FUNNIEST NEW ALBUM TITLE

This from an e-mail list of upcoming releases from Sony/BMG:

KENNY G - The Essential Kenny G (Arista/Legacy).

The good news on the list is that Big Al Anderson's After Hours will be released in early March. I have the self-released version of the album, which has been out for a couple of years. In fact, I played a song on last Friday's Santa Fe Opry.

A slight quibble with the Sony/BMG announcement. It says, "These days, Al splits his time between Connecticut and Nashville where he writes with some of the best tunesmiths in Music City."

Actually, he spends some time in Santa Fe, (a place where there is no music. ) This reminds me of some Junior Brown bios I've read that never mention his misspent youth in Santa Fe.

ROUNDHOUSE BLOGGING

Once again, I'll be writing a separate blog concerning the New Mexico state Legislature.

There's not much there yet, but you can find it HERE. It's on the New Mexican's free Web site. (You have to register, but it's free and relatively painless.)

If you're a real legislative trivia buff you can find my 2005 Legislature blog HERE.

I'll still post my weekly Roundhouse Round-up on this blog just for consistency's sake.

I can't believe the session is already starting ...

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 15, 2006
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
The Body of an American by Shane McGowan & The Popes
Spooky Girlfriend by Elvis Costello
Zoo Music Girl by The Birthday Party
Wicked by Greg Dulli
What a Wonderful Man by My Morning Jacket
Angel by Kevin Coyne & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
New Age by The Velvet Underground
Me and Shelly Winters by Marlee MacLeod

Polka Enemy Number One by The Polkaholics
Who'd You Like to Love You by Lil Wally
Jump River Polka by The Steve Meisner Band
Dream Cloud Chote by Crow Hang
Happy Chappie Polka by Elliot Sharp & Guy Klucevsek
Wheel Barrow Polka by Joe Patek's Orchestra
There's No Norwegians in Dickeyville by The Goose Island Ramblers
Weiner Dog Polka by Polkacide
The Happy Wanderer by Brave Combo

On the Road Again by Istanbul Blues Kumpanyasi
Nightbird by Markus James
Everyday I Have the Blues by Nightloser
Cypress Grove by Corey Harris with Ali Farka Toure
Lasdan by Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder & Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Hit the Road Jack by Cat

Title Theme from Three Tough Guys by Isaac Hayes
Backlash Blues by Nina Simone
A Funky Space Reincarnation by Marvin Gaye
Tripping Out by Curtis Mayfield
World I Never Made by Dr. John
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

FIRED UP FOR SXSW

South by Southwest has updated its band list (Click HERE or HERE)
Here's just some of the names that excite me:


Bettye LaVette
The Plimsouls
Peter Case
The Twilight Singers
Stan Ridgway
Tom Verlaine
The New Pornographers
Big Al Anderson
The Klezmatics
The Reigning Sound
Ronny Elliott
The Motels
The BellRays
Archie Bell (no mention of The Drells)
The Moaners
Scott H. Biram
John Schooley and his One Man Band
Clarence "Frogman" Henry
and of course, The Waco Brothers!

I ran into Jon Hendry of the state Tourism Department this week. He said he's producing a New Mexico showcase during SXSW with Hundred Year Flood and other bands. I'll post more info when it's available.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 13, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Wanted Man by Johnny Cash
A Living Hell by The Bottle Rockets
Wife Beater by Drive-By Truckers
Cathead Biscuits and Gravy by Nancy Apple & Rob McNurlin
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat? by Split Lip Rayfield
UFO Attack by Asylum Street Spankers
Elk River Blues by Bayou Seco
Loser by Camper Van Beethoven

Vanity Press by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Too Long in the Wasteland by James McMurtry
Hey Beautiful by Hundred Year Flood
Pyramid of Tears by Lucinda Williams
Kissing You Goodbye by Waylon Jennings
That's All it Took by Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels
Silence by Eric Hisaw
Is Your Inner World Like Your Outer World by Oneil Howes

I Didn't Dream of You by Destiny Whores
Don't Get Weird by Boris & The Saltlicks
White Folks' Blood by House of Freaks
I'm Troubled by The Gourds
Prison on Route 41 by Iron & Wine with Calexico
I Want to Live and Love Always by Junior Brown
Cat to the Rat by Danny Barnes
Swamp Hangover by The Bubbadinos

Love Make a Fool of Me by Big Al Anderson
Every Morning by Jon Nolan
Iowa City by Eleni Mandell
No Time to Cry by Merle Haggard
Live Free or Die by Son Volt
Be Still and Know God (Don't Be Shy) by Will Oldham
I Guess I've Come to Live Here in Your Eyes 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

THE LINE

I'm the guest this week on KNME's The Line, a weekly panel discussion of news, politics and culture hosted by Steve Lawrence of Crosswinds Weekly, Margaret Montoya of UNM lawscool, Albuquerque Tribune columnist Gene Grant and former state Republican chairman (and fellow New Mexican columnist) John Dendahl.

We taped the show yesterday. Items of discussion include the NSA wiretapping scandal, the Abramoff scandal and how it relates to New Mexico, (CLICK HERE, scroll down) the upcoming legislative session, the decline of broadcast radio and the life of Santa Clara Pueblo’s Pablita Velarde, who recently died.

The show airs at 7 p.m. Fridays (that's tonight!) and 7 a.m. Sundays on KNME, which for most the state is Channel 5.

XXXXXXXX

Driving down to Albuquerque for the taping yesterday reminded me that I hadn't been down there since the end of my political science class with former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris last month.

I sure don't miss that drive two mornings a week, but I do miss the pleasure of listening to Fred Harris twice a week. We're both Okies in exile so he speaks my language.

I also miss seeing my daughter twice a week. She took the class also.


And yes, I did make an "A" in the class. But I didn't ace the final like I thought. I got an "A" on the test, but my score wasn't quite as high as I'd thought, which means I was wrong on a couple of questions I thought I'd knew. Since it was the end of the course we never reviewed the answers. This means I'm walking around with some false knowledge in my head.

(I just found Fred's button image over on NPRs "Political Junkie" column page.)

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: INTERNATIONAL BLUES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 12, 2006

You hear a stringed instrument — an oud? — noodling some vaguely Middle Eastern melody. Percussion is starting to bubble, with some swirling notes of a flute counterpart. What sounds like a zephyr starts strumming a steady rhythm. The chord changes seem familiar as the bass comes in. Now wait a minute ... is that a harmonica?

Indeed it is. And by the time the electric guitar joins in, it’s obvious that you’re listening to an instrumental version of Canned Heat’s “On the Road Again.”

It seems that the blues, that basic building block of American music, has been on the road in some unexpected corners of the world.

Fooling around the Web site of Calabash Music recently, I came across some examples of musicians worlds away from the Mississippi Delta, across the ocean from the South Side of Chicago, playing good old American blues while adding elements of music from their own cultures.

The fact that folks from faraway lands are inspired by American blues shouldn’t be surprising, really. Countless African dance bands have been influenced by American jazz and soul. And any serious student of Jamaican music knows that the sounds of New Orleans — Professor Longhair, Fats Domino — helped spark reggae.

And don’t forget the British blues scene of the early 1960s. There the musicians seemed intent on slavishly recreating Howlin’ Wolf’s growl, Robert Johnson’s wail, and B.B. King’s guitar licks. But when some of these imitators started branching off and adding their own ideas, they turned into the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, the Animals, the Yardbirds, etc., and created music that shook the world.

What I like about the international blues I just stumbled across is how the musicians make the blues their own. The “local” elements — the ouds, the gypsy violins — show how the old voodoo spirit that is the blues can look pretty spiffy in exotic clothes.

Here’s a look at some of those world blues albums:


* Sair Zamanlar by Istanbul Blues Kumpanyasi. This Turkish band started out in 1993 when American-music aficionados Sarp Keskiner and Salih Nazim Peker decided to mix the ethnic music of their native land with blues, soul, and blues-based psychedelia.

As showcased on its version of “On the Road Again,” Istanbul Blues Kumpanyasi includes Western accompaniment (guitar, bass, harmonica) along with Turkish instruments.

There’s a definite Captain Beefheart feel on many tunes, including “Biskotin,” where a slide guitar plays against the buzzing woodwind.

Most of the vocals here are in Turkish, though “Whiskey-Headed Woman No. 3” is in English. I just think it’s amazing that a song called “Whiskey-Headed Woman” could come out of a predominantly Islamic nation.

Kumpanyasi is wildest on its nine-minute workout “Hüseyni Twist,” which incorporates elements of fuzz-tone surf music — Dick Dale could work wonders on this song.

The title song is a slow, grooving, flute-led excursion that might remind some of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy.”

Then they get mellow on “Dürüst Duman,” a flute-led soft funk instrumental that might remind American listeners of Herbie Mann.

*Plum Brandy Blues by Nightlosers. From the great nation of Romania comes this down-home stomping blues band led by a film director named Hano Hoffer.

Unlike the Istanbul Blues Kumpanyasi, most of the Nightlosers’ songs are sung in English. Not only that, but they are titles that any American bar band should recognize: “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Stormy Monday Blues,” “Trouble in Mind,” even “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Goodnight Irene.”

But what distinguishes the Nightlosers’ music is the domination of the gypsy violin on just about every song.

Nightlosers have not only musicianship but a wicked humor as well. In their version of “Everyday I Have the Blues,” the violin trades lengthy solos with some stringed instrument that sounds like a hammer dulcimer. Then there’s a solo for someone on bird whistles. Later there’s a jam with the fiddle, bird whistles, and cuckoo noises.

The most unrecognizable song here is “Mystery Train,” which starts out with a violin and woodwind duet that sounds like some pastoral Romanian melody that picks up steam before melting into a down-and-dirty blues.

But perhaps the most crazy and majestic moment is the cover of Bo Diddley’s “Pretty Thing” that sounds like a mad Arabian tango.


*Calabash Blues by Markus James. James is an American singer, born in Virginia, living in San Francisco, who has dedicated much of his career to going to Mali and recording his original blues with traditional music of that African country.

It’s not really an original idea. More than 10 years ago, Ry Cooder collaborated with Malian singer Ali Farka Toure and his band for the album Talking Timbuktu. More recently young bluesman Corey Harris recorded with Toure in Mali for Harris’ 2003 album Mississippi to Mali.

The idea of an American “bringing the blues” to an African country doesn’t interest me nearly as much as Turks and Romanians taking up the music themselves.

So about the only thing Calabash Blues has going for it is the music.

It’s dark, brooding, mysterious music, with James’ growling voice and spooky whispers intertwining with a Malian njarka fiddle, the clacking of the calabash percussion (played by Hamma Sankare of Toure’s band), and James’ own atmospheric guitars, both electric and acoustic. It might remind you of Otis Taylor. Maybe even a little of Dr. John’s early gris-gris sound.

Hear this music: Sunday night on Terrell’s Sound World, KSFR, 90.7 FM. The show starts at 10 p.m., the international blues segment at 11 p.m.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: TAX-FUNDED POLITICAL ADS?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 12, 2006

"America the Beautiful" plays in the background as state Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, surrounded by the bucolic beauty of the Rio Grande Nature Center, talks about the importance of conservation and how his office takes care of public land.

A new political-campaign ad for Lyons, who is running for re-election to a second term?

Absolutely not, said Kristen Haase, spokeswoman for the state Land Office.

“The Land Office is an important, but little-known agency, therefore during the commissioner’s tenure we have produced a total of four public-service announcements, all part of a media campaign to inform and educate the public about trust lands and the work we do at the Land Office on behalf of public education in New Mexico,” Haase said.

However, former Land Commissioner Jim Baca — a Democrat who hopes to get the nomination to run against Republican Lyons in this year’s election — says the ads are nothing but political commercials paid for by taxpayers.

“What it’s really about is informing the public about a little-known land commissioner,” Baca said. “I feel like I’m up against the eight ball here, going up against a taxpayer-financed campaign.”

In a letter to Lyons e-mailed Wednesday, Baca wrote, “I demand that you reimburse the state land maintenance fund for any and all dollars used to fund these political commercials.”

Other announced Democratic candidates are Ray Powell Jr., who also is a former land commissioner, and LeRoy Garcia, chairman of the San Miguel County Commission.

The Land Office spent about $100,000 to buy television time for the spots, which cost about $1,500 each to produce, Haase said. The ads are running in rotation on KOB, KRQE, KOAT and Comcast cable.

“I’m about to buy a month of time with Time Warner so we can hit Las Cruces,” Haase said. That time will cost $1,496, she said.

While all broadcast stations run public-service announcements for free, Haase said, “we wanted guaranteed and decent hit times, so we went through the advertising (departments)” of the stations.

Though Baca said he thought the Land Office ads were illegal during an election year, Mary Lynn Roper, general manager of KOAT, said there are no laws or regulations prohibiting such commercials.

“While it may be an issue for public discussion, it’s not an FCC issue,” Roper said.

Roper said if someone is upset about a political commercial, the Federal Communications Commission requires a station to provide “equal time.” But all that means is that the station must give the complaining party a chance to buy ads at the same rate as the offending ad.

Other spots: Lyons is not the only state official to be criticized for his television spots.

Incumbents in important but better-known agencies also have used television ads to inform the public — and, cynics, would say, increase their recognition.

Attorney General Patricia Madrid has appeared in several commercials warning consumers against possible rip-offs. Last year, she appeared in spots lambasting the payday-loan industry.

Gov. Bill Richardson currently appears in two PSAs. One is about ignition interlocks for drunken drivers. The other ad uses the most memorable slogan to come out of the administration: “You drink, you drive, you lose.”

In late 2004, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici called for a federal investigation of New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who produced several publicly funded television, radio and print ads concerning the Help America Vote Act.

Domenici and other Republicans charged that Democrat Vigil-Giron — who wasn’t running for office in 2004 and isn’t running for anything now — was using the ads to bolster her own name recognition.

However, Vigil-Giron was formally cleared early last year by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The offices of both Lyons and Richardson say they will stop running their respective commercials Feb. 13.

That’s the day before filing day for state offices.

One of our 33 is missing: Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has a Web site where supporters can download nominating petitions for her re-election effort. The site asks for the names and addresses of those getting petitions. But a drop-down menu for the counties is short by one.

There’s no Santa Fe County.

A spokesman for Denish said Tuesday this is only an oversight and that the lieutenant governor expects to get a lot of support from Santa Fe Democrats.

But the county was still missing early Thursday morning.

UPDATE: At 8:26 a.m. Thursday I was informed by Steve Fitzer, finance director for the Denish campaign, that Santa Fe County is back on the menu.

THERE'S A NEW SHERIFF IN BLOGVILLE

And danged if it's not Greg Solano!

(I wonder if I'll get busted for stealing a photo from the sheriff?)

Thanks to Julia for pointing this out.

A PLACE WHERE THERE IS NO MUSIC

A recent interview in the New Hampshire Daily Gazette with former NRBQ guitarist/songwriter Big Al Anderson contained this little gem:

Anderson grew up in Windsor, Conn., and now he lives most of the year in Santa Fe, N.M., with his wife and two dogs. He travels to Nashville, Tenn., to write and pitch songs, but when he is in Santa Fe he isn't part of a music scene. 'It's good to be in a place where there is no music when I'm done with makin' it,' said Anderson.

Aw, come on, Big Al, it's not that bad! (At least nobody can accuse him of sucking up to get a seat on the New Mexcio Music Commission.)