ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP BATTLES

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

There's so many legislators running for some leadership position, it's hard to keep track without a printed program.

Case in point: When I dialed a wrong number Wednesday trying to call a senator who had been considering a run for Senate president Pro-tem (Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas) I got hold of another lawmaker who's running for House majority whip (Rep. Joe Campos, Santa Rosa).

Thanks to the departures of former Senate President pro-tem Richard Romero and former Senate Majority Floor Leader Manny Aragon, there will be new leadership in the state Senate.

And over on the House side, Democratic Floor Leader Danice Picraux and her Republican counterpart Ted Hobbs (both of Albuquerque) are still around, but both are being challenged by members of their own caucuses.

Here's a run-down on who's running for what:

Senate President pro-tem: This post, currently held by Romero, who lost his Congressional race against U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson this month, has attracted several candidates.

Some observers think Sen. Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City has the best shot. Altamirano, who has been in the Senate since 1971, has the most seniority of all state senators. For the past few year's he's been chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Some say he's the favorite of Gov. Bill Richardson.

Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, describes his bid as a longshot. He was majority floor leader for several years until late 2001 when he was overthrown in a coup by Aragon (who earlier that year had been ousted from the pro-tem job by Romero). Jennings is fourth in seniority in the Senate.

Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque has said she is running for the pro-tem position, as is Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque.

And though he is a Republican, and would need some Democrats for him to win, Sen. Joe Carraro of Albuquerque is in the running. He said Wednesday he thinks he can pull off as many as seven Democrats.

Because the president pro-tem is elected by the full Senate on the first day of the session - and not the individual party caucuses - the idea of a coalition is a possibility. It happened in 2001 when Romero joined with a handful of renegade Democrats and all 18 Senate Republicans to defeat Aragon.

Some have speculated that Jennings, a conservative Democrat, could pull off a similar trick this time.

Jennings downplayed such a scenario in an interview Wednesday.

"I'm a loyal Democrat," he said. "You look at my history and I never joined with any coalition in the past."

But he didn't completely shut the door. "It's a non-partisan post," he said. "Of course I would welcome any Republican support."

Asked whether he'd support whatever candidate is endorsed by the Senate Democratic caucus, which meets in Albuquerque Saturday, Jennings said, "It depends on who the candidate is."

Senate Majority Floor Leader: Could Phil Griego be the next Manny Aragon? Griego's fellow senators say the Democrat from San Jose is running the most aggressive campaign of any of the contenders.

But there are other contenders. Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen and Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Taos also reportedly are running for the job that opened up when Aragon accepted the job of president of New Mexico Highlands University.

Neither Sanchez nor Cisneros could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Griego recently sent letters to fellow Democratic senators saying that he's the most qualified partly because of a close relationship with House Speaker Ben Lujan and his "access to the Fourth Floor."

"Of the three people running, I have the best working relationship with the governor," Griego said this week.

Lujan on Wednesday confirmed he does have a good relationship with Griego. "But I think I could work well with whoever they elect," he said.

Richardson said recently he won't get involved in the leadership contests. Some have expressed skepticism about that.

House Majority Floor Leader: Rep. Danice Picraux, D-Albuquerque, has held this position since 2001. But now she has at least one and perhaps two challengers.

Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, confirmed Wednesday that he's running. And Lujan said that Rep. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, also will try to unseat Picraux. (Martinez couldn't be reached for comment.)

Lujan said he's staying neutral in this and other House leadership contests.

"Danice has done a good job," he said. "She's totally dedicated."

But Lujan said he could work with whoever the House Democrats choose when they caucus on Monday.

House Minority Floor Leader: The Republicans also could change leaders. Rep. Ted Hobbs of Albuquerque said he thinks he has enough votes to stay on as leader.

But Rep. Brian Moore, R-Clayton, who has been campaigning for the job since April, also expressed confidence that he has enough support.

Meanwhile, Rep. Larry Larranaga of Albuquerque confirmed on Wednesday that he's considering a stab for Hobbs' post. But he said he hasn't quite decided.

House Republicans meet in caucus on Monday.

Senate GOP: Senate Democrats and both parties in the House also have contested races for their respective whips.

The only caucus that apparently doesn't have any leadership battles ahead is the Senate Republicans. Senate Republican Leader Stuart Ingle of Portales said Wednesday, "I think we're safe. But there might be a few provisional ballots lying around somewhere."

He'll know for sure on Sunday, when the Senate Republicans meet.

AIR AMERICA COMES TO SANTA FE

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 16, 2004

Conservative Republicans might control the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, but the right-wing dominance of a local talk-radio station is about to end as the unabashedly liberal Air America network readies to start broadcasting at KTRC 1260 AM in Santa Fe.


“Santa Fe is a natural for us,” said Jon Sinton, president of Air America, in a telephone interview Monday. “We’re very excited.”

Air America, which broadcasts on more than 40 stations and two satellite networks, features shows hosted by left-of-center entertainers such as comedians Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D and Steve Earle as well as liberal commentators such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes.

The network was supposed to begin airing on KTRC on Monday, but technical difficulties with satellite equipment delayed the debut until today or Wednesday, Sinton said.

KTRC, which is owned by the AGM radio group, for years broadcast left-leaning programs from the I.E. America Network, which was affiliated with the United Auto Workers union.

However, I.E. America shut down early this year. KTRC kept one of the old I.E. America shows, The Thom Hartmann Radio Program, but added ultra-conservative talk shows such as Worldnet Daily Radio Active.

Last spring, a Texas radio company announced that it would bring Air America to Santa Fe. However, those plans fell through. “I don’t know what happened to those guys,” Sinton said.

More recently Air America picked up an Albuquerque station, KABQ 1350 AM. Reception of that station in Santa Fe is not good, however.

KTRC’s deal with Air America has been in the works for several months, Sinton said. One AGM employee said, “It took awhile to convince (AGM) that this was not the right market for conservative talk.”

In Santa Fe County, Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1. Democrat John Kerry got more than 70 percent of the vote against President Bush earlier this month. The last Republican presidential candidate to carry this county was Richard Nixon in 1972.

“We’re on in liberal communities like Ann Arbor, Mich.; Madison, Wis.; and Portland, Ore.,” Sinton said. “But our most stimulating debut was in San Diego, which is a very conservative city.”

According to the Web site for the San Diego Union-Tribune, Arbitron ratings in September showed that KLSD AM, which broadcasts Air America, was the No. 1 station with listeners between the ages of 25 and 54.

Despite the new left turn of KTRC, Al Franken and company will have to share the station with a prominent conservative talk-show host for a few weeks.

Because of contractual obligations, Michael Reagan, the son of the late former President Ronald Reagan, will continue to broadcast his show week nights on KTRC.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 14, 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
Sample and Hold by Neil Young
Computer Age by Sonic Youth
Had a Dad by Jane's Addiction
Mad Mock Goth by The Fall
Days and Days by Concrete Blonde
When I Was Young by Eric Burdon & The Animals

Masters of War by Eddie Vedder & Mike McCready
Empire of the Senseless by The Mekons
I'm So Afraid by Fleetwood Mac
Velouria by Frank Black & 2 Pale Boys

Too Tough to Die by The Twilight Singers
Flip Your Wig by Husker Du
Evil by Interpol
Ain't No Sunshine/Lonely Avenue by Isaac Hayes
Do the Primal Thing by NRBQ

Stop the Train by Mother Earth
Step Into the Light by Mavis Staples
I'm in Love by Nathaniel Mayer
Coon on the Moon by Howlin' Wolf
Only the Lonely by The Motels
Film of the Movie by The Minus 5
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

MASTERS OF SUPPRESSION

As Pogo used to say, "1984 came early this year."

Check out this story about a recent high school talent show in Boulder, Colo., where the Secret Service was called in because a band called The Coalition of the Willing performed a version of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War."

Gonna be a weird ride, folks.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 12, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
This show is dedicated to Dave Klug. Hang in, Dave!

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
All American Girl by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
I'm Just a Honky by The Ex-Husbands
TTT Gas by The Gourds
Then I'll Be Moving On by Mother Earth
Agony Wagon by The Legendary Shack Shakers
O Babe, It Ain't No Lie by Bingo
Billy's First Ex Wife by Ronny Elliott
Darktown Strutters Ball by (unknown home recording)

La La Land by Goshen
Love and Lust by Hundred Year Flood
The Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
Must You Throw Dirt in My Face by Elvis Costello
Just Like Geronimo by Marlee MacLeod
Never Gonna Change by Drive By Truckers
Hand to Mouth by The Flying Burritto Brothers
Cans, Copper & Car Batteries by Joe West

The Old Gospel Ship by Iris Dement
Gospel Train by The Wright Brothers
Christian Automobile by The Dixie Hummingbirds
The Tigers Have Spoken by Neko Case
I've Got a Tiger By The Tail by Buck Owens
Tiger in Your Tank by Muddy Waters
Tiger Man by Elvis Presley
The Preacher and the Bear by Sid Hausman & Washboard Jerry
Bears in Them Woods by Nancy Apple

Got the Bull by The Horns by Johnny Horton
Blessed With Happiness by Geraint Watkins
We're Gonna Live in the Trees by Robyn Hitchcock
Is That You by Buddy Miller
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
It's a Big Old Goofy World by John Prine
Together Again by Ray Charles
My Reasons Why by Blaze Foley
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: OUT OF THEIR GOURDS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 12, 2004

On their sixth or seventh album Blood of the Ram, The Gourds stretch out. You hear a wider array of influences -- ‘60s garage-band, ’70s soul, a touch of Irish folk.

This is hardly the first time this Austin band has painted with colors beyond their basic American roots pallet. After all, they first became notorious a few years when they did a version of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” in their trademark Cajun-touched, south-Texas country sound with that unique hopped-up but clunky style.

So it makes weird sense when you hear echoes of Al Green on “Escalade,” or when you think of Pigpen-era Grateful Dead when you hear the organ on “Triple T Gas” or you wonder whether you’ve stumbled upon a long-lost aborted Rolling Stones collaboration with some unknown hillbilly singer on the hilariously crude “Turd in My Pocket.”

Indeed there are wicked references to The Gourds’ musical forbearers here.

“Spanky,” apparently inspired by shoplifting tykes in the fishing section of a discount store, is a countrified version of The Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat”; “Illegal Oyster” contains a Bizzaro World nod to Gershwin’s “Summertime,” in the lines “Well, your daddy’s broke/And your mother’s homely”; and the title song, sung in a pseudo Waylon Jennings register, can trace its roots to Sam the Sam & The Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully.” (“He had great longhorns, harder than a pony keg/2 comin’ out of his head, one between his legs.”)

But the main reason Blood of Ram is such a kick is because it sounds like The Gourds.

You’re not always sure just what Kev Russell or Jimmy Smith, the main Gourd vocalists are singing about. Their lyrics are a jumble of picaresque tales, mystery oracles and half-formed dirty jokes.

“Wafer of bread, my last poker chip/Curse to you Chairman Mao crackin’ the whip,” Smith sings on “Triple T Gas.”

“31 days my fingers feel like rain/This jail was built on cracklins and cocaine,” is how Russell starts his surreal I-Fought-the-Law fantasy called “Cracklins.”

But with the irresistible musical backdrops, colored by Claude Bernard on accordion and Max Johnston (formerly of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco) on fiddle and banjo, it all makes sense.

Blood of Ram is full of what are bound to become Gourd standards. They’ve been together 10 years now and they just keep getting better.

Also Recommended:
*Dial W For Watkins by Geraint Watkins.Here’s another rootsy musical eccentric conjuring simple but irresistible aural magic.

Watkins, a 50ish picker from Wales, is mainly known as a sideman. He’s done studio work with Van Morrison, Paul McCartney and Tom Jones (!) and has toured with Nick Lowe (who plays bass and sings background on some cuts) Surprisingly this is his first American solo disc.

There are some tunes that are bound to twist your head off.

The album starts out with a slow, churchy minute-long tune called “Two Rocks,” which features Watkins crooning over soft organ chords. Then suddenly it turns into a Delta stomp called “Turn That Chicken Down” featuring a saxophone and harmonica over a National guitar. Watkins sings like he’s channeling T-Model Ford with a repeated refrain, “turn that chicken down, turn it down …” There’s a techno bridge. It ends with some trombone blurts.

The first tune that really sold me on this album was Watkins’ cover of the Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks classic “Heroes and Villains.” It’s done jump blues style, complete with scat singing, as if Louis Prima took a stab at Smile.

While “Chicken” and “Heroes,” as well as the cowboy swing of “Go West” are impressive novelties, it’s actually Watkins’ original soul ballads that give this album its staying power.

He’s got a lot in common with Lowe in his ability to nail smoky love songs like “I Will” and bitter heartache tunes “Bring Me the Head of My So-Called Lover.”

Watkins might also remind listeners of white soul songster Dan Penn on songs like the sad, soulful “Only a Rose” in which Watkins sings over a tremolo guitar, and “The Whole Night Through,” an upbeat, pretty, country-flavored declaration of devotion.

This is timeless music. Watkins might be a late bloomer at the age of 53, especially in a business still dominated by youth-culture. But I’m just glad he bloomed at all.

*Oval Room by Blaze Foley. Lucinda Williams eulogized him in her song “Drunken Angel” as Townes Van Zandt did in “Blaze’s Blues.” Merle Haggard immortalized him in his heart-wrenching cover of “If I Could Only Fly.”

But surprisingly, Austin singer-songwriter/character Blaze Foley -- who was shot and killed in a drunken argument in 1989 -- is next to impossible to find on CD. Live at the Austin Outhouse is out there somewhere. And now there’s this album, consisting mainly of Outhouse outtakes, produced by Gurf Morlix and John Casner.

There are several political tunes here, including the title song, which, written in 1988, proves that despite what you saw on t.v. this summer, not everyone loved Ronald Reagan.

Then there’s WW III, which is disturbingly timeless with lyrics like “I’ve been thinking, Uncle Sam, it’s time we went to war … If you don't hurry, sure enough/all these kids'll be grown up/be too old to die for you, so get 'em if you're going to."

Then there’s “Springtime in Uganda,” a diatribe against dictator Idi Amin that shows a shocking cultural insensitivity toward fundamentalist Islam and cannibalism.

But Blaze is at his best with his heartbreak songs. “My Reasons Why,” “Cold, Cold World” and -- especially -- “Someday” (with back-up here by the Texana Dames) are just waiting to be covered by George Jones or Haggard, who allegedly has made noises about doing an album of Foley songs.

Hear music from these CDs on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. to midnight Friday on KSFR, 90.7 FM and streaming on the web at www.ksfr.org.

STEALING THE ELECTION

I'm on vacation this week, so no political column. (I wrote this week's Terrell's Tune-up early, so look for that tomorrow.)

However for political junkies like me, there's never a real vacation from politics.

Since the election, probably 14 friends have e-mailed me links to Greg Palast's article that John Kerry actually won the election in Ohio and (gulp!) New Mexico, due to ballot spoilage and Republican dirty tricks.

The one part of Palast's article that struck me was his analysis of New Mexico's Chaves County, with his quaint image of "brown people" who "drive across the desert" to vote." Palast finds it surprising that Kerry lost to Bush by a big margin in Chaves County despite a large Hispanic population. Gee, does that mean that conservative Chaves County Republicans like state Sen. Rod Adair and Rep. Dan Foley have won by voter fraud too? Rise up Roswell liberals, wherever you are!

(And Palast apparently doesn't know -- or believe -- that Bush got about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in this state. Some of those "brown people" apparently drove across the desert to vote Republican.)

I've talked to so many Santa Fe folk who refuse to believe that a majority -- albiet a very slight majority -- of people in this state and the country would actually favor George W. Bush. As one friend, who believes the election was stolen by GOP voting machines, told me, "I just can't believe that so many people are so stupid."

Here's my personal nutball election conspiracy theory: All the lefty whining about the "stolen" election is being fed and orchestrated by none other than Karl Rove. It's his evil plan to forment mistrust and distrust of the election process itself, so in the future they'll just stay at home.

But seriously, for a good sober look at some of the election conspiracy theories, check out this story at Salon.com . (If you're not a subscriber, you'll have to get a "day pass" which involves looking at an advertisement. It won't kill you.)

Of course there are those who will only argue that the liberal Salon.com is now part of the right-wing election-stealing conspiracy. (Excuse me, I have to catch a plane to spray some chemtrails on innocent citizens.)

I'm not saying that the country doesn't need to take a good look and serious study of the very real problems in the election -- the long lines, the whole provisional ballot mess. There are many improvements that must be made.

But waddling in conspiracy theories is a self-defeating waste of time.

(There's a comment button on this blog. Flame on.)