DON'T ABUSE THE MUSE

My cyber friend and poetry man Mike Schiavo is included in a new anthology called Don't Abuse the Muse: The Middlefinger Press Mixed Tape of Fiction & Reality.

One hundred percent of the profits go to Parkinson's Disease research.

So check it out.

SANTA FE OPRY PLAY LIST

Here's Friday's S.F. Opry list from Tom

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, July 16, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Guest Host: Tom Knoblauch

One Hundred Years From Now by The Byrds
Truck Drivin’ Man by The International Submarine Band
Blue Canadian Rockies by The Byrds
Hickory Wind by The Byrds
You Don’t Miss Your Water by The Byrds
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Tonight I’ll Be Stayin Here With You/I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight by Bob Dylan
Wild Horses by The Flying Burrito Brothers
I Am A Lonesome Hobo by Bob Dylan
John Wesley Harding
The Train Song/Sing Me Back Home by The Flying Burrito Brothers
She by Gram Parsons
Older Guys by The Flying Burrito Brothers
In My Hour of Darkness by Gram Parsons
On the Banks of the Rio Grande by Blind James
Rio Grande by Dave Alvin
Rusty Old Red River/What’s It Take by Toni Price
Better Off Without a Wife/Warm Beer & Cold Women/Nighthawks at the Diner by Tom Waits
Cowboy Peyton Place by Doug Sahm
Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar/Truck Drivin’ Man/Too Much Fun by Commander Cody
Mikey Gave Up the Booze by Joe West
Have Your Way With Me by Hundred Year Flood
Next Time by TheMuseMeant
Hey Beautiful/Let’s Fall in Love Again Tonight by Hundred Year Flood
Rowdy’s Tune by Dickie Lee Erwin
Diggy Liggy Lo by John Fogarty

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

SANTA FE MUSIC WARS

Lordy lordy, I leave town for a few days and a civil war breaks out amongst Santa Fe musicians.
 
As Anne Constable wrote about in The New Mexican a couple of days ago, (Read it HERE ) David Lescht, who heads the Summer Bandstand committee hated my brother Jack Clift's Plaza performance so bad he cancelled three other "improvisational" bands that were scheduled to perform. Not only that but he fired Jeff Sussman from the committee, apparently for hiring Jack and the other bands.
 
Since Jack is my brother (yes, different last name. But we're brothers. Ask him ...) I have an obvious bias here.
 
I've always liked David and have admired and written about his program Outside In, which brings music to prisons, hospitals, retirement homes, homeless shelters etc. But these recent actions make him seem like he's trying to be the Ayatollah of rock 'n' rolla.
 
And all to please the tourists?
 
Reminds me of the last verse of "The Bozo Buck Stops Here," a song I wrote in the late '70s partly about the frustrations of being an original musician trying to get gigs in a tourist town:

"I never could pull off any John Denver image,
I'm not as sensitive as Jackson Browne.
And as hard as I might try I'll never look like Linda Rondstadt,
So they won't let me play my tunes in this here town
I'm sick and tired of trying hard not to scare the tourists
When maybe all they need's a shot of fear
(BOO!)
Just keep 'em out of touch and it won't hurt 'em very much
When the Bozo Buck stops here."

KCUV AM in DENVER

Just got back from Denver and I noticed Curtis' reply to my previous Denver post, in which he plugged KCUV radio, an "Americana" station there.
 
Luckily I discovered it on my own a couple of days ago. (Actually there was an ad in Denver's print edition of The Onion. ) Curtis is right. It's a great little station. I hadn't heard AM radio sound so good since the legendary Jello Fellows practiced their after-hours subversion on KVSF here in Santa Fe 30-plus years ago.
 
KCUV's definition of "Americana" is pretty broad. You hear a fair amount of blues -- John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Albert King -- as well as soul (Al Green! Ray Charles!) and founding-fathers rock 'n' roll (Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis) . They'll even throw in some rootsy classic rock. This morning they played some early Steve Miller that didn't suck.
 
I was really sad when the station started to fade right before I got to Colorado Springs. They'd just played Los Lobos' "Matter of Time" (original version, thank you) and had just started Asleep at The Wheel's "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read."
 
 

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: UH HUH, P.J. !

As published Friday July 16, 2004 in The Santa Fe New Mexican
 
It’s been four years -- four years! -- since the last P.J. Harvey album. I hesitate to say that her new one Uh Huh Her was "worth the wait," because, to steal a line from the old Wolf Brand Chili ads, "well that’s too long!"


But worth the wait or not, this new album is a doozy.

From the first crunching guitar notes of the opening cut "The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth," longtime fans of Polly Jean will realize that she’s harkening back to the raw, rocking joys of her earliest albums Dry and Rid of Me -- the very records that made us love her in the first place.

And the ragingly bitter lyrics to this song is a long way from the giddy "This is Love" from her last album, Stories From the City Stories From the Sea.

"Cos everything is poison," Harvey spits in "Mr. Badmouth." "You'll be the unhappy one/Your lips taste of poison/You're gonna be left alone … Your bad mouth has killed off everything we have."

The first half or so of the album is marked by loud grating guitar riffs, (played by Harvey herself,), complimenting her voice, which can go from a sexy, low, bluesy croon to high piercing cries.

While the guitar sounds like it might explode in "The Letter" (not to be confused with the old Box Tops hit), the lyrics are surprising sentimental, expressing a sensual longing for pre e-mail days.

"Who is left that/Writes these days?/You and me/We'll be different/Take the cap/Off your pen/Wet the envelope/Lick and lick it."

But the second half of Uh Huh, Her consist mostly of quieter tracks. The best of these -- including "The Slow Drug," "The Desperate Kingdom of Love," "The Darker Days of Me and Him." are brooding and ominous, like an eye in an emotional hurricane. You can tell by the titles that these aren’t going to be joy rides.

For instance, the sound is somewhat softer on "Pocket Knife" -- strummed guitar suggesting Mid-Eastern music. But the lyrics are no less harsh. Tackling a theme as old as the old folk tune "I Never Shall Marry," Harvey makes her matrimonial reluctance very clear.

"Please don't make my wedding dress/I'm too young to marry yet/Can you see my pocket knife?/You can't make me be a wife."

And in case the implied threat isn’t clear, by the last verse she sings, "White material will stain/My pocket knife's gotta shiny blade."

The photo array of the CD cover might remind old-timers of the old Rod Stewart line from the song "Every Picture Tells a Story": "Comb my hair in a thousand ways …" In other words, she looks as if she’s searching for an identity.

Fortunately her songs -- be they loud or soft, bitter or loving, sultry or hysterical -- maintain a consistent soulfulness. She knows who she is.

Also Recommended:

*A Ghost Is Born by Wilco. The thing I like most about this album is the same thing that first grabbed me about P.J. Harvey’s new one: the loud obnoxious guitars.

Listen to the first song, "At Least That’s What You Said." It starts off as a slow, dreary, piano-based tune with Jeff Tweedy singing, "When I sat down on bed next to you/ you started to cry …" (This is at least the second Wilco song with references to domestic violence, the other being "She’s Ajar" from Summerteeth.)

It goes on for a couple of verses. But just before you start thinking that Tweedy’s acquired some kind of Joni Mitchell complex, Tweedy comes in with a pounding guitar -- the ghost of John Lennon and echoes of Don’t Bring Me Down" are in there somewhere -- and the next thing you know the song has mutated into a screaming guitar stomp.

There’s even a crazy guitar solo (is it Tweedy or John Stirratt, Wilco’s longtime bassist who plays guitar on this cuty) in "Hell is Chrome," which sounds like a slow gospel tune filtered through The Velvet Underground’s "Sweet Nothings."

But my favorite guitar freakout is the 10-minute "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," which over a percolating techno pop beat, Tweedy goes psychedelic, recalling acid-drench guitar solos from the daze of The Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and Country Joe & The Fish.

But the one huge flaw is "Less Than You Think," in which a sad, slow piano ballad (yes, another one) is inexplicably followed by 12 minutes of grating electronic drone. I love noise and excess as much as anyone, but did we really need a mini-ode to Metal Machine Music?

But as we’ve come to expect on Wilco albums are sweet, simple melodies harkening back to Tweedy’s country-rock days, underlying all their sonic excursions. The hypnotic "Handshake Drugs" and the pop-saavy "The Late Greats" each have melodies that will stick to your brains. And "Muzzle of Bees" is so earthy and folky it’s something you might expect to find on a Pentangle album -- with the guitar rage waiting until the last minute or so to kick in.

In general, this album is less focused and less seamless than Wilco’s last outing, the masterful Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. But like that album, it holds secrets that will take listen after listen to crack.

*Stan  By Your Man: I’ve been wishing for Stan Ridgway to do a Santa Fe concert for years. It’s gonna happen Saturday, Aug. 14 at the Paramount. Watch Pasatiempo for more details.

*You’re not dreaming, KSFR is streaming!: In case you haven’t noticed, KSFR is on the internet. Just go the station’s web site, www.ksfr.org . Locals can still listen on your old fashioned radios, (90.7 FM), but be sure to tell your out-of-town friends that Santa Fe Public radio is just a few mouse clicks away.

Greetings from Denver!

Sitting here in Cafe@Netherworld in overheated Denver, Colorado. Nice little getaway. Anton and I went to Ellich park/Six Flags yesterday for thrills and sunburn.

For you blog faithful, there will be no Roundhouse Round-up this week and no radio playlists, unless my substitutes Tom and Sean e-mail me their playlists, in which case they will be late. Terrell's Tune-up will be up, but a day or two late.

Carry on,

swt

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, July 11, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Host: Steve Terrell
Guest Co-host: Anton Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Shortning Bread by The Cramps
Pocket Knife by P.J. Harvey
Hard Lovin' Man by The Fleshtones
Broken Home, Broken Heart by Husker Du
Teenage Nightingales to Wax by The Three Johns
The Changeling by The Doors
Bubba's Truck by Key

King For a Day by Stan Ridgway
Highway 62 by Eric Burdon
Don't Bring Me Down by Eric Burdon & The Animals
Porn Wars by Frank Zappa
Teacher's Pet by Petty Booka

Jon E. Edwards in the Mood by Jon E. Edwards
It's All in the Game/Make It Real One More Time by Van Morrison
I'll Be Allright by Terrance Trent D'Arby
Mama Was Right by Howard Tate
Penny and the Young Buck by The Gluey Brothers
Treat Her Right by Los Straightjackets with Mark Lindsay

Sand by OP8
Summer's Killing Us by The Tragically Hip
Everything Starts at the Seam by The Polyphonic Spree
Theologians by Wilco
The Kiss by Judee Sill
I Mumble Your Name by Jack Clift
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

KSFR IS NOW ON THE INTERNET!

Yes indeed, KSFR is now steaming on the Internet! We're in the 90s
now!

The Santa Fe Opry is on Friday nights 10 to midnight Mountain
Daylight Time.

My freeform show, Terrell's Sound World is on same time SUNDAY
nights.

Feel free to e-mail me during the show

(Gonna be on vacation next week, so Tom Knoblauch will sub on the SF Opry next Friday and Sean Conlon will be in charge of Terrell's Sound World Sunday July 18.)

Here's tonight's playlist. The first 25 minutes was the pre-recorded Santa Fe Opry "Emergency CD" I was late getting back from covering John Kerry & John Edwards in Albuquerque and filing my story for The New Mexican

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, July 9, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
(Emergency Disc: I don't have a complete list of the songs on the disc, but among the tunes I heard driving over to the station were:
The Wreck of the Old 97 by Wayne Hancock
One in a Row by Willie Nelson
Ghost Riders in the Sky by The Last Mile Ramblers
Highway Patrol by Junior Brown
Red Red Robin by Rosie Flores.)

Start Live show
Sioux City Sue by Willie Nelson & Leon Russell
Some of Shelly's Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Harvest by Jon Dee Graham
Button Up by Dollar Store
Call in Twisted by Rev. Horton Heat
Valium Waltz by Old 97s
Worried Man Blues by George Jones
Hole in the Head by Eric Ambel
Sweetwater by Tres Chicas

East by Marah
Invisible Banjo by ThaMuseMeant
Cruel Lips by Graham Parker and Lucinda Williams
Living the Wrong Way by Emily Kaitz
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
Stars in My Life by The Flatlanders

Fisher of Men by Mose McCormack & Jack Clift
Busted by Peter Stampfel & The Bottle Caps
Walk You Home by Marlee MacLeod
I Wish You Love by Friends of Dean Martinez
Nine Volt Heart by Dave Alvin
Fire by Patterson Hood
Torture Rack by Gary Heffern
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: SECRETS OF THE ANIMAL

As published in The New Mexican

When I heard "Once Upon a Time," the first song from My Secret Life, the new album by Eric Burdon, I was disheartened. Here's another washed-up old rock star pining for the good old days and that old-time rock 'n' roll. The second track, "Motorcycle Girl," which has a taste of Burdon's classic shouting and some flamenco-pop guitar, was better, so I didn't turn the CD off.

And good thing. The third song, a beefy minor-key blues-rocker called "Over the Border," is a berserk Tarantinoesque tale of drugs, paranoia, murder and betrayal. Burdon growls, wails and struts over the bound-for-battle B-3 organ of Mike Finnigan. Burdon attacks it as if this is the song that's been waiting for him all his life: "30 years on the highway running/I've got a trunk full of guns no love and no woman," he bellows in the bridge, his voice barely showing any age.

Burdon's been running down the highway for well more than 30 years. His old band the Animals is the most underrated British Invasion group. Sure, "House of the Rising Sun" is a mainstay of oldies radio. And "We've Got to Get Out of This Place" is used for great comic effect in Fahrenheit 9/11, as Michael Moore discusses the bin Laden family and other Saudi Arabians slipping out of the country right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But the Animals never got the respect bestowed upon the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Kinks. Maybe it's because they were too meat-and-potatoes looking to become the darlings of French fashion magazines, like the Stones were. Or maybe it was because the Animals wrote little of their own material, most of which was old blues tunes and souped-up Brill Building offerings.

While others of his generation have remained in the public eye, Burdon basically sank from view after splitting from War, the influential funk-rock band he made famous in the early '70s. But he's been plugging away ever since, recording for tiny, unknown labels, doing an occasional Animals revival, playing casinos and living the blues he sings.

"Over the Border" is definitely the highlight of My Secret Life, but there are other gut punchers too. "The Secret" is full of crime and voodoo, while "Highway 62" is a tale of drugs, death and motorcycles.

"Black and White World" is a garage band/ska romper with an electric organ that recalls original Animal Alan Price.

Though the opening song, in which the singer yearns for the days of Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Elvis Presley and other singers, is a sentimental dud, Burdon does some tribute songs here that work. "Jazzman," featuring cool sax and trumpet, is a Van Morrison-worthy ode to Chet Baker, Billie Holiday and "Philly" Joe Jones. "Can't Kill the Boogieman" is a pounding invocation of the late John Lee Hooker. This is appropriate. Jillions of Americans, including me, were led to Hooker via the Animals' version of "Boom Boom."

And there are a couple of impressive covers here. Burdon does a slow, gospelish version of the Talking Heads' "Heaven." And the title song is a soul ballad written by Leonard Cohen.

This is such a rockin' CD, it makes me want to seek out some of Burdon's other little-heard works from the past 30 years.


Also recommended:

Ashgrove by Dave Alvin. Like Eric Burdon, Alvin pays tribute on his latest record to venerated old blues sages whose music moved him as a youth.

But the title song, a stinging blues shuffle named for the long-gone Los Angeles blues club where Alvin saw many members of the blues pantheon, isn't just a nostalgic look at the good old days. There's a gnawing dread and bitter regret here that undermines the happy boyhood memories. "Tryin' to make a livin', tryin' to pay the rent, tryin' to figure out where my life went," Alvin moans.

But not all is despair. As the song progresses Alvin makes it clear that his chosen path as a musician, "raising the ghosts" of Big Joe and Lightnin', not only gives him purpose, but gives a little joy and maybe even a little hope to the people he plays for.

Songs as good as this - and albums as good as this - indeed are beacons in difficult times.

And this is only the first song on the album, which is packed with jaw-dropping tunes; thanks mainly to Alvin's understated electric guitar, aided by guitar and steel-guitar monster Greg Leisz, the music is nearly as moving as the stories Alvin sings.

Some of my favorites:

"Nine Volt Heart," featuring Chris Gaffney on background harmonies, is the story of a kid whose life is changed by a car radio, which he discovers while his mom is looking for his dad in a bar.

"Out of Control" is a classic Alvin tough-guy tune. The narrator is a speed-dealing pimp who sits in his car with a gun as his girl is "puttin' on a show for some chump" in a motel room, and he sometimes calls on his ex-wife who's found the Lord, but he still likes to get "out of control."

Alvin wrote "The Man in the Bed" for his late father. Though he's weak and helpless and hospitalized, the old man has the spirit of the wild youth who rode the rails in the Depression and fought in World War II and organized unions, and who knows that he could have broken the heart of the young nurse tending him. "The man in the bed isn't me/Now I slipped out the door and I'm runnin' free." Alvin sings this sad acoustic waltz softly, as if he doesn't want to wake the subject of his song.

This is Alvin's first album of new original material since 1998's Blackjack David. After an album of folk tunes (Public Domain) and a live album (Out in California) I was beginning to worry that Alvin had lost his muse.

Those fears can be put to rest.

BOSTON BOUND

My friend Cathy, who lives up in that neck of the woods, has given me the harsh lowdown on Boston traffic during the upcoming Democratic Convention.

And now this from Maureen Dowd:

"Except for the fact that the Secret Service has already advised journalists to bring "escape hood respirators" to the Democratic convention in Boston in case of a terrorist attack, it looks as if happy campaign days are here again."

This is going to be fun ...