NEW MEXICAN-KOB POLL: THE HORSE RACE

According to the poll sponsored by The New Mexican and KOB-TV, George Bush holds a small lead over John Kerry in New Mexico.

READ ABOUT IT HERE

Happy Birthday Leonard Cohen, Bill Murray, Larry Hagman, Stephen King and Ricki Lake!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, Sept 19, 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
September Song by Lou Reed
Clampdown by The Clash
Hey Grandma by Moby Grape
I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard Thompson
Jockey Full of Bourbon by Los Lobos
Just Let Go by The Hollis Wake
Everything That Touches You by The Association
My Way by Sid Vicious

Sho Nuff and Yes I Do by Captain Beefheart
The Desparate Man by The Black Keys
Ding Dang by Les Claypool
Evil by Interpol
The Last World of Fire and Trash by Joy Harjo
Since I Fell For You by Big Mama Thornton

The KKK Took My Baby Away by The Ramones
Dirty Action by Texas Terri Bomb
My Generation by Patti Smith
Never Say Never by Romeo Void
Spiders (Kidsmoke) by Wilco
Patootie Pie by Louis Jordan

Saucy Sailor by Steeleye Span
Freedom Park by Marah
Foreign Disaster Days by Brazilville
America Loves the Minstrel Show by American Music Club
Sleep Enough to Dream by Jon Dee Graham
Leader of the Pack by The Shangri-Las
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

NEW MEXICAN-KOB POLL

The Santa Fe New Mexican and KOB-TV have sponsored a poll on the presidential race and the issues. Somehow it's involved with MSNBC and Knight-Ridder newspapers too.

The results of the presidential poll will be published Tuesday. Today we have results of New Mexicans' opinions on the war in Iraq. CLICK HERE. On Monday we'll publish what we found out on New Mexico's attitudes toward terrorism and security.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAY LIST

Friday, September 17, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I Think I'll Just Sit Here and Drink by Merle Haggard
American Question by Jason Ringenberg
Harm's Way by The Waco Brothers
Salute to a Switchboard by Tom T. Hall
There's a Higher Power by Buddy Miller
The Bridge Washed Out by Junior Brown
If I'm Going to Sink (I Might As Well Go to the Bottom) by Neko Case
As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
Mike the Can Man by Joe West

Danko/Manuel by Drive-By Truckers
Country Boy by The Band
Wild as the Wind by Steve Forbert
A Change is Gonna Come by The Band
Diana by Alejandro Escovedo
Weighted Down by Skip Spence

Beautiful Dreamer by Raul Malo
Slumber My Darling by Alison Krauss
Old Black Joe by Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis
Swanee River Rock by Ray Charles
Nelly Was a Lady by Alvin Youngblood Hart
Camptown Races by The Bubbadinos
Hard Times Come Again No More by Mavis Staples
Oh Susanna by Ronny Elliott

Little Sister by Elvis Presley
Wake Up Call by Peter Case
Milk and Honey by Nels Andrews
The Bum I Loathe (Is Dead and Gone) by Desdemona Finch
Dear Mother by Acie Cargill
A Chance Counsel by Richard Buckner
So Much Wine by The Handsome Family
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots
Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: TRIBUTE IN DE COLD, COLD GROUND

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 17, 2004

There’s no doubt that Stephen Foster is one of the greatest songwriters ever to spring from American soil. His songs paint a picture of the mid 19th Century that have become an ingrained part of the way we look at that era.

Making a tribute album to Foster is a long overdue idea. However Beautiful Dreamer: the Songs of Stephen Foster, the recent “various artists” tribute gives an incomplete picture of Foster, and thus an incomplete portrait of his era.

Quick history lesson: Though many of Foster’s best-known songs deal with the antebellum South, Foster was born near Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1826.

He is recognized as America’s first professional songwriter. But despite writing some songs still being sung 150 years later, his final days were spent in poverty, alcoholism and despair. At the age of 37 he committed suicide by slashing his own throat.

So that would make him the Kurt Cobain of his era. But before that, he was Elvis Presley.

Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and those who loved them were drawn to the wild and mysterious music called rhythm & blues and mutated it in a new style called rock ‘n’ roll. Likewise, many white musicians in Foster’s era were drawn to the African-American music of their era, turning it into blackface minstrel music. Beautiful Dreamer’s liner notes describes this music as “the rowdy, racist and first uniquely American form of popular entertainment.”

Several music historians have noted the sociological similarities between rock and minstrelsy.

Foster as a youth ate up the minstrel songs. While his songs were grounded in European styles, the minstrel element is what made Foster’s music unique and powerful.

But despite some fine performances by some respectable artists here, Beautiful Dreamer presents a largely bowdlerized, almost Disneyland version of Stephen Foster.

Sure it’s got the song “Beautiful Dreamer” (sung beautifully by Raul Malo), “Old Kentucky Home” (by native Kentuckian John Prine) and a breezy, funky “Oh Susanna” by Michelle Shocked, on which she is backed up by guitarist Pete Anderson.

And it’s got some pretty versions of lesser known Foster tunes. Grey DeLisle, who normally sings like she’s channeling spirits of the 19th Century, does her strange magic on “Willie We Have Missed You.” And the ever-amazing Allison Krauss will make you weak kneed on “Slumber My Darling.” which she sings with an ensemble including fiddler Mark O’Connor, bassist Edgar Meyer and classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

But what about “Old Black Joe”? What about “Massa’s in De Cold Ground”? Where is Foster’s minstrel side?

Politically incorrect? Why, sure.

But don’t say it can’t be done.

A couple of years ago Van Morrison and Linda Gail Lewis did a powerful rocking version of “Old Black Joe” that transcended any possible racist overtones. (Foster detractors tend to forget that like most the black people in Foster’s songs, Joe has always been a sympathetic character, not the subject of ridicule.)

And a couple of years ago Tampa, Fla. Roots rocker Ronny Elliott recorded a version of “Oh Susanna” that included a forgotten verse in which Foster actually used “the N word.”

“I jumped aboard the telegraph/And traveled down the river/The electric fluid magnified/ And killed 500 niggers.”

In his liner notes of his album Poisonville, Elliott wrote, “I restored the dreaded second verse to remind us that maybe society does inch along.” In doing so, Elliott raised serious questions. Is it better to forget these hideous reminders of the ugliness of our past? Should we whitewash -- so to speak -- our heritage, or confront head on ugly reminders of racism in our national heritage?

Beautiful Dreamer answers that question in its timidity.

To be fair, this album is hardly the first time Foster has been smoothed over for contemporary sensibilities. Despite what you learned in elementary school music class, (and despite the words John Prine sings here), in Foster’s original version it wasn’t the “old folks” who are “gay” in “My Old Kentucky Home.” (And as long as we’re cleaning up Foster, isn’t it time to rewrite that whole line?)

I’m not saying Michelle Shocked was obligated to sing “the dreaded second verse” of “Oh Susanna.” But wouldn’t it have been great to hear someone like Chuck D or Michael Frante do their own update of “Massa’s in De Cold Ground”?

As it happens, two of the strongest tunes here are by African-American performers. Mavis Staples does a passionate take on “Hard Times Come Again No More.”

But even better is Alvin Youngblood Hart’s rendition of an obscure Foster song from 1849 called “Nelly Was a Lady.” It’s the lament of a slave for his dead wife. The gruff-voiced bluesman sings the tune with the sad, simple dignity Foster intended.

Despite Foster’s minstrel-show roots and demeaning racial slurs in some of the songs, Foster had the respect of black abolition leader Frederick Douglass, who praised Foster’s empathy for slaves.

And later, W.C. Handy, the “Father of the Blues,” would write, “The well of sorrow from which Negro music is drawn is also a well of mystery....I suspect that Stephen Foster owed something to this well, this mystery, this sorrow.”

Too bad Beautiful Dreamer doesn’t delve deeper into the complex well of Stephen Foster.