Willie's Reserve

OK, I normally don't blog about the commercial endeavors by music stars, not even the ones I like.

But I had to laugh when I got the following press release this morning (April 20, 4-20, get it? Get it?):

Music legend Willie Nelson is pleased to announce a unique American enterprise: Willie's Reserve, a cannabis brand reflecting Nelson's own longstanding experience and his commitment to regulated, natural, and high quality strains of marijuana in U.S. legal markets. As one journalist has already noted, "The marijuana world is about to get its first connoisseur brand, edging it farther from an illegal substance and closer to the realm of fine wines."

Willie's Reserve is an extension of Willie's passion and appreciation for the many varieties and range of the plant's qualities. Some of the best master growers in America will collaborate, along with Willie, to define quality standards so that fans can expect clean and consistent products.

Willie's Reserve will be grown, distributed and sold by local businesses in Colorado and Washington, and will become available in other markets when state regulations allow.

Somewhat controversially, Willie has spent a lifetime as an outspoken supporter of cannabis for personal use and for industrial hemp production.

Building on Willie's community of friends and experts who share his values, Willie's Reserve will seek ways to further support and celebrate aspects of the singer-songwriter's journey with cannabis. Willie and his family, and a few close friends developed the brand with emphasis on environmental and social issues, to lend support to the gradual end to marijuana prohibition across America.

"I am looking forward to working with the best growers in Colorado and Washington to make sure our product is the best on the market," stated Willie Nelson.

Collaboration is at the center of plans for Willie's Reserve. Willie has been an outspoken supporter of the front line efforts of store owners, growers, and citizens who have been pioneers and advocates of cannabis policy improvements. The company will work with businesses that are making smart and sustainable choices for the environment, have demonstrated leadership in their markets, and are committed to encouraging safe, legal use.

Seeing the power of legalization, regulation and taxation to impact how Americans view cannabis is a life's work realized for Willie. As many have noted, his involvement is no surprise, and in the end, it's no surprise that Willie's Reserve will reflect his life.

And, according to an article in Forbes a couple of months ago:

From what he shared, it looks like Willie’s Reserve is going to be much more than just marijuana. The brand is looking to open brick and mortar locations, though obviously only in states where the substance has been legalized—Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Washington DC, and Oregon later in 2015. Those working at the fledgling company want their firm to be the “anti-Walmart”, as they want to treat all those that they work with fairly, from employees to partners. No word just yet on when the stores will open, but the plans are in motion.

A warning to my readers here in New Mexico and other states in which the sale of recreational marijuana isn't legal: Don't expect to see Willie's Reserve sold here anytime soon.

But it is legal here to listen to some of the "4-20" songs I blogged about last week. CLICK HERE

UPDATE 4:21 pm: Here's a new song by Willie and Merle Haggard, "It's All Going to Pot."

As my friend Rob just said, Merle's a long way from Muskogee!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 19, 2015 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist:
Opening Theme: Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) by  The Hombres
The Ballad of Joe Buck by  The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Motorcycle Madness by  Daddy Long Legs
As Long As I Have You by The Detroit Cobras
Leaving Here by The Sonics
Hush Hush by The Plimsouls
Boy on Fire by Harmonica Lewinski
Bury Our Friends by Sleater-Kinney
Cave Girl by The Texreys
It's So Easy by Jay Reatard
Leader Of The Sect by Downliners Sect
Goofy's Concern by by Butthole Surfers

Dan Dare by The Mekons
Ancient & Modern by The Mekons
The Devil's Music by The Three Johns
When I Was a Little Spy by Gogol Bordello vs. Tamir Muskat
She Got Fangs by The Electric Mess
Justine by Adrian Lloyd & The Sunsets

When the Morning Hits by Jody Porter
Janey by Ed Pettersen
Steppin' Out by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Mustang Ranch by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Gone Daddy Gone by Violent Femmes
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Contort Yourself by James White & The Blacks

Junco Partner by Professor Longhair
Fat Angel by Jefferson Airplane
Cry Me a River Blues by Little Esther Phillips

Fallin' from the Sky by Markus James (feat. Calvin Jackson)
People Get Ready by Jimmy Scott
In Germany Before the War by Randy Newman
Closing Theme Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 17, 2015 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:


Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
ksfr.org

Mekons to Record New Album, Langford Says

The Giant Skype Head of Jon Langford

I caught the sneak-preview of The Revenge of The Mekons last night at the Center for Contemporary Arts here in Santa Fe. And, as promised, after the film was a Skype session with The Mekons' Jon Langford and director Joe Angio.

And I actually got a little news out of this. Langford, answering my question, said The Mekons will be recording a new album -- their first since 2011's Ancient & Modern -- this summer. It will be a live album, he said, recorded in New York at the end of what Langford said will be a short tour of the American Midwest. (Langford was booed when he said that tour wouldn't be coming to Santa Fe.)

Asked what songs would be on the album, Langford said he didn't know They haven't been written yet.

So that's something to look forward to.

The Revenge of The Mekons is showing at the CCA today and Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 pm. in case you missed my review of the documentary CLICK HERE.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Getting Ready for 4-20

Next Monday is April 20, or "4-20" as the youngsters say.

I'm not exactly sure how those magic numbers came to be associated with marijuana. And I don't really care. All I know is decades before that happened some of the most respected names in the world of jazz were celebrating the joys of the weed in song.

And that didn't escape the notice of the drug warriors of that era. The infamous Harry Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics for more than 30 years, pursued the menace of reefer-smoking jazzbos with the same grim determination with which J. Edgar Hoover hounded John Lennon years later.

Larry "Ratso" Sloman, in his book Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana (1979) quotes Anslinger's testimony before a Congressional committee in 1949.

"We have been running into a lot of traffic among these jazz musicians, and I am not speaking about the good musicians, but the jazz type, " he said. "In North Carolina we arrested a whole orchestra, everybody in the orchestra."

I'm sure Anslinger would have loved to have collared Cab Calloway, who sang several reefer tunes in his time, including this 1932 ode to a favorite purveyor known as "The Man from Harlem."



Meanwhile, Fats Waller was dreaming of reefer five feet long. He recorded the song commonly known as "If You's a Viper" in 1943 (That was seven years after the original recording by a jazz violinist named Stuff Smith.). Waller made this for Armed Forces radio, and, according to Sloman, he basically took the opportunity to thumb his nose at Anslinger, who only 16 days before had pledged to make mass arrests of "swing bands" who indulged in reefer smoking.

Don Redman wasn't as famous as Cab or The Ink Spots. But he was a member of McKinney's Cotton Pickers and played with the likes of  Fletcher Henderson, Pearl Bailey and Eubie Blake. And he was well acquainted with that reefer man.



To be honest, I'm not really familiar with Jazz Gillum. But I do like his song "Reefer Head Woman."

But wait a minute ... WHAT KIND OF MESSAGE ARE WE SENDING TO THE CHILDREN????

In the spirit of equal time, here's some messages from the other side.

First, an informative little botany lesson about the Devil's flower from a country singer who called himself "Mr. Sunshine." (Mr. Sunshine? Was this some kind of weird drug code?) This video uses footage from a classic docu-drama called Reefer Madness that tried to set the record straight.



Next is a song with the same title by someone named "Johnny Price." The true message of this song is that an obsession with marijuana can lead to crime ... at least the crime of plagiarism. This funky dude stole the title from Mr. Sunshine and the tune from Johnny Cash's "San Quentin."



And here's "The Story of Susie," a sad tale about a young girl for whom marijuana was a gateway drug: The gateway to doom!



I wonder if Susie was a friend of Jeannie in the next song, "A Box of Grass." The two girls met the same tragic fate and it's all because of the Devil's Flower.



So kids, stay away from gangs and drugs. But have a safe and happy 4-20 however you celebrate.