-shuffle rendition of Browne’s “Redneck Friend” and a snazzy, doo-woppy “I Am Bewildered,” written by Los Angeles R & B giant Richard Berry (whose best-known tune was “Louie, Louie”) and Joe Josea.

Alvin does impressive interpretations of Los Lobos’ “Down on the Riverbed” and of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter’s gambling tale “Loser.”

But the best is Fogerty’s “Don’t Look Now,” which Alvin does as a Chicago blues number. Though it wasn’t a hit single, this is one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s most poignant songs. When it appeared on Willie and the Poor Boys in 1969, it was a jab at the underlying antagonism between the self-satisfied hip and working-class reality (“Who’ll take the coal from the mine? Who’ll take the salt from the earth? ... Don’t look now, it ain’t you or me”). Now it sounds more like a cold look at globalization (“Who’ll make the shoes for your feet/Who’ll make the clothes that you wear?”).

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: RICHARDSON FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE

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

We all know Gov. Bill Richardson is becoming quite fond of New Hampshire, home of the nation’s first presidential primary. But could he like it enough to be running for governor of the Granite State?

A strange document popped up Wednesday on a blog called New Mexico Matters, published by Gideon Elliot, a past deputy executive director of the state Democratic Party.

It’s a New Hampshire political committee registration form dated Aug. 7, 2006, for a political committee called Richardson for Governor.

The chairman is one David Contarino, who is chairing the governor’s re-election effort in this state.

And no, the governor of New Mexico isn’t really trying to govern two states, said Richard Bouley of Concord, N.H., who is listed as treasurer of the committee.

“It’s the (political action committee) he’s established in New Hampshire,” Bouley said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It was set up if he wants to give to candidate committees here.”

So far, Richardson for Governor has contributed $2,500 to the New Hampshire Senate Democratic Caucus, said Bouley, who said he’s a longtime friend of Richardson’s.

Bouley also said the committee isn’t a precursor to a Richardson for President committee. “He has not announced he’s running for president,” Bouley said.

A Thousand Percent: Those of us old enough to remember the brutal 1972 presidential election know what “1,000 percent” means.

Only days after ’72 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern nominated Sen. Tom Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate, news broke that Eagleton had received electro-shock therapy for depression and exhaustion.

Initially, McGovern stood by his man, declaring in front of television cameras that he was behind Eagleton “1,000 percent.”

Days later, Eagleton was dumped from the ticket. From that point on, supporters of President Nixon’s re-election used the phrase to mock McGovern.

Last week, New Mexico Democratic chairman John Wertheim had a “1,000 percent” moment.

When political blogger Joe Monahan published rumors that something was about to break that could drive Democratic state auditor candidate Jeff Armijo off the ticket, Wertheim sent an e-mail to reporters declaring the party “does not comment on unsubstantiated and unattributed rumors in the blogosphere.”

Fair enough. And probably a good idea.

But the chairman took it a step further: We affirm what we know to be true: that Jeff Armijo will be the next Auditor of the State of New Mexico.”

When the Albuquerque Tribune on Saturday published a story about police reports by two women who claimed Armijo made aggressive and unwanted sexual advances toward them, Wertheim, of course, had to backpedal.

And of course by Tuesday, following a meeting with Richardson, Armijo had hit the Eagleton Highway.

So why did Wertheim make such a bold statement about Armijo being the next treasurer?

I can’t believe Wertheim knew about the damaging allegations and hoped nobody would find out.

So that leaves two choices.

Either Wertheim had asked Armijo about the “unsubstantiated and unattributed rumors in the blogosphere” and Armijo lied and said there was nothing.

Or perhaps Wertheim had so much faith in his candidate that he couldn’t conceive of any possible problem, and that faith was so strong, he didn’t bother to check it out.

Unfortunately for him and Armijo — who after all, hasn’t been charged with any crime — newspaper reporters did check it out.

Another AG flier: Once again, there’s a full-color flier from Attorney General Patricia Madrid landing in New Mexico mailboxes.

Once again Republicans are saying the mailer — this one dealing with how to avoid scams — amounts to nothing more than campaign literature paid for by the public for Madrid’s Congressional race against Republican incumbent Heather Wilson.

Like the previous Madrid mailers — which concerned prescription drugs and Internet sex predators — the flier titled Don’t Get Burned has a prominent photo of the attorney general.

In the new one, she’s wearing the same outfit and pearl necklace she wears on the photo of her campaign Web site.

Like the fliers that came before, the new one advertises a new publication by the AG’s office, this one called, Don’t Get Burned: How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off.

However the new flier is just a single double-sided sheet, unlike the previous four-page mailers.

And the previous ones indeed were more like campaign brochures, featuring glowing comments about Madrid from news media.

On the previous mailer, Madrid’s name appeared 11 times. On the new one, only four times.

And on the bottom of the back page is a disclaimer: “Taxpayer money was not used for the printing or distribution of this flier. "

Like the others, the anti-scam flier was paid for with money from a settlement in a class action lawsuit against Microsoft.

Once again, the AG’s office argues that the settlement money isn’t “taxpayer” money because it didn’t come directly from taxes — though others argued it’s public money that was won by tax-paid lawyers for the benefit of the citizens of the state.

“As someone who had shares in Microsoft, it was my money,” joked Sam Thompson, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.

The anti-scam book can be downloaded HERE. For a hard copy, call (505) 222-9000.

ARMIJO DROPS OUT

According to the Associated Press, Jeff Armijo has dropped out of the state auditor's race after meeting with Gov. Bill Richardson.

This comes following allegations of sexual misconduct by two young women. Read more HERE

UPDATE: Here's the word from the Gov's office:

“I appreciate Jeff Armijo’s action,” Gov. Bill Richardson said. “He has acted in the best interest of his family and the Democratic Party.”

As a result of Armijo’s decision to withdraw from the race, the New Mexico Democratic Party’s State Central Committee must meet to choose a replacement candidate.

“I support a competitive process in which the State Central Committee chooses the best candidate to represent the Democratic Party on the ballot,” Gov. Richardson said.

THE SPAGHETTI LISTS

For some reason I'm on the mailing list of Eddie Spaghetti of The Supersuckers.

Today Eddie sent me his lists of "Over-Rated Bands of All Time" and Top 10 American rock bands. I don't agree with all his choices on either list, but feel free to add your own choices in the comments section. Here's the list with Eddie's comments:

Over-Rated

1 The Doors
2 The Velvet Underground
3 Radiohead
4 R.E.M.
5 U2
6 Coldplay
7 Kiss
8 The Beatles
9 Dave Matthews Band
10 Tiger Army - no, I'm kidding! They're FAR from over-rated, they just suck. (I dunno why they're my new favorite whipping boys. It used to be that Sully guy from that heavy metal band whose name I can't remember). 10, unfortunately, has got to be Pearl Jam. Or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I'm not sure. At least Eddie Vedder can sing!

So... now you may discuss. This list in no way means that a band is no good (although The Doors are clearly that) and I actually like some songs by bands on this list, I just think these bands are all held in such high regard that their music to merit ratio is WAY out of whack. There could also be a more current version featuring bands like Modest Mouse, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Death Cab For Cutie, My Morning Jacket, etc. But we can do that later. I also left off a lot of these "jam bands" that are way too popular for their own good, (You know who the guiltiest ones are), because I admire their D.I.Y. work ethic. (I had to include Dave Matthews though because I see him occasionally at my local coffee shop and we've needed something to talk about for awhile now.)

OKAY, just for frame of reference, so you can see where I'm coming from, here is my list of Top 10 AMERICAN rock bands. Remember, these are just the ones from the USA here:

1 The Ramones
2 C.C.R.
3 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
4 ZZ Top
5 Van Halen
6 Aerosmith
7 Cheap Trick
8 Replacements
9 X, The Pixies, Zeke, Zen Guerilla, Nirvana, Dwarves, Supersuckers, The Hangmen, Lazy Cowgirls, Mick Collins (Dirtbombs, Blacktop, Gories) The Upper Crust, etc...
10 The Rolling Stones

9 was hard. I sort of crammed all my faves in there (and I think Nirvana may be number 11 on the over-rated list. They suffer from being over-rated AND influential which kind of goes hand in hand, I guess). I realize also that the Stones are not from America, (just in case you thought I lost my mind) but it seems like they deserve the "honorable American" status to me. Like when you give some dumb actor or musician and "honorary doctorate" at some university or something.

RADIO RUSS

Russ Gordon, who produces the Los Alamos summer concert series (which I'm never able to attend since they're on Friday night) just started doing a radio show on KRSN.

According to an e-mail he sent, the show started 3 p.m. today on KRSN, 1490 AM. "The show will be Mon. thru Fri. and hopefully, it'll be on the web by week's end," Russ said. "The music will be `free form', an eclectic mix."

Knowing Russ, I bet it's good.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 27, 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
Another Man Done Gone by Irma Thomas
Idlewood Blue (Don't Chu Worry 'Bout Me) by Outkast
Crazy Crazy Mama by Roky Erikson
Eve of Destruction by The Dickies
Hands by The Raconteurs
Lady Bird (Green Grass) by The Fall
Heart of Darkness by Pere Ubu
Cue the Light Brigade by The Cherry Tempo

I Wish That I Was Dead by The Dwarves
Longhaired Guys from England by Too Much Joy
Down the Road by Dead Moon
Bold Maurader by Drywall
Man in the Plaid Suit by Hellwood
Nightmare Hippy Girl by Beck
Save it For Later by Sol Fire
Sweetheart (Frito Lay) by The Electric Ghosts
Do the Trouser Press by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

Bat Macumba by Os Mutantes
El Nozanin by Sevara Nazarkhan
Tokyo Surf by Stuurbaard Bakkebaard
Tip My Canoe by Dengue Fever
Pretty Thing by Nightlosers
Lieto by Varttina
Troubled Friends by Gogol Bordello

C'est pas la mer a boire by Les Negresses Vertes
Idol by Kazik Staszewski
Biskotin by Istanbul Blues Kumpanyasi
Mana Janab Ne Pukara Nahin by Shaan
Sitta by Cankisou
The Soba Song by 3 Mustapas 3
Natasha Loves Reggae by The Red Elvises
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 25, 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
Eight Miles High by Chris Hillman
The Heart Bionic by Bobby Bare Jr's Young Criminals Starvation League
I Hung it Up by Junior Brown
Wild Gods of Mexico by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Radio the Station by Goshen
Tiger, Tiger by The Sadies with Kelly Hogan
Lonesome On'ry and Mean by Waylon Jennings
Juan Charrasqueado by Steve Chavez

Peggy by Eric Hisaw
Madman by Chrissy Flatt
Caves of Burgundy by Trilobite
Don't Get Weird by Boris & The Saltlicks
Inman's Liquid Gold by Raising Cane
Geogie Buck by Carolina Chocolate Drops
This Old Cowboy by The Marshall Tucker Band

Thirsty Ear Festival Set
Kokomo by Greg Brown
If I'm to Blame by Chipper Thompson
Gone in Pawn (Shake Sugaree) by Po' Girl
Midnight Moonlight by Be Good Tanyas
Wind Howlin' Blues by David "Honeyboy" Edwards
Down Home Blues by Hazel Miller
Surfer Girl by Dave Alvin

Summertime's Almost Gone by Jono Manson
Blues in the Bottle by Chris Smither
Mojave High by Tony Gilkyson
Slow Down Old World by Willie Nelson
Wild Geese by Bill & Bonnie Hearne
I Don't Want to Play House Anymore by Carrie Rodriguez
On the Banks of the Rio Grande by Blind James
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: SOME LOCAL CDs

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 25, 2006

Here’s a batch of CDs released in recent weeks (well, in some cases, recent months) by New Mexico musicians we know and love.

* Summertime by Jono Manson. Jono’s back! After lying low for a few years, Manson seems to be gigging everywhere. And he has a new album, his first solo record since 2001’s Under the Stone.

Summertime is pure white soul, featuring a funky, horny (great sax and trumpet) band.

Several cuts stand out. “Jr. Walker Drove the Bus” is an upbeat tribute to the “Shotgun” man, utilizing a passage of Walker’s “What Does It Take (to Win Your Love).” “Ends of the Earth” is a soul ballad that would make Robert Cray jealous and features a cool organ solo. Manson gets almost swampy on “Red Wine in the Afternoon,” with a tasty slide guitar and mandolin.

His humor shows through on the rocking “Please Stop Playing That Didgeridoo.” His irritation with the hippie didj player grows as the song progresses. “If you don’t stop, I’m going tok it in two,” Manson growls. “You ain’t no aborigine/in your tie-dye T. ... Take your hacky sack ’cause them’s the only balls you’ve got.”

*The Cherry Tempo by The Cherry Tempo. Singer/songwriter Javier Romero has been making music around here since he was old enough to step up to a microphone. He was in Mistletoe a few years ago, and like that group, The Cherry Tempo plays brash but always melodic indie pop. The band’s Web site mentions a song called “Sunny Day Beatlestate.” That doesn’t appear on this CD, at least under that title, but that could almost sum up the sound here — a cross between classic emo and the Fab Four, sometimes mixed with new-wavey synths. (The opening strains of “Treble Is High” take you in a time machine to 1982, while the untitled “secret bonus” track sounds like Wall of Voodoo on angel dust.)

My favorite here is “City of Squares.” Add about 17 singers and some robes, and you’ve got what could be one of the best Polyphonic Spree songs ever. I’m fond of the sentimental “Of Ghosts, Keepsakes,” an uncharacteristically soft ’n’ purdy number.

*Third Floor Serenade by Sol Fire. This is the second album by this band, fronted by brothers Buddy and Amado Abeyta. You could call this a second-generation Santa Fe band since the Abeytas’ dad, Chris Abeyta, is a founder of the longtime local favorite Lumbre del Sol. (Sol Fire does Chris’ song “Universal Flight” here.)

Like the band’s friends The Cherry Tempo, Sol Fire has a modern-rock sound. However, it has a more distinctive Chicano-rock sound. You can hear a little Carlos Santana in some of the guitar solos.

And like Santa Fe bands going back to the ’50s and ’60s, these guys know how to rock (“Save It for Next Time” proves this), but they’ve got a true feel for soulful, romantic ballads. (A few years ago in an interview, Dave Rarick of the classic ’60s Santa Fe group The Morfomen told me, “We played Rolling Stones songs and everything, and they were good to dance to. But mf the Santa Fe groups were known for the romantic ballads. ‘The End of the Highway’ was like that, ‘When You Were Mine’ was. Maybe that’s part of the Spanish influence. We liked the romantic stuff.”)

This really shows on “We Don’t Have That Much Time Together,” a mainly acoustic, Terence Trent D’Arby-penned song featuring a pop-flamenco guitar.

*Corridos y Mas by Steve Chavez. I don’t speak Spanish, so I’m a real dilettante (or dill-something) when it comes to music like this, but I have to say I love most of the songs on this album by Española singer Chavez. This is more traditional music than the other stuff I’ve heard by him. The best songs here are upbeat corridos.

As Chavez explains in a press release, “A corrido is basically a song written in story form (which) documents a historical event, be it love, war, or even the death of a popular or famous individual.”

Even with my linguistic handicap, there’s plenty to appreciate. Songs like “Juan Charrasqueado” and “Rosita Alviare just good, get-down music I associate with Fiesta. It’s danceable and hummable, and Chavez has a smooth, sincere voice that deserves to be heard in more homes.

E-mail: stevechavez@newmexico.com.

*Ride the Rain by Raising Cane. If there’s such a thing as a bluegrass corrido, Aimee Hoyt’s found it on her song “Inman’s Liquid Gold,” a tune about bootlegging and murder in southwestern New Mexico.

Inman murdered a neighbor during Prohibition but got out of jail free, reportedly because the governor was one of his customers. That wouldn’t happen these days. Inman would go to prison, but politicians would donate his campaign contributions to charity.

*The Music of Le Masque by Christopher B. McCarty. This is a collection of country-rock, folkish, soft-rock tunes by songwriter Chris, who is probably most famous for co-writing several Steve Miller tunes. A couple of those are here, including a tropical version of “Swingtown,” which was a hit for Miller back in the '70s.

The best title is undoubtedly “Vincent Van Gogh With a Gun.” It’s actually a pretty tune. But my favorite is the opener, “Glimpse of God,” a Dire Straits-like rocker.


* Trilobite by Trilobite. This is a folky little group led by Albuquerque singer/songwriter Mark Lewis, backed by singer Michelle Collins (who sometimes reminds me of Victoria Williams, sometimes of ThaMuseMeant’s Aimee Curl).

The mood here is often dark and mysterious. This feel is aided by the plethora of strings. Dave Gutierrez plays mandolin, banjo, and pedal steel, while some tracks have violin (Hilary Schacht), viola (Alicia Ultan), and cello (Sasha Perrin, who also plays pump organ).

My favorite track on this album is also one of my favorite songs on another New Mexico album, Cactusman Versus the Blue Demon by Boris & The Saltlicks. Lewis wrote “The Caves of Burgundy” — a song about a man being lured into the realm of faery (or maybe it’s just hell) by a supernatural beauty following a car wreck

BLOG CHANGES, ETC.

I just rearranged my links on the right side of the blog to include a new section on some of my favorite New Mexico music sites. It's not intended to be complete. And if you're looking for an individual band or singer, try the state Music Commission's directory or The New Mexican's music directory. The links are right there.

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In another change, I've decided to go back to Haloscan for my comments here due to problems described at the bottom of in the "Mystic Judicial Dwarves" post below.

All new posts will have Haloscan comments. Unfortunately it seems that I can't disable the Blogger comments without hiding the existing comments. So the old posts will have two comment links. So use the one that says "Comment," not the one that says "Post a Comment." (Is that confusing enough?)

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Here's a link to my story in today's New Mexican about another Robert Vigil relative in the state Treasurer's Office who was fired only to find another government job.