TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 20, 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
Leave the Capitol by The Fall
Clown Time is Over by Elvis Costello
Dummy by NRBQ
51-7 by Camper Van Beethoven
Big Shot in the Dark by Timbuk 3
Quiche Lorraine by The B52s

Let Loose the Kraken by The Bald Guys
Adventures Through Inner Space by The Bomboras
Experiment in Terror by Davie Allan & The Arrows
Scatter Shield by The Surfaris
Shredded Heat by Dick Dale
Cha Wow Wow by The Hillbilly Soul Surfers
H is for Harlot by The Civil Tones
The Casbah by Los Straightjackets
Who Got the Grady by The Diplomats of Solid Sound
The Godfather by Satan's Pilgrims
Jack the Ripper by Link Wray

Red River Valley by Brave Combo
Polka Enemy # 1 by The Polkaholics
Who'd You Like to Love Ya by Li'l Wally
Top of the Hill Polka by Nancy Hlad
Blue Polka by Rotondi
Do Something Different by Brave Combo
Nichts Nein Frankenstein by Das Furlines
Ten in One by Crow Hang
Weiner Dog Polka by Polkacide

My Singing Soul by Soel
The Last World of Fire and Trash by Joy Harjo
Cody by Mogwai
Lost in the Supermarket by The Afghan Whigs
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 18, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Nashville Skyline Rag by Bob Dylan
I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink by Merle Haggard
I Am A Lonesome Fugitive by Roy Buchannan
Six Days On the Road by Graham Parsons and the Fallen
Angels
1952 Vincent Black Lightening by Richard Thompson
Mother Earth and Cheat by the Sadies
All Of You Fascists Are Bound To Lose by Woody Guthrie
I Need A Man To Love by Janis Joplin

Life of Ease by Steve Terrell
Lovesick Blues by Linda Ronstadt
Making Believe by Kitty Wells
Sometimes When I Get To Thinking by Buffy Sainte Marie
Me and My Uncle by Judy Collins
Tommorrow Is A Long Time by Sandy Denny
A Satisfied Mind by Porter Wagoner
The Man Who Couldn't Cry by Johnny Cash

Little Maggie by The New Lost City Ramblers
Hop High My Lulu Gal by Dirk Powell and Jim Miller
Walkin' Boss by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman
Give the Fiddler A Dram by the Holy Modal Rounders
Wild Bill Jones by the Highwoods String Band
Gentle On My Mind by John Hartford
To Love Somebody by the Flying Burrito Brothers
Leavin' On Your Mind by Patsy Cline
Sweet Dreams by Roy Buchannan

Saturday Clothes, Changes, and Too Late For Prayin' by Gordon Lightfoot
Stairway To Heaven by Dolly Parton
Sweet Old World by Lucinda Williams
Another Man Gone by Vera Hall
Alone With You by Faron Young
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: AN AMERICAN IS A VERY LUCKY MAN

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 18, 2005

Listening to a batch of recent -- and fairly recent -- CDs in my never-ending pile of promos, I can’t help but be drawn back to a strange little song from my elementary school music class.

I’ve written about it before in this very column, but it continues to haunt me. It was a patriotic little ditty called "An American Is a Very Lucky Man."

For years, I didn’t know where the song came from. As far as I knew, it was written by some music teacher in Oklahoma City.

Through the magic of Google, I just learned that it was written by George Mysels and J. Maloy Roach, a songwriting team best known for the inspirational Perry Como hit "One Little Candle," and that at one point it was performed by Fred Waring -- I’m not sure with or without His Pennsylvanians.

Yes, like the Candle song, "Lucky Man" was dangerously corny, but it had a nice populist twist that made an impression: "The man who builds a house of wood and a man who welds a tank/ is just as proud and just as good as the man who owns the bank."

But it was the last verse, a celebration of cultural diversity, that I believe helped shape my wide tastes in music (as well as food.)

"An American is a very lucky guy/ He can eat chow mien or borscht or pizza pie ..."

By extension, that means you can enjoy polka, New Orleans jazz and strange strains of jazz fusion and ‘70s Blaxploitation soul -- as performed by Frenchmen.

I sure do. An American is a very lucky man.

*Let’s Kiss by Brave Combo. The Combo call this CD their “25th Anniversary Album.” It’s hard to believe the boys from Denton have been playing their high-energy mix of polka, rock and anything that crosses their collective mind for that long. But they sound as if they still love doing it.

This is a collection of newly recorded material. The liner notes say they’ll wait until their 50th anniversary to do a retrospective.

The Combo doesn’t break much new ground here. They still do a basic pumped-up polka beat driven home by the horn section of Jeffrey Barnes (clarinet and saxes) and Danny O’Brien (trumpet). Guitarist Carl Finch still has that goofy warble when he signs and bassist Bubba Hernandez specializes in those irresistible Mexican polkas.

And they still have a knack for crazy cover tunes. They do the old tune "Bumble Bee" (best known by The Searchers, but done best by Laverne Baker), complete with an instrumental section of "Flight of the Bumble Bee."

They make "Red River Valley" sound as if it were written for a polka band. Plus there’s two versions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and a minute-long version of The Simpsons theme.

*Putomayo Presents New Orleans. The pantheon of New Orleans musical vast is so great it would be ridiculous to even try to represent it on one disc. Therefore, I have to quibble with the title of this CD.

And I’m irritated because the 35 or so pages of liner notes give precious little recording date information on the songs here.

But listening to the good-time music included on New Orleans, it’s hard to stay grumpy very long.

The emphasis of this compilation is on Crescent City jazz. You won’t find any Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Clarence “Frogman” Henry or Neville Brothers. The only famous contributor from the New Orleans rock world here is Dr. John, who does a soulful “Basin Street Blues.”

Some of my favorites here are Louie and Louie -- Armstrong and Prima.

Satch’s “Tin Roof Blues” is a slow blues recorded in 1966, late in his career. It’s not nearly as powerful as his early recordings, but he could still blow.

Prima does a snazzy version of “Basin Street Blues,” complete with his trademark scat singing. Even though at two minutes it’s less than half as long as Dr. John’s version, Prima's is more satisfying.

One of the strangest cuts here is Dr. Michael White’s “Give it Up (Gypsy Second Line).” With White’s wailing clarinet, this tune suggests a connection between New Orleans jazz and klezmer.

*Memento by Soel. Close your eyes when you’re listening to this album and try not to visualize Richard Roundtree or Melvin Van Peebles or Pam Greer duking it out with The Man. This music could be straight out of some long lost Blaxploitation flick.

True, you can hear little modern touches of hip-hop and electronica here and there. It’s pretty obvious on the trippy cut called “Earth Mother” with its percussive loops of tablas and dub-like bass and on “To This World” with its relentless hip-hop funky drum loop.

But the spirit of movies like Shaft and music like “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” prevails through all the tracks of Memento. There’s even some vocal samples of the militant proto-rap group The Last Poets on a couple of songs.

Surprisingly this album primarily is the work of French hipsters. Trumpet player Pascal Ohse is the mastermind here, while his longtime collaborator Ludovic Navarre, aka St. Germain, is producer and musical director.

While there are samplers and synthesizers at work here, real live musicians carry the major load. Edouard Labor’s flute on “We Have Died Already” is downright hypnotic.

Ohse and Navarre have done a magnificent job absorbing the music of the Superfly era and synthesizing it into something timeless.

TOP O' THE FOOD CHAIN TO YA!

Happy Saint Pat's and go stróice cúnna ifrinn do bhall fearga!

I got that little Gaelic gem from an Irish curse generator.

And go n-ithe na péisteoga do dhea-chlú to you all.

(Thanks to my friend, Dana in Albuquerque!)

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: STUDY HALL

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 17, 2005

Here's a modest proposal for future legislation: a memorial to direct a study about the effects on state government of studies directed by the Legislature.

Every year our lawmakers pass measures that don't actually do anything but ask some state agency to study some particular issue.

Here's a sample of some of the studies that both chambers of the Legislature have agreed upon so far:

* House Joint Memorial 63, sponsored by Rep. Debbie Rodella, D-San Juan Pueblo, requests the State Commission of Public Records conduct a written study to document Chimayó chile's cultural, traditional and industrial connection to present ways of living in Chimayó and surrounding communities.

* House Bill 684, sponsored by Rep. Kandy Cordova, D-Belen, would ask the state Department of Health to conduct a study on gambling addiction and its relation to suicide and bankruptcies. (Because this is a bill, with an appropriation of $110,000, it would have to be signed by the governor.)

* Senate Joint Memorial 15, sponsored by Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, asks the State Parks Division to study boating safety education programs.

And here's one that feeds a paranoia I didn't even know I had:

* HJM 75, sponsored by Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Ribera, which directs the Regulation and Licensing Department to study the elevator industry. It turns out there's no state agency responsible for making sure the elevators in this state are operating or maintained correctly.

I think I'll take the stairs, at least until they do this study.

Besides the studies that have passed both chambers, there's plenty still creeping through the legislative process.

And just last week, Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, frustrated at not being able to pass her bill to ban cockfighting, said she might introduce a last-minute memorial to ask the state to study the socio-economic effects of cockfighting on the state. So far, that measure hasn't seen the light of day.

Two state cabinet secretaries interviewed Wednesday said they don't feel put upon by all these calls for studies.

"You don't have to do these studies," said Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham, noting that most of them come in the form of memorials, which are non-binding. "But these express a clear legislative intent and our job is to respond."

But both Grisham and Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde said they sometimes worry whether their respective departments have the expertise needed to conduct some of the studies they are asked to conduct.

Frequently, the secretaries noted, this year's study turns into next year's legislation. This happened with the state telemarketing bill that passed the Legislature two years ago.

"These studies are usually topics that constituents have raised with legislators," Hyde said. "It's an appropriate way of raising an issue for public discussion."

St. Jeff?: Last week in this column, I quoted a recent National Review article that claimed U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman is one of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election next year.

Bingaman's office responded by sending a poll conducted earlier this year by New Mexico Research and Polling Inc., that basically showed Bingaman to be pretty darn popular in this state.

According to the poll, 67 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of Bingaman - 29 percent saying "very favorable," 38 percent saying "somewhat favorable." Only 14 percent said they have an unfavorable opinion of the Democrat. Even a healthy majority of Republicans - 60 percent - have a favorable opinion of Bingaman, the poll said.

The same poll showed U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici to have a total of 68 percent favorable rating with 20 percent saying they have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican senator.

Most of the questions in the poll dealt with environmental and energy issues.

The poll was commissioned by Green and Associates, a New Mexico public-policy consulting firm, said Research and Polling president Brian Sanderoff. A random sample of 500 voters statewide were interviewed by telephone between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Sanderoff said the numbers indeed look good for Bingaman's re-election effort.

Another indication that Bingaman might not be that vulnerable, Sanderoff said, is that there is not a "long line of people" waiting to challenge him. So far only former state Sen. Tom Benavides, a perennial candidate who at various stages of his career has run as a Democrat an independent and most recently as a Republican, has said he'll challenge Bingaman.