TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 6, 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
Jack Pepsi by TAD
Territorial Pissings by Nirvana
Who You Driving Now by Mudhoney
Know Your Rights by The Clash
Slaves & Bulldozers by Soundgarden
Rape Me by Richard Cheese
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Sara DeBell

Making Fun of Bums by Too Much Joy
The Summer of '91 by ... and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Superheros of BMX by Mogwai
Cocaine Blues by Wayne Kramer & The Pink Fairies
Lullabye to My Nightmares by They Might Be Giants
She's a Lady by Tom Jones

Deaf Woman's Vagina by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
Pipeline by Anthrax
Blacktop by Pell Mell
Swamp Stomp by The Diplomats of Solid Sound
Gangster of Love by Eddie Turner
King of the New York Streets by Dion
Me and the Boys by NRBQ
Last Night on Earth by The Mekons

Operator, Help Me by Stan Ridgway
I Hear They Smoke the Barbecue by Pere Ubu
Dead and Lovely by Tom Waits
Friend by Ana da Silva
Jason's List by Howe Gelb
Where or When by Frank Sinatra with Count Basie & The Orchestra
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 4, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Cohost: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Then I'll Be Moving On by Mother Earth
California Cotton Fields by Gram Parsons
Play Together Again Again by Buck Owens with Emmylou Harris
Delilah by Jon Langford
I Drink Too Much by Cornell Hurd
Mr. Scarecrow by The Shiners
When I Paint My Masterpiece by Emmylou Harris
Sad Mountain by Boris McCutcheon

Girl Scout Cookies by The Blazettes
Girl Scout Cookies by NRBQ
Patent Medicine by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
Buckskin Stallion by Jimmie Dale Gimore & Mudhoney
Honey Babe Blues by Vassar Clements with Maria Muldaur
Ball and Chain by Audrey Auld Mezera
Wings of a Dove by Dolly, Tammy and Loretta
White Lightnin' by George Jones
Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone by Charley Pride

If You've Got To Go by The Flying Burrito Brothers
Close Up the Honkey Tonks by the Flying Burrito Brothers
Panama Hat by Michael Hurley
The Waitress Song by Freakwater
My One Desire by Freakwater
Hesitation Blues by The Holy Modal Rounders
Out of My Head & Back In My Bed by Loretta Lynn
Pack Up Your Sorrows by Johnny & June Carter Cash
Mole In the Ground by The Holy Modal Rounders
That Lovin You Feelin' by Roy Orbison and Emmylou Harris

That's the Way Love Goes by Lefty Frizzell
Pretty Penny by Miranda Brown
Lottie by Ronny Elliott
Since I Met You Baby by Jerry Lee Lewis
Let's Leave Me by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Old Paint by Loudon Wainwright III
It's Four in the Morning by Faron Young
Act of Faith by Stan Ridgway
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: KEEPING THE PROMISE OF MTV

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 4, 2005

Stan Ridgway’s new DVD Holiday in Dirt -- a compilation of video versions of all the songs from his 2002 album of the same name -- is a rewarding visual and audio experience. It also gives a viewer a glimpse at what might have been had MTV lived up to its original promise.


Some of us who probably were too old for rock ‘n’ roll by the early ‘80s but tried to keep up with it anyway saw the birth of MTV as the dawn of some truly exciting possibilities. (Other rockers my age saw MTV as a harrowing sign of the apocalypse -- and they probably were closer to correct. But indulge me here.)

What a wonderful idea, it seemed at the time: Imaginative filmmakers taking off on music and creating strange tales and crazy imagery.

“Music videos” had been around for years, though nobody called them that until MTV.

I still remember watching the “promotional films” for The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” on tv in early 1967. Between the alluring, alien sounds of “Strawberry Fields” and the images of The Beatles jumping around in the blurry, unusual lighting twisted my teenage head off.

Then came David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie,” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Devo’s bizarre manifesto The Truth About Devolution and Michael Nesmith’s Elephant Parts … And then the floodgates opened with MTV.

And MTV did show some promise in those early days. Remember the twitchy, bespectacled David Byrne in the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” ? The tacky, but undeniably hilarious special effects of “You Might Think” by The Cars? The Clash wielding huge boom boxes like bazookas, dancing around as images of war, oppression and poverty flash in the video of “Radio Clash” ?

But before the new wore off MTV, the whole concept seemed to turn sour. Videos soon became unimaginative and over-produced as most popular music of the ‘80s. The subversive, avant garde videos of the early days became rarer and rarer as videos became more obviously what the music bizzers intended them to be all along -- advertisements for their products.

Through the years there have been occasional music video masterpieces -- Nirvana’s dark “Heart Shaped Box,” directed by Anton Corjbin comes to mind. And Prince’s recent “Musicology” video with the little kid transformed by his dad’s soul records.

But basically the music video deteriorated into glossy footage of mugging pop stars. Who needs it?

Holiday in Dirt, however shows that there’s hope for the beleaguered artform of the music video. After all, he was there at the beginning. Barbecued iguana was a popular menu item on early MTV, thanks to Ridgway’s old band, Wall of Voodoo and their video of “Mexican Radio.”

Basically what he did was pay various directors $500 each to create videos based on the songs from the album. The project apparently was in the works for a few years, as Ridgway has released another album, Snakebite, since then.

Holiday in Dirt, the album, was itself an odds-and-sods compilation of songs -- outtakes, soundtrack material, B-sides, etc. -- spanning more than a decade. So the different visions of the directors seems natural.

You’ve got the surreal, computer-generated cartoons of Jim Ludtke on “Operator Help Me,” Ridgway’s ode to paranoia and aging. (Ludtke is most famous for his videos of San Francisco avant garde rockers, The Residents.)

Chuck Statler, the director of Devo’s influential first video, does the video for Ridgway’s goofball version of Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors.” It involves a creepy dummy, an even creepier ventriloquist and a set that looks like the infamous dancing dwarf sequence in Twin Peaks.

There’s a World War I recreation by director Rudi Tuzla on the song “After the Storm”; Steve Hanft’s appropriate film-noirish interpretation of “Bing Can’t Can’t Walk,” a song about a mob bone-breaker; a frightening fashion show by David Moe’s film of the stinging techno-jazz tune “Brand New, Special and Unique” and two different visions of Hollywood decay (by directors Rick Fuller and Phil Harder) in the two versions of  “My Beloved Movie Star.”

And you get to see Ridgway and director Carlos Grasso wrestle during an angry confrontation at the end of “End of the Line.”

My favorite one is Katherine Gordon’s sentimental video for the country waltz “Act of Faith.” A depressed looking guy stares at his clothes spinning in the crowded Laundromat dryer and watches them become grainy, badly-colored 8mm home movies of endless highways and a laughing dancing hippie couple. As we return to the man in the laundromat at the end of the song, the man’s yearning and regret is nearly tangible.

Music videos just don’t stir emotions like this anymore. I wish more quality musicians would instigate projects like this.


Not recommended:

*Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants. Granted I’m not really qualified to review this DVD. After all, I’m over five years old.

But these boring songs and not-that-interesting graphics -- including cartoons, puppets and a little live action -- just don’t compare with the standard-setting inspired kiddie craziness of the long lamented Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

Back in the ‘80s I’d happily get up at 8 a.m. on Saturdays to watch Pee-wee with my daughter. I can’t imagine any kid of mine trying to wake me up for Here Come the ABCs.

This ABC stuff is slick, safe stuff you can see on "educational" t.v. It's the kind of clean, safe kiddy programming that actual children only enjoy until they're old enough to learn how to change the channel. It’s hard to believe that TMBG would be associated with it. After all, they made some of the craziest, most fun videos of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

As for the music -- there’s a perfectly good song about the alphabet that ends with “Now I’ve learned my ABCs/Tell me what you think of me.” These new songs were as unnecessary as they are tedious. This doesn’t even compare with their last stab at children’s music No!.

BONUS!
MY ORIGINAL REVIEW OF THE CD HOLIDAY IN DIRT

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Feb. 15, 2002

Stan Ridgway is an acquired musical taste that far more people ought to acquire.

His new CD, Holiday in Dirt, a collection of outtakes, mostly from the 90s, is a must-have for certified Ridgway fans. And for potential cult members, it would be a great place to start.

Lets put it bluntly. Ridgway is one of the finest songwriters working today, a highly literate, often funny, sometimes kinda creepy storyteller who spins tales of sad drifters, barflies, con men, small-time hustlers and lowlifes with high hopes. His damaged but determined characters will haunt you long after the CD player is turned off.

So many critics compare Ridgway's lyrics to Raymond Chandler (I think it was Greil Marcus who started it) that it's just about become a cliche. It's time for something new. So lets throw this one out and see if it sticks: Stan Ridgway is the Harry Dean Stanton of rock n roll. It's not hard to imagine Ridgway songs bouncing around the mind of the henpecked private detective Johnnie Farragut in Wild at Heart. The hapless Bud in Repo Man could have driven straight out of a Ridgway ballad.

Ridgway's music is not easy to categorized. Starting out as the quirky singer for the quirky L.A. New Wave band Wall of Voodoo, you can still hear a little "Mexican radio -- the spaghetti-Western guitars, the coffee percolator drum machines -- in his work 20 years later.

But Ridgway's solo work draws from a wide array of sources - jazz, country, soundtrack music, show tunes and synth pop among them. His musical trademarks are his lonesome harmonica, which appears in many songs and, more importantly, his voice - a nasally tenor that would fit perfectly on many of his shadowy characters.

Holiday in Dirt begins with one of Ridgway's most impressive songs, "Beloved Movie Star." The subject matter - a washed-up actress helpless to stop youth and beauty from slipping away from her - has appeared in rock songs before (the Velvet Underground's "New Age," Concrete Blonde's "Jenny I Read").

But Ridgway's tune - with its stately harp flourishes and Stan singing in a near worshipful voice as if he's the last one on Earth who believes in the fading star - makes this an instant classic.

"Beloved Movie Star Redux," which ends the album (if you dont count the "hidden" track, a hilarious golden-throat deconstruction of Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors" -- say, is that a karaoke track here?) is a rougher and more acoustic mix. (And as Ridgway points out in the liner notes, you can hear the family dog, Bart, barking in the background.)

At first I didn't like it as much as the first version. Ridgway starts out singing in a lower octave and later switches when its obvious it doesn't work. But the more I listen to it, I think "Redux" has more heart.

"Bing Can't Walk," the tale of a Mafia bonebreaker, is a prime Ridgway crime song. It's got production and a nasty organ by Mitchell Froom and all sorts of classic Ridgway electronic gimcrackery - plus perhaps his best harmonica work on the album.

Another standout is "Brand New Special and Unique," which started out as a song for Ridgway's underrated mid-90s band Drywall. It features a wicked sax by Don Bell, a near hip-hoppy rhythm, cool-cat bass and ghostly background voices provided by the singer's wife, Pietra Wexstun.

This is followed by an ominous, fuzzed-up little rocker called "After the Storm," which sounds even closer to a garage band than Ridgway's amusing though not vital ode to his teenage rock memories, "Garage Band 69."

But Ridgway does far more than create creep shows and peep shows. He's perfectly capable of creating gorgeous melodies. "Amnesia" is a heartfelt love song, while "Act of Faith" is a sweet waltz featuring Stan strumming an acoustic guitar. The melody sounds like a cowboy tune or a traditional Irish song.

Stan Ridgway is one of those "just world" artists. You know, "in a just world, Stan Ridgway (or Richard Thompson/The Mekons/GillianWelch/Johnny Dowd)would be as big as Kenny G (or Garth Brooks/Britney Spears/Limp Biskit).

But somehow just having music like Ridgway's available makes the world seem a little more just.

SELF-SERVING PLUG

The Santa Fe Reporter this week graciously including this very blog in their list of local blogs.

I just found out that Reporter editor Julia Goldberg has her own blog.

Thanks for the plug, guys.

And I do forgive you for never choosing me as one of the Hunks of Santa Fe.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: EMOTIONAL ISSUES

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 3, 2004

Any debate over a bill dealing with abortion gets emotional. But one state senator during this week's floor debate over Senate Bill 126 - which would require doctors to notify parents when a minor girl seeks an abortion - took the debate to a new emotional level.

Sen. Diane Snyder, R-Albuquerque, made a passionate speech against the bill - the only Senate Republican to speak in opposition. Her statement laid open many of the intense conflicts people have about the abortion issue in general and the parental notification issue in particular.

She talked about a friend who died from a "back alley" abortion in the days before Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal and safe for women.

She mocked the contention by bill supporters that the bill would bring families together. Instead, she said, it would result in confused and frightened teenage girls going to unlicensed and dangerous abortionists. Or send girls from dysfunctional families to violent confrontations by irate parents.

But then Snyder surprised - and undoubtedly disappointed - many listeners by saying she would vote for the bill. For political reasons, she admitted.

Snyder said if she voted against it, a more conservative Republican would likely defeat her in the next primary election.

But her Northeast Heights district "is a swing district; it's not hard right," she said, so a Democrat would likely triumph in the general election.

Snyder told the Senate that keeping the seat Republican was more important than her vote on the bill - which, she predicted, would die in the House as has happened in past sessions. (It's been referred to the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, which earlier in the session tabled a similar House bill.)

In a literal way, her vote didn't make a difference. The bill passed the Senate 29-10. But some might argue that voting her conscience might have emboldened other senators - Republicans and Democrats - who believe the same as Snyder but voted for the bill out for political survival.

Talking to a reporter Wednesday, Snyder said there are other Republicans in the Senate who share the same conflicts about parental notification.

Snyder said the fact that she grew up in a small town - Shamrock, Texas - helped shape her view on the issue.

"Back then (if a young woman got pregnant out of wedlock), she'd either just 'go away for a visit' or go to a back-alley abortionist," Snyder said.

While SB 126 has provisions for a pregnant teenager to get a court order to bypass parental notification, Snyder said that would never work with small-town girls. "In a small town, girls would never go to the courthouse to talk to a judge about this," she said. "It would be on the front page of the paper. Everyone in the world would know."

"Families that have good relations don't need this bill," Snyder said. "Families who don't would be hurt by it."

Snyder said so far there have been no repercussions from the GOP regarding her speech.

More moral issues: On another emotional issue debated in the Legislature this week, five House Republicans broke ranks with the majority of GOP lawmakers and voted to pass House Bill 576, which would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole.

The five are W.C. "Dub" Williams of Glencoe, Brian Moore of Clayton, and Teresa Zanetti, Larry Larranaga and Justine Fox-Young, all of Albuquerque.

All but Fox-Young signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, introduced by Rep. Gail Beam, D-Albquerque. Williams and Zanetti have been co-sponsors of anti-death penalty bills in previous sessions.

Moore was the only Republican to speak on the bill during the House floor debate. He said his main concern was the possibility of executing an innocent person. "Death is so final," he said. "I just don't see having a death penalty."

Larranaga told a reporter Wednesday that he has always opposed capital punishment and that he sees his position as consistent with his anti-abortion philosophy. "I'm pro-life from conception to natural death," he said.

Fox-Young said she supported the bill because it provides life in prison without parole for those convicted of some murders. She declined to discuss her opinion on capital punishment itself.

Moore, Larranaga and Fox-Young all said they hadn't received any significant backlash from their party or constituents over their votes.

So far no Republican senator has publicly expressed support of the bill, which will be heard in the Senate Rules Committee.

"We're working on it," one lobbyist for the bill said.

"I've talked to some (GOP) senators about it who are thinking about it," Larranaga said.

GOODNESS GUSSIE!

So you thought you would be safe at Sirius, Howard Stern...

If you assumed that freedom of speech had a safe haven in pay-television and radio services -- which currently aren't under FCC "decency" standards -- THINK AGAIN!

This from The Washington Post:

Currently, the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to fine only over-the-air radio and television broadcasters for violating its indecency regulations, which forbid airing sexual or excretory material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely watching.

But Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) told a group of broadcasters yesterday that he wants to extend that authority to cover the hundreds of cable and satellite television and radio channels that operate outside of the government's control. In addition to basic cable channels such as ESPN, Discovery and MTV, that would include premium channels such as HBO and Showtime and the two satellite radio services, XM and Sirius.

"We put restrictions on the over-the-air signals," Stevens said after his address to the National Association of Broadcasters, according to news reports confirmed by his staff. "I think we can put restrictions on cable itself. At least I intend to do my best to push that."

The Reuters account of the story quotes Stevens saying, "No one wants censorship."

Whew! I guess there's nothing to worry about. You had us going there for a minute, Ted.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February 27, 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
Act Naturally by Buck Owens with Ringo Starr
Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks
New Age by The Velvet Underground
My Beloved Movie Star by Stan Ridgway
Everyone's Gone to the Movies by Steely Dan
Burn, Hollywood, Burn by Public Enemy with Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane
No Business Like Show Business by Ethel Merman

You're a Whole Different Person When You're Scared by Warren Zevon
White Rabbit by The Jefferson Airplane
Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles
Hothead by Captain Beefheart
Sinister Exaggerator by The Residents
Worlds Apart by ...and You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead
It's a Gas by Alfred E. Newman

Jesus Will Fix It For You by Sonny Treadway
Father In Jesus' Name by Aubrey Ghent
The March by Robert Randolph
Hollering by Rev. Craig Pringle with The Campbell Brothers
If I Couldn't Say a Word by Lamar Nelson
I Need Thee by Rayfield "Ray Ray" Holloman

Movies Are a Mother to Me by Loudon Wainwright III
Confusion Illusion by Eddie Turner
Lone Wolf by The Eels
Hunted by Freaks by Mogwai
Hospital Window by Ana da Silva
Fairytale in the Supermarket by The Raincoats
Manitoba by Frank Black & The Catholics
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 25, 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
I Ain't Living Long Like This by Waylon Jennings
Bad News by Johnny Cash
Gallo de Cielo by Joe Ely
Dirty Drawers by Vassar Clements with Elvin Bishop
Hogtied Over You by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
18 Wheels of Love by Drive By Truckers

Valentino's Dream by Ronny Elliott
Pardon Me, I've Someone to Kill by Lonesome Bob
Dirty Little Secret by Elizabeth McQueen & The Firebrands
Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be by Ernest Tubb & Loretta Lynn
Sober and Stupid by Fortytwenty
All Over Again by Susie Salley
Love Rollercoaster by Cornell Hurd
Empty House, Dawn and Twilight by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Endless Sleep by Jody Reynolds

Zuni Mountain Ramble by Raising Cane
Footprints in the Snow by Bill Monroe
Old Rattler by Grandpa Jones
Chicago by Ramsay Midwood
Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry
Walk Through the Fire by Mary Gauthier
There Stands the Glass by Jack Neal
Port of Amsterdam by Dave Van Ronk

Over Yonder by Steve Earle
Sing Me Back Home by Edith Frost
Here Comes a Regular by Nathan Hamilton
Pyramid of Tears by Alejandro Escovedo
On the Banks of the Rio Grande by Blind James
One of the Unsatisfied by Lacy J. Dalton
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: HOLY COW, IT'S SACRED STEEL!

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 25, 2005

I’ve said it before. If any church around here played music as exhilarating and wonderful as that found on the album Sacred Steel Instrumentals, I’d go to church. It’s loud, lively, sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes crazy -- and I can’t imagine anyone sitting quietly in their pews while it’s being played. It’s rock ‘n’ roll in everything but name.

Fortunately for me, there are no House of God congregations in Santa Fe, so I’m off the hook.

The House of God, for those who have not been touched by the spirit of sacred steel, is an African- American Pentecostal denomination where the music originated in the 1930s.

Florida is where some of the most revered sacred steel players come from -- though probably the best known, Robert Randolph, learned to play steel guitar at a House of God church in New Jersey.

The steel guitar -- yes that wonderful instrument that puts the cry in the best cry-in-your-beer country songs -- is the main instrument of sacred steel. The old-fashioned lap steel, then later the amplified pedal steel became popular in House of God congregations that couldn’t afford an organ or piano.

Like some arcane religious mystery, sacred steel stayed a virtual House of God secret for some 60 years, unknown to most to most of the outside world until about 10 years when Arhoolie Records began releasing sacred steel albums.

This record is a compilation featuring cuts from previous Arhoolie compilations and CDs by noted masters like The Campbell Brothers, Aubrey Ghent and Sonny Treadway.

I have the feeling that Arhoolie compiled this one with the neophyte in mind. Thus there are many familiar titles among the selections -- “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” (performed here by Ghent) “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” (by Lonnie “Big Ben” Bennett) “When the Saints Go Marching In” (by Willie Eason), “Down by the Riverside” (done by The Campbell Brothers as part of a medley.)

But even these are well-worn tunes, these guys play them as if they were fresh revelations. If you haven’t heard sacred steel before, you’ll be amazed at the power still in them.

Though I love the wild hip-shakin’ songs, some of my favorite ones here are slow and meditative. That’s the case with “End of My Journey” by The Campbell Brothers.

Meanwhile, Robert Randolph’s “Without God” starts off that way, but nearly four minutes into it, he and the band erupt into a righteous frenzy. (Randolph walks in two musical worlds -- his sacred steel church music and his rocking “secular steel,” which has become a hit with the jam-band crowd.)

So much contemporary gospel music is just as overproduced, stale and bloodless as hot new country or lite jazz. Sacred steel, by contrast is rootsy, soulful and live. And one healthy sign is that while some of the sacred-steel icons are getting up in age, others, like Randolph, Rayfield “Ray Ray” Holloman and Lamar Nelson, are in their early 20s. (Holloman was 16 when he recorded “I Need Thee,” included here.)

I just hope Arhoolie keeps it up, making sure there’s plenty of new sacred steel available.

Also Recommended:

*Livin’ With the Blues by Vassar Clements. Although the fiddle was an integral part of jug bands and string bands that were early manifestations of what we now call “blues,” the instrument has been rare in blues as we‘ve known it for the past 50 years or more. With but a few exceptions -- Don “Sugarcane” Harris, Papa John Creach --you just don’t here the fiddle in blues.

But that didn’t stop veteran fiddler Clements from putting together a classy album of blues-based material.

It’s not surprising that he would record a blues album. Clements, who started out more than 50 years ago with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, long ago slipped the surly bonds of bluegrass. He’s used the phrase “hillbilly jazz” in a couple of albums and called another one Backporch Swing.

And longtime Clements fans know that the blues seeped into his bow years ago. Listen to his playing on The Grateful Dead‘s “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo” or on “Trail of the Buffalo” with the hippie-grass super group Old and In the Way.

So Clements sounds right at home on this new album collaborating with the likes of Charlie Musselwhite, Elvin Bishop, Maria Muldaur, Norton Buffalo and Roy Rogers playing songs by Skip James, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson and Tampa Red.

Almost all the instruments here are acoustic. The credits make special note that Rogers plays an “amplified Martin guitar” on “Phonograph Blues.”

But it’s not just country blues covered here. The material ranges from the New Orleans style of “Mambo Boogie” (Dave Matthews -- no not that Dave Matthews plays piano) to a hillbilly-soul cover of Booker T’s signature “Green Onions,” featuring Musselwhite on harmonica.

Some of favorites here are the ones sung by Muldaur, whose voice has only gotten richer since her early ‘70s “Midnight at the Oasis” heyday. She belts out “Honey Babe Blues” and one called “I Ain’t Gonna Play No Second Fiddle.”

Then there’s the contributions of Bishop, who rose to fame in the ’70s with songs like “Stealin’ Watermelons” and “Struttin’ My Stuff.“ In case you’d forgotten how much fun Bishop is, check out “Dirty Drawers” and the cool funky “That’s My Thing” from this record.

*Rise by Eddie Turner. Fans of bluesman Otis Taylor should be familiar with Turner's psychedelic guitar. Turner along with bassist Kenny Passarelli, formed the backbone of Taylor’s band on all his albums.

All but the last one, that is. For reasons of which I’m not sure, Taylor didn’t use his longtime sidemen for last year’s Double V. And as far as I’m concerned, the album suffered for it.

But Turner and Passarelli are together on Turner’s new solo album.

This album is crawling with Santa Fe musicians. It’s produced by Passarelli (a longtime Santa Fe resident, who also plays bass and keyboards), Mark Clark plays drums, Alex Maryol makes a guest appearance. And the whole shebang was recorded at Stepbridge Studios.

Rise doesn’t rise to the intensity of Turner’s best work with Taylor. Turner’s an amazing picker, but he’s no match for Otis as a lyricist or singer.

Still, the album is a worthy. Turner and crew take their music seriously and the result is truly innovative blues.

Some of my favorites here are instrumentals. “Resurrection,” for instance, features Turner dueling with himself, slide guitar vs. electric guitar. It almost could be described as a shorter, more downhome version of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain.”

“The River” is a guitar boogie featuring Turner and Maryol that through the magic of tape loops keeps adding more layers.

Other notable tunes are “Confusion Illusion,” the closest thing here to a protest song (and Passarelli plays a mean, jazzy organ here) and “Sin” which could almost be described as a psychedelic spiritual. It’s almost a capella, except the guitar and organ rumbling in the background.

And speaking of psychedelic, Turner just might have saved his best for the last here with “Secret.” With revved-up, trip hoppy percussion ghostly vocal parts fade in and out.

The free world really didn’t really need another cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary.” And the same thing could be said of Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Gangster of Love,” except that Turner’s take on it is such a good-time rollick, it’s worth it.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP:FEAR & LOATHING FOREVER

“When a jackrabbit gets addicted to road running, it is only a matter of time before he gets smashed -- and when a journalist turns into a politics junkie he will sooner or later start raving and babbling in print about things that only a person who has Been There can possibly understand.”

-- Hunter S. Thompson from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72.

1972 was a major year in my personal political development.

It was the year of my first anti-war demonstration at the University of New Mexico — an adrenalin-charged and tear gas-soaked week that still gets me riled and antsy.

It was the first year in which people between the ages of 18 and 20 were legally eligible to vote. I was 19 and I voted as part of that youth vote that some — wrongly — predicted would be huge enough to oust Richard Nixon.

And one thing that helped make the year bearable were the regular mondo gonzo campaign dispatches from Hunter Thompson published in Rolling Stone.

Thompson’s bad-craziness exit this week prompted me to pick up my well-worn first edition paperback (price tag: $1.75) of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72, which I‘ve always thought to be his greatest work, despite the greater infamy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Reading all the praise and final respects for Thompson from mainstream press folk around the country struck me as ironic. Though Thompson had plenty of friends among non-gonzo journalists, he didn’t think much of the establishment political press.

“The most consistent and ultimately damaging failure of political journalism in America has its roots in the clubby/cocktail personal relationships that inevitably develop between politicians and journalists — in Washington or anywhere else they meet on a day-to-day basis,” Thompson wrote in the introduction of Campaign Trail. “When professional antagonists become after-hours drinking buddies, they are not likely to turn each other in … especially for the `minor infractions of rules that neither side takes seriously; and on the rare occasions when Minor infractions suddenly become Major, there is panic on both ends.”

Many of us envied Thompson’s fearlessness and reckless freedom shown in Campaign Trail. Who among us doesn’t fantasize about blurting out — in print — pejoratives like “evil swine,” or “treacherous geek” or “corrupt old ward-heeler” when describing some of the politicos we cover? (Note to politicos: You know who you are.)

But while many of us admired Thompson, few, if any, actually emulate him either in writing or antics. Here in New Mexico some of our judges come a lot closer to Hunter Thompson than our journalists.

The ‘72 race was Thompson‘s high-water mark for political writing. His subsequent stabs at writing about presidential campaigns seemed half-hearted and weary.

I remember trying to trudge through his late ‘80s book Generation of Swine, a collection of his columns about national politics. His observations there seemed like warmed-over conventional wisdom spiced up with familiar Thompsonisms like “money-sucking animals,” and “greed-crazed lunatics.”

Some believe Thompson by the end had become a sad parody of himself. Many believe his legendary drug and booze intake eventually fried his spirit and diminished his talent.

But for one glorious stretch 35 years ago, Thompson single-handedly cut through the crap of politics and journalism, revealed disturbing truths and made his work seem like twisted fun. For that he should be honored.

Remembering Campaign ‘72: New Mexico voted for Nixon over Democrat George McGovern — as did every state but Massachusetts.

But there was weirdness in the air earlier that year. In the June primary there were enough renegade Republicans here who voted for Paul McCloskey — an anti-war congressman from California — that New Mexico sent the only delegate to that year’s Republican convention who didn’t vote for Nixon. (That was Tom Mayer, an author from Española who taught creative writing at The University of New Mexico.)

The most surreal political event I attended that year — not counting the war demonstrations — was an Albuquerque airport rally for Democratic vice presidential candidate Sargent Shriver. The main draw wasn’t Shriver but singer Richie Havens, who explained to the crowd that he personally didn’t intend to vote because he refused to give control of his life to anyone. Not the message the organizers wanted.

At the rally, then-Gov. Bruce King urged the crowd to “knock on doorbells for George McGovern.” The cowboy governor then introduced actor Dennis Hopper, who read Rudyard Kipling’s poem If.

Ring of Fred: Thumbing through Campaign Trail '72, I found a Thompson reference to New Mexico political figure — Fred Harris, a former state Democratic chair who then was a U.S. senator from Oklahoma. Describing a press conference to announce the formation of a National Youth Caucus, Thompson wrote, “Harris didn’t say much; he just sat there looking like Johnny Cash …”