TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, Sept. 5, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
On Broadway by Neil Young
Romeo Had Juliette by Lou Reed
NYC by Steve Earle
The Man From Harlem by Cab Calloway
Forty Deuce by Black 47
Uptown by Loudon Wainwright III
New York City Cops by The Strokes

Good Guys/Bad Guys Cheer by Country Joe & The Fish
Empty Sky by Bruce Springsteen
53rd & 3rd by The Ramones
Hard Times in New York Town by Bob Dylan
New York City by They Might Be Giants
New York, New York by Tiny Tim & Brave Combo
I Gotcha by Joe Tex
Big Brother by Mose Allison
Don't Hang Up by The Orlons

Just Couldn't Tie Me Down by The Black Keys
The Wheel by Dinosaur Jr.
Lost in Music by The Fall
I Have Been to Heaven and Back by The Mekons
The Slow Drug by P.J. Harvey
Walk Idiot Walk by The Hives
Let it Be Me by Magic Elephant Orchestra

Patriot's Heart by American Music Club
Automatic Blues by Chuck Prophet
Dreaming Awake by Bing
Falling by Julee Cruise
World So Full by Jon Dee Graham
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

(The above photo, featuring my pals Dedemona, Doug and Chuck, was taken Thursday night at the photo booth at The Lakeside Lounge in New York City.)

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: I DON'T THINK LAWRENCE DONE IT THIS WAY

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 3, 2004

Remember how in the early ’90s some music-marketing geniuses tried to promote Johnny Cash and Tony Bennett as “alternative-rock” stars? It wasn’t a totally wrongheaded ploy in either case — mainly because both artists kept true to their respective art.

Today there’s a hot “new” star from the days of yesteryear for the electronica crowd: Lawrence Welk. I’m not kidding.

Upstairs at Larry’s: Lawrence Welk Uncorked is a compilation of DJ/techno/dance/electronica remixes of favorite (well, somebody’s favorite) Lawrence Welk tunes.

In case you never got hip to the Lawrence trip, Welk was a North Dakota-born band leader who died in 1992 at the age of 89. The son of Alsatian immigrants, Welk didn’t speak English until he was 21 years old. His dense German accent and smiling countenance became ingrained in the popular consciousness beginning in the mid-1950s when his weekly television show debuted. The show aired on ABC until 1971, then went to syndication until the early ’80s.

The Lawrence Welk Orchestra’s basic sound was soft, safe and sanitized — lots of clarinet, accordion and syrupy, young-Caucasian vocals. Saxophones with no trace of Charlie Parker grit. And if Lawrence approved of a performance, he’d respond at the end of the song with a hearty “wunnerful, wunnerful, wunnerful!”

Welk was known as a puritan. He once fired a female singer for showing “too much knee” on TV. But Welk’s sound had a hedonistic side. Just like the Grateful Dead will always be linked with LSD, and Bob Marley’s music is synonymous with ganja, Welk’s music is forever associated with a certain intoxicant: champagne.

Welk’s heirs own Vanguard, that respected folk-music label, which normally doesn’t release stuff sounding remotely like techno — or Lawrence Welk, for that matter. And I’m a huge fan of neither techno nor Welk. I’m completely unfamiliar with the remix artists who mutated the champagne music. But this album is so surreal and so much goofy fun, it won me over.

My favorites here are “You Can Dance,” done by Q-Burns Abstract Message. I’m not sure who the vocalist is — one of the Lennon Sisters perhaps? — whose line, “You can dance with any girl at all,” is repeated robotically throughout the tune.

“Let it Be Me” — yes, the ballad recorded by Jerry Butler and Betty Everett, the Everly Brothers and many others — is made into something dark and sinister by Magic Elephant Orchestra.

But perhaps best of all is the remix of “You Are My Sunshine” by Joy & the Spider. It sounds like a love song for androids. I’m not sure if the late Gov. Jimmy Davis would recognize this version of his signature song, but with its sped-up vocals (one singer sounds like Bryan Ferry), it’s a creepy joy.

Some minor complaints: there didn’t have to be two versions of essentially the same song, “Baby Elephant Walk,” a Henry Mancini ditty from the soundtrack of Hatari, an early-’60s John Wayne movie. I’m not sure which version I prefer here, the one by Monkey Bars or the one by DJ Keri and DJ 43, which they’ve tweaked to call “Baby Elephant Safari.”

Also, David Lynch was so successful in filling the song “Blue Velvet” with dread and horror in his 1986 movie of the same name — sung there by actress Isabella Rossellini without the benefit of technological tricks of a DJ remix — that Smitty’s best efforts were doomed to sound second-rate.

Though it’s a novelty album to be sure, Upstairs at Larry’s is a bubbly pleasure. All in all, it’s wunnerful, wunnerful, wunnerful.

Also recommended

Ride This by Los Lobos. I was pretty disappointed with Los Lobos’ most recent proper album, The Ride. I felt it was one of those overrun-by-guest-stars affairs; it had too many remakes of old Lobos tunes, and a good number of those remakes were less than impressive.

But now, just a couple of months later, the band comes out with this fine little seven-song EP in which they cover songs by some of those guest stars on The Ride.

They bring out the just-beneath-the-surface Latin overtones of Tom Waits’ “Jockey Full of Bourbon,” while maintaining the knowing-hipster attitude of the “Rain Dogs” tune. Cesar Rosas sounds like he was born at Stax Studio on Bobby Womack’s “More Than I Can Stand.”

Their version of “Shoot Out the Lights” sounds similar to Bob Mould’s take on the song in the early ’90s, with screaming guitars and knuckle-sandwich drums. It’s as tough as Louie Perez’s singing on Rubén Blades’ “Patria” is beautiful.

With the roller-rinky organ and jazzy guitars of Thee Midnighters’ “It’ll Never Be Over For Me,” Los Lobos captures the rock sound of East L.A. in the ’60s. They do the same thing for the L.A. roots-rock scene of the early ’80s — the scene that launched Los Lobos — with their cover of the Blasters’ “Marie Marie.”

But perhaps the thing that makes Ride This more satisfying than The Ride is that Los Lobos, especially singer David Hidalgo, does Elvis Costello’s “Uncomplicated” so much better here than Elvis Costello did Los Lobos’ “Matter of Time” on The Ride. They do the song as a slow-burning, growling-guitar boogie, and Hidalgo sings it with understated soul.

HOME TO THE SOPAPILLA

I'll be back in Santa Fe tomorrow, but not in time to do The Santa Fe Opry. I've left that in the capable hands of Tom Knoblauch and Laurell Reynolds.

I'll be there for Terrell's Sound World on Sunday night. Hope you'll be there too.

I'll be posting this week's Terrell's Tune-up hopefully Saturday morning. And, oh yes, at some point this weekend I intend to clean up these convention posts from New York -- zap some of the late-night, rush-job typos, add links, bold, italics, etc. For some reason I can't do much of that from this silly laptop.

And if you're up early Saturday -- about 7:30 a.m. -- I've agreed to be interviewed for a CSPAN program about battleground state politics. Hopefully I'll have time to get a couple of cups of coffee in me.

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK: DAY 4

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Sept. 3, 2004

NEW YORK _ Just a few blocks south of Madison Square Garden on Seventh Avenue, there’s a building with a huge banner reading “Save America. Defeat Bush.”

And on the 15th floor of the building is a complex of offices filled with 30-50 people -- both paid staff and volunteers -- dedicated to the idea expressed on that banner.

Welcome to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee’s Convention Response Team, spearheading the Democrats’ fight to keep their message and their candidate John Kerry from getting buried by the overwhelming amount of GOP-related news during the week of the Republican convention.

The idea isn’t new. Republicans had a similar operation in Boston when the Democrats met in convention.

There’s a television studio and a radio studio used for recording Democratic spokesmen responding to convention speeches. There’s an office where people arrange for Democratic leaders to appear on t.v. and radio news shows.

There are offices dedicated to organizing press conferences and events around the city during the convention.

And there’s even workers there who are engaged in what could be described as “psychological warfare” against Republican delegates.

Kevin Wardally, the New York campaign director for the response team, said he intended to put campaign posters -- ones with the slogans “Mission Not Accomplished” and “America Can Do Better” on lampposts around delegate hotels.

When police nixed that idea, Wardally said his workers called every Democratic and independent voter in the surrounding neighborhoods to put signs with the Kerry slogans in their windows.

Wardally also organizes Kerry supporters wearing T-shirts with those slogans to show up at live televised programs such as morning news shows that take place outside.

But the real nerve center of the operation is “The War Room,” in which about a dozen researchers sit at tables with their laptops monitoring news on seven television sets.

On the walls in the windowless room are common Democratic messages to be stressed: “Lost 1.8 million private sector jobs.” “Family income down by $1,400.”

There also are unflattering photos of convention speakers such as Vice President Cheney and Sen. Zell Miller, D- Georgia.

When they hear something they consider inaccurate or contradictory from a Republican, the laptop warriors research it, write up press releases and zap it to reporters around the land.

But one thing the response team -- which will pull up stakes in New York today because the convention is over -- isn’t responsible for. The “Defeat Bush” banner actually is the work of a labor group called UNITE!, which is headquartered in the building.

A word from the “real people.”

A New Mexico woman was part of a Thursday press conference organized by the response team.

Loretta Grund, a retired Veterans Administration nurse from Albuquerque was one of several “real people” (as opposed to “political hacks,” one supposes) who were flown to New York for just one day in order to tell reporters why they don’t support President Bush’s reelection.

Grund, who retired in December after 24 years with the VA hospital said while there are 600 new patients being treated, there are fewer doctors and physicians assistants to help them.

She said she volunteered for the Kerry campaign in the New Mexico caucus early this year because she likes Kerry’s record on the environment.

Where’s Bill?

One Democrat not heard from during the Republican convention is Gov. Bill Richardson.

Earlier this week the governor’s office released a statement that out of his deep respect for political parties to have conventions without criticism, he would make a huge sacrifice, at least for someone who loves the national limelight.

“Gov. Bill Richardson today announced that he would not accept any national media requests during the Republican National convention and that he would honor the convention period by not criticizing the Bush Administration during the four days the Republicans are gathered in New York City,” the statement said.

“The governor went on to say that he wishes the New Mexico Republican delegates well at the New York City Convention and urges them to proudly promote the state at every opportunity in concert with the New Mexico Department of Tourism,” the statement said.

Although Richardson was avoiding the national news, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish was interviewed by phone Thursday for Battleground, a show on ABC Now, ABC’s new 24-hour digital television channel.

He probably already knew

New Mexico delegate Darren White -- the sheriff of Bernalillo County -- was one of 10 delegates selected to officially inform President Bush Thursday that he’d been nominated for President.

White said the honorary duty is left over from the wild old days of politics when conventions were full of floor fights and back-room wheeling and dealing, so candidates often weren’t sure if they’d won the nomination.

THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION: WHAT NEXT FOR THE STATE GOP?

As published in the Santa Fe New Mexican
Sept. 3, 2004

NEW YORK _ For New Mexico’s delegates at the Republican National Convention, it’s been a week of rousing speeches, meeting other Republicans from across the country and generally getting fired up for President Bush.

But how do the delegates use that enthusiasm to their candidate’s advantage when they get home to New Mexico, a “battleground” state that Bush lost by less than 400 votes four years ago?

“It’s the job of all the delegates to carry back that enthusiasm and energize our people,” said Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who also is his county’s GOP county chairman.

While the state party has gone through bitter leadership battles in the past year, the delegation in New York seems to have put those old battles behind them, at least for the next two months.

They will be up against a largely united Democratic Party, led by Gov. Bill Richardson, whose prestige in the national party adds pressure on him to delver the state’s five electoral votes to John Kerry.

But GOP delegates interviewed Thursday seemed up for the fight.

“In the next two weeks you’ll see with a new voter registration program, recruiting more volunteers and preparing for a massive get-out-the vote effort,” White said.

White said New Mexico Republicans will be targeting the small group of undecided voters, who could end up determining who gets New Mexico’s undecided vote.

Former Congressman and secretary of interior Manuel Lujan said Thursday he thinks the Republican effort in New Mexico will be helped next week when Vice Presdident Cheney visits Roswell.

“I’m sure (Biush will) be back to the state again before the election, Lujan said. “And I’m sure other Republican luminaries will be here too.”

“The rest of us will just have to talk to voters and get them to vote,” Lujan said. He said to expect large direct mail and telephone bank effort in the state.

“But you can’t talk to everyone,” Lujan said. “There will be lots of t.v., radio and newspaper ads drawing the comparison between John Kerry and the president.”

Lujan said a new organization called the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute should help the GOP with the Hispanic vote -- which normally goes to Democrats by a large margin in New Mexico.

“They’ve got a data base of 8 million Hispanic voters nationwide,” he said. The institute will be conducting mail and phone campaigns for Bush, Lujan said. He didn’t know the group’s budget for New Mexico.

Delegate Jesse Dompreh, an Albuquerque insurance agent, said he believes the GOP must “intensify our outreach to minorities.”

Dompreh, who is an African-Amercan said if the party makes a real effort to appeal to minorities, “it’ll pull strength away from the Democrats.

He said he’s been talking with party leaders and state officials with the Bush-Cheney campaign. “We have a plan,” he said.

Jonathan Collard, 25, of Albuquerque is the delegation’s youngest member. Collard, who is a national committeeman for the Young Republicans, says it’s his job to get his organization to get the Bush message out to young people.

He said his organization -- which he said numbers in the hundreds -- will be involved in a voter registration program aimed at young voters.

State Rep. Joe Thompson of Albuquerque, who is an alternate delegate, said he doesn’t think the party should “pander” to any ethnic or age group.

Thompson said he attended a workshop this week with Bush’s political advisor Karl Rove and other leading GOP strategists.

“What they said was that the Republican Party sells concepts,” Thompson said. “We talk about the role of government and the role of individual responsibility instead of the old-style politics of `What’s in this for me?’”

Thompson said that this year, instead of depending on early and absentee ballots -- a traditional Republican strength -- the Bush campaign is going to have to have a major final countdown effort.

“We’ll have to do an intensive last 72-hours effort to turn out the vote,” he said. “We’ll have to have a magnificent ground game. This is no time for gimmicks and trick plays.”