This might look familiar

Some other reporters pointed this out to me today.

(New Mexico Legislature: One day down, 29 left to go ...)

TSW Play List

Terrell's Sound World
Sunday, January 18, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Pipeline by Anthrax
Advanced Romance by Frank Zappa with Capt. Beefheart
Bat Chain Puller by Capt. Beefheart
Bob by Primus
Axcerpt by The Mekons

Medication by Gregg Turner & The Mistaken
I Think of Demons by Roky Erikson
Me and The Devil Blues by Dead Meadow
Bless You by The Devil Dogs
Crackpot by L7
Wish That I Was Dead by The Dwarves
Private Hell by Iggy Pop
Execution Day by The New Pornographers
Don't Clip Your Wings by Frank Black & The Catholics
Tell the King the Killer's Here by Ronny Elliott

Not Tonight by Al Green
Have You Seen Her by The Chi-lites
Nutbush City Limits by Ike & Tina Turner
Lost and Paranoid by The Soul of John Black
Love Hater by Outkast
Big Road Blues by Corey Harris
Pretty Thing by Bo Diddley
Real Emotions by Los Lonely Boys

New Orleans is Sinking by The Tragically Hip
We Belong Together by Rickie Lee Jones
Yesterday is Here by Kazik Staszewski
I Beg Your Pardon by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Santa Fe Opry Play List

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, Jan. 16, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Ronnie and Neil by Drive-By Truckers
Venus by Southern Culture on the Skids
Parallel Bars by Robbie Fulks with Kelly Willis
I Push Right Over by Rosie Flores
Your Old Love Letters by Bobby Flores
The Shiek of Araby by The Last Mile Ramblers
Reno Blues by Merle Haggard with Willie Nelson
Mr. Blue by David Bromberg

One More Time by Bill Hearne
They Call the Wind Mariah by The Buckerettes
It's My Way by The Sundowners
Another Lonely Heart by Eleni Mandell
What Are We Waiting For by The Yayhoos
Hey Hey by Graham Lindsey
Burn Burn Burn by Ronnie Elliott
You Pulled Me Down by Ben Atkins

Make Love to Yur Horse by Julien Aklei
Tennessee Stud by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Doc Watson
Chestnut Mare by The Byrds
Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan by Tammy Faye Starlite
I'm Going Home by Sacred Heart Singers at Liberty Church
Dear Mama by Acie Cargill

The Month of January by Chipper Thompson
Gypsy Songman by Jerry Jeff Walker
Step Off Your Cloud by Kell Robertson
Old Rivers by Walter Brennan
Meadowlake by Nels Andrews
Farther Along by Hayseed with Emmylou Harris
Feel Like Going Home by Charlie Rich
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Terrell's Tuneup: Unstoppable Soul

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican, Jan. 16, 2004

Is there some kind of “soul revival” gurgling underground. There were actually two good old-school soul albums released in 2003 by venerated masters of the genre -- Rediscovered by Howard Tate and I Can’t Stop by Al Green.

Green was the last great star of pure Southern soul music. His mid ‘70s glory years came at a time when soul music of the ‘60s was evolving into the more lush Philadelphia Sound of Gamble and Huff, the harder edge of funk and the emotionally bankrupt but commercially explosive idiocy that was disco.

Green arose several years after the Greatest Generation of soulsters -- two decades or more after pioneers like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. And he was different from Most of the giants of the genre. He didn’t have the raw urgency of Otis, the wickedness of Pickett, the craziness of James Brown, the world weary wisdom of Curtis Mayfield or the suaveness of Marvin Gaye.

But there’s no doubt that Green belongs in this distinguished. His records were among the best stuff on the radio back in the post-Beatles/pre-punk lost years of the early and mid ‘70s. There was a sweetness and sincerity -- as well as sexiness -- in Green’s tenor -- not to mention unforgettable melodies and simple hook-laden arrangements.

Like a Black Roy Orbison, (whose “O Pretty Woman” he convincingly covered) Al Green sang for the lonely. Songs like “Tired of Being Alone” and “Let’s Stay Together” were pleas so full of both hope and despair you didn’t know how anyone could ignore them.

Green’s career in popular music ended about the time that America’s airwaves were in the deepest throes of the disco scare

It’s been nearly a quarter century since Al Green recorded secular music. Like a Sam Cooke in reverse, Green went from pop to gospel.

And no that wasn’t prompted by that tragic and bizarre 1974 night when a former girlfriend broke into his house, poured boiling grits on Green (who was in the bathtub at the time) then shot and killed herself.

Green’s decision to quit secular music came five years later, after he fell off the stage at a Cincinnati concert.

Since then Green has devoted his life and his art to the Lord for almost all this time. Folks who have attended Green’s church in Memphis, Tenn. say that services there are higher energy than just about any rock ‘n’ roll show you can name.

Until late last year, there’s only been one new secular album, the obscure Love is Reality (which escaped mass attention and admittedly flew under my own radar.)

But I Can’t Stop is the first secular Al Green album in more than 25 years produced by Willie Mitchell, the man responsible for all the classic Green records and co-writing some of Green‘s greatest songs. (Mitchell did produce a Green gospel records in 1985)

On my first couple of listens have to admit I was somewhat disappointed in I Can’t Stop. It sounded good. Green’s voice hasn’t suffered in the passing of time and Mitchell still is a master at good clean arrangements. But none of the songs seemed to come anywhere close to Green’s greatest hits.

However, the more I listen to it, the more this new record rings true. True, there’s no “Let’s Stay Together” here, but I could listen to I Can’t Stop all day.

There’s the strutting beat of “Play to Win,” with Green moaning and squealing as a horn section recreates the horny glory of the Stax/Volt years. There’s a sweet ballad called “Rainin’ in My Heart” whose secret star is the swirling organ of Robert Clayborne. There’s a six-minute blues song Robert Cray probably wishes he had written called “My Problem is You,”

The album ends with a tune called “Too Many.” It’s an upbeat track that sounds influenced by New Orleans maestro Allen Toussaint. But the happy “Life is a Carnival” melody is deceptive. Here Green sings the most troubled lyrics on the album:

“Too many things in my head/Too many ghosts in my bed … I got too many things to do/I got too many things that ain’t true/I got too many and that’s wrong for you.”

For the sake of the Rev. Al Green’s church, I wouldn’t want to encourage him to turn his back on the world of the gospel. But I do hope Green makes more journeys into the secular.

Also recommended:

*Mississippi to Mali by Corey Harris. This album should be a companion piece to Feel Like Going Home, Martin Scorsese’s contribution to his recent PBS documentary series The Blues.

Harris basically was the center of that film. Scorsese showed Harris talking with old Mississippi bluesmen, including the master of fife-and-drum music Otha Turner. It also showed Harris traveling to Africa, talking to and jamming with African musicians such as Ali Farka Toure of Mali.

Toure is on this album. And on Turner would have been, but he died shortly before the scheduled recording session.

The most satisfying songs here probably are the fife-and-drum songs like “Station Blues” and “Back Atcha,” which Harris recorded with Turner’s granddaughter Shardee Thomas.

My favorite cuts with Toure are the covers of Skip James Songs “Special Rider Blues” and “Cypress Grove”) where the African plays a najarka (one-string violin). Also haunting is the slow, John Lee Hooker-like “Rokie,” which features a repeated blues guitar riff and clacking percussion by Souleyman Kane.

However some of the lengthier Toure cuts like the 6-minute “Tamala,” start to drag.

While Harris’ roots journey here is interesting, his own experiments in fusing blues and African (and other) sounds -- his last album Downhome Sophisticate, for instance -- is more rewarding.

Roundhouse Round-up: Punks For Dean

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican, Jan. 8, 2004

Just about every presidential campaign has subgroups for various ethnicities and special interests -- blacks for Kerry, Hispanics for Clark, Women for Edwards. Who knows, maybe there's even a "Carnivores for Kucinich."

But perhaps this season's most-interesting campaign adjunct is Punx for Dean.

That's right, "punx," as in punk rock. It's a real organization. And they're coming to Santa Fe to campaign for Howard Dean.

A contingent of self-proclaimed punks will be part of a group of 60 to 100 Dean volunteers coming to the state from California as part of Dean's "Southwest Victory Express" to help out with the campaign before the Feb. 3 caucus.

So who are these punks?

Apparently it's the brainchild of a 28-year-old California punk rocker named Kimmy Cash, who, according to an article in L.A. City Beat, met Dean when she crashed the V.I.P. section of a campaign function.

The group's Web site explains, "As a member of the punk (goth, etc.) scene and as a citizen of the United States it is our duty to be the voice of reason and reality here in the U.S. ... Together we can show the world that punks know the true meaning of Democracy."

One punk for Dean is an old music buddy of mine, Gregg Turner, founding member of the Los Angeles band The Angry Samoans, currently employed as a math professor at New Mexico Highlands University..

Turner said Wednesday he is trying to find a venue for a Punx for Dean concert next weekend when the organization descends upon Santa Fe.

Besides rocking and rolling, the Punx for Dean intend to do some serious work, helping the state Dean effort with canvassing and other mundane campaign work.

And the nonpunks in the Dean campaign love them.

"The success of (Dean's) Internet campaign has brought all sorts of people into the fold," said state Dean spokeswoman Mona Blaber. "It helps to bring in people who've never been involved in the political process."

We're all for equal time here. If there are "Goths for Gephardt" or "Lawrence Welk Fans for Lieberman" out there, let me know.

Solicit This! As it turns out, the state Legislature didn't really have to pass laws to create a state no-call list to ward off unwanted telemarketing calls. All you need is to have Gov. Bill Richardson's crime adviser and former Albuquerque District Attorney Bob Schwartz record the greeting for your voice mail or answering machine.

The message on his home number has Schwartz telling solicitors to hang up. "If you are a solicitor and you ever call back, I will not only report you to the Federal Trade Commission, I will hunt you down and personally administer a cavity search that John Ashcroft would be proud of."

Polka Karma

Boy twice in one day! Only hours after getting the e-mail about my missing Rolf Cahn story (see post immediately below), I get one from Barry "Nos" Sher, a webmaster who used to link with an old review I'd written about some cool polka and klezmer CDs a couple of years ago.

I guess it's great to be missed. Thank you Dreamwater ....

So I sent Barry the text of review and gave him permission to post it on his site.

And he did. You can find it on his polka page. (Here's the direct link to my polka review.)

The rest of Barry's site is fun too, especially his visionary Sam the Sham (!) section. As a wise man once sang, "Only two things for which I give a damn, that's reincarnation and Sam the Sham."

A Special Love

I just received an e-mail from a Norwegian man who has a web site dedicated to my friend, the late folksinger, martial artist, political troublemaker and former analyst for the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee Rolf Cahn.


Alf Storrud wanted to know what happened to my old web site, where for years I had posted the article I wrote in 1994 about Rolf's life and final days. (He died the day after the story was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican.)

So I told Alf he has my permission to republish my story on his site, (which offers CDs of Rolf's music, which has been out of print for years.)

I'll also repost the story here.

Damn, I miss Rolf!


ROLF CAHN'S LONG, WILD SONG WINDS TO AN END
BY STEVE TERRELL
Originally Published July 31, 1994
SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

Rolf Cahn-- folk music guru, martial arts teacher, author, social activist and beloved Santa Fe character--has, in the words of an ex-wife, "called in his troops."

Cahn, whose 70th birthday is next month, was diagnosed two months ago with liver cancer.

Since that terrible discovery, Cahn has played lots of music, including a public performance with his oldest son at Jackalope Pottery earlier this month.

He also completed a novel, The Immigrant, which, according to friends, is a tale of the ancient general Hannibal reincarnated and living in modern-day Santa Fe.

But shortly after completing The Immigrant, Cahn became bedridden at his home.

His three sons - Jesse, 45, Michael, 27, and Andrew, 24 - and other friends have been taking care of his needs: getting him water, juice and pain medication, helping him sit up, massaging his skin.

To those outside of the family, the sons refer to their father as ``Rolf.'' When talking to him or about him among themselves, they affectionately call him "Pop."

A Special Love was the title song of a self-released Rolf Cahn tape in the early 1980s. It also could describe the feeling at the Cahn household in recent weeks.

Dozens of friends have come by during the past weeks to give their love to Rolf. Cree McCree, one of Cahn's former wives, flew in from New York to spend a week with him.

Eve Muir, whose late husband John Muir was one of Cahn's best friends, comes by the house frequently, bringing Cahn bottles of water.

Cahn's skin now has a yellow hue. Always wiry, he seems to have lost weight. Although those who know him will always remember how Cahn loved to talk, argue, rant and sing, it seems painful for him to talk now. The words are scarce.

Cahn is asleep much of the time, but when he wakes up to find a familiar face in his room, his eyes light up and he flashes a smile.

On Friday he smiled at a longtime acquaintance and pointed at him. "I like you," he said in a raspy voice.

"I like you too, Rolf," the friend said, holding back tears.

The phone at Cahn's home has rung frequently in recent days. His sons say he has received calls from Romania, England and Germany.

The letters have been pouring in. Eric Von Schmidt, an old Cambridge folkie who recorded an album with Cahn in the early '60s recently wrote, calling Cahn, "The born teacher. The guy with the best licks and the prettiest chicks ... You were the Cambridge/Berkeley connection before it existed."

Cahn was born into a Jewish family in Germany in 1924. In 1937, during Hitler's reign, Cahn's family fled, immigrating to the United States. The Cahns ended up in Detroit, where, Rolf always told friends and interested reporters, he learned how to box in self-defense.

Cahn enlisted in the Army during World War II and found himself in the Office of Strategic Services - the precursor to the CIA - parachuting behind enemy lines and blowing up bridges.

"I killed people," Cahn said in a 1982 interview. "No matter what euphemism you want to use, I just killed people."

Before his action in the European Theater, the OSS sent Cahn to study the Chinese language in Berkeley, said Jesse Cahn, who came from California to help his father. "That's military intelligence for you," he said. "Here's a young kid who speaks German and they send him off to learn Chinese."

However, it was during these studies that he met a Chinese k'ang jo fu aster, which began Rolf Cahn's lifelong study of martial arts, Jesse Cahn said.

Cahn himself wrote about the meeting in his 1974 book Self Defense for Gentle People. After his time in the service, Cahn returned to Detroit where he enrolled in Wayne State University.

There he became involved in labor organizing, left-wing politics and, not coincidentally, folk music. He learned guitar - both folk and flamenco - and in 1948 campaigned for Henry Wallace, a former vice president who was the Progressive Party's presidential candidate in 1948.

"Even then, hundreds of little Woody Guthries were running around,'' Cahn once said. "That early, and it was beginning to be a pain in the ass to listen to your fifteenth Woody Guthrie that week."

He moved to northern California and started the San Francisco Folk Music Club in the early 1950s.

In 1959, following the drowning death of a son, he moved to Cambridge, Mass., where the folk music movement was hatching. This is where the likes of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jim Kweskin and Maria Muldaur got their start.

Jesse Cahn remembers Odetta - the folk singer best known for her rendition of Woodie Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty" - as his babysitter during those years.

This era is documented in the book Baby Let Me Follow Me Down by Von Schmidt and Jim Rooney. Cahn is quoted extensively and praised reverently in the book.

"Until Rolf came, there weren't any teachers of folk or blues guitar styles around Cambridge," the authors wrote. "Eminence, rabbi, guru, whatever, Rolf could be intense and volatile or tender and charming. Like most good teachers, he was always searching and learning himself."

But when the Cambridge scene started getting commercialized and too "white bread," Cahn split, going first to Spain to study flamenco, then to New Mexico, where he first was a logger, then an analyst for the Legislative Finance Committee in Santa Fe.

He taught martial arts at night but soon learned that his folk music credentials meant little in a town known for being hard on musicians.

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

In 1971, tragedy again struck Cahn, who was living on the city's east side.

According to accounts of friends and newspaper stories at the time, masked intruders broke into the front part of his house, where his former wife and children were residing. Cahn, who was living in the back part of the house, opened fire, killing one of the burglars.

Cahn himself was shot in the arm and a bullet grazed his head.

Soon after that, Cahn left New Mexico, moving once again to California, where he worked for a Head Start program.

He returned with his two youngest sons in the late 1970s. He taught k'ang jo fu, eventually opening The Cahn School of Movement.

Occasionally he played music, trying every so often to get a scene going here, but usually ending up in frustration.

"I refuse to play while people eat, because to me music is prayer," he said in 1982.

Although in the early days he was best known for interpreting folk songs and blues, Cahn in the 1980s released two tapes of his own songs A Special Love and Midnight Sun.

His family and Eve Muir are working on releasing a tape of recently recorded songs called Fall Rain.

Cahn also remained active in social causes. He spoke at a City Council meeting against police brutality last year after the police shooting of Francisco "Pancho" Ortega.

About a year ago, his sons say, Rolf Cahn's energy level began to drop. He also began having stomach problems. But nobody thought much about it until he was diagnosed with liver cancer.

Andrew Cahn said there was never an issue about his father spending his last days in a hospital. Everyone knew it would be better for Pop to stay at home.

"It's work," Michael Cahn said. "But he spent plenty of years taking care of us. For anyone to back off because they're too busy, I just can't believe that."

Rolf Cahn is asleep again by the time his visitor leaves. Although the old, chatty guru is almost silent now, one of his songs sticks in the visitor's head.

"You'll need that special love I put on you. "

The voice is strong, and the accent thick - as if Hank Williams had been born in Prussia.

The words were initially addressed to an erstwhile wife or girlfriend, but now they seem universal.

Those who know Rolf Cahn always will remember that special love.

Politics and Murder

I've got a couple of things in the new issue of New Mexico Magazine.

This is the February issue, which has the theme of "Mysteries and Legends" and has a pulp-sci-fi-like cover depicting the 1964 UFO siting in Socorro reported by a state police officer.

No, that's not my story. I wrote about three unsolved homicides with severe political overtones -- the apparent assassinations of Albert J. Fountain in 1896 and Jose Francisco Chaves in 1904 and the 1949 murder of Ovida "Cricket" Coogler in Las Cruces.

Both Fountain and Chaves were Territorial-era legislators who made enemies with certain cattle rustlers with friends in high places.

Coogler was a teen-age waitress whose killing never led to a murder conviction. But the apparent cover-up eventually led to prison time for a county sheriff and state police chief and a "morals" charge against a member of the state Corporation Commission.

My other piece in the magazine is a book review of Journal of the Dead, a true-crime book by Jason Kerstan concerning the 1999 killing of a Massachusetts man by his best friend in Carlsbad Cavern National Park.

Sorry, neither of these are on the magazine's Web site. You'll have to go out and actually buy a copy. It'll be worth your $4.95.

TSW Playlist

Terrell's Sound World
Sunday, January 11, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Give Me Some Truth by John Lennon
Piece of Crap by Neil Young
Superbabe by Iggy Pop
I'm Bigger Than You by The Mummies
Graveyard by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Work All Week by The Mekons
Attack on Love by Yo La Tengo
Odd Jobs by Captain Beefheart
Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes


Nixon Memorial
One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons
Nixon's Dead Ass by Russell Means
Blue Lake by Robert Mirabal
Mr. Bojangles by Jerry Jeff Walker
(end Nixon Memorial)
Sacrifice/Let There Be Peace by Bob Mould
The Killer by The Twilight Singers

Ghetto Music by Outkast
My Problem is You by Al Green
Sexy Ida Part 2 by Ike & Tina Tuner
Jemima Surrender by Howard Tate
Do the Rump by Junior Kimbrough
Special Rider Blues by Corey Harris
Heaven by Los Lonely Boys

Misery is the River of the World by Kazik Staszewski
Warm Beer and Cold Women by Tom Waits
Sail on Sailor by The Beach Boys
Ballad for a Loser by Just Short of Sunday
Firewalker by Rickie Lee Jones
Manitoba by Frank Black & The Catholics
Closing Theme: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Bill Richardson Package

Finally my package on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's first year (now year and 11 days ...) in office has been published in The New Mexican.

Here's the links:

Here's the main story

And this one

And this one

Also this one