FUNNIEST BUCK OWENS REVIEW I EVER READ

Here's just a taste:

"I pulled the sharpened keno pencil from my neck where I had attempted to puncture my jugular vein after witnessing Buck Motherfucking Owens doing a Shania Twain number and began writing out MY request ..."

CLICK HERE for the whole thing.

LEGISLATIVE BLOG

In addition to keeping this silly blog going, I'm going to be blogging for The New Mexican during this year's session of the state Legislature, which begins tomorrow.

To check out the paper's blog CLICK HERE. I'll also add a permanent link on the right-hand side.

I'm not exactly sure what it's going to look like every day. Like Blogdom in general at this point, I'll kind of make it up as I go along here.

My editors have stressed that my first duty is to produce copy for the paper, not the blog. So if the going gets tough, the blogging could get thin. We'll have to just see how it goes.

But don't worry, gentle blog readers. This blog you're reading now will continue to have my columns, my playlists and all the other fun stuff you find here.

But check back frequently for updates and observations, some of which might end up in the next day's paper, some of which might not. And feel free to use the comment feature at the bottom of each post. Talk back! (Same goes for this blog.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January xx, 2005
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
New Big Prinz by The Fall
Dear John by Holly Golightly
Don't Worry About the Government by Talking Heads
Set Me Free/Till the End Of the Day by The Kinks
Seasons In the Sun by Too Much Joy
I Can't Control Myself by The Ramones
That's Not Really Funny by The Eels
South Street by The Orlons

Don't Worry Baby/Warmth of the Sun by The Beach Boys
Rio Grande by Brian Wilson
Don't Be Denied by Neil Young
Poor Murdered Woman by Shirley Collins & The Albion County Band
A Woman Left Lonely by Janis Joplin
Guess Who I Saw in Paris/97 Men in This Here Town Wuld Give a Half a Grand in Silver Just to Follow Me Down by Buffy Sainte Marie

Por Morfina y Cocaina Part 1 by Manuel C Valdez
Jefe De Jefes by Los Tigres Del Norte
El Rey De Pipa Roja by Los Montenos
A Pistol For Paddy Garcia by The Pogues
If You Got to Make a Fool of Somebody by James Ray
Aijo by Varttina
Bomb by Kazik Staszewski
Blue and Black by Mercury Rev

Tapdancin' Bats by NRBQ
Grim by The Ass Ponys
Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor by Sandy Denny
When Your Number Isn't Up by Mark Lannegan Band
Welcome to My World by Giant Sand
This One's From the Heart by Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 14, 2005
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
Let's Have a Party by Wanda Jackson
Tears at the Grand Old Opry by Robbie Fulks
Weary Blues From Waiting by Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter
Saturday Midnight Bop by Jerry J. Nixon
Hex by Neko Case
Wrong John by Jim Stringer
I Always Loved a Waltz by Kell Robertson

Wife Beater/Bulldozers and Dirt by Drive-By Truckers
Dancing With the Women at the Bar by Whiskeytown
Nothin' Wrong With Me by NRBQ
Bible Cyst by The Legendary Shack Shakers
Pussy Pussy Pussy by The Light Crust Doughboys
My Girl's Pussy by R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders
La Marijuana by Trio Garnica-Ascencio

Mose Allison Played Here by Greg Brown
The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home by Iris DeMent
Jacob's Ladder by Greg Brown with Iris DeMent
Come On by Hundred Year Flood
Little Tease by Goshen
Elizabeth Cotton's Song by The Moaners
Take the Devil Out of Me by Tres Chicas

Cans, Copper & Car Batteries by Joe West
Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me by Johnny Horton
Sixteen Roses by Miranda Brown
Heartache to Hide by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Wild Irish Rose by George Jones
Linda on My Mind by Conway Twitty
Trouble in Mind by Merle Haggard
Whiskey Willie by Michael Hurley
Pick Up the Tempo by Willie Nelson
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: THE BIRTH OF NARCOCORRIDO

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 14 2005

The music glorifies criminal behavior and loose morality. It’s a terrible influence on the youth of the nation. Something must be done to wipe it out.

Sound familiar?

Here in the U.S. Such things have been said about rap, Marilyn Manson, early rock ‘n’ roll, latter-day rock ‘n’ roll, the blues and, back a couple of centuries ago, “fiddle music.”

Down in Mexico for the past few decades, the musical culprit for the downfall of civilization is the narcocorrido, musical stories of drug smugglers popularized by such bands as Los Tigres del Norte, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Grupo Exterminator and Los Aces.

Just like gangsta rap in this country, the people eat up the narcocorrido (it’s a major part of the Spanish-language record industry on both sides of the Mexican border), though politicians and other upright citizens denounce it and occasionally try to censor it.

(And, naturally, the anti-narcocorrido hysteria emboldens censorship aimed at politically embarrassing music. Just last year, Victor Valencia, the president of the Chihuahua, State Congress spoke up against Los Tigres del Norte’s corrido, “Las Mujeres de Juárez,” -- which wasn’t about drugs, but concerned the murders of scores of young female workers from the maquiladoras. The song, he said, would “contribute to creating an atmosphere of greater terror in our city,” and “discourage investment” in the region.)

Narcocorrido didn’t just spring from the head of some Mexican record producer. As shown in the recent Arhoolie CD The Roots of the Narcocorrido, compiled by James Nicolopulos ( a Spanish professor at the University of Texas), the style comes from a long musical tradition.
On this record, Nicolopulos includes songs going back to the 1880s and recordings going back to the 1920s.

In the case of hardcore gangsta rap music in the U.S., the musical form itself -- the repetitive pounding beats, the scratching, the sampling, the indecipherable slang and the frequent lack of melody -- adds to the fear factor in older censorship advocates.

But even narcocorrido recently has begun to add elements of hip hop and rock, the basic form of the music is very traditional -- polkas and waltzes played by bands employing accordions, guitars, sometimes brass.

And thought the narcocorrido didn’t arise until the 1970s, the lyrical content of such music is based on a type of song long known in Mexico, the corrido or ballad.

(Indeed outlaw ballads have been an essential part of traditional folk music in the English-speaking world as well. As for “glorifying criminals,” who do we love here in America: Jesse James or the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard” ? Stagolee or the whimpering Billy DeLyons?)

The first song on The Roots of the Narcocorrido is “”El Corrido de Heraclio Bernal,” a tune dating back to the 19th Century about a Robin Hood-like bandit from Sinoloa, who was betrayed for a reward of 10,000 pesos by one of his own men. This version of the ballad was recorded in 1953 by Dueto Adan & Eva in Mexico City with mariachi horns and violins.

If “Heraclio Bernal” is a typical “social outlaw” celebrated in song and legend, Mariano Resendez represented another type of outlaw hero to inspire Mexican corridos: the smuggler.

But the hero of the tune “Mariano Resendez” -- dating back to the 1890s, this version being recorded in 1948 by Timoteo Cantu & Jesus Maya -- didn’t smuggle contraband from Mexico into the U.S. He and other early smuggler corrido heroes smuggled stolen luxury items from the U.S. into their homeland.

When Prohibition hit the United States, Mexican smugglers reversed course, and started bringing illegal substances -- namely alcohol -- into this mighty land. The phenomenon is documented in songs like “Los Tequileros“ (which lambastes “despicable” Texas Rangers who shoot down brave tequila smugglers) “Corrido de Juan Garcia” (about a liquor smuggler killed in an ambush by the Border Patrol in 1931) and “Corrido de Mier” which mocked sleeping customs agents.

It’s also worth noting that smugglers aren’t the only ones to become the heroes in these songs. Sometimes lawmen get respect in corridos.

Such is the case of “The Ballad of Juan Menses,” a brave cop who was “cut down by the cowardly machine guns of the smugglers” in 1946. This song was recorded in the 1960s in Alice, Texas by Las Hermanas Guerro with Jimmy Morgan;s conjunto.

Then there’s Nieves Hernandez, the man who arrested Mariano Resendez. However Nicolopulos in his liner notes points out that the song “Mariano Resendez” (represented here in a 1960s recording by a band called Los Satelites) was probably commissioned by some of Hernandez’s ancestors to vindicate his memory. In some earlier Resendez ballads Hernandez is “responsible for or at least complicit in the extra judicial execution of the defenseless hero.” But in this song, Hernandez was “a man worthy of respect (who) wasn’t afraid of anything.”

This collection also includes some songs that reference narcotics, cocaine marijuana. Some are tragic and melodramatic like “La Cocaina,” by Pilar Arcos (1927) a string-laden song about a coke-addled senorita who ends up stabbing her unfaithful lover.

Some are comic like the surreal “La Marijuana,” (by Trio Garnica-Ascencio, 1929) which starts out with the image of a pot-smoking frog.

And some corridos are like scenes from Scarface, Traffic or Blow. Such is “Carga Blanca,” a 1949 song by Los Cuatesones concerning a drug-related shootout in San Antonio. (“Three dead and two wounded/were hauled off by the ambulance/but the roll of cash/disappeared completely from the scene.”)

This collection includes several “prisoner lament” type songs in which the captured smuggler regrets his life of crime. But there’s also Francisco Martinez, the hero of a 1949 song sung by Juan Gaytan y Felix Solis, a “good” and “determined smuggler” who says he “fought for my woman” and lived “without fear.”

Martinez is at the end of his life here. But he’s undoubtedly bound for an eternity where he’ll happily plunder the cosmos with Mariano Resendez and Heraclio Bernal. And perhaps it’s an outlaw paradise without borders, where he’ll join up with Jesse James and Stagolee.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: READING THE SIGNS AT THE CAPITOL

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 13, 2005

Officially, nobody knows who will be filling important committee posts in the state Senate. And a few committee chairmanships are up for grabs this year due to election upsets, retirements and leadership shifts.

Officially, committee chairmen in the Senate are recommended by the Committee on Committees and approved by the full Senate.

And officially, the Committee on Committees isn’t chosen until the Senate pro-tem is elected at the outset of the session.

But unofficially, if you want to know this week who the new committee chairmen are going to be, all you have to do is know how to read the signs.

I mean that literally. You just have to walk around the third floor of the Roundhouse and read the names on the signs on the doors.

Roman Maes, D-Santa Fe, who had been chairman of the Corporations and Transportation Committee, was defeated in his primary race by John Grubesic. Up at Maes’ old office, Room 300, a new sign says Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, is the new chairman of that committee.

Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, who has been chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was elected majority floor leader last year. He’s already moved into former Sen. Manny Aragon’s office down on the first floor. The new sign on the door of Room 319, Sanchez’s old office, says that Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, is the new Judiciary chairman.

And finally there’s Sen. Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City, longtime chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Late last year his fellow Democratic senators nominated Altamirano for Senate president pro-tem, to replace Richard Romero, who ran an unsuccessful race for Congress instead of seeking re-election.

Now officially (I was hoping to use that word again) Altamirano doesn’t have the pro-tem job yet. The full Senate elects that position, normally on the first day. Republican Sen. Joe Carraro of Albuquerque has said he’s running for the post. And at one point last year, Carraro was claiming he might peel off as many as six Democratic votes, more than enough to put him over.

But apparently Altamirano isn’t worried.

His old office, Room 325, has a sign that says Sen. Joe Fidel, D-Grants, is now chairman of the Finance Committee and that Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, is vice chairman. (Fidel has been the committee’s vice chair.)

If you can trust the signs on the door, other current committee heads are safe.

Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, will keep her position of chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, will remain chairwoman of the Public Affairs Committee, Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, will still be chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Taos, will stay chairman of the Conservation Committee, and Sen. John Pinto, D-Tohatchi, will still be chairman of the Indian and Cultural Affairs Committee.

Of course, as the surprise coup against former Senate President pro-tem Manny Aragon in 2001 showed, some things could change once the Legislature actually gets going.

Meanwhile, back at the House of Representatives ... : The House isn’t quite as obvious as the Senate in tipping its hand on committee chairmanships.

However, over at Room 304, office of the chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, Santa Fe’s Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela’s name is where retired chairman Max Coll’s used to be. There’s no sign identifying Varela as chairman, but his name is above that of Deputy Chairman Henry “Kiki” Saavedra, D-Albuquerque.

And there’s no name on the door of Room 308, the office of the House Judiciary Chairman. Rep. Kenny Martinez, D-Grants, abandoned that post to become majority floor leader. Rumors persist that Rep, Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, is in line for the Judiciary chairmanship.

NOTHING NEW UNDER SUN

I thought the fake reviews of the Family Circus book was so funny, I posted about it below.

But now I've learned the phenomenon has been around for years. Here's a 1999 article about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

And here's a 2002 online interview with Bil Keane in The Washington Post. He's good a good sense of humor about the whole Amazon thing.

I also learned that other Family Circus books have whacky customer reviews in Amazon.

Still pretty funny though ...

I'M A TEAM PLAYER NOW

For the last several months I've resisted putting my radio show play lists on the KSFR web site. There were several reasons. For one thing, I post them on this blog. But most importantly I resisted because initially we were told that we had to include a UPC code number or catalog number, which apparently was for the benefit of the Recording Industry Association of America. And if we didn't include these numbers, the entry would be blank. This was bad news especially for those of us who ocasionally use home-burned CDs or (shudder) bootlegs.

So I refused to go to all the extra trouble of typing in a bunch of numbers for the RIAA's benefit. But checking out other KSFR play lists, I noticed others didn't have that info -- and no entries appeared to be missing.

So I created lists for last week's Santa Fe Opry and Terrell's Sound World.

I'll try it for awhile. But I'll keep posting my lists on this blog too.

HOPE, FAITH & CHARITY

I just became aware of a new organization called H.O.P.E. that has a program to bring relief to a sadly forgotten class of victims. Tsunami survivors? Nope? Iraqi children wounded in the crossfire of war? Naw ... Mudslide victims in California? Nope, they've got to look for "HOPE" elsewhere.


No, H.O.P.E. (Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment)is "an association of entertainment and media professionals, students, journalists, and citizens that are fed up with the face of popular culture and mainstream entertainment" who are dedicated to bringing "quality to the world of entertainment while working outside of the traditional network, record label, and studio structure." They're not a right-wing "Let's Beat on the Dixie Chicks" bunch who believe Sean Penn and Barbra Streisand are the gravest threats to democracy. H.O.P.E. is taking on the more serious issues of annoying celebs and talentless pop singers who suck regardless of their political views.

And H.O.P.E. is putting their money where their proverbial mouth is. They don't just make fun of Paris Hilton and Britney whatzername. They've actually set up a CD exchange for disgusted ex-Ashlee Simpson fans. That's right, you can send them your old Ashlee CDs and get some good music -- Elvis Costello, The Ramones, X, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Aretha Franklin, Mr. Bungle and Ray Charles are among those named -- in exchange.

I wonder if tsunami victims can send in Ashlee Simpson CDs in exchange for, say, sanitary drinking water ...

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 9, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Nixon Tribute
One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons
Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Nixon's Dead Ass by Russell Means
Watergate Blues by Tom T. Hall

Oops! I Did It Again by Richard Thompson
She's 19 Years Old by Muddy Waters
Oh Sweet Mary by Big Brother & The Holding Company

Mack the Knife by Kazik Staszewski
Nothing Is Impossible (from Zakhmee soundtrack)
Theme From Burnt Weenie Sandwich by The Mothers of Invention
Is She Weird by Frank Black & Two Pale Boys
Contraflow by The Fall
Things We Like to Do by NRBQ

Elvis Tribute
(All songs by Elvis Presley except where noted)
Listening to Elvis by Ed Pettersen & The High Line Riders
King of the Whole Wide World
Reconsider Baby
Trying to Get to You
True Love Travels Down a Gravel Road
The Pelvis (Medley: Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Suspicious Minds) by The Ditch Bank Okies
Follow That Dream
Elvis Is Everywhere by Mojo Nixon
(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)

Running From the Baron by The Winking Tikis
Yen on a Carrousel by David Holmes
The Darker Days of Me and Him by P.J. Harvey
Dream Scream by Death Cab for Cutie
Like Little Willie John by Mark Lannegan
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis