WHO WAS THAT NADER GUY?

A shorter version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 3, 2004

So what happened to Ralph Nader in New Mexico?

Democrats state predicted doom and gloom if Nader, who ran this year as an independent, would be able to split the progressive vote. They fought tooth and nail in court — but ultimately unsuccessfully — to deny him a place on the ballot.

Apparently some Republicans here felt the same way. Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, distributed ballot petitions for the Nader candidacy. GOP lawyer Pat Rogers volunteered his services to represent Nader free of charge in his court battles.

(Both Adair and Rogers insisted their only interest was providing a wide choice to New Mexico voters.)

Four years ago, when Democrat Al Gore edged out George W. Bush in the state by a mere 366 votes, Nader, who ran then as the Green Party candidate got more than 21,000 votes or four percent of the total.

However, by 1 a.m. Wednesday with more than 90 percent of the vote counted unofficial results showed Nader drawing only one percent of the vote. Nationwide he wasn't doing significantly better.

Nader’s New Mexico coordinator Carol Miller, interviewed Tuesday before the polls closed, said she thinks Nader was the victim of a “four-year dirty-trick campaign” by Democrats and a “blackout” by state news organizations.

“It’s one of the saddest moments in American history,” Miller said. “Taking Ralph Nader, a true national leader who has done so many good things, and tell so many lies about him.”

As far as media coverage goes, Miller said, “Nader was never treated like an equal candidate.”

Miller said the real agenda of Nader foes was “to get rid of anyone who stands up to the corporations.”

However a spokesman for the state Democratic Party said that Nader’s “Diminishing support reflects the fact that his campaign in New Mexico was nothing but a Republican phenomenon.”

Matt Farrauto noted that some Green Party leaders joined the Kerry campaign. These include David Bacon, the 2002 Green Party gubernatorial candidate, who changed party registration to Democrat; and Abe Gutmann, a past Green candidate for U.S. Senate who became a leader of a national group called Greens for Kerry.

NM: LEANING BUSH, BUT TOO CLOSE TO CALL

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

Once again, the battleground state of New Mexico was too close to call in the presidential race by the end of election night on Tuesday, and both sides remained optimistic.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, unofficial figures from The Associated Press, with 94 percent of precincts reporting, showed President Bush leading U.S. Sen. John Kerry 52 percent to 47 percent in the race for New Mexico’s five electoral votes.

However, Gov. Bill Richardson noted that many strong Democratic precincts in Northern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation had yet to be counted.

“I think he’ll pull it out,” Richardson said of Kerry late Tuesday. But speaking to reporters at the secretary of state’s office, he predicted a very narrow win for the Democratic candidate.

“I think he’ll win by about 1 percent,” Richardson said. “I’ve said that all along.”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the state Bush campaign predicted a victory for the president in New Mexico.

“We’re up by 20,000 votes,” Danny Diaz said in a telephone interview. “We’ve run the strongest Republican campaign this state has ever seen.”

Diaz was interviewed shortly after national news networks had called Ohio and Alaska for Bush, pushing the incumbent president’s electoral college count to 269, one electoral vote shy of victory.

“This state could deliver it to Bush,” Diaz said. “We’re trying to beat Nevada to the punch.”

Santa Fe County apparently chose Kerry by a wide margin. With 86 of 87 precincts reported, Kerry was winning this county by better than a 2-to-1 margin.

However, the Bush campaign chairman in Santa Fe County, Bob Parmelee, said he was very optimistic about Bush winning statewide. “The Democrats are digging themselves into a hole by moving further to the left,” he said. “I hope they keep digging.”

Despite losing the county, local Republicans, who watched election results on televisions at Fox’s Upstairs Bar & Grill on St. Michael’s Drive, seemed to be far more upbeat than Democrats who attended election parties at the Eldorado Hotel and The Paramount, a downtown nightclub.

The crowd at Fox’s cheered loudly every time good returns for Bush were announced on television.

One local Democrat activist, who asked not to be identified, said Tuesday he was frustrated by friction between the national Kerry campaign operating here and local Democrats.

“The Kerry campaign played by the playbook instead of by New Mexico rules,” said the man, who described himself as a “disgruntled foot soldier” in the Kerry campaign. “The Bush campaign was better at playing by New Mexico rules.”

“The Kerry campaign wasted people by putting poll watchers in Northern New Mexico,” he said. “They should have had those people in places like Clovis.”

Richardson and Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron said that despite fears of problems at the polls, the election ran relatively smoothly in the state.

“There were no cases of harassment or intimidation,” Richardson said.
Vigil-Giron predicted the final turnout figure would be a record 75 percent of registered voters.

Denise Lamb, director of the state Elections Bureau, said election officials in Cibola County couldn’t locate provisional ballots for some time. Vigil-Giron said voters in Albuquerque’s Paradise Hills were still lined up to vote an hour after the official closing time.

Matt Brix, director of New Mexico’s Common Cause, said there were only sporadic reports of election problems in the state.

Some polling places in Albuquerque had three-hour waits, he said. In Las Cruces some polling places ran out of provisional ballots, Brix said.

Ever the state booster, Richardson told reporters that “the real winner tonight is New Mexico. We got an unprecedented amount of attention.”

The governor noted that in the past, New Mexico “was just a small state that was ignored in the presidential sweepstakes.”

This election was different, however.

Richardson was responsible for part of the national attention. He helped persuade the national Democrats to hold the first televised debate among the Democratic presidential contenders in New Mexico in September 2003.

He convinced the state Legislature to allow parties to have a presidential caucus in February. This attracted visits by most of the Democratic candidates.

Richardson also was chairman of the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July.
But what attracted the most attention was the fact that New Mexico is such an evenly divided state politically. In 2000, Al Gore beat Bush by a mere 366 votes.

Both Bush and Kerry, their running mates, family members and numerous surrogates made visits to the state this year. Bush appeared in Albuquerque as recently as Monday night, while former President Bill Clinton and Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, led weekend rallies in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Oct. 31, 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
Halloween Hootenanny by Zacherle
Bloodleting by Concrete Blonde
Monster Rock by Screaming Lord Sutch
Don't Shake Me Lucifer by Roky Erickson
Big Black Witchcraft Rock by The Cramps
The Munsters Theme by Los Straitjackets
Frankenstein Conquers the World by Daniel Johnston & Jad Fair
Night Visit by Stan Ridgway & Pietra Wexstun

I Drink Blood by Rocket From the Crypt
Halloween by Sonic Youth
I Put a Spell On You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
House of 1,000 Corpses by Rob Zombie
I Scare Myself by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Ghostyhead by Ricki Lee Jones
Halloween Spooks by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

Give Me Some Truth by John Lennon
There Is No Time by Lou Reed
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Country at War by X
Rich Man's War by Steve Earle
Faraway by Sleater-Kinney
Shepherds of the Nation by The Kinks
Civil Disobedience by Camper Van Beethoven

Papa's Got a Brand New Baghdad by The Capitol Steps
American Question by Jason Ringenberg
Misguided Missiles by NRBQ
Something Broken in the Promised Land by Wayne Kramer
The Bush Boys by The Mammals
Rockin' in the Free World by Neil Young
People Have the Power by Patti Smith

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 29, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Monster's Holiday by Buck Owens
Marie Laveau by Bobby Bare
TTT Gas by The Gourds
Sweet Dreams by Roy Buchannan
Sweet Dreams by Emmylou Harris
Living With the Animals by Mother Earth
I Have A Ball by The Ex-Husbands

Let The Bells Ring by Nick Cave
The Mercy Seat by Johnny Cash
Beautiful by Gordon Lightfoot
Snow by Jesse Winchester
Train From Kansas City by Neko Case
Last One Standing Ronny Elliott
Can Man Christmas by Joe West

Stealin' All Day by C.C. Adcock
Susie Q by Dale Hawkins
Baby Scratch My Back by Slim Harpo
Born On The Bayou by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Wicked Old Witch by John Fogarty
Pole Salad Annie by Tony Joe White
Amos Moses by Jerry Reed
Who Do You Love by Ronnie Hawkins& The Hawks
8-Piece Box by Southern Culture On The Skids

Cash on the Barrelhead by Dolly Parton
I Love My Truck by Glen Campbell
Jolene by The White Stripes
One More Bottle of Wine by Emmylou Harris
If You Don't Want My Love by John Prine
Love in Mind by Neil Young
Crazy Arms by Linda Rondstadt
The Maple Tree by Grey DeLisle
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: IT CAME FROM THE SWAMP

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Oct. 29, 2004

Lafayette Marquis, C.C. Adcock’s second album (and his first one in 10 years!) is a rollicking and refreshing work that brings swamp rock into the 21st Century.


And the young Louisianan Adcock knows that swamp rock is a sound that’s not only worth preserving, but worth building upon.

It’s snaked its way through the history of rock ‘n’ roll. Though there’s no real definitions of this elusive sub-genre, you know it when you hear it in the funky tone of the guitar, the loose rhythmic grooves, the laid-back drawl of the singer.

Where it started, nobody knows. You could argue it has roots in Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.” You have to assume a connection with zydeco and Cajun music of rural Louisiana.

You heard it in rockabilly journeymen like Jody Reynolds and his death meditation “Endless Sleep,” and Dale Hawkins’ “Suzy Q.” Bo Diddley -- and his hillbilly disciple Ronnie Hawkins -- conjured the swamp in “Who Do You Love,” while Louisiana bluesman Slim Harpo’s “Baby, Scratch My Back” practically defined the sound.

Swamp rock took a hard-rock turn with Creedence Clearwater Revival in longs like “Green River” and “Born on the Bayou.” J.J. Cale brought a little Oklahoma to the swamp. It got all souled up on “Polk Salad Annie” by Tony Joe White. And it seemed natural in the early ‘70s country charts with Jerry Reed hits like “Amos Moses.”

But some might say that since those days when the gator got Annie’s granny, the swamp has been drained. The sound now seems to live on in various revival bands, novelty acts like Southern Culture on the Skids and the occasional new release from an old master like Fogerty or Tony Joe.

While Adcock has a solid roots resume -- he’s played guitar in bands backing Bo Diddley and Buckwheat Zydeco -- Lafayette Marquis is no a work of nostalgia.

True, one song here, “Runaway Life,” where Adcock is backed only by a fiddle and acoustic guitar, is pure Cajun country.

But the rest of the album has a hard-edged sound in which the guitars not only lay out bayou grooves, they sometimes grate and thunder. The drums, played mostly by Adcock’s touring band member Chris Hunter are more frantic and ferocious than your father’s swamp rock.

Then there’s strange musical colorations on some tunes -- Dr. Dre sideman Mike Elizando on “bass and beats and mood sympathizer ,“ sax maniac Dickie Landry, who blows a maelstrom on a tune called “I Love You,” and the fluttering accordion of at Breaux just audible beneath the crunching metal guitars on “Loaded Gun.”

Other highlights here include then psychedelic “Peter Gunn” style workout called “Stealin’ All Day” (supposedly the last studio production by the late Jack Nitzsche); the Santana-goes-swamp joy of “Blacksnake Bite”; and the dark “Slingshotz n’ Boom-R-Angz,” which sounds like it’s sampled Creedence’s version of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.”

I’m not exactly sure why it took 10 years for Adcock to follow-up his self-titled 1994 debut. (Consumer tip -- you can find used copies of this CD for less than a dollar on Amazon.com) Usual music industry nightmares I suppose. Now that he’s on a respected indie label, Yep Roc, I hope Adcock doesn’t fade away for another decade.


Also Recommended:

Déjà Vu All Over Again by John Fogerty. It must be that time of decade, there’s a new Fogerty album.

Since the early 70s breakup of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fogerty has averaged two solo albums every 10 years. (And in the ‘90s, his second offering was a live “greatest hits” CD).

But it’s always good to hear from Fogerty and his first album of the new millennium is full of delights. (Plus, he’s released two albums since C.C. Adcock’s last one, so we shouldn’t complain.)

Recorded with a basic stripped down band (including drummer Kenny Aronoff on most tunes), Fogerty shows his mastery of his various styles.

“In the Garden” and “She’s Got Baggage” are raw and almost metallic. (“Baggage” has a “Hey-ho” chant in the middle that sounds almost like a tribute to The Ramones.

“Radar” features a Mysterion-style organ (played by Fogerty himself) that’ll make you cry 96 tears

“I Will Walk With You” (featuring Jerry Douglas on dobro) and “Rhubarb Pie” are sweet country numbers, while “Honey Do” is a gentle rockabilly tune.

Fogerty‘s “Fortunate Son,” “Run Through the Jungle” and “Bad Moon Rising” are some of the most enduring Vietnam-era protest songs. One this album, the title song is inspired by the war in Iraq. It’s not as strong as those others, but the song is a bitter indictment.

“One by one I see the old ghosts rising/Stumbling across the Big Muddy/Where the light goes dim/Day after day another Mama’s crying/She’s lost her precious child/to a war that has no end.”

For the record, Fogerty doesn’t get real swampy until the next to the last song, “Wicked Old Witch,” which starts off with a banjo solo before the electric guitar, bass and drums kick in.

Nearly 40 years later, the old boy’s still got swamp water in his blood.

Get swampy on the radio -- on The Santa Fe Opry, Friday 10 -midnight on KSFR, 90.7 Santa Fe Public Radio. Right after the 11th hour this week, you’ll hear C.C. Adcock, John Fogerty, Tony Joe White, Slim Harpo and others.

Then Sunday, same time, same station, Terrell’s Sound World presents the ghoulishly fun Steve Terrell Spook-tacular for the first hour of the show. Then, after the 11th hour there will be a special pre-election set of political tunes.