MY PAL AL

I just got this e-mail regarding an upcoming gig by my friend Al Faaet. Looks like my brother is involved in this too. Here's the whole e-mail:

"How is it that one group of men have stuck us, (so to speak)with a set of bleak, dead-end prophecies that we've been dragging around for centuries, not only making us complicit in the inevitable disasters they call for, but demanding that we make them come true?"

AL FAAET AND HIS MERRY FRIENDS present NEW,IMPROVED,PROPHECIES
@ HIGH MAYHEM STUDIOS
1703 B LENA ST, SANTA FE
SATURDAY APRIL 23 2005 9 PM

featuring
ADD/DAD w dave steinkraus doug wooldridge
LYRA BARRON
JACK CLIFT
J.A. DEANE
MATT DEASON
ROSS HAMLIN
JACK KOLKMEYER
ISHTA PAZ
THE UNINVITED GUESTS w/chris jonas, carlos santistevan, yozo suzuki
and special guests

LIMITED INSIDE SEATING $10
all proceeds benefit HIGH MAYHEM FESTIVAL 2005

Al Faaet has been playing relentlessly energetic, unpredictable, and edgy music in Santa Fe since 1984. He was the founder of the SPIRITUAL ENERGY COLLECTIVE in Bucks County PA, and co-founder of JOYFUL NOISE FOR PEACE in Santa Fe in 1991, and of the DRUM IS THE VOICE OF THE TREES. He was the "experimental" drummer in the infamous banning of improvisational music on the Plaza last summer.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: FRAMING & SPINNING

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 31, 2005

The Santa Fe County Democrats passed a resolution this week in favor of gay marriage.

Or did they?

I got an e-mail Tuesday from a local Dem who was at Monday night's Santa Fe County Democratic Party convention who said the story I had written about it was inaccurate in one respect.

The word "marriage" never is mentioned in the resolution.

"Please note that it is critical for the press to accurately frame the dispute," the e-mail said.

"Full Civil Rights is the issue; marriage is not," the e-mail concluded.

Yikes! Did the Legislature really eat my brain? How could I have ever made such a stupid mistake?

Looking at the resolution -- which passed on a voice vote with only one Democrat dissenting -- one "whereas" states that "same-gender couples in New Mexico in committed, loving relationships are not currently permitted to take advantage of the full array of civil rights freely given to opposite-sex couples that have full civil rights."

What civil right could that be? The right to chicken done right? Is "marriage" the civil right that dare not speak its name?

The next "whereas" says, "the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and several other countries in the international community of states have extended full civil rights to same-gender couples."

If I remember correctly the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that laws against same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Were there other civil rights for same-gender couples allowed there that I forgot about?

And finally the only "separate-but-equal" laws mentioned in the resolution are "domestic partnership or civil union legislation." (New Mexico doesn't have any such law.)

Somehow these things led me to believe Monday night's resolution had to do with marriage.

Actually, according to some party insiders, the choice not to use the word "marriage" in the gay-marriage resolution came about because "we were trying to frame it as a civil rights issue and not 'gay marriage.' "

As one local party honcho said Wednesday, " ... when you get blamed for losing a presidential campaign for the Democrats because of gay marriage, well you just get a little timid."

The claim that marriage wasn't the issue of the resolution reminded me of someone on the opposite side of this issue: Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, who said "I know you're trying to make this a homosexual issue. I'm trying to make this a marriage issue. It is a family issue," when I asked him at a press conference how allowing same-sex couples to marry threaten heterosexual marriages.

Wouldn't it be nice if politicos just said what they meant instead of worrying so much about "framing" and spinning?

Rapid response: It used to be that when a Congressman had a "town hall" meeting around here it wasn't much of a big deal. A few citizens with specific concerns would show up, the Congressman would listen to concerns, shake some hands and try to score some political points, and the press -- and just about everyone else would ignore it.

But those days might be numbered.

Twice this week I've received calls from Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. I got to know Diaz during the last election when he was a spokesman for the Bush campaign. He'd faithfully call any time John Kerry or John Edwards came anywhere near the state.

But "rapid response" isn't just for elections any more.

This week Diaz was calling to give responses to Congressman Tom Udall, who conducted four town halls about President Bush's social security privatization plan including a panel discussion in Albuquerque with U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

On Wednesday morning the e-mailed "response" to Udall's town hall in Taos from a Diaz assistant arrived about three hours before the meeting started.

There's not enough space here to get into the arguments for and against the social security plan. Let's just say Udall is against it and Diaz thinks he should be for it.

Town Hall flashback: The only congressional "town hall" I ever tried to cover was on a slow news day back when Gov. Bill Richardson was a Congressman. The only memorable thing that happened was when a local character -- a man known for always wearing a dress -- read an original poem. This epic seemed to go on forever with the poet getting angrier and more animated with each verse. When he started yelling "Goddamn you, goddamn you!" Richardson looked concerned. I glanced over at then-Richardson aide Butch Maki, who at the time was in the same karate school as me, wondering if Maki would have to use his martial-arts skills. Luckily the guy in the dress calmed down when the poem ended.

REPO WOMAN

Someone was asking me today about a lady I wrote about six years ago -- Kate the Repo Woman.

I haven't seen her in years, and I forgot her last name. In the story we agreed to use only her first name.

Last time I saw her was a few months after the article was published. I was on my way up to Taos and had stopped at a conenience store in Espanola for a soft drink. Kate talked me into driving her down to a place in San Juan Pueblo, where she had a vehicle to repossess. I dropped her off, she made the pop.

If anyone knows where she is, drop me an e-mail.

Here's the story I did:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 18, 1999

Repo Woman needed a flashlight, so her driver pulled over and stopped his car at the side of the dark, narrow mean-dog street somewhere north of Espanola.

She was there to hunt for and hopefully "pop" a Pontiac Grand Am. In her hand was the contract the errant Grand Am owner had signed with the title company the year before. The interest rate was ridiculous, but the amount owed was only about $400. The owner had not made a payment in more than a year, had not made arrangements with the title company.

And the owner had signed the contract, which gave the company the right to send someone like Repo Woman whose real name is Kate, a 43-year-old Santa Fe resident who asked that her last name not be used to take back the Grand Am without notice.

She had the contract, and she had the keys, which the title company had retained in case the contract ended like this.

Earlier that day, Kate had done some detective work, calling someone listed as a reference on the contract. She used one of her favorite ruses, claiming to be someone from a package delivery service wondering where the a package could be delivered for the car owner. Using this subterfuge she learned that the car owner had moved. She got directions though rather vague directions to the new residence.

But in this semi-rural area in the dark of night, those directions had stopped being useful. The driver got out of his car to look for his flashlight in his trunk. As soon as he stepped out of his car, someone from a nearby house shouted at him in a belligerent tone. ``What do you want? What are you doing here?'' At this point the already nervous driver, who had never been out on a repo call before, turned into a sputtering, stuttering Porky Pig, shouting out a reply that made no sense in any known language.

And then a stranger's pickup pulled up behind him. ``What's happening, bro?'' someone in the truck yelled. The driver muttered something about the flashlight. The truck drove on.

Without the flashlight, the driver got back into his car and started driving down the road. Suddenly Kate, scoping out each driveway along the road, said, "There's a Grand Am. Maybe that's it." The driver turned the car around and pulled into a driveway so she could see the license plate.

Bingo!

The driver quickly backed out of the driveway, Kate telling him to kill the headlights. There are three or four other vehicles beside the delinquent Grand Am. There are lights in the house. It's not quite 9 p.m. so nobody is sleeping.

Repo Woman, dressed in dark clothing, crept like a cat up the driveway, along the driver's side of the Pontiac, crouching so she won't be seen from inside. The driver watched her shadow heading up the drive. Besides the obvious threat of the people inside, he was worried about the neighbors like the ones up the street who had been so suspicious only moments before. He locked both doors of his car. But then, worried that something might go wrong, he quickly unlocked the passenger side, in case Kate needed to get in quickly.


Sitting in his car he remembered the words of Harry Dean Stanton in the 1984 movie Repo Man (a film Kate says she has never seen): ``See, an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations''

Suddenly there was a light coming from the direction of the driveway and a second later the sound of an engine starting.

Score!

Kate backed the Grand Am out of the driveway then both she and her driver went off zipping down the narrow little street, both missing the turn on the narrow dirt road that led back to the highway. They had to turn around and head back toward the house of the Grand Am. But nobody had seen Repo Woman at work. At least nobody from the house followed her. She drove back through Espanola to Santa Fe, where she parked the car in an unassuming lot off Agua Fr¡a Road, next to several rows of other recently repossessed vehicles.

For the virgin driver, it had been an intense adventure. For Kate it had been a routine "pop," an easy $75. It was her third repo that day.

Kate is one of two repo people working for Custom Wrecker Company, which holds one of about 50 reposessor's licenses in the state. Most of Custom Wrecker's business is in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, though Kate says she has repossessed vehicles as far away as Raton.

The company makes about $225 for each repo, she said, from which she is paid.

To obtain a repossessor's license from the state Regulation and Licensing Department, one must pay a fee of $250, have a surety bond of $5,000 and obtain a ``warrant'' from the state Public Services Commission's Transportation Department. This warrant shows that the repossession business is properly insured (most repo companies opt for a $500,000 policy to cover all employees, a receptionist at the PSC said) and that all drivers have been instructed about safety issues. There is a $15 fee for the warrant.

Under state law, any repo company transporting a vehicle without a warrant can be fined up to $10,000.

The application asks for a complete financial statement and asks whether the applicant or any partner in his business has ever been convicted of fraud, embezzlement or any other crime excluding traffic offenses.

The applicant must list three character references.

Henry A. Vigil, examiner supervisor at the state Financial Institutions Division of the Regulation and Licensing Department, said he receives very few complaints about repossession companies only two or three formal complaints a year.

"Most of the repo people know what they are doing," Vigil said. "In fact, of the industries we license in Financial Institutions, repossessors get the fewest complaints of all." His agency also licenses mortgage companies, small-loan companies, collection agencies, and escrow companies.

Vigil said that even though getting a repossessor's license is not easy, there is not a problem with unlicensed repo outfits in the state. "These companies are pretty good about policing themselves," he said.

The Repo Code:
``I shall not cause harm to any vehicle or the personal contents, thereof. Nor, through inaction let that vehicle or the personal contents come to harm.''
--Harry Dean Stanton, as "Bud" in Repo Man.

There are certain state laws that New Mexico repo men and women have to follow. While they may take an auto on the street, in a parking lot or even from a private driveway, they are not allowed to take a car from a closed garage, or take a car from property enclosed by a fence.

When a vehicle is taken without notice, the lending institution is responsible for notifying the owner that the car has been repossessed.

After a vehicle is repossessed, the owner has 10 days to get up to date on his or her loan and pay the cost of the repossession and any legal fees.

If the owner does not reclaim the vehicle, it is auctioned off. The money made in the auction goes to paying off the loan. If that amount does not completely pay off the loan, the person from which the vehicle was repossessed is responsible to pay the remaining portion.

How quickly a repo company is called is up to the individual lending company.

Collection supervisors of two area credit unions said in recent interviews that they make great efforts to work with people who have fallen behind on auto loans and that repossession is the very last resort.

"We really try to work with people," said Maria Trejo of the Guadalupe Credit Union. She said her institution will only order a repossession when the customer stops accepting calls or stops making even partial payments.

Fran Hogan of the Los Alamos Credit Union said that while the standard contract for her credit union gives it the right to repossess a vehicle without notice, "We don't do that except in extraordinary circumstances."

Her office sends out a series of letters and makes a number of phone calls in trying to get the car owner to get up to date, Hogan said.

She said that last year her institution repossessed somewhere between 50 and 75 vehicles but that these represent only a small percentage of the $72 million in the credit union's outstanding car loans.

The number of repossessions has risen slightly in the past three years, Hogan said. But this is because the number of loans has increased.

She blames contemporary attitudes about credit on defaults. "Young people think they can get something right away and worry about the credit bureau later. They don't realize what a serious mark a repossession will be on their credit record."

She also said five-year loans, while reducing the amount of monthly payments, sometimes become discouraging for those who have paid for so many years.

Some auto buyers do not realize the high cost of insurance, Hogan said. "If they don't pay their insurance, the company notifies us and we put the cost of insurance on top of the loan. And we want the (insurance) money right up front. "

Some who default on car loans think they can get away with not paying by moving the car to another state. However, Hogan said, her credit union uses the services of the American Recovery Association, a national repossession network, which will send local repo people to get the car.

"People are surprised at how much information we have on them and how we're all in cahoots," Hogan said.

Repo: A Male-dominated industry

Kate says she has wanted to be a repo woman since she was about 20 years old. She was working at an all-night gas station in her native New Jersey about 3 a.m. when a man in a tow truck drove in the station hauling a new Chevrolet Camaro.

``He'd just snagged it from an apartment complex down the road,'' she said. ``I was just intrigued. Before that my image of a repo man was a 300 gorilla with half his teeth missing.''

However, Kate who says she's had about 75 jobs in her life, mainly blue-collar, unskilled labor did not act upon her dream until last October when she saw a newspaper advertisement for a job at an area repo company.

She said the owner of that company initially was reluctant to hire a repo woman. "It's a male-dominated industry," she said.

But she was hired and worked for the company several months before going to work for Custom Wrecker.

And, she says, it's one of the most enjoyable jobs she's ever had.

Kate has repossessed more than 75 vehicles since starting last October. The work load varies. "There's some weeks I only got two. Then I've gotten up to 13 in a week."

Says Kate, "I've taken cars out of church parking lots, I've taken cars while the owner is shopping inside a store. I'm always on the look out. I've gotten very good at identifying different models of cars, especially the backs of cars."

She says she has repossessed cars for which the owner was only $100 away from paying off.

Repo people have different styles and methods of going after cars.

Gil Salazar of Del Norte Collections in Espanola said, unless instructed differently, he likes to speak face-to-face with the vehicle owner and talk them into giving up their car key voluntarily.

Kate, on the other hand prefers to take the vehicle without dealing with the owner.

Frequently she has had to confront or has been confronted by the person about to lose his or her car.

"Usually I'm just real sympathetic with them," she said. "Most of them are just honest people who have gotten in over their heads. I tell them I'm just doing my job."

There have been some fairly intense confrontations though, she said. One angry car owner tried to run her down on a south-side Santa Fe street. She called the police in that incident, which convinced her attacker to hand over the keys, she says.

Another time she received a major cussing out from a man whose check, it turned out, really was in the mail.

"That's one of the few times I ever lost it," she said. "I can usually keep my head, but he was so abusive, I sunk to his level. I suppose I should apologize to him. Maybe if I see him again ever, I'll buy him a bottle of wine."

Kate says that she still enjoys the "major adrenaline rush" she gets when she starts the engine of a stranger's car and drives off into the night.

But she also enjoys the intellectual challenge of the detective work it takes to track down people who have changed addresses, or who don't leave their vehicles in a place for an easy pop.

She's done the parcel delivery ploy countless times. She's passed herself off as a prospective employer.

Once a married man whose car she was hunting for asked her for a date without ever actually seeing her. She gave a false description of herself, arranged to meet him at a local bar. She watched from across the street as he went inside. Not only was he stood up that night, but he also lost his car.

Even though she is enjoying the job, Kate does have an underlying fear in the back of her mind. "I suppose if someone every seriously attacked me, that would be the day I'd hang it up," she said.

Despite the nature of the business and the violent images of botched repo jobs from the Repo Man movie etched into the popular consciousness violence against repossessors is rare. Henry Vigil from the state Financial Institutions Division said the only case he can remember was an instance in Las Cruces when a repo man wrecked a recovered car while being chased by the irate owner.

Three repos in one day wasn't a bad haul. But Repo Woman wanted to make one more pass at it. She convinced her driver to check out the parking lot of an south-side apartment complex where she was trying to find an elusive Dodge. She'd checked out the parking lot several times before and even knew where others of the same model were parked. But once again, the vehicle under contract was nowhere to be found.

Perhaps the owner had moved. Perhaps the owner was actively hiding it. The next day Repo Woman would check out the owner's work place, maybe call some of the references listed on the loan application. Repo Woman was confident that in the near future she'd be feeling that adrenaline rush when she was behind the wheel of the stranger's car.

THE REVIEWS ARE COMING IN

I made the Rep. Greg Payne's "good" list in the Albuquerque Republican's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" report on Legislature coverage.

"Terrell tops the list of Il Buono because his by far the best journalist covering the Roundhouse. Balanced and fair to both sides on most issues (he slipped a bit toward the end on medical marijuana ...), Terrell also has a rare perspective for a reporter these days: he attempts to cover events without letting his personal perspective and opinion seep in. It's also clear he has absolutely zero interest in being a part of the Roundhouse "scene" -- which put him head and shoulders above many of his peers."

This is embarrassing. Politicians aren't supposed to say nice things about me! At least he was kind enough to mention the medical marijuana coverage. (CLICK HERE and HERE.)

Payne, by the way, is the only lawmaker I know of who writes a blog. I bet by next session others will pick up on the idea.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 27, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now 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
Easter by Patti Smith
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues by Bob Dylan
Peter Cottontail by The Bubbadinos
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Ballad of John and Yoko by The Beatles
Que Onda Guero by Beck
My Way by Opium Jukebox

Paper Cup Exit by Sonic Youth
Caterwaul by And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Standing in the Shower Thinking by Jane's Addiction
The Intense Humming of Evil by Manic Street Preachers
She Floated Away by Husker Du
Cosmic Shiva by Nina Hagen
In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star) by The Village People

Magic Road by Al Green
In the Garden/You Send Me/Allegheny by Van Morrison
Mr. Downchild by Sonny Boy Williamson & The Yardbirds
I'm at His Command by The Violinaires
When We Bow in the Evening at the Altar by Isaac Freeman & The Bluebloods
(I Know) You Don't Love Me by Ike Turner

Sweet Young Thing by The Monkees
Let's Not Belong Together by Grandpaboy
Wicked as it Seems by Keith Richards
The Body of an American by The Pogues
Climbing Walls by Ana da Silva
Scarlet Tide by Elvis Costello
Lonesome Susie by The Band
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 25, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Back From the Shadows Again by The Firesign Theatre
Lookout Mountain by Drive-By Truckers
Won't Be Home by The Old 97s
Prison Walls by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Blood is Thicker Than Water by Shaver
High on a Mountain Top by Loretta Lynn
Eggs of Your Chickens by The Flatlanders

Green Green Grass of Home by Ted Hawkins
Karla Faye by Audrey Auld Mezera
Camelot Motel by Mary Gauthier
A-11 by Buck Owens
Down on the Corner of Love by Tracie Lynn
Down Where the Drunkards Roll by Richard & Linda Thompson
I Agree With Pat Metheny by Richard Thompson
Root Hog or Die by June Carter

Van Ronk by Tom Russell
Port of Amsterdam by Dave Van Ronk
My Name is Jorge by The Gourds
Ride by Marlee MacLeod
Heart Attack by The Moaners
Tiger Man by John Schooley
Husband and Wife Were Angry One Night by Charlie Poole
A Wild Cat Woman and a Tom Cat Man by Cliff Carlisle

A Satisfied Mind by Porter Wagoner
Electricity by Paul Burch
In Memory of Your Smile Ralph Stanley with Maria Muldaur
In the Jailhouse Now by Johnny Cash
It's Only Make Believe by John Wesley Harding & Kelly Hogan
When Idols Fall by Ronny Elliott
Has She Got a Friend by Nick Lowe
Here Comes That Rainbow Again 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

A VERY LUCKY MAN

I just got permission to post the complete lyrics to "An American is a Very Lucky Man," which I wrote about in last week's Tune-up

I guess I was wrong about the "chow-mein or borscht or pizza pie" verse being the last one in the song. Oh well ...

An American is a Very Lucky Man
by George Mysels and J. Maloy Roach
As performed by Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians

An American is a very lucky man, an American is a very lucky man.
He can walk along with his head up high and look the whole world in the eye,
An American is a very lucky man.

An American is a very lucky guy, he can eat chow-mein or borscht or pizza pie,
He can talk with an accent or a brogue but his Liberty's never out of vogue
He knows freedom, he's a very lucky guy.

Now a man who builds a house of wood and the man who welds a tank,
Are just as proud and just as good as the man who owns a bank.

An American is a very lucky man, He can always count on good old Uncle Sam,
And no one can tell him what to do, except the gal he's married to,
An American is a very lucky man.

Used by permission

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: WEIRD ECHOES FROM RURAL AMERICA

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 25 2005

There’s a rich source of wonderful music -- weird as America itself -- hiding within the nether regions of satellite television, the 9400s where you find low-budget, handmade channels featuring religious, educational, left-wing (Free Speech TV, World Link) programming -- television seemingly untouched by modern technical glitz.

The one I’m talking is RFD-TV, “Rural America’s Most Important Network,” up on channel 9409 (That’s Dish Network. It’s channel 379 on DirectTV. I don’t think it’s carried on cable tv around here.)

In between shows like Training Mules and Donkeys, Classic Tractor Specials and Prairie Farm Report, this Dallas-based network has a treasure trove of music shows featuring some musicians you’ll recognize, some that you’ve never even heard of.

RFD-TV shows a couple of classic and influential syndicated country music shows from the 1960s and ‘70s -- The Porter Wagoner Show and The Wilburn Brothers Show.

Both shows featured great guest stars as well hot little house bands.

I’ve caught a couple of old black-and-white Wagoner shows on RFD-TV lately. Wagoner usually sang a couple of solo tunes, but his main job was being the host, introducing other singers -- guests and regulars -- and stepping out of the way. His famous sequined suits played hell on the tv cameras of the day, offering occasional psychedelic distortion as the lights caught the sequins.

The shows I’ve caught recently were from the days before Dolly Parton was with Wagoner. Here his female counterpart was “Pretty Miss Norma Jean,” who had a sexy alto, singing songs like Charlie Louvins‘ “I Don’t Love You Anymore.”


Wagoner’s shows always featured a comic solo by Speck Rhodes, who played slap bass with the Wagon Master Band and sang funny songs like “Too Old to Cut the Mustard.” Rose dressed like a ventriloquist dummy -- checkered suit, bowler hat, bow tie. With his bowl-over-the-head haircut and blacked out front teeth (or were they blacked out? I swear the closer I look the more his mouth looks real) Rhodes was a bizarre throwback to vaudeville and medicine shows.

Wagoner had some extremely impressive guests. One recent show on RFD-TV featured Lefty Frizzell singing “Saginaw, Michigan” and “Always Late.” Another had Red Sovine, who performed a dead-child weeper called “Little Rosa.” The song had a lengthy and surely politically-incorrect speaking park that Sovine performed in a bad Chico Marx pseudo-Italian accent.

Speaking of impressive guest stars, the Wilburn Brothers segment I saw this week featured a young, beehived Loretta Lynn singing “Fist City” and a lesser-known song called “If Loneliness Can Kill Me.”

But also noteworthy on the show was a far less famous singer, a soulful guy named Vernon Oxford from Rogers, Ark. He sang a honky-tonk heartbreaker called “This Woman is Mine” and a truck driving tune called “Roll Big Wheels Roll.”

The Wilburns’ answer to Speck Rhodes was Harold Morrison, who wore a pink (!) checkered jacket and a red taxi driver cap. (Yes, this show was in color.) On this show he sang a raucous “Little Brown Jug,” laughing insanely throughout the whole song. But Morrison could really sing. He joined the Wilburns and Lynn on a moving hillbilly gospel song.

The Wilburns themselves -- Doyle and Teddy -- were an underrated act. Their harmonies remind me of a hardened version of The Everlys.

But old country shows aren’t the only ones offered by RFD-TV. A couple of weeks ago I caught a very enjoyable bluegrass program, The Cumberland Highlanders Show that featured Joe Isaacs and Stacy as guest stars. The Cumberland Highlanders, a Kentucky group, is the house band. Their web site says Ralph Stanley and James Monroe (Bill’s son, not the former president) have appeared as guest.

There’s a gospel show called Gospel Sampler, with a set designed like a country church. The one show I saw was spotty musically. Most of the music was too restrained, though I enjoyed a group called The McGruders, featuring a woman named Priscilla McGruder who sings as if she’s in a religious trance, frequently reaching an arm up to Heaven.

Strangest of all, RFD-TV apparently is the world television headquarters for polka music.

Polka star Jimmy Sturr has his own RFD-TV show. But the most fun is The Big Joe Polka Show featuring the portly Joe Siedlik, who is known for his vests that look like accordion keyboards. Big Joe seems to have a different colored cummerbund every time he introduces a new band.

The show is recorded live at various Midwestern venues. The camera often shows the dance floor. Sometimes there are only a handful of couples on the floor and few seem to be under the age of 65.

The quality of the bands vary widely. Some are pretty weak, though one band I recently saw on the show was as fun and energetic as Brave Combo or The Polkaholics. That’s The Chmielewski Funtime Band. It’s led by Florian Chmielewski, a former Minnesota state senator. But the real star is his son Jeff Chmielewski, who plays sax -- on one song, “The Chmielewski Twirl” he played it upside down -- and fiddle, where he sounds like the Doug Kershaw of polka.

After the show, I was googling to get more information on this amazing musician. I found a disturbing little news story that said Jeff Chmielewski, in 1999 was sentenced in federal court to 46 months in prison in connection with a scheme to undervalue slot machines sold in South Africa.

South African slot machines? Hunter Thompson couldn’t have dreamed this one up.

Could this be a new subgenre emerging -- outlaw polka?

The Wilburn Brothers Show was on when I first started writing this column Monday morning. But then came an actual bull auction for at least a couple of hours. (”Look at the cow wrecker on that one, boys.”) Anyone who’s ever heard one of these knows that auctioneering is a weird, hypnotic kind of American music itself.

Most of these shows are scheduled several times during the week. Check RFD-TV’s Web site for the schedule.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

I had planned to run a compilation of some of my favorite Quotes of the Day from the recent session in the big Legislature wrap-up package in last Sunday's New Mexican. It turned out there wasn't enough space.

That's why God gave us blogs. Here's those quotes:

“In our great state, we have a tradition of working together, Republicans and Democrats, side by side. We have our disagreements. We have our debates. Maybe sometimes I overdo it.”
— Gov. Bill Richardson in his State of the State address.

“Bill Richardson has become ... The Elvis.”
— Playwright/actor Charles Pike performing part of his play Elephant Murmurs in the Capitol before an audience that included the governor.

“His desire is to fund everything that will get him to New Hampshire on time, and not worry about the state of New Mexico along the way. It’s just a sad day for the kids of New Mexico.”
— Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, reacting on the House floor to a line-item budget veto by Richardson that killed a $330,000 pilot project to provide free admission to school athletic events — in Roswell.

“You have always been a voice for the downtrodden. ... You have been almost like a God to them.”
— Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, speaking in support of former House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, whose nomination to The University of New Mexico Board of Regents won unanimous Senate approval.

“I thought the governor’s airplane was the official state aircraft.”
— Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, during a committee debate on SB 13, which would designate the hot-air balloon as the official state aircraft. Richardson wants the state to buy a $4 million plane for the state.

“If the Legislature does not act on this bill and the governor does not sign this bill, I have to ask, ‘What are they afraid of?’ ”
— Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, regarding his SB 20, which would have established a program for voluntary drug testing for elected officials. The bill was killed.

“They made money the old-fashioned way. They got up at 4 a.m., drank alcohol and sat in line in their lawn chairs.”
— Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, offering a rousing defense of ticket scalpers in arguing against SB 988, which would have made scalping tickets to professional-sports events a misdemeanor.

“He’s not going to get in any trouble for being here, is he? I know there’s some places he can’t go.”
— Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, after another senator introduced former Rep. Max Coll, D-Santa Fe, who was sitting in the gallery. Jennings was apparently referring to a recent newspaper story about Coll not being welcome to attend a charitable event at the governor’s mansion.

“Egg-Suckin’ Dog/I’m gonna stomp your head in the ground/If you don’t stay out of my hen house/You dirty Egg-Suckin’ hound.”
— Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, singing the chorus of a song popularized by Johnny Cash, after speaking against SB 432, which would authorize local animal-control authorities to seize and destroy dogs deemed dangerous. Despite Robinson’s vocal talent, the bill passed the Senate 22-15.

“Unless the wolf can read the statute, it confuses the heck out of me who is really responsible.”
— Senate President Pro-tem Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City, voicing concerns about SB 72, which would have outlawed wolves that have been released on federal lands from entering state or private lands. The Senate Conservation Committee tabled the bill.

“Wow, look at all these 900 numbers!”
Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque, joking about a telephone bill that Senate Republican Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, handed him during the floor debate on a measure concerning telephones in rural areas.

“The best place to have a heart attack is in a casino.”
— Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Albuquerque, talking to the House Government & Urban Affairs Committee about his HB 547, which would appropriate $250,000 to local governments for automatic external defibrillator programs.

“Love is the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful force in the universe.”
Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, speaking at a news conference about several Republican-sponsored bills aimed at keeping marriages intact.

“ ‘Love is in the air’ isn’t enough — laws need to be on the books.”
— Headline of Senate Republican news release announcing a news conference about proposed bills to strengthen families.

“Maybe we should put snipers out there. That seems to motivate.”
— Rep. Keith Gardner, R-Roswell, joking with the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee about how to get New Mexico voter turnout as high as that in the Iraqi elections.

“I know you’re trying to make this a homosexual issue. I’m trying to make this a marriage issue. It is a family issue. ... This is not attacking homosexuals.”
— Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, explaining his bill to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. He was responding to a reporter who asked how allowing same-sex couples to marry threaten heterosexual marriages.

KSFR FUNDRAISER

Been so busy with the Legislature and recovering from the Legislature, I haven't even made a plea for pledges for the KSFR Fundraiser .

In all modesty, we've become a great little station, and like the kid in the old Shake and Bake commercials used to say, "And I helped!"

Be sure to read Yasmin Khan's story in The New Mexican this morning (and while you're at it, somebody kick John Coventry's ass for calling the station "A bunch of Commies" in the comments section.)

If nothing else, a story in this week's Santa Fe Reporter illustrates the dastardly nature of commercial radio. Turns out that Rocque Ranaldi, who did KBAC's Friday night funk show and was the program director of 101.1 FM, "The New Mix" has been canned by his corporate masters at Clear Channel. (Sorry, The Reporter didn't put the story on its Web site.) I never heard 101.1, but I did tune into the funk show every now and then. Next to Lucky's Belvedere Lounge, it was KBAC's best show.

I like all the people I know at KBAC, but it irked me when they started calling themselves Santa Fe's "community radio" station a while back. (I think they cut that out.) And lots of people don't realize that KBAC's slogan "Radio Free Santa Fe" was lifted from KSFR 10 years ago in some kind of Satanic pact made with a former KSFR honcho in a moment of dementia. I still cringe whenever I think about that.

Like Eric Idle says, "Clear Channel's a dear channel ..."

So get your credit card out and support KSFR.

By the way, I'll be doing the Santa Fe Opry myself Friday, first time in three weeks. Tune in!