ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: RICHARDSON STILL STRONG IN POLL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 14, 2005

Gov. Bill Richardson hit an ugly patch of negative publicity about a month ago. But according to a recent statewide poll by a national firm, if Richardson’s renown ego has taken some lumps with the spate of bad headlines dealing with fancy jets, speeding SUVs (also CLICK HERE) and Wen Ho Lee, it has barely affected his popularity here.

The latest New Mexico tracking poll by the New Jersey-based Survey U.S.A. found 53 percent of New Mexicans polled approved of the job Richardson is doing, while 41 percent disapproved.

This compares with 54 percent approving and 39 percent disapproving in a Survey U.S.A. poll in early May. That’s a net loss of 3 percentage points in the last two months.

And it’s been a pretty bumpy two months for the governor.

First there was the jet story — how Richardson’s administration had bought a $5.5 million airplane, a far superior ride than any of our neighboring governors have access to. State Republicans seized on the opportunity to portray Richardson in radio ads as a high-rolling jet-setter .

Then there was the speeding story — how Richardson, already notorious for commanding his state police drivers to drive at breakneck speeds, refused to stop for an Albuquerque police officer.

And more recently, there was the return of an old headache for Richardson — Wen Ho Lee, the fired Los Alamos scientist who initially was suspected of espionage but was convicted on only one count of mishandling classified information. A federal appeals court judge presiding over Lee’s violation-of-privacy lawsuit listed Richardson , who was energy secretary during the Lee debacle, as a likely leaker of information about Lee months before the scientist was charged.

Sanderoff the Sage: Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks noted Tuesday that the 3 points the governor dropped is within the poll’s 4.1 percent margin of error.

But New Mexico pollster Brian Sanderoff of Research & Polling Inc. was right on the money last month when I interviewed him about Survey U.S.A.’s May poll.

Sanderoff noted the previous poll was taken before the jet and speeding controversies broke. “The jet story was really the first (Richardson controversy ) that has gotten to the point of water-cooler talk,” Sanderoff said in June. “Something like that probably would affect his rating by 3 points or so.”

Poll numbers: Survey U.S.A.’s New Mexico poll was conducted between Friday and Sunday. Six hundred New Mexico residents were randomly called to participate in an automated phone poll. Similar polls were conducted in all 50 states.

The poll breaks down the respondents in terms of gender , ethnicity, party affiliation and other categories.

Hispanics approved of Richardson’s performance by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. However , 50 percent of Anglos disapproved of Richardson’s performance, while only 45 percent approved.

The poll also revealed something of a gender gap.

Women tended to support the governor more than men. Seventeen percent more women approved of Richardson’s performance than disapproved (55-38 percent). The difference for men is 7 percent (52-45 percent).

Not surprisingly, Democrat Richardson scores highest with members of his own party (75 percent approving to 19 percent disapproving) and lowest with Republicans (34 percent approving, 61 percent disapproving).

As far as educational level goes, most of those who had been to graduate school were Richardson admirers. Sixtyfive percent of respondents in that category approved of his performance while only 29 percent disapproved. He also was popular with those who had no college experience — 52 percent to 41 percent. Those who graduated from college and those with some college experience were fairly evenly split on Richardson.

The Church of Richardson: The poll results also broke down Richardson’s numbers in terms of the respondents’ church attendance.

Regular churchgoers approved of Richardson by a shaky 48-46 percent margin. The support goes up to 57 percent among those who “sometimes” go to church (with 39 percent disapproving) and 56 percent for those who say they never go to church (38 percent disapproving.)

In an issue with some religious overtones, Richardson won approval from a big majority of those who described their view on abortion as “pro-choice” (63-33 percent). Fifty-three percent of “pro-life” voters disapproved of Richardson, while 41 percent of pro-lifers in New Mexico polled approved of his performance.

Richardson supports women’s right to have abortions. However, he has said he would sign a bill requiring doctors to notify parents of minor girls seeking abortions. This could have lost Richardson some pro-choice support, though it could have gained some support from pro-lifers.

Forty percent of those polled said they were pro-life, while 54 percent said they were pro-choice.

FREE FLAMING LIPS DOWNLOADS

The fabulous Flaming Lips are offering some free downloads to promote their film The Fearless Freaks, a documentary I heartily recommended a couple of weeks ago.

You can find those downloads HERE.

These are live tracks culled from Lips performances between 1986 and 1996, compiled for a promo CD given away at early showings of the movie. In his spoken introduction track, Coyne encourages fans to copy the disc, put it on the internet and "please, please, do not pay hard-earned money for it."

The songs are, "With You," "Can't Stop the Sping," "Shine On Sweet Jesus,"Space Age Love Song," "Moth in the Incubator," "When You Smile," and "Sleeping on the Roof."


I can't honestly say how good these are yet. My computer's slowly downloading them now. All I've heard so far is "Wayne's Introduction." If the tunes are decent -- and as a Lips fan, I've got to assume they are -- I'll play a track or two on this Sunday's Terrell's Sound World.

TERRELL'S SOUNDWORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, July 10, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now 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
Black Tongue by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Journey to the Center of Mind by The Ramones
Is it My Body? by Alice Cooper
Blue Orchid by The White Stripes
Entertain by Sleater-Kinney
Sheela Na-Gig by P.J. Harvey
The Mystery of Love by Marianne Faithful
It's So Hard by John Lennon
Anna by Aurthur Alexander

Rock Show by Iggy Pop
Are We the Waiting by Green Day
Jubilee by Patti Smith
My Friend Goo by Sonic Youth
I Want to See You Belly Dance by The Red Elvises
The Slim by Sugar
Santana, Castanada & You by Giant Sand
Bridget the Midget by Ray Stevens

HOWLIN' WOLF vs. SON HOUSE
House Rockin' Boogey by Howlin' Wolf
Death Letter Blues by Son House
Built For Comfort by Howlin' Wolf
Preachin' Blues by Son House
Spoonful by The Super Super Blues Band
John the Revelator by Son House
Coon on the Moon by Howlin' Wolf

Just Like Greta by Van Morrison
No Time to Think by Bob Dylan
Have You Seen the Stars Tonight by Paul Kanter & The Jefferson Starship
Forever Changed by Bobby Purify
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 8, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Bandages and Scars by Son Volt
Lincoln Town car by The Waco Brothers
Virgin of the Cobra by Kev Russell
Lonesome Valley by Jon Dee Graham
Whiskey in a Jar by Hazeldine
Rated X by Neko Case
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenberg
Dumb Blonde by Dolly Parton
Track 2 by Charlie Tweddle

A Cigarette, A Bottle and a Jukebox by Big Al Downing
Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride
Blame the Vain by Dwight Yoakam
Hey Bartender by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
I Just Lost My Mind by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Wayside/Back in Time by Gillian Welch
Drunkards Go to Hell by Foddershock
Misty by Ray Stevens

I'm Working on a Building by Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys
I'm Working on a Road by Flatt & Scruggs
Propiniquity by Earl Scruggs with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Dark Hollow by David Bromberg
Are You Washed in the Blood by Red Allen
I'm Not a Communist by Grandpa Jones
Grapevine by Tom Russell
A Summer Love Song by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
Cover of the Rolling Stone by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show

Don't Get me Started by Rodney Crowell
Baghdad by Ed Pettersen
Out of Line by Michael Martin Murphey
Belshazzer by Johnny Cash
The Bloody Bucket by Grey DeLisle
A Whorehouse is Any House by Bonny Prince Billy
It Sure Was Good by George Jones & Tammy Wynette
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: NOW HERE'S A MAN WITH THE BLUES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 8, 2005

It’s a sad confrontation, a clash of the titans that nobody wanted to see.

The scene is backstage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966. Ethnomusicologist and folk music heavyweight Alan Lomax, who brought several old Mississippi blues greats from the ‘20s and ‘30s to the show, had set up what he called a “juke joint” backstage where he filmed informal performances.

Son House, one of the most venerated of all the early bluesmen was there. He’s drunk and belligerent and he‘s made the mistake of interrupting the performance of Howlin‘ Wolf, the Mississippi-born Chicago bluesman, who was more of a demiurge than an entertainer.

At first Wolf tries to joke with House, who had been one of his mentors back in the Delta. “Now here’s a man with the blues,” Wolf growls.

But when House doesn’t stop, the Wolf pounces. “You had a chance with your life, but you ain’t done nothing’ with it,” he says. “You don’t love but one thing, and that’s some whiskey.”

This was captured on film and is, in fact the most intense moment in Don McGlynn’s 2003 documentary The Howlin' Wolf Story: The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll, which is showing Saturday and Wednesday at Santa Fe Film Center.

There’s lots to like about this film. One of my favorite parts is the home movie footage from Wolf drummer Sam Lay’s camera of 1960s gigs at long-gone Chicago joints like Sylvio’s -- where you can spot Chicago blues royalty like Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter in the audience.

But the scene that keeps haunting me is the one with Son House. It’s hard to watch and embarrassing to everyone involved, including present-day viewers. The hard fact is Wolf is right.

House, who was eight years older than Wolf, had lived an archetypal blues life. He’d been a traveling troubadour, a preacher and a hobo. In his early years he’d killed a guy and served time in the infamous Parchman prison. He had a brief recording career in the ‘30s, then disappeared until 1941 when Lomax tracked him down, then disappeared again until the early ‘60s when folkie revivalists “rediscovered” him. House had spent most of those missing years working as a Pullman porter in Rochester, N.Y.

Wolf, born Chester Burnett, on the other hand, never turned his back on his music. Learning guitar from none other than Delta blues founding father Charlie Patton himself, Wolf went to West Memphis, Ark., where he hooked up with Sun Records’ Sam Phillips, then to Chicago, where, along with his friend and rival Muddy Waters, he pioneered electric blues.

His music and his wild stage persona personified the rough and raucous spirit of the blues, but, as becomes apparent in McGlynn’s film, he was a hard-working, big-hearted conscientious man — which counters the blues stereotype.

He paid unemployment insurance for his band, even back in the ‘50s. He was a family man. His grown daughters recall how he bought them back fancy clothes when he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival. He was intent on self improvement, taking classes to learn to read and write when he was in his ‘50s and even taking music lessons to improve his guitar playing.

Like most the bluesmen we know and love from that era, Wolf was born under the bad signs of extreme poverty and racial oppression. His own mother, a religious fanatic, threw him out of the house as a child of 13. (In the film his longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin tells how Wolf, while touring Mississippi, came across his mother. He tried to give her some money, but she threw it on the ground and stomp on it. She didn’t want any money that came from the Devil’s music.)

So when Wolf tells Son House, “You had a chance with your life, but you ain’t done nothing’ with it,” it’s coming from the realization that he could have ended up like House -- drunk, broke and living on past glories -- had he not worked so hard.

The Howlin' Wolf Story will show at The Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe, 1616 St. Michael's Drive 4 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are Tickets $8; $7 for students and seniors; $6 for film festival members.

Also Recommended:

* Blues With a Message by Various Artists. In the minds of too many modern fans, blues is nothing but party music, celebrating drinking, fighting, gambling and -- especially -- skirt-chasing.

But besides other mules kicking in his stall, sometimes the wolf knocks at a bluesman’s doors. In other words, besides the songs about drinking and fornicating, there’s also a tradition of socially conscious blues tunes.

Blues with a Message is a collection of 18 songs that deal with issues of poverty, racism, war, prison and even one medical epidemic (“The 1919 Influenza Blues” by pianist/singer Essie Jenkins.)

The artists represented here are mainly older acoustic players, such as former Mississippi Sheik Sam Chatman, who sings about racial stereotypes in “I Have to Paint My Face” and former inmate Robert Pete Williams, who tells a long sad tale called “Prisoner’s Talking Blues”

There’s also some electric blues, such as Juke Boy Bonner’s “What Will I Tell the Children,” (“Listened, looked around all day for a job/and I looked almost every place/It’s hard to come home and find hunger on your children’s face.”) and “Little Soldier Boy” a Korean War-era song by a Detroit singer named Doctor Ross.

One of the most uplifting songs here is “Why I Like Roosevelt” by sacred steel icon Willie Eason. He praises FDR (“Racial prejudice he tried to rule out/Invited Negro leaders to the White House …) while recalling the dark days of his predecessor (“After Hoover had made the poor man moan Roosevelt stepped in, they was a comfortable home.”)

SHIELDING REPORTERS

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown has a good piece about reporters and anonymous sources relevant to the Judith Miller case -- and, by extension, the Wen Ho Four (see my column immediately below.)

Like Brown, I have off-the-record/don't-use-my-name conversations practically every day, though I've never been jailed for protecting a source. The closest I came was a couple of years ago at a trial that resulted from a lengthy murder investigation I'd covered for about 10 years.

This was "The Rosebush Case," in which a human skeleton had been unearthed from the back yard of an east-side Santa Fe home when the homeowner was transplanting a rosebush. DNA eventually linked the remains to a former owner of the house.

For more than a year before the trial, I had been in e-mail contact with a former employee of the suspect's. I never wrote anything based on those e-mails. At that point the suspect, an Oklahoma man, hadn't even been charged. My correspondence was all just for background.

Eventually the former employee went to the police with her story. In the interviews, she mentioned her e-mails to me. When her former boss went to trial, the defense attorney claimed that I had tried to "program" the witness (I can barely program a VCR!) to believe her former boss was guilty of the murder.

The defense attorney wanted copies of all our e-mail. I refused to give it to him. I got subpoenaed as a witness and thus not allowed into the courtroom for a day or so, before The New Mexican's lawyer got it quashed.

There was a hearing before Judge Michael Vigil on whether I should be forced to give up my e-mails to the defense. Driving to the courthouse that morning, I didn't know whether I'd be spending the night -- or the next several nights -- in the Wen Ho Lee suite of the Santa Fe County Detention Center. I called my ex-wife's voice mail and left a message saying I might not be able pick up our son that weekend.

This of course wasn't the matter of giving up a source's identity. She had already identified herself and in fact had handed over copies of some of our e-mail. Still, I had promised to keep our correspondence confidential and I intended to keep that promise. Our lawyer came up with a compromise, to let Judge Vigil read the e-mails "in camera" and decided whether they should be admitted as evidence.

Vigil agreed and ruled later that day the e-mails were protected under New Mexico's shield law and wouldn't be allowed into the trial.

I got to see my son that weekend. And even without my e-mails, the defense attorney was able to get his client a not-guilty verdict.

Here's an Associated Press account my little ordeal. And here's something extremely weird about the Rosebush case.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: BILL RICHARDSON & THE WEN HO FOUR

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 7, 2005

Many believe that Gov. Bill Richardson is praying that the reporters involved in the Wen Ho Lee privacy lawsuit remain as steadfast as The New York Times’ Judith Miller, who was sentenced to jail Wednesday for refusing to divulge the name of a source to a grand jury investigating the outing of an undercover CIA operative.

But some political experts interviewed Wednesday say that even if it’s revealed that Richardson leaked the name of the former Los Alamos scientist to reporters months before Lee was charged with any crime, the ultimate effect on Richardson’s political career would be minimal.

Richardson, as secretary of energy under President Clinton, fired Lee, a computer scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was under investigation of espionage. He has long suspected of leaking Lee’s name.

Richardson flatly has denied being the leaker. In a deposition for Lee’s lawsuit the governor said he didn’t remember making some statements about the Lee firing attributed to him in various newspapers.

Lee filed a lawsuit shortly after his 1999 indictment claiming officials from the Energy and Justice departments violated the privacy act of 1974 by leaking his name and other information about him to reporters.

That case came roaring back in the news last week when a federal appeals court upheld contempt citations against four reporters who refused to testify concerning confidential sources who gave then information about Lee. The court dropped a contempt charge against a fifth reporter.

That decision came one day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of Miller and Time reporter Matt Cooper, who are charged with contempt in the Valerie Plame case. Plame’s name as a CIA agent was leaked by unnamed White House sources after her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson disputed Bush administration claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa.

What the judge said: In the Wen Ho Lee decision, Appeals Judge David Sentelle singled out the names of Richardson, Acting Director of DOE Intelligence and Counterintelligence Notra Trulock and Edward Curran, former director of the DOE Office of Counterintelligence.

“These three individuals in particular had been identified as likely sources of the leaks, but were unable (or unwilling) to identify the leaker(s).”

The judge noted that one of the defendants, James Risen of The New York Times, “refused to testify as to whether Secretary Richardson disclosed Lee’s identity or information about his interrogation or prosecution to Risen.” Risen also refused to testify “whether Notra Trulock was correct in his testimony before Congress when he said that Secretary Richardson had leaked Lee’s name to Risen.” Trulock made this statement at an October 2000 hearing.

The judge also noted that another defendant Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times had refused to answer questions about alleged interviews with Richardson about Lee that involved off-the-record statements.

A Richardson spokesman said Wednesday that the governor doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits. But Billy Sparks said Richardson believes the decision will have a “chilling effect” on journalists’ right to protect confidential sources.

Who remembers?: Let’s assume a worst-case scenario: One of the Wen Ho Four, perhaps shaken by the image of Judith Miller being taken away in handcuffs, breaks down and sings like a bird, naming Richardson as his Deep Throat.

What would that do to the political career of the governor, who is seeking re-election next year and is considering a run for the presidency in 2008?

“People who wish to discredit him will hunt for possible blemishes on his record,” said UNM political science professor F. Chris Garcia.

He said such a revelation would have to be considered negative. “But I think there would be tremendous damage control measures,” Garcia said. “The governor and his staff are pretty good at that.”

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said, “The bad news (for Richardson) is that it would be an unpleasant episode for him. Some of his former colleagues, like Bill Clinton, might be unhappy with him.

“The good news is that besides you and me there’s probably only 140 in this country who remember Wen Ho Lee. Someone like Bill Richardson has overcome a lot of obstacles. He could overcome this.”

SHOW AND TELL MUSIC

Here's a cool site (thanks, Garry!) with strange and delighful album covers -- a self-described "orphanage for thrift store music"

You can even find some MP3s, like this one.

These guys are the brain trust behind Companion Records, home to such delights as Charlie Tweddle and The New Creation.



UPDATE: Fooling around on this site just now I stumbled across an album by a real live Santa Fe Band, Henry Ortiz & The J-Js.

I knew Henry Ortiz. He had a Hispanic music radio show on KTRC back in the early '70s when I got my first radio gig. He used to hire me to sub for his show, even though I don't speak Spanish.

Henry also used to own a cool little record store downtown called Kiva Records. It specialized in Spanish language music.

Back in the '80s. my pal Steve Sandoval made me a great compilation tape of New Mexico music that had several cuts by The J-Js.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, July 3, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now 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
An American is a Very Lucky Man by Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians 4th of July by X
American Idiot by Green Day
Rockin' in the Free World by Neil Young
4th of July by Soundgarden
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) by Bruce Springsteen
America by Lou Reed

Batman Theme by The Ventures
As Ugly As I Seem by The White Stripes
Starry Eyes by Roky Erickson
To Love Somebody by Billy Corgan
Heart of Stone by The Mekons
It Kills by Stephen Malkmus
What's Mine is Yours by Sleater-Kinney

FLAMING LIPS SET
My Own Planet
Talkin' 'bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues
Oh My Pregnant Head
Strychnine/Peace, Love and Understanding
A Spoonful Weighs a Ton
Do You Realize?
Evil Will Prevail
Bad Days

Until I Die by Brian Wilson
The Last Hotel by Patti Smith with Thurston Moore & Lenny Kaye
Democracy by Leonard Cohen
American Tune by Paul Simon
America the Beautiful by Ray Charles
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

A COUPLE OF POLITICAL STORIES

Here's two political stories I wrote for today's paper that didn't make it to The New Mexican's Web site:

A version of these were published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 2, 2005

With a new Supreme Court vacancy two ideological sides are preparing in New Mexico for a possible political battle — and the focus is on one man who could make a difference — U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

The U.S. Senate must confirm whoever President Bush nominates. Bingaman, a Democrat has been known to vote against some Supreme Court nominees of Republican presidents.

One of the likely areas of contention is the issue of abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico, an abortion rights group, is organizing a rally in Albuquerque Tuesday to gather petition signatures, which they plan to deliver to Bingaman’s office. The rally is scheduled for noon Tuesday at Fourth and Central.

NARAL will be on the Plaza Monday during the annual pancake breakfast to distribute petitions urging Bingaman “to protect the balance of the United States Supreme Court,” NARAL director Giovanna Rossi said Friday.

Rossi said most people assume that the state’s other senator, Pete Domenici, a Republican, will support whoever Bush nominates. “Bingaman is a swing vote,” she said. “He’s a national target.”

Meanwhile, a newly-formed Republican consultant business called Gordian Strategies is representing a national organization called Progress for America, which has vowed to spend $18 million nationwide to promote whoever Bush nominates to the Supreme Court.

Robin Dozier Otten, a former cabinet secretary in the administration of Gov. Gary Johnson, talked to reporters in the state reporters about the campaign earlier this week — several before Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement.

“My job is not to convince Jeff to vote for the president's nominee,” Otten said Friday. “It is to convince Jeff's constituency to convince him to vote for the nominee.”

Bingaman’s spokeswoman Jude McCartin said Friday said the senator hopes Bush will nominate a qualified candidate acceptable to both sides. “We’re hoping this will be done as it should be,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a divisive time.

She said that Bingaman recently signed a letter from Senate Democrats urging Bush to consult with senators from both parties before making a nomination. The Democrats haven’t heard back from the President McCartin said.

Bingaman released a statement Friday saying, “ “It is my hope that the White House works with the Senate to find a nominee of the same caliber as Sandra Day O’Connor.”

Both Rossi and a Republican law professor at the University of New Mexico said Friday they hope a nomination fight can be avoided.

”We really want to stress that we hope there’s a consensus,” Rossi said. “He could do this by putting names out who have mainstream records. If he does chose the course of an extreme nominee, we’re ready to put up a battle. But we would rather have consensus.”

Lisa Torraco, a former Santa Fe prosecutor who teaches law at UNM. “What should happen is that (senators) defer to the system and recognize that the president was elected by a majority and he has the right to make a nomination. The Senate should have an up-or-down vote. Don’t reduce the judiciary to a political smear campaign. Protect the integrity of the jurists and the integrity of the Supreme Court.”

XXXXXX
(Here's the other story ...)

City Council David Pfeffer, a Democrat-turned-Republican who is considering running for U.S. Senate, said Friday he’s still in the “exploratory” mode of his possible candidacy,” meaning, among other things, he’s looking at fundraising possibilities.

But — as is the case for virtually anyone who challenges a incumbent member of Congress — he’s got a lot of exploring to do before he catches up with the man he hopes to run against.

More than a year before the general election, Sen. Jeff Bingaman in his latest campaign finance reports shows he has more than $1 million cash on hand. Democrat Bingaman, who first was elected in 1982, announced earlier this year he will run for re-election in 2006.

“There is no way we’ll beat Bingaman on the dollar,” Pfeffer said Friday. But he said he thinks he can beat Bingaman with “a smart campaign.”

“It’ll be a strong grassroots campaign,” he said. “I’ll make it obvious for everyone to see the differences between Sen. Bingaman and me on what is role of America in the world, what are the dangers confronting America, our views on protecting the border, Supreme nominations, Social Security, and what the character of America is and what it ought to be.”

A spokeswoman for Bingaman said Friday, “Sen. Bingaman works hard for New Mexicans and hopes they will continue to support him next year.”

While Pfeffer hasn’t officially announced his political intentions, he talks increasingly like someone running for Senate. Asked if he’d ruled out running for re-election on the council, he said, “My focus now is on the Senate.”

Many local political observers say Pfeffer would have hard time winning re-election for council in a city where Democrats enjoy a 3-to-1 registration edge over the GOP.

Pfeffer would be the second Republican who once was a Democrat to announce for next year’s Senate race. Former state Sen. Tom Benavides of Albuquerque threw his hat in the ring earlier this year. Benavides is something of a perennial candidate, running unsuccessfully last year for his old Senate seat and for state auditor in 2002. In 1990 he was the Democratic candidate who ran against Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici.

Pfeffer, an architect and Vietnam veteran, was elected to his north-side District 1 council seat in 2002, defeating incumbent Jimmie Martinez. Pfeffer was known mainly as an advocate for recreation facilities before he got elected.

Once elected he frequently found himself in clashes with other councilors when the governing body discussed resolutions about national issues such as The U.S. Patriot Act and the Iraq War.

About a year ago he announced he was supporting President Bush for re-election against Democrat John Kerry. Early this year he announced his party switch.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 1, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Red Necks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer by Johnny Russell
Fourth of July by Dave Alvin
Song of the Patriot by Johnny Cash
American Trash by Betty Dylan
Indoor Fireworks by Elvis Costello
One Time, One Night by Los Lobos
Only in America by Bobby Purify

Endless War by Son Volt
Waist Deep in The Big Muddy by Pete Seeger
That's the News by Merle Haggard
Chosen One by The Waco Brothers
Give a Little Whistle by Michelle Shocked
The Obscenity Parayer (Give It To Me) by Rodney Crowell
Dying Breed by Lonesome Bob with Allison Moorer
Bargain Store by Dolly Parton
The Story of Susie by Billy Ray

Theme from A Fistful of Dollars by Hugo Montenegro
High Noon by Tex Ritter
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
The Ballad of the Alamo by Marty Robbins
The Ballad of Davy Crockett by Doug Sahm
Rawhide by Frankie Laine
The Ballad of Cat Ballou by Nat King Cole & Stubby Kaye
Paladin by Johnny Western
Legend of Wyatt Earp by Hugh O'Brian
Wanderin' Star by Shane MacGowan with Charlie MacClennan

God's Country by Loudon Wainwright III
Here We Are by George Jones with Emmylou Harris
I Heard The Bluebirds Sing by Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
Who Made You King by Grey DeLisle
Independence Day by Say ZuZu
The Wayward Wind by Jackie "Teak" Lazar
I'll See You In My Dreams by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
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: TO LOVE THE LIPS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 1, 2005



When I moved from Oklahoma City to Santa Fe 37 years ago, it didn’t take me long to see the huge psychological difference between the two cities. While both places can be considered laid-back compared to big cities, people in Santa Fe seemed far more free to express themselves, far less pressured to conform, much less inhibited about being weird.

Oklahoma, according to filmmaker Bradley Beesley, is known for “oil derricks, college football, and country music — hardly a mecca of freaky art rock.”

But in many ways — especially for freaky Okies and freaky Okie exiles — that’s a big part of the charm of the Flaming Lips, the freakiest, artsiest Okie rock band ever.

Beesley, a longtime Lips crony, chronicles the Lips — their history, their families, their music — in his documentary The Fearless Freaks, showing for two weeks at CCA Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, starting tonight, July 1 (tickets are $8).

The Flaming Lips rose from the working-class Classen-Ten-Penn neighborhood of Oklahoma City, starting out in the early ’80s as, in the words of Lips leader Wayne Coyne, “a no-talent, derivative, hillbillies-gone-punk version of the Who.” Beesley remembers seeing them in Norman, Okla., around 1986, though all he remembers about their music from that show is that “it was insanely loud.”

The Fearless Freaks — the title comes from the name of a backyard football league organized by Coyne and his four brothers — is bound together by psychedelic montages of Lips performances from home movies of their loud-young-punk phase, their MTV videos, and recent big-time extravaganzas with dancers in bunny suits, puppets, strippers, bubbles, balloons, and a goateed, graying Coyne acting as a smiling emcee in a white suit.

The band’s journey from Okie punksters to serious, Grammy-winning musicians, whose latest albums sound like otherworldly soundtracks, is pretty fascinating in itself. But the strongest parts of the film are when Beesley introduces us to the families of Coyne and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd.

The love Coyne and Drozd have for their respective families is obvious. No sad tales of rage or abuse — unless you count those Fearless Freaks football games, which Coyne describes as “more of a violent cult” than a football team.

And Coyne at least seems like a happy fellow. He still lives in Classen-Ten-Penn, where he enjoys scaring the local kids on Halloween, walking around the neighborhood, and yakking with folks on the street. He even talks fondly of his days of working as a fry cook at a Long John Silver’s.

But it’s not all bunny suits and Martian Santa Clauses in the Lips Universe. There are dark shadows that Beesley reveals in his film.

Coyne’s oldest brother Tommy, who has gone from a “tortured artist” to “just plain tortured,” according to Wayne, has been a druggo for years and has had scrapes with the law. You’re not sure whether Wayne is joking when he asks Tommy whether he’s actually a fugitive at the moment.

“Wayne went to Hollywood to do concerts, I went to jail,” Tommy Coyne says.

Houston native Drozd also has a jailbird brother. James Drozd served an 11-year sentence for grand theft auto, beginning about the time Steven joined the Lips. But harsher still is that the Drozd brothers’ mother and two of their siblings committed suicide. The Drozds seem like the embodiment of the Allison Moorer song “Dying Breed” (“I take after my family/My fate’s the blood in me/No one grows old in this household/We are a dying breed”).

Those family demons catch up with Steven Drozd by the mid-’90s; his heroin addiction is a big reason why guitarist Ronald Jones quit the band. There’s a disturbing interview scene with Steven, shot in noirish black and white, when he was in the depths of his addiction.

But the horror of that scene is offset by one of the most touching moments in the film, when Steven and fresh-from-the-joint James play a song (written by James) with their father, Vernon Drozd, a saxophone-playing veteran of Texas polka bands.

What makes this band so special is the ability of its members to embrace their pasts and recognize the darkness (without wallowing in it) while creating strange, beautiful, and transcendental art packed with whimsy and raw, real emotion. The Fearless Freaks captures the earthiness that grounds these freaky art-rock musicians.

Steve Terrell’s Lips list

*Favorite Flaming Lips song: “Bad Days” from Clouds Taste Metallic (1995) — my second favorite Lips album. In a masterful example of sequencing, this song comes right after “Evil Will Prevail,” a mournful tune reportedly inspired by Tim McVeigh’s act of terrorism in Oklahoma City. It’s a declaration of goofy optimism — “all your bad days will end” — with just a suggestion of carnival music. And the first verse is one of the best rewrites of Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man” in recent years. “You hate your boss at your job/But in your dreams you can blow his head off/In your dreams, show no mercy.”

*Favorite Flaming Lips album: The Soft Bulletin (1999). Listening to this album prompted me to go back and listen to material from the Beach Boys’ Smile. With its elfin choruses, harps, synths, musical saws, UFO noise, and medical and scientific imagery, this is one for the ages.

*Favorite Flaming Lips song title: “Talkin’ Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues” (from Hit to Death in the Future Head; 1992).

*Favorite Flaming Lips cover song : “After the Gold Rush” (from The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young, 1989).

*Favorite Moment in The Fearless Freaks: Wayne Coyne’s reenactment of a robbery at Long John Silver’s.

*Biggest Flaming Lips regret: I was in Austin in 1996 when Coyne performed his “parking garage symphony” — and I missed it.

*Most Flaming Lips ever played on local radio in New Mexico at one time: This Sunday night, July 3, starting at 11 p.m. on Terrell’s Sound World, free-form weirdo radio, KSFR-FM 90.7.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: POLLS & SPORTSBOOKS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 30, 2005

George W. Bush might have won New Mexico’s five electoral votes last year — the Republican incumbent beat Democrat John Kerry here by less than one percentage point — but according to a statewide poll taken by a national research company earlier this month — Bush is losing the job-approval race.

And according to the same polling company, Gov. Bill Richardson’s numbers, while still favorable by a healthy margin, have slipped from last year’s poll figures.

According to the poll, released this week by the New Jersey-based Survey U.S.A., 50 percent of New Mexicans surveyed said they disapproved of the way Bush is doing his job, while 45 percent said they approved of Bush’s job.

Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff of Research & Polling Inc., said Wednesday these numbers are believable. “New Mexico usually is pretty close to the national numbers,” he said, pointing to the Real Clear Politics Web site (www.realclearpolitics.com/polls.html), which shows the average of the three recent national polls to have 50 percent disapproving of Bush’s performance and 47 percent approving.

Survey U.S.A.’s poll was conducted June 10 to 12. Six hundred New Mexico residents were randomly called to participate in an automated phone poll. The margin of error is 4.1 percent. Similar polls were conducted in all 50 states.

Rating the governors: Early last month, Survey U.S.A. did polling in all 50 states on how residents rated their governors.

According to that project, our Gov. Bill Richardson is the 20th most popular governor in the union.

Asked “Do you approve or disapprove of the job Bill Richardson is doing as governor?” 54 percent said they approved while 39 percent said they disapproved.

While these are good numbers for the gov, if this poll is accurate, it shows a slide from the numbers Sanderoff got last in a poll he did in late August and early September for The Albuquerque Journal. That poll showed 63 percent giving Richardson a favorable rating while 25 percent said their opinion was unfavorable.

“I don’t know if there’s been a change in attitude or a methodological difference,” Sanderoff said.

Sanderoff said he is wary of polling outfits that use automated systems to gather opinions instead of live callers. He also noted that his company calls likely voters who have voted in recent elections, while Survey U.S.A. calls random numbers.

Another possible factor in the big shift in Richardson numbers, Sanderoff said, is the fact that Survey U.S.A. asked whether participants “approved” or “disapproved” of Richardson’s performance, while Sanderoff’s company asked if participants had “favorable” or “unfavorable” opinions of the governor.

“The favorability polls tend to be higher than approval polls,” Sanderoff said.

Sanderoff noted that the Survey U.S.A. poll was taken before Richardson “took some hits” over the $5.5 million jet his administration is buying and for a recent incident in which Richardson’s driver refused to stop for an Albuquerque police officer.

“The jet story was really the first (Richardson controversy) that has gotten to the point of water cooler talk,” he said. “Something like that probably would affect his rating by three points or so.”

The poll on Richardson was conducted May 6 through 8 of 600 New Mexicans. The margin of error is 4.1 percent.

According to Survey U.S.A., the most popular governor is North Dakota’s John Hoeven, a Republican, who is approved by 71 percent of his people. Hoeven had a 20 disapproval score. The least popular is Ohio’s Robert Taft, also a Republican, whose approval rating was a mere 19 percent and disapproval a whopping 74 percent.

Popular senators: Survey U.S.A. also rated all 100 U.S. Senators earlier this month. Both Republican Pete Domenici and Democrat Jeff Bingaman scored high.

Domenici’s approval rating was 61 percent, just one point higher than Bingaman’s. Thirty two percent disapproved of Domenici, while 28 percent disapproved of Bingaman, who is running for re-election next year.

This poll was taken June 10 to 12 with the same number of people called and same margin of error as the company’s other polls.

Betting on Bill: So what are the odds of Richardson actually making it to the White House? According to the posted odds to one sports betting Web site Wednesday, the odds are 13 to 1.

According to the Canada-based SportsInteraction.com — reportedly the first internet sportsbook in North America — Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has the best odds of winning the presidency in 2008 — 5 to 1. In second place was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, whose odds are 7 to 1. Former North Carolina Senator and 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards has 9-to-1 odds. Richardson is fourth, while Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. follows with 15-to-1 odds.

{Note: As of about 7 p.m. Wednesday, all the individual candidate bets disappeared from the SportsInteraction site. All that was left in the political section was a bet on whether Hilary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice will get the nominations of their respective parties. (The odds there are 21 to 1, which I think is way way low.) I called the helpline and a woman told me the page was just being updated and that all the candidate bets would return in a few minutes. But as of 12:01 AM Thursday, they were still missing.}

R.I.P. BOUNCER

My old high school vice principal died Sunday.

I first met Bouncer Sena in August 1968 on my first day at Santa Fe Mid High. He saw my name and asked if my mother was Mary Ruth. When I said yes, he said, "I knew her in high school. She was the prettiest girl in school. I knew your dad too."

Later that day, there was a school assembly. Bouncer informed us that students were no longer welcome at Josie's Restaurant. Something to do with a firecracker incident the previous school year.

I took him seriously.

In fact I was probably 30 years old when my pal Paul Milosevich asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch at Josie's.

It took me a second. I almost blurted out, "I'm not allowed in there."

Here's the obit for Bouncer I wrote for this morning's paper.


A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 29, 2005

He was a coach, an educator, a politician, a family man, a high-school football star and a lifelong Santa Fean. Anyone who knew the sometimes-gruff but ultimately big-hearted authority figure for two generations of local high schoolers knew him by his childhood nickname: “Bouncer.”

John “Bouncer” Sena died Sunday. He was 77.

Sena had been hospitalized with pneumonia and other ailments. “He was in the hospital for a little over a month. Then he came home (about two weeks ago) and was very happy,” his daughter, Melinda “Jo Jo” Tarnoff, said Tuesday.

“He was always an inspiration,” said Orlando Baca, a retired Santa Fe High School typing and math teacher. “He was one of those tough old guys like (longtime Santa Fe High School principal) Joe Casados. But they always had a heart and treated everyone with dignity and respect. That’s why they got so much out of their staff and the students.”

Sena was born in Santa Fe in 1927, the youngest of eight children of Abran and Elena Sena.

He was raised on Agua Fria Street near Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. His father worked for the state Highway Department.

When he was about 11, Sena got dubbed with the nickname that would stay with him for life. “There are various stories on how he got that name,” Sena’s son Frank Sena said. “He was a big kid. His brother told him he looked like a bouncer when they were boxing.”

As a sophomore at Santa Fe High School in 1943, Bouncer Sena was on the Demon football team when they won the state championship.

“He was the tackle,” said lifelong friend and former College of Santa Fe athletic director Bob Sweeney, who was fullback on that champion team.

Sweeney said he and Sena were involved together in various athletic pursuits through the years. Sena was manager for the College of Santa Fe basketball team when Sweeney was coach. And in recent years the two were golf buddies.

After graduating from high school, Sena attended college at The University of New Mexico. He graduated in 1951 from the College of Santa Fe with a degree in business administration.

But it was in the field of education where he would find his career.
Baca recalled that when he was in high school “Bouncer” Sena was teaching driver’s education and coaching.

“He coached everything,” Frank Sena said. “Football, track, anywhere they needed a coach, he’d do it. I grew up in locker rooms, press boxes and on the sidelines. It wasn’t bad.”

When the current Santa Fe High School campus open in the mid 1960s, the old school building — currently the location of City Hall — became Santa Fe Mid High. “Bouncer” Sena became vice principal of the school.

“He was a steadfast, loyal employee and colleague,” said Don Casados, who was Mid High principal during that period. “He set high standards of honor, morality and integrity. He earned respect from faculty, staff and parents. His main concern was the students.”

While his dedication to students was unquestioned, Sena also had another interest — politics.

He made unsuccessful stabs at running for a state House seat in 1972 and 1974. The first time he lost the Democratic primary to Eddie Lopez by two votes.
“They didn’t let him put the name ‘Bouncer’ on the ballots that time,” Frank Sena said. “A lot of people didn’t realize it was him.”

But “Bouncer” Sena twice won a County Commission seat in the mid ‘70s. In 1978 he was named commission chairman. “They did a lot during those years,” Frank Sena said, noting that the Stephen Herrera Judicial Complex was built during his father’s watch.

State Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe, who worked in the county manager’s office during those years, has fond memories of Sena. “I could always tell when he was in the building,” she said. “I could hear him singing as he came up the stairs. He was always so pleasant and full of energy.”

After his two terms on the commission were up, Sena made two more unsuccessful runs for Legislature. He ran for state Senate in 1980 and 1984.

Shortly after he retired from Santa Fe High School, Sena was named a “Living Treasure.”

In recent years, Sena worked part-time at Sam’s Club. He worked there the day before he was hospitalized, his son said.

Sena is survived by his wife Bernadette of 47 years; son Joe Frank Sena of Santa Fe, daughters Dolores Greenwood of Los Angeles, Melinda “Jo Jo” Tarnoff of Ribera and Rebecca Abbo of Albuquerque; and six grandchildren.

UPDATE 4-25-07: I have updated the link to Bouncer's page at the Living Treasuers Web site.

R.I.P. PAUL WINCHELL

Most of the news I've read or heard on Paul Winchell's death have stressed that he was the voice of Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. But I remember him best for his ventriloquism -- specifically his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. I loved watching them on T.V. I have far more memories of Jerry and Knucklehead than I have of Howdy Doody (who wasn't technically a "dummy," but sure looked like one). Thanks mainly to Winchell, dummies seem to me like a strange and magical race of human-like beings.

One sad anecdote in Winchell's obit is how at the age of 12 he wanted to buy buy a book on ventriloquism, but his mother refused to give him a dime to buy it. Luckily, his sister's boyfriend coughed up the money for the book.

Moral of that story: Parents, if your kids show interest in something artistic, give them the Goddamn dime!

I wasn't aware until now that Winchell had a patent on an early version of an artificial heart.

Was this creation really meant for humans? Or was it a byproduct of a weird experiment to try to bring life to a new generation of Mahoneys and Smiffs?

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 26, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now 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
Lap Dancer by Big Ugly Guys
My Doorbell by The White Stripes
Loud Cloud Crowd by Stephen Malkmus
Killer on the Radio by The Flaming Lips
Unmade Bed by Sonic Youth
Drown Me Slowly by Audioslave
Pink Turns to Blue by Husker Du
Woody Woodpecker by Mel Blanc & The Sportsmen

Love/Building on Fire by Talking Heads
No Regrets by The Von Bondies
Robin Hood by The Mekons
Haunt by Roky Erickson
Baby Stardust by Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Buttered Beauties by Devo
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing by Frank Zappa
Money by The Kingsmen
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Paul Anka
Rape Me by Richard Cheese

Sweet Little Girl by Stevie Wonder
Keep Mediocrity at Bay by Van Morrison
Everything's OK by The Rev. Al Green
Dial 1-900-GETSOME by Denise LaSalle
Ignant Stick by Mem Shannon
Joyful Sounds by The Lee Boys

Cabin Essence by Brian Wilson
It's My Life by The Animals
Kerouac by Morphine
Take Me to the Other Side by Spacemen 3
Home by Stuurbaard Baakkebaard
In the Factory by Marianne Faithful
Lost in the Supermarket by The Afghan Whigs
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

My story in today's Santa Fe New Mexican about how Gov. Bill Richardson's new jet stacks up against planes ued by governors in other western states can be found HERE.

Anmong the things I learned while researching this story was the fact that the Republican governor of Alaska has been going through a similar controversy.

Feel free to join in on the discussion on The New Mexican site and/or post your comments on this blog.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER

I just watched the documentary Beautiful Dreamer, which is about Brian Wilson and Smile. And considering I'm pretty well acquainted with the story behind the original Smile sessions, it's a surprisingly moving film.

What struck me is how back in '66 and early '67 young Brian, Van Dyke Parks and all these studio musicians were having a great time making this fantastic, boundary-busting music.

But the whole dynamic changed when The Beach Boys, who had been touring in England, returned. It's a story that's been told lots of times: how Mike Love interrogated Van Dyke about each line in "Surf's Up" and "Cabin Essence," etc.

Basically The Beach Boys tore down what Brian had built.

Zap forward to this decade and you have Brian with a new band (actually most of these guys have been backing him since at least 2000.) Brian announces he'll be doing Smile live in London in early 2004.

And then the demons start coming back. Brian's practically paralyzed with fears and depression.

But this time, it's his band that gave him love and support, encouragement and the strength to do it -- like The Beach Boys should have done in '67. By the end of the movie you really have affection for these guys, especially the keyboardist with the Lyle Lovett hair, Darian Shanaja.

And for the record, Mike Love should be tortured by dwarves.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 24, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Special Love by Rolf Cahn
The Ballad of Waterhole #3 by Roger Miller
Rest of the World by The Waco Brothers
Little Ghost by The White Stripes
Can't Make It Here by James McMurtry
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town by Walter Brennan
When the Levee Breaks by Mojo Nixon & The Toad Liquors
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson

Blind Willie McTell by The Band
Denver/O'er the Waves by Carla Bozulich
Right Now by Grey DeLisle
If They Could Only See Me Now by Robbie Fulks
Running Gun by Michael Martin Murphey
Animal Hoedown by Harry Hayward
Enchanted Forest by Mohawk & The Rednecks

Stranger in the House by George Jones & Elvis Costello
Forbidden Angel by Mel Street
I Don't Like the Mirror by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Just Passin' Time by Dwight Yoakam
One More Cowboy by Dan Hicks with Willie Nelson
Everybody Wants to Be a Cat by Michelle Shocked
Electricity by Paul Burch
The Lost Soul by The Watson Family

Palm of Your Hand by Shine Cherries
Sad Mountain by Boris McCutcheon
Don't Let Her Know by Ray Charles
Warm and Tender Love by Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockerell
What You Mean To Me by NRBQ
A Kiss at the End of The Rainbow by Mitch & Mickey
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

SLOWING DOWN RICHARDSON

My story on the governor's new speeding vow can be found HERE. The complete statement can be found HERE.

The gov's announcement apparently touched the soul of Julia Goldberg. She made a vow of her own, which can be found HERE

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BRIGHT MOMENTS IN SANTA FE MUSIC

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 24, 2005

“The musician in Santa Fe will get his comeuppance. You'll be happy to play for tips while a bunch of rich Texans eat.”
Rolf Cahn, 1982

Rolf, who came to Santa Fe after establishing himself as one of the elder statesmen of the 1960s folk music revival, told me that in an interview I did with him all those years ago. He died 11 years ago, but his truth goes marching on.

Whenever I hear some story about the weird bummers, various humiliations and embarrassments stemming from trying to make music in Santa Fe, I think of Rolf’s comeuppance theorem. And sometimes I can’t help but think that these chronicles of shame and degradation, of hucksterism and heroics might be used as arguments that the comeuppance is partly self-inflicted.

Here’s a few of those Santa Fe music tales:

Roger in the Rain: I was excited to learn in the late ‘70s that one of my childhood musical heroes, Roger Miller was living in Santa Fe. And I was nearly ecstatic that night in the summer of 1980 when, backstage at a Michael Martin Murphey concert at Paolo Soleri, I spotted the King of the Road standing in the wings. Miller was about to make his local public debut. Murphey would call his surprise guest out on stage to do a short set of tunes. Miller strolled out with his guitar, saying “I live up the road a bit,” and the place exploded in applause.

But that wasn’t the only explosion. Overhead thunder roared. And right after Miller struck his first chord the rain came down. It went on for at least 30 minutes with no end in sight, drenching what was left of the unprotected crowd. Murphey cancelled the show. Because the promoter at the time had a policy of no refunds for rain-outs, Murphey himself offered to refund any tickets sent to his address in Taos.

Big River Production’s no-refund policy at Paolo Soleri for years was a source of controversy for the summer concert series. A few years after the aborted Murphey/Miller show, Joan Baez did a rainy night show there. Stagehands with umbrellas tried to keep the show going and a frustrated Baez told the audience that she’d never been so tempted to forsake her philosophy of non-violence.

As for Miller, he only did one other local appearance before his death in 1992. In the early ‘80s he opened for Barbara Mandrell at the Downs at Santa Fe. It rained liked crazy that night too, though at least this time the stage was covered.

Gerald’s Wild Years: I’m going to change the name of this musician. I haven’t seen “Gerald” in 25 years and don’t know whatever happened to him. Hopefully he changed his life and is doing better.

But every time I heard the Tom Waits song “Frank’s Wild Years” from the album Swordfishtrombones, I can’t help but think of Gerald. And I can’t help but think that Gerald’s sad tale inspired Waits’ song.

Gerald was a piano player who used to play at local bars like The Green Onion, The Forge and the TAC Club. He was an extremely nice guy. He used to loan me his P.A. equipment when I started playing at the Forge -- even though I had taken over his Sunday night slot there.

He was so nice and low-key, most people who knew him were shocked Christmas week 1980 when The Santa Fe Reporter ran a cover story with the grim headline “When a Gentle Man Turns Violent” (or something to that effect.)

It was about Gerald. It seems that the piano man had gone into some deep psychotic funk. One night in a gruesome rage he beat his girlfriend’s dog to death — with a pool cue, I believe — then set the east-side house on fire. “Torched it,” as Tom Waits growls in his song.

A few months later I was at the old Candyman on Water Street. One of the clerks and I were cracking grim jokes about Gerald's meltdown. But at one point, the clerk gasped. “I thought I saw him!” he said. He was mistaken. It wasn’t Gerald.

I left the Candyman and went home. Right after I reached my place, I got a call from a friend. The Candyman was burning down.

The Week of Wonder: In early 1982, Stevie Wonder came to town to shoot a commercial for a recording tape company for Japanese television. He was staying at La Fonda with his mobile recording unit in the parking lot there.

One night Stevie played an impromptu set at The Palace. I wasn’t there. Lots of people I know were there — though if everyone who claims they were there that night really were, The Palace would have to be bigger than Lobo Stadium.

For the rest of the week, Stevie Wonder rumors were flying everywhere. “Stevie’s supposed to be here tonight. Stevie’s going to be there this afternoon …” One of the most compelling was that Wonder would be sitting in with his “old friend” John Lee Hooker, who was playing at the Line Camp in Pojoaque that weekend.

I don’t think I’d ever seen the Line Camp so packed. Judging by the buzz, most of the crowd was there to see Stevie -- who didn’t show. But Hooker seemed to draw energy from the capacity crowd and the venerated bluesman gave one of the most dynamic concerts I’ve ever seen here.

I later learned that the Stevie-at-the-Line-Camp rumor was pure hucksterism on the part of bar’s owner John Harvey. I always admired him for that.

Rage Against the Radio: The consolidation of radio has been exasperated in recent years, but it’s been brewing for well over a decade. Even before the Clear Channel monolith owned KBAC, that station, in its first incarnation suffered as a result of ownership changes.

In March 1994, the station -- which then specialized in “alternative” music -- was purchased by some outside company that decided to radically change formats without bothering to tell anyone on the air.

A DJ named Dave Cali was doing his show one afternoon when he started getting calls saying there were two signals playing on KBAC’s wave length. Cali started asking questions of the brass and learned in fact that the new owners were going to replace live DJs with a satellite feed playing a toned-down version of alternative rock.

Cali knew his prospects for employment there was cooked anyway, so he went down like a warrior. First he played a version the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” by Henry Rollins and The Bad Brains. He followed that with followed by Rage Against the Machine's “Killing in the Name Of,” which ends with the cheerful refrain, “Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me …” repeated a dozen times or so.”

Cali was fired immediately and the satellite beings completed their hostile takeover. That operation folded after a few weeks and KBAC went dark for a couple of years.

Bruno Bares All: More than 20 years before the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl fiasco, there was an infamous wardrobe malfunction on a Santa Fe stage.

And this was my brother’s fault.

It was a rock ‘n’ roll show at the Armory for the Arts, headlined by my brother Jack Clift’s band -- whatever his band was called at the moment.

The show was emceed by some strange individual who called himself “Bruno Esoterico,” billed as a radio personality from the island of Guam. Some folks said he looked a lot like me. Poor bastard.

Esoterico, dressed in a straw hat, cheap Hawaiian shirt and flowery swimming trunks, took the stage to introduce Jack’s band. But as he began with his trademark catch phrase “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Jack sneaked up from behind and pulled down Bruno’s trunks giving the audience a full-frontal view of Guam.

Some folks said he looked a lot like me.

After the show Jack was overheard telling the angry Guamanian, “I thought you were wearing underwear!”

Bruno didn’t buy it. Still doesn’t.

MILES OF BLOGGING

Jeff Weiss and his beautiful wife Corrie run Miles of Music, a very cool and very righteous mail order business for American roots music, alternative country, Americana and other things they like.

And now Jeff's running a Miles of Music blog. I just checked it out and was impressed. Though Jeff's not above plugging new stuff at MOM, this blog is not a mere advertising vehicle. It's put together by someone who truly loves music.

He has a lot of links to music news stories -- I didn't realize that it was L.A. country-rocker Eleni Mandell who did the music for the Paris Hilton Carl's Junior commercial! -- and even has the latest FAR (Freeform American Roots Radio) chart.

So if you like the kind of stuff I play on The Santa Fe Opry, check out the Miles of Music blog.

(Full disclosure time: Miles of Music used to sell my CD. Together we made dozens of dollars. But that's not why I'm plugging him.)

THIS JUST IN ...

This will be all over New Mexico TV news in the next hour or so and in the papers tomorrow, so I might as well post this now.

Gov. Bill Richardson says he's going to slow down on the highways.

Check this blog and The New Mexican tomorrow. For now, here's a press release from the governor:

Governor Bill Richardson Issues Statement On Reports of Speeding

For Immediate Release
LOS LUNAS- Governor Bill Richardson today issued the following statement regarding recent media reports of his state police drivers speeding while transporting the Governor to an event in Albuquerque:

“A lot of people, especially the media, have had some fun at my expense regarding reports of my state police drivers exceeding the speed limit.

I enjoy humor, and I can take legitimate criticism. In politics, you get used to criticism.

I am the first to admit that I try to cram as much business as possible into each and every day. As you know, I’m impatient. We have a lot to do to continue to move this state forward.

The dedicated state police officers who drive my vehicle are the best. They have been specially trained in dignitary protection by the Secret Service. They have never operated the vehicle in a way that would risk the safety of me or other drivers on the road. I will also never question them when they believe security is an issue.

But I am not above the law. Hurrying has never been about me- it’s about getting things done for the people who elected me. Sometimes I have gone fast- too fast. I won’t stop working to move New Mexico forward, but I have instructed my drivers to slow down and follow the speed limit on the highway.

I’m not going to stand here and say we’ll never speed again- there may be exceptional circumstances. But we are going to slow down.

I hope this will put this distraction to rest, and we can move on with the important work we are doing on education, jobs, fighting DWI and domestic violence, and what I’ll be doing later today and tomorrow- helping to keep Cannon Air Force Base open.”

#30#

TIRED OF RELIGIOUS FANATIC NUTBALLS?

Then try ANTI-religious fanatic nutballs.

This link was sent to me on my work e-mail with the subject header "The Bible is a PROVEN HOAX."

An excerpt from the rant on the site:

Religion is the weapon of mass destruction of truth. Religions
rely on fear, the absolute terror of hell. They unleash their
venom on children and scar them for life. The morality of
religion is the morality of terror.

I do like the fact this site has LARGE PRINT, though the gray background and multi-color text gets old after awhile.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: BOLTON BLOGGER HAS N.M. TIES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 23, 2005

The man who publishes the go-to blog for opponents of John Bolton owns a house in Santa Fe.

If you’ve been using the internet to closely follow the fight over President Bush’s nomination of Bolton to the post of United Nations, chances are you’ve come across Steve Clemons’ blog called The Washington Note.

Clemons is a former adviser for U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

“I worked for Sen. Bingaman for three years,” Clemons said in a phone interview this week, referring to his three-year stint that began in 1995. “My official title was senior policy adviser on economic and international affairs.”

Clemons, who lives in the city that’s the namesake of his blog, doesn’t claim deep ties to New Mexico. “My grandmother lived there,” he said. In his college years he frequently visited Santa Fe and Taos. And, of course he came to the state several times during his Bingaman years. Among other projects, he helped organize an Asian trade conference in Albuquerque that was an annual event for a few years.

“And I have a tiny little home there, just off the Plaza,” he said.

Although he said his blog sometimes seems like a full-time job, Clemons is senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank. He also writes about foreign policy and international economics for several publications in the U.S. and Asia.

Since mid March — shortly after Bush nominated Bolton — Clemons’ blog has dealt with little else.

“Here is the deal,” he wrote in an early post. “I just don't think America's core interests can be served by this appointment. I don't mind a U.N.-skeptic going to the United Nations, but at least that skeptic needs to believe in the essential role and function of a reformed United Nations —- and needs to be a constructive force in achieving that goal.”

Since then, Clemons’ rap on Bolton has become more pointed: “He has been reckless with intelligence and irresponsibly abusive toward intelligence analysts, undermined his boss Colin Powell, engaged in dangerous brinkmanship with problem nations while delicate negotiations were underway to ‘tie down’ their burgeoning (weapons of mass destruction) programs, and has a long tenure in many positions of not respecting Congress or the importance of the separation of powers,” Clemons blogged last week.

Bill and Bolton: The blog not only has chronicled all the twists and turns of the Bolton fight, it’s actually broken some news on the issue. And a couple of times the name of another Washington insider with Santa Fe ties — Gov. Bill Richardson — has popped up in Clemons’ blog.

Clemons has criticized Richardson — a former U.N. ambassador — and several other prominent Democrats for making public statements that Bolton would be confirmed.

Clemons said he talked about the matter with Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks. “I was pretty livid,” he said. “No moderate Republicans are going to jump ship if Democrats keep talking like this.”

Richardson, he said, “Sent me an e-mail telling me to stop biting my friends.” But, Clemons noted, the governor “did a one-day turnaround” and made a strong statement against Bolton.

Clemons in April reported speculation that Richardson could be among 10 officials in communications intercepted by the National Security Agency —- transcripts of which were sought by Bolton.

Richardson in early 2003 met with North Korean diplomats in Santa Fe and reported frequently about those talks to then Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“The thinking is that Bolton was trying to sabotage anyone negotiating with North Korea,” Clemons said.

The White House’s refusal to turn over the requested NSA intercepts to the Senate is what is holding up the Bolton nomination. A Republican attempt Monday to force a vote on the nomination failed for a second time.

Bingaman and Bolton: For the record, Clemons’ old boss has voted twice against forcing a Bolton vote.

That prompted state GOP Chair Allen Weh to blast Bingaman in a news release this week, saying the senator had “once again bowed to pressure from the liberal leadership.”

“The Senate should promptly confirm John Bolton so that we can get on with the business of reforming the United Nations,” Weh said.

Thanks, Drudge: If you were having a hard time getting on The New Mexican’s free web site Tuesday, blame it on right-wing internet personality Matt Drudge.

The Drudge Report linked to my story on the governor’s recent speeding controversy.

ABC News' political site The Note, also linked to the story on the New Mexican site.

So many new readers clicked on the link, it caused the paper’s web server to crash.

MY TEAM IS AWAYS RIGHT. YOURS IS ALWAYS WRONG

Anyone remember "Good Guys/Bad Guys Cheer" by Country Joe & The Fish.

I didn't think so.

It was a "spoken -word" piece on their 1968 Together album in which Joe, or one of the Fish shouts, "Let's hear it for the good guys!" The crowd responds "YAY!!!" This is followed by "Let's hear it for the bad guys!" The crowd boos. This is repeated several until the noise all runs together.

A couple of things made me think about the "Good Guys" and the "Bad Guys" in the past couple of days.

First there was Tom Bailey's latest post on his New Mexico Politics blog. He talks about the recent disclosure that Republican Albuquerque City Councilor Tina Cummings lying about a past DWI conviction.

Fair enough.

But then he basically says that Cummings is part of a Republican tradition of morally-challenged politicians, listing several good examples of bad examples from Bob Livingston all the way back to Bob Packwood.

However, the most recent example of a New Mexico politician lying about a DWI was a Democrat -- Letitia Montoya, who ran for a state Senate seat in Santa Fe last year. At a candidate forum last year Montoya was asked whether she'd ever been arrested for DWI before. She said know. However, court records showed she indeed had been arrested for drunken driving 20 years before. Montoya, who lost that race but is now running for secretary of state, now says she just told "a little white lie."

Yesterday The Drudge Report linked to The New Mexican Web site's version of my story about Gov. Bill Richardson's latest speeding escapade.

As a result, I was getting e-mails from people all around the country who were outraged that the governor can speed all he wants and even refuse to stop for police, while regular folks would get ticketed or maybe even even arrested for such a stunt.

Fair enough.

But a couple of e-mails used Richardson's speeding as just another example of the arrogant and immoral ways of Democrats.

However, a couple of years ago, when Richardson's speeding first became an issue, I interviewed a certain Republican who admitted to a high-speed ride of his own. Here's an excerpt from the Oct. 2, 2003 Roundhouse Round-up:

"The only reason I would have gone more than 100 mph is if I was late to something," Richardson's immediate predecessor, Gary Johnson, said in a phone interview this week.

Johnson said the only time he recalls his state police drivers going 100 mph was once when he was late for a political function in Albuquerque.

"I was late to see George Bush," he admitted. This, Johnson said, was during the 2000 presidential race. But Johnson said, unlike Richardson, he wouldn't have let his driver go that fast had there been a reporter in the car. "I wouldn't have considered it with The Washington Post in the car," he said.

UPDATE: I just noticed that conservative N.M. blogger Mario Burgos -- to his credit -- points to an example of another Republican speed demon -- this a story with tragic consequences. (I'm just not sure why Mario calls me a "lone merry man.")

And if I start to sound a little self-righteous, I can always look at these photos published by Conventry to bring the ego down a few notches.

THAT DAMNED MUSICAL BATON!

I just got passed the "musical baton" for the second time, this time by the one and only Steve Terrell -- at least the one and only Steve Terrell of Indianapolis.

On most the questions, I think I'll let my first answers stand.

However, this version of the questionnaire was slightly different.

It asked "What is my total volume of music?" Oh hell, who's counting. Let's just say that my small dining room serves as my CD room and it's just about full.

The last CD I bought was David Bromberg's Live in New York 1982. I picked it up at his wonderful convert at the Lensic Sunday night. (I still owe my girlfriend $20!)

And here's the embarassing part. The song that was on the CD player when Steve's e-mail arrived was Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" -- the new "swing" version by Paul Anka.

Now I gotta figure out five more bloggers I can inflict this on.

A MAN IN A HURRY

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 21, 2005

Gov. Bill Richardson is the center of another speeding controversy.

According to a report Monday by Channel 13’s Larry Barker, a state police driver for the governor refused on June 2 to stop for an Albuquerque police officer who noticed the governor’s white Cadillac sports utility vehicle “speeding and driving erratically” on an interstate frontage road in Albuquerque.

Barker’s report showed footage of the chase and a recording of the Albuquerque police officer. The report didn’t say how fast the governor’s driver was going.

A spokesman for Richardson referred questions about the incident to the state Public Safety Department, which called the incident “a simple misunderstanding,” noting that the Albuquerque officer was in an unmarked car and not in uniform.

In a written statement, DPS spokesman Peter Olson said, “there was no procedure in place for the governor’s driver to verify it was indeed an APD unit. Under those circumstances, state police are trained to take evasive action and not to stop.

Likewise, there was no procedure in place for the APD officers to make contact with the Governor’s vehicle.”

“They had flashing lights and a siren, but that doesn’t cut it,” Olson told The New Mexican.

Because of the incident, there now is a direct phone line state police can use to instantly communicate with Albuquerque police dispatchers, Olson said.

The report comes at a time in which state Republicans are airing radio commercials blasting Gov. Bill Richardson’s “high roller” lifestyle, including his driving habits. One ad says Richardson “isn't bothered by speed limits.”

Richardson’s speeding first was picked up on the political radar in 2003 when a Washington Post reporter, traveling with Richardson on the way to a political function, noted that the governor ordered his driver to go faster when they already were in excess of 100 mph.

There have been similar reports of Richardson’s speeding since then. Public Safety Secretary John Denko has defended Richardson’s high speeds, calling the practice a security measure.

Olson’s statement Monday says, “ The state police officer driving correctly followed the procedures mandated to safely and securely transport the governor ... the state police will continue to take every precaution and follow recognized procedures to ensure the safety of the Governor ...”

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 17, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Drinking, Cheating and Death by The Waco Brothers
One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) by Jerry Lee Lewis
Intentional Heartache by Dwight Yoakam
Reprimand by Joe West
Blue Bonnets by Michael Martin Murphey
Wreck My Car by Scott H. Biram
Ed's Place by Horace Heller

Father's Day Set
That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine by The Everly Brothers
Daddy Was a Steel Headed Man by Robbie Fulks
A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash
Just Like My Dad by ThaMuseMeant
They Don't Make 'em Like My Daddy by Loretta Lynn
Hillbilly Highway by Steve Earle
Half Fist by Loudon Wainwright III
My Old Man by Jerry Jeff Walker

David Bromberg Set
Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
Sharon
Young Wesley
Statesboro Blues/Church Bell Blues
Mr. Blue
Summer Wages

Blame it on Joann by John Hartford
Crazy as a Loon by John Prine
God's Got It by Grey DeLisle
I Always Loved a Waltz by Kell Robertson
Stranger in the House by George Jones with Elvis Costello
When You Wish Upon a Star by Michelle Shocked
The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore by June Carter Cash
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

BROMBERG IN SANTA FE

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 17, 2005

He’s performed with Jerry Jeff Walker and John Prine, and recorded with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Doug Sahm, Phoebe Snow, members of the Grateful Dead and even Sha Na Na.

He had a respectable solo career of his own, combining all sorts of American roots styles — blues, bluegrass, first-generation rock — fronting a band that could play Dixieland jazz one moment, a cowboy lament the next followed by white-boy funk and then come right back at you with furious Irish fiddle reels.

And then, about 20 years ago, David Bromberg basically hung it up.

He stopped touring, gave up on recording. Turned his back on the rock ‘n’ roll, traveling troubadour game to study making violins. Bromberg now operates his own store in Wilmington, Del.

“I just got burned out on all that,” Bromberg said in a recent telephone interview from his violin shop. Talking about his lack of studio recordings since the ‘80s, Bromberg said, “I was spending so much time in windowless rooms, I kind of ODed on it.”

Or, as his Web site biography says, “... the days on the road for extended periods simply do not fit his primary interests as a father and businessman.”

But the good news is that he’s starting to feel a little bit of the old itch again and has been doing some touring. And the really good news is that he’ll be in Santa Fe Sunday night with his band for a show at the Lensic.

Bromberg, 59, is a Philadelphia native who began his musical career in the coffee houses of New York’s Greenwich Village when he was a student at Columbia University.

One of his first breaks was hooking up with a then-unknown New York singer-songwriter named Ron Crosby, who would transform himself into Jerry Jeff Walker. Bromberg toured with Walker and recorded on his first album Mr. Bojangles. (Though he’s pictured on the back cover holding a banjo, Bromberg actually played electric guitar on the album.)

After years on the folkie circuit, Bromberg got a recording contract with Columbia Records, releasing his first album David Bromberg in 1971, the highlight of which is the five-minute “Sammy’s Song,” a disturbing — and graphic — tale of a boy losing his virginity in a Spanish whore house. Bob Dylan played harmonica on the song.

Around that time Bromberg was playing guitar on Dylan’s albums Self Portrait and New Morning. It also was during this period that Bromberg was producer for one of the greatest acoustic country albums of all time — John Hartford’s Aereo-Plane.

Three other Columbia albums followed before Bromberg went on to smaller labels. He never became a “star,” but with some tunes became staples of hipper FM stations of the day.

Among these were “Sharon,” a funky tale of a carnival snake dancer; “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair,“ a Bessie Smith tune updated to name check Watergate Judge John Sirica; and Blind Willie McTell’s “Dyin’ Crapshooter Blues,” turned into a Dixieland stomper.

He sang in a voice distinctively his own, a just-this-side-of-comical nasal. He could bring belly laughs in some tunes like “Will Not Be Your Fool” or “Bullfrog Blues,” then break your heart with his version of “Mr. Blue.”

And his frequent touring kept his fandom alive. He played New Mexico several times in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, including a packed show with his band at the old Golden Inn. He played several times as a solo artist at Paolo Soleri shows in the early ‘80s.

He stopped touring and recording in the mid ‘80s, a period that was hard on many performers of his generation and particularly hard on those specializing in American roots music.

“I’d been studying violin making for a few years when I stopped touring,” Bromberg said. He graduated in 1984 from the Kenneth Warren School of Violin Making in Chicago, where he’d moved in 1980.

Though he knows how to make a violin, Bromberg said he doesn’t pretend to be a master of that instrument. His main instrument is guitar, though he also plays dobro and mandolin.

“I bought and sold violins for a living,” he said. Traveling to Europe to look for violins and bows he said, was more fun than touring and recording.

Two years ago, he left Chicago for Delaware.

“My wife and I had had enough of Chicago winters,” he said. “We were looking for some place back east. My former road manager now works as associate director of the Grand Opera House in Wilmington. Wilmington has the right kind of climate and we were able to make a good deal on the shop.”

According to some published reports, the city of Wilmington sold old building that houses David Bromberg’s Fine Violins in the Market Street area for $1 in exchange for Bromberg helping to promote arts in the downtown area. There he buys, sells and repairs violins and bows.

After years of being off the road, once in Wilmington, Bromberg started regular blues and bluegrass jam sessions at a Wilmington club. “I discovered this 15-year-old kid — I guess he’s 17 now — who’s one of the most brilliant electric blues guitarists I’ve ever heard,” he said.

And he’s started touring again, and for the first time in a quarter century, with a band — horn section and all. Right before Santa Fe, Bromberg and his group are performing at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

Bromberg still hasn’t gone back to the “windowless room” to resume his recording career, though there's a “new” Bromberg CDs available at his Web site.

“I’m finding stuff from old concerts that people recorded surreptitiously,” he said. “We have one for sale, a concert in New York City.” This 1982 show is the first legal bootleg Bromberg is offering.

He says he has no plans to try to get a new record contract. “These days record companies are pretty much superfluous,” he said.

But he has started writing songs again. “I wrote me a song in a dream,” Bromberg said. “It’s called ‘Outside Man.’ It’s stone blues.”

Sounds like this “outside man” might be coming back in again.

Who: The David Bromberg Band
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 West San Francisco St.
How much: Tickets range from $39 to $27
Call: 505-988-1234 $27 Ticket Phone: (505) 988 -1234

Hear a lengthy set of David Bromberg music tonight on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR, 90.7 FM. (The Bromberg set will start around 11 p.m.)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LADIES SING THE BLUES

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 17, 2005

The blues often is thought of as a masculine genre, an unforgiving world of hard drinking, skirt chasing, razor fights, faithless love and harsh prisons.

Often we forget about the feminine side of the blues, how singers like Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey and Memphis Minnie brought a vaudeville-bred sense of showmanship, style and a sense of regality to the music. It’s true that males still dominate the blues, but the contributions of women are not to be overlooked.

However, movie maker Robert Mugge felt this is exactly what happened in Martin Scorsese’s 2003 series of films about the blues for PBS. In several published interviews, Mugge has said it was the Scorsese series that inspired him to produce eight hour-long concert shows for what would become a Mississippi Public Television series called Blues Divas.

Each episode focused on a different singer -- some that you‘ll recognize, some that you probably never heard of. These are Mavis Staples, Irma Thomas, Ann Peebles, Denise La Salle, Odetta, Bettye LaVette, Deborah Coleman and Renee Austin.

A two-hour compilation of performances from that series will be shown at the Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe Saturday and Wednesday. It’s Blues Divas’ southwest premier.

Mugge is no newcomer to the blues. Though he’s done documentaries on bluegrass, Hawaiian music, reggae, jazz, Cajun music, Gil Scott-Heron, Ruben Blades and even entertainers who performed for the troops during World War II, blues and soul have been his major focus. His films include Deep Blues, Last of the Mississippi Jukes, Blues Breaks and documentaries about Robert Johnson and Alligator Records.
Fans of the singers featured in Blues Divas, and in fact fans of the blues in general shouldn’t miss this movie.

It’s the music that’s the real draw here. It’s more of a “concert” film than documentary.

Blues Divas does include short segments in which each of the singers is interviewed by actor Morgan Freeman. Most of these are rather light conversations, that don’t reveal much -- except when Staples talks about getting punished by her God-fearing grandmother as a child for the sin of singing a blues song.

All the performances are shot at the Ground Zero Club in Clarksdale, Miss. (which is owned by Freeman). The audiences are small. Perhaps stage hands whooping it up.

The selection of talent represents a good variety of styles often included under the general umbrella of the blues. Staples comes from a gospel background and indeed plays gospel-rooted tunes in this film. Odetta is from the folk world. Thomas, Peebles and Lavette originally known as “soul” singers. And when Freeman calls LaSalle “the queen of the blues,” she corrects him. It’s “the Queen of Southern Soul Blues.

(Historical aside: At some point around the ‘80s what’s known as “blues” did a takeover of what was once known as soul music, at least southern soul. The two are now virtually inseparable in the public mind, so soul singers like Al Green, Soloman Burke and the ladies mentioned above are embraced on the “blues” circuit while “blues” artists like Robert Cray and Mem Shannon often play a style that once would have been called “soul.” Indeed, it’s good not to get too anal-retentive about such distinctions. But you can’t help but remember the story about B.B. King opening for Sam Cooke in the early ‘60s. Cooke’s audience, who considered King’s blues as old fashioned and hokey booed B.B. off the stage.)

The undeniable highlight of this show is the Queen of Southern Soul Blues. LaSalle takes the stage like a tornado, tearing through funny, sexy songs like “Don‘t Mess With My Man” and “Your Man is Cheatin’ On Us.”

Lavette is a singer who goes back to the ‘60s, but never achieved the fame she deserved. Her voice is mesmerizing, oozing with emotion and her performance in Blues Divas is likely to win her new fans. My only beef is that the film doesn’t include her signature tune “Let Me Down Easy.” (Serious soul fans should seek out the 8-minute version of this song on Let Me Down Easy: In Concert. It’s a Dutch import, but available at a decent price on Amazon and other online sites.)

Odetta’s voice just grows richer by the year. She performs a surprising tough cover of Lead Belly’s “Bourgeois Blues” and sweet version of “Careless Love,” a song that has been batted around between country and blues artists. Talking about the implications of this sexual cautionary tale she advises her audience not to forget their condoms.

In addition to all these veterans, there are a couple of younger, lesser-known artists included here. Renee Austin is a big-voiced redhead in a slinky black dress. She belts out a bluesy torch song called “Fool Moon” she says is inspired by Ella Fitzgerald.

Guitarist/singer Deborah Coleman starts off with a respectable cover of Koko Taylor’s “I’m a Woman” (a rewrite of Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy.) Unfortunately the song degenerates in to a lengthy, generic bar-band guitar solo. I wish they’d have cut this in half to make room for another LaSalle song or Lavette’s “Let Me Down Easy.”

I don’t know what kind of business obstacles there might be between Mississippi and New Mexico public television, but after watching this two-hour compilation, I wish KNME would broadcast the entire eight-hour Blues Diva series.

Blues Divas is playing at the Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe, 1616 St. Michael's Drive 4 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $8; $7 for students and seniors; $6 for film festival members.