Friday, February 4, 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
Stranger in Our House by Justin Trevino
First Day of the Trial by Cornell Hurd
Hot Dog That Made Him Mad by Carolyn Marks & The Room-Mates
One Night With You by Wanda Jackson
How Can I Unlove You by Lynn Anderson
Country Poor & Country Proud by Robbie Arsenault
Get Up Jake by Raising Cane
Sober and Stupid by Fortytwenty
Automobile Ride Through Alabama by Red Henderson
Western Union Wire by Kinky Friedman
Highway Cafe by Tom Waits
Mr. Edison's Electric Chair by Ronny Elliott
Summer Evening by Gillian Welch
Rated X by Neko Case
Backstreet Affair by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
Old Missouri Waltz by Acie Cargill
Honey Babe by Guy Davis
Drive-by Truckers Set
All songs by DBT
Steve McQueen
Harold and Margo
Sink Hole
The Sands of Iwo Jima
Don't Be in Love Around Me
Guitar Man Upstairs
The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town
The Night Hank Williams Came to Town by Johnny Cash
Peggy Sue Got Married by Buddy Holly
Learning the Game by Waylon Jennings with Mark Knopfler
Kentucky by The Louvin Brothers
The Tear I Left Behind by Rex Hobart & His Misery Boys
The Man in the Bed by Dave Alvin
It Only Rains on Me by Don Williams
Jimmy's Road 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
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Friday, February 04, 2005
BLUEGRASS BY LYNN
Pasatiempo started its long-awaited CD review section today. David Prince, Michael Koster and Craig Smith all have reviews in it. Here's my contribution:
The Bluegrass Sessions
Lynn Anderson
DM Nashville
This record earned country songbird Lynn Anderson her first Grammy nomination in nearly 35 years -- back when she was on top of the country charts with her signature tune, Joe South’s “Rose Garden.”
Notice I said “earned.” This album -- which features lively fiddle-and-banjo renditions of Taos resident Anderson’s best known songs plus some other surprises -- is a hoot from start to finish.
Anderson is hardly a stranger to bluegrass. Back in 1969 she was one of the first to record Felice & Boudleaux Bryant’s “Rocky Top,” which since has become a bluegrass standard.
Those who are put off my all that heavy early ‘70s “countrypolitan” pop production that marked Anderson’s best-known material should appreciate the understated, rootsy sound of The Bluegrass Sessions. Anderson hits like “How Can I Unlove You,” the soulful “Cry,“ and, yes, even “Rose Garden,” sound fresh and vital. And if anything, Anderson’s voice has improved with age.
The best cuts here are Anderson’s high-energy version of John Prine’s strip-mining lament “Paradise,” and a sweet country weeper called “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”
That’s an Anderson original, not the old Four Seasons classic. She did however include a quasi-bluegrass/quasi-calypso cover of “Under the Boardwalk.” I didn’t really like this track until the very last refrain when Anderson sings “On a blanket with my baby,” then snorts a dirty little laugh as if she’s letting us in on some secret. That boosted the sex appeal in this song by about a thousand percent.
I don't care what Anderson's legal problems are -- and there have been quite a few well-publicized ones lately -- this is one dynamite album.
The Bluegrass Sessions
Lynn Anderson
DM Nashville
This record earned country songbird Lynn Anderson her first Grammy nomination in nearly 35 years -- back when she was on top of the country charts with her signature tune, Joe South’s “Rose Garden.”
Notice I said “earned.” This album -- which features lively fiddle-and-banjo renditions of Taos resident Anderson’s best known songs plus some other surprises -- is a hoot from start to finish.
Anderson is hardly a stranger to bluegrass. Back in 1969 she was one of the first to record Felice & Boudleaux Bryant’s “Rocky Top,” which since has become a bluegrass standard.
Those who are put off my all that heavy early ‘70s “countrypolitan” pop production that marked Anderson’s best-known material should appreciate the understated, rootsy sound of The Bluegrass Sessions. Anderson hits like “How Can I Unlove You,” the soulful “Cry,“ and, yes, even “Rose Garden,” sound fresh and vital. And if anything, Anderson’s voice has improved with age.
The best cuts here are Anderson’s high-energy version of John Prine’s strip-mining lament “Paradise,” and a sweet country weeper called “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”
That’s an Anderson original, not the old Four Seasons classic. She did however include a quasi-bluegrass/quasi-calypso cover of “Under the Boardwalk.” I didn’t really like this track until the very last refrain when Anderson sings “On a blanket with my baby,” then snorts a dirty little laugh as if she’s letting us in on some secret. That boosted the sex appeal in this song by about a thousand percent.
I don't care what Anderson's legal problems are -- and there have been quite a few well-publicized ones lately -- this is one dynamite album.
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: TRUCKERS' PARADISE
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 4, 2005
The first time the Drive-By Truckers received any serious attention was in 2002 when Lost Highway Records re-released their wonderful landmark double-disc Southern Rock Opera (originally appearing on the tiny Soul Dump Records, a year before.) That effort was lavishly praised -- and rightly so -- by critics as well as fans of hard crunching roots-conscious guitar rock. And their subsequent efforts, Decoration Day and The Dirty South have lived up to Southern Rock Opera’s huge promise.
(As just one small voice in criticdom, all three made my annual Top 10 lists, The Dirty South topping last year’s.)
But some casual Trucker fans might not release that the Georgia-based band has been making albums years before Southern Rock Opera. The group’s current label, New West.
While neither of these reach the heights of the group’s last three albums, they’re both respectful efforts that, in retrospect, drop huge hints of what was in store. These CDs provide a glimpse at a great band back when they were merely really good.
The Truckers were more “country” sounding than the new ones. You hear a lot more steel guitar and mandolin on these albums as compared with the DBT’s now trademark Skynyrd-esque three-guitar attack. (But you can hear a precursor of that sound in the very first album with the roaring guitars on “Buttholeville” and the lyrics of “Demonic Possession,” in which singer Patterson Hood declares, “I can kick ass and talk backward/I hang out with a bunch of slackers/and I know I can get help from him/I listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin.”)
One thing that has remained constant in the DBT’s career is their obsession with their Southern heritage. Virtually every song deals with Southern culture.
On these first two albums, some of the songs tend to be jokier than their recent work.
You have fun-filled Patterson Hood tunes like “Steve McQueen” (described here as “the coolest doggone motherscratcher on the silver screen“) and “18 Wheels of Love” (the singer’s mom marries a truck driver at Dollywood, with a Porter Wagoner look-alike conducting the ceremony) from Gangstabilly
The on Pizza Deliverance, which came second but contains earlier songs) some tunes -- “Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)” and “The President’s Penis is Missing” (a then-timely Bill Clinton spoof) -- are more scatological.
Add these titles to Jim Stacy’s funny redneck cartoons that served as the cover art on these albums and some might be able to dismiss it all as Southern Culture on the Skids-style hick shtick.
Unless you listen to the actual music.
Both Hood and original Trucker Mike Cooley -- the only members still with the band -- already were writing some fine songs.
Gangstabilly starts off with a slow tune called “Wife Beater,” featuring a sweet whining steel and a refrain with three-part harmonies.
The singer is pleading to a domestic-violence victim to leave her abusive husband. But it’s obvious it’s a lost cause. “Now you say he‘s changed and you‘re going back to him … ”
The title of the song “The Living Bubba” might sound like something Larry the Cable Guy would approve of. However it’s actually about a friend of the band’s who died of AIDS. “Don’t give me no pity, don’t give me no grief/Wait til I die for sympathy/Just help me with this amp and a guitar or two/I can’t die now cuz I got another show to do.”
Pizza Deliverance kicks off Hood’s “Bulldozers and Dirt,” a song in which the protagonist basically is a lecherous scumbag. Singing to the teenage daughter of his live-in girlfriend, he brags how he met her mother while burglarizing her home.
By the end of the tune he’s coming on to the girl. “I’ve lived with your mama for 11 years/Through good times and bad times, fist fights and tears/But something comes over me when you come near/So won’t you come over and sip on this beer …” Not only can you imagine the horror of the girl, you get a feel of the twisted pain of the singer. You can’t feel much sympathy for him, but you know that pain is real.
And speaking of pain, Cooley’s best song here is “Uncle Frank,” which, over a jangly, Byrdsy guitar, tells a tragic tale of an uneducated man ripped off by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
But Hood’s songs dominate. There are unforgettable images, like the box of spiders kept by his great grandmother, the creepy middle-aged couple Margo and Harold (“fifty and crazy, big hair and cocaine …”), and of G.G. Allin.
“The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town” (the title is a parody of similarly-named country songs about Porter Wagoner and Hank Williams) tells of a Memphis show by the celebrated rock ’n’ roll degenerate, famous for his disgusting, sometimes illegal, stage antics.
The song tells of an indignant old man reading a newspaper account of the concert to his wife, But for Hood, it was a liberating moment, a night that blasted out the boredom of their lives. “Me and Cooley we just laughed so hard we both fell down,” he sings.
One small complaint I have about these reissues is that there are no outtakes or extra cuts. In the liner notes Hood tells about recording on barebones budgets in those days (at one point he was doing construction work at the studio in exchange for recording time.) So maybe there were no outtakes or “lost” tracks.
But it’s good to have these albums available again. Now I just hope New West re-releases The Truckers’ great live album Alabama Ass Whoopin’ .
Hear a whole mess of Drive-By Truckers music tonight on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. -midnight, KSFR, 90.7 FM
February 4, 2005
The first time the Drive-By Truckers received any serious attention was in 2002 when Lost Highway Records re-released their wonderful landmark double-disc Southern Rock Opera (originally appearing on the tiny Soul Dump Records, a year before.) That effort was lavishly praised -- and rightly so -- by critics as well as fans of hard crunching roots-conscious guitar rock. And their subsequent efforts, Decoration Day and The Dirty South have lived up to Southern Rock Opera’s huge promise.
(As just one small voice in criticdom, all three made my annual Top 10 lists, The Dirty South topping last year’s.)
But some casual Trucker fans might not release that the Georgia-based band has been making albums years before Southern Rock Opera. The group’s current label, New West.
While neither of these reach the heights of the group’s last three albums, they’re both respectful efforts that, in retrospect, drop huge hints of what was in store. These CDs provide a glimpse at a great band back when they were merely really good.
The Truckers were more “country” sounding than the new ones. You hear a lot more steel guitar and mandolin on these albums as compared with the DBT’s now trademark Skynyrd-esque three-guitar attack. (But you can hear a precursor of that sound in the very first album with the roaring guitars on “Buttholeville” and the lyrics of “Demonic Possession,” in which singer Patterson Hood declares, “I can kick ass and talk backward/I hang out with a bunch of slackers/and I know I can get help from him/I listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin.”)
One thing that has remained constant in the DBT’s career is their obsession with their Southern heritage. Virtually every song deals with Southern culture.
On these first two albums, some of the songs tend to be jokier than their recent work.
You have fun-filled Patterson Hood tunes like “Steve McQueen” (described here as “the coolest doggone motherscratcher on the silver screen“) and “18 Wheels of Love” (the singer’s mom marries a truck driver at Dollywood, with a Porter Wagoner look-alike conducting the ceremony) from Gangstabilly
The on Pizza Deliverance, which came second but contains earlier songs) some tunes -- “Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)” and “The President’s Penis is Missing” (a then-timely Bill Clinton spoof) -- are more scatological.
Add these titles to Jim Stacy’s funny redneck cartoons that served as the cover art on these albums and some might be able to dismiss it all as Southern Culture on the Skids-style hick shtick.
Unless you listen to the actual music.
Both Hood and original Trucker Mike Cooley -- the only members still with the band -- already were writing some fine songs.
Gangstabilly starts off with a slow tune called “Wife Beater,” featuring a sweet whining steel and a refrain with three-part harmonies.
The singer is pleading to a domestic-violence victim to leave her abusive husband. But it’s obvious it’s a lost cause. “Now you say he‘s changed and you‘re going back to him … ”
The title of the song “The Living Bubba” might sound like something Larry the Cable Guy would approve of. However it’s actually about a friend of the band’s who died of AIDS. “Don’t give me no pity, don’t give me no grief/Wait til I die for sympathy/Just help me with this amp and a guitar or two/I can’t die now cuz I got another show to do.”
Pizza Deliverance kicks off Hood’s “Bulldozers and Dirt,” a song in which the protagonist basically is a lecherous scumbag. Singing to the teenage daughter of his live-in girlfriend, he brags how he met her mother while burglarizing her home.
By the end of the tune he’s coming on to the girl. “I’ve lived with your mama for 11 years/Through good times and bad times, fist fights and tears/But something comes over me when you come near/So won’t you come over and sip on this beer …” Not only can you imagine the horror of the girl, you get a feel of the twisted pain of the singer. You can’t feel much sympathy for him, but you know that pain is real.
And speaking of pain, Cooley’s best song here is “Uncle Frank,” which, over a jangly, Byrdsy guitar, tells a tragic tale of an uneducated man ripped off by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
But Hood’s songs dominate. There are unforgettable images, like the box of spiders kept by his great grandmother, the creepy middle-aged couple Margo and Harold (“fifty and crazy, big hair and cocaine …”), and of G.G. Allin.
“The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town” (the title is a parody of similarly-named country songs about Porter Wagoner and Hank Williams) tells of a Memphis show by the celebrated rock ’n’ roll degenerate, famous for his disgusting, sometimes illegal, stage antics.
The song tells of an indignant old man reading a newspaper account of the concert to his wife, But for Hood, it was a liberating moment, a night that blasted out the boredom of their lives. “Me and Cooley we just laughed so hard we both fell down,” he sings.
One small complaint I have about these reissues is that there are no outtakes or extra cuts. In the liner notes Hood tells about recording on barebones budgets in those days (at one point he was doing construction work at the studio in exchange for recording time.) So maybe there were no outtakes or “lost” tracks.
But it’s good to have these albums available again. Now I just hope New West re-releases The Truckers’ great live album Alabama Ass Whoopin’ .
Hear a whole mess of Drive-By Truckers music tonight on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. -midnight, KSFR, 90.7 FM
Thursday, February 03, 2005
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: THE KOMADINA FACTOR
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Feb. 3, 2004
From hot air balloons to horse meat. From cockfighting to enchiladas. From drug-testing state officials to legalizing medical marijuana.
There is never any shortage of controversial bills and sometimes even some quirky bills during a legislative session. But this year some of the most controversial and quirky — and headline grabbing — have come from a colorful two-term Republican senator, Steve Komadina of Corrales.
In general Republicans don’t introduce many bills. For one thing, adding large numbers of new laws to the books goes against their small-government philosophy. Secondly, being in the minority party in both chambers of the Legislature — and these days having a Democratic governor — some Republican lawmakers get rather fatalistic about the chances of their bills passing. Thus, they tend to play defensive during a session, concentrating on a couple of pet issues.
But that’s not the case with Komadina, who has introduced 30 bills so far this session. That’s not as many as some Democrats, more than any other Republican in either chamber — even more than prolific bill author Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque, who as of Tuesday night had only dropped 23 bills.
"I always introduce a lot of bills," Komadina said Wednesday. "During my first session I introduced 20. That’s a lot for a freshman."
Komadina said he doesn’t introduce bills for the sake of introducing bills. “These are my issues or those of my constituents. I’m their voice when I’m up here.”
Thus there is the "Right to Eat Enchiladas Act" (SB 291), "tort reform" bill that would prohibit overweight people from filing lawsuits against restaurants for causing obesity and the Elected Official Drug Testing Act — which would set up a state Web site publishing the results of state officials who agree to submit to random drug tests. (Those leaders who refused would be allowed to explain why on the proposed Web site.)
Drug-reform advocates are bound to fight that one. But Komadina is their hero in another issue. He plans to introduce a medical marijuana bill, to legalize the drug for treatment of specific serious ailments. Komadina said his bill would have criminal penalties for unauthorized people using or selling medical marijuana.
Many Komadina bills deal with animals.
Senate Bill 72 would make federal or state wildlife officials personally liable for criminal penalties if any of the wolves they release into the wild attack humans or livestock.
SB 67 would prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
SB 66 would prohibit cockfighting in New Mexico — one of the last two states in the union that allows the sport.
A couple of his bills add to the ever growing list of state symbols. SB 13 would make the hot air balloon as official state aircraft. Komadina is a past president of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
It’s not certain whether making the balloon the official state aircraft would conflict with another Komadina bill, SB 159, which would limit hot air balloon tort liability. (Brace yourself for the "Right to Eat Enchiladas on Hot Air Balloons Act.")
And this week he introduced SB 585, which would make the New Mexican horse the official state horse.
"This is one I’m really excited about," he said. The New Mexican horse is a breed that is descended from horses belonging to the Spanish conquistadors.
Komadina pointed out a group called the New Mexican Horse Project, founded by historian Carlos LoPopolo, which is dedicated to preserving the original bloodlines of the Spanish Mustang horses and is building wild horse preserves.
When someone introduces this much talked-about legislation it’s natural to wonder whether a lawmaker is considering a stab at a higher office.
Not so, says Komadina. "I’m not running for anything. I have no ulterior motives. I love being in the Senate."
A river runs through it: My old friend Erik Ness, longtime spokesman for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, brought my attention to a “Quote of the week” in a recent edition of his organization’s newsletter, attributed to Ramblin' Lee Reaves, a now-retired country disc jockey at KGRT AM in Las Cruces.
Feb. 3, 2004
From hot air balloons to horse meat. From cockfighting to enchiladas. From drug-testing state officials to legalizing medical marijuana.
There is never any shortage of controversial bills and sometimes even some quirky bills during a legislative session. But this year some of the most controversial and quirky — and headline grabbing — have come from a colorful two-term Republican senator, Steve Komadina of Corrales.
In general Republicans don’t introduce many bills. For one thing, adding large numbers of new laws to the books goes against their small-government philosophy. Secondly, being in the minority party in both chambers of the Legislature — and these days having a Democratic governor — some Republican lawmakers get rather fatalistic about the chances of their bills passing. Thus, they tend to play defensive during a session, concentrating on a couple of pet issues.
But that’s not the case with Komadina, who has introduced 30 bills so far this session. That’s not as many as some Democrats, more than any other Republican in either chamber — even more than prolific bill author Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque, who as of Tuesday night had only dropped 23 bills.
"I always introduce a lot of bills," Komadina said Wednesday. "During my first session I introduced 20. That’s a lot for a freshman."
Komadina said he doesn’t introduce bills for the sake of introducing bills. “These are my issues or those of my constituents. I’m their voice when I’m up here.”
Thus there is the "Right to Eat Enchiladas Act" (SB 291), "tort reform" bill that would prohibit overweight people from filing lawsuits against restaurants for causing obesity and the Elected Official Drug Testing Act — which would set up a state Web site publishing the results of state officials who agree to submit to random drug tests. (Those leaders who refused would be allowed to explain why on the proposed Web site.)
Drug-reform advocates are bound to fight that one. But Komadina is their hero in another issue. He plans to introduce a medical marijuana bill, to legalize the drug for treatment of specific serious ailments. Komadina said his bill would have criminal penalties for unauthorized people using or selling medical marijuana.
Many Komadina bills deal with animals.
Senate Bill 72 would make federal or state wildlife officials personally liable for criminal penalties if any of the wolves they release into the wild attack humans or livestock.
SB 67 would prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
SB 66 would prohibit cockfighting in New Mexico — one of the last two states in the union that allows the sport.
A couple of his bills add to the ever growing list of state symbols. SB 13 would make the hot air balloon as official state aircraft. Komadina is a past president of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
It’s not certain whether making the balloon the official state aircraft would conflict with another Komadina bill, SB 159, which would limit hot air balloon tort liability. (Brace yourself for the "Right to Eat Enchiladas on Hot Air Balloons Act.")
And this week he introduced SB 585, which would make the New Mexican horse the official state horse.
"This is one I’m really excited about," he said. The New Mexican horse is a breed that is descended from horses belonging to the Spanish conquistadors.
Komadina pointed out a group called the New Mexican Horse Project, founded by historian Carlos LoPopolo, which is dedicated to preserving the original bloodlines of the Spanish Mustang horses and is building wild horse preserves.
When someone introduces this much talked-about legislation it’s natural to wonder whether a lawmaker is considering a stab at a higher office.
Not so, says Komadina. "I’m not running for anything. I have no ulterior motives. I love being in the Senate."
A river runs through it: My old friend Erik Ness, longtime spokesman for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, brought my attention to a “Quote of the week” in a recent edition of his organization’s newsletter, attributed to Ramblin' Lee Reaves, a now-retired country disc jockey at KGRT AM in Las Cruces.
"The legislature is a lot like the Rio Grande. Clear and murky, cold and hot, shallow and deep, fast and slow and with just enough quicksand to keep you honest."
Monday, January 31, 2005
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, January 30, 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
Piece of Crap by Neil Young
My Life is Starting Over Again by Teenage Fanclub with Jad Fair
Inside Looking Out by Eric Burdon & The Animals
Mongoloid by Devo
Do the Romp by Entrance & Cat Power
Tortures by Kazik Staszewski
Attacked by Monsters by The Meat Puppets
New Wave Jacket by Polysics
In Door Fu Chiken by Fuzzy Control
Alligator Night by Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Tribe by The Mad Capsule Markets
Soul Food by Understatements
Mama Brain by The Boredoms
Born to Be Wild by Petty Booka
Mark Lanegan Set
All songs by Mark Lanegan except where noted
Wedding Dress
I Nearly Lost You by The Screaming Trees
Waiting on a Train
Shooting Gallery
Song For the Dead by Queens of the Stone Age
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Number Nine by The Twilight Singers
Robot Parade by They Might Be Giants
There is Beauty by Richard Thompson
Less Than You Think by Wilco
Waiting on a Friend by The Rolling Stones
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
Piece of Crap by Neil Young
My Life is Starting Over Again by Teenage Fanclub with Jad Fair
Inside Looking Out by Eric Burdon & The Animals
Mongoloid by Devo
Do the Romp by Entrance & Cat Power
Tortures by Kazik Staszewski
Attacked by Monsters by The Meat Puppets
New Wave Jacket by Polysics
In Door Fu Chiken by Fuzzy Control
Alligator Night by Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Tribe by The Mad Capsule Markets
Soul Food by Understatements
Mama Brain by The Boredoms
Born to Be Wild by Petty Booka
Mark Lanegan Set
All songs by Mark Lanegan except where noted
Wedding Dress
I Nearly Lost You by The Screaming Trees
Waiting on a Train
Shooting Gallery
Song For the Dead by Queens of the Stone Age
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Number Nine by The Twilight Singers
Robot Parade by They Might Be Giants
There is Beauty by Richard Thompson
Less Than You Think by Wilco
Waiting on a Friend by The Rolling Stones
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, January 29, 2005
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, January 28, 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
Ram Bunk Shush by Cornell Hurd
Condi, Condi by Steve Earle
Milk and Pancakes by Fortytwenty
If You Don't, Somebody Else Will by The Ranch Girls & The Ragtime Wranglers
Cool Drink of Water by Vassar Clements
Pearly Lee by Billy Riley
No More War by Ronny Elliott
Sweet Virginia by The Rolling Stones
Uncle Frank by Drive-By Truckers
You're Humbuggin' Me by Ronnie Dawson
Living in the U.S.A. by Acie Cargill
Oh Christy by The Moaners
Favorite by Neko Case
Black Iron Bridge by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Five Minutes of the Latest Blues by Justin Trevino with Mona McCall
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out by Pine Top Smith
Yonder Mountain by Raising Cane
Cry by Lynn Anderson
What Would You Give in Exchange by Bill Monroe
Back in the Goodle Days by John Hartford
White Trash Wedding by The Dixie Chicks
Nashville Cats by Del McCoury Band
Teddy Bear's Picnic by Jerry Garcia & David Grisman
Down in the Willow Garden by The Osborne Brothers
Brain Damage by The Austin Lounge Lizards
Just the Other Side of Nowhere by Kris Kristofferson
I'll Sign My Heart Awayby Merle Haggard
When the Last Curtain Falls by George Jones
Each Night at Nine by Floyd Tilman with Willie Nelson
Hate to Be Lonely by ThaMuseMeant
Her by Richard Buckner
I Do Believe by The Highwaymen
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
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
Ram Bunk Shush by Cornell Hurd
Condi, Condi by Steve Earle
Milk and Pancakes by Fortytwenty
If You Don't, Somebody Else Will by The Ranch Girls & The Ragtime Wranglers
Cool Drink of Water by Vassar Clements
Pearly Lee by Billy Riley
No More War by Ronny Elliott
Sweet Virginia by The Rolling Stones
Uncle Frank by Drive-By Truckers
You're Humbuggin' Me by Ronnie Dawson
Living in the U.S.A. by Acie Cargill
Oh Christy by The Moaners
Favorite by Neko Case
Black Iron Bridge by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Five Minutes of the Latest Blues by Justin Trevino with Mona McCall
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out by Pine Top Smith
Yonder Mountain by Raising Cane
Cry by Lynn Anderson
What Would You Give in Exchange by Bill Monroe
Back in the Goodle Days by John Hartford
White Trash Wedding by The Dixie Chicks
Nashville Cats by Del McCoury Band
Teddy Bear's Picnic by Jerry Garcia & David Grisman
Down in the Willow Garden by The Osborne Brothers
Brain Damage by The Austin Lounge Lizards
Just the Other Side of Nowhere by Kris Kristofferson
I'll Sign My Heart Awayby Merle Haggard
When the Last Curtain Falls by George Jones
Each Night at Nine by Floyd Tilman with Willie Nelson
Hate to Be Lonely by ThaMuseMeant
Her by Richard Buckner
I Do Believe by The Highwaymen
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, January 28, 2005
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: MUSIC FOR 4 A.M.
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 28, 2004
These CDs have been out for several months now. But I just recently laid my hands on the first one, while the second one took awhile to grow on me.
To paraphrase Orson Welles, I will review no album before its time.
*Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan. This ain’t your father’s “bubblegum” music. Lanegan doesn’t chirp, “yummy yummy yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy.” Not even once.
“When I’m bombed I stretch like bubblegum/And look too long straight at the morning sun,” Lanegan sings on a deceptively quiet, acoustic tune called “Bombed.” This duet with Wendy Rae Fowler is barely over a minute along.
It sounds like a funeral dirge. It sounds as if someone could get killed at any minute.
Like Lanegan‘s best solo work, Bubblegum is a testament of pain, druggy desire, and 4 a.m. lonely ache. It’s a blues-drenched, ghostly, dark-night-of-the-soul meditation that’s not ashamed to be pretty but not afraid to wake the neighbors with furious clatter when the spirit says “roar.”
Lanegan was the singer with long-defunct Washington state grunge warriors the Screaming Trees. He’s also served stints with Queens of the Stone Age and with Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers. He also deserves at least a footnote in the history of rock ‘n’ roll for being the guy who introduced Kurt Cobain to Lead belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.”
The record is billed as being by “Mark Lanegan Band,” and indeed he’s got an impressive, revolving gaggle of sidemen on Bubblegum. P.J. Harvey sings with Lanegan on two songs, here. Dulli and QOTSA members appear on some cuts, as do Izzy and Duff from Guns n' Roses. And Texas-born psychedelic blues wizard Ian Moore and keyboardist Bukka Allen (Terry and Jo Harvey Allen’s son) lend their talents to one tune.
But Lanegan himself is the driving presence here on every single cut. The dark vision is all his. The constant that runs throughout is his voice, a gravelly, whiskey ravaged -- and probably worse-things-ravaged -- baritone that sounds like the moans of a hobo prophet halfway between a trance and a righteous rage.
Drug addiction, that grim subtext of so much classic Seattle music, is a theme in several tunes here. It’s obvious in songs like “Methamphetamine Blues,” a crunching workout with clanking industrial percussion and screaming guitar (by Alain Johannes). And Lanegan rocks even harder and the chemical desperation is even more frantic in the crazed “Can’t Come Down.”
But the drug life even more disturbing in the song called “Wedding Dress,” a somber, synth-driven tune where Lanegan croons, “Will you walk with me underground and forgive all my sicknesses and my sorrows?/Will you be shamed if shake like I’m dyin’/when I fall to my knees and I’m cryin’?” The tune ends with a line borrowed from “Jackson,” the comic Johnny Cash/June Carter (or Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood) song of marital strife. But here the words “We got married in a fever” take on ominous connotations.
Lanegan explores the dark side of the blues with “Like Little Willie John” He invokes the name of the tragic R&B pioneer, who died in a Washington state prison in 1968. Here, the ghost of Little Willie hovers over the singer’s troubling memories of losing a lover.
“All she ever knew was trouble/And for much I was to blame/But when I heard the news that night/I went down like a satellite/ And when my world stood still that night/I dropped like a satellite … Where’s Willie John?”
Lou Reed once pointed out that had he personally done all the things he sang about, he’d have been dead years before. I suspect this probably is true of Lanegan as well. But his voice is authoritative as his stories are compelling. And his music, whether soft and smoky or loud and dissonant, is irresistible.
*Dents and Shells by Richard Buckner. This is a guy who makes strange, but undeniably beautiful music. What can you say about a guy who did a whole album based on Edgar Lee Masters’ small-town gothic Spoon River Anthology? (not separate songs, mind you, but one 34-minute track!)
Buckner’s melodies are mournful, his delivery low-key, his lyrics introspective and often obscure. His voice is a slightly raspy drawl that often colors and embellishes the notes. His songs sometimes seem like snippets from a notebook, not quite finished, but refusing to stay put.
In many ways this album reminds me of the first Buckner CD I heard, the magnificent Devotion + Doubt. That mid-90s effort -- still my favorite Buckner album and a fan favorite in the then-blooming alternative country scene -- was produced by Lubbock Mafia chieftain Lloyd Maines and featured members of Calexico.
Like Devotion, Dents and Shells features lots of fine steel guitar, especially on the songs “A Chance Counsel” and “Her” -- though the latter tune also is distinguished by a catchy one-finger piano.
Some song arrangements here border on the surreal. “Charmers” for instance is a tense minor-key funeral march in which most the instruments seem to melt into a low rumble behind Buckner’s vocals Butthole Surfer King Coffey’s over-caffeinated drums. This almost could be a Will Oldham/Palace song.
“As the Waves Will Always Roll” is a sad dirge that features what sounds like a roller rink organ and downright crazy drumming from Coffey.
Buckner’s music is pretty enough to appeal to singer/songwriter fans and odd enough to satisfy those looking for more experimental sounds.
January 28, 2004
These CDs have been out for several months now. But I just recently laid my hands on the first one, while the second one took awhile to grow on me.
To paraphrase Orson Welles, I will review no album before its time.
*Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan. This ain’t your father’s “bubblegum” music. Lanegan doesn’t chirp, “yummy yummy yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy.” Not even once.
“When I’m bombed I stretch like bubblegum/And look too long straight at the morning sun,” Lanegan sings on a deceptively quiet, acoustic tune called “Bombed.” This duet with Wendy Rae Fowler is barely over a minute along.
It sounds like a funeral dirge. It sounds as if someone could get killed at any minute.
Like Lanegan‘s best solo work, Bubblegum is a testament of pain, druggy desire, and 4 a.m. lonely ache. It’s a blues-drenched, ghostly, dark-night-of-the-soul meditation that’s not ashamed to be pretty but not afraid to wake the neighbors with furious clatter when the spirit says “roar.”
Lanegan was the singer with long-defunct Washington state grunge warriors the Screaming Trees. He’s also served stints with Queens of the Stone Age and with Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers. He also deserves at least a footnote in the history of rock ‘n’ roll for being the guy who introduced Kurt Cobain to Lead belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.”
The record is billed as being by “Mark Lanegan Band,” and indeed he’s got an impressive, revolving gaggle of sidemen on Bubblegum. P.J. Harvey sings with Lanegan on two songs, here. Dulli and QOTSA members appear on some cuts, as do Izzy and Duff from Guns n' Roses. And Texas-born psychedelic blues wizard Ian Moore and keyboardist Bukka Allen (Terry and Jo Harvey Allen’s son) lend their talents to one tune.
But Lanegan himself is the driving presence here on every single cut. The dark vision is all his. The constant that runs throughout is his voice, a gravelly, whiskey ravaged -- and probably worse-things-ravaged -- baritone that sounds like the moans of a hobo prophet halfway between a trance and a righteous rage.
Drug addiction, that grim subtext of so much classic Seattle music, is a theme in several tunes here. It’s obvious in songs like “Methamphetamine Blues,” a crunching workout with clanking industrial percussion and screaming guitar (by Alain Johannes). And Lanegan rocks even harder and the chemical desperation is even more frantic in the crazed “Can’t Come Down.”
But the drug life even more disturbing in the song called “Wedding Dress,” a somber, synth-driven tune where Lanegan croons, “Will you walk with me underground and forgive all my sicknesses and my sorrows?/Will you be shamed if shake like I’m dyin’/when I fall to my knees and I’m cryin’?” The tune ends with a line borrowed from “Jackson,” the comic Johnny Cash/June Carter (or Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood) song of marital strife. But here the words “We got married in a fever” take on ominous connotations.
Lanegan explores the dark side of the blues with “Like Little Willie John” He invokes the name of the tragic R&B pioneer, who died in a Washington state prison in 1968. Here, the ghost of Little Willie hovers over the singer’s troubling memories of losing a lover.
“All she ever knew was trouble/And for much I was to blame/But when I heard the news that night/I went down like a satellite/ And when my world stood still that night/I dropped like a satellite … Where’s Willie John?”
Lou Reed once pointed out that had he personally done all the things he sang about, he’d have been dead years before. I suspect this probably is true of Lanegan as well. But his voice is authoritative as his stories are compelling. And his music, whether soft and smoky or loud and dissonant, is irresistible.
*Dents and Shells by Richard Buckner. This is a guy who makes strange, but undeniably beautiful music. What can you say about a guy who did a whole album based on Edgar Lee Masters’ small-town gothic Spoon River Anthology? (not separate songs, mind you, but one 34-minute track!)
Buckner’s melodies are mournful, his delivery low-key, his lyrics introspective and often obscure. His voice is a slightly raspy drawl that often colors and embellishes the notes. His songs sometimes seem like snippets from a notebook, not quite finished, but refusing to stay put.
In many ways this album reminds me of the first Buckner CD I heard, the magnificent Devotion + Doubt. That mid-90s effort -- still my favorite Buckner album and a fan favorite in the then-blooming alternative country scene -- was produced by Lubbock Mafia chieftain Lloyd Maines and featured members of Calexico.
Like Devotion, Dents and Shells features lots of fine steel guitar, especially on the songs “A Chance Counsel” and “Her” -- though the latter tune also is distinguished by a catchy one-finger piano.
Some song arrangements here border on the surreal. “Charmers” for instance is a tense minor-key funeral march in which most the instruments seem to melt into a low rumble behind Buckner’s vocals Butthole Surfer King Coffey’s over-caffeinated drums. This almost could be a Will Oldham/Palace song.
“As the Waves Will Always Roll” is a sad dirge that features what sounds like a roller rink organ and downright crazy drumming from Coffey.
Buckner’s music is pretty enough to appeal to singer/songwriter fans and odd enough to satisfy those looking for more experimental sounds.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: BOLOS A NO-NO?
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 27, 2004
A sergeant-at-arms stopped freshman Sen. Jack Ryan, R-Albuquerque, from entering the floor of the House on Monday to hear a speech by U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., made before a joint session of the House and Senate.
At first, Ryan assumed he was being stopped because the sergeant-at-arms didn't recognize him. After all, there are several new faces among the legislators this year.
But that wasn't the problem. Ryan was in violation of a rule he knew nothing about.
He was wearing a bolo tie.
No, the House hasn't hired former Santa Fe Police Chief Don Grady - who made national headlines in 1995 when he forbid plain-clothes officers from wearing bolos.
The House Dress Code requires all males on the floor of the House to wear jackets and regular ties. No bolos, chief Sergeant-At-Arms Gilbert Lopez told me this week.
"The Senate allows bolos, but the House doesn't," Lopez said. "It's been that way since I've been here." Lopez said he's worked for the House for 15 years.
The rule is ironic considering that in 1987 the state Legislature named the bolo the "official state tie or neckwear of New Mexico" in a memorial that declared that those who wear bolos "shall be welcomed at all events or occasions when the wearing of a tie is considered if not mandatory, then at least appropriate."
Of course, a memorial has no force of law. Curiously, the "official state tie" is not listed in the same section of state law that lists the official state bird, state animal, state reptile, state cookie, etc.
Bolos, of course, are common on state officials. Gov. Bill Richardson has been known to occasionally sport a bolo.
Ryan, who was wearing a conventional tie Wednesday, said when he initially was stopped, the sergeant-at-arms tried to help him find a tie that would be allowed. "I finally borrowed one from a (bill) analyst," he said.
Soon after the incident, Ryan said he was approached by leaders of both parties in the Senate, who told him it was wrong for him to have been denied entrance to the House.
"It was a misunderstanding," Lopez said. "Senators who come in for joint sessions will be allowed to wear bolo ties."
However, if it's not a joint session, visiting senators going into the House will have to wear a regular tie, he said. "We've got some ties we can lend them."
(For the record: The scorpion tie pictured above is not the one Ryan was wearing.)
In the lobby: Former state Sen. Roman Maes might have lost the
Democratic primary to freshman Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, last year, but that didn't keep him away from the Roundhouse for long.
According to the Secretary of State's web site, Maes, former chairman of the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee, is now a registered lobbyist for Microsoft, Valor Communications, St. Vincent Hospital and Santa Fe County.
Maes joins a long list of lawmakers who have joined the ranks of lobbyists. Other recently departed legislators seen around the Roundhouse lately are former Senate President pro-tem Richard Romero and former Rep. Joe Thompson.
The University of New Mexico announced that Democrat Romero and Republican Thompson would be lobbying for the school. But the Secretary of State's web site lists Romero's clients as Arena Management and Construction and Isleta Pueblo, while Thompson's only client listed is Jemez Pueblo.
Balls of Fire: Forty-five years ago this Sunday, a band of high school kids from Raton appeared on American Bandstand. This was The Fireballs, who would become even more famous in a few years when their song Sugar Shack hit No. 1 on the charts. It was the top-selling single of 1962.
The Fireballs are still around and includes two original members - guitarist George Tomsco and bassist Stan Lark. Rep. Hector Balderas, D-Wagon Mound, has introduced House Joint Memorial 19, which would declare Sunday "The Fireballs Day" in New Mexico.
"It's a pleasure to introduce this because they're from my district," Balderas said. Asked if he was a Fireballs fan, the 30ish lawmaker said, "They were in their prime before I was born."
Unfortunately there are no current plans to have The Fireballs play at the Legislature - though Tomsco last week was in the Rotunda, playing behind playwright/actor Charles Pike performing his play Elephant Murmurs, which concerns the "lost years" of Bill Richardson.
January 27, 2004
A sergeant-at-arms stopped freshman Sen. Jack Ryan, R-Albuquerque, from entering the floor of the House on Monday to hear a speech by U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., made before a joint session of the House and Senate.
At first, Ryan assumed he was being stopped because the sergeant-at-arms didn't recognize him. After all, there are several new faces among the legislators this year.
But that wasn't the problem. Ryan was in violation of a rule he knew nothing about.
He was wearing a bolo tie.
No, the House hasn't hired former Santa Fe Police Chief Don Grady - who made national headlines in 1995 when he forbid plain-clothes officers from wearing bolos.
The House Dress Code requires all males on the floor of the House to wear jackets and regular ties. No bolos, chief Sergeant-At-Arms Gilbert Lopez told me this week.
"The Senate allows bolos, but the House doesn't," Lopez said. "It's been that way since I've been here." Lopez said he's worked for the House for 15 years.
The rule is ironic considering that in 1987 the state Legislature named the bolo the "official state tie or neckwear of New Mexico" in a memorial that declared that those who wear bolos "shall be welcomed at all events or occasions when the wearing of a tie is considered if not mandatory, then at least appropriate."
Of course, a memorial has no force of law. Curiously, the "official state tie" is not listed in the same section of state law that lists the official state bird, state animal, state reptile, state cookie, etc.
Bolos, of course, are common on state officials. Gov. Bill Richardson has been known to occasionally sport a bolo.
Ryan, who was wearing a conventional tie Wednesday, said when he initially was stopped, the sergeant-at-arms tried to help him find a tie that would be allowed. "I finally borrowed one from a (bill) analyst," he said.
Soon after the incident, Ryan said he was approached by leaders of both parties in the Senate, who told him it was wrong for him to have been denied entrance to the House.
"It was a misunderstanding," Lopez said. "Senators who come in for joint sessions will be allowed to wear bolo ties."
However, if it's not a joint session, visiting senators going into the House will have to wear a regular tie, he said. "We've got some ties we can lend them."
(For the record: The scorpion tie pictured above is not the one Ryan was wearing.)
In the lobby: Former state Sen. Roman Maes might have lost the
Democratic primary to freshman Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, last year, but that didn't keep him away from the Roundhouse for long.
According to the Secretary of State's web site, Maes, former chairman of the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee, is now a registered lobbyist for Microsoft, Valor Communications, St. Vincent Hospital and Santa Fe County.
Maes joins a long list of lawmakers who have joined the ranks of lobbyists. Other recently departed legislators seen around the Roundhouse lately are former Senate President pro-tem Richard Romero and former Rep. Joe Thompson.
The University of New Mexico announced that Democrat Romero and Republican Thompson would be lobbying for the school. But the Secretary of State's web site lists Romero's clients as Arena Management and Construction and Isleta Pueblo, while Thompson's only client listed is Jemez Pueblo.
Balls of Fire: Forty-five years ago this Sunday, a band of high school kids from Raton appeared on American Bandstand. This was The Fireballs, who would become even more famous in a few years when their song Sugar Shack hit No. 1 on the charts. It was the top-selling single of 1962.
The Fireballs are still around and includes two original members - guitarist George Tomsco and bassist Stan Lark. Rep. Hector Balderas, D-Wagon Mound, has introduced House Joint Memorial 19, which would declare Sunday "The Fireballs Day" in New Mexico.
"It's a pleasure to introduce this because they're from my district," Balderas said. Asked if he was a Fireballs fan, the 30ish lawmaker said, "They were in their prime before I was born."
Unfortunately there are no current plans to have The Fireballs play at the Legislature - though Tomsco last week was in the Rotunda, playing behind playwright/actor Charles Pike performing his play Elephant Murmurs, which concerns the "lost years" of Bill Richardson.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
SYNDICATION, GEORGIE ANGEL, ETC.
I've been working so much on my Legislature blog, (not to mention my more-than- fulltime job covering the Legislature for The New Mexican, you might think I've been letting this one go to Hell.
Well, that's not completely true. I the past couple of days, I've put this blog on the road to content syndication. So for those of you who use news aggregators or blog readers like Bloglines or Newsgator, have at it.
Plug: If you get a chance check out The Georgie Angel Blues Band at Fox's on St. Michael's Drive 9 p.m. Friday. I mainly wanted to plug the gig because I like George's graphic he e-mailed to me.
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