MORE CHARGES FOR ANGELO

A version of this appeared in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 19, 2005

A key witness in the federal extortion and money-laundering case against former state Treasurer Robert Vigil is facing 19 new counts in a state security fraud case.

The new charges for which Albuquerque businessman Angelo Garcia was indicted on Thursday are on top of the 27 charges he already was facing in the same case involving a Santa Fe low-income housing development that never got off the ground.

Attorney General Patricia Madrid said Friday that the victims in the case are all elderly New Mexico residents.

“Some people see white collar crimes as simply an issue about money,” Madrid said in a written statement. “But when an elderly person is defrauded of their life savings we are talking about much more than money. When an individual is living on a fixed income the loss of life savings greatly impacts the future quality of life. Targeting the elderly and defrauding them of their life savings is unconscionable.”

Also expressing disgust for those who cheat elderly victims was Sam Bregman, one of Vigil’s lawyers in his federal case.

“Angelo Garcia is the government’s star witness against my client,” Bregman said in an interview Friday. “He is nothing more than a con man. The government’s entire case against Robert Vigil is based on the testimony of con men and convicted criminals.”

Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the original state securities-fraud charges.
But he has pleaded guilty in federal court to aiding and abetting extortion in a kickback scheme involving Vigil and his predecessor Michael Montoya — who this month pleaded guilty to one count of extortion in the federal case.

Garcia already was cooperating with the federal government against Vigil and Montoya when he was originally indicted in September by a state grand jury in the securities-fraud case.

Garcia’s new charges represent more than $600,000 allegedly lost by seven victims, Madrid said.

One elderly couple allegedly lost more than $174,000, while another man allegedly lost more than $156,000. A mother and daughter each allegedly lost more than $100,000 to Garcia’s venture. A second couple allegedly lost about $65,000.

These losses are in addition to the near $1 million that state prosecutors say Garcia and his partners took from elderly investors covered in the previous indictments. Those charges are still pending.

Garcia’s new indictment includes five counts each of securities fraud, fraud over $20,000 and sale of unregistered securities, and one count each of forgery, racketeering and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

The Santa Fe project was a $2.6 million, 44-unit apartment complex called the San Clemente Apartments proposed to be built on 3.5 acres between Airport Road and Jaguar Drive. Some of Garcia’s alleged victims put up money for projects in Rio Rancho and Belen. None of the three projects were ever built.

The same Bernalillo County grand jury on Thursday also indicted Orlando Montoya — brother of the former treasurer — on four additional felony counts in the securities-fraud case.

Orlando Montoya previously was indicted on 13 felony counts in the case.

Angelo Garcia’s brother Joseph Garcia also was indicted on 11 felony counts in September in the securities- fraud case. The grand jury didn’t add any new charges for him this week.

Both Joseph Garcia and Orlando Montoya have pleaded not guilty.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 18, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
All of the Monkeys Ain't in the Zoo by Tommy Collins
Operation Blues by Hank Thompson
A Good Night Tonight by Tom Armstrong
Hillbilly Train by Sonny George & The Tennessee Sons
You Said Goodbye by The San Juan River by Nancy Apple & Rob McNurlin
Veteran's Day by Tom Russell Band
Put it Back by Billy Kaundart
This Bottle in My Hand by George Jones & David Allen Coe
Curly Toes by (Unknown)

Endless War by Son Volt
Come On by Hundred Year Flood
The Demon of White Sadness by Marah
If My Heart Was a Car by The Old 97s
One Last Question by Jason & The Scorchers
Trampled Underfoot by Michael Hall
Arkansas Hard Luck Blues by Lonnie Glosson
Music Has No End by Clothesline Revival with Neil Morris

Don't Worry 'Bout Me by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Buckskin Stallion Blues by Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Mudhoney
I'm Gonna Strangle You Shorty by The Flatlanders
Everybody's Talkin' by Bobby Bare
Daddy What If by Bobby Bare with Bobby Bare, Jr.
Painting Her Fingernails by Bobby Bare Jr.'s Young Criminal Starvation League
Freakin' at The Freaker's Ball by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
Peace in the Valley by Jimmie Dale Gilmore

I Wish I Were a Pirate by Ukulele Man
Cornbread Nation by Tim O'Brien
Better Than Me by Bobby Earl Smith
Look What Thoughts Will Do by Merle Haggard
Poor Poor Lenore by The Handsome Family
It's Just You by Blaze Foley
The Rue of Ruby Whores by Michael Hurley
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

AND I GUESS THERE WON'T BE A DIXIE CHICKS DAY IN THE SENATE

Here's an Associated Press item about Senate Republicans shooting down a resolution honoring Bruce Springsteen.

I can't see why they can't forgive The Boss for supporting John Kerry. Last year at a George Bush appearance in Albuquerque they played a taped marching-band version of "This Land is Your Land," which was written by Woody Guthrie, a self-proclaimed communist.

By DONNA DE LA CRUZ

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bruce Springsteen famously was “born in the USA,” but he’s getting scorned in the U.S. Senate.

An effort by New Jersey’s two Democratic senators to honor the veteran rocker was shot down Friday by Republicans who are apparently still miffed a year after the Boss lent his voice to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The chamber’s GOP leaders refused to bring up for consideration a resolution, introduced by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine, that honored Springsteen’s long career and the 1975 release of his iconic album, “Born to Run.”

No reason was given, said Lautenberg spokesman Alex Formuzis.

“Resolutions like this pass all the time in the U.S. Senate, usually by unanimous consent,” he said.

Telephone calls to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s office seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Lautenberg said he couldn’t understand why anyone would object to the resolution.

“Even if the Republicans don’t like (Springsteen’s) tunes, I would hope they appreciated his contributions to American culture,” Lautenberg said.

Springsteen endorsed Kerry last year, and made campaign appearances that drew huge crowds who came to hear music described in the resolution as “a cultural milestone that has touched the lives of millions of people.”

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: HOW I LOVE THEM OLD SONGS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Novemebr 18, 2004

In recent days a couple of albums full of cover songs by a couple of great country singers have graced my CD player. The artists are very different and the albums they’ve released probably are even more different.

But both Come on Back by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and The Moon Was Blue by Bobby Bare are simple but extremely enjoyable works that reveal the foundations of these artists’ respective work. They’re both short -- each less than 40 minutes -- but very satisfying.

Gilmore’s album is a memorial to his late father Brian Gilmore, who was a part-time country musician -- a guitarist whose most prized possession was his old Fender “Nocaster” electric guitar. Gilmore in the liner notes tells of a newspaper clipping from The Tulia Herald from the early ‘50s. It’s an ad for a dance at the VFW Hall starring “The Swingaroos featuring Brian Gilmore and his Electric Guitar!”

You can see that very guitar on the CD cover and hear it on this album, played by Robbie Gjersoe, who also plays lap steel and other stringed instruments.

Come on Back consists of Brian Gilmore’s favorite country classics. There are loving renditions of tunes from the songbooks of Hank Williams (“I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive”); Lefty Frizzell (“Saginaw, Michigan”); Jimmie Rodgers (“Standin’ On the Corner”); Ernest Tubb (“I’m Walkin’ the Floor Over You”); Hank Snow (“I’m Movin’ On”); Johnny Cash (“Train of Love”); and The Carter Family (“Jimmy Brown the Newsboy”).

There are some songs here that just seem to be part of the honky tonk astral plane: “Pick Me Up On Your Way Down” for instance, and “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes.” They were hits by Charlie Walker and Slim Willett respectively. These singers have largely been forgotten, but the songs live on in renditions by untold numbers of country bands in untold numbers of Saturday night barrooms.

All the tracks are played by Gilmore and a basic guitars/bass/drums combo (some feature fiddler Eamon McLoughlin). The whole shebang was produced and arranged by Jimmie Dale’s fellow Flatlander Joe Ely.

Only one song here is a little jarring. That’s “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me,” a Marty Robbins song. Gilmore notes that Robbins’ original was the first commercial recording to employ a distorted guitar. Here the guitar solo almost sounds like Mudhoney, the Seattle grunge warriors with whom Gilmore recorded in the mid ’90s. I’m not complaining. The arrangement just seems a little out of context here.

Come On Back ends with a classic gospel tune that has been a longtime favorite of singers both Black and white -- Thomas Dorsey’s “Peace in the Valley.” A few days before he died, Brian Gilmore told his granddaughter that this was his favorite song of all time.

I bet the old man would have loved this album.

And I bet he would have liked Bobby Bare’s new one too.


The Moon Was Blue is a collection of standards from the worlds of jazz, pop and (gulp!) easy listening done in a “countrypolitan“ style. The most obvious comparison would be to Willie Nelson’s Stardust.

Bare does versions of “Love Letters in the Sand,” “Yesterday When I Was Young” and even “Shine on Harvest Moon.”

It’s produced by Bare’s son, Bobby Jr., a musician in his own right who is perfectly capable of getting just as grungy as Mudhoney. That makes the mainly straightforward MOR arrangement here -- some songs even feature The Nashville String Machine -- even more surprising.

To be sure, there are a few moments of subversive sonic weirdness here -- most notably a growing guitar balancing the sweet female choral of “Am I That easy To Forget” and some strange electronic atmospherics on “Everybody’s Talkin’” and “Fellow Travelers.”

This is the first album in umpteen years for Bare, who first starting cranking out hits in the late 1950s. In the early 1960s he had a string of records that would become Nashville classics, most notably “Detroit City,” “Miller’s Cave” and “500 Miles Away from Home.” Then in the ‘70s, he teamed up with songwriter Shel Silverstein to create some of the greatest country novelty songs of The Outlaw Era -- “Marie Lavaux,” “The Winner,” “Warm and Free” and “Tequila Sheila.”

Surprisingly, the only disappointing song here is Bare’s version of a Silverstein song, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.” It’s not bad, but it just can’t compare with Marianne Faithful, who applied her crone croak to the tune on her album Broken English and rendered any future versions irrelevant.

The late Roger Miller, who was a Nashville regular during the same era when Bare first made it big, once told me that when country musicians got together for after-hours jam sessions, it’s the old standards they mainly liked to do.

Hearing Bare’s husky croon on songs like “Are You Sincere” and “It’s All in The Game” I can envision Bare in the backroom of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, strumming and singing with Roger and Willie and Ray Price and Faron Young.

And speaking of Ms. LaVaux … You can find Bare’s “Marie Lavaux” on the recent Columbia Legacy compilation The Best of Shel Silverstein. There’s also the ultra sappy “Daddy What If,” featuring a very young Bare Jr. (I would have preferred “Warm and Free” but nobody asked me.)

This collection features songs performed not only by Silverstein, but by the original performers who made his tunes famous.

There’s “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash; “The Taker” by Kris Kristofferson”; “The Unicorn” by The Irish Rovers; “A Couple More Years” by Willie & Waylon and some hits by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, notably “Silvia’s Mother,” “Cover of The Rolling Stone” and “Freaking at the Freakers’ Ball.”

My main complaint here is that there’s too much Dr. Hook here. Emmylou Harris’ “Queen of the Silver Dollar” is a hundred times stronger than Hook’s version.

Missing from the collection is “Lucy Jordan,” one of Silverstein‘s greatest tunes. I wish it had Faithful’s rendition. At least they didn’t use Dr. Hook’s.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: SQUIRMING TOWARD 2008

A version of this published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 17, 2005

Gov. Bill Richardson’s name frequently appears in the “2008 Democrats” section of The Note on ABC News’ daily political Web site, along with other potential presidential contenders.

But usually when the governor is there, it’s not for “tortured squirming.”

Richardson was recognized for giving the “most awkward non-answer of the weekend” during his appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

According to The Note, Wallace asked the gov about Washington Post columnist Al Kamen’s account of Richardson telling guests at an elite Georgetown dinner party that he’s “going” for president in 2008.

Noted The Note, “viewers were subjected to some tortured squirming.”

What makes Bill squirm? Here’s a transcript of how that interview ended:

Wallace: ... there’s a report this week about you going to a fancy Georgetown dinner party, and let’s put up on the screen what the report said. “Richardson was quoted by one guest as saying, ‘I’m running and you can tell people that.’ Two others recalled him saying, “I’m going in 2008.’” Governor, simple yes or no question. Is that story true?

Richardson: Well, you know, this is the season for rumors. What I’ve said and I’ve always said, Chris, I got to get re-elected in one year. I’ve got a broad agenda in New Mexico. I love being New Mexico governor. New Mexico has been very good to me. We’ll see after ‘08.

W: Well, not after ‘08. That will be a little late. But did you say at that party -- simple yes or no -- I’m going?

R: Those are rumors. You know, this was one of those dinner parties where there were a lot of people supporting a bunch of candidates.

W: Well, you could end the rumor, Governor.

R: Well, no, that is incorrect. I said that beyond ‘06, we’re going to take a look at a lot of options.

W: Okay. Governor, that’s a yes or no answer.

Richardson went through a similar version of this dance on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition Wednesday, ultimately saying that Kamen’s column was false. But since it was radio it was hard to tell how tortured the squirming was.

To Tell the Truth: So Kamen had it wrong, and veteran Associated Press political reporter Ron Fournier had it wrong earlier this year when he reported “New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has told party leaders he will run.”

How could otherwise respected journalists keep getting this wrong? Why do they keep reporting falsehoods about the governor of New Mexico?

Chatter about Kamen’s column and Richardson’s refusal to pledge to serve a full term if elected governor next year, prompted former state Republican John Dendahl this week to wonder, tongue-in-cheek, what Democrat is really running for governor in 2006.

“It's time for one of those ‘Will the REAL candidate please stand up?’ challenges, with (Lt. Gov. Diane) Denish as the proper responder,” Dendahl said.

I love Paris in the springtime: The strangest e-mail I’ve gotten
all month has to be one from the state Senate Republicans, in which Mark Boitano of Albuquerque — one of the most socially conservative senators in office — expresses his admiration for a pop-culture (some would say “trash culture”) icon.

“I've become a Paris Hilton fan,” Boitano wrote in an “op-ed” piece.

O.K., that got my attention.

“No, it's not after viewing a provocative photo or a steamy video,” the senator continued. “It's after hearing Paris make an expectedly wise statement about breaking her engagement because she's not ready to get married and wants to avoid a divorce. ‘I have seen the breakups between people who love each other and rush into getting married too quickly. I do not want to make that mistake,’ Ms. Hilton said recently. The two million plus Americans who will marry in the next year can learn something from Paris' decision.”

Boitano goes on to note Hilton’s New Mexico roots.

“Her great-grandfather — hotelier and philanthropist Conrad Hilton — was born in New Mexico, served in the state legislature and was known to have deep affection for his family and country. He would be proud of her, as should state lawmakers, social scientists and anyone worried about the future of marriage, family and society in America.”

Boitano frequently sponsors legislation he says is designed to strengthen the institution of marriage.

Last year he co-sponsored a package of bills that included measures to reduce marriage license fees for couples who take marriage-education programs and require that divorcing couples with children go to pre-divorce counseling classes. The proposals didn’t make it out of the Senate.

“Some think Paris Hilton is overexposed (in more ways than one),” Boitano wrote, “but regardless of what you think about her, when people like Paris think twice about better marriage preparation that can result in improved marital unions and less use of the nuclear option of breakup and divorce (there) may be a ray of hope for this storied institution after all, and as Paris is fond of saying, ‘that's hot!’ ”

XCP UPDATE

Looks like SONY/BMG is recalling all its infected CDs.

CLICK HERE or HERE

Does this mean I have to give up my Ricky Martin CD?

CATS & MICE

The recent controversy over Sony Music's evil "anti-piracy" spyware (CLICK HERE, CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE) reminds me of a piece I did for a special edition of Pasatiempo published on the day that the Y2K bug was going to end civilization as we knew it.

I wrote about my predictions for the music industry in the new century. The controversy over Sony's XCP software goes along with what I called an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between music lovers and the music industry.

Now that we're nearly six years onto the 21st Century, let's look back on some of my predictions.

Keep in mind that this article was published before the rise of iPods and iTunes and satellite radio.

And don't give me too much grief because few if any artists followed the Todd Rundgren subscription model I thought at the time might have legs.

And I'm not sure why I referred to Michael Moore as "Mike Moore."

Here's that story:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 1, 2000

Here's what I predict for the future of music in the next century.

Everyone and his dog will be producing their own records whether CDs, MP3s or who-knows-what new alphabet-soup format. Everyone and his dog will be broadcasting their own private "radio" stations over the Internet, featuring dazzling mixes of all kinds of music.

But the only musicians making any real money in the foreseeable future of recorded music will be those mass-marketed by major music corporations, and hyped on commercial radio and corporate-sponsored Web sites.

In other words, the potential democratic effects of electronic technology will make for a healthy musical "underground" with untold treasures of easily available sound. But the music-industry weasel is far from the endangered-species list.

And as long as we're talking in animal metaphors, I predict the cat-and-mouse game between the established music industry and musical "techno-rebels" will continue.

The industry will fight to maintain control over the "product" of music while the "rebels" will keep trying to eliminate the corporate middleman between artist and audience.

The mouse will keep inventing new technology to duplicate and distribute music, and to get around the high prices set by the record companies, and the cat will keep suing to try to stop the mouse.

The cat will yell "piracy!" every time some new threatening software pops up. And the mouse will chuckle, "Yo-ho-ho!"

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But I predict that the religious right, which in recent years has attacked major record companies over sex and violence in music, will become an ally of those companies in the effort to control and try to censor the Internet.

The following is my look at likely changes in the music business in the century to come.

Radio, radio

Commercial radio is not likely to veer from the troubling trends of recent decades: more stations in the hands of fewer owners, tighter playlists (which means fewer songs on the air but a handful of songs played over and over again), and strict formats created by big-city consultants for specific targeted demographic groups.

Why will those trends continue? Because they work!

Public and community stations will remain looser but as they grow less dependent on government funding and more dependent on yuppie donations, they inevitably will grow more conservative and less experimental.

Also, the Internet will continue to shape the future of radio especially when the technology required to bring "Webcasting" from cyberspace to the car stereo becomes cheap enough and high-quality enough to be practical.

The Internet will allow drivers to choose from radio stations all over the world, as well as Web-based options all-blues channels, 24- hour punk rock, Korean newscasts, Nazi talk shows, whatever.

In a 1998 article, the CNN Financial Network Web page lists the advantages of online music programming.

"Listeners can access hundreds of channels organized by genre or set up custom listening programs to hear only specific types of music," the article reads. "Additionally Internet radio programmers can reach a worldwide audience because they're not limited by frequencies, which is why so many local stations have taken to making their programming available on the Internet."

So if you leave New Mexico and get lonesome for KBAC-FM 98.1 or KTAO-FM 101.5, you can call up those stations and listen to them over your computer. The RealAudio Web site, realaudio.com, lists those plus five other New Mexico stations; as well as Sikhnet Radio, a Web- based station featuring East Indian music Webcast from Northern New Mexico's Sikh community.

At least one other local station is planning to go online, perhaps as soon as next year. More surely will follow.

Technical glitches in Web radio abound.

The CNN article observes that "the audio quality of Webcast music is worse than your average Grateful Dead bootleg tape."

Irritating interruptions are frequent.

But technology is improving almost every day.

With so many potential choices, the future might sound gloomy for regular-old commercial radio stations. But my bet is those stations won't lose much of their audience, at least after the initial novelty of Web radio wears off.

The fact is the silent majority actually likes Top 40, hot new country, oldies and classic rock. So most the time most folks probably won't want to bother with listening to a New York or California station, which plays the same songs as local stations anyway but lacks local news and weather.

The electronic record store

Of all aspects of the music industry, the way music is bought and sold is likely to go through the most radical transformation.

In the past couple years record-company executives have been pulling out their hair over the invention of MP3, which allows artists to sell or give away CD-quality songs or entire albums as Internet downloads.

You can play MP3s on new portable stereo MP3 players, which sell for about $150 to $350 each, or on personal computers. If history holds true for those gizmos as with other electronic devices, MP3 players should become better and cheaper with time.

The July 1997 issue of Rock & Rap Confidential, a newsletter edited by veteran rock critic Dave Marsh, has the following to say about MP3s and other new music technology.

"Throughout most of human history, music has been free. Over the past century, the advance of technology allowed music to be turned into various configurations that could be sold. Now the further advance of technology is returning music to its original, free state.

"There are only two choices. We can run for protection into the arms of an obsolete, corrupt music industry that through high prices, payola, censorship and incredibly narrow artist rosters keeps us from hearing most of the music made on our planet; or we can with open arms embrace the new technology and its potential to make all the music available to all the people all the time."

The article notes that Hilary Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America which is made up of major record labels recently had announced a program "to enlist universities and Internet service providers as snitches who will ferret out free music sites."

"(Rosen) went on to express her fear that people will get used to downloading music for free and thus the industry `must not let a pirate market on the Internet get established before the legitimate one is ready.'

RIAA still aggressively fights what it considers piracy and copyright infringement on the part of those aiding unauthorized downloads of material that legally belongs to the record companies.

Widely reported in November, the organization was preparing a lawsuit against the creators of Napster software that allows music fans to easily search and download one another's MP3 collections. The RIAA has not filed suit as of this writing.

Even so, instead of its initial knee-jerk reaction against MP3s, the RIAA seems to be embracing new music technology.

Testifying before the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection in October, Rosen said, "The music industry has not just accepted new technology, we are putting our creative talents to use, working with technology partners and trying out new ways of delivering this important consumer experience.

"Every one of the major recording companies has announced plans to begin offering consumers the music they want in new ways."

Rosen even went so far as to laud the efforts of several well- known acts trying to "fight the power" of the industry and sell directly to their fans.

Rosen and the interest she represents can't really be happy about such efforts. But major companies are beginning to imitate independent efforts, occasionally offering free or discounted MP3 songs.

In her testimony Rosen mentioned the rap group Public Enemy, which this year offered the new album There's a Poison Goin' On in MP3 before selling the recording as a CD. The entire album as a download costs $8 (about half the price of a regular CD) and individual songs in download form sell for $.99 each.

The Rundgren remedy

In her testimony Rosen also mentioned quirky pop rocker Todd Rundgren, who has come up with a radical new idea for selling music.

His Web site offers "subscriptions" to "patrons." For $25, the Rundgren fan gets to preview and download new music online as it's created, has access to rare Rundgren material, gets custom tapes and CDs made at cost, can participate in online chats with the musician, can watch live Internet performances by Rundgren, and gets other goodies.

Rundgren publicist Kelli Richards said in a recent e-mail to Pasatiempo that Rundgren has been selling such subscriptions for a little longer than a year and in 1999 produced "five to eight" new songs for subscribers. She declined to say whether the venture has been profitable.

Even if Rundgren's hasn't been a moneymaker, I predict such musical ventures on the Web will multiply.

The music-biz game

Of course Public Enemy and Rundgren already had their respective global fan bases before going online.

While more and more musicians will be producing and marketing their own music over the Web, and a vast number of Webcast stations will pop up to play the music, the choices for listeners will be overwhelming. How will new artists establish their audiences?

Musicians who shun the major-corporation route but want to spread their music beyond their own computers and their local coffeehouses will have to employ private publicists and promoters like Rundgren's Richards.

In fact record companies, freed from the task of physically manufacturing CDs and tapes, could evolve into glorified public- relations companies for music.

Of course most of the artists those companies will represent will be of the same quality as the safe, nonthreatening acts that dominate today's charts. So those seeking the Ricky Martin-Mariah Carey level of fame still will have to play the big-music-biz game.

The living-room revolution

Followers of nonmainstream music usually demand more intimacy from their musical heroes. One recent trend reported in November in The New York Times could have implications for the future.

"From Seattle to Waco to Queens, more than 300 homeowners have become part-time concert promoters, turning their living rooms into mild-mannered clubs for a night, and scores of performers are discovering that they can make good livings simply by touring these private residences," reporter Neil Strauss writes.

"At a time when live-performance outlets in many places are drying up because of hostility from the police and community groups, house concerts are becoming the most exciting and vital alternative- performance circuit around for acoustic musicians."

The article mentions musicians including Texas songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard and bluegrass jazzman Bela Fleck playing house concerts. In Santa Fe a couple of summers ago, a group of blues lovers brought Mississippi singer T Model Ford to town for some backyard barbecue concerts and a record-store appearance.

For several years "Bumblebee" Bob Weil has turned the garage of his La Tierra home into "The Hive," where he has held jazz concerts headlined by Bucky Pizzarelli, Milt Hinton, Wynton Marsalis and Cedar Walton. But Weil sold his house in 1999, so The Hive buzzes no more.

Though house concerts might seem to be a low-tech reaction to the modern world, Strauss observes, "The Internet has made it possible for those who run house concerts to promote the shows at no cost, keep in contact with one another and hunt down possible performers."

Vigilant vigilantes

Most of the above predictions are contingent on the conceit that the Web will continue to operate free of charge to users and unfettered by governmental interference. Taking that for granted probably is not wise.

In a recent e-mail to his fans, filmmaker (Roger and Me) and television producer (The Awful Truth) Mike Moore writes, "Those in charge must rue the day the Internet was invented. And of course they are now busy trying to think of any way possible to get control of the thing or to block it, censor it, restrict it, make you pay more for it, and make themselves much bigger profits."

I see common ground among radio talk-show personality "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, other right-wingers calling for war over porn on the Internet, and the RIAA suing software manufacturers and pressuring colleges to shut down Web sites.

No, it's not a "conspiracy." But each of those parties would benefit from a tamer, controlled, neutered Internet.

When the government moves in to "stop porn" on the Web, it's not that big of a leap to squelch other activities big-moneyed interests don't like. Remember folks, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Good listening to all in the 21st century.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 13, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
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
America is Waiting by David Byrne & Brian Eno
Free Money by Patti Smith
Kiss Kiss Kiss by The Dirtbombs
Sappy by Nirvana
Shanky Puddin' by The Soledad Brothers
The Army's Tired Now by They Might Be Giants
Cara-Lin by The Fleshtones

The Torture Never Stops by Frank Zappa
Diskomo 2000 by The Residents
Armed Love by The (International) Noise Conspiracy
Boom Boom by The Animals
Wer Bistro by Stuurbaard Baakebaard

Walk on By by Isaac Hayes
(Not Just) Knee Deep by The P-Funk All Stars
Get Yourself Another Fool by Sam Cooke

Little Floater by NRBQ
There Is a Mountain by Donovan
Borracho by Mark Lannegan
Geechee Joe by James Blood Ulmer
Just Say So by Bettye LaVette
Innocent When You Dream by Kazik Staszewski
Good Old World by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

NOT ONE, BUT TWO RICHARDSON BOOK-SIGNINGS

In my story in The New Mexican today that mentions Gov. Bill Richardson's book-signing event at the Collected Works Monday, I did not mention the fact that he also will be signing copies of Between Worlds at Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia St. at noon Monday.

Somehow the Garcia press release didn't make it to me ...

So to get it straight, Garcia Street Books at noon, Collected Works, 208B West San Francisco St. at 5:30 p.m.

There was lots of Richardson-related news in today's paper. I tracked down the tailor who makes some of those suits that Richardson's ads say don't fit.

Also, there's Deborah Baker's report on Richardson appearing on the state's Rose Bowl parade float.

Funny, just a few months ago the governor's office was saying that Richardson definitely would not appear on the float.

Oh, well, as Lonesome Bob says, "Things change..."

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 10, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
The Swimming Song by Loudon Wainwright III
Don't Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
I Bought the Shoes That Just Walked Out on Me by Cornell Hurd
Whiskey, Weed and Women by Hank Williams III
Marie by Don Walser
Apartment # 9 by Tammy Wynette
Oklahoma Bound by Joe West
Honky Tonk Merry Go Round by Karen Hudson
I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Super Star by Tammy Faye Starlight

Lonesome, On'ry and Mean by Steve Young
Blue Wing by Tom Russell Band
Be Mine by Waylon Jennings
Don't Be Angry by Bobby Earl Smith
Cathead Biscuits and Gravy by Nancy Apple & Rob McNurlin
Robbers and Bandits and Bastards and Thieves by Drywall
Back in Your World by Billy Kandaurt
The Palace Roses by Todd Moore

VETERANS' DAY SET
Johnny Come Lately by Steve Earle with The Pogues
Good Christian Soldier by Kris Kristofferson
Distant Drums by Jim Reeves
Still in Saigon by Charlie Daniels
The Big Battle by Johnny Cash
The Burden by Terry Allen
Wild Irish Rose by George Jones

Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
Walk That Lonesome Valley by Porter Wagoner
Twelfth of Never by Dolly Parton with Keith Urban
Black Granite by Blaze Foley
Dead Man's Will by Iron & Wine with Calexico
One of the Unsatisfied by Lacy J. Dalton
Scarlet Tide by Elvis Costello with Emmylou Harris
Love and Mercy by Jeff Tweedy
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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