THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 26, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
If You Don't Love Jesus by Billy Joe Shaver
Long Dark Night by John Fogerty
Party by The Collins Kids
Fannie Mae by Dizzy Elmer
Long, Long Ponytail by The Fireballs
Kissy Baby by Heavy Trash
Fugiyama Mama by Wanda Jackson
Oh Boy by The Donettes
Lover's Rock by Johnny Horton
You Better Move On by Johnny Paycheck with George Jones
Sally Sue Brown by Elvis Costello

Happy 2B Flying Away by Carolyn Mark
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Patti Smith
Trampled Rose by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Waymore's Blues by J.J. Cale
Sadie Green, The Vamp of New Orleans by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
When I Was a Cowboy by Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Gunsmoke Trail by Tex Ritter

I Still Want To Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am) by Bettye LaVette
Thin White Mercury by Todd Snider
Outside of a Small Circle of Friends by Phil Ochs
Society's Child by Janis Ian
Jimmy Parker by Ed Pettersen
Tombstone Blues by Tim O'Brien
I Can't Help Being Cool by Cornell Hurd
Pardon Me, I've Got Someone to Kill by Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Green Acres by The Meatmen

Lover Let me Be by Marlee MacLeod
River Roll On by The Judds
Red Dog Tracks by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
Ole Virginny by Bone Orchard
El Dorado by Michael Hurley
Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground by Willie Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

RICHARDSON'S HEALTH INSURANCE PACKAGE

You can find my story on the governor's health-care proposals HERE.

My companion piece about objections from a coalition advocating a single-payer system, or something like it, is HERE.

The governor's plan and related documents can be found HERE

That Health Security for New Mexicans campaign, the coalition backing the single-payer concept, has a Web site HERE.

A more free-market plan being proposed by J.R. & Barbara Damron can be found HERE. (Note, Dr. Daron told me yesterday that there have been some amendments to his proposal. I'm not sure whether this version is up to date.)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: GORE GORE GIRLS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 26, 2007

Named after director Herschell Gordon Lewis’ classic 1972 grind-house movie — the plot of which is described on the Internet Movie Database as “ditsy reporter enlists the help of a sleazy private eye to solve a series of gory killings of female strippers at a Chicago nightclub” — The Gore Gore Girls play a basic, slightly retro, guitar-crunch rock.

Judging from their new album Get the Gore, you can tell they’ve listened a lot to Joan Jett (Kim Fowley, who discovered Jett and managed The Runaways, co-wrote one song here). But they don’t quite have the sublime snarl of L7 (I still love you, Suzie Gardner!) or the genius howl of Sleater-Kinney.

Perhaps the best comparison is with their homegirls and Bloodshot labelmates The Detroit Cobras (with whom they share bass player Carol Ann Schumacher). However, GGG frontwoman Amy “Gore” Sardu doesn’t have the slinky charisma of Cobras singer Rachel Nagy. And the Gore Gores can’t match the material of The Cobras, who specialize in covering great old forgotten rock and R & B tunes from the ’50s and ’60s, most of which are so obscure they might as well be original.

The Gore Gores do have a few cover songs here. The Crystals’ “All Grown Up,” with lyrics like “I’m all grown up and I’ll go where I wanna go, see who I wanna see, stay out late,” seems a little too cutesy and calculated. But the song “Where Evil Grows,” written by Terry “Seasons in the Sun” Jacks, is sinister in a psychedelic way. It even features a sitar. Was this song ever used in a Roger Corman or Russ Meyer movie?

The best original songs are “You Lied to Me Before,” which sounds like the early Kinks, except with female singers, and “Pleasure Unit,” co-written by Fowley. “Deep down inside I’m a selfish witch/One half tomboy and one half bitch/Breaking hearts is what I do/Getting through to creeps like you.” The Girls thunder on this one.

You can “get the Gore” at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, when they play at the O’Shaughnessy Performance Space at the College of Santa Fe, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive. Tickets are $8 at the door.

Not recommended:

* We Are the Pipettes by The Pipettes. Like the Gore Gore Girls, this British trio has an affection for sexy ’60s retro fashion. The GGGs favor sleek, mod, go-go miniskirts while The Pipettes go for polka-dot mini-dresses.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. But for The Pipettes, fashion — more than music — seems to be their whole reason for being. “We’re the prettiest girls you’ve ever met,” they chirp in their Monkees-like title song. Maybe I’m jaded, but I see a slightly hipper version of The Spice Girls here.

The Pipettes’ music has been likened to that of the the early ’60s girl-group era. As with that Phil Spector-dominated phenomenon, the basic sound is sweeping and bombastic. But this new, synthy “wall of sound” sounds as if it’s made of Styrofoam. The Pipettes and their producers try to make up with sheen and sleekness what they lack in heart and soul. The faux early-1960s soundtrack of the ’80ske of Little Shop of Horrors has more meat to it than this album. Maybe The Pipettes should cover “Suddenly, Seymour.”

That being said, I have to confess I do kind of like “Dirty Mind.” Not just because I have one, but because it reminds me of “Roam” by The B-52’s.

But if you want to hear a modern presentation of the spirit of the girl-group era, check out Dangerous Game, the comeback album of former Shangri-La Mary Weiss (reviewed a few months ago in this column).

And for what it’s worth, I think the Spice Girls are prettier than The Pipettes.

Recommended:


*Balboa Island by The Pretty Things. Despite their name, these aren’t the prettiest boys you’ve ever met. These guys probably are the closest thing we have to a real-life Spinal Tap. They’ve been around just about as long as The Rolling Stones. Guitarist Dick Taylor actually played in an early version of The Stones with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones.

The Pretty Things have broken up and reformed a few times. Some members have come one and come back again. Recently they’ve had to live with the indignity of knowing that a whole generation of potential fans might mistake them for a bunch of young whippersnappers who call themselves “Dirty Pretty Things.”

But the good old clean Pretty Things still have original members Taylor and singer Phil May as well as Jon Povey (keyboards), Wally Waller (bass), and Skip Alan (drums), all of whom first joined the band before the ’60s were over.

And the new album is surprisingly vital and strong — at least most of it. The first song, “The Beat Goes On” (no, not the Sonny & Cher hit) is a memory-lane look at the stardom they nearly had. “Way back in 1964, we came a-crashing through the door,” May sings as the drums pound and the guitar tension builds. This song even name-checks that other band. “So now the Dirty Pretty Things are fixing up with broken strings. ... There’s no more fame, the beat goes on, you have your day, and your day is done.”

The next several numbers are almost as riveting. “Buried Alive” sounds as if Keith Moon came back from the dead. And the eight-minute “(Blues for) Robert Johnson” is hypnotic. Maybe it goes on a little too long for most listeners, but I find myself not wanting it to end.

But The Pretty Things come from the pre-CD days when the album was much shorter. By the end of Balboa Island, the songs begin to fade. There are a couple of straight blues tunes (the best being a Percy Mayfield-influenced tune called “Freedom Song”) and a couple of Beatlesesque numbers that frankly aren’t that interesting. Finally, there’s the title song, a dirge about a highway accident that never seems to go anywhere.

LOTS OF CANDIDATES SAY THEY REPRESENT CHANGE

Mekah Gordon really does.

On Monday, after sending a press release to The New Mexican announcing her candidacy for the District 25 state Senate seat, Gordon, who would be the state's only openly transgendered legislator, decided instead to run for the District 47 state House of Representatives seat.

Here's the link to my story.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: INVESTIGATION COMPLETE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 25, 2007

Last week when Attorney General Gary King announced an investigation of a Public Service Company of New Mexico lobbyist working for Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration during the last session of the Legislature was completed and no evidence of wrongdoing was found, a spokesman for the governor basically said, “I told you so.”

“It is unfortunate that the attorney general had to take the time to respond to these outrageous allegations that were designed to advance one person’s agenda,” Gilbert Gallegos told The Associated Press.

Gallegos might have been referring to Ben Luce of the watchdog group Break the Grip, which called for the investigation. Luce contends PNM lobbyist Art Hull helped Richardson win Republican votes to pass the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority bill. While the bill is supported by some environmentalist groups, Break the Grip claims the administration during the last session weakened the renewable-energy requirements in the bill, and the legislation will make it easier to transmit electricity generated by nuclear plants and coal-fired facilities.

But not to worry. Apparently the attorney general didn’t spend an outrageous amount of energy investigating the “outrageous” allegations.

Correspondence released by the Attorney General’s Office last week seems to indicate the AG basically is taking the governor’s chief of staff at his word that Hull did not lobby for energy bills that could affect PNM while he worked for PNM’s “loaned executive” program between November and April.

If I ever get in trouble, I hope I’m investigated this thoroughly.

Chief of Staff James Jimenez argued in his letter to the AG that because the state didn’t compensate Hull — PNM paid his salary — there was no violation of the state anti-donation clause. All Hull got from the state were a desk with a phone and computer, business cards, a badge and a parking space in the Capitol.

Those of us who had to trudge several blocks through the January snow to cover the Legislature might argue that a parking space shouldn’t be considered a nothing. But that’s a different story.

Jimenez in his letter said Hull was directed to not actively lobby on any matters that presented a possible conflict of interest.

“The only exposure Mr. Hull had to any energy-related matters was when he was approached by individuals such as legislators who had factual questions or wished to convey questions to the Governor’s Office,” Jimenez wrote.

Apparently some Republicans did have questions.

“With regards to the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority, there were a number of members of the House Republicans who had serious concerns about the legislation,” House Republican Leader Tom Taylor and House Republican Whip Dan Foley wrote in an opinion piece in The New Mexican in July. “Mr. Hull is an expert regarding transmission of electricity and was very familiar with the legislation. ... He discussed the concerns of our members and helped them see the protections in the legislation for the state of New Mexico, its citizens and the existing electrical infrastructure.

“He did not act as lobbyist by advising or recommending how to vote on the issue,” Taylor and Foley wrote. “He only provided factual explanations of what the bill contained.”

Let me get this straight: The House Republicans had concerns. Hull told them about the “protections” in the bill. Then they voted for it.

And that’s not lobbying, the Republican leaders and the Governor’s Office insists.

Maybe it’s only considered lobbying if you buy lunch for the legislators. According to secretary of state records, Hull spent only a modest $163 on food and beverages during the session. You call that lobbying?


Play ball!: Last week in this column, I pondered the possibility that in the event of a Colorado Rockies/Boston Red Sox World Series, would Richardson — a professed Sox fan, but the only Western governor in the presidential race — be in the position of rooting against our neighbors, the Major League Cinderella story of the year, the Rockies?

Richardson already got into hot water this year on Meet the Press by saying he’s a fan of both the Red Sox and the New York Yankees, which devotees of both teams say is nearly the equivalent of saying you love God as well as Satan.

But now it’s official. Asked Wednesday who the governor is for, a spokesman said in an e-mail, “After moving to (Massachusetts) to go to school, Richardson became a die-hard Red Sox fan and will be rooting for Boston to win.”

That’s probably a wise answer. Giving any props to the Rockies could be construed as a flip-flop. Besides, as I pointed out last week, the state of New Hampshire, home of the first presidential primary, is a hotbed of Soxmania.

So Richardson can sit back, enjoy the series and be glad he’s not Rudy Giuliani, whose hometown papers are running huge headlines proclaiming the former New York mayor to be a “Traitor!” and “Redcoat!” for saying he’s rooting for the Red Sox.

Plame on!: Outed spy Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, will make their New Mexico television debut on Lorene Mills’ Report from Santa Fe this Saturday.

Though the Santa Fe couple recently has been on several national shows to discuss her new book, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by The White House, the show, which was taped last week in the Capitol television studio, will be their first time to be interviewed by a local television host. Mills promises that, unlike Larry King, she didn’t refer to her guest as “Valerie Flame.”

The program airs 6 a.m. Sunday on KNME, Channel 5.