eMUSIC DECEMBER

* I maxed out my 90 downloads early this month because I spent nearly half of them on I Hate CDs: Norton Records 45 RPM Singles Collection Vol. 1 . (I grabbed 40 of the 45 tracks here. I already had the other five.)

This compilation sums up what Norton is all about -- crazy R&B, reckless rockabilly, garage-band snot, immortal punk rock. What can you say about a collection that includes Hasil Adkins, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, ? & The Mysterians, Andre Williams, Dale Hawkins, Link Wray,and even some Ramones rarities?

Of course the real fun is discovering the truly obscure artists here. Who the hell is Stud Cole you might wonder. Apparently this Stud's a rockabilly who never got his due. His contribution here, "The Witch" (not the Sonics hit by the same name) makes me want more. "The Limp" by The Incredible Kings is how I imagined all cool, swingin' parties would sound back when I ws a kid, There's a completely goofy, so-weird-it's-beautiful parody of "Surfin' Bird" (as if that song needed a parody) called "Puddy Cat" by Wade Curtiss & The Rhythm Rockers. And speaking of surfing, you've got to hear "Surfside Date" by The Triumphs. Not having any liner notes, I don't know if this was recorded in the '60s or last month. Whatever the case might be, surf music rarely sounded as primitive.

If you're an audiophile, beware. Some tracks definitely are lo-fi. But if you're that much of an audiophile you probably wouldn't like this raw stuff any way.

Hey, check out the bitchen audio promo over at Norton's MySpace.

* Mental Strain At Dawn: A Modern Portrait of Louis Armstrong by David Murray with Doc Cheatham . I'm straining mentally over the title of this album. Despite its name, this isn't really a "tribute" to Satch. Most of the selections here aren't even Armstrong tunes (though I wanted to believe that Louie did a song called "When Jack Ruby Met Joe Glaser.") But what we have is far more interesting than a run-of-the-mill tribute album. It's a collaboration between trumpeteer Cheatham -- a contemporary of Armstrong's who was in his late 80s when this was recorded -- and free jazz sax man David Murray. Between the two, especially in the standards here like "Dinah" and "Chinatown, My Chinatown, " you can hear the evolution of jazz right before your ears.

*Trees Outside the Academy by Thurston Moore. Thurston's new solo album, his first in a decade or so, is kind of Sonic Youthy, but with more emphasis on melody. Some of it's kind of pretty. There's even some acoustic guitar, but Thurston's definitely not going John Denver on us -- though I can imagine playing some of these tunes alongside from Donovan's Sunshine Superman album . You can easily imagine Sonic Youth doing most of the songs in slightly harsher versions.

J. Mascis shows up for some guitar solos, and SY drummer Steve Shelley is on most cuts. But the one that caught my ear was violinist Samara Lubelski. And the duet with singer Christina Carter, from a band called Charalambides, on the song "Honest James."

Consumer tip for fellow eMusic subscribers: If you want this album but only have 11 tracks left in your month, skip track 12, "Thurston @ 13." It's a recording of young Thurston, assumedly at the age of 13, dropping various items on a table.

* Willie's Blues by Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim. This is fine old Chicago blues from 1959 by one of the genre's greatest songwriters (Dixon) and a true blues piano avatar (Slim).

There's nothing here on the level of my favorite Dixon song ( "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind," best heard on The American Folk Blues Festival DVD (Vol. 1), but "I Got a Razor" is a dark little gem. And "Good Understanding," which begins with a reference about two women holding hands is pretty interesting as well. And there's a good version of Dixon's classic "Built For Comfort" here too.

* The Blue Memphis Suite by Memphis Slim. Listening to Willie's Blues reminded me of a politically-charged Memphis Slim song KUNM used to play when I was a freshman in college -- "Chicago Seven," which had the lyrics, "everyone's talking about Chicago Seven/Four in Ohio/That makes 11/ Nobody seemed worried about all the black blood spilled/But they began to take notice when some of their own got killed."
Nope, they didn't make a beer commercial out of that song.

So to my delight I learned "Chicago Seven" was available on eMusic on this album. Blue Memphis in many ways is Slim's version of London Sessions. Muddy waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis and probaby bothers I'm forgetting had albums by this title in which the American music icon was surrounded by a bevy of worshipful British rockers. On Slim's album he has Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green and Led Zep's John Paul Jones among others. But this isn't some hyped-up greatest hits workout. There's some stray wah-wah guitar sounds here and there and the sound is far slicker than the smokey Willie's Blues, but it's SLim, not his guest stars who dominate. The first eight tracks make up an autobiographical song cycle in which Slim tells of growing up in Memphis, moving to Chicago in 1937 and leaving this country for France in 1962 (where he stayed until his death in 1988.)

PLUS
* "Real Live Girl" by The Trashmen. A little Christmas cheer from the Surfin' Bird brains.

UPDATE
Just like last month, right after I post my eMusic for the month I find some nice freebies. This time it's The Gore Gore Girls, who have three free live tracks on HearYa Session at Shirk Music. If you don't mind the little Beer Nuts commercial at the outset of two of the three tracks (I'm not kidding), all three sound great.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December 7, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Poor Old Dirt Farmer by Levon Helm
Long Dark Night by John Fogerty
Absolutely Sweet Marie by C.J. Chenier
Don't Make a Fool Out of Me by Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas
I Must Be Dreaming by Ponty Bone
Woman's Been After Men Ever Since by Little Jimmy Dickens
I Saw Polly in a Porny by Shel Silverstein
Sleigh Bells, Reindeers and Snow by Rita Faye Wilson

Where's My Check? by The Cerrillos Islanders
I'll See You in My Dreams by The Asylum Street Spankers
Soldier's Joy by The Holy Modal Rounders
Shorty Takes a Dive by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Mornin' Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Biscuit Roller by Michael Hurley
Deep Purple by John Sebastian & David Grisman
Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die by U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd
Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus by The Buckerettes

Son of Skip James by Dion
So Glad You're Mine by Junior Wells
Born at Night by Ronny Elliott
Hot Burrito #2 by The Flying Burrito Brothers
After the Harvest by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Pointless Drinking by Amy LaVere
Ding-A-Ling the Christmas Bell by Conway Twitty with Twitty Bird and their little friends

8:05 by Moby Grape
Who's Julie by Mel Tillis
Lion in Winter by Hoyt Axton
River Roll On by The Judds
Hands on the Wheel by Carla Bozulich with Willie Nelson
Too Many Rivers by Brenda Lee
Rosalie by Bob Neuwirth
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: LEVON'S BACK, FOGERTY'S REVIVED AGAIN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 7, 2007

Here’s a nice little Christmas miracle for you (that doesn’t really have anything to do with Christmas.)

Back in the late 1990s, Levon Helm — best known as singer/drummer/mandolinist of The Band — came down with throat cancer.It left his once-mighty voice a pathetic rasp. He was unable to sing for many years. When he came through Santa Fe in 2001 with the Barn Burners, he was just the drummer.

But the 67-year-old Helm has nursed his vocal cords back to health, and his new solo album, Dirt Farmer, shows him in fine form. The voice that brought us “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is back.

More good news: the material on Dirt Farmer is worthy of that voice. No, it’s not in the same stratosphere as the songs on those classic albums by The Band. But Helm has assembled a fine batch of tunes — including works by Steve Earle, Buddy and Julie Miller, the late Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir, British songwriter Paul Kennerley, and the Carter Family. There’s not a weak song here.

And Levon’s put together a tight little band featuring his daughter, Amy Helm, on harmony vocals (and drums and mandolin on some tracks) and guitarist Larry Campbell (a Bob Dylan sideman in recent years).

As the title of the album implies, Dirt Farmer has an acoustic country feel. There’s lots of fiddle (played by Campbell), mandolin, accordion, and pump organ, which gives an old country-church feel to some songs, like the Millers’ “Wide River to Cross.”

The album starts off with a spirited rendition of “False-Hearted Lover Blues,” which Helm says in the liner notes is a tribute to the Stanley Brothers, but it also has some dark edges of Doc Boggs.

Helms’ voice always has been suited for historical songs. Here he sings Kennerley’s “A Train Robbery,” which deals with the career of Jesse James. (It originally appeared as a bonus track on the CD rerelease of Kennerley’s 1980 song cycle The Legend of Jesse James, a various-artists project in which Helms participated.) “We all know he was nothing but a Missouri farm boy just fighting to stay alive,” Helms sings ofthe famous outlaw.

“Poor Old Dirt Farmer” is a traditional song performed as a Cajun waltz. It’s about a farmer who can’t pay his loan, can’t grow his corn, and ain’t got no home. The story grows more bizarre. There’s a tractor accident: “And now his head is shaped like a tread. But he ain’t quite dead.”

That song gave the album its title, but the real theme song is Lenoir’s “Feeling Good.” Levon trades vocals with Amy (her solo vocal parts remind me a lot of Carrie Rodriguez), and this upbeat blues is a triumphant declaration for him.

It’s great to hear Helm’s voice again.

Also recommended:

* Revival by John Fogerty. This has been hailed as a “comeback” album, even though Fogerty’s been doing comeback albums since1985’s Centerfield. Part of the hoopla is due simply to the title of the record, plus the fact that there’s a song called “Creedence Song.”

It’s true, Fogerty sounds a lot like Creedence Clearwater Revival here. But he always sounds a lot like Creedence Clearwater Revival. I know there were other members of the band who contributed, but face it — as singer, songwriter, and lead guitarist, Fogerty was for all practical purposes Creedence Clearwater Revival.

But forget that particular hype. This is a darn good album, better than his last comeback album, 2004’s Déjà Vu All Over Again.

As you might expect from the man who wrote “Fortunate Son” and “Run Through the Jungle,” there are some pig-bitin’ protest songs on Revival. I know that I panned R.E.M.’s recent protest songs just last week. The main difference is that Fogerty’s tunes rock even harder than they preach.

Fogerty names names on “Long Dark Night”: “Rummie’s in the kitchen/Messin’ with the pans/Dickie’s in the back/Stealin’ everythinghe can. ... Runnin’ down the highway/Shoutin’ to the Lord/Georgie’s got religion/And you know we can’t/Afford more years.”

Even more driving is “I Can’t Take it No More.” Fogerty has a personal message for the president with a stinging reference to a Creedence song: “I bet you never saw the ol’ school yard/I bet you never saw the National Guard/Your daddy wrote a check and there you are/Another fortunate son.” (Hey, I wrote years ago that “Fortunate Son” was the first song ever written about the current president, though Fogerty didn’t know it at the time.)

“Gunslinger” bites even harder. It’s a tune about an Old West town —or a whole nation. Its people’s spirits have been broken by the “wild-eyed bunch” who moved in. “This used to be a peaceful place/Decent folks, hardworkin’ ways/Now they hide behind locked doors/Afraid to speak their mind. ... Wrecked the paper/Closed the school/Tired old judge got roughed up too/No one left to make a stand/They whisper what’s the use.”

The remedy, Fogerty says, is a “gunslinger” to “tame this town” and bring justice. The precursor to this song is Neil Young’s “Looking for a Leader.” But “Gunslinger” is more artful.

Of course, all isn’t politics and protest here. There are some sweet love songs, like “Broken-Down Cowboy” and “Natural Thing.”

My only complaint with Revival is the overt sense of nostalgia. I can take the self-referential “Creedence Song.” Here the narrator isn’t rock star John Fogerty, but a kid whose dad was a rocker who won his mother’s love by playing Creedence songs. But harder to justify is “Summer of Love,” which talks about “freedom in the air” and “flower children lookin’ for the truth.” Fogerty even sneaks in a “Sunshine of Your Love” guitar lick.

Come on, gunslinger. You shoot a lot straighter when you’re looking ahead.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: MORE "MACACA" MEMORIES COME TO NEW MEXICO

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 6, 2007
A young Democratic campaign worker whose video of U.S. Sen. George Allen helped end the Virginia Republican’s political career last year now works in Santa Fe for Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign.

S.R. Sidarth — whom Allen mockingly dubbed “Macaca” during a campaign appearance last year while Sidarth videotaped his speech — is working in Richardson’s campaign communications office, according to a recent blog item in The Washington Post. He is responsible for “compiling daily newspaper articles for the governor, drafting press releases and performing other communication tasks,” the Post said.

Unlike his work for Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who unseated Allen last year, Sidarth is not working in the Richardson campaign as a “tracker” recording speeches of opponents.

Sidarth declined a request for an interview from The New Mexican. On Monday, he told a reporter to submit questions in writing, and he’d have to clear an interview with “my boss.” On Wednesday, he told a reporter, “I’m not interested.”

Allen’s “Macaca moment” quickly spread over the Internet as well as television, raising questions about racism on the senator’s part.

Macaca is the name of a genus of monkeys, but it’s been used as a slur against Africans by white colonists.

“After Allen’s remarks, my heritage suddenly became a matter of widespread interest,” Sidarth wrote in a first-person essay for The Washington Post last year. “I am proud to be a second-generation Indian American and a practicing Hindu. My parents were born and raised in India and immigrated here more than 25 years ago.”

And even though Allen sarcastically “welcomed” him to America and “the real world of Virginia,” Sidarth wrote, “I have known no home other than Northern Virginia.”

He was named Salon.com’s “person of the year.” The Internet magazine called Sidarth “a symbol of politics in the 21st century, a brave new world in which any video clip can be broadcast instantly everywhere and any 20-year-old with a camera can change the world.”

According to published reports, Sidarth is the son of a mortgage banker from Fairfax County, Va. Politics appears to be a major passion of his. Beside the Richardson and Webb campaigns, he worked one summer as an intern for Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

Sidarth used the Allen incident to get into an exclusive campaigns-and-elections seminar at the University of Virginia taught by Larry Sabato, a frequently quoted political scientist who directs the university’s Center For Politics.

Sabato said this week that Sidarth was admitted on the basis of a three-word essay: “I am Macaca.”

Apparently Richardson is lucky to have Sidarth, based on what his old professor told me. He has “an instinctive sense of politics,” Sabato said.

“Sidarth was a wonderful student,” he said. “One of the great joys of teaching is that you meet extremely able young people like Sidarth. He’ll be involved in politics, one way or another, for his whole life. ... Sidarth showed great maturity under fire last year. He was treated very roughly by some adults, and he took it in stride.” (Sabato said some partisan Republicans at the school gave Sidarth a hard time.) “He is well prepared for the trials of life.”

Another “Macaca” connection: Sidarth isn’t the only tie New Mexico has to the Allen-Webb contest this election cycle.

As reported in this column a few weeks ago, Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chávez, who is running for U.S. Senate, hired Blackrock Associates, a California firm that served last year as Webb’s Internet strategist.

The Iowa surprise: It’s only four weeks until the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses, or as a Wednesday e-mail from the Richardson called it “The Iowa Surprise.”

According to recent polls, it would indeed be a surprise if Richardson pulled off a move into the top tier of Democratic candidates.

Real Clear Politics, which averages several polls conducted in the past week, shows Richardson still in a distant fourth place in Iowa, averaging 6.8 percent. The top three candidates are Barack Obama (27.2 percent), Hillary Clinton (25.8 percent) and John Edwards (23.2 percent).

The polls tell a similar story for Richardson in New Hampshire, where he’s in fourth place, averaging 9.1 percent. New Hampshire’s primary is Jan. 8.

FATHER KNOWS BEST

Here's my link to the story about Javier Gonzales and Joe Maestas decidng not to run for Congress. CLICK HERE.

When I talked to Ben Ray Lujan yesterday, I mentioned, "Your dad told me there's a 95 percent chance you'll run."

Ben Ray corrected me. "I think you said he told you 99 percent." (I checked my clip and that's right.)

It was then when Ben Ray added that his father would know.

SO HOW DID I BECOME A POTENTIAL SECURITY THREAT?

I think somehow I've landed on some Homeland Security list.

Last weekend I flew to San Francisco for a conference sponsored by Electionline.org.

Both on the way there in the Albuquerque airport and on the way back in the San Francisco Airport, I was "pulled over" for a "secondary security search." The weird thing is, I was flying on different airlines -- Delta on the way out, U.S. Airways on the way back.

In Albuquerque I only had to walk through a special booth where there's little sudden puffs of air that somehow check your body for chemicals. It kind of tickles.

In San Francisco the search was more of a hassle. I got the puff booth, but I also had to sit and wait while they did chemical tests on almost everything I was carrying with me -- my laptop, my cell phone, my iPod (Christ, the subversive stuff they could have found in there!)

I'm not complaining about the TSA employees. The workers I dealt with were professional, though of course they weren't allowed to explain how I had been chosen for the extra searches.

Of course I've been asking myself that questions. Maybe I triggered it myself on my trip to New Hampshire last summer. I forgot to take my laptop out of the case at the Albuquerque checkpoint and was sent for a secondary search. (I wasn't chosen for the extra screening on my trip back from New Hampshire. The San Francisco trip was the first time I've flown since then.)

Darker possibilities have entered my mind. Could I have written something that angered some government official or politico who called a buddy in the federal government ...

I know. That sounds like a paranoid idiot. But we're becoming a nation of paranoid idiots -- from the conspiracy nutballs to some of the people running the government to anyone who somehow feels "safer" because someone dusted my iPod.

All I know is I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the secondary searches, I'm sick of the little notes I always find in my suitcase after a plane trip telling me that some goverment agent has been rummaging through my underwear. I'm sick of having to take off my damned shoes every time I fly.

Something has to change.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 2, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Cold Turkey by John Lennon
Slow Death by The Flamin' Groovies
Endless Party by Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer
Kill the Messenger by The Bell-Rays
Crane's Cafe by TAD
You Got it All ... Wrong by The Hives
Communist Moon by International Noise Conspiracy
Chicago Seven by Memphis Slim

Teddy Bear by The Residents
Leaky Bag by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Transcendental Light by The Black Lips
Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love by The Cramps
(Hot Pastrami with) Mashed Potatos by Joey Dee & The Starliters
Bahamut by Hazmat Modine
Vaquero by The Fireballs
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Tiny Tim

Dumb All Over by Frank Zappa
Love - Building on Fire by The Talking Heads
Prickly Thorn but Sweetly Worn/St. Andrew (The Battle is in the Air) by The White Stripes
Live With Me by The Rolling Stones
Sun Arise by Alice Cooper
Kewpie Doll by The Birthday Party
Something Funny in Santa's Lap by The Moaners

No More by The Dirty Projectors
I Remember You by Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers
When Jack Ruby Met Joe Glaser by David Murray
Blue Intensity by Sun Ra
The Flying Club Cup by Beirut
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis