TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 14, 2007
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 Curse of Milhaven by Nick Cave
Jack Pepsi by TAD
Puke + Cry by Dinsosaur Jr.
Hypno Sex Ray by The Cramps
Two-headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer) by Roky Erikson & The Aliens
Cubby Bear by The Moggs
Man in the Box by Alice in Chains

Chill Out Tent by The Hold Steady
Kentucky Slop Song by NRBQ
Do You Believe in Rapture? by Sonic Youth
Shady Lane by Pavement
English Civil War (Johnny Comes Marching Home) by The Clash
Greatest Show on Earth by Outkast with Macy Gray
Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun by Mink Stole

Mooney by The Kilimanjaro Yak Attack
I Go Evil by Chris Whitley & The Bastard Club
Puttin' on the Dog by Tom Waits
Two Dogs and a Bone by Los Lobos
River City by The Dwarves
Thunder on the Mountain by Bob Dylan
Goodbye Sweet Pops by Archie Schepp
All I Can Do Is Cry by Ike & Tina Turner

Keep on Pushing by The Impressions
Why? (The King of Love is Dead) by Nina Simone
Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Ronny Elliott
A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

UNBRIDLED BLOGGERY

Yippie! I've been upgraded to the snazzy new Blogger system.

What does that mean to you? The major advantage I see is that I now have categories. I've already set up my "big five" categories -- my two weekly columns, my two radio shows, plus my monthly eMusic downloads. I've just gone back a couple of months (more on the eMusic, since there's only a few). But all new posts in the areas will have categories, and you can access them via the permanent links on the right side of the page.

The biggest drawback I've found is that I can't get my Haloscan comments to work. I'll work on that. In the meantime, if you have a comment, just e-mail me.

In other blog news, I'll again be doing a separate Legislature blog for The New Mexican this year. You can find it HERE. (On the maiden post you can find the links to all the Legislature stories I have in today's New Mexican.)

As has been the case the past couple of years, my personal blog here -- normally a strange hodgepodge of music and state politics -- will focus mainly on music, though it still be the home of Roundhouse Roundup, my weekly political column. (Catch that cool category link!)

And I'll still post an occasional link to funny political items like this one in this morning's Washington Post.:

But the big campaign news is all the media attention that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) got after he was photographed shirtless. The Zeitgeist sincerely hopes that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson doesn't read that last sentence.

(OK, someone in my glass house shouldn't call the kettle "black." In fairness to the gov, if he keeps losing weight like he's done in recent weeks, he won't have to worry about stuff like this.)

THAT''S THE NEWS

My story about New Mexico leading the nation in private prisons ran today in The New Mexican. CLICK HERE

Anyway, We're Number One! I wonder if the governor will brag about this fact when he runs for president.

One reader points out that I goofed up on my alphabet soup. "MGC" should be MTC. (That's the company that used to run the Santa Fe jail.)

I also neglected to post the link to my story about Paige McKenzie, the Republican activist who was severely beaten with a tire iron by an unknown attacker. You can find that HERE.

It was great seeing Paige on Thursday and it truly is amazing how she's recovered.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 12, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Ghosts of Hallelujah by The Gourds
I Told You So by Ramsay Midwood
Devil in the Blue Dress by Bill Kirchen
How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
The Shakin' Fears by P.W. Long
Love-A-Rama by Southern Culture on the Skids
Cat Scratch Fever by Hayseed Dixie
Animal Hoedown by Harry Hayward

Mean Man Blues by 1/4 Mile Combo
Wanted Man by Johnny Cash
Hama Hama Hula by Jon Rauhouse
Singer of Sad Songs by Waylon Jennings
Life of a Fool by Paul Burch
American History by Cary Swinney
Palestine, Texas by T-Bone Burnett
The Caves of Burgundy by Boris & The Saltlicks

BLAZE 'n' HAZE SET
Rainbows and Ridges by Blaze Foley
Wild Man by Hasil Adkins
A Song for Blaze by Elliot Rogers
She Said by The Cramps
Down Here Where I Am by Blaze Foley
No More Hotdogs by Hasil Adkins
Someday by Blaze Foley
Me and Jesus by Hasil Adkins
Springtime in Uganda by Townes Van Zandt

All Beauty Taken From You In This Life Remains Forever by Chris Whitley & The Bastard Club
Unbroken Love by Andy Fairweather Low
Magic Glasses by Ed Pettersen
Silverlake Babies by Eleni Mandell
If I Could Only Fly by Merle Haggard
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: HAZE 'n' BLAZE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 12, 2007

Late last year, two albums were released featuring never-released or long-out-of print recordings from late, great, American wild man originals — Hasil Adkins and Blaze Foley.


Besides the fact that they both played guitar and they’re both dead — Foley was shot to death in 1989, while Adkins died in 2005 just shy of his 68th birthday — one might conclude that Blaze and Haze don’t have much in common. But both men’s music generally was overlooked by the mainstream. And both artists inspired worshipful cults. In my view, the worship is well-deserved, and these new albums should be seen as sacraments.

*Best of the Haze by Hasil Adkins. The crashing strum of an out-of-tune guitar with a menacing backwoods voice declaring, “Well I’m gonna tell you what happened” is the foreboding start of this record. It’s as if you’ve found yourself in a nightmare in which you’re trapped in a hillbilly’s still house on the wrong side of the cosmic tracks — where the guy talking has one hand on the neck of a battered guitar and the other hand on a shotgun.

How can you describe Hasil Adkins? I don’t think I can top All Music Guide, which called him a “frantic one-man band who bashed out ultra-crude rock & roll tunes about sex, chicken, and decapitation into a wheezing reel-to-reel tape machine in a West Virginia shack.”

Probably the best known of those groups who went on the Adkins diet is The Cramps, whose trademark “psychobilly” sound sprang from the Haze.

He started out in the 1950s, recording his bizarro-world one-man rockabilly for tiny regional labels. It was those early 45s that inspired The Cramps and others and eventually led to Adkins recording long-players in the ’80s and ’90s on the Norton label (plus an album on Fat Possum Records and a live recording from the Chicago-based Bughouse label).

Unfortunately, despite the title of this album, you won’t find those scratchy-but-sublime old recordings here. What Best of The Haze offers is a bunch of tracks from early-’90s sessions for a never-released album on the now-defunct IRS label (once the home of R.E.M., Concrete Blonde, and Wall of Voodoo, among others).

He’s older in these recordings but hardly mellower. There are some re-recordings of classic Haze “hits” (including the opening cut “She Said” and “This Ain’t No Rock ’n’ Roll Show”), a couple of cover songs (Hank’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and Elvis’ “Teddy Bear”), a Christmas tune (“Santa Claus Boogie”), and even a gospel tune (“Me & Jesus”).

But the best is “Wild Man” — another re-recorded old song that shows Adkins as the ultimate dirty old man. The song basically consists of Haze frantically strumming his guitar, apparently tuned to the key of H, and singing — sometimes almost screaming — “verses” that repeat the phrase “you call me a wild man” and stopping every so often to speak lines like: “Now you wouldn’t take your clothes off would ya? [pause] Well, if you did, it would be all right!”

*Cold, Cold World by Blaze Foley and The Beaver Valley Boys. While it’s not hard to see why an acquired taste like Hasil Adkins never made a splash in the mainstream, Blaze Foley should have been a star.


Only thing is, Blaze lived as crazy as Haze sang. He was essentially homeless, sleeping under pool tables at bars. He patched up old shoes with duct tape.

But this hard-drinking, even harder-living Texan (born Michael David Fuller) wrote what can only be called some mighty songs. His best known surely is “If I Could Only Fly,” the stunning title track of Merle Haggard’s best album of this century. Hag, who also recorded that song with Willie Nelson about 20 years ago, reportedly has contemplated releasing a whole album of Blaze songs.

Haggard’s not alone. John Prine sang Foley’s “Clay Pigeons” on his last album. Both Lucinda Williams and Townes Van Zandt wrote songs about Foley (“Drunken Angel” and “Blaze’s Blues,” respectively). And there have been several little-noticed Blaze tribute albums, featuring performances mainly by the singer’s Austin pals, released in recent years.

Cold, Cold World is graced by Gurf Morlix, a fine artist in his own right who plays guitar and bass and sings backup here. The songs were recorded in 1979 and 1980 — at a time when some thought Foley might reach some level of mainstream success.

The album has some pretty country songs like the title song and the mournful “Picture Cards” (which has similarities to “If I Could Only Fly”), some breezy, bluesy stuff like “No Goodwill Stores in Waikiki” and “Slow Boat to China,” and even some topical numbers like “Election Day” (later recorded by Lyle Lovett) and “Officer Norris” (a protest against a cop).
Foley’s wry humor is all over the album, especially on songs like “Christian Lady Talkin’ on a Bus,” “Big Cheeseburgers and Good French Fries,” and “New Wave Blues” which starts out, “There goes that tongue again, back in my ear again.”

The man should have been a star.