MUSIC IN THE AIR

In the last couple of days I've gotten press releases on two free (!) outdoor summer music programs in Santa Fe: The Santa Fe Bandstand series on the Plaza (hey! I don't see my brother's band!) and the new Music on the Hill at St. John’s College series.

The schedules are posted below.

Also, even though they're not free, don't forget Fan Man's Santa Fe Community picnic concert ( Ozomatli plus Ryan McGarvey, Sol Fire and Hundred Year Flood, July 2 at Fort Marcy); Frogfest (James McMurtry plus Frogville faves at Santa Fe Brewing Company, August 19 and 20); The Santa Fe Traditional & Bluegrass Music Festival (Bluegrass Patriots, Sweet Sunny South and more August 25-27 at the Santa Fe Rodeo Grounds); and The Thirsty Ear Festival (Dave Alvin, Honeyboy Edwards, Patty Griffin, Be Good Tanyas and others at Eaves Ranch, Labor Day Weekend).

2006 Santa Fe Bandstand Schedule

EVENINGS 6-8:30pm

Wed July 5 Opening Night

Albert & Gage Christine Albert & Chris Gage--High energy country-folk

Brother E. Clayton & the Mighty Soul Deacons Classic soul

Thurs. July 6 International Folk Art Market Night

Round Mountain Enchanting mix of Middle Eastern, Balkan, Celtic and Folk

Los Pinguos Putumayo Recording Artists --Argentine folk groove band


Mon. July 10 Bill Hearne Living legend acoustic country folk artist

South by Southwest Premier southwestern swing and country band

Tues. July 11 Jono Manson Santa Fe Legend returns with his rootsy rock 'n roll

Alex Maryol Band Original rock 'n roll and blues music

Wed July 12 Don Lovato Group Latin smooth jazz and pop

Caldo Tlalpeno Classic Mexican Music from Cuidad Juarez

Thurs. July 13 New Mexico Music Commission Night

Red Earth Award winning Native funk, ska, rock, blues, jazz

Brother E & The Blue Rhythm Kings Award winning NM Soul and R&B Band

Mon. July 17 The Twobers w/ One Foundation Live hip-hop and a twist of funk & reggae

Key Frances Original Psychedelic Funk

Tues. July 18 Just Friends Straight ahead classical jazz
Busy McCarroll and the Ambassadors of Pleasure Power jazz pop noir

Wed. July 19 Mariachi Buenaventura New Mexico’s first all female mariachi

Johnny Hernandez & Crossroads Tejano recording artist

Thurs. July 20 Stephanie Sieberth New Orleans' Jazz vocalist
Ron Helman Jazz Ensemble Jazz music of the 50’s and 60’s

Mon. July 24 Y. Que Latino rock world fusion

Jaka Afro pop funk fusion


Tues. July 25 Joe West Way out west honky-tonk and originals
Shannon McNally New Orleans' soulful singer and entrancing songwriter

Wed. July 26 Spanish Market Night

Santa Fe Suzuki Institute Young students playing strings and flute

Manzanares Nuevo Flamenco meets Latin Rock

Thurs. July 27 Ken Valdez Rock with Blues and Latin influence
The Motet Touring Colorado afro-beat groove band

Mon. July 31 The Rifters Southwestern Americana
The Pleasure Pilots Rhythm 'n blues, jump and swing

Tues. Aug. 1 Public Safety Night

Hillary Smith & Hip Pocket Old school funkiness, R&B and power house blues
The Jimmy Stadler Band High energy rock--NM Mic Award for Best CD of 2006

Wed. Aug. 2 Cherry Tempo Indie rock

Sol Fire Rock pop with a Latin edge

Thurs. Aug. 3 Night Train Roadhouse blues and R&B
Teri Lee Browning Heart felt beat driven pop


Mon. Aug. 7 Boris McCutcheon Psychedelic desert rat music

Hundred Year Flood Rockin' Americana

Tues. Aug. 8 Sean Helean Band Western rock
HooDoos Bluzrok

Wed. Aug. 9 Native Spirits Contemporary and traditional Native American music
Bermudez/ Valentine Quartet Nuevo Santa Fe

Thurs. Aug. 10 Samba Fe The beat of Santa Fe
Wagogo World beat—Memphis to Mozambique to Mexico

Mon. Aug. 14 Toast Original roots rock

The Hollis Wake Infectious Pop that seriously rocks

Tues. Aug. 15 Ruben Romero with band--virtuoso Spanish and flamenco guitarist

Prince Diabate with band --master kora player from Guinea, West Africa

Wed. Aug. 16 Latina Night

Nacha Mendez, Gioia Tama, Busy McCarroll de Alsaro, Karmela Gonzales, Bobbi Jo Marquez and Lisa Martinez

Thurs. Aug. 17 Indian Market Night

Iyah Reggae soul
Native Roots Native reggae

Mon. Aug. 21 Santa Fe Traditional & Bluegrass Music Festival Night

Atomic Grass Traditional bluegrass

Elliot’s Ramblers Great old bluegrass in a brand new way

Tues. Aug. 22 Taarka A synergy of sounds that blends bluegrass, folk, gypsy and jazz

Georgie Angel Blues Band featuring Junior Brown Feel good blues

Wed. Aug. 23 Los Wise Guys Variety of golden oldies and Beatle covers

Buena Suerte Cumbias, polkas, country, rock and oldies

Thurs. Aug. 25 The Swank Jam funk blues roots band
Julie Stewart & The Motor Kings High energy rockin' blues

AFTERNOONS Noon to 1:30

Thurs. July 6 Velarde Trio Traditional New Mexican old time music

Tues. July 11 The Watermelon Mountain Jug Band Eclectic mix of country and bluegrass

Thurs. July 13 Fiddlin' Doc Gonzales Classic country swing

Tues. July 18 The Hot Club of Santa Fe Hot swing, gypsy Jazz and Bluegrass

Thurs., July 20 Straight Up Be-bop jazz quintet

Tues. July 25 Don and Victoria Armstrong Southwest folk and original favorites

Thurs. July 27 Laurianne Fiorentino Powerful original acoustic music

Tues. Aug. 1 Mike Owens & Sister Mary Evans Acoustic Jazz and Pop

Thurs. Aug. 3 Jaime Michaels Original singer songwriter

Tues. Aug. 8 Larry & Leslie Latour Folk rock jazz blues

Thurs. Aug. 10 Justin Bransford & Jetpack Rental Groove-based improv trio

Tues. Aug. 15 Trio Los Musicanos Northern New Mexico traditional and modern music

Thurs. Aug. 17 Terry Diers & Sweet Sister Sweet R&B

Tues. Aug. 22 Love Buzzards A reunion of old friends who love traditional folk music

Thurs. Aug. 24 Trillium Marimba Marimba and guitar family band


Music on the Hill at St. John’s College

June 14 Jazz with Chris Calloway

June 21 Jazz with Ron Helman

June 28 Latin Jazz with Terra Plena

July 12 Folk Blues with Chris Dracup Trio

July 19 Jazz with Cathy McGill w/ Bert Dalton Trio

July 26 Calypso with Frank Leto

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 4, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Samisen Boogiewoogie by Umekichi
Turn Into by Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Blues From an Airplane by Jefferson Airplane
Death Sound Blues by Country Joe & The Fish
Drunk by Johnny Dowd
My Mind is Ramblin' by The Black Keys
Sailor Man by The Mighty Sparrow

Son of Shaft/Feel It by The Bar-Kays
Porry by Sorry Bamba
Get on the Boat by Prince
Firewater by Big Chief Monk Bordreaux & The Golden Eagles

FIERY FURNACES SET
Teach Me Sweetheart
Single Again
Guns Under the Counter
The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry
I'm Leaving
Birdy Brain
Whistle Rhapsody

Lay Down Burden by Brian Wilson
Kingdom of Cold by Hundred Year Flood
The Great Pagoda of Funn by Donald Fagen
Fall Awake by The Ditty Bops
Shaken, Rattled and Rolled by T-Bone Burnett
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

GOP SENATE RACE GOES NEGATIVE

The three Republicans seeking the nomination to run against incumbent Democrat Jeff Bingaman for U.S. Senate seemed to turn on each other last week -- just before Tuesday's primary.


HERE'S my story in today's New Mexican.


And, speaking of last-minute campaign coverage, HERE'S a quick look at the Rio Arriba magistrate judge race.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 2, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum
True Religion by Hot Tuna
Lion in Winter by Hoyt Axton
Action Packed by Ronnie Dee
Whole Lotta Things by Southern Culture on the Skids
Pill Bug Blues by The Gourds
Payday Blues by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Sho-Jo-Ji/The Hungry Racoon by Petty Booka

Dirty Old Town by Frank Black
Milly's Cafe by Fred Eaglesmith
Byrd From West Virginia by I See Hawks in L.A.
Mystery Mountain by Porter Wagoner
The Virginian by Neko Case
Hunter Green by The Handsome Family
You Better Stop Drinking Shine by Rev. I.B. Ware, Wife & Son

Sunbonnet Sue by The Fort Worth Doughboys
Liberty by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys
Ida Red by Merle Haggard
Saving My Love by The Stumbleweeds
Funky Tunk by Moby Grape
Highway Patrol by Junior Brown
Cold Canadian Love by Joe West
Pop a Top by Jim Ed Brown
Maybe You Heard by Todd Snyder
Chuckie Cheese Hell by Tim Wilson

Cowboy Logic by Michael Martin Murphey
Dancing With the Women in the Bar by Whiskeytown
Don't Let Them Destroy You by Cordero
Where I'm From by The Bottle Rockets
Just a Dream by Eleni Mandell
When Two Worlds Collide by Roger Miller
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

DEAF EARS

I guess the governor didn't listen to my suggestion about voluntarily ceasing his fundraising activities and donating most of his treasury to charity.

His re-election campaign raised more than a half million last month. CLICK HERE for the AP story.

ALso, here's a link to my story about campaign finance reports for local legislative candidates.

And here's my story about problems with the reports showing up on the Secretary of State's Web Site.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: BURN ON FURNACES!

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 2, 2006

The brother-and-sister team known as The Fiery Furnaces continues to amaze, delight, and occasionally confound unsuspecting listeners on its latest musical adventure, Bitter Tea.

Bitter Tea is an opportunity for writer/multi-instrumentalist/mad-genius-boy Matthew Friedberger to toss in everything plus a few kitchen sinks, while sister Eleanor Friedberger, the main Furnace singer, captivates and allures. Eleanor’s voice — sweet, clear, sometimes even a little prim — seems like an earthly anchor for a ship tossed along a stormy, unpredictable musical sea. (Strangely enough, the album was released on Fat Possum, once known as a hard-core blues label. Despite some wicked slide guitar in the song “Police Sweater Blood Vow,” I don’t think R.L Burnside done it this a way.)

The music changes from song to song — and often several times within a song. Electronic madness bounces off an old-timey tack piano.

While the Furnaces don’t really sound like anyone else, you could spend an afternoon trying to trace the influences.

“Waiting to Know You” could be doo-wop as filtered through The Flaming Lips. When “Oh Sweet Woods” gets going, it sounds like a mutated noir take on Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” You might hear distant echoes of Brian Wilson’s Smile smirking here and there. There’s sugar-pie-honey-bunch Motown hooks beneath the electronic insanity of “Benton Harbor Blues” (though my favorite touch here is the Garth-Hudson-on-Pluto, roller-rinky organ sound that also colors the backdrop). Bouncy, Beatlesque touches abound — and tell me you don’t hear the spirit of Plastic Ono Band-era John Lennon in “Police Sweater Blood Vow.” And somewhere in the cosmos, Spike Jones smiles knowingly.

In interviews, the Furnaces have said that Bitter Tea is a companion piece to last year’s album, Rehearsing My Choir, a strange family-album kind of album featuring narration by the Friedbergers’ grandmother. While Choir dealt with the memories of an old woman, Bitter Tea is from the perspective of a young girl.

There are lyrical threads here dealing with innocence and its inevitable loss, temptation, sexual curiosity, and danger.

On the title song, the music is built around a faux-Oriental melody — think Madame Butterfly on angel dust. After a frantic synth introduction lasting about a minute, Eleanor pipes in, announcing: “I’ve got a special category business down by the Multifunctional Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Rollerblade Rink ...” After being tempted to drink the “bitter tea,” the music reverts back to a slow, rinky-tinkly version of the original melodic theme, as the Friedbergers sing, “I am a crazy crane/I lost my true love in the rain.”

This song melts into the next track, “Teach Me Sweetheart,” which begins with strange squiggly noises arising over a thumping bass line. Eleanor sounds downright sultry as she sings, “Come away, teach me sweetheart.” But the song swings from sensual to severe as the subject turns to her in-laws:

“My mother-in-law was standing by the stove/hissing like a snake, hissing like a snake ... She gave orders to spill my blood ...”

On “The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry,” the narrator seems to be aching for purity. She seeks solace in a wide variety of churches — and she lists them by name (and address!) :

“I went to the Right Road Ministry at 4801 S. Normandie. I went to the Armenian Brotherhood Bible Church at 5556 Harold Way ... the Iglesia Evangelica Rey de Reyes y Señor y Señores ... the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star and Kingdom of God in Faith at 3810 W. Slauson and I drove around listening to the Greater Bethany Tape Ministry ...”

(This song ends with Eleanor singing a series of telephone numbers. In a forum on a Furnaces fans’ Web site, someone called “todd” apparently called one of the numbers. He posted: “I called and a woman answered with a weak sounding ‘hello?’ and then i proceeded to ask if this was in fact the vietnamese telephone ministry, but she replied with ‘espanol!’ and i switched to my spanish asked her if she knew the fiery furnaces, and she said no ...”)

Sometimes the tempo and melody changes within a song are a little too abrupt for comfort and some of the studio trickery gets a little thick. (Maybe not so much backward vocals next time, OK guys?)

But overall, Bitter Tea confirms that the dreamlike sound of the Fiery Furnaces is some of the most interesting and strangely satisfying music being made these days.
(www.thefieryfurnaces.com)

Also Recommended:

Show Your Bones by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “Sometimes I think that I’m bigger than the sound,” Karen O shouts repeatedly as the refrain to the song “Cheated Hearts.” Is this a self-critical examination, a chastisement for putting her ego ahead of her band? Or is it a self-affirmation, a way to say that holding onto her real identity is more important than any rock ’n’ roll facade? As her voice rises, it seems more a realization than a question. She’s bigger than the sound!

But that sound is pretty big, too, and here on YYY’s second album, it’s gotten even bigger. This little trio from Brooklyn (since moved to Los Angeles) is making a noise that’s just as loud as before, but broader — more accessible and pop-conscious without losing the ragged appeal that made us love them in the first place.

Such a move is a gamble that some bands can’t survive. (Why am I having these sad visions of Big Brother & The Holding Company?) On the single “Gold Lion,” which opens the album, Karen sings about taking “our hands out of control.” It takes a worried gal to sing a worried song.

But I’m optimistic about Yeah Yeah Yeahs.The music is even more irresistible than ever. And even when they get all anthemy on the last song, “Turn Into,” guitarist Nick Zinner channels Joe Meek and cuts loose with a craze, strangled solo that references The Tornadoes’ “Telstar.”

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 1, 2006


There’s a nifty little shindig going on next Tuesday. I’m helping pay for it.
But I’m not invited to join in the fun.

I’m talking, of course, about the 2006 primary, where Democrats and Republicans will be allowed to choose their nominees for the November election.


But I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m a proud member of the DTS classification. (That stands for “Declined to State,” not “Dedicated to Satan.”)

Many of us still use the word “independent.”

According to statistics on the Secretary of State’s Web site, 15 percent of New Mexico voters registered under DTS, while members of minor parties account for another 2 percent of the state’s registered voters.

In Santa Fe County, it’s 17 percent DTS, 3 percent minor parties.

That means that in this county a full 20 percent of registered voters are not allowed to participate in Tuesday’s election to help select candidates for the November general-election ballot.

Except to help pay for it.

State Election Bureau Director Ernest Marquez said Wednesday that the last primary cost taxpayers between $400,000 and $500,000.

The Founding Fathers had a catchy little phrase for such an arrangement: “taxation without representation.”

Doesn’t this smell like a lawsuit waiting to happen?

What to do?: One solution would be to let the parties run and pay for their own primaries. The state Democratic Party managed to pull off a similar operation in 2004 with their presidential-preference caucus.

Another approach would be an “open primary” in which voters of any affiliation could chose to vote in whichever party’s primary they chose. In other words, if you were enthralled by one of the three Republican Senate candidates, you could choose to vote in the GOP primary, no matter how you’re registered with regard to party affiliation. Or if you have a keen interest in the three Dems running for attorney general, you could choose to vote in the Democratic primary.

Twenty-one states do it this way.

The fear, of course, is mischief by the opposing party — Democrats voting for a Republican crook or goofball and vice versa — to assure a weak opponent in the general election. I guess that’s a possibility, though both sides have to realize such tactics could backfire.

(And even states with closed primaries have been known to elect crooks and goofballs from time to time.)

But don’t worry, fellow DTSers. Even though all the campaigns are ignoring you now, in a few months, all of them are going to want to be your friend. At least the ones who survive the primaries.

Campaign finance: The latest round of campaign-finance reports are due today. A day before the deadline, at least one candidate already was touting his numbers.

Democrat Moises Morales, trying to unseat Rep. Debbie Rodella in District 41, said Wednesday that he has doubled his treasury in the last month. He’ll be reporting he has collected a total of about $8,000 for his campaign.

Rodella has collected more. As of last month, she still had more than $17,000 cash on hand. That number is likely to rise today.

Morales has made an issue of Rodella’s contributor list, noting a large share of her cash came from out-of-state corporations. A spokeswoman for Morales said he only has two contributions from outside New Mexico — both from farmers in Wyoming. The larger of those two contributions is $200.

SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA

The Michael Martin Murphey firefighter benefit in Placitas was a blast Saturday. (See a bunch of photos from it HERE)

But one thing Murph said during his set puzzled me. Thanking Smokey Bear, who made an appearance working the crowd at the show, Murphey went into a rap about how Smokey had become "politically incorrect" during the '70s and had been banned, or at least discouraged from going into classrooms.

I honestly don't recall any left-wing "war on Smokey."

Well, there was John Nichols' The Milagro Beanfield War, where there was a "Smokey Bear santos riot." It's been a few years since I last read the book, but I think Nichols might have used Smokey as a symbol of the U.S. Forest Service, which was a frequent target of Northern New Mexico land grant activists in those days.

(Murph and Nichols both lived in the Taos area at the same time. Could they have engaged in some late-night cantina arguments over Smokey? Actually, the most passionate debate over the Bear is whether "The" is part of his name. I say it is. He's from Lincoln County, where that's a common middle name -- i.e. Billy the Kid).

But from my own hippie daze, I recall a more benevolent attitude toward the shovel wielder, as embodied in this 1969 epic by beat poet Gary Snyder:


Smokey the Bear Sutra
by Gary Snyder

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings — even grasses, to the number of thirteen billions, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."

"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display — indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true paths lead through mountains—
With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes; master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
Thus his great Mantra:

Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
Sphataya hum traka ham nam
"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND.
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"
And he will protect those who love woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children.

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice willl accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.
AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.
thus have we heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

XXXXXXX

And what would Cheech and Chong say about all this? CLICK HERE

2006 N.M. PRIMARY

My candidate profiles in The New Mexican for contested races can be found HERE.

The races I'm covering are U.S. Senate (in the Republican primary), land commissioner, secretary of state and the House District 41 race between incumbent Rep. Debbie Rodella and challenger Moises Morales. (All those are in the Democratic primary.)

I've taken a few snapshots of various politicos during this primary season. Check them out HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 28, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Fancy by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Shotgun John by Hundred Year Flood
What it Means by Mates of State
Nobody Cares by The 88
Greasy Heart by The Jefferson Airplane
Another Day of Hunting by Redneck Manifesto
That Summer Feeling by Jonathan Richman

Taxi Driver by The Rodeo Carburettor
Lovefire by The Emeralds
Manhole by TsuShiMaMiRe
Pray For Asia by Takeharu Kunimoto & The Last Frontier
Sun Dance Moon Dance by Bleach 03
Stabbing by Jon
Sukiyaki Kyu Sakimoto

Bitter Tea by Fiery Furnaces
Escargot by Solex
Anxiety by Johnny Dowd
Blue Skies Will Haunt You by The Electric Ghosts
Nebraska Alcohol Abuse by David Thomas & Two Pale Boys
Cooper by Deerhoof
I'd Rather Be Dead by Harry Nilsson

Downtown Baghdad Blues by Black 47
Shock and Awe by Neil Young
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart by Wilco
Milky Way by Syd Barrett
Magpie by Mountain Goats
Goin' On by The Flaming Lips
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 26, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Street Walkin' Woman by Billy Joe Shaver
Motorcycle Mama by I See Hawks in L.A.
My Pretty Quadroon by Jerry Lee Lewis
Crawfishin' by Marcia Ball
We Shall Overcome by Bruce Springsteen
River of Love by T-Bone Burnett
Divers Are Out Tonight by Porter Wagoner

Johnny Armstrong by Michael Martin Murphey
What Am I Doing Hangin' Round by The Monkees
Big Beaver by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys
Pussy Pussy Pussy by The Light Crust Doughboys
Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette by Tex Williams & His Western Caravan
Stranger in Your Mind by Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers
You Only Kiss Me When We Say Goodbye by Cornell Hurd
Stalin Kicked the Bucket by Johnny Dilks
Lead Me On by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty

Matthew 24 is Knocking at the Door/Girl in Saskatoon/If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman by Johnny Cash
Tiffany Anastasia Lowe by June Carter Cash
Your Great Journey by The Handsome Family
Seeds and Candy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Assembly of Dog by Hundred Year Flood
Rubberball by ThaMuseMeant
Say a Little Prayer by Mary & Mars

But I Love You by Albert & Gage
I Know You're Married (But I Love You Still) by Don Reno & Bill Harrell & The Tennessee Cut-Ups
The Silver Tongued Devil & I by Shooter Jennings
The Window Up Above by George Jones
Poor Old Tom by Richard Buckner
Blue Dreams by Ronny Elliott
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: NEW CACHE OF CASH

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New MexicanMay 19, 2006

Johnny Cash’s decades-spanning career produced a humongous catalog, which even before his death had been heading toward the same mindless route of recycling, repackaging, and regurgitation previously suffered by The Beach Boys and Elvis.

So when I first opened the envelope containing a new double-disc compilation of Cash material called Personal File, I was less than excited.

Until I looked at the song list and realized I hadn’t heard most of these 49 tunes, at least not by Johnny Cash. It turns out that this is a collection of home recordings, just Cash and his guitar, mostly from the mid-’70s, though there are a few stray tunes from the early ’80s. It was a period just past Cash’s height of popularity, a time when he was sliding toward the bitter sidelines of Nashville’s music-industrial complex.

Apparently these are from tapes uncovered, after the singer’s death, in a storeroom in Cash’s home studio. The ones included in this collection — and apparently more collections will follow, as there were “hundreds of boxes” of tapes, according to the press release — are from a group of white boxes marked “Personal File.”

No, it wasn’t a great era for the Man in Black. But this is a powerful collection of music for those of us who loved him. It’s almost as if Johnny Cash is singing songs from beyond the grave for a troubled world that still needs him.

There are a bunch of sentimental songs about home and Mama. There’s a smattering of Irish songs (“I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen,” “Galway Bay”), a set of Alaska (!) songs, capped off by a five-minute recitation of a Robert Service poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”; there are covers of country classics like the Louvin Brothers’ “When I Stop Dreaming,” the Kershaw Brothers’ “Louisiana Man,” and John Prine’s “Paradise.” The recordings also include a tune by Cash’s stepdaughter (and former Santa Fe resident) Carlene Carter, “It Takes One to Know Me,” and “Missouri Waltz,” the state song of Missouri. (Sorry, but I can’t listen to this track without recalling a weird ditty my mama taught me that used the same melody. It starts off, “Mary Margaret Truman is the daughter of the pres/lives up in the White House with her father, Harry S.”)

And there’s an entire disc of gospel songs, including a couple of traditional tunes (“Farther Along,” “Have Thine Own Way Lord”) but also a whole slew of original Cash tunes that never were released before. These are the most important discoveries of Personal File.

He gets downright apocalyptic on a couple of songs. “Look Unto the East,” another Cash original, has such an abundance of alluring alliteration it could cause Kris Kristofferson to croak. “The teacher of truth told tales of troubled times that would begin/And the cynical sower sowed the sorrowful seeds of seven sins.”

The next track is “Matthew 24 (Is Knocking at the Door),” which Cash wrote with his son John Carter Cash in the early ’80s. The title refers to a chapter in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus warns of false Messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, and earthquakes — the beginning of the end.

“I heard on the radio rumors of war/People gettin’ ready for battle/And there may be just one more,” Cash sings here. The image of “the great bear from the northland” seems almost quaint now. (For you post-Cold War kids, the “great bear” was Russia, which people my age were supposed to fear and despise.)

Maybe the apocalypse Cash envisioned here didn’t happen right away. But no doubt about it, these are troubling times, and more troubles are certainly ahead.

But if you believe in Cash’s vision of Christianity, the answer is not to head for the hills — it’s to help and love each other. The songs here I like best are those that express Cash’s brand of Christian love and tolerance. In “If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman,” a song about Mary Magdalene (Holy Da Vinci Code, Batman!), Cash says of Jesus, “He never did condemn a man or woman just for being man or woman/and he always will forgive if someone tells him that they’re really truly sorry/but couldn’t stand the hypocrite, a person who’d pretend that they were holy and were not/I think he’d love someone like Mary Magdalene quite a lot.” This song is uncredited, at least on the advance copy I have. But I suspect, if it’s not an original, it might have been written by June Carter Cash. The phrasing, meter, and rhyme scheme remind me of some of her songs such as “Tiffany Anastasia Lowe.”

“Sanctified” seems to be a dialogue between a joyful, religious man and his inner demon. Cash plays both roles, speaking in his gruffest baritone for the voice of doubt and temptation and singing his better self’s response. “I don’t believe in God,” the lower voice mocks. “Well God bless you/you ain’t got no argument for what I feel inside,” the singer responds.

“No Earthly Good,” which has a melody eerily similar to “The Times They Are a Changin’,” razzes the holier-than-thou who are “so Heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good,” charging them to help the “hungry hands reaching up here from the ground.”

Similarly, on “What on Earth (Will You Do for Heaven’s Sake)” he asks, “Did you feed the poor in spirit and befriend the persecuted?” The song, he explains in the spoken introduction, was inspired by looking at the stars through a telescope from his home in Jamaica. “God cares for each and every one of us,” he says. “I guess he’s as small as we want him to be or as big as we want him to be. Although we’re earthbound, we can still be more like him if we try.”

Some say this country is headed toward theocracy. I sure hope that’s not true, and I’m pretty sure Cash wouldn’t want it that way. Maybe the antidote is the Gospel According to Johnny.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: DGA WON'T SAY WHERE AMERIQUEST CATERED

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 25, 2006

A spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association contacted me to inform me that last week’s column about an in-kind $102,000 contribution to the DGA from a mortgage company that just settled a multimillion-dollar deceptive-practices class-action suit with New Mexico and 48 other states contained an error.

The contribution from Ameriquest — which according to a federal disclosure report was for “catering and facilities” — was not used for a spring DGA conference in Arizona, spokesman Jon Summers said.

The dates of in-kind contributions listed on the disclosure reports, Summers explained, are the dates on letters from the contributors listing the value of the contributions — and usually are different from the dates when the contributions were used.

In this case, the listed date of the contribution, March 31, coincided with the DGA conference in Phoenix.

So I erred in connecting those dots.

Ameriquest is a company founded by DGA chairman Gov. Bill Richardson’s friend Roland Arnall, who now is ambassador to The Netherlands. Many Democrats opposed his nomination last year because of the class-action suit, which was prompted by thousands of consumer complaints around the country. That didn’t stop Richardson from endorsing him for the post last year, even while New Mexico was suing his company.

So if the $102,000 worth of catering and facility rental didn’t go for the Arizona shindig, what was it used for?

The DGA isn’t saying. “We won’t go beyond what is on the report,” Summers said this week.

Frozen Lightning: Here’s the perfect gift for the opposition research operative on your shopping list.

Frozen Lightning, subtitled "Bill Richardson’s Strike on the Political Landscape of New Mexico," is a quality paperback written by “Bill Althouse & a Thousand and One New Mexicans.”

Althouse is a Santa Fe author and longtime Richardson critic. The index cites works by everyone I know in the press corps, including yours truly. The book, whose cover is a photo of Richardson with lightning coming out of his underarms and a mushroom cloud exploding from below his belt — is scathing.

“Richardson rules his empire much like a prison warden,” Althouse writes, “walling off his enemies by stripping them of rank and placing them in a kind of solitary confinement that is the political equivalent of purgatory.”

And that’s just Page 1.

Almost any Richardson flap, foible or fumble you can think of can be found in Frozen Lightning. Wen Ho Lee; Guy Riordan; Eric Serna; Gerald Peters; the gov-ex-temp employees; Milton Sanchez and the Retiree Health Care Authority; the hiring of a good chunk of the state press corps; Sen. John Grubesic’s “flabby king” op-ed; the Hollywood connections; Billy the Kid; trains, planes, speeding sport-utility vehicles and spacecraft.

There are recaps of well-known stories and outright innuendo from anonymous sources that you haven’t read anywhere else (and probably never will).

Sometimes the rhetoric goes way overboard, such as calling Richardson a “tool for fascism” and “a politician driven to evil by his presidential aspirations.”

But anyone interested in New Mexico politics will have fun reading it.


And an inside color photo of the governor surrounded by a bevy of buxom belly dancers is itself almost worth the $12.95 price tag.

Election notes: The e-mail arrived too late to include it in my secretary of state candidate profiles Wednesday.

But a couple of groups active in election reform — VerifiedVotingNM and United Voters of New Mexico — made a joint endorsement of Stephanie Gonzales in that Democratic primary.

These groups pushed the bill requiring paper-ballot voting in all New Mexico counties.

Roxanne Rivera, who is working for state Sen. Joe Carraro’s U.S. Senate campaign, e-mailed me saying that I was wrong to say one of Carraro’s rivals was the only GOP candidate to have paid staffers.

Rivera said she’s being paid as communications director. Plus the Albuquerque senator has a paid campaign coordinator and a paid staff to handle campaign signs.

The Lamb that roared: Former state Election Director Denise Lamb said I made a slight error in a recent article where I paraphrased a quote about her frustrations with a former Bernalillo County clerk.

I said Lamb wanted to hang the clerk out of her window at the Secretary of State’s Office. But Lamb, who originally was quoted in The Los Angeles Times, says she wanted to dangle the clerk out of the clerk’s own window.

The difference? The Secretary of State’s Office is only two stories highs. The clerk’s office in Albuquerque was on the sixth floor.

I'M NOT A CROOK

I just received a call from the New Mexican's cop reporter Jason Auslander asking if I'd been arrested over the weekend.

Apparently some poor boob with the name "Steven Terrell" was picked up Friday by the Santa Fe police. Jason didn't know what the charge was.

So if you read something about Steve Terrell getting arrested -- IT WASN'T ME! I was busy hosting The Santa Fe Opry on Friday night and taking strange pictures with my son all day Saturday.

I don't have time for jail. I'm innocent!

BOB WILLS STATUE VANDALIZED

Damn, this makes me mad!

from The Associated Press:

GRUENE, Texas -- Vandals toppled a wooden statue of the King of Western Swing. Now he has to wear a sling.

"We came in (Wednesday) morning, and he was laying on his back with his arm broken off," said Clair Devers of the Lone Star Music store in Gruene, home of the 8-foot-tall carving of Bob Wills by local musician Doug Moreland.

Gruene is about 30 miles north of San Antonio.

The music store and a radio station offered a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest. The vandalism apparently happened early Wednesday and could not have been accomplished easily.

Read Full Story HERE

BIRTH OF A PILLOW

Congratulations to my pal, New Mexican Web editor and Bubbadino veteran Stefan Dill (that's Mustafa Stefan Dill to you) for landing a soundtrack gig for an upcoming independent Indian film. Here's the press release:

The Sama' Duo (sarodist/oudist Mustafa Stefan Dill and percussionist Jefferson Voorhees) have been chosen to provide the soundtrack score for an upcoming film by independent film director Sharmy Pandey, a Bengali filmaker and writer based in Kolkata, India.

This will be Ms. Pandey's third film to date. Entitled Birth of a Pillow, it will be a " film which deals with Indian sexuality", according to a statement on a blog by a Bengali artist collective to which she belongs.

Her experimental short Ebang Falguni (2004), based on the text of a lesser known '60s alternative Bengali poet Falguni Roy, has been screened to critical acclaim at the Florence Indian Film Festival, the Alternative Film Festival, Picciano, Italy, Tirana Film festival and others.

Her second film, 29 Minutes of Loneliness has also gotten strong attention and is currently being presented at film festivals, including the Stuttgart Film Festival, July 2006.

Birth of a Pillow is currently finishing filming in and around Kolkata.

As the Sama' Duo places a lot of emphasis and experience on improvisation, the Duo will take an interesting approach by recording several passes of improvised takes (some with differing instrumentation) while watching and absorbing the film. A few area guest artists may be invited to participate in some of the passes, and several takes may appear simultaneously in the final mix.

Final post -production and synchronization will take place in Kolkata in July. Mustafa Stefan Dill will go to Kolkata to help in this phase.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 21, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Love Train by The Yayhoos
Compared to What by Les McCann & Eddie Harris
I Want to Take You Higher by Sly & The Family Stone with Steven Tyler & Robert Randolph
Big Wave by Pearl Jam
Ifa by Tunji Oyelana & The Benders
You're Breakin' My Heart by Harry Nilsson

Town Without Pity by Gene Pitney
The Dance by Prince
Into the Woods by My Morning Jacket
Tobacco Road by The Nashville Teens
Bubble Gum Independence (from Radio Phnom Penh)
Pencil Neck Geek by Fred Blassie

New Orleans Set
Miss New Orleans by Clay Cotton
It's All Over Now by Rebirth Brass Band
Back Water Blues by Irma Thomas
New Orleans Cookin' by Cyril Neville
Bald Headed by Dr. John
When the Saints Go Marching In by Eddie Bo
When the Saints Go Marching Back In by Kirk Whalum with Coolio etc.
Drop Me Off in New Orleans by Kermit Ruffins
Cryin' in the Streets by Buckwheat Zydeco
Mardi Gras in New Orleans by Professor Longhair
Mighty Mighty Chief by Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias
Louisiana 1927 by Marcia Ball
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

IMAGES OF MY SANTA FE

Robert Nott's Pasatiempo cover story about Josh Schrei's Cerrillos Road photo exhibit inspired me to engage in a fun Saturday project with my son.

Quoting Schrei from Robert's story:

"I never gave Cerrillos Road a second thought. But a month ago I was doing some errands there, and I suddenly saw it as a cultural gold mine with amazing graphic detail -- the Mexican grocery store, the graveyard, the old motels. That's when and where I got the idea to photograph it. So I took my camera and began walking it."

In that spirit, Anton and I took our cameras and went around town photographing Santa Fe's unsung everyday artistic treasures. I don't pretend to be at Shrei's level, but it was a lot fun.

We didn't limit ourselves to Cerrillos Road. In fact, Airport Road is a "gold mine" too. We both really got into shooting the wonderful windows of the little shops in the strip mall with El Palenque, Subway, etc.

We'd have done a lot more, but the batteries on both our cameras kept conking out. We ran into our friend Michelle who told us about a cool house with a bunch of birdhouses ... but that'll have to wait until another day.

You can see a bunch of my images from Saturday over at my FLCKR spot. We might have to set Anton up with his own FLICKR account. Until then, you can see one of his shots below -- taken at a great little Mexican art joint on Cerrillos Road.






UPDATE: Anton has a Flickr page CLICK HERE

And while I'm at it, my daughter, who introduced me to this Flickr thing, has a page too CLICK HERE

N.M. WILDFIRE RELIEF CONCERT

Here's a concert I'm taking part in next Saturday at the Rockin' R Gallery Chuckwagon in Placitas.

According to my pal, behind-the-scenes dude Erik Ness, I'm supposed to be the MC

from the official flyer:

THE NEW MEXICO FARM AND LIVESTOCK BUREAU PRESENTS
THE NEW MEXICO WILDFIRE RELIEF CONCERT
BENEFITING PLACITAS AND BERNILILLO FIREFIGHTERS
STARRING
AMERICA’S FAVORITE COWBOY SINGERS
MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY

AND

SYD MASTERS AND THE SWING RIDERS

Also special guest SMOKEY THE BEAR !!

Saturday, May 27th
Gallery opens 2:00
Dinner Served from 3:00 to 7:30 p.m.*
Music 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.

DINNER AND CONCERT $35.00
CHILDREN UNDER 12 $20.00
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ROCKIN’ R GALLERY
or by calling 867-9595

* PLAN TO ARRIVE EARLY TO ENJOY THE 1ST ANNUAL
SANDOVAL COUNTY B-B-Q COOK OFF!!! 10 A.M. TO 7 P.M.

ROCKIN’ R GALLERY-CHUCKWAGON 3 Homesteads Road, Placitas .

(Directions and more info HERE)

This is first in a series of summer chuckwagon concerts featuring
Syd Masters and The Swing Riders.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 19, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Indian Creek by Porter Wagoner & John Anderson
My Name is Jorge by The Gourds
Drifter's Escape by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
I Threw Your Picture Away by Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers
Doc Bronner by Emily Herring
I Stayed Away by I See Hawks in L.A.
One Voice by The Gear Daddies
Hillbilly Music by Jerry Lee Lewis

Drop Us Off at Bob's Place/Sugar Moon/Liza Pull Down the Shades by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
A Girl Don't Have to Drink to Have Fun by The Stumbleweeds
Candy Man by Hot Tuna
Enchanted Forest by Mohawk & The Rednecks
Al Gore's Farewell by Tom Adler & Co.
Wager Down by Goshen
Psycho by Jack Kittel

Fear Country by T Bone Burnett
Stolen Children by Tom Russell
Bowling Alley Bars by The Handsome Family
White Man Singin' the Blues by Merle Haggard
Hank Williams' Ghost by Darrell Scott
Run by Eric Hisaw

If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman by Johnny Cash
In Bone by Curt Kirkwood
I Dug Up a Diamond by Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
Snake River by Trilobite
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Steve Young
O Mary Don't You Weep by Bruce Springsteen
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: MUSIC IN EXILE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New MexicanMay 19, 2006

New Orleans soul matriarch Irma Thomas is leading a camera crew through her hurricane-damaged home. She points to what looks like a bas-relief portrait of herself on the floor. Like virtually everything else in the house, it’s water-damaged.

“Ironically, it looks like I’ve got a tear coming out of my eyes,” Thomas says with a laugh. “I’ve had a few of those, trust me.”

This is a scene from New Orleans Music in Exile, a new film from music-documentary master Robert Mugge, scheduled to debut Friday, May 19, on Starz InBlack, a premium cable/satellite channel.

The film, shot last fall, tells the story of Hurricane Katrina from the perspective of those engaged in New Orleans’ greatest export — music.

If, like me, you’re one of those people who shed a tear of joy when Fats Domino was found alive in Katrina’s aftermath after being reported missing for several days and who followed Web sites that listed New Orleans musicians who had been accounted for and those still missing, this film is for you.

“The story of what’s happening in New Orleans is so big, you can turn on a camera anywhere there and get something interesting,” Mugge told me in an interview last November, shortly after he’d shot most of the documentary. “You can talk to anyone you see on the street and get a great story. So music makes it a manageable focus.”

Mugge lets musicians tell their stories about how the hurricane devastated their world. Thomas takes us into what’s left of her nightclub, the Lion’s Den. There she points out the Christmas lights that Mugge and his crew put up about 10 years before while filming a happier documentary.

Similarly, piano man Eddie Bo goes into his coffee shop for the first time with his manager and sister, several weeks after Katrina. It’s lucky that the film doesn’t come in Smell-o-Rama.

The film takes us to cities musicians have fled to — possibly for good. Bo’s gone to Lafayette, La. Cyril Neville and The Iguanas moved to Austin, Texas, a city whose live-music scene rivals that of New Orleans. Trumpeter Kermit Ruffins and ReBirth Brass Band went to Houston, where they found a home at a joint called the Red Cat Jazz Café.

These exiles are grateful to be welcomed in their new locales. “All of the musicians here have opened their arms to us like you would not believe,” Ruffins says.

Eddie Wilson, owner of Threadgill’s in Austin, tells how singer Marcia Ball approached him in September to tell him that Neville was moving there. “She told me, Wilson, you take care of these people. And in her eyes she says ‘or your ass is grass.’” Neville got a regular gig at the famed restaurant.

But their homesickness is obvious.

Even though Ruffins is well-known in his home town, he had to prove himself at a weeknight open jam session at Red Cat before he got a steady gig. In an interview in the film, he nostalgically talks about how he’d walk up the street before a gig in New Orleans and catch five different bands before his own show.

Phil Frazier of ReBirth Brass Band regrets the band is no longer able to do all the little gigs — the backyard birthday parties, the jazz funerals — it used to do.

One of the film’s major undercurrents is the fear that even if New Orleans is rebuilt, it will never be the same. Will the city rise again? Or will it be transformed into a Disney-like tourist playground?

“There’s gonna be a great big fight that’s gonna go on for who’s gonna own what in New Orleans and whether that’s really gonna be New Orleans,” says Neville, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the New Orleans power structure. “It’s a spiritless body,” he says. “And that’s all it’s gonna be without those people from the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th wards.”

Dr. John is more optimistic. “Well, I can’t say what it could be now,” he drawls. “But I know that with some serious help, it could be New Orleans, because we plannin’ on comin’ back stronger than ever.” But that promise is somewhat at odds with the weary and worried expression the Doctor has throughout the documentary.

As in all Mugge films (others include Deep Blues, Last of the Mississippi Jukes and Gospel According to Al Green), the music speaks even more clearly than his interview subjects. There are some dynamic performances here.

My favorite new discovery is ReBirth Brass Band, which performs a song called “Lord, Lord, Lord” in a Houston park.

Dr. John does a spirited take on his hoodoo classic “I Walk on Guilded Splinters” (shown just before an actual living-room voodoo ceremony shot in a neighborhood where electricity hadn’t been restored).

The Iguanas do a Mexed-up version of the Nick Cave song “Right Now I’m A-Roamin’” at the Continental Club in Austin.

And it wouldn’t be a film about Katrina without Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927.” Originally appearing on Newman’s 1974 epic album Good Old Boys, this tune has virtually become the official theme song of Katrina. With its reference to a cynical President Coolidge coming down with “a little fat man” to survey the damage of a terrible flood and the refrain “Louisiana, Louisiana, they’re trying to wash us away,” Newman’s lyrics resonate stronger than ever. Aaron Neville, who had recorded the song before, sang it on the Concert for Hurricane Relief television special last September. Newman cut a new version of it for the Our New Orleans benefit CD. And Marcia Ball does a soulful version in the documentary.

I hope Starz releases the film as a DVD and that it includes full performances of these songs and others. The importance of New Orleans to American music has become almost a cliché since Katrina. But Mugge’s film shows just how true that truism is and what a cultural tragedy that hurricane created.

On the radio: There’s no soundtrack album,at least not yet, for New Orleans Music in Exile. But I’ll play some of the music and other works by the musicians discussed here on Terrell’s Sound World, Sunday on KSFR, 90.7 FM. The show starts at 10 p.m., and the New Orleans set will start just after 11 p.m.

SERNA CALLS IT QUITS

Embattled state Insurance Commissioner has accepted a deal from the Public Regulation Commission and has agreed to retire. (Read the Associated Press story HERE.)

Here's part of a statement he issued:

Events, unfortunate timing and political agendas that have come to light over the last several weeks have placed the State of New Mexico Insurance Department in an unfortunate light. Your effort to clear my name is very much appreciated. That effort, combined with the inaccurate rumors, innuendo and speculation being raised by political agendas continue to have a ripple effect on the ability of our office to effectively and efficiently serve the people of our great state. In order to help this department refocus on serving the people, I submit to you my intention to retire as Superintendent of Insurance for the New Mexico Insurance Division June 14, 2006.

Governor Bill Richardson just issued a statement about Serna, praising his friend, who is being investigated for dealings with a Santa Fe bank and a non-profit health organization.

“Eric Serna has devoted 29 years of his life to public service. During his career, he has served the people of New Mexico ably, promoted economic development, and helped the underprivileged. I support his decision to retire and put the interests of the people of New Mexico first.”

Be sure to read The New Mexican tomorrow ...

SPAM OF THE DAY

You really have to wonder who -- or what -- is sending some of the SPAM I get these days.

Here's one I got this morning on my work e-mail, from someone allegedly named Tom, though, as you'll see, he's talking about a "Tom" as well. The subject heading was "Swamped."

This is verbatim, except for the link, which I won't post in case it's some virus.

I just heard from Tom and he looks completely different than he
looked a couple mos ago. He told me these guys,
{LINK DELETED}, assisted him out.

I read all there info and was impressed with everything they said. face
towards town. height would and I thought

be was glad length when and to it

I'm not really sure what this garbled thing is trying to sell me. It can't be good. I wonder if anyone actually responds to these.

Maybe "Tom" is like that Enzite Bob guy, who's "steppin' large and laughin' easy."

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: GOD BLESS AMERIQUEST

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 18, 2006

In January, attorneys general in dozens of states, including New Mexico, announced a $325 million class-action settlement with Ameriquest, a California-based mortgage company accused of predatory lending and unfair and deceptive practices.

Two months later, the Democratic Governors Association, chaired by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, was wining and dining on Ameriquest’s tab at a DGA conference in Phoenix.

According to a report the DGA filed with the federal government, Ameriquest made an in-kind donation of $102,000 for catering and renting a facility March 31 during the DGA’s Spring Policy Conference.
The March donation was the biggest contribution Ameriquest made to the DGA. But it’s not the only one.

The company contributed cash totaling $61,000 to the DGA in 2005 plus an “in-kind travel” contribution valued at $7,708 on Sept. 29.

That’s about the same time that Richardson flew to Washington, D.C., to speak to a national conference of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and meet with the secretary of Homeland Security and Pentagon officials, according to a Sept. 30 news release from the governor’s office.

The release said DGA would pay for that trip.

Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley said Wednesday that he couldn’t verify Ameriquest paid for that trip. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “We don’t arrange his travel. That’s all done through the DGA.”

Richardson in recent weeks has made headlines for taking DGA-arranged trips in corporate jets owned by a major payday-loan company and a national tobacco giant.

Shipley gave the same answer he has given regarding contributions and in-kind gifts from controversial companies: Asked whether the contributions from Ameriquest influences Richardson’s policy decisions, Shipley said, “Absolutely not. The governor always puts the best interests of New Mexico first.”

Dutch treat: Whether or not it’s connected with the contributions, the former principal owner of Ameriquest, Roland Arnall, did get at least one thing from Richardson.

Last year, President Bush nominated Arnall to be ambassador to The Netherlands. Richardson endorsed the nomination, though many Democrats — notably U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts — were opposing him because of the class-action suit against Ameriquest.

The nomination was stuck in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for months. Only after Ameriquest settled with the states did the Senate finally confirm Arnall earlier this year.

Shipley said Richardson considers Arnall a friend. He said he didn’t know how long they have known each other. Richardson “respects him for being a leader of a very large company.”

Ameriquest the Beautiful: In settling the lawsuit, Ameriquest “admitted they made mistakes, and they’ve moved on, Shipley said. That’s obvious, or the Senate wouldn’t have confirmed him.” (Actually, according to the settlement, the company admitted to no wrongdoing, though it did agree to change many of its practices.)

According to the attorney general, the Ameriquest settlement is the second-largest consumer-protection settlement in history, after the $484 million agreement reached in 2002 with Household Finance.

Under the settlement, 1,523 Ameriquest debtors in New Mexico will get an estimated $913,800. The state is set to receive about $245,000 for further restitution to Ameriquest customers and to fund consumer-protection programs and pay the costs of the lawsuit.

Matthew Henderson of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) said his group was at odds with Ameriquest for years. “They had extremely high fees,” he said. “They’d get people into mortgages regardless of their credit history.”

According to a July 29 article in The Washington Post, “In depositions, Ameriquest customers have alleged that they were promised good loan terms but instead got high rates, sometimes higher than they had previously been paying; that their incomes were overstated so they could qualify for the high-price loans; that appraisers overvalued their homes so they seemed valuable enough to secure the loan; and that they learned only after closing that they would be required to pay steep prepayment penalties if they sought to move to other lenders.”

Henderson pointed out Ameriquest closed down its offices in New Mexico in 2003, after the state Legislature passed the Home Loan Protection Act, which was designed to prevent companies from luring homeowners into mortgages they can’t afford.

Despite its generosity toward the DGA, Ameriquest hasn't dropped much money among New Mexico politicians. According to Followthemoney.org, the Web site of the Institute on Money in State Politics, only two Ameriquest contributions are recorded -- $1,000 to Patricia Madrid in 2002 and $2,000 to former Sen. Roman Maes in his unsuccessful 2004 race.

Madrid was part of the executive committee of state attorneys general that began investigating the conduct of Ameriquest. She also served on the negotiating committee for the settlement.

Sky King: Republicans probably won’t be squawking about the Richardson/Ameriquest relationship since Arnall is a Bush appointee and all. But they’ve got plenty of other items to have fun with.

Earlier this week, the state GOP paid for an ad blasting Richardson for a helicopter trip he probably wishes he’d never taken.

The spot features a man and a woman skewering the governor for criticizing Bush’s plan to dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Let me get this straight,” the woman says. “Bill Richardson opposes using National Guard troops to secure the border. But supports using them to fly him around the state for weekend getaways with political cronies?”

She’s referring to a 2003 Richardson trip on a National Guard helicopter that included a stop in Chama to go horseback riding at the ranch of Santa Fe art-gallery owner and major Richardson campaign contributor Gerald Peters.

“This is a pathetic attempt to hide the fact that the Republican Party is weak on border security,” Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Tuesday.

“The governor, on the other hand, declared an emergency, invested millions in additional law enforcement and is fighting for 265 additional Border Patrol agents.”

Reporter David Miles contributed to this report

TOM JONES LEVITATION

Gimme that old time religion!

I've just stumbled across a church dedicated to the power and the glory of Tom Jones.

It's run by a guy in Sacramento, Cal named Pastor Jack J. Stahl. (I don't think this is the former lieutenant governor of New Mexico.)

"The tabloids have dubbed me `THE TOM JONES EXORCIST' because I travel around the country leading prayer meetings & healing services with the help of the Welsh superstar's beautiful voice playing softly in the background. Why? His voice enables me to get in touch with the holy spirit & cast out demons."

I wonder if he yells, "The power of Tom Jones compells you!" during these ceremionies.

GOP SENATE CANDIDATE DEBATE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 17, 2006

ALBUQUERQUE — Former Santa Fe City Councilor David Pfeffer made headlines in 2004 by being a Democrat who publicly supported President Bush. But at a forum Tuesday for Republican U.S. Senate hopefuls, he was the only candidate to openly criticize Bush’s plan to secure the Mexican border.

Pfeffer joined state Sen. Joe Carraro of Albuquerque and Farmington physician Allen McCulloch — the other two GOP contenders for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Jeff Bingaman — at the forum at the Fraternal Order of Police building in Albuquerque.

Pfeffer said Bush’s plan to send National Guard troops to help the Border Patrol will not be effective.

“Having 6,000 troops (along the border) is going to do nothing but make us look bad when the coyotes figure out they can get past them right under their noses,” said Pfeffer, who recently completed a 183-mile walk along the New Mexico-Mexico border to call attention to border security.

Coyotes are those who smuggle illegal immigrants across the border.

McCulloch said he supports Bush’s plan to send troops to aid the Border Patrol. But he said, “I don’t want to militarize the border. And I don’t want a war with Mexico.”

Carraro said, “If they know they can’t get past the border, they won’t try. If they know they won’t get hired here, they won’t try.”

But then he said he’d like to help Mexico improve its economy, which he said would decrease illegal immigration.


The candidates were asked what they would ask Bush about the war on terror.

Carraro said he wants to know why more countries aren’t helping in the Iraq war effort. He specifically mentioned Saudi Arabia.

McCulloch said he’d like to know about the number of terrorist attacks that have been prevented as a result of the war on terror and the number of terrorist plots foiled by phone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency. He said he supports the war in Iraq, but that senators should question the administration.

Pfeffer said the only thing he would ask Bush about Iraq is how it could become better at getting good news about the war out to the public.

On the subject of ethics, Carraro was the only candidate openly critical of the scandals in Washington, D.C.

He disagreed with his rivals who said you can’t legislate ethics. “You have to legislate ethics,” he said. “My gosh, what’s going on in Washington? You have to make sure they are obeying the law or you put ’em in jail.”

All candidates called for more reporting of campaign contributions. McCulloch said contributions should be posted on a government Web site immediately instead of filing reports every several months.

Although it’s Bingaman’s seat all three GOP candidates are after, there was relatively little specific criticism of New Mexico’s junior senator. The harshest words came from Pfeffer, who said Bingaman has been like “a bump on a log” for the past 20 years.

DENVER POST NOTICES N.M. MUSIC COMMISSION

The Denver Post just ran an article about the New Mexico Music Commission. READ IT HERE

But how could they fail to mention the hippest commissioner of all -- Tony Orlando? His contributions to the commission are immeasurable.

Literally.

True, he's never been to a meeting of the commission. But like the state Web site says, "His love of New Mexico and the people here are reasons he is a member of the Music Commission. "

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 14, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

My Mammy by Al Jolson
Cosmic Slop by Funkadelic
Dear Mother by Acie Cargill
Unwed Mother by Johnny Dowd
Grandma's Hands by Bill Withers
That's What Mama Said by The Jones Family Singers
Please Don't Go Topless, Mother by Troy Hess
April Fool's Day Morn by Loudon Wainwright III
Dear Mama by Tupac Shakur
Mother's Last Word to Her Son by Washington Phillips

Crawdad Song by Jerry Lee Lewis
Severed Hand by Pearl Jam
Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil by Jefferson Airplane
This Magnificent Bird Will Rise by Deerhoof
Lingerie Shop by Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re
No Boy No Cry by Stance Punks
The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry by Fiery Furnaces

Flags of Freedom by Neil Young
Monster by Steppenwolf
Ghosts on the Screen by Gary Heffern
War Pigs by Faith No More
Futy by Prince
Summer Jazz by The Electric Ghosts
Fancy by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Outragious by Paul Simon
Think Long by Mates of State
Randy Costanza by Solex
Free Radicals by Flaming Lips
The Donor by Judee Sill
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

UPDATING MY LINKS

I just added a bunch of links to the sidebar (on the right hand side of this blog).

I've added a direct link to Picnic Time For Potatoheads on iTunes. (Make me rich!) and I've broken up my long list of blog links into "N.M. Blogs" and "Crony Blogs." For argument's sake I still consider Larry Calloway a New Mexican even though he's in Colorado. I've added some new links to all categories. Check 'em all out.

Happy Mother's Day all you moms out there! (Yes, I'll do my annual Mother's Day set on Terrell's Sound World tonight.)

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 12, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Nasty Dan by Johnny Cash
The Trouble With Girls by The Stumbleweeds
Half a Boy and Half a Man by Queen Ida
Jacob's Ladder by Bruce Springsteen
Meximelt by Southern Culture on The Skids
I Don't Know Why I Love You (But I Do) by Cornell Hurd
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Last Mile Ramblers

Rednecks by Steve Earle
Feb 14 by Drive-By Truckers
Gusty Winds May Exist by The Rivet Gang
Pour Me a Strong One by Tobias Rene
Horse and Crow by Ronnie Elliott
Community Property by The Whiskey Rebellion
Flapping Your Broken Wings by The Handsome Family
Take Your Place by Allejandro Escovedo
Lion in Winter by Hoyt Axton

HAG SET
All Songs by Merle Haggard except where noted
Okie From Muskogee's Comin' Home
Carolyn
Fightin' Side of Me
That's the News
Tulare Dust
Are the Good Times Really Over (Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)
Wishin' All These Old Things Were New
Big Time Annie's Square
I'll Fix Your Flat Tire, Merle by Pure Prairie League
America First

Belle Star by Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
The Needle Has Landed by Neko Case
Satan's Jewled Crown by The Louvin Brothers
La La Land by Gary Heffern
Crossing Muddy Waters by John Hiatt
Love and Mercy by Jeff Tweedy
I am Born to Preach the Gospel by Washington Phillips
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

DEVASTATED!

Many of you have been asking, Where do I go to get my Devastatin' Dave dog shirts and wall clocks.


Devastatin' Dave Barsanti alerted me to the other Devastatin' Dave's own Cafepress store.
CLICK HERE

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: PEACENIK FROM MUSKOGEE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 12, 2006


Some people are surprised by “America First,” a tune from Merle Haggard’s latest album, Chicago Wind (released last October), where Hag declares the need to “liberate these United States; we’re the ones who need it the worst,” and “Freedom is stuck in reverse/Let’s get out of Iraq and get back on the track/And let’s rebuild America first.”

For that matter, some were surprised that Haggard would tour with Bob Dylan. After all, the Okie from Muskogee was supposed to be the grand bard of the right wing. Hippies and squirrelly guys who don’t believe in fightin’ ought to love it or leave it, according to some of Hag’s most notorious songs. What’s the guy who sang “Fightin’ Side of Me” doing now, talking like a liberal and hanging out with that guy who wrote all those subversive songs like “Masters of War” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”?

Well, for one thing, for most of his five-decade career, Haggard has delighted in surprising people. To paraphrase one old song, he wears his own kind of hat. The singer’s politics are and always have been a lot more complex than people give him credit for. In another song on Chicago Wind, “Where’s the Freedom,” he bemoans the fact that schools and governments can’t display the 10 commandments — as well as the fact that people can’t afford gasoline.

We’ve known Merle is no partisan hack since at least 1981, with “Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver).” Here he sings about how Nixon — who years before had embraced Haggard at a White House command performance — “lied to us all on TV.”

And two years before “America First,” Hag, on his song “That’s the News,” cast a cynical eye on President Bush declaring “mission accomplished” in Iraq.

In reality Haggard’s always been more tolerant of those with different opinions and lifestyles than he shows on “Okie” or “Fightin’ Side.”

Some important clues can be found on Hag/Someday We’ll Look Back, a couple of albums recently released as a single CD. Hag includes the touching song “The Farmer’s Daughter.” It’s about a farmer who’s accepting his city-boy son-in-law even though “his hair’s a little longer than we’re used to.”

But while that song has the spirit of reconciliation, on the next tune, “I’ve Done it All,” he sings “I’ve even been to ’Frisco wearing regular clothes/Felt them modern hippie folks starin’ down their nose.”

But note that he’s not claiming the “hippie folks” tried to make him take a trip on LSD or burned a flag in his face. No, their offense was their elitism, looking down at a working-class guy.

The greatest country album, ever. Before going on with this discussion, I have to declare an extreme prejudice here. I believe in my heart that Someday We’ll Look Back is not only Merle Haggard’s greatest album, but the greatest album in country-music history, bar none.

Hag’s voice is at full power, and The Strangers (curiously and inexcusably uncredited individually on this reissue) prove why they’re considered among the finest C&W units ever.

Someday features masterful country existential-angst songs like Roger Miller’s “Train of Life”; love songs including The George Jones-worthy “One Sweet Hello” and “I’d Rather Be Gone”; and the bleak but beautiful “Carolyn,” (written by Bakersfield titan Tommy Collins), where you can’t tell if the singer is warning his wife that he’s considering adultery or if he’s confessing in a backhanded way.

There are a couple of cheeky humorous numbers like “The Only Trouble With Me” (the rest of that sentence being “is you”) and the prison tune “Huntsville,” which ain’t “Mama Tried” but is still pretty cool.

And there are all these tough and gritty Steinbeckian Dust Bowl ballads where Haggard sounds more in touch with that old lefty Woody Guthrie than Dylan ever did in songs like “Tulare Dust,” “One Row at a Time,” and Dallas Frazier’s “California Cottonfields”: “Our Model A was loaded down and California-bound/And a change of luck was just four days away/But the only change that I remember seeing in my daddy/was when his dark hair turned to silver gray.”

Big Time Annie’s Square: “Big Time Annie’s Square” was one song on Someday We’ll Look Back that proved Haggard wasn’t the hippie-hating redneck many thought he was. Although this track is almost a throwaway compared with some of the others on the album, at the time it came out, I considered it sort of an apology for “The Fightin’ Side of Me.” It’s about an Okie soldier who comes back from Vietnam to find his Tulsa girl moved to “some town in California called ‘San something’ somewhere close to East L.A.” He discovers Annie has become one of them hippies. He’s wary. He’s “heard about those sugar cubes before I ever came to find her there.”

“We don’t agree on nothin’, but I’ll be damned if we don’t make a pair,” he sings. And he’s “glad to be accepted” by Annie’s strange new associates.

Big Time Annie’s friends: Indeed, not all the “hippie folk” looked down their collective nose at him. Gram Parsons, who did a wonderful version of “California Cottonfields,” actually tried back in the eao get Haggard to produce one of his albums.

The Grateful Dead did "Mama Tried." Every local country-rock outfit in the country played "Silver Wings."

One of the finest hippie Hag tributes was “I’ll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle,” written by Nick Gravenites. It was originally recorded by the post-Janis Big Brother and the Holding Company, though the better-known version is by Pure Prairie League. It’s a fantasy in which a hippie offers to help “the greatest country singer alive.”

“You’re a honky I know/But Merle, you’ve got soul.”

Hag said it best: Haggard’s attitude toward all of this perhaps was best expressed when I saw him in concert about 10 years ago. He began singing one of his best-known songs. “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee ...” The crowd went wild. But Haggard stopped the song. “Now who really gives a damn whether or not they smoke marijuana in Muskogee?” he said.

The crowd went even wilder

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: CQ CALLS N.M. GOV RACE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 11, 2006

The race for governor of New Mexico is over. At least if you believe the Washington, D.C.-based Congressional Quarterly.


In a story published Wednesday, CQ’s Marie Horrigan wrote: “New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, who is seeking a second term this year, appeared a solid favorite over little-known Republican challenger J.R. Damron — even before their latest campaign-finance filings were posted.

“But the reports, posted this week by the New Mexico Secretary of State, document that the race is a financial mismatch and suggest Richardson now appears virtually certain to secure re-election, and has led CQPolitics.com to change its rating on the race to Safe Democratic from Leans Democratic. ... it appears at this juncture that Richardson is a shoo-in.”

The article notes that Richardson, who has raised close to $7 million in the race, has “a monumental 267-to-1 advantage in cash reserves over Damron ...”

Richardson is one of two Dem governors on CQ’s “Safe” list. The other is New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, who Richardson has visited a couple of times in the past year.

Candidates love revealing huge amounts of campaign contributions for the same reason Soviets loved having big parades with missiles and tanks: It discourages potential enemies.

Or, as then-state Treasurer Robert Vigil explained to investment councilor Kent Nelson (in a conversation taped by the FBI), “If you don't have any money man, you'll get 'em lined up like hot cakes.”

A modest proposal: So if Richardson is a “shoo-in,” it raises the question why he needs to keep raising money, as he surely will do.

Consider the recent news that the Richardson campaign gave more than $44,000 of “tainted” money from his pal Guy Riordan to 70-plus charities in the state. Albuquerque investor and former state Game Commissioner Riordan, if you haven’t been paying attention, was implicated last month in Vigil’s federal corruption trial.

This raises another interesting scenario.

Since Richardson’s such a sure bet, why doesn’t he give the rest of his campaign war chest to charity? Or, if not the whole thing, give enough away so he only has, say, 100 times the amount Damron has.

It had to have felt great giving away $44,560 to homeless shelters, literacy programs, fallen firefighter memorials, libraries, animal-protection sanctuaries, museums, domestic-violence shelters and junior rodeos. Just think how wonderful it would feel to give away a few million.

The only people who would suffer would be campaign consultants and television-ad reps.

And what Richardson would lose in campaign cash-on-hand, he’d be repaid 10 times over in national publicity. He’d get to play the good guy on Larry King and Bill O’Reilly, talking about how campaigns really have gotten too expensive and, doggone it, someone finally had to take a stand, and how it wouldn’t hurt other politicians to follow suit.

Dream on.

Truckin’ down the campaign trail: Or, if you’re swimming in campaign bucks, you can always do what state Land Commissioner Pat Lyons did — buy yourself a pickup truck.

According to his campaign-finance report, filed Monday with the Secretary of State’s Office, last October Lyons paid himself $29,700 for a “campaign truck.”

It’s a Ford Diesel F-250 Supercab, Lyons said Wednesday. So far, he’s put 20,000 to 30,000 miles on the truck, he said.

In the 2002 campaign, Republican Lyons said, he bought a truck — out of his own pocket — for $22,000. After the campaign, he was able to get only about $6,000 for it, he said.

“I didn’t want to do that again,” he said. So after discussing it with his campaign committee, he decided to buy a new truck with campaign funds.

The two Democrats competing for the land-commissioner nomination — both former land commissioners — were quick to blast Lyons. “It may not be illegal, but it strains ethical considerations,” Jim Baca said.

Ray Powell said he was appalled and this illustrates the need for public financing of land-commissioner campaigns.

Lyons has raised more than $373,000 this year for his campaign.

Where the politicians and the antelope play: One unusual campaign expense on Lyons’ report were several payments — totaling more than $18,000 — for antelope permits. “I bought antelope permits for $800 each and sold them to raise funds,” Lyons said.

Sounds like more fun than a rubber-chicken dinner and a no-host bar.

One of the ranchers who sold the permits was the commissioner’s brother, Phil Lyons of Cuervo. He was paid $8,000 for 10 permits. Both Baca and Powell found this questionable.

Lyons got a refund on one batch of permits (totaling $7,200) from another rancher because he couldn’t sell them, he said.

A bipartisan Guy: Lyons is the first Republican I’ve seen to receive money from Riordan. According to Lyons’ report, he got $2,000 from Riordan last September.

Like all the Democrats who got Riordan money, Lyons got rid of his in late April, just days after former Treasurer Michael Montoya testified at Vigil’s trial about taking kickbacks from Riordan in restroom stalls.

But unlike the Democrats, Lyons didn’t give his Riordan money to charity. Instead, he deposited it in the state general fund. “I don’t think you should be giving it to your favorite charity,” Lyons said Wednesday. “It’s a state investment scandal. The money belongs to all the people.”

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS

The campaign finance reports are in. Well ... most of them. Here's a link to the Secretary of State's page. Hope you don't get as frustrated as us reporters -- and some candidates -- were yesterday.

In the big race, Gov. Bill Richard has raised $3.8 million in the past year, bringing his total up to nearly $7 million. His Republican opponent Dr. J.R. Damron has raised only $285,000, two thirds of which is from himself.

I wrote a couple sidebars about the campaign finance reports filed Monday in the Secretary of State's Office.

First there's a piece on the charities that got a windfall from the Richardson treasury -- courtesy of the Guy Riordan/state Treasurer scandal.

Then there's a story about money raced in local contested legislative races.

Here's a link to the Associated Press story on the governor's race.

Versions of these stories were published in The Santa Fe New Mexican

May 9, 2006

Gov. Bill Richardson’s re-election campaign donated $44,560 in contributions from his friend Guy Riordan — an Albuquerque investor implicated in the state treasurer scandal — to a wide array of charities, Richardson’s campaign manager said Monday.

The contributions include Riordan money going back to Richardson’s first run for governor four years ago, said campaign manager Amanda Cooper.

The total amount of Riordan contributions to Richardson was higher than what previously has been reported. This is a result of new campaign-finance reports filed Monday with the Secretary of State’s Office. Richardson’s report shows Riordan gave Richardson at least four contributions totaling $15,560 between May and August 2005.

Most of the 70-plus contributions were for $500.

Several Santa Fe charities were among the recipients of the Riordan money.

Some of these were the St. Elizabeth Shelter, Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families, Kitchen Angels, the Food Depot, the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, Youth Shelters and Family Services, The Santa Fe Boys & Girls Club, Girls Inc., Partners in Education, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and the Santa Fe Public Library.



But the Riordan contributions allowed Richardson to play Santa Claus all over the state. Other recipients included Character Counts in Roswell, Alternatives to Violence in Grants, the High Plains Junior Rodeo in Tatum, the New Mexico Immunization Coalition in Albuquerque, the Deming Senior Center Meals on Wheels program, the Las Cruces Gospel Rescue Mission, the National Indian Youth Leadership Program in Gallup and the Fallen Firefighters Memorial Committee in Socorro.

A Riordan contribution entered into another political race Monday.

The campaign of Lem Martinez, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, released a statement blasting primary rival Geno Zamora for accepting a $2,500 contribution from Riordan. "Zamora receives tainted money," the e-mailed statement said.

However, Zamora spokesman Allan Oliver pointed out that April 20 — the same week Riordan’s name came up in the federal corruption trial of former Treasurer Robert Vigil — Zamora donated the money to the Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Early in his term, Richardson appointed Riordan, who owns a commercial hunting ranch, to the state Gaming Commission.

On the first day of the federal trial, Vigil’s predecessor, Michael Montoya, testified that he received as much as $100,000 in kickbacks from Riordan in exchange for investment contracts. Most of this money, Montoya said, was passed to him in restroom stalls at restaurants.

Riordan’s lawyer denied this. Riordan hasn’t been charged with any crime.

But the governor didn’t take any chances. Shortly after the story hit the wires, Richardson announced he immediately was removing Riordan from the Game Commission and said he’d donate all his Riordan contributions to charity.

Other candidates, including Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Gary King, another Democratic candidate for attorney general, have passed on donations from Riordan to charities.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Incumbent state Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela leads his two primary-election rivals in contributions, reports filed Monday reveal.

According to Varela’s report, filed Monday with the Secretary of State, Varela has raised more than $72,000 and has spent nearly $16,000 in his campaign to keep his seat in Santa Fe’s District 48.

His closest challenger, former Santa Fe City Councilor Ouida MacGregor, has raised more than $23,000 and spent more than $15,000.

The remaining contender, accountant Andrew Perkins, had not filed his report by Monday evening. In an interview, he said he’d raised more than $8,600 — of which more than $5,700 was a loan from himself. Perkins has spent all but $2 of his treasury, he said.

Varela’s report filed Monday does not include some $6,000 he received at an October fundraiser hosted by state Insurance Commissioner Eric Serna. Serna is on paid leave while the Attorney General’s Office investigates his relationship with Century Bank and Con Alma, a nonprofit health-care organization that he chaired.

Varela announced he would returned that money to the contributors after The New Mexican revealed several figures tied to the insurance industry attended the fundraiser.

Varela couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. His campaign treasurer, E.J. Martinez, said those contributions — as well as the refunds — were filed with the county Elections Bureau after Varela folded his campaign for state treasurer earlier this year.

County offices were closed Monday night by the time Martinez was interviewed.

Some of those who donated to Varela at the Serna fundraiser gave Varela more money afterward. This includes the AFLAC insurance company of Columbus Ga., which gave Varela $1,000 April 30, and lobbyist Dan Najjar, whose clients include AFLAC. Najjar’s firm gave Varela $500 April 30.

On March 30, Nestor Romero — who was at the Serna fundraiser — and his wife gave Varela’s treasurer campaign $1,000. The treasurer-campaign funds later were transferred to Varela’s legislative campaign.

Romero’s company, Regulatory Consultants Inc., has received fees totaling more than $10 million in the past two years for performing examinations of insurance companies for Serna’s office. Under the state’s system, the examiner is paid by the insurance companies instead of state funds. Romero’s company has performed 90 percent of the insurance examinations since 2003 through no-bid contracts.

In October, members of the state Legislative Finance Committee — chaired by Varela — expressed concern that the practice of hiring examiners without a formal bidding process could give the appearance of favoritism.

In a contested legislative Democratic-primary race in Rio Arriba County, incumbent Rep. Debbie Rodella reported raising more than $10,000 in the past year. That’s on top of the $18,000-plus she previously had in her campaign treasury. Rodella reported spending more than $11,000 in the past year, leaving her war chest with more than $17,000.

Her opponent, former Rio Arriba County Commissioner Moises Morales, did not file a report Monday. He couldn’t be reached for comment Monday evening.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 7, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Warrior by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
As Ugly As I Seem by The White Stripes
Shot in the Arm by Wilco
Screaming Night Hog by Steppenwolf
Unemployable by Pearl Jam
Bobbin' by J Mascis & The Fog
Bumblebee by The Casual Dots
Niki Hoeky by P.J. Proby

3121 by Prince
Oh Sweet Woods by The Fiery Furnaces
Dork at 12 O'Clock by Solex
So Many Ways by Mates of State
Scary Monsters by The Electric Ghosts
Do the Freddie by Freddie & The Dreamers
Freddy's Dead by Curtis Mayfield

Neil Young Set
Living With War
Ohio
Rockin' in The Free World
Let's Roll
Let's Impeach the President
Be the Rain

Love Train by The Yayhoos
Take a Chance by Hundred Year Flood
Miracles Never Happen by Johnny Dowd
A Town Too Fast For Your Blues by Mark Pickeral
Prohibo Cochilar by Cabruera
Worried Spirits by Howe Gelb
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis