KUNM CALL-IN SHOW & OTHER ELECTION RADIO

I'm one of several guests on a special edition of KUNM's Call-In Show Monday morning at 8 a.m. It's normally on Thursday mornings, but this is a pre-election deal, so tune in and, if you're so inclined, call up. 505-277-5866. KUNM is 89.9 FM or catch it on the internet HERE.

Speaking of the election and radio, I'll be playing some political /election songs tonight on Terrell's Sound World, including some of those I mentioned in Terrell's Tuneup this week.

The show starts at 10 p.m. tonight, but I'll do the special set starting at the 11th Hour. That's of course on KSFR, 90.7 FM. (And don't forget, out-of-towners, we stream live.

PAPER BALLOTS, FRITO PIES

Though normally I enjoy the Election Day ritual of going to a nearby elementary school, hopefully seeing some neighbors and perhaps some stray sign-holding politicos I know, this year I decided to vote early. I wanted to see how the new paper-ballot system worked, and, with all the dire predictions of long lines Tuesday, I thought I'd just get my personal voting out of the way.

So I went, along with my son (who isn't old enough to vote) to the Santa Fe County Fair Grounds, where voting was taking place in the Small Animal Barn.

At first it looked daunting. There were dozens of people sitting on bleachers waiting to be called to vote. Among them were J.R. Damron, who briefly was the Republican gubernatorial candidate, with his wife Barbara and their children.

I figured it was going to be a long wait. But, to my pleasant surprise, I barely had time to read the literature on the constitutional amendments before my name was called.

I was careful to fill in the bubbles and not color too much outside of the lines. The machine accepted my ballot on first try.

The whole process took about 25 minutes.

In the building right across from the voting barn -- but not within the 100-feet zone where politicing is forbidden -- attorney general candidate Gary King was hosting a rally complete with mariachis, Frito pies and other goodies. I saw a bunch of my Dem friends there. The atmosphere was more of a light-hearted social gathering than a heavy political rally.

So have fun voting Tuesday -- too bad you probably won't get a Frito pie.

My story in the Sunday New Mexican about the new voting system can be found HERE.

YOUR TAX DOLLAR AT WORK

Here's an idea that's bound for glory: Having the government spend money promoting abstinence for people in their 20s!

From USA TODAY:

The federal government's “no sex without marriage” message isn't just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

Can it get more surreal than this?

JUST AN AMERICAN DAD

My KSFR colleague Sean often turns me on to crazy, obscure music. (You can hear his wonderfully ecclectic musical vision on his show Undercurrents, or as I sometimes call it, "Undergarments," 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR.)

This time, Sean introduced me to some crazy music with a sad story.

He had noticed a wire story The New Mexican published recently about "Azzam the American." Azzam's father, Sean explained, was a guy named Phil Pearlman, a hero of the "psychedelic underground."

I was intrigued. Sean loaned me some CDs.

Pearlman was in a band called The Beat of the Earth, who released a self-titled album in 1967. It has two untitled 20-minute-plus tracks, originally the sides of an LP. It's hypnotizing raw psychedelia jams. You hear traces of The Velvet Underground, The Incredible String Band, Sandy Bull. Pearlman's voice reminds me of The Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kanter.

I'm wondering whether Yo La Tengo isn't aware of this music.

Sean loaned me two other Pearlman projects, The Electonic Hole (from 1970, again, untitled tracks, though I recognize one as a cover of Frank Zappa's "Trouble Every Day") and Relatively Clean Rivers (1976), some of which has a slight country-rock flavor. Both are slightly more mainstream sounding (well, "mainstream" is hardly adequate. The tracks are shorter than 20 minutes) but still fascinating stuff.

But I hadn't seen the stoy about his kid. So while listening to The Beat of the Earth I Googled "Azzam the American," which I'd assumed to be some cheesy hip-hop moniker or band name.

Wrong.

My first clue was that most of the sites that showed up on Google were Fox News or right-wing blogs. Turns out Azzam, 28, last month was indicted on charges of treason, the first American citizen to face this charge since World War II.

According to a story on the CBS Web site, Pearlman's kid,

"appeared last month in a 48-minute video along with al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, calling on his countrymen to covert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

"It was the second time he appeared in the same video with al-Zawahri. In a July 7 video marking the one-year anniversary of the terror attack on London commuters, (Azzam) appeared briefly, saying no Muslim should "shed tears" for Westerners killed by al Qaeda attacks."

That's serious stuff. A lot more so than that American Boy John Walker Lyndh, who was younger and always seemed to me to have been confused and gotten involved in something over his head. I don't think Steve Earle will be writing a song for Azzam.

Azzam has been indicted, but not captured. According to one account, he hasn't been in the U.S. since his grandfather's funeral in 1998

Many of the stories and blog posts I read emphasized the fact that Azzam's grandfather -- Phil Pearlman's dad -- was Jewish, by all accounts a kindly doctor, who was on the board of the Anti-Defamation League.

Hearing Phil Pearlman's visionary music makes this story even sadder. I don't have much sympathy for the kid. He's old enough to know what he's doing. But I can't help but wonder what kind of hell his father is going through. Does he blame himself? Is some of that blame justified? Did he resign himself to the fact he lost his son years ago?

It's ironic looking at the verse on the back cover of Relatively Clean Rivers:

Hoping we can all get together, the Arabs and the Jews,
And melt down weapons into water sprinklers,
Tractors, shovels and hoes,
Irrigation pipes

Hippie-dippy utopian doggerel for certain.

But dammit ...

The best article I found on this sad story is on Pop Matters.

And here's a good interview, apparently done years ago before the world knew of Azzam the American, with a former member of The Beat of the Earth.

UPDATE: Sean just sent me a link to an eBay auction where an original Beat of the Earth LP sold for $711. (Plus $7.50 shipping.) But, hey bargain hunters, there's an eBay store selling the LP for a mere $599 (and only $4 shipping.)

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 3, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Rich Man's War by Hundred Year Flood
Rich Man's War by Steve Earle
Fortunate Son by Tony Furtado
Pot of Glue by Butch Hancock
Nothing at All by The Waco Brothers
Between the Cracks by Dave Alvin
Laura Ingraham by Jim Terr

Small Town Blues by Nancy Apple
Hold On to God's Unchanging Hand by Rob McNurlin
Lord Take My Pain by Wayne Hancock
Passing Through by Gary Heffern
Life's Railway to Heaven by Johnny Cash
Beloved Garden by Jon Dee Graham
Wings of a Dove by Lucinda Williams & Nanci Griffiths

Hot Dog by Buck Owens
Three Days by L7 with Waylon Jennings
One Sweet Hello by Merle Haggard
Food, Water, Etc. by The Sadies with Maude Hudson
Son of a Sauaro by The Hacienda Brothers
Going Back to Oklahoma by Emily Kaitz
I Miss My Loneliness by The Ray Mason Band
One Plate Guy by The Lonesome Brothers

Bring Out the Bible (We Ain't Got a Prayer) by The Texas Sapphires
Wayside/Back in Time by Gillian Welch
Leave it to a Loser by Robbie Fulks
Love in the Ruins by Jim Lauderdale
Magic Girl by Chip Taylor
Perfect Stranger by Eleni Mandell
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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