ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: SWIFT BOATS & N.M. POLITICS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 26, 2004

Texas millionaire home-builder Bob Perry isn't just interested in John Kerry's military career. Perry also has used his checkbook to become involved in New Mexico politics.

Perry has been in the national news for being the major contributor to the controversial Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In case you've been living in a distant dimension the past week or two, that's the Vietnam veterans group who have dominated much of the nation's political discussion due to their television ads and a book claiming the Democratic presidential candidate lied about his Vietnam experiences.

The New York Times and other publications have identified Perry as a close friend of President Bush's political director, Karl Rove, and a past contributor to Bush. Perry, a Houston resident, donated $200,000 to the anti-Kerry veterans.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Perry also has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to various conservative and Republican political action committees, such as U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Majority Issues Fund; former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey's Majority Leader's Fund; The Club for Growth, an influential PAC dedicated to lower taxes and smaller government; and the College Republican National Committee.

According to an Aug. 8 story in the Los Angeles Times, Perry has donated more than $1 million to the Texas Republican Party and at least $200,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a tort-reform advocacy group.

Perry also has jumped into New Mexico politics. In 2002, he was the biggest individual contributor to Republican gubernatorial candidate John Sanchez. According to the Washington D.C.-based Institute on Money in State Politics, Perry gave the Sanchez campaign $183,000, while Perry's wife Doylene gave another $55,000.

Combined, that's more than what the Perry family gave the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

In May the Associated Press reported that Bob Perry was the top contributor to the Republican Party of New Mexico for that reporting period. Sometime between late 2003 and May he gave the party $37,500.

Contacted Wednesday, Sanchez, who is regional director of the Bush-Cheney campaign, said he wasn't aware that Perry was main contributor to the Swift Boat group.

"He was a good supporter of ours," Sanchez said. "I never met him (face-to-face) but I talked to him on the phone."

Sanchez took the official party line on the Swift Boat controversy: "That's an individual group entirely separate from the campaign."

Governor of where? Carmen Villa Prezelski, an Arizona delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Boston last month, wrote a column in the Tucson Citizen recently in which she expressed some bemused frustration at people mixing up her state with ours.

"Not being one to let my state take a back seat, I always corrected them, and believe me, they kept me busy, and New Mexico was especially prominent since its governor, Bill Richardson, was the chairman of the convention," she wrote.

Prezelski told of an encounter with a convention volunteer at Paul Revere Mall.

"'Geez,' he said, 'Did you get a load of that paint job on the RV that your governor has been riding around in?'

"Well, of course I had seen that RV. It was a sight to behold. It had a bright yellow background and had all sorts of glorious Western scenes painted on it.

"'Oh that,' I said. 'That belongs to the governor of New Mexico.'"

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Wednesday the yellow RV wasn't actually the governor's. It belonged to the state Tourism Department, which was in Boston promoting the state (New Mexico, not Arizona) and is expected to be in New York next week for the Republican convention.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FOUL-SMELLING WASTE THEY'VE TRIED TO PASS OFF AS MUSIC?

CLICK HERE

IS MY BROTHER TOO DANGEROUS?

I didn't realize it until this morning but The New Mexican web site has a poll concerning my brother, Jack Clift and the controversy he stirred when he played on The Plaza last month.

Click here for original story.

Click here for the poll. (You'll also find links to Jack's music.)

Here's the poll questions:

Is Jack too dangerous for Santa Fe?

A. very dangerous! detain them immediately and indefinitely
B. keep these tunes under strict surveillance
C. general light monitoring of activity advised
D. approachable
E. friendly and inviting
F. certified Plaza-safe

Remember, your vote counts. If you don't vote you have no right to complain.

CAMPAIGN MUSIC

Chuck the Duck alerted me to this story about music in the presidential race. Our friend Ed Pettersen is quoted there.

The story, by Newhouse News Service writer Delia M. Rios begins with a discussion of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," which was played in Boston as the Democratic National Convention.

Funny thing is, a couple of weeks ago at President Bush's appearance, they played a marching band version of "This Land is Your Land" as the president was exiting. I couldn't resist bugging a couple of my Republican friends. "Did you know they're playing a song by a known communist?"

They looked at me like I was crazy.

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.