MARAH CANCELLS SANTA FE

Just in case anyone was planning to go to Marah's show at The Paramount tonight, be warned that the band had to cancel due to their van breaking down in Arizona.

Tell your friends.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, August 22, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Love Buzz by Nirvana
Never Say Never by Romeo Void
The Flame That Killed John Wayne by The Mekons
Smash It Up by The International Noise Conspiracy
There Is No Time by Lou Reed
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
I've Gotta Be me by Iggy Pop
Cecilia Ann by The Pixies

Pigeon Heart by Marah
The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth by P.J. Harvey
Gus the Polar Bear From Central Park by The Tragically Hip
Someone's Watching by X
Over the Border by Eric Burdon
Love Hates Me by Texas Terri Bomb
Dead Quote Olympics by The Hives
Black Rat by Big Mamma Thornton

The City Sleeps by MC 900 Foot Jesus
Karen Revisited by Sonic Youth
Muzzle of Bees by Wilco
Baby Elephant Safari by DJ Keri & DJ 43
That Chick's Too Young to Fry by Louis Jordan


The Majesty of Love by Jon Dee Graham
It's Your Birthday by American Music Club
Days of Wine and Booze by The Minus Five
It'll Never Be Over For Me by Los Lobos
The Alternative Route to Vulcan Street by Super Furry Animals
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAY LIST

Friday, August 20, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Honky Tonk Girl by Rev. Horton Heat
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenburg
Fujiama Mama by Wanda Jackson
Flying Saucer Rock & Roll by Billy Lee Riley
Payday by Jesse Winchester
Payday Blues by Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks
I Threw It All Away by Elvis Costello
11 Months and 29 Days by Dave Alvin
Pass Me By by Mary McCaslin
The Star Spangled Banner by Betty Dylan

Ring of Fire by June Carter Cash
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight by Emmylou Harris
Weighted Down by Jay Farrar
Goddamn Lonely Love by The Drive By Truckers
Gold Dust Woman by Waylon Jennings
Busted by Peter Stampfel
Your Dice Won't Pass by Sally Dotson

Cowboys and Rodeos by The Buckarettes
Cowboy Hula by Nani Lim Yap
Ukelele Lady by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band
Hula Blues by Sol Hoopii
Rockahula Baby by Junior Brown
Hawaiian Roughrider by Leabert Lindsey
Yellow Roses by Ry Cooder
Hilo March by Roy Smeck
Sombrero Hula by The Buckarettes

Mike the Can Man by Joe West
What Are Their Names by David Crosby
Lotta Love by Neil Young
Love Has Brought Me To Despair by Berzilla Wailin
Sittin on Top of the World by Doc Watson
Queen Of The Silver Dollar by Emmylou Harris
Dance All Night by the Highwoods String Band
Country Blues by Doc Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TARGETING RALPH

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 20, 2004

A national anti-Ralph Nader, pro-Democrat group is buying ads on New Mexico television stations criticizing the independent presidential candidate for accepting help from Republicans.

David Jones, president of Washington, D.C.-based TheNaderFactor.com, said Thursday that his group is purchasing time for 60-second television ads in New Mexico as well as Wisconsin. The group also will be advertising in newspapers in Santa Fe and Madison, Wis.

Both states are considered “battleground” states for the general election.

“Something strange is happening in American politics,” the commercial says. “George Bush’s rightwing Republicans are now helping Ralph Nader ... Nader working with Republicans. Who knows? Maybe Republicans and Nader know something we don’t.”

The ad mentions New Mexico among seven states where Republicans allegedly are helping Nader.

Jones pointed out that New Mexico and Wisconsin have a Sept. 7 deadline for petitions to get Nader on the general-election ballot. Nader must get more than 14,000 petition signatures to get on the state’s ballot.

The television spots will begin running Tuesday in both states, Jones said. He said he didn’t know how much the group was spending in New Mexico.

“This is one of the strangest alliances in modern politics,” Jones said of Nader and the Republicans who are helping his effort. “In your state, there’s a Republican state senator who is distributing Nader petitions.”

Jones was referring to Sen. Rod Adair of Roswell, who last week attached downloadable Nader petitions to the newsletter he sent to his email list of nearly 24,000.

“We happen to believe that every candidate — right or left of center — should be on the ballot,” Adair wrote last week.

He agreed that having Nader on the ballot would hurt Democrat John Kerry, but argued that other minor parties, such as the Libertarian Party, take votes away from Republicans.

“How pathetic,” said Carol Miller, Nader’s New Mexico coordinator, when told about the anti-Nader spots. “This may help us. People are getting turned off by the Democrats’ efforts to keep Nader off the ballot.”

Jones said his group is made up of veterans from the campaigns of several former Democratic presidential contenders including John Edwards, now the party’s vice-presidential candidate; Howard Dean; and Wesley Clark. Jones said he worked in Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt’s presidential campaign.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: HURRAH FOR MARAH!

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 20, 2004

Four years ago, the band Marah, then under the tutelage of Steve Earle, released Kids in Philly, an exhilarating, exuberant shout of freedom. There were Van Morrisonish soul shuffles, Bruce Springsteenlike tales of street characters, in a fresh sound colored by ringing Mummers banjos.

The best song on the album was “Round Eye Blues,” a frightning account of the Viet Nam in which the rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack of the war takes on new portentous dimensions in the midst of a firefight. “I was shakin’ like Little Richard/I was sweatin’ like old James Brown …”

But the Philly kids’ follow-up, Float Away with the Friday Night Gods was an overproduced, empty sounding disappointment. A big blast of nothing.

It’s one thing for musicians to want to experiment and want their art to grow. It’s another thing to lose touch with who they are.

But now Marah has returned with 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, a new record that returns to the rootsy, soul-driven sound that made their fans love them in the first place.

And yes, there’s even banjos on the song “Pigeon Heart.” (not bluegrass banjo, but brightly strummed Mummers style, adapted from the music from Philadelphia’s Mummers Day Parade.)

Marah has been compared with Springsteen, Morrison, Tom Petty, fellow Phillyite Phil Spector among others. I hear some echoes of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker in Marah’s sound too, especially on the new album. Listen to the doo-wop drenched “Pizzaria” (a rare lead vocal from Serge) and the love ballad “Sure Thing.”

20,000 Streets starts off with a relatively slow reflective tune, “East,” with a prominent flute and harmonica playing off the guitars. It fades into a classic early Mercury Revish cacophony, including the sound of one of those obnoxious auto burglary alarms that serves as a bridge into the second song “Freedom Park.”

This tune is the real beginning of the album. It’s a high-charged soul sing-along that hijacks Little Anthony & The Imperials’ “Shimmy, Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop” to celebrate a concrete covered place near the airport that used to be a park, now full of broken glass and bittersweet memories.

The most unforgettable character on 20,000 Streets is the transvestite prostitute in “Feather Boa” who hates his own manhood and foresees a violent end to his sad life.

“Standing on the corner/Alone with the wind/Cocaine in his system/And it’s colder than it’s ever been.”

But the most touching story on the album is found in the song “Soda,” the tale of a doomed interracial romance. The most heartbreaking part of the song isn’t the hateful death of the main character. It’s the verse where he explains, “They call me `Soda’ because when I was a baby/My mother was so young/That soda was all she gave me/ It made me sickly, that’s why I shake.”

When Marah’s at its best, they can make you shake in more ways than one.


Marah will play The Paramount, 331 Sandoval St., 10 p.m. Monday, Aug. 23. Tickets are $5.00

Also Recommended:
The Great Battle by Jon Dee Graham. Graham is known for the growl in his voice. But Graham’s vocals are full of a world-weary resignation. It’s as if he knows he won’t get the girl, won’t come out on top, and in general, that he stands a good chance of messing everything up.

And even so, this former bandmate of Alejandro Escovedo (in the long departed True Believers) can moan a perfectly beautiful tune about “The Majesty of Love” without a hint of irony.

At first I was somewhat disappointed that this album doesn’t have any rockers half as fierce as “Laredo (Small Dark Something)” from his previous album Hooray For the Moon. And nothing as off the wall as his inspired cover of “Volver” from that album.

Indeed, Battle, produced by guitar whiz and Dylan sideman Charlie Sextron, is just a slower, more somber album. And while it might not knock you in the head, it will claw for your gut.

One of the most memorable songs here, “Robot Moving” is a slow burner in which the singer marvels about the fact he’s still waking up in the morning. “I always swore I’d never use the word `irony’ in a song,” he moans (after he’s already used the word in all the preceding verses) “ ’ course the irony is I never meant to live so long.”

Indeed, coping with the dismal dregs of middle-age is an ongoing thread through many songs here. On “Something to Look Forward To,” Graham sings about going home from work, watching cop shows on t.v. (“watch the poor people fight”) and waking up the next morning wearing last night’s clothes. “It was supposed to be different now,” he sings.

But the narrator of these tunes can wax optimistic without sounding like Little Mary Sunshine. “You give me something to look forward to,” he sings to a woman who apparently is willing to put up with a guy who passes out in front of the tube watching cop shows.

And in the album closer, “World So Full,” a sweet ballad with a melody that suggests gospel (and a steel guitar part that suggests jazz), Graham, “I know it’s hard, but I know it’s sweet/complicated and incomplete/But I am in love, I’m still in love/with a world so full.”

As always, Graham’s choice of covers is interesting and he makes the songs his own.

There’s a fast-paced rendition of Neil Young’s “Harvest” that almost makes you wish Neil would have done it this way instead of the plodding faux-country style of the original.

Graham gives the old gospel tune “Lonesome Valley” a new blues-drenched melody. But more important, he give it his raspy roar. He turns it into a proud declaration for loners and iconoclasts everywhere.

VIVA DESPERADOS!

I just found out from my pal Erik Ness that The Desperados, the Las Cruces band that backed me up on my "Farm Bureau sessions" a few years ago, truly are the kings of western swing.

The band won the Academy of Western Artists' award for Western Swing Duo/Group of the year last month in Fort Worth. The desperado beat out Asleep at the Wheel, Hot Club of Cowtown, two bands calling themselves The Texas Playboys and others.

Check out their latest CD Roots and Branches.

About five years ago, Erik recorded me singing two songs in the basement of the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau. The bureau had just moved into its present location. We recorded at the old, abandoned building. Erik later took the tapes to a proper recording studio and added tracks by The Desparados. Check out the song Parallel World on this page.

JIM HIGHTOWER IN SANTA FE

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 18, 2004

Populist agitator, author and radio personality Jim Hightower backed Ralph Nader for president four years ago. But on Wednesday he told a Santa Fe audience that he's supporting Democrat John Kerry this year.

"Ralph Nader is a longtime personal friend of mine," Hightower said. "I love the man. But I do not support him for president."

Referring to the Bush administration, Hightower said, "These people are not only nuts, they're dangerous. We've got to unite and get him out."

Hightower, wearing his trademark straw cowboy hat, spoke before about 200 people at a luncheon at the Eldorado Hotel. The event was sponsored by KSFR, Santa Fe Public Radio.

A former Texas state commissioner of agriculture, Hightower is known for his down-home style. He didn't disappoint his audience Wednesday as he sprinkled his speech with phrases like, "This makes me happier than a hog in a fresh wallow," and wisdom such as "Even a dead fish can go with the flow."

The luncheon doubled as a book-signing for Hightower, who sold and autographed several copies of his latest work, Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush.

Referring to himself as "an itinerant book hustler," Hightower said his 57-city book tour is designed to "spread the populist gospel. I want to raise some issues, raise some hope and raise some hell along the way."

Said Hightower, "You can fight the gods and still have fun."

Despite his decision not to support Nader this year, Hightower was critical of efforts by some Democrats to curtail Nader's campaign.Democrats in several states have challenged the Nader organization's attempts to get a place on the ballot.

In New Mexico, Democrats have been vocal in pointing out that the Nader campaign hired a Republican-owned organization to gather petition signatures. Nader must have more than 14,000 signatures by Sept. 7 to get on the ballot in New Mexico.

"Efforts by Democrats - some Democrats - to assail the Nader campaign are destructive," Hightower said. "Don't worry about Ralph. Push ahead."

Even though Hightower wants Kerry to win in November, he said "Beating Bush is a progressive victory. It's an essential step, but it just gets us back to square one. We're going to have to be in the face of the Kerry Edwards administration. Our fight is not for Kerry. Our fight is to take back this nation."

He described Kerry as "the lesser of two elites." But he added, "Franklin Roosevelt was an elite. It's certainly possible to rise above your class.

"Kerry will only be as good as we make him," Hightower said. "We'll cheer at his inauguration, but the next day we'll be across the street at LaFayette Park saying, 'Where's that health care for everyone?' "

Hightower said it's up to citizens to take action in their own communities and not wait for leaders to do it for them.

"It's no longer enough to be progressive. We've got to be aggressive," he said. "The powers that be are regressive. They're stealing faster than a hog eats supper."

In his travels, Hightower said, "I see a very different America than the one they show you in the media. People are not cowering in fear, not marching in lockstep with the commander in chief and not rolling over for corporate interests."

He praised Santa Fe for being one of several cities to pass its own Living Wage Ordinance instead of waiting for the federal government to raise the minimum wage by $1.

He also praised communities that have "stood up to Wal-Mart" by thwarting the giant discount store's plans for new stores.

"People are asking the right question - 'Whose town is it?' " Hightower said.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: INTRODUCING THE GOV

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 19, 2004

It used to be that Gov. Bill Richardson had to give reporters jobs in his administration before they started singing the governor's praises in public.

But after last week, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

As reported by The Albuquerque Tribune, three Albuquerque television news anchors gave introductions for Richardson at the recent Border Governors Conference, reading scripts written by the governor's office.

And apparently one of them was downright sparkling.

Monica Armenta of KOB-Channel 4 reportedly credited Richardson for "one of the most dramatic economic turnarounds in U.S. history" and said he "has done more for New Mexico in two legislative sessions than any previous governor accomplished in decades."

Richardson, according to the account, referred to Armenta as "the Katie Couric of New Mexico."

That hurts.

I thought I was the Katie Couric of New Mexico.

If nothing else, the governor's cozy relationship with the TV news folk has united people with disparate views.

In an e-mail newsletter, state Republican chairman Alan Weh referred to the introductions: "Unfortunately we encounter the media's liberal bias on an almost daily basis; here is a blatant example we wanted to share ..."

Weh gave the phone numbers of the two stations, urging readers to call " if you think that three news anchors subjectively stumping for Governor Richardson is biased or inappropriate ..."

Meanwhile, on the left, Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra, a publication of the New York-based organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, agreed that such an introduction was inappropriate.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Naureckas said, "News anchors are not expected to be entangled with the governor's office. Reading P.R. handouts from the governor's office is entanglement."

Naureckas added, "A lot of people have serious doubts that news media is as impartial as it claims to be. Stories like this confirm those suspicions."

But two of the three anchors said Wednesday their roles in the introductions were significantly less than Armenta's. Armenta couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

Nelson Martinez, also of KOB, said all he did was say the names of the various governors and where they were from. The only compliments he gave were directed to an old table at the conference on loan from the Palace of the Governors.

"My script was very cut and dry," Martinez said. He said he wouldn't have said the same things his colleague did. "I know where the line is," Martinez said.

Cynthia Izaguirre of KOAT Channel 7 said, "to be lumped in with remarks by another anchor is libel."

The only thing she said about Richardson was that he was "a very busy man," Izaguirre said. "The governor and I have had some tough interviews."

Who's the brain?: An e-mail advertising the debut of a new anti-Bush film Bush's Brain - a critical profile of political adviser Karl Rove - excitedly announced that the film would be showing in major cities later this month.

But the list makes me wonder how serious the folks in charge of this are about trying to affect the election.

Of the 19 cities listed, nine are in California - one of the bluest of the blue states by virtual every estimation - while four are in Texas, where George W. Bush would have to forget the Alamo to come even close to losing. The other cities include the Democratic strongholds of New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Nothing in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, or New Mexico.

Somehow, I don't think Karl would have done it this way.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, August 15, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Want to See You Bellydance by The Red Elvises
You Broke My Mood Ring by Root Boy Slim & His Sex Change Band
Everybody's Gonna Be Happy by The Kinks
Abra Cadavaer by The Hives
Greasy Heart by The Jefferson Airplane
Gypsy Eyes by Jimi Hendrix
Jenny I Read by Concrete Blonde
Uncomplicated by Los Lobos

Monsters of the Id by Mose Allison
Wake Up Sally by Stan Ridgway
For A Thousand Mothers by Jethro Tull
Flowers and Beads by Iron Butterfly
The Letter by P.J. Harvey
The Gnome by Pink Floyd
Let's See Action by The Who

Isley Brothers Set
Shout
Hello I'ts Me
I Turned You On
Fight the Power
Ohio/Machine Gun

I Know You Are There by The Handsome Family
About To Begin by Robin Trower
Indian Summer by The Doors
Kiss From an Old Flame by Mercury Rev
Melt Away by Brian Wilson
Rivendell by Rush
Port of Amsterdam by David Bowie
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SANTA FE OPRY PLAY LIST

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, August 13, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Shakin' the Blues by Gail Davies & Robbie Fulks
The Boys From Alabama by Drive-By Truckers
New Fashioned Imperialist by Jason Ringenberg
King of Fools by Billy Joe Shaver
Pigeon Heart by Marah
Union Square by Eric Ambel
Innocent When You Dream by Elvis Costello
They Call The Wind Mariah by The Buckerettes

Sputnik 57 by Jon Langford
Blinding Sheets of Rain by The Old 97s
Robot Moving by Jon Dee Graham
Madman by Chrissy Flatt
Stranger in the Mirror by Jody Reynolds & Bobbie Gentry
Are You Still My Girl? by Joe West
Been a While by ThaMuseMeant
On the Sea of Galilee by Emmylou Harris & The Peasall Sisters
The Bum Hotel by Uncle Dave Macon

Crow Hollow Blues by Stan Ridgway
My Sister's Tiny Hands by The Handsome Family
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
Richland Woman Blues by Maria Muldaur
Uncle Smoochface by Michael Hurley
New White House Blues by Peter Stampfel & The Bottle Caps
Shake That Thing by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
I Love Onions by Susan Christie

Beautiful Dreamer by Raul Malo
Wild Irish Rose by George Jones
Foot of the Bed by Tres Chicas
Green Green Rocky Road by Dave Van Ronk
Single Girl by 16 Horsepower
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Jacob's Ladder by Greg Brown
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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