BEN LUJAN RE-ELECTED SPEAKER

I was too busy playing reporter instead of blogger so I'm hardly the first to report this ... but its true, Ben Lujan beat Rep. Kenny Martinez of Grants to stay on as speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Martinez was re-elected majority leader. Reps. Joe Cervantes and Gail Chasey withdrew their names for consideration. Martinez beat Rep. Mimi Stewart of Albuquerque.

Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton was re-elected Dem whip. She defeated a challenge by Rep. Joe Campos of Santa Rosa.

All House members interviewed said they didn't know the vote count on the speaker's race.

More in tomorrow's paper.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 17, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
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
The Happy Wanderer by Brave Combo
Gloria by Elastica
Mountain Side by Chris Whitley & The Bastard Club
The Moon is in The Gutter by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Boney Was a Warrior by Jack Shit
Blow the Man Down by Giant Sand
Betty's Body by The Residents
She Left Me With the Herpes by Tiny Tim
I'm A Christmas Tree by Wild Man Fischer

Elephant Gun by Beirut
Born to Be Wild by Fanfare Ciocarlia
Rock El Casbah by Racid Taha
Mustapha Dance by The Clash
Flat Foot Flewzy by NRBQ
Nightmare Song by Eleni Mandell
Christmas Boogie by Canned Heat & The Chipmunks

TOM WAITS SEGMENT
All songs by Tom Waits unless otherwise noted

Waitin' For Waits by Ritchie Cole
Lie to Me
Long Way Home
On the Road by TW with Primus
Big Black Mariah by John Hammond
God's Away on Business
The Return of Jackie & Judy
Swordfishtrombone
Little Man
Telephone Call From Istambul by Kazik Staszewski
Filipino Box Spring Hog
Day After Tomorrow
Innocent When You Dream
Goodnight Irene
SUBSTITUTE CLOSING THEME: Lucky Day by Tom Waits

eMUSIC DECEMBER

Here's my allotted 90 downloads from eMusic this month:

* Ludlow Garage 1970 by NRBQ. Big Al Anderson himself told me that the best guitarist NRBQ ever had was Steve Ferguson. Al's too modest, but Ferguson was damned good. This is a live recording from the Q's pioneer days. Lots of R&B, rockabilly and long jams with the spirit of Sun Ra hovering over Terry Adam's head.

*The American Song-Poem Christmas : Daddy Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? .
Do I have to remind everyone what song poems are? It's a glorious scam in which would-be lyricists are lured by little ads in the back of certain magazines to spend their hard-earned cash to have their words put to music by studio musicians who crank them out at amazing speeds. The results often are unintentionally hilarious and sometimes strangely touching. This is a Christmas collection with hits such as "Santa Claus Came on a Nuclear Missile," "Maury the Christmas Mouse" and "The Rocking Disco Santa Claus."

*Moondog , plus three stray tracks from Moondog's H'art Songs.. eMusic continues to be a great source for classic "outsider" music. The song-poems attest to thta, as do the the several Moondog albums available. Moondog , born Louis Hardin, was a blind, self-educated composer and performer who was born in Kansas but became notorious for performing his strange music on the streets of New York in the late '40s, sometimes wearing a horned Viking helmet. This 1956 album is heavy on percussion and sounds of traffic, croaking frogs and a crying baby. There's a Japanese lullaby, with kyoto, sung by Moondog's wife The H'art Songs I downloaded, which I don't like quite as much, features piano-based melodies that are oddly affecting.

*Good Morning Mr. Walker by Joseph Spence. Talk about a guy who made his own rules, Spence -- surely the best known singer to ever emerge from The Bahamas -- sang like your favorite drunken uncle. Between his accent and his funny mumbling, sometimes growling scat singing, don't bet your life on understanding all the lyris, even on familiar songs. But listen to that guitar. The man was a magician.

*Demons Dance Alone by The Residents. The first moments of the opening song, "Life Would Be Wonderful might make you think you downloaded some old Herb Albert song. It's actually sort of pretty. The songs on this album were written in 2001, shorty after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Maybe that's why it seems rather subdued for a Residents album. But don't worry. There's not much you could call mainstream here. I think my favorite tune here is "Betty's Body," which has lyrics like, "I see her every morning and watch her fingers forming ... I could be her lover, if it, if it weren't for Mother ..."

I also downloaded several free tracks from Freedom Haters Unite! A Bloodshot Records Sampler, Vol. 1 . My favorite being Paul Burch's "John Peel," a soulful tribute to the great BBC music show host.

BEN LUJAN PROFILE

My story in today's New Mexican about House Speaker Ben Lujan's battle to keep his position and what led to Rep. Kenny Martinez's challenge can be found HERE.

The sidebar about Lujan's life and career is HERE.

The state House Democrats meet Monday to vote on the speaker and other positions.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December 15, 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
Brand New Heartbreak by Jeff Lescher & Janet Beveridge Bean
Aftermath U.S.A. by The Drive-By Truckers
Wired Ole Gal by The Gourds
I Blunder On by Gurf Morlix
Prozac by Ramsay Midwood
Shove it by Audrey Auld Merzera & Nina Gerber
If Your Poison Gets You by Frank Black
For Too Long by Eric Hisaw
The Only Law That Santa Claus Understood by Ted Lyons

Kiwi Moon by John Egenes
Worried Spirits by Howe Gelb
Valley of Tears by Solomon Burke with Gillian Welch
Faith by Chris Thomas King
Flowers by Irma Thomas
Gather the Family 'Round by Ed Pettersen
All I Want For Christmas is My Upper Plate by Homer & Jethro
Blue Christmas Lights by Chris & Herb

Grapevine by Tom Russell
Big Daddy's Rye by Artie Hill & The Long Gone Daddies
The Country is Young by Jon Langford
Officer Norris by Blaze Foley
Wild Man by Hasil Adkins
The Chokin' Kind by Waylon Jennings
The One You Slip Around With by Skeeter Davis
Here Comes Fatty Claus by Rudolph & Gang
Where It All Began by Mac Wiseman

Christmas in Jail by The Soul Deacons
Christmas in Jail by Chip Taylor
Christmas in Prison by John Prine
Man About Town by Tony Gilkyson
Miss Me by Eleni Mandell
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground by Willie Nelson
Distant Land to Roam by Ralph Stanley
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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