ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: "GRASSROOTS" RECOUNT FIZZLES

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

While some New Mexicans who are distrustful of last month’s presidential election results have been pursuing a statewide recount through regular government channels, a Santa Fe physical therapist and Democrat poll watcher is leading a “small grassroots group” to do a partial recount themselves.

In a Dec. 3 letter from Citizens to Verify the Vote sent to every registered voter in east-side Santa Fe Precinct 36, Amba Caldwell said, “We find it imperative in our democracy that all our votes are counted correctly and that we find ways to trust the results.”

Then she asks each voter whether or not they voted and who they voted for. A separate sheet of paper, containing the voter’s name and the names of the major party candidates (and a space for “other candidate”) is included to be mailed back to Caldwell in a pre-addressed, postage-paid envelop.

“We understand the secret of the ballot is very important to many voters in our democracy,” Caldwell’s letter said. “However, we believe that an accurate vote count is more important than privacy.”

Who are these citizens?: First of all, Citizens to Verify the Vote is not associated with Verified Voting New Mexico, a group that has raised concerns about electronic touch-screen “black box” voting machines. Nor is it part of Help America Recount, which has been trying — unsuccessfully so far — to get the state to conduct an official recount.

City Councilor Karen Heldmeyer, whose district includes Precinct 36, said some of her constituents thought something was hinky about the letter and brought it to her attention.

“They had no idea what it meant or what (the sender) meant to do with the information,” Heldmeyer said Wednesday.

Caldwell, in an interview Wednesday, said she had no sinister motives in seeking this information. “When I got my voter list (from the county clerk), I had to sign an affidavit saying I understood that I’d be subject to criminal charges if I used this list in any way not related to elections,” she said.

“There are times when we have to find out the truth and need to let go of our secrecy,” she said.

“We need your participation to be successful,” the letter said.

However, it seems that most of the voters of Precinct 36 still like the idea of a secret ballot.

Out of more than 500 voters in the precinct, only 125 responded to the letter, Caldwell said. And one of those wrote the words “Secret Ballot” in the space in where respondents were supposed to mark their choice for president.

An Albuquerque friend who sent a similar letter to voters in Precinct 350 in Albuquerque reported a similar level of response, Caldwell said.

Why Precinct 36?: Caldwell said she got the idea after serving as a poll watcher on election day for the Democrats at Acequia Madre Elementary School, where Precinct 36 votes.

“As far as I know everything there went according to the law,” she said.

Though she saw no hanky panky at her polling place, Caldwell said some people are worried that somehow a small number of votes were stolen — somehow — from each voting machine statewide. Stealing a handful of votes from each machine could be enough to tip the election without anyone noticing, or so goes the theory.

However, Santa Fe County doesn’t use the controversial “black box” voting machines that have stirred so much controversy. The machines used in Santa Fe are “first-generation” — meaning “real old” — electronic devices that tally votes on computerized cards and produce a receipt at the end of election day of all votes cast.

It’s not clear how the bad guys would be able to program all the state’s 3,367 voting machines, which aren’t linked via the Internet or via anything else.

For the record: Sen. John Kerry won big in Precinct 36, receiving 423 votes — better than 80 percent — compared with the 92 votes for President Bush and four votes for other candidates. Caldwell said the un-secret ballots she received are similar in proportion to these numbers.

AM I (PRUSSIAN) BLUE?

They're talented. They're cute. They're little ... Nazis!

Meet Lynx and Lamb Gaede, 12-year-old California twins who have started their own pop band called Prussian Blue. It's like a cross between The Olson Twins, Hanson and Hermann Goering.

"These gals will be breaking new ground, and will also capture the imagination of young boys and girls all across the world," says National Alliance Northeast Regional Coordinator Rich Lindstrom in an article on the National Vanguard Web site. "The impact could be huge and their influence will encourage 'copycats' ...creating an entire genre of pro-White music. ...I'm hanging on the edge of my seat with anticipation."

I dunno ... Does this guy sound just a little too excited about these little girls?

Thanks to my sister Mary for bringing this to my attention.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 12, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Sic 'Em Pigs by Canned Heat
Green Lights by NRBQ
I'm Down by The Beatles
Don't Beat Me Down by The Donnas
Here Comes Your Man by The Pixies
I Wanna Be Your Lover by Bob Dylan
Tweeter and the Monkeyman by The Traveling Wilburys
The Christmas Blues by Dean Martin

True Love Will Find You In The End by Beck
Rhinocratic Oathes by The Bonzo Dog Band
Trickle Down System by Giant Sand
Song For Jeffery by Jethro Tull
Copshawholme Fair by Steeleye Span
Crown Of Love by Arcade Fire
You Better Run by Iggy & The Stooges
Christmas At K-Mart by Root Boy Slim & His Sex Change Band

Satisfied Fool by Nathaniel Mayer
Sling That Thing by Andres Williams
I'm a Millionaire by Lee Fields
Midnight Sky by The Isley Brothers
Breaking Up Somebody's Home by Anne Peebles
Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year by James Brown

Babe, You Turn Me On by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Wonderful by Brian Wilson
Meaning of Loneliness by Van Morrison
Muriel by Tom Waits
Sweet Salvation by Bernadette Seacrest
I Still Believe In You by Mavis Staples
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, December 10, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
The Wayward Wind by Lynn Anderson with Emmylou Harris
Where The Devil Don't Stay by Drive-By Truckers
Let Him In by The Gourds
Dead Cats on the Line by Vassar Clements
Say it Say When by Goshen
The Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn
Baghdad Baghdad by Acie Cargill

Hard Liquor & Handgun Night by Jim Hoehn
Rocky Top by The Osbourne Brothers
Pretty Polly by Ralph Stanley with Patty Loveless
Love's Gonna Live Here by Bill Monroe with Melissa Monroe
Shame on You by Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry
The Friendly Beasts by The Buckarettes
Throw a Seven by Ken Keppeler
Come On by Hundred Year Flood
Good Christian Soldier by Kris Kristofferson

See That My Grave is Kept Clean by Blind Lemon Jefferson
One Kind Favor by Canned Heat
A Dying Man's Plea by Mavis Staples
Find Blind Lemon Part 2 by Geoff Muldaur
Done Got Old by Jim White
The Twist Came from Tampa by Ronny Elliott

This Little Light of Mine by Neko Case
Only a Rose by Geraint Watkins
Fill My Way With Love by Iris DeMent
Try and Try Again by Billy Joe Shaver
Returning by Buddy Miller
The Maple Tree by Grey DeLisle
Love and Mercy by Jeff Tweedy
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: MAVIS FOR PRESIDENT

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Dec. 10, 2004

One of my fondest memories from the Democratic Convention in Boston last summer was the last day of the convention when I went to the FleetCenter early to type up some notes.

My assigned work space was right next to the band, a horn-heavy ensemble whose main job was to play little snatches of “Soul Man” or “Respect” or Kool & The Gang’s “Celebrate” before politicians’ speeches. (One delegate told me she heard them play “Mr. Big Stuff” before Gov. Bill Richardson’s speech. I was there, but I honestly don’t remember.)

So on the last afternoon of the convention I was sitting there typing notes on a laptop.

Although virtually nobody was on the floor, the band was there. They started playing a song called “The Promised Land.” The singer was doing an excellent imitation of Willie Nelson, I thought. Then I looked down to the stage below, and dang if it wasn’t Willie Nelson himself. He was doing a sound check for his performance at the convention later that night.

Next, the band started playing a soul/gospel version of “America the Beautiful” and there was another familiar voice. Sure enough, it was Mavis Staples, dressed in a sweat shirt for the sound check.

Twenty years before, “America the Beautiful” was performed in a similar style by Ray Charles -- except he sang it at the Republican Convention. Brother Ray had just died a few weeks before, so singing this song at a political convention was bound to draw comparisons. But pulled it off spectacularly. In fact, what living singer is better qualified to assume the mantle of Ray Charles?

This hardly was the first major political event where Staples performed. As part of The Staples Singers with her father and siblings, she sang at the inaugurations of both John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. The Staples also shared the stage many times with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

Amazingly, except for a few guest spots (on various-artist albums such as the most recent Los Lobos album, cuts on recent tribute albums for Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Cash, Stephen Foster and a gospel tribute to Bob Dylan), Staples until now hasn’t been putting out much of her own music in recent years.

Have a Little Faith is Staples’ first new album in nearly a decade -- and the first since her father Roebuck “Pops” Staples died.

This is an album of mostly gospel tunes with the old standby “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” along with lesser known tunes like the funky “There’s a Devil on the Loose” and “God is Not Sleeping.”

The best songs are down-home and rootsy like the opening cut “Step Into the Light,” which features a mean slide guitar and background vocals from The Dixie Hummingbirds.

Like The Staples Singers, whose biggest hits were songs like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There,“ which were spiritually uplifting without specifically mentioning God, on this album Mavis sings tunes like “At the End of the Day“ and “In Times Like These” (“In times like these/We need to be strong/We need to carry on/We need to get along …). The latter features backing vocals by the Rev. Jesse Dixon and The Chicago Music Community Choir.

There’s a sweet tribute to her father, “Pops’ Recipe,” (“He said accept responsibility/Don’t forget humility … Don’t subscribe to bigotry, hypocrisy, duplicity …)

But I think my favorite one here is a classic Blind Lemon Jefferson song The Staples Singers used to cover. Blind Lemon called it “See That My Grave is Kept Clean.” Canned Heat rocked it up and knocked it up, calling it “One Kind Favor.” Mavis calls it “A Dying Man’s Plea,” and, backed by a dobro and fiddle, infuses it with countrified soul.

My only complaint about this album is that it doesn’t include “America the Beautiful.”


Also Recommended

* I Just Want to Be Held by Nathaniel Mayer. To be honest, I’d never heard of this guy, but the liner notes of his new Fat Possum CD assures us that he had a bonafide hit in the early ‘60s with a song called “Village of Love.” But, like too many soul codgers, Mayer fell on hard times -- drink, drugs, poverty and obscurity.

As is the case with the best Fat Possum albums, Mayer’s is rough, raw, rocking and raunchy.

Songs like “You Gotta Work,” with its bitchen Farfisa organ and “I Wanna Dance With You,” with its slightly grating but truly addictive guitar hook, will remind you of the links between ’60s soul and garage-band music.

And songs like “Stick It or Lick It” will explain why Nathaniel Mayer wasn’t invited to perform at the inaugurations of John F. Kennedy or Jimmy Carter. (But Bill Clinton surely would like it.)

The true sign of twisted genius here is Mayer’s cover of John Lennon’s seething “I Found Out.” This was one of Lennon’s angriest songs from his “primal scream” Plastic Ono Band. It’s a rage against religion, drugs, false promises and childhood pain. Mayer spits out “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky,” like a fallen evangelist drunk on heresy.