Sunday, March 12, 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
I'm Finding it Harder to Be a Gentleman by The White Stripes
Slaves & Bulldozers by Soundgarden
My Cat's Name is Maceo by Jane's Addiction
What I Want by This Bike is a Pipe Bomb
Milk by Kings of Leon
Praise God by Johnny Dowd
OK/No Way by Mission of Burma
Oh My Darling Clementine by The American Indians
Armed Love by The International Noise Conspiracy
Cosmic Highway by Les Claypool's Frog Brigade
Bubba's Truck by Key
Days of Rain by Bob Mould
Movie Star by The Grabs
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling by Frank Patterson
Thousands Are Sailing by The Pogues
Forty Deuce by Black 47
Come Out Ye Black and Tans by The Wolfe Tones
The Women of Ireland/The Morning Dew by The Chieftains
Molly Malone by Sinead O'Connor
The Dirty Glass by The Dropkick Murphys
Tura Lura Lural by The Band with Van Morrison
Black Velvet Band by The Irish Rovers
Whiskey in the Jar by The Dubliners
Rambling Irishman by The Oyster Band
Carrickfergus by Van Morrison & The Chieftains
There Were Roses by Maloney, Keane & O'Connell
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Monday, March 13, 2006
Sunday, March 12, 2006
DRAWN & QUARTERED
Gov. Bill Richardson, as reported by my colleague Dave Miles, is calling on New Mexicans to suggest design ideas for the state quarter, to be minted in 2007.
I liked this line in Dave's article:
This state quarter business reminded me of an article in Slate back in 2002, one headlined "The State Quarters: Why are they so ugly?"
My money is on a collage-style quarter for New Mexico.
Though Richardson cautioned against trying to cram too many icons on a tiny quarter, I'm betting on unabashed clutter.
Many will want to include representations of the three largest cultures in New Mexico -- which most likely means a conquistador, an Eagle Dancer and a cowboy. Albuquerque probably will lobby hard for a hot-air balloon -- which might have to share the sky with a Virgin Galactic spaceship. The Zia symbol's got to be in there somewhere, and to symbolize Los Alamos, an atom symbol (that's so much more tasteful than a mushroom cloud). And don't forget the roadrunner, the yucca, maybe a Georgia O'Keeffe datura flower, and how about some bats flying out of Carlsbad Caverns?
If it was up to me, I'd keep it simple -- and a little surreal. Maybe a fat koshare eating a watermelon with a jackalope at his feet.
If you've got your own ideas, CLICK HERE for the official for information on how to submit it.
Remember, the deadline is May 12.
Don't forget the flamenco dancers ..."From pueblo potters to Santa Fe painters, we know how to create amazing images," Richardson said. ... his preferred design would be something similar to the state's float in the Rose Bowl parade this past January, which featured an adobe-style church, chile ristras, Indians and Buffalo Soldiers,"
I liked this line in Dave's article:
Of course, Richardson originally said he wouldn't ride on the Rose Bowl float.Although the governor appeared on the float, he said he would not want to have his mug grace New Mexico's quarter.
This state quarter business reminded me of an article in Slate back in 2002, one headlined "The State Quarters: Why are they so ugly?"
Most of the designs, usually chosen by a state commission appointed by the governor, are boring, timid, and cluttered—evidence of all that can go wrong when art is created by committee. They are also surprisingly revealing about the peculiar, parochial ways that states view themselves. ...
The quarters fall into three main categories: the single icon, the kitschy collage, and the tableau (or the good, the bad, and the ugly). The five collage quarters resemble '50s souvenir plates.
My money is on a collage-style quarter for New Mexico.
Though Richardson cautioned against trying to cram too many icons on a tiny quarter, I'm betting on unabashed clutter.
Many will want to include representations of the three largest cultures in New Mexico -- which most likely means a conquistador, an Eagle Dancer and a cowboy. Albuquerque probably will lobby hard for a hot-air balloon -- which might have to share the sky with a Virgin Galactic spaceship. The Zia symbol's got to be in there somewhere, and to symbolize Los Alamos, an atom symbol (that's so much more tasteful than a mushroom cloud). And don't forget the roadrunner, the yucca, maybe a Georgia O'Keeffe datura flower, and how about some bats flying out of Carlsbad Caverns?
If it was up to me, I'd keep it simple -- and a little surreal. Maybe a fat koshare eating a watermelon with a jackalope at his feet.
If you've got your own ideas, CLICK HERE for the official for information on how to submit it.
Remember, the deadline is May 12.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, March 10, 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
You Are My Sunshine by Ray Charles
Aftermath U.S.A. by The Drive-By Truckers
Ghosts of Hallelujah by The Gourds
Back to Black by Terry Allen
Wild Things by Scott Miller
Oklahoma Bound by Joe West
Seeds and Candy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Caves of Burgundy by Tribolite
Naked Light of Day by Jesse Taylor with The Flatlanders
Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll by Janis Martin
Wasted My Time by Eric Hisaw
Politics of the Dead by Hundred Year Flood
The Song of a Hundred Toads by The Handsome Family
Don't Be Afraid of the Neocons by Norman & Nancy Blake
He's Coming to Us Dead by Ralph Stanley
Big Time Annie's Square/I'd Rather Be Gone by Merle Haggard
Big Al Anderson Set
Love Make a Fool of Me by Big Al
It Was an Accident by NRBQ
Under the Hood by Big Al
Movin' Into the Light by Big Al
A Better Word For Love by NRBQ
Ridin' in My Car by NRBQ
Trip Around the Sun by Big Al with Kim Richey
Pastor Absent on Vacation by Porter Wagoner
Blowin' in the Wind by Dolly Parton
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere by The Mekons
Faded Love by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts with Anna Fermin
Pilgrim's Progress by Kris Kristofferson
Carmelita by Danny Santos
Lift Him Up, That's All by Washington Phillips
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
You Are My Sunshine by Ray Charles
Aftermath U.S.A. by The Drive-By Truckers
Ghosts of Hallelujah by The Gourds
Back to Black by Terry Allen
Wild Things by Scott Miller
Oklahoma Bound by Joe West
Seeds and Candy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Caves of Burgundy by Tribolite
Naked Light of Day by Jesse Taylor with The Flatlanders
Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll by Janis Martin
Wasted My Time by Eric Hisaw
Politics of the Dead by Hundred Year Flood
The Song of a Hundred Toads by The Handsome Family
Don't Be Afraid of the Neocons by Norman & Nancy Blake
He's Coming to Us Dead by Ralph Stanley
Big Time Annie's Square/I'd Rather Be Gone by Merle Haggard
Big Al Anderson Set
Love Make a Fool of Me by Big Al
It Was an Accident by NRBQ
Under the Hood by Big Al
Movin' Into the Light by Big Al
A Better Word For Love by NRBQ
Ridin' in My Car by NRBQ
Trip Around the Sun by Big Al with Kim Richey
Pastor Absent on Vacation by Porter Wagoner
Blowin' in the Wind by Dolly Parton
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere by The Mekons
Faded Love by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts with Anna Fermin
Pilgrim's Progress by Kris Kristofferson
Carmelita by Danny Santos
Lift Him Up, That's All by Washington Phillips
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Friday, March 10, 2006
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: BIG AL SPEAKS
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 10, 2006
Quitting NRBQ was “the second-best thing I ever did,” said guitarist/singer/songwriter “Big Al” Anderson.
This only begs the question: what was the best thing he ever did?
“Being in it.”
Anderson’s career with NRBQ — that eclectic, eccentric, highly influential though commercially underachieving band whose full name, New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, hardly does it justice — spanned 22 years and a dozen or so albums.
In recent years Anderson has earned his living as a songwriter, penning tunes for Carlene Carter, George Jones, Vince Gill, the Allman Brothers, the Mavericks, Patty Loveless, Jimmy Buffett, Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, and others.
He’s also a noted sideman, playing guitar in recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis and the Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson).
Now he’s stepping into the spotlight again. Sony Legacy has licensed and just released his solo album After Hours.
No sweat: “Big Al” isn’t as big as he used to be. Though still towering well over 6 feet tall, he’s slimmed down considerably since he was known as “300 Pounds of Twangin’ Steel and Sex Appeal.”
He’s a part-time Santa Fe resident, splitting his time between Nashville, Tenn., and his La Tierra home, where he moved with his wife, Maryanne Hill, four years ago.
“I love it here,” Anderson said in a recent lunchtime interview at Tia Sophia’s. “I don’t interact with people much.”
He first came to Santa Fe one summer night in the 1980s when NRBQ played Club West. “It was 90 degrees, and I wasn’t sweating,” he recalled.
About six years ago, Anderson said, country singer Hal Ketchum, who was living in Tesuque, invited him to come out and write some songs. Later he came to Santa Fe to write songs with another country artist, Jeffrey Steele.
“I was shopping at Albertsons and saw a real-estate book,” Anderson recalled. “I went out to look at one house, and 40 houses later, I moved here from Connecticut.”
Red Roof Inn & the Waffle House: Anderson was born in Windsor, Conn., in 1947. His first successful band was called the Wildweeds, who were signed with Vanguard Records in the mid-’60s. He joined NRBQ in 1971, but he already had been a fan of the band. His predecessor, Steve Ferguson, is the best guitarist the group ever had, and their 1969 first album is still their best, Anderson insists.
“I learned all about music,” he said. “Anything went. You had to learn about everything.” NRBQ is famous for mixing basic American roots music with highly crafted pop, modern jazz, children’s music, and just about anything else that popped into band members’ heads. “It had its own set of walls, but the room was a lot bigger than anyone else’s, that’s for sure,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s contributions were immeasurable. “Ridin’ in My Car,” perhaps the loveliest automobile song this side of Brian Wilson, was his, as were the neo-rockabilly “It Comes to Me Naturally” and the wickedly funny “It Was an Accident,” just to name a few.
But he called it quits after a gig at Tramps in New York. “It was New Year’s, so don’t know if I quit in ’93 or ’94,” he said. “It was actually a split with no words,” he recalled. “I just told Joey [Spampinato, NRBQ’s bassist] that I’d probably split. There was nothing really wrong. It just stopped growing for me.”
Touring life became tedious for him. “The Red Roof, the Waffle House ... ” he said, referring to fixtures of the rock ’n’ roll road-warrior lifestyle. He also spoke not so fondly about his normal preshow intake of “half a gram of cocaine and half a quart” of booze back in the daze.
Not long before he quit, Anderson got a taste of songwriting success outside the band. “Every Little Thing” by former Tesuque resident Carlene Carter was co-written by Anderson.
Solo Al: Since leaving NRBQ, Anderson has released two solo albums, 1996’s roadhouse romp Pay Before You Pump and, eight years later, the quieter, more reflective After Hours.
I initially compared After Hours to the latter-day work of Charlie Rich — the slow, jazzy “Love Make a Fool of Me” and “Two Survivors” would have fit in fine on Rich’s Pictures and Paintings, as would “Better Word for Love,” a song Anderson previously recorded with NRBQ.
Then there’s “Just Another Place I Don’t Belong,” which sounds like the lovechild of Nick Lowe and Stax stalwart Dan Penn. “In My Dreams” has verses that sound like Western swing, though the chorus, with its NRBQ-y jazz chords, suggests greater depths. And “Blues About You Baby,” co-written with Delbert McClinton, shows Anderson hasn’t forgotten good old roots rock.
Originally this was a self-released effort, for sale only on Anderson’s Web site. “I think I sold 500 or 600 and gave away about 1,000 copies,” he said. “I lost interest in hustling.”
Eventually the album got the attention of Sony/BMG honchos, who, hopefully, will hustle the CD for him.
A place where there is no music: An interview in Massachusetts’ Daily Hampshire Gazette late last year noted that “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.”
“Well, it’s not like Nashville,” he said when I asked about the comment.
Anderson said he’s been thinking about bringing a little music to Santa Fe, perhaps flying in some of his songwriting partners to the city for shows. But one gets the idea that this town is a place for rest and getting away from it all for Anderson.
And while he’s gearing up for some publicity gigs for After Hours, including a showcase at South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, next week, Anderson seems to prefer his life as a behind-the-scenes songwriter.
That might preclude any further work with NRBQ. While he played at the group’s 35th anniversary in 2004, when asked if he’d play a 40th reunion, Anderson said, “That’s a good question.”
It was one he didn’t answer.
Big Al on the radio: Hear my favorite “Big Al” songs from his solo albums and with NRBQ tonight, March 10, on The Santa Fe Opry on KSFR, 90.7 FM. The show starts at 10 p.m. and the “Big Al” show will start at 11 p.m.
March 10, 2006
Quitting NRBQ was “the second-best thing I ever did,” said guitarist/singer/songwriter “Big Al” Anderson.
This only begs the question: what was the best thing he ever did?
“Being in it.”
Anderson’s career with NRBQ — that eclectic, eccentric, highly influential though commercially underachieving band whose full name, New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, hardly does it justice — spanned 22 years and a dozen or so albums.
In recent years Anderson has earned his living as a songwriter, penning tunes for Carlene Carter, George Jones, Vince Gill, the Allman Brothers, the Mavericks, Patty Loveless, Jimmy Buffett, Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, and others.
He’s also a noted sideman, playing guitar in recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis and the Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson).
Now he’s stepping into the spotlight again. Sony Legacy has licensed and just released his solo album After Hours.
No sweat: “Big Al” isn’t as big as he used to be. Though still towering well over 6 feet tall, he’s slimmed down considerably since he was known as “300 Pounds of Twangin’ Steel and Sex Appeal.”
He’s a part-time Santa Fe resident, splitting his time between Nashville, Tenn., and his La Tierra home, where he moved with his wife, Maryanne Hill, four years ago.
“I love it here,” Anderson said in a recent lunchtime interview at Tia Sophia’s. “I don’t interact with people much.”
He first came to Santa Fe one summer night in the 1980s when NRBQ played Club West. “It was 90 degrees, and I wasn’t sweating,” he recalled.
About six years ago, Anderson said, country singer Hal Ketchum, who was living in Tesuque, invited him to come out and write some songs. Later he came to Santa Fe to write songs with another country artist, Jeffrey Steele.
“I was shopping at Albertsons and saw a real-estate book,” Anderson recalled. “I went out to look at one house, and 40 houses later, I moved here from Connecticut.”
Red Roof Inn & the Waffle House: Anderson was born in Windsor, Conn., in 1947. His first successful band was called the Wildweeds, who were signed with Vanguard Records in the mid-’60s. He joined NRBQ in 1971, but he already had been a fan of the band. His predecessor, Steve Ferguson, is the best guitarist the group ever had, and their 1969 first album is still their best, Anderson insists.
“I learned all about music,” he said. “Anything went. You had to learn about everything.” NRBQ is famous for mixing basic American roots music with highly crafted pop, modern jazz, children’s music, and just about anything else that popped into band members’ heads. “It had its own set of walls, but the room was a lot bigger than anyone else’s, that’s for sure,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s contributions were immeasurable. “Ridin’ in My Car,” perhaps the loveliest automobile song this side of Brian Wilson, was his, as were the neo-rockabilly “It Comes to Me Naturally” and the wickedly funny “It Was an Accident,” just to name a few.
But he called it quits after a gig at Tramps in New York. “It was New Year’s, so don’t know if I quit in ’93 or ’94,” he said. “It was actually a split with no words,” he recalled. “I just told Joey [Spampinato, NRBQ’s bassist] that I’d probably split. There was nothing really wrong. It just stopped growing for me.”
Touring life became tedious for him. “The Red Roof, the Waffle House ... ” he said, referring to fixtures of the rock ’n’ roll road-warrior lifestyle. He also spoke not so fondly about his normal preshow intake of “half a gram of cocaine and half a quart” of booze back in the daze.
Not long before he quit, Anderson got a taste of songwriting success outside the band. “Every Little Thing” by former Tesuque resident Carlene Carter was co-written by Anderson.
Solo Al: Since leaving NRBQ, Anderson has released two solo albums, 1996’s roadhouse romp Pay Before You Pump and, eight years later, the quieter, more reflective After Hours.
I initially compared After Hours to the latter-day work of Charlie Rich — the slow, jazzy “Love Make a Fool of Me” and “Two Survivors” would have fit in fine on Rich’s Pictures and Paintings, as would “Better Word for Love,” a song Anderson previously recorded with NRBQ.
Then there’s “Just Another Place I Don’t Belong,” which sounds like the lovechild of Nick Lowe and Stax stalwart Dan Penn. “In My Dreams” has verses that sound like Western swing, though the chorus, with its NRBQ-y jazz chords, suggests greater depths. And “Blues About You Baby,” co-written with Delbert McClinton, shows Anderson hasn’t forgotten good old roots rock.
Originally this was a self-released effort, for sale only on Anderson’s Web site. “I think I sold 500 or 600 and gave away about 1,000 copies,” he said. “I lost interest in hustling.”
Eventually the album got the attention of Sony/BMG honchos, who, hopefully, will hustle the CD for him.
A place where there is no music: An interview in Massachusetts’ Daily Hampshire Gazette late last year noted that “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.”
“Well, it’s not like Nashville,” he said when I asked about the comment.
Anderson said he’s been thinking about bringing a little music to Santa Fe, perhaps flying in some of his songwriting partners to the city for shows. But one gets the idea that this town is a place for rest and getting away from it all for Anderson.
And while he’s gearing up for some publicity gigs for After Hours, including a showcase at South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, next week, Anderson seems to prefer his life as a behind-the-scenes songwriter.
That might preclude any further work with NRBQ. While he played at the group’s 35th anniversary in 2004, when asked if he’d play a 40th reunion, Anderson said, “That’s a good question.”
It was one he didn’t answer.
Big Al on the radio: Hear my favorite “Big Al” songs from his solo albums and with NRBQ tonight, March 10, on The Santa Fe Opry on KSFR, 90.7 FM. The show starts at 10 p.m. and the “Big Al” show will start at 11 p.m.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: PLAGUE OF ZOMBIES
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 9, 2006
A news release from the Governor’s Office on Wednesday promised “a plague of zombies,” “ferocious monsters”, murder, mayhem, “creepy events” and “Living Hell.”
No, Gov. Bill Richardson wasn’t announcing a special session of the Legislature.
This was an announcement of four low-budget horror/suspense films to be shot in New Mexico this spring and summer.
The movies are part of a package by a Hollywood company called Odd Lot Entertainment — actually, according to Variety, a subsidiary of Odd Lot called Dark Lot will produce these films.
Each one has a budget of about $3.5 million, according to Richardson’s film-industry point man, Eric Witt. The productions, he said, will employ about 400 New Mexicans.
The state Investment Council already has agreed to give interest-free loans for two of these films. Each will get $3.4 million from the state.
The four cinematic jewels announced Wednesday are:
* Wanted: Undead or Alive: This is a good old cowboys ‘n’ zombies flick. In the synopsis provided by the Fourth Floor, “When Wild West misfits Elmer Winslow and Luke Budd rob the corrupt sheriff of a dusty Western town, they have no idea a plague of zombies is sweeping the country. In a bizarre turn of events, Geronimo’s sultry niece may hold the key to their survival.” According to the horror-movie Web site Bloody-Disgusting.com, this will be a comedy. The dusty Western town will be played by Bonanza Creek Ranch south of Santa Fe.
* Living Hell: “Mild-mannered schoolteacher Frank Sears is mystified by the bizarre tattoo his mother gave him as a child — right before she committed suicide. Desperate to unlock its meaning, Frank’s quest leads him to a top secret Cold War military project where he unwittingly unleashes an unstoppable organism.” (Boy, I misread that word the first time!) This will be shot at Santa Fe’s old main-prison facility and in and around Belen.
* Zero Dark Thirty: “When Andy, a U.S. Army soldier, returns from active duty in the Middle East, his once-tranquil hometown is racked by a string of strange and violent events.” This will be filmed at the old prison and in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
* Buried Alive: “A gang of sorority buddies play a prank by leaving fellow college students in an abandoned hunting cabin. Creepy events unfold and the local groundskeeper winds up dead.” The filming location hasn’t been determined, Witt said.
Asked whether the “sorority buddies” reference was a mistake, Witt had a two-word reply: “Brokeback Zombies.”
Pork for Peace: There will be zombies in the summer and peaceniks in the fall.
Richardson on Wednesday announced that he’d vetoed nearly $270 million in spending. But one thing that apparently did survive was $300,000 earmarked in the capital-outlay bill for a world-peace conference in Santa Fe next September.
The conference money was sponsored by Sen. Shannon Robinson, the “Bull Moose” Democrat from Albuquerque, who last year secured another $120,000 for the conference.
Clarissa Duran, director of volunteers for the September conference, said Wednesday that there will be a meeting next week for those wanting to volunteer. That will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the State Archives and Records Building on Camino Carlos Rey. Duran’s number is 929-3825.
Wings of Justice: Richardson is the latest recipient of the “Wings of Justice” award from Buzzflash.com, a liberal Web site. Richardson’s support and signing of the “paper-ballots” bill — which will require paper-ballot voting machines to be used in every county in the state — won him the weekly award.
The centrist governor joins other recent winners, which include many left-wing icons like the late Rosa Parks, newspaper columnist Molly Ivins, peace activist Daniel Ellsberg, Democracy Now host Amy Goodman and David Letterman.
David Letterman?
The late-night talk-show host won his wings by telling Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly, “to his face, that 60 percent of what he says is crap.”
Name that anonymous source: The irreverent political blog Wonkette on Tuesday invited its readers to name the anonymous Democratic governor who was quoted in The Washington Post criticizing national Democratic Party strategy.
The Post quote:
Richardson, who has made similar on-the-record statements in the past, on Wednesday denied he was the unnamed source.
One Wonkette reader described Richardson as “a gabby ex-Clinton Administration cabinet member who’s still probably on the Rolodex of a lot of reporters in this town. ...
Until a few months back, Richardson was making the rounds in D.C., trying to build up support for a 2008 White House bid but revelations that he really, really exaggerated the bit in his bio about being a baseball player appear to have sunk that.”
Tell that to the citizens of New Hampshire celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with the governor of New Mexico next week.
Another reader said, “I’m thinking it’s Bill Richardson, strictly based on my gut reaction that the person in question sounds completely exasperated, which is Bill’s default setting. Also, I can totally hear him saying ‘that’s all good.’ He probably tries to impress the youngsters on his staff by using ‘hip’ lingo, like ‘it’s all good’ and ‘I’m down with that.’ And more practically, he’s going to try and run in 2008 as an outsider, against the Democratic party. Yeah, good luck with that.”
March 9, 2006
A news release from the Governor’s Office on Wednesday promised “a plague of zombies,” “ferocious monsters”, murder, mayhem, “creepy events” and “Living Hell.”
No, Gov. Bill Richardson wasn’t announcing a special session of the Legislature.
This was an announcement of four low-budget horror/suspense films to be shot in New Mexico this spring and summer.
The movies are part of a package by a Hollywood company called Odd Lot Entertainment — actually, according to Variety, a subsidiary of Odd Lot called Dark Lot will produce these films.
Each one has a budget of about $3.5 million, according to Richardson’s film-industry point man, Eric Witt. The productions, he said, will employ about 400 New Mexicans.
The state Investment Council already has agreed to give interest-free loans for two of these films. Each will get $3.4 million from the state.
The four cinematic jewels announced Wednesday are:
* Wanted: Undead or Alive: This is a good old cowboys ‘n’ zombies flick. In the synopsis provided by the Fourth Floor, “When Wild West misfits Elmer Winslow and Luke Budd rob the corrupt sheriff of a dusty Western town, they have no idea a plague of zombies is sweeping the country. In a bizarre turn of events, Geronimo’s sultry niece may hold the key to their survival.” According to the horror-movie Web site Bloody-Disgusting.com, this will be a comedy. The dusty Western town will be played by Bonanza Creek Ranch south of Santa Fe.
* Living Hell: “Mild-mannered schoolteacher Frank Sears is mystified by the bizarre tattoo his mother gave him as a child — right before she committed suicide. Desperate to unlock its meaning, Frank’s quest leads him to a top secret Cold War military project where he unwittingly unleashes an unstoppable organism.” (Boy, I misread that word the first time!) This will be shot at Santa Fe’s old main-prison facility and in and around Belen.
* Zero Dark Thirty: “When Andy, a U.S. Army soldier, returns from active duty in the Middle East, his once-tranquil hometown is racked by a string of strange and violent events.” This will be filmed at the old prison and in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
* Buried Alive: “A gang of sorority buddies play a prank by leaving fellow college students in an abandoned hunting cabin. Creepy events unfold and the local groundskeeper winds up dead.” The filming location hasn’t been determined, Witt said.
Asked whether the “sorority buddies” reference was a mistake, Witt had a two-word reply: “Brokeback Zombies.”
Pork for Peace: There will be zombies in the summer and peaceniks in the fall.
Richardson on Wednesday announced that he’d vetoed nearly $270 million in spending. But one thing that apparently did survive was $300,000 earmarked in the capital-outlay bill for a world-peace conference in Santa Fe next September.
The conference money was sponsored by Sen. Shannon Robinson, the “Bull Moose” Democrat from Albuquerque, who last year secured another $120,000 for the conference.
Clarissa Duran, director of volunteers for the September conference, said Wednesday that there will be a meeting next week for those wanting to volunteer. That will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the State Archives and Records Building on Camino Carlos Rey. Duran’s number is 929-3825.
Wings of Justice: Richardson is the latest recipient of the “Wings of Justice” award from Buzzflash.com, a liberal Web site. Richardson’s support and signing of the “paper-ballots” bill — which will require paper-ballot voting machines to be used in every county in the state — won him the weekly award.
The centrist governor joins other recent winners, which include many left-wing icons like the late Rosa Parks, newspaper columnist Molly Ivins, peace activist Daniel Ellsberg, Democracy Now host Amy Goodman and David Letterman.
David Letterman?
The late-night talk-show host won his wings by telling Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly, “to his face, that 60 percent of what he says is crap.”
Name that anonymous source: The irreverent political blog Wonkette on Tuesday invited its readers to name the anonymous Democratic governor who was quoted in The Washington Post criticizing national Democratic Party strategy.
The Post quote:
“They want to coordinate. They want to collaborate. That’s all good,” said one Democratic governor who declined to be identified in order to talk candidly about a closed-door meeting. “The question is: Coordinate or collaborate on what? People need to know not just what we’re against but what we’re for. That’s the kind of message the governors are interested in developing at the national level.”The blogster concluded, “to the extent that there’s ever a correct response, it sounds like the answer to today’s quiz was ‘Bill Richardson.’ ”
Richardson, who has made similar on-the-record statements in the past, on Wednesday denied he was the unnamed source.
One Wonkette reader described Richardson as “a gabby ex-Clinton Administration cabinet member who’s still probably on the Rolodex of a lot of reporters in this town. ...
Until a few months back, Richardson was making the rounds in D.C., trying to build up support for a 2008 White House bid but revelations that he really, really exaggerated the bit in his bio about being a baseball player appear to have sunk that.”
Tell that to the citizens of New Hampshire celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with the governor of New Mexico next week.
Another reader said, “I’m thinking it’s Bill Richardson, strictly based on my gut reaction that the person in question sounds completely exasperated, which is Bill’s default setting. Also, I can totally hear him saying ‘that’s all good.’ He probably tries to impress the youngsters on his staff by using ‘hip’ lingo, like ‘it’s all good’ and ‘I’m down with that.’ And more practically, he’s going to try and run in 2008 as an outsider, against the Democratic party. Yeah, good luck with that.”
Monday, March 06, 2006
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, March 5, 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
It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones
Unwed Mother by Johnny Dowd
Green-Eyed Lady by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Shoot Doris Day by Super Fury Animals
The Worm by Audioslave
Tangled Up in Plaid by Queens of the Stone Age
Weather Box by Mission of Burma
Best Thing by Bob Mould
Closer by Richard Cheese
If You Could Hear My Mother Pray by The Staple Singers
Get Right Church by The Rev. Gary Davis
I Know I've Been Changed by John Hammond, Jr. with Tom Waits
The Bush is Burning by Corey Harris
Done Got Old by Buddy Guy
Love Bones by Johnnie Taylor
Runaway Child Runnin' Wild by The Temptations
Love Letters Straight From Your Heart by Kitty Lester
OSCARS SET
Act Naturally by Buck Owens & Ringo Starr
It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out by Concrete Blonde
Tinsel Town Rebellion by Frank Zappa
Tiffany Anastasia Lowe by June Carter Cash
Martin Scorcese by King Missile
Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks
My Beloved Movie Star by Stan Ridgway
Tutti Fruiti by Kultur Shock
Out of What by Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars
It's the Day of Atonement 2001 by Dayna Kurtz
Trouble Ahead by The Grabs
Did Everybody Just Get Old by Graham Parker & The Figgs
A Loving Tribute to My City by Mark Eitzel
A Better Word for Love by Big Al Anderson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones
Unwed Mother by Johnny Dowd
Green-Eyed Lady by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Shoot Doris Day by Super Fury Animals
The Worm by Audioslave
Tangled Up in Plaid by Queens of the Stone Age
Weather Box by Mission of Burma
Best Thing by Bob Mould
Closer by Richard Cheese
If You Could Hear My Mother Pray by The Staple Singers
Get Right Church by The Rev. Gary Davis
I Know I've Been Changed by John Hammond, Jr. with Tom Waits
The Bush is Burning by Corey Harris
Done Got Old by Buddy Guy
Love Bones by Johnnie Taylor
Runaway Child Runnin' Wild by The Temptations
Love Letters Straight From Your Heart by Kitty Lester
OSCARS SET
Act Naturally by Buck Owens & Ringo Starr
It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out by Concrete Blonde
Tinsel Town Rebellion by Frank Zappa
Tiffany Anastasia Lowe by June Carter Cash
Martin Scorcese by King Missile
Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks
My Beloved Movie Star by Stan Ridgway
Tutti Fruiti by Kultur Shock
Out of What by Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars
It's the Day of Atonement 2001 by Dayna Kurtz
Trouble Ahead by The Grabs
Did Everybody Just Get Old by Graham Parker & The Figgs
A Loving Tribute to My City by Mark Eitzel
A Better Word for Love by Big Al Anderson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, March 04, 2006
ALONG CAME JONES
I was nearly a no-show last night for No-Show Jones.Nobody's fault but mine. I'd never been to Isletta Pueblo Casino before and I didn't realize it was off the Broadway exit off I-25. I figured it was further south ... so I ended up in Los Lunas. Then I turned around, turned off at the Isletta Pueblo exit and ended up on South Coors, exploring the rural splendor of the Albuquerque's South Valley. By the time we got the casino, Jones had been onstage for about 30 minutes.
Yes, I'm an idiot.
George Jones in his prime probably had the best voice in country music -- male or female, living or dead.
But last night there were signs that the magnificent soul-piercing instrument is going. He seemed hoarse and he wasn't making all the high notes and sometimes he seemed flat.
Still, a fading Possum is more soulful than 98 percent of the competition. He did wonderful versions of "A Picture of Me Without You" "Golden Ring" and, of course, "He Stopped Loving Her Today."
His version of "Who's Going to Fill Their Shoes" would have been more moving had the audience not applauded wildly almost every time another picture of a dead country star flashed on the screen behind the band.
I enjoyed "The Blues Man," a song written by Hank Williams, Jr. that's on his latest album. (He duets with Dolly Parton on the record. Last night Dolly's part was filled by his tour singer Sherri Copeland, who stood in for Tammy on "Golden Ring.")
I was even more impressed with "50,000 Names," a song about the Vietnam memorial wall. I like this nearly as much as Iris DeMent's "There's a Wall in Washington." I was hoping that Jones would follow "50,000 Names" with "Wild Irish Rose," which is about the death of a homeless Vietnam vet.
He sang a bunch of his hits. "The Window Up Above" started out nicely, but after the verse, it became apparent that this was just part of a medley with "The Grand Tour" and (I think ... don't hold me to this) "Walk Through This World With Me." He also did a too-short version of "White Lightning."
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to talk with George about our business deal he was proposing a couple of months ago.
XXXXX
Since I went to the concert, I had Laurell sit in for The Santa Fe Opry last night. She was nice enough to e-mail me her play list:
Buck Owens- Buckaroo
Iris Dement- Wasteland of the Free
I'll Take My Sorrow Straight
Emmylou Harris- Heaven Only Knows
Jeannie Sealy- Don't Touch Me
Sir Douglas Quintet- Texas Me
Nuevo Laredo
Merle Haggard-It's Not Love But It's Not Bad
Somewhere Between
John Prine- I Guess They Ought To Name a Drink After You
Loretta Lynn- Honky Tonk Girl
Townes Van Zandt- Waitin' Around To Die
John Hartford- Turn Your Radio On
Hank Williams- Lovesick Blues
Rose Maddox and Vern Williams- Let Those Brown Eyes Smile at Me
Grateful Dead- Operator
Allman Brothers- Ain't Wastin' Time No More
Bob Dylan- You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Country Pie
Carl Smith-Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way
John Anderson- Seminole Wind
Kate and Anna McGarrigle- Goin' Back To Harlan
Heart Like a Wheel
America- A Horse With No Name
Cowboy-Pretty Friend
Bread- Make It With You
Eagles- Most Of Us Are Sad
Linda Ronstadt- Birds
Neil Young- Love Is a Rose
Emperor Of Wyoming
Michael Hurley-Lean On Me
Johnny Cash- The Beast In Me
Thirteen
George Jones- He Stopped Loving Her Today
Roy Orbison- Love Hurts
Randy Scruggs- Both Sides Now
Comin' Down- Meat Puppets
Friday, March 03, 2006
THIS BIKE ISN'T REALLY A PIPE BOMB
I actually saw this band with my daughter and a friend of hers at CBGBs when we went to New York in the late '90s.
Seems that the campus cops at Ohio University got a little jumpy when they saw a bicycle with a sticker for the Florida group This Bike is a Pipe Bomb.
My favorite line in the news account below is the college dean who "urged students to be more careful when showing support for the band ..."
I'll play a song by them on Sunday's Sound World.
Between this and the terrorist Morrissey getting questioned by The FBI, these are difficult times.
From the Associated Press:
Seems that the campus cops at Ohio University got a little jumpy when they saw a bicycle with a sticker for the Florida group This Bike is a Pipe Bomb.
My favorite line in the news account below is the college dean who "urged students to be more careful when showing support for the band ..."
I'll play a song by them on Sunday's Sound World.
Between this and the terrorist Morrissey getting questioned by The FBI, these are difficult times.
From the Associated Press:
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — A sticker on a bicycle that said "this bike is a pipe bomb" caused a scare Thursday at Ohio University that shut down four buildings before authorities learned the message was the name of a punk rock band, a university spokesman said.
The sticker on the bike chained outside the university-owned Oasis restaurant near the center of campus attracted the attention of a police officer about 5:30 a.m., spokesman Jack Jeffery said.
Police blocked streets around the restaurant and the Columbus police bomb squad came from about 65 miles away.
The bomb experts hit the bike with a high-pressure spray of water, then pried it apart with a hydraulic device normally used to rescue accident victims trapped in cars, acting Athens Fire Chief Ken Gilbraith said. Once they had it open, they saw there was no bomb.
The buildings, including some classroom facilities, were reopened after a couple hours.
Dean of Students Terry Hogan urged students to be more careful when showing support for the band from Pensacola, Fla.
University police interviewed the bike's owner then released him, Jeffery said. Police are still investigating.
An e-mail seeking comment was sent to Plan-It-X Records, listed on a Web site for the band as its record label. The label does not have a published phone number.
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: HILLBILLY PROTEST
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 3, 2006
Norman and Nancy Blake do what they do best on their latest album, Back Home in Sulphur Springs -- simple but irresistible interpretations of old-time rural Southern tunes.
There are songs about ramblin' and jail, sentimental reflections on happy little homes and the fair, sad-eyed sweethearts that singers always tend to leave there, even a couple of shipwreck ballads.
And Chattanooga-born Norman Blake is still one of the finest old-time country pickers operating today. His arsenal -- including guitar, dobro, mandolin, and fiddle -- has the voice of a hillbilly sage. When he sings, you can almost imagine him personally witnessing the past 200 years of southern history.
But there's an edge to this album, a hard-nosed reminder that while the Blakes might exalt the little cabin home and sunny Southern mornings, they are truly citizens of 21st-century America.
It's first apparent in the third track, "He's Coming to Us Dead," the story of a father whose son is killed in a war. The grief-stricken old man warns the soldiers who help unload the casket: "He broke his poor old mother's heart, her sayings all came true/She said this is the way that he'd come back when he joined the boys in blue."
Although the scene obviously is relevant today, the quaint trappings of the train and the telegraph office give away the fact that the song dates back -- at least -- to the late 1920s.
The credits on this album say the song is "traditional." However, many people credit "He's Coming to Us Dead" to G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, "first wave" country stars who recorded it in the late '20s.
"He's Coming to Us Dead" is making a "comeback" of sorts. The 1966 version by folkie faves The New Lost City Ramblers appears on the recently released Classic Railroad Songs on the Smithsonian Folkways label. The liner notes for that CD say the song originally was published in 1899 by Gussie Davis, a black songwriter who also is credited for "Goodnight Irene."
What's remarkable about the song is that there are no words about patriotism, heroism, or duty to your country -- just death and grief and broken hearts.
But in case there's any question about where the Blakes' politics lie, you can find the answer in the CD's "hidden" track, a protest song called "Don't Be Afraid of the Neocons," which names names, points fingers, and generally goes far beyond the Dixie Chicks in criticizing the Bush administration -- singing about Iraq, Cindy Sheehan, Hurricane Katrina, and Dick Cheney's underground bunker. But the outrage in the lyrics is leavened by Norman's gentle hillbilly humor.
"Now Georgie Bush he is the man/He landed in Afghanistan. 'We'll get Osama,' was his crack/And now we're stranded in Iraq...."
There's even a verse about the president's fondness for Saudi royalty: "Now Georgie, he is kind and meek/He kissed the king upon the cheek/They walked the garden hand in hand/While the oil and blood dripped on the sand."
"Neocons" reminds me of those historical ballads still sung today about the Garfield assassination or the sinking of the Titanic -- not to mention the fine Irish tradition of antiwar songs.
The chorus appeals to a traditional backwoods loathing of government that predates any person or event in the song: "Don't send your money to Washington/to fight a war that's never done/Don't play their games, don't be their pawns/and don't be afraid of the neocons." This protest only strengthens Nancy's sweet mandolin version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
And come to think of it, what's with those shipwreck songs? There's not one but two on this album. "The Mermaid" is a traditional song with a theme going back to Homer (no, not of Homer and Jethro). "The Empress of Ireland," written by Patty Bryan, is about a tragedy that occurred on the St. Lawrence River in the spring of 1914, when the Empress of Ireland collided with a Norwegian ship, the Storstad. More than 1,000 died.
In the American folk tradition, shipwreck songs are often allegories for divine retribution against vain and corrupt societies. "God moves on the water!" went the chorus of one popular Titanic ballad.
Do I sense a subtle metaphor at work here?
Also recommended
* Old Time Black Southern String Band Music by Butch Cage & Willie B. Thomas. This is nothing but party music -- well, at least the way they used to have parties in the rural South in the days before stereos.
Recorded back in 1960 by folklorist Harry Oster, Cage and Thomas were part-time Louisiana musicians who earned extra cash by playing for dances, parties, and sometimes even church services. Both men died in the 1970s.
Amazingly, this is the first time most of these tracks have been released.
Cage played fiddle while Thomas played guitar. Both sang -- sometimes in unison, sometimes practically tripping over each other. The result is a rough, spontaneous, good-time sound that makes a listener wish he'd been invited to some of those parties.
There are some familiar songs here: "Since I Laid My Burden Down" (sometimes called "Glory Glory"), "Ain't Gonna Rain No More," Misspi Fred McDowell's "You Gotta Move," and "Careless Love," one of those great American tunes that's been traded back and forth between the races so much that its genealogy doesn't even matter.
Other notable songs are "Rock Me Mama" (featuring Cage's finest fiddle work on the album), "The Dirty Dozens" (the "shake-your-yas-yas-yas" lyrics at that time were considered risqué), and "The Piano Blues," which is 100 percent pianoless.
March 3, 2006
Norman and Nancy Blake do what they do best on their latest album, Back Home in Sulphur Springs -- simple but irresistible interpretations of old-time rural Southern tunes.
There are songs about ramblin' and jail, sentimental reflections on happy little homes and the fair, sad-eyed sweethearts that singers always tend to leave there, even a couple of shipwreck ballads.
And Chattanooga-born Norman Blake is still one of the finest old-time country pickers operating today. His arsenal -- including guitar, dobro, mandolin, and fiddle -- has the voice of a hillbilly sage. When he sings, you can almost imagine him personally witnessing the past 200 years of southern history.
But there's an edge to this album, a hard-nosed reminder that while the Blakes might exalt the little cabin home and sunny Southern mornings, they are truly citizens of 21st-century America.
It's first apparent in the third track, "He's Coming to Us Dead," the story of a father whose son is killed in a war. The grief-stricken old man warns the soldiers who help unload the casket: "He broke his poor old mother's heart, her sayings all came true/She said this is the way that he'd come back when he joined the boys in blue."
Although the scene obviously is relevant today, the quaint trappings of the train and the telegraph office give away the fact that the song dates back -- at least -- to the late 1920s.
The credits on this album say the song is "traditional." However, many people credit "He's Coming to Us Dead" to G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, "first wave" country stars who recorded it in the late '20s.
"He's Coming to Us Dead" is making a "comeback" of sorts. The 1966 version by folkie faves The New Lost City Ramblers appears on the recently released Classic Railroad Songs on the Smithsonian Folkways label. The liner notes for that CD say the song originally was published in 1899 by Gussie Davis, a black songwriter who also is credited for "Goodnight Irene."
What's remarkable about the song is that there are no words about patriotism, heroism, or duty to your country -- just death and grief and broken hearts.
But in case there's any question about where the Blakes' politics lie, you can find the answer in the CD's "hidden" track, a protest song called "Don't Be Afraid of the Neocons," which names names, points fingers, and generally goes far beyond the Dixie Chicks in criticizing the Bush administration -- singing about Iraq, Cindy Sheehan, Hurricane Katrina, and Dick Cheney's underground bunker. But the outrage in the lyrics is leavened by Norman's gentle hillbilly humor.
"Now Georgie Bush he is the man/He landed in Afghanistan. 'We'll get Osama,' was his crack/And now we're stranded in Iraq...."
There's even a verse about the president's fondness for Saudi royalty: "Now Georgie, he is kind and meek/He kissed the king upon the cheek/They walked the garden hand in hand/While the oil and blood dripped on the sand."
"Neocons" reminds me of those historical ballads still sung today about the Garfield assassination or the sinking of the Titanic -- not to mention the fine Irish tradition of antiwar songs.
The chorus appeals to a traditional backwoods loathing of government that predates any person or event in the song: "Don't send your money to Washington/to fight a war that's never done/Don't play their games, don't be their pawns/and don't be afraid of the neocons." This protest only strengthens Nancy's sweet mandolin version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
And come to think of it, what's with those shipwreck songs? There's not one but two on this album. "The Mermaid" is a traditional song with a theme going back to Homer (no, not of Homer and Jethro). "The Empress of Ireland," written by Patty Bryan, is about a tragedy that occurred on the St. Lawrence River in the spring of 1914, when the Empress of Ireland collided with a Norwegian ship, the Storstad. More than 1,000 died.
In the American folk tradition, shipwreck songs are often allegories for divine retribution against vain and corrupt societies. "God moves on the water!" went the chorus of one popular Titanic ballad.
Do I sense a subtle metaphor at work here?
Also recommended
* Old Time Black Southern String Band Music by Butch Cage & Willie B. Thomas. This is nothing but party music -- well, at least the way they used to have parties in the rural South in the days before stereos.
Recorded back in 1960 by folklorist Harry Oster, Cage and Thomas were part-time Louisiana musicians who earned extra cash by playing for dances, parties, and sometimes even church services. Both men died in the 1970s.
Amazingly, this is the first time most of these tracks have been released.
Cage played fiddle while Thomas played guitar. Both sang -- sometimes in unison, sometimes practically tripping over each other. The result is a rough, spontaneous, good-time sound that makes a listener wish he'd been invited to some of those parties.
There are some familiar songs here: "Since I Laid My Burden Down" (sometimes called "Glory Glory"), "Ain't Gonna Rain No More," Misspi Fred McDowell's "You Gotta Move," and "Careless Love," one of those great American tunes that's been traded back and forth between the races so much that its genealogy doesn't even matter.
Other notable songs are "Rock Me Mama" (featuring Cage's finest fiddle work on the album), "The Dirty Dozens" (the "shake-your-yas-yas-yas" lyrics at that time were considered risqué), and "The Piano Blues," which is 100 percent pianoless.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 2, 2006
What do you do when you’re the governor and you’ve already filled the executive branch’s 647 exempt positions, but you’ve still got friends, political supporters and their relatives who need work?
According to a report by KRQE Channel 13 investigative reporter Larry Barker, when you’re Gov. Bill Richardson, you just create new jobs “out of thin air.”
So what’s the big deal? Didn’t Richardson promise to create lots of new jobs?
“The practice is so common that state agencies have coined a name for it,” Barker said. “When the governor sends a new hire down to claim a job that doesn’t exist, they call it ‘a gift from the North.’”
Under state policy, departments can hire temporary exempt employees for periods for no more than three months. The governor must approve any extension of that period.
But, Barker said, there’s no evidence that Richardson ever approved extensions for these “temporary” employees. According to the report, the extensions were done informally with no paper trail.
One state senator calls the practice “illegal.” The administration denies any wrongdoing.
Whatever the case, it’s bound to be an issue in the upcoming campaign. Even before Barker had run his report Wednesday night, the state Republican Party was sending mass e-mails touting the segment “on Bill Richardson and his abject cronyism.”
That "C word" is popping up more frequently in GOP statements about the governor. Of course, state Democrats have been using the same word to try to link U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson to the Washington, D.C., lobbyist scandals.
The gift catalog: Among those “gifts from the North” featured in Barker’s report:
* Ed Stapleton, husband of House Majority Whip Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, makes $40,000 annually as a racing clerk at the state Racing Commission. The racing-clerk position actually was occupied by another employee. That person got to keep her job, but she only makes $26,000 a year.
* Steve Gallegos, a former Albuquerque city councilor and Bernalillo County commissioner, was paid $83,000 to be legislative liaison for the state Transportation Department. Gallegos resigned this week to run in the Democratic primary for the seat now held by incumbent Public Regulation Commissioner Lynda Lovejoy, who cannot seek re-election.
* Randy Romero, brother of former ambassador and Richardson ally Ed Romero, gets paid $62,000 for a “temporary” exempt job at the Labor Department.
* Former state Rep. Bennie Aragon — who is the uncle of former state Senate powerhouse Manny Aragon — is paid more than $55,000 as “special projects coordinator” for Expo New Mexico (formerly known as the State Fair).
* Democratic political consultant Harry Pavlides got a $42,000 secretarial job at Expo New Mexico.
* After Richardson appointed Sharon Maloof — part of the influential Maloof family — to be deputy tourism secretary, he created a $74,000 position for another deputy secretary to handle the budget and administration of the department.
The way it works: State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, said on camera the practice is illegal. McSorley estimated as many as 65 jobs were created by the administration in this manner.
“This is not the way government should work, but unfortunately, this is the way it has worked,” McSorley said.
Former Gov. Gary Johnson told Barker he never made such hires during his administration.
“I would just suggest that today you got a whole new layer of upper-level bureaucrats that are getting in the way of state employees doing their jobs,” Johnson said. “Which is significant. This is not insignificant.”
Richardson’s chief of staff defended the practice. “They are clearly qualified for the jobs they are doing in these agencies,” Dave Contarino told Barker. “If there are misclassifications that do not accurately reflect those jobs, then we will have to deal with that. But they are working every day doing the jobs that their Cabinet secretary (has) tasked for them under the governor’s direction.”
We thought he was primping: Last week The Drudge Report offered a sneak preview of a new political book, Strategery by Bill Sammon. The book quotes Bush political guru Karl Rove predicting that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will capture the 2008 Democratic nomination for president but will lose in the general election.
According to Drudge, Rove says “the ‘hard-driving’ Clinton will easily vanquish Democratic primary rivals like Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who are merely ‘preening for the vice presidential slot.’ ”
Correction notice: This column originally said that Steve Gallegos would run against incumbent PRC member Lynda Lovejoy. Actually Lovejoy can't seek re-eelction because she's serving her second term.
March 2, 2006
What do you do when you’re the governor and you’ve already filled the executive branch’s 647 exempt positions, but you’ve still got friends, political supporters and their relatives who need work?
According to a report by KRQE Channel 13 investigative reporter Larry Barker, when you’re Gov. Bill Richardson, you just create new jobs “out of thin air.”
So what’s the big deal? Didn’t Richardson promise to create lots of new jobs?
“The practice is so common that state agencies have coined a name for it,” Barker said. “When the governor sends a new hire down to claim a job that doesn’t exist, they call it ‘a gift from the North.’”
Under state policy, departments can hire temporary exempt employees for periods for no more than three months. The governor must approve any extension of that period.
But, Barker said, there’s no evidence that Richardson ever approved extensions for these “temporary” employees. According to the report, the extensions were done informally with no paper trail.
One state senator calls the practice “illegal.” The administration denies any wrongdoing.
Whatever the case, it’s bound to be an issue in the upcoming campaign. Even before Barker had run his report Wednesday night, the state Republican Party was sending mass e-mails touting the segment “on Bill Richardson and his abject cronyism.”
That "C word" is popping up more frequently in GOP statements about the governor. Of course, state Democrats have been using the same word to try to link U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson to the Washington, D.C., lobbyist scandals.
The gift catalog: Among those “gifts from the North” featured in Barker’s report:
* Ed Stapleton, husband of House Majority Whip Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, makes $40,000 annually as a racing clerk at the state Racing Commission. The racing-clerk position actually was occupied by another employee. That person got to keep her job, but she only makes $26,000 a year.
* Steve Gallegos, a former Albuquerque city councilor and Bernalillo County commissioner, was paid $83,000 to be legislative liaison for the state Transportation Department. Gallegos resigned this week to run in the Democratic primary for the seat now held by incumbent Public Regulation Commissioner Lynda Lovejoy, who cannot seek re-election.
* Randy Romero, brother of former ambassador and Richardson ally Ed Romero, gets paid $62,000 for a “temporary” exempt job at the Labor Department.
* Former state Rep. Bennie Aragon — who is the uncle of former state Senate powerhouse Manny Aragon — is paid more than $55,000 as “special projects coordinator” for Expo New Mexico (formerly known as the State Fair).
* Democratic political consultant Harry Pavlides got a $42,000 secretarial job at Expo New Mexico.
* After Richardson appointed Sharon Maloof — part of the influential Maloof family — to be deputy tourism secretary, he created a $74,000 position for another deputy secretary to handle the budget and administration of the department.
The way it works: State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, said on camera the practice is illegal. McSorley estimated as many as 65 jobs were created by the administration in this manner.
“This is not the way government should work, but unfortunately, this is the way it has worked,” McSorley said.
Former Gov. Gary Johnson told Barker he never made such hires during his administration.
“I would just suggest that today you got a whole new layer of upper-level bureaucrats that are getting in the way of state employees doing their jobs,” Johnson said. “Which is significant. This is not insignificant.”
Richardson’s chief of staff defended the practice. “They are clearly qualified for the jobs they are doing in these agencies,” Dave Contarino told Barker. “If there are misclassifications that do not accurately reflect those jobs, then we will have to deal with that. But they are working every day doing the jobs that their Cabinet secretary (has) tasked for them under the governor’s direction.”
We thought he was primping: Last week The Drudge Report offered a sneak preview of a new political book, Strategery by Bill Sammon. The book quotes Bush political guru Karl Rove predicting that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will capture the 2008 Democratic nomination for president but will lose in the general election.
According to Drudge, Rove says “the ‘hard-driving’ Clinton will easily vanquish Democratic primary rivals like Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who are merely ‘preening for the vice presidential slot.’ ”
Correction notice: This column originally said that Steve Gallegos would run against incumbent PRC member Lynda Lovejoy. Actually Lovejoy can't seek re-eelction because she's serving her second term.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
NORMAN PETTY'S MONITORS
No, this blog isn't turning into a classified ads section.
But a friend of mine Bill Simoneau -- a New Mexico rock 'n' roll behind-the-scenes guy who's worked as stage manager at the Thirsty Ear Festival and sound man for Al Hurricane -- has some pretty interesting equipment he's trying to sell. In Bill's own words:
"These four Altec 612a studio monitor speakers were in the Norman Petty Studios, in Clovis, New Mexico, from the 1950s through the early 1970s, when Petty upgraded all his equipment. They were used by artists such as Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison & The Teen Kings, Buddy Knox, The Fireballs and other artists who recorded at Petty's studio. They are in super condition. After Petty sold them, they were used in an Albuquerque studio for about 10 years and have been in storage since.
Lots of documentation will be included with these speakers, including:
correspondence letters from Petty, photos, canceled checks and loan papers from the party who originally purchased them from Petty, a Clovis newspaper article that discusses the sale, and more.
Will sell as a unit of four or in pairs of two.
Also selling Petty's Scully professional tape recorder from the same era.
Contact: tunzter@aol.com"
Monday, February 27, 2006
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, February 26, 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
Video Violence by Lou Reed
Faster Pussycat by The Cramps
Wonder Why by The Stillettos
It Takes a Worried Man by Devo
Never Say Never by Romeo Void
The Temple by The Afghan Whigs
Bird Brain by Kevin Coyne
Springtime in the Rockies by Tiny Tim & Brave Combo
Hey Grandma by Moby Grape
The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil by The Jefferson Airplane
Combination of the Two by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Here I Go Again by Country Joe & The Fish
Pride of Man by Quicksilver Messenger Service
Who Knows One? by Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
Sumbawa by Sabah Habas Mustapha
Gunslingers by The Mighty Sparrow
Sumbula by Severa Nazrkhan
Punjabis, Pimps & Players by Anandji V. Shah & Kalayanji V. Shah
James Bond Theme by The Son of the P.M.
Pretty Thing by Nightlosers
Local Boys by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Christo Redemptor by Charlie Musselwhite
The Great Nations of Europe by Randy Newman
Homeland Pastoral by Mark Eitzel
World I Never Made by Dr. John
I Wish I Was in New Orleans by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
Video Violence by Lou Reed
Faster Pussycat by The Cramps
Wonder Why by The Stillettos
It Takes a Worried Man by Devo
Never Say Never by Romeo Void
The Temple by The Afghan Whigs
Bird Brain by Kevin Coyne
Springtime in the Rockies by Tiny Tim & Brave Combo
Hey Grandma by Moby Grape
The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil by The Jefferson Airplane
Combination of the Two by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Here I Go Again by Country Joe & The Fish
Pride of Man by Quicksilver Messenger Service
Who Knows One? by Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
Sumbawa by Sabah Habas Mustapha
Gunslingers by The Mighty Sparrow
Sumbula by Severa Nazrkhan
Punjabis, Pimps & Players by Anandji V. Shah & Kalayanji V. Shah
James Bond Theme by The Son of the P.M.
Pretty Thing by Nightlosers
Local Boys by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Christo Redemptor by Charlie Musselwhite
The Great Nations of Europe by Randy Newman
Homeland Pastoral by Mark Eitzel
World I Never Made by Dr. John
I Wish I Was in New Orleans by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, February 25, 2006
RALPH STANLEY/THE GOURDS
I've been meaning to post all day about the Ralph Stanley/Gourds concert I saw Thursday night at The Lensic.
In short, it was wonderful.
Ralph doesn't play much banjo these days. His friend "Arthur Itus," he explained. But the Clinch Mountain Boys is one precision unit. (And that bass player, Danny Davis is one crazy dancer!)
Surprisingly my favorite moment was his a cappella "O Death." When I saw him do this five years ago, it seemed like an obligatory bone to throw at the trendsters who'd never heard of him before O Brother Where Art Thou.
But on Thursday, Dr. Ralph seemed to take the old chant into strange dark dimensions. At the end, after the last "Won't you hold me over for another year?" he sang a solemn "Thank .... yoooooo."
That's when I realized that I'd just witness a man having a conversation.
Later in the show, Stanley said if he lived until Saturday he'd be 79 years old. As far as I know, he made it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RALPH!!!!!!
In short, it was wonderful.
Ralph doesn't play much banjo these days. His friend "Arthur Itus," he explained. But the Clinch Mountain Boys is one precision unit. (And that bass player, Danny Davis is one crazy dancer!)
Surprisingly my favorite moment was his a cappella "O Death." When I saw him do this five years ago, it seemed like an obligatory bone to throw at the trendsters who'd never heard of him before O Brother Where Art Thou.
But on Thursday, Dr. Ralph seemed to take the old chant into strange dark dimensions. At the end, after the last "Won't you hold me over for another year?" he sang a solemn "Thank .... yoooooo."
That's when I realized that I'd just witness a man having a conversation.
Later in the show, Stanley said if he lived until Saturday he'd be 79 years old. As far as I know, he made it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RALPH!!!!!!
As for The Gourds, I loved 'em. I was a little bit worried that they might not get a great reception if there were too many bluegrass purists in the audience. But the crowd seemed pretty impressed.
I do get the impression that they were holding back some in their mainly acoustic set -- probably because of the audience. Several people were disappointed that they didn't play "Gin and Juice." My guess is that they figured that there were probably just a few too many "motherfuckers" in the lyrics for some of the older Ralph Stanley fans at the Lensic.
I didn't really care about that missing crowd-pleaser. My only disappointment is that they didn't do "Ants on the Melon."
But I was happy to hear "Burn the Honeysuckle," "O Rings" and "Cracklin's."
By the way, there's a new Web site for purchasing live Gourds shows. CLICK HERE
No, it's not free like the Live Music Archive, but there's nothing wrong with a band trying to make a little cash from their music. Besides, the prices aren't bad. And if you look hard enough you can find a Gourds version of the Three's Company theme.
Come and knock on their door ...
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, February 24, 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
Sweet Soul Music by Run C&W
Shake the Chandelier by The Gourds
It Was the Whiskey Talkin' (Not Me) by Jerry Lee Lewis
Starman by Jessi Colter
Blues About You Baby by Big Al Anderson
Darlin' Companion by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Caves of Burgundy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Los Tequileros by Los Pinguinos del Norte
Peggy by Eric Hisaw
Sam Bass' Blues by Danny Santos
Miller's Gulch by Jerry Faires
Take Me Home Poor Julia by Norman & Nancy Blake
Moon Song by Michael Hurley
Lift Him Up, That's All by Ralph Stanley
BLACK HISTORY MONTH SET
Cross That River by Allan Harris
When I Was a Cowboy by Odetta
Don't Let Her Know by Ray Charles
Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride
Wabash Cannonball by Blind Willie McTell
John Law Burned Down the Liquor Sto' by Chris Thomas King with Colin Linden
There Stands the Glass by Ted Hawkins
Opportunity to Cry by The Holmes Brothers
Talacatcha by Alvin Youngblood Hart
Careless Love Blues by Butch Cage & Willie B. Thomas
Drop Me Down by Tres Chicas
Snake in the Radio by Mark Pickerel
The Death of Clayton Peacock by Fruit Bats
Wild American by Kris Kristofferson
Why Me Lord? by Porter Wagoner
Margie's at the Lincoln Park Inn by Bobby Bare
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
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Sweet Soul Music by Run C&W
Shake the Chandelier by The Gourds
It Was the Whiskey Talkin' (Not Me) by Jerry Lee Lewis
Starman by Jessi Colter
Blues About You Baby by Big Al Anderson
Darlin' Companion by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Caves of Burgundy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Los Tequileros by Los Pinguinos del Norte
Peggy by Eric Hisaw
Sam Bass' Blues by Danny Santos
Miller's Gulch by Jerry Faires
Take Me Home Poor Julia by Norman & Nancy Blake
Moon Song by Michael Hurley
Lift Him Up, That's All by Ralph Stanley
BLACK HISTORY MONTH SET
Cross That River by Allan Harris
When I Was a Cowboy by Odetta
Don't Let Her Know by Ray Charles
Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride
Wabash Cannonball by Blind Willie McTell
John Law Burned Down the Liquor Sto' by Chris Thomas King with Colin Linden
There Stands the Glass by Ted Hawkins
Opportunity to Cry by The Holmes Brothers
Talacatcha by Alvin Youngblood Hart
Careless Love Blues by Butch Cage & Willie B. Thomas
Drop Me Down by Tres Chicas
Snake in the Radio by Mark Pickerel
The Death of Clayton Peacock by Fruit Bats
Wild American by Kris Kristofferson
Why Me Lord? by Porter Wagoner
Margie's at the Lincoln Park Inn by Bobby Bare
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, February 24, 2006
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: DESERT ROCK, GRUMP ROCK
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 24, 2006
Boris McCutcheon, the self-described “singer/songwriter/farmer,” actually comes from New England. But his music always has shown a Southwestern sensibility. To borrow one of his song titles, both the words and the music seem singed by volcanic winds. McCutcheon’s first album, inspired by a stay in Nambé, was called Mother Ditch. His second release, When We Were Big, recorded in Tucson, had song titles like “Diablo Waltz” and “Fine Suede.”
That Southwestern sensibility is even more pronounced in his latest album, Cactusman Versus the Blue Demon, recently released on Frogville Records under the name of Boris & The Saltlicks.
It’s acoustic-based desert-rat music, celebrating the harsh beauty but warning of the cruelty of the desert and its denizens. “I pity this poor place,” McCutcheon sings in “Volcanic Wind,” the album’s first song, “All these creatures have God on their face.” The tune starts out with a “crazy woman” on the side of the road feeding Alpo to the coyotes.
McCutcheon’s songs are sometimes somber, sometimes exuberant, sometimes sardonic. And often inscrutable, like the concept behind the title. (According to McCutcheon’s Web site, Cactusman and the Blue Demon were characters in a series of dreams he had in the early ’90s. And here I thought the Blue Demon was the old lucha libre star.)
He can be a straightforward storyteller. For instance, “Seeds & Candy” is a harrowing tale of a city couple who freeze to death in the mountains of Utah, sung over an irresistible Celt-rock backdrop, with McCutcheon himself on mandolin.
There’s lighter-hearted fare here, too. “Don’t Get Weird” is a bluesy number (Kevin Zoernig slinking in with some nice Jimmy Smith organ riffs) that starts out romantically. “The moon is rising and you delight me.” But trouble, not hot romance, seems to be ahead. By the end of the first verse, he’s pleading, “Don’t get weird, don’t get weird ...”
But the real masterpiece on Cactusman is “Caves of Burgundy.” With a melody that suggests some long-lost Steve Young tune, the lyrics suggest a supernatural encounter, like those spooky old British ballads Steeleye Span used to be so fond of, where malevolent beings seduce unsuspecting humans to follow them to Elfland, which ultimately turns out to be hell.
What I like best about this song, though, is the insane interplay between Zoernig’s tinkly-winkly toy piano and Brett Davis’ strangled, screaming guitar during the final fadeout.
It would be impossible to talk about this CD without mentioning the wonderful artwork on the front and back covers. A series of cartoons by artist Neal Cadogan depicts the cosmic showdown in the desert between the two title characters. Buy this album so McCutcheon can afford to pay Cadogan to make a Cactusman video.
McCutcheon is playing at 9 p.m. today, Feb. 24, at the Cowgirl, 319 S. Guadalupe St. (admission $5), and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Mine Shaft Tavern, 2846 N.M. 14, Madrid.
Also recommended
*Songs of No Consequence by Graham Parker & The Figgs. “Has rock ’n’ roll just died/Or does it just smell bad?”
Graham Parker on his latest album has a few bones to pick. He’s never been Little Mary Sunshine, but I haven’t heard him so pissed off in years.
In fact, Songs of No Consequence could be the grump-rock album of the decade. It is a virtual bouquet of splendid grouchiness.
Who invented grump rock? Was it Lou Reed, who perfected the form in his 1989 classic New York? Or was it nearly 20 years earlier when John Lennon, whose album Imagine balanced his weepy politically correct title song with blistering put-downs like “Give Me Some Truth” and “How Do You Sleep?” And surely, Randy Newman and Elvis Costello fit into the grump-rock pantheon.
And so does Costello’s contemporary, Parker. He gleefully rips into the entertainment media on the opening cut, “Vanity Press,” but before long, it is obvious he’s talking about the American press in general. “It’s got to be a puff piece/That only shows the best/About the war next door/And it’s a great success,” he snarls in the song.
Parker turns his ire to radio in “There’s Nothing on the Radio,” singing “I don’t want no ’60s junk/Or that ’90s cartoon punk ... I don’t want those whiny chicks/Or those cardboard country hicks ...” He concludes, “The future looks like toast/We’d better burn it.”
His fellow rockers are at the end of Parker’s ugly stick on “Did Everybody Just Get Old?” “That stranger who used to live for danger/is now acting like he never was a teenager,” he sings. “Those rockers with dirty pictures in their lockers/Now have ’em on their computer screens.”
Parker waxes acerbic on a traditional grump-rock target: life on the road. “Well, I can play a guitar just like wringing a neck,” he starts out in “Suck ’n’ Blow,” which is full of imagery of breaking down equipment and screeching air brakes. But I think this old grouch has a soft spot.
“Go Little Jimmy” is about a young blues harpist touring small clubs and wowing the girls. In a rare break in the mood of this album, Parker seems almost excited for the kid.
Of course, he seems to take more pleasure in putting down small-minded, small-town dolts who try to persuade a young woman not to pursue her crazy dreams in “Local Boys”: “Don’t leave here all alone/Don’t go to Paris, don’t go to Rome/Stay in town just like your sister Joyce/And don’t look any further than the local boys.”
February 24, 2006
Boris McCutcheon, the self-described “singer/songwriter/farmer,” actually comes from New England. But his music always has shown a Southwestern sensibility. To borrow one of his song titles, both the words and the music seem singed by volcanic winds. McCutcheon’s first album, inspired by a stay in Nambé, was called Mother Ditch. His second release, When We Were Big, recorded in Tucson, had song titles like “Diablo Waltz” and “Fine Suede.”
That Southwestern sensibility is even more pronounced in his latest album, Cactusman Versus the Blue Demon, recently released on Frogville Records under the name of Boris & The Saltlicks.
It’s acoustic-based desert-rat music, celebrating the harsh beauty but warning of the cruelty of the desert and its denizens. “I pity this poor place,” McCutcheon sings in “Volcanic Wind,” the album’s first song, “All these creatures have God on their face.” The tune starts out with a “crazy woman” on the side of the road feeding Alpo to the coyotes.
McCutcheon’s songs are sometimes somber, sometimes exuberant, sometimes sardonic. And often inscrutable, like the concept behind the title. (According to McCutcheon’s Web site, Cactusman and the Blue Demon were characters in a series of dreams he had in the early ’90s. And here I thought the Blue Demon was the old lucha libre star.)
He can be a straightforward storyteller. For instance, “Seeds & Candy” is a harrowing tale of a city couple who freeze to death in the mountains of Utah, sung over an irresistible Celt-rock backdrop, with McCutcheon himself on mandolin.
There’s lighter-hearted fare here, too. “Don’t Get Weird” is a bluesy number (Kevin Zoernig slinking in with some nice Jimmy Smith organ riffs) that starts out romantically. “The moon is rising and you delight me.” But trouble, not hot romance, seems to be ahead. By the end of the first verse, he’s pleading, “Don’t get weird, don’t get weird ...”
But the real masterpiece on Cactusman is “Caves of Burgundy.” With a melody that suggests some long-lost Steve Young tune, the lyrics suggest a supernatural encounter, like those spooky old British ballads Steeleye Span used to be so fond of, where malevolent beings seduce unsuspecting humans to follow them to Elfland, which ultimately turns out to be hell.
What I like best about this song, though, is the insane interplay between Zoernig’s tinkly-winkly toy piano and Brett Davis’ strangled, screaming guitar during the final fadeout.
It would be impossible to talk about this CD without mentioning the wonderful artwork on the front and back covers. A series of cartoons by artist Neal Cadogan depicts the cosmic showdown in the desert between the two title characters. Buy this album so McCutcheon can afford to pay Cadogan to make a Cactusman video.
McCutcheon is playing at 9 p.m. today, Feb. 24, at the Cowgirl, 319 S. Guadalupe St. (admission $5), and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Mine Shaft Tavern, 2846 N.M. 14, Madrid.
Also recommended
*Songs of No Consequence by Graham Parker & The Figgs. “Has rock ’n’ roll just died/Or does it just smell bad?”
Graham Parker on his latest album has a few bones to pick. He’s never been Little Mary Sunshine, but I haven’t heard him so pissed off in years.
In fact, Songs of No Consequence could be the grump-rock album of the decade. It is a virtual bouquet of splendid grouchiness.
Who invented grump rock? Was it Lou Reed, who perfected the form in his 1989 classic New York? Or was it nearly 20 years earlier when John Lennon, whose album Imagine balanced his weepy politically correct title song with blistering put-downs like “Give Me Some Truth” and “How Do You Sleep?” And surely, Randy Newman and Elvis Costello fit into the grump-rock pantheon.
And so does Costello’s contemporary, Parker. He gleefully rips into the entertainment media on the opening cut, “Vanity Press,” but before long, it is obvious he’s talking about the American press in general. “It’s got to be a puff piece/That only shows the best/About the war next door/And it’s a great success,” he snarls in the song.
Parker turns his ire to radio in “There’s Nothing on the Radio,” singing “I don’t want no ’60s junk/Or that ’90s cartoon punk ... I don’t want those whiny chicks/Or those cardboard country hicks ...” He concludes, “The future looks like toast/We’d better burn it.”
His fellow rockers are at the end of Parker’s ugly stick on “Did Everybody Just Get Old?” “That stranger who used to live for danger/is now acting like he never was a teenager,” he sings. “Those rockers with dirty pictures in their lockers/Now have ’em on their computer screens.”
Parker waxes acerbic on a traditional grump-rock target: life on the road. “Well, I can play a guitar just like wringing a neck,” he starts out in “Suck ’n’ Blow,” which is full of imagery of breaking down equipment and screeching air brakes. But I think this old grouch has a soft spot.
“Go Little Jimmy” is about a young blues harpist touring small clubs and wowing the girls. In a rare break in the mood of this album, Parker seems almost excited for the kid.
Of course, he seems to take more pleasure in putting down small-minded, small-town dolts who try to persuade a young woman not to pursue her crazy dreams in “Local Boys”: “Don’t leave here all alone/Don’t go to Paris, don’t go to Rome/Stay in town just like your sister Joyce/And don’t look any further than the local boys.”
Thursday, February 23, 2006
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: HAVE DEATH WILL TRAVEL
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Februart 23, 2006
California is having trouble executing condemned murderer Michael Morales. Seems like anesthesiologists and other medical professionals in the Golden State are getting a little queasy about helping out in the fine art of lethal injection.
Something about the Hippocratic Oath or some other medical mumbo jumbo.
So why doesn’t California just do what New Mexico did in 2001, when the state performed its first (and so far only) legal execution since 1960?
Hire moonlighting executioners from Texas.
In 2001, when child killer/rapist Terry Clark’s days officially were numbered, the state hired two employees of the Texas prison system.
The $12,000 contract had to be one of the most macabre ever issued by the state:
So how come California didn’t do the same and hire some outside “execution specialist”?
One of Terry Clark’s attorneys, Brian Pouri — an Albuquerque lawyer who also is licensed to practice in California — said Wednesday that California’s laws governing executions are virtually the same as New Mexico’s.
But in the Morales case, a federal judge ordered restrictions on the lethal-injection process. Basically, Pouri explained, the court ruled that the state could either have an anesthesiologist on hand to make sure Morales wasn’t feeling pain — or in the alternative, give the condemned man a big enough dose of barbiturates to kill him.
“Once they got the doctors involved, that was it,” Pouri said.
Why didn’t that happen in Clark’s case?
Clark, who murdered 9-year-old Dena Lynn Gore in Artesia in 1986, wanted to die. He asked to stop any further legal proceedings.
“Nobody else had any (legal) standing,” Pouri said.
Speaking of medical ethics: The contract for Clark’s executioners included travel and expenses. But there’s one thing the Texas guys didn’t have to provide — the drugs used in the execution.
The sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride were purchased by the state Health Department — you know, that agency with the mission statement that says it’s supposed to “promote health, prevent disease and disability.”
But the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the agency that licenses government agencies and private companies to buy controlled drugs, said it had no problem with the state Health Department supplying drugs to kill a man.
At least they didn’t give him something illegal like medical marijuana.
No announcement of an announcement: Gov. Bill Richardson has said since before Day 1 that he plans to seek re-election. He is already on the June primary ballot — unopposed.
So there’s no real need for a formal announcement. But can you imagine Bill Richardson giving up a chance to give a speech before an adoring audience cheering wildly every time he says he’s “moving New Mexico forward”?
Yet on Wednesday, when asked whether a formal announcement was forthcoming, Richardson seemed noncommittal.
His chief of staff (and 2002 campaign manager) Dave Contarino said there probably would be some kind of announcement. But Contarino noted that when Bill Clinton ran for re-election for governor of Arkansas, he never formally announced.
Last November during an interview on CSPAN2, Richardson said he wasn’t pledging to serve a full four years if re-elected.
On that show, he used the example of President Bush, who told voters when running for re-election as Texas governor in 1998 that he might run for higher officer. “I may do the same, but I haven’t decided that. ... What I will do is, I will tell my constituents the truth when I talk to them about whether I go beyond this.”
But Richardson said Wednesday that he’s not ready yet to have such a talk with voters.
The latest numbers: Richardson continues to do well in the SurveyUSA/KOB TV poll. The latest one, conducted Feb. 10-12 of 600 New Mexico adults, shows his best numbers in 10 months. The firm has been doing monthly tracking polls of the nation’s 50 governors.
Richardson’s approval rating was 64 percent. Only 32 percent said they disapproved of the way Richardson was doing his job.
For the first time, SurveyUSA shows Democrat Richardson getting a majority of Republicans giving him approval. That’s 52 percent to 42 percent who disapprove.
SurveyUSA’s margin of error is 3.9 percent.
Februart 23, 2006
California is having trouble executing condemned murderer Michael Morales. Seems like anesthesiologists and other medical professionals in the Golden State are getting a little queasy about helping out in the fine art of lethal injection.
Something about the Hippocratic Oath or some other medical mumbo jumbo.
So why doesn’t California just do what New Mexico did in 2001, when the state performed its first (and so far only) legal execution since 1960?
Hire moonlighting executioners from Texas.
In 2001, when child killer/rapist Terry Clark’s days officially were numbered, the state hired two employees of the Texas prison system.
The $12,000 contract had to be one of the most macabre ever issued by the state:
“At approximately 20 minutes before the scheduled time for the execution, as directed by the warden, contractor shall insert the necessary catheters into the appropriate veins of the inmate sentenced to death. At the scheduled time of the execution, if directed to proceed by the warden, contractor shall administer the lethal injection to the inmate sentenced to death.”A New Mexico Corrections Department spokesman said at the time that the two “execution experts” had also been hired to help out with capital punishment in New York, Montana and Kentucky.
So how come California didn’t do the same and hire some outside “execution specialist”?
One of Terry Clark’s attorneys, Brian Pouri — an Albuquerque lawyer who also is licensed to practice in California — said Wednesday that California’s laws governing executions are virtually the same as New Mexico’s.
But in the Morales case, a federal judge ordered restrictions on the lethal-injection process. Basically, Pouri explained, the court ruled that the state could either have an anesthesiologist on hand to make sure Morales wasn’t feeling pain — or in the alternative, give the condemned man a big enough dose of barbiturates to kill him.
“Once they got the doctors involved, that was it,” Pouri said.
Why didn’t that happen in Clark’s case?
Clark, who murdered 9-year-old Dena Lynn Gore in Artesia in 1986, wanted to die. He asked to stop any further legal proceedings.
“Nobody else had any (legal) standing,” Pouri said.
Speaking of medical ethics: The contract for Clark’s executioners included travel and expenses. But there’s one thing the Texas guys didn’t have to provide — the drugs used in the execution.
The sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride were purchased by the state Health Department — you know, that agency with the mission statement that says it’s supposed to “promote health, prevent disease and disability.”
But the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the agency that licenses government agencies and private companies to buy controlled drugs, said it had no problem with the state Health Department supplying drugs to kill a man.
At least they didn’t give him something illegal like medical marijuana.
No announcement of an announcement: Gov. Bill Richardson has said since before Day 1 that he plans to seek re-election. He is already on the June primary ballot — unopposed.
So there’s no real need for a formal announcement. But can you imagine Bill Richardson giving up a chance to give a speech before an adoring audience cheering wildly every time he says he’s “moving New Mexico forward”?
Yet on Wednesday, when asked whether a formal announcement was forthcoming, Richardson seemed noncommittal.
His chief of staff (and 2002 campaign manager) Dave Contarino said there probably would be some kind of announcement. But Contarino noted that when Bill Clinton ran for re-election for governor of Arkansas, he never formally announced.
Last November during an interview on CSPAN2, Richardson said he wasn’t pledging to serve a full four years if re-elected.
On that show, he used the example of President Bush, who told voters when running for re-election as Texas governor in 1998 that he might run for higher officer. “I may do the same, but I haven’t decided that. ... What I will do is, I will tell my constituents the truth when I talk to them about whether I go beyond this.”
But Richardson said Wednesday that he’s not ready yet to have such a talk with voters.
The latest numbers: Richardson continues to do well in the SurveyUSA/KOB TV poll. The latest one, conducted Feb. 10-12 of 600 New Mexico adults, shows his best numbers in 10 months. The firm has been doing monthly tracking polls of the nation’s 50 governors.
Richardson’s approval rating was 64 percent. Only 32 percent said they disapproved of the way Richardson was doing his job.
For the first time, SurveyUSA shows Democrat Richardson getting a majority of Republicans giving him approval. That’s 52 percent to 42 percent who disapprove.
SurveyUSA’s margin of error is 3.9 percent.
Monday, February 20, 2006
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, February 20, 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
Leave the Capitol by The Fall
Ugly Band by The Mekons
Almost Dying by Kevin Coyne
Cigarettes by Greg Dulli
True to This by Concrete Blonde
Trouble Ahead by The Grabs
Is She Weird by The Pixies
Amphetimine Annie by Canned Heat
Do the Watusi by Cat
I Will Sing You Songs by My Morning Jacket
Bad Chardonay by Graham Parker
Little Floater by NRBQ
Goosebumps by Jerry Lee Lewis
Motor City Baby by The Dirtbombs
Tango by Bernadette Seacrest
Get Right Church by The Rev. Gary Davis
I Could Never Be President by Johnnie Taylor
If You Want Me to Stay by Devin Lima
Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey by Sly & The Family Stone
My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me by The Geto Boyz
If Loving You is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right) by Isaac Hayes
Just Say So by Bettye Lavette
Earth Blues by Jimi Hendrix
You Don't Love Me Yet by Bongwater
Cryin' in the Streets by Buckwheat Zydeco
Make Sure They Hear by Mark Eitzel
Into the Mystic by Warren Zevon
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
Leave the Capitol by The Fall
Ugly Band by The Mekons
Almost Dying by Kevin Coyne
Cigarettes by Greg Dulli
True to This by Concrete Blonde
Trouble Ahead by The Grabs
Is She Weird by The Pixies
Amphetimine Annie by Canned Heat
Do the Watusi by Cat
I Will Sing You Songs by My Morning Jacket
Bad Chardonay by Graham Parker
Little Floater by NRBQ
Goosebumps by Jerry Lee Lewis
Motor City Baby by The Dirtbombs
Tango by Bernadette Seacrest
Get Right Church by The Rev. Gary Davis
I Could Never Be President by Johnnie Taylor
If You Want Me to Stay by Devin Lima
Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey by Sly & The Family Stone
My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me by The Geto Boyz
If Loving You is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right) by Isaac Hayes
Just Say So by Bettye Lavette
Earth Blues by Jimi Hendrix
You Don't Love Me Yet by Bongwater
Cryin' in the Streets by Buckwheat Zydeco
Make Sure They Hear by Mark Eitzel
Into the Mystic by Warren Zevon
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, February 18, 2006
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, February 17, 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
I Want to Grow Up to Be a Politician by The Byrds
The Education Song by The Gourds
American Trash by Betty Dylan
Blues About You Baby by Big Al Anderson
All You ever Do Is Bring Me Down by The Mavericks
Drinkin' Thing by Gary Stewart
Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad by Wanda Jackson
Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Ain't Got No Home by The Band
LUBBOCK SET
Midnight Shift by Buddy Holly
Stars in My Life by The Flatlanders
Stubbs Boogie by Jesse Taylor
Own and Own by Butch Hancock with Marce Lacouture
The Lubbock Tornado by Terry Allen
Hopes Up High by Joe Ely
Winds of Time by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Don't Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Boomtown Boogie by Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Jo Carol Pierce & Joe Ely
One Road More by The Flatlanders
Pedal Steal by Terry Allen
The Burden of Freedom by Kris Kristofferson
The Revenant by Michael Hurley
Bootleg John by Ralph Stanley
Take Me by George Jones
Everybody's Talkin' by Bobby Bare
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
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I Want to Grow Up to Be a Politician by The Byrds
The Education Song by The Gourds
American Trash by Betty Dylan
Blues About You Baby by Big Al Anderson
All You ever Do Is Bring Me Down by The Mavericks
Drinkin' Thing by Gary Stewart
Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad by Wanda Jackson
Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Ain't Got No Home by The Band
LUBBOCK SET
Midnight Shift by Buddy Holly
Stars in My Life by The Flatlanders
Stubbs Boogie by Jesse Taylor
Own and Own by Butch Hancock with Marce Lacouture
The Lubbock Tornado by Terry Allen
Hopes Up High by Joe Ely
Winds of Time by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Don't Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Boomtown Boogie by Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Jo Carol Pierce & Joe Ely
One Road More by The Flatlanders
Pedal Steal by Terry Allen
The Burden of Freedom by Kris Kristofferson
The Revenant by Michael Hurley
Bootleg John by Ralph Stanley
Take Me by George Jones
Everybody's Talkin' by Bobby Bare
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, February 17, 2006
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: IT CAME FROM LUBBOCK
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 17, 2006
When you Google the phrase “Lubbock Lights,” the above passage is what you find on the first site listed.
This mysterious phenomenon is mentioned in Lubbock Lights, a documentary by Amy Maner showing this weekend at the Santa Fe Film Center. But that’s not really what the film is about. Lubbock Lights deals with the amazing musicians who came out of that unassuming little West Texas city, from Buddy Holly to the Flatlanders to The Legendary Stardust Cowboy.
I can’t help but wonder if there’s not some direct connection between the spook lights of ’51 and the talent that rose out of Lubbock in the years to follow. Joe Ely suggests it in the movie. Terry Allen was at a drive-in theater and saw the darn things fly over. Jimmie Dale Gilmore says he saw something similar about 10 years later.
Lubbock Lights starts out with images of West Texas highways, the Lubbock skyline, lightning storms, tornadoes, even a grainy, black-and-white local TV weather report. There are a few moments of what apparently was an old documentary about Lubbock history that starts out with square-dancing cowboys.
The movie is rich with musical footage. You can see Joe Ely’s band when they were in their late-’70s/early-’80s prime. There’s a young Allen ripping the hell out of his song “The Lubbock Tornado.” You’ll meet C.B. Stubblefield — aka Stubb, the tall barbecue cook, restaurateur, and mentor to musicians — and hear him sing “Summertime” and talk about feeding the world. You’ll marvel at a shirtless Stardust Cowboy going insane onstage.
There’s a fascinating segment on Tommy X. Hancock (no relation to the Flatlanders’ Butch Hancock), a Lubbockite who started out in the ’40s as a fiddler in a Western swing band. He later went to San Francisco, dropped acid, and started a group called the Supernatural Family Band with his wife and kids. His music took just a slight turn to the weird — there’s a video of the group playing a bluegrass rock stomp and dancing around the ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru.
One of my favorite parts was an old black-and-white clip of the Flatlanders — Ely, Gilmore, and Butch Hancock — playing “The Stars in My Life” in the early ’70s at the Kerrville Folk Festival. As was true on the band’s first record, the Plan 9 From Outer Space musical saw is too loud, but in a weird way it adds to their ragged charm.
Ex-Talking Head David Byrne pops up in a woolly Russian hat saying that the Flatlanders were to Texas what the Velvet Underground was to New York. “It was a group that didn’t sell many records, but ... anyone who heard them started a band — or started writing songs,” Byrne said.
I’ve heard the story of Lubbock music history a million times. But this movie only makes it more enjoyable. Everyone interviewed seemed so sincerely positive and warm toward each other — and not in a smarmy, show-biz kind of way. The laughs sound real, the love is obvious, and the music is soul-deep.
Lubbock Lights is showing at The Film Center, 1616 St. Michael’s Drive, at 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17 and 18, and at 3 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19. Call 988-7414 for more details.
You won’t find this DVD at ufocasebook.com so look for it at lubbock-lights.com.
Also recommended:
Pedal Steal by Terry Allen. Unlike your typical “album,” this isn’t a collection of a bunch of songs. It’s a 35-minute stage piece commissioned by the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in the ’80s. Sugar Hill Records reissued it this month.
Songs and instrumental pieces weave in and out of spoken-word pieces eulogizing a steel guitarist named Wayne Gailey, who toured around Texas and New Mexico — and who did studio work with Rose Maddox and undoubtedly others — and died of a drug overdose in the late ’70s. (“Death by misadventures” was on the autopsy report.) Here he’s called “Billy the Boy.” Sometimes his myth seems to overlap with that of Billy the Kid.
Pedal Steal also is an irreverent tribute to 20th-century Route 66 culture. It’s all there: the drive-in theaters, the motels, the trucks, the beer joints, the trailer parks, the graveyards. There’s a recurring Navajo chant, strains of mariachi, lots of piano boogie, and “Sentimental Journey” performed by sax men Bobby Keyes and Don Caldwell. It’s also got a great overlooked Allen song, a sad and lovely tune called “Loneliness.”
The true magic of the West is summed up in the monologue about motels:
Hear music from the lights of Lubbock — including the complete Pedal Steal — tonight, Feb. 17, on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR-FM 90.7
February 17, 2006
At 9:10 p.m. on Aug. 25, 1951 ... The night was clear and dark. Suddenly all three men saw a number of lights race noiselessly across the sky, from horizon to horizon, in a few seconds. They gave the impression of about 30 luminous beads, arranged in a crescent shape. A few moments later another similar formation flashed across the night. ... A check the next day with the Air Force showed that no planes had been over the area at the time.
— From ufocasebook.com
When you Google the phrase “Lubbock Lights,” the above passage is what you find on the first site listed.
This mysterious phenomenon is mentioned in Lubbock Lights, a documentary by Amy Maner showing this weekend at the Santa Fe Film Center. But that’s not really what the film is about. Lubbock Lights deals with the amazing musicians who came out of that unassuming little West Texas city, from Buddy Holly to the Flatlanders to The Legendary Stardust Cowboy.
I can’t help but wonder if there’s not some direct connection between the spook lights of ’51 and the talent that rose out of Lubbock in the years to follow. Joe Ely suggests it in the movie. Terry Allen was at a drive-in theater and saw the darn things fly over. Jimmie Dale Gilmore says he saw something similar about 10 years later.
Lubbock Lights starts out with images of West Texas highways, the Lubbock skyline, lightning storms, tornadoes, even a grainy, black-and-white local TV weather report. There are a few moments of what apparently was an old documentary about Lubbock history that starts out with square-dancing cowboys.
The movie is rich with musical footage. You can see Joe Ely’s band when they were in their late-’70s/early-’80s prime. There’s a young Allen ripping the hell out of his song “The Lubbock Tornado.” You’ll meet C.B. Stubblefield — aka Stubb, the tall barbecue cook, restaurateur, and mentor to musicians — and hear him sing “Summertime” and talk about feeding the world. You’ll marvel at a shirtless Stardust Cowboy going insane onstage.
There’s a fascinating segment on Tommy X. Hancock (no relation to the Flatlanders’ Butch Hancock), a Lubbockite who started out in the ’40s as a fiddler in a Western swing band. He later went to San Francisco, dropped acid, and started a group called the Supernatural Family Band with his wife and kids. His music took just a slight turn to the weird — there’s a video of the group playing a bluegrass rock stomp and dancing around the ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru.
One of my favorite parts was an old black-and-white clip of the Flatlanders — Ely, Gilmore, and Butch Hancock — playing “The Stars in My Life” in the early ’70s at the Kerrville Folk Festival. As was true on the band’s first record, the Plan 9 From Outer Space musical saw is too loud, but in a weird way it adds to their ragged charm.
Ex-Talking Head David Byrne pops up in a woolly Russian hat saying that the Flatlanders were to Texas what the Velvet Underground was to New York. “It was a group that didn’t sell many records, but ... anyone who heard them started a band — or started writing songs,” Byrne said.
I’ve heard the story of Lubbock music history a million times. But this movie only makes it more enjoyable. Everyone interviewed seemed so sincerely positive and warm toward each other — and not in a smarmy, show-biz kind of way. The laughs sound real, the love is obvious, and the music is soul-deep.
Lubbock Lights is showing at The Film Center, 1616 St. Michael’s Drive, at 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17 and 18, and at 3 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19. Call 988-7414 for more details.
You won’t find this DVD at ufocasebook.com so look for it at lubbock-lights.com.
Also recommended:
Pedal Steal by Terry Allen. Unlike your typical “album,” this isn’t a collection of a bunch of songs. It’s a 35-minute stage piece commissioned by the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in the ’80s. Sugar Hill Records reissued it this month.
Songs and instrumental pieces weave in and out of spoken-word pieces eulogizing a steel guitarist named Wayne Gailey, who toured around Texas and New Mexico — and who did studio work with Rose Maddox and undoubtedly others — and died of a drug overdose in the late ’70s. (“Death by misadventures” was on the autopsy report.) Here he’s called “Billy the Boy.” Sometimes his myth seems to overlap with that of Billy the Kid.
Pedal Steal also is an irreverent tribute to 20th-century Route 66 culture. It’s all there: the drive-in theaters, the motels, the trucks, the beer joints, the trailer parks, the graveyards. There’s a recurring Navajo chant, strains of mariachi, lots of piano boogie, and “Sentimental Journey” performed by sax men Bobby Keyes and Don Caldwell. It’s also got a great overlooked Allen song, a sad and lovely tune called “Loneliness.”
The true magic of the West is summed up in the monologue about motels:
"Out west they’re always raisin’ holy hell, kickin’ in walls, shootin’ guns, havin’ fights and wild parties. Somebody’s always screamin’ bloody murder or [sexual intercoursing] their brains out in the room next door. Back east motels are different. You never hear nothin’, not a peep ... course they can kill your ass in either place. It’s just a lot more fun out west.”If you’re only interested in the music, Allen distilled most of the songs from Pedal Steal onto a nine-minute medley on his 1999 Salivation album. But there you won’t hear about the spooky man in the Moriarty bar who warns of “The Creature” or Billy’s batty mom or the other lonesome ghosts of Pedal Steal.
Hear music from the lights of Lubbock — including the complete Pedal Steal — tonight, Feb. 17, on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR-FM 90.7
Thursday, February 16, 2006
LEGISLATURE HEADING TOWARD OBLIVION
Just when I needed it the most, my New Mexican Legislature blog is having some kind of technical problem. This started sometime around 1 a.m. last night, which helped lead to my decision to go home. I lost one large post and so far the paper's site has caused both my home and work computers clog up.Kind of like House of Representatives. It's been dominated by Filibuster Foley most the morning. Lots of things still out -- minimum wage, tax cuts, medical marijuana -- with less than an hour left.
There's a funny Xerox floating around the Capitol -- an Isletta Casino boxing ad with the faces of Gov. Bill Richardson and a famous cartoon character pasted over the boxers. The caption: "Porky Pig vs. the Flabby King."
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: IF I RULED THE LEGISLATURE
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 16, 2006
Earlier this week, I had to explain to editors several times one of the strange quirks of the Legislature, the “mirror bill” — how if the Senate passes a Senate bill and the House passes an identical House bill, neither bill becomes law unless the governor signs a bill passed by both chambers.
“It’s not the way I would have set it up,” I said during one of these conversations.
That got me to thinking. There’s lots of things about the Legislature I’d have set up differently.
Not that there’s a chance of instituting any drastic change in the legislative branch. These guys refuse to open conference committees and vote down bills that would have required telling the public more about their campaign contributors. They’re not about to do anything that would seriously change business as usual at the Roundhouse.
As a pure exercise in fantasy, here are some changes I’d make if I could magically restructure the Legislature:
* A unicameral Legislature: Why does there have to be two chambers in the Legislature? The current rationale for having two houses in Congress is that smaller states get a bigger voice in the Senate. But that’s not applicable with the states. Due to the one-man/one-vote doctrine, all districts in a state House or state Senate must have roughly the same population.
Some say the state Senate is designed to be a more “deliberative” body where members, who only have to run every four years (instead of two years like the House), can take a more long-sighted view.
You have to wonder if anyone who says that has actually witnessed a Senate debate.
Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature. Minnesota, at the urging of former Gov. Jesse Ventura, considered it a few years ago but didn’t take the plunge. Currently, there’s a group called Unicameral Michigan working to force a vote on a state constitutional amendment that would abolish the Michigan state Senate.
Advocates say a unicameral legislature creates more transparency in government, eliminates legislative redundancy and saves taxpayer money.
Having two chambers creates more obstacles for bills, providing more opportunity to waste time to run out the clock and for using other procedural tricks to kill bills.
Granted, a lot of bills deserve to be killed. But if that’s the case, vote them down.
I would create one house with a nice, even 50 districts. Lots of House and Senate members could end up running against each other, a potential political bloodbath that would be fun to watch.
And with a unicameral legislature, the Senate chambers could be turned into a permanent large committee room for those really big issues that attract large crowds. (Unless, of course, the remaining lawmakers would want to turn it into a cockfighting pit.)
You wouldn’t have to open conference committees because there would be no need for conference committees. And I’d never have to explain “mirror bills” to an editor again.
* Limit on bills: I would put a cap on how many bills a legislator could introduce in a session. I’m not sure what number I’d impose, but something has to be done to cut down on the clutter of bills that seems to grow every year.
In this year’s 30-day session, there were nearly 900 bills in the House and more than 750 in the Senate. Most of these never got anywhere, and truth is, a good many really were never intended to go anywhere.
* Resolve to eliminate resolutions: I’d eliminate all unnecessary resolutions and memorials. Proposed constitutional amendments would still be allowed, and I suppose some of the studies mandated by memorials are justified.
And maybe the Legislature should have one more chance to pick a state cowboy song — but that’s it.
Seriously, there’s no reason legislators should be spending precious chunks of time debating unbinding memorials on quail hunting season (as the Senate did Monday night) while serious issues are waiting to be heard. If legislators want to honor some New Mexico athlete or spelling-bee winner or send condolences to the family of a prominent state resident who has died, they can send a card.
* Don’t share the love: One of the biggest wastes of time in a floor session is when some former legislator or other former state official is up for confirmation to some board or commission. Though I didn’t catch this happening during this session, all too often, the confirmation turns into an hourlong love fest with each lawmaker showering some former colleague with flowery praise.
That’s nice. But at the end of the session when lawmakers throw up their hands and say, “Sorry, we just ran out time” to consider serious bills, it’s hard not to think back to the day when they spent hours heaping sweet soliloquies onto some former colleague who was tossed out by the voters years before.
If I ruled the Legislature, the floor “debate” over confirmations would be limited to five minutes, unless there was actual opposition to the appointment.
* But share the food: On many days during the session, some community chamber of commerce or other well-meaning group will prepare lunch or dinner for lawmakers. That’s nice.
But it violates a basic principle we all should have learned in elementary school: Don’t bring anything unless there’s enough to share.
So if I were in charge, nobody could bring food for the legislators unless they share it with everyone else in the Roundhouse. State farm and ranch organizations do this every year, serving free barbecue and ice cream in the Rotunda. (Thanks, guys. The food was great Tuesday.)
February 16, 2006
Earlier this week, I had to explain to editors several times one of the strange quirks of the Legislature, the “mirror bill” — how if the Senate passes a Senate bill and the House passes an identical House bill, neither bill becomes law unless the governor signs a bill passed by both chambers.
“It’s not the way I would have set it up,” I said during one of these conversations.
That got me to thinking. There’s lots of things about the Legislature I’d have set up differently.
Not that there’s a chance of instituting any drastic change in the legislative branch. These guys refuse to open conference committees and vote down bills that would have required telling the public more about their campaign contributors. They’re not about to do anything that would seriously change business as usual at the Roundhouse.
As a pure exercise in fantasy, here are some changes I’d make if I could magically restructure the Legislature:
* A unicameral Legislature: Why does there have to be two chambers in the Legislature? The current rationale for having two houses in Congress is that smaller states get a bigger voice in the Senate. But that’s not applicable with the states. Due to the one-man/one-vote doctrine, all districts in a state House or state Senate must have roughly the same population.
Some say the state Senate is designed to be a more “deliberative” body where members, who only have to run every four years (instead of two years like the House), can take a more long-sighted view.
You have to wonder if anyone who says that has actually witnessed a Senate debate.
Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature. Minnesota, at the urging of former Gov. Jesse Ventura, considered it a few years ago but didn’t take the plunge. Currently, there’s a group called Unicameral Michigan working to force a vote on a state constitutional amendment that would abolish the Michigan state Senate.
Advocates say a unicameral legislature creates more transparency in government, eliminates legislative redundancy and saves taxpayer money.
Having two chambers creates more obstacles for bills, providing more opportunity to waste time to run out the clock and for using other procedural tricks to kill bills.
Granted, a lot of bills deserve to be killed. But if that’s the case, vote them down.
I would create one house with a nice, even 50 districts. Lots of House and Senate members could end up running against each other, a potential political bloodbath that would be fun to watch.
And with a unicameral legislature, the Senate chambers could be turned into a permanent large committee room for those really big issues that attract large crowds. (Unless, of course, the remaining lawmakers would want to turn it into a cockfighting pit.)
You wouldn’t have to open conference committees because there would be no need for conference committees. And I’d never have to explain “mirror bills” to an editor again.
* Limit on bills: I would put a cap on how many bills a legislator could introduce in a session. I’m not sure what number I’d impose, but something has to be done to cut down on the clutter of bills that seems to grow every year.
In this year’s 30-day session, there were nearly 900 bills in the House and more than 750 in the Senate. Most of these never got anywhere, and truth is, a good many really were never intended to go anywhere.
* Resolve to eliminate resolutions: I’d eliminate all unnecessary resolutions and memorials. Proposed constitutional amendments would still be allowed, and I suppose some of the studies mandated by memorials are justified.
And maybe the Legislature should have one more chance to pick a state cowboy song — but that’s it.
Seriously, there’s no reason legislators should be spending precious chunks of time debating unbinding memorials on quail hunting season (as the Senate did Monday night) while serious issues are waiting to be heard. If legislators want to honor some New Mexico athlete or spelling-bee winner or send condolences to the family of a prominent state resident who has died, they can send a card.
* Don’t share the love: One of the biggest wastes of time in a floor session is when some former legislator or other former state official is up for confirmation to some board or commission. Though I didn’t catch this happening during this session, all too often, the confirmation turns into an hourlong love fest with each lawmaker showering some former colleague with flowery praise.
That’s nice. But at the end of the session when lawmakers throw up their hands and say, “Sorry, we just ran out time” to consider serious bills, it’s hard not to think back to the day when they spent hours heaping sweet soliloquies onto some former colleague who was tossed out by the voters years before.
If I ruled the Legislature, the floor “debate” over confirmations would be limited to five minutes, unless there was actual opposition to the appointment.
* But share the food: On many days during the session, some community chamber of commerce or other well-meaning group will prepare lunch or dinner for lawmakers. That’s nice.
But it violates a basic principle we all should have learned in elementary school: Don’t bring anything unless there’s enough to share.
So if I were in charge, nobody could bring food for the legislators unless they share it with everyone else in the Roundhouse. State farm and ranch organizations do this every year, serving free barbecue and ice cream in the Rotunda. (Thanks, guys. The food was great Tuesday.)
Monday, February 13, 2006
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, February 12, 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
Bits and Pieces by Joan Jett
Gluey Brothers Creep by The Gluey Brothers
Hiding All the Way by Nick Cave
Don't Crowd Your Mind by Lorette Velvette
Already Forgotten by The Grabs
Porcupine People by Kevin Coyne
Chlorophorm by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Women is Losers by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Early Today and Later That Night by Greg Dulli
Eric's Trip by Sonic Youth
American Music by The Violent Femmes
Tornado at Rest by Concrete Blonde
Mad Bomber by The Mighty Sparrow
Stop the Violence by Wesley Willis
MY MORNING JACKET SET
What a Wonderful Man
Mahgeetah
Dancefloorz
Gideon
The Bear
One Big Holiday
Goodnight Josephine by The Tragically Hip
Room Full of Mirrors by Jimi Hendrix
Bastard by The Mekons
There is a Ghost by Marianne Faithful
Green Eyes by Mark Eitzel
In the Wilderness by Mercury Rev
Favorite Hour by Elvis Costello
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
Bits and Pieces by Joan Jett
Gluey Brothers Creep by The Gluey Brothers
Hiding All the Way by Nick Cave
Don't Crowd Your Mind by Lorette Velvette
Already Forgotten by The Grabs
Porcupine People by Kevin Coyne
Chlorophorm by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Women is Losers by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Early Today and Later That Night by Greg Dulli
Eric's Trip by Sonic Youth
American Music by The Violent Femmes
Tornado at Rest by Concrete Blonde
Mad Bomber by The Mighty Sparrow
Stop the Violence by Wesley Willis
MY MORNING JACKET SET
What a Wonderful Man
Mahgeetah
Dancefloorz
Gideon
The Bear
One Big Holiday
Goodnight Josephine by The Tragically Hip
Room Full of Mirrors by Jimi Hendrix
Bastard by The Mekons
There is a Ghost by Marianne Faithful
Green Eyes by Mark Eitzel
In the Wilderness by Mercury Rev
Favorite Hour by Elvis Costello
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Sunday, February 12, 2006
NM's ALT-COUNTRY HEROS IN NM MAG
My story about alternative country artists who live in New Mexico is in the March issue of New Mexico Magazine, which currently is on the stands.
In it, I profile Terry Allen, The Handsome Family and Joe West.
Sorry, I don't think it will be online. You'll have to go out and buy a copy.
Speaking of Terry, the movie Lubbock Lights, which is about all the crazy musicians to come out of that town will be playing at the Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe this weekend. It's not on the Web site yet, but I was told by Boo Boo Bowman himself.
In it, I profile Terry Allen, The Handsome Family and Joe West.
Sorry, I don't think it will be online. You'll have to go out and buy a copy.
Speaking of Terry, the movie Lubbock Lights, which is about all the crazy musicians to come out of that town will be playing at the Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe this weekend. It's not on the Web site yet, but I was told by Boo Boo Bowman himself.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, February 10, 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
Lookout Mountain by Drive-By Truckers
Dancing With the Women at the Bar by Whiskeytown
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenberg
Shanty by The Mekons
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat by Split Lip Rayfield
Sal Paradise by Dashboard Saviors
Old Time Religion by Marley's Ghost
Is Your Innerworld Like Your Outerworld by Oneil Howes
Trouble with a Capital T by Marshall Chapman
Baby's in Black by Destiny's Whores
Velvet and Steel by Jessi Colter
Take Me to the Country by James Talley
Hillbilly Hula Girl by Junior Brown
Bluebird Wine by Rodney Crowell with Steve Earle & Steve Young
Christine's Tune by The Flying Burrito Brothers
Act Naturally by Camper Van Beethoven
Pick and Roll by The Gourds
Pardon This Coffin by Jon Rauhouse
We're All Gonna Die Someday by Kasey Chambers
No Way Out But Down by Graham Lindsey
Dead Man's Will by Iron and Wine & Calexico
U.S. of Generica Blues by Danny Santos
Seeds and Candy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Wild Side of Life by Hank Thompson
Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride
Dance of Death by Calexico
Pretty Boy Floyd/Stoney Point by The Duhks
Oooh Love by Blaze Foley
Another Place I Don't Belong by Big Al Anderson
Behind That Locked Door by My Morning Jacket
It's All in the Game by Bobby Bare
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
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Lookout Mountain by Drive-By Truckers
Dancing With the Women at the Bar by Whiskeytown
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenberg
Shanty by The Mekons
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat by Split Lip Rayfield
Sal Paradise by Dashboard Saviors
Old Time Religion by Marley's Ghost
Is Your Innerworld Like Your Outerworld by Oneil Howes
Trouble with a Capital T by Marshall Chapman
Baby's in Black by Destiny's Whores
Velvet and Steel by Jessi Colter
Take Me to the Country by James Talley
Hillbilly Hula Girl by Junior Brown
Bluebird Wine by Rodney Crowell with Steve Earle & Steve Young
Christine's Tune by The Flying Burrito Brothers
Act Naturally by Camper Van Beethoven
Pick and Roll by The Gourds
Pardon This Coffin by Jon Rauhouse
We're All Gonna Die Someday by Kasey Chambers
No Way Out But Down by Graham Lindsey
Dead Man's Will by Iron and Wine & Calexico
U.S. of Generica Blues by Danny Santos
Seeds and Candy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Wild Side of Life by Hank Thompson
Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride
Dance of Death by Calexico
Pretty Boy Floyd/Stoney Point by The Duhks
Oooh Love by Blaze Foley
Another Place I Don't Belong by Big Al Anderson
Behind That Locked Door by My Morning Jacket
It's All in the Game by Bobby Bare
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, February 10, 2006
TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: A RECENT MUSIC OBSESSION
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 10, 2006
OK, I’ve got to admit that I’m a Stevie-come-lately to My Morning Jacket.
Z, the latest album by this Louisville, Ky., band, released late last year, made it to critics’ top-10 lists all over this great land of ours, ranking 10th in the recently published 2005 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics’ Poll.
But I didn’t start getting into them until a few weeks ago, when out of curiosity I downloaded an old live show from eMusic. (I couldn’t resist. It was recorded Aug. 16, 2002, the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, and it starts out with a mournful version of “Suspicious Minds.”)
I was hooked. I got copies of Z and It Still Moves (another critics’ fave that I basically ignored in 2003 despite the cool cover depicting a stuffed bear). The band started growing on me. As I said here last week, one of my favorite tunes on the recent Bloodshot compilation (For a Decade of Sin) was Jacket’s mysterious country weeper “Behind That Locked Door.”
Next thing I knew I was obsessed, a 52-year-old fanboy, downloading live concerts from the Live Music Archive, where they’ve got 55 shows, including a short one from 1999, very early in their career. Right now I’m loving the Nov. 23, 2005, show from Louisville.
The main voice behind Jacket is Jim James. (Gotta wonder if that’s his real name. Jimmy James was an early stage name for one James Marshall Hendrix. Could someone have actually named a baby James James?) His high-pitched voice gives the band much of its texture.
Texture, in fact, is one of the first words that come to mind when trying to describe My Morning Jacket. Their music is based more on melody than riffage. Often James’ melodies make unexpected turns. Instrumentally, songs often turn into fierce battles between guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboard man Bo Koster (both of whom joined Jacket in 2004).
Some have tried to define them as “alt country” — and in fact that steel guitar and honky piano sure sound pretty on Z’s “Knot Comes Loose.” Others have compared them to latter-day psychedelic bands like the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Check out the alien synth jam that rises from the guitar thunder at the end of “It Beats 4 U.” But to get all metaphysical on you, while Mercury Rev’s main element is Air, My Morning Jacket is of the Earth. This band’s sound is thick and heavy, and as unique as it is, there’s something homey and familiar about it.
Other musical ingredients are detectable on Z. Neil Young (Crazy Horse model) definitely is an influence. You can hear echoes of Bono in James’ howl on the choruses of “Gideon” and touches of Brian Wilson’s sweet insanity (though that was more pronounced on It Still Moves). Reggae beats sneak in at various spots. There’s a slightly altered “Hawaii Five-0” riff on “Off the Record,” a twisted nod to doo-wop on “Wordless Chorus,” and a little bit of happy Meatloaf anthem pop in “What a Wonderful Man.” (I won’t even try to describe that bizarre falsetto “YEAH!” at the end of this song.)
The centerpiece of Z is a weird carnival waltz called “Into the Woods.” Bird chatter and insect chirping introduce the calliope-like keyboards that bounce in. James’ voice sounds world-weary as he begins spouting his black-humor lyrics: “A kitten on fire/A baby in the blender/Both sound as sweet as a night of surrender.”
I’ve still got some catching up to do. I haven’t heard Jacket’s first two albums (The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn). Also a little label called Darla has released a couple of rarity albums with lots of James originals plus covers of folks ranging from Hank Williams to Jefferson Airplane to the Pet Shop Boys. There’s even a My Morning Jacket Christmas EP .
This could be a long, happy relationship.
Also recommended
*Amber Headlights by Greg Dulli. This nine-song EP, clocking in at less than 35 minutes, sounds more like the Afghan Whigs than Dulli has in years. While his current band, the Twilight Singers, explores more layered, dreamier sounds, most of these songs offer that trademark angsty, Whigsy guitar — descended as much from ’70s blaxploitation soundtracks as punk/metal.
There’s a good reason this sounds closer to his old band. It originally was recorded back in 2001, but for reasons I’m not sure of only saw the light of day late last year. Some riffs and melodies from Amber Headlights have been reworked into other tunes on Twilight Singer albums.
Longtime Dulli fans surely will find similarities between this effort and Black Love, the Whigs’ 1996 masterpiece. As is often the case, the narrator of these songs is a shadowy cad, almost like a Steely Dan character, trying to lure young naked prey with slick talk and cocaine.
“Your weakness is my sweetness,” he sings with Petra Haden in an almost-mocking falsetto in “Pussywillow,” though he also sings, “sweetness is my weakness.”
“Used to feel love, now I wanna hurt you/real bad/real slow,” he confesses as the Shaft-like guitar starts to boil in “Early Today (and Later That Night).”
“This world is wicked/it’s beautiful,” he sings on “Wicked.”
But in the last song, “Get the Wheel,” Dulli, alone at a piano, sounds as if he’s gone soft on a skirt: “Last night was all right,” he sings in his cool rasp. “I wanna see you again.”
And you know she’ll be back.
February 10, 2006
OK, I’ve got to admit that I’m a Stevie-come-lately to My Morning Jacket.
Z, the latest album by this Louisville, Ky., band, released late last year, made it to critics’ top-10 lists all over this great land of ours, ranking 10th in the recently published 2005 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics’ Poll.
But I didn’t start getting into them until a few weeks ago, when out of curiosity I downloaded an old live show from eMusic. (I couldn’t resist. It was recorded Aug. 16, 2002, the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, and it starts out with a mournful version of “Suspicious Minds.”)
I was hooked. I got copies of Z and It Still Moves (another critics’ fave that I basically ignored in 2003 despite the cool cover depicting a stuffed bear). The band started growing on me. As I said here last week, one of my favorite tunes on the recent Bloodshot compilation (For a Decade of Sin) was Jacket’s mysterious country weeper “Behind That Locked Door.”
Next thing I knew I was obsessed, a 52-year-old fanboy, downloading live concerts from the Live Music Archive, where they’ve got 55 shows, including a short one from 1999, very early in their career. Right now I’m loving the Nov. 23, 2005, show from Louisville.
The main voice behind Jacket is Jim James. (Gotta wonder if that’s his real name. Jimmy James was an early stage name for one James Marshall Hendrix. Could someone have actually named a baby James James?) His high-pitched voice gives the band much of its texture.
Texture, in fact, is one of the first words that come to mind when trying to describe My Morning Jacket. Their music is based more on melody than riffage. Often James’ melodies make unexpected turns. Instrumentally, songs often turn into fierce battles between guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboard man Bo Koster (both of whom joined Jacket in 2004).
Some have tried to define them as “alt country” — and in fact that steel guitar and honky piano sure sound pretty on Z’s “Knot Comes Loose.” Others have compared them to latter-day psychedelic bands like the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Check out the alien synth jam that rises from the guitar thunder at the end of “It Beats 4 U.” But to get all metaphysical on you, while Mercury Rev’s main element is Air, My Morning Jacket is of the Earth. This band’s sound is thick and heavy, and as unique as it is, there’s something homey and familiar about it.
Other musical ingredients are detectable on Z. Neil Young (Crazy Horse model) definitely is an influence. You can hear echoes of Bono in James’ howl on the choruses of “Gideon” and touches of Brian Wilson’s sweet insanity (though that was more pronounced on It Still Moves). Reggae beats sneak in at various spots. There’s a slightly altered “Hawaii Five-0” riff on “Off the Record,” a twisted nod to doo-wop on “Wordless Chorus,” and a little bit of happy Meatloaf anthem pop in “What a Wonderful Man.” (I won’t even try to describe that bizarre falsetto “YEAH!” at the end of this song.)
The centerpiece of Z is a weird carnival waltz called “Into the Woods.” Bird chatter and insect chirping introduce the calliope-like keyboards that bounce in. James’ voice sounds world-weary as he begins spouting his black-humor lyrics: “A kitten on fire/A baby in the blender/Both sound as sweet as a night of surrender.”
I’ve still got some catching up to do. I haven’t heard Jacket’s first two albums (The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn). Also a little label called Darla has released a couple of rarity albums with lots of James originals plus covers of folks ranging from Hank Williams to Jefferson Airplane to the Pet Shop Boys. There’s even a My Morning Jacket Christmas EP .
This could be a long, happy relationship.
Also recommended
*Amber Headlights by Greg Dulli. This nine-song EP, clocking in at less than 35 minutes, sounds more like the Afghan Whigs than Dulli has in years. While his current band, the Twilight Singers, explores more layered, dreamier sounds, most of these songs offer that trademark angsty, Whigsy guitar — descended as much from ’70s blaxploitation soundtracks as punk/metal.
There’s a good reason this sounds closer to his old band. It originally was recorded back in 2001, but for reasons I’m not sure of only saw the light of day late last year. Some riffs and melodies from Amber Headlights have been reworked into other tunes on Twilight Singer albums.
Longtime Dulli fans surely will find similarities between this effort and Black Love, the Whigs’ 1996 masterpiece. As is often the case, the narrator of these songs is a shadowy cad, almost like a Steely Dan character, trying to lure young naked prey with slick talk and cocaine.
“Your weakness is my sweetness,” he sings with Petra Haden in an almost-mocking falsetto in “Pussywillow,” though he also sings, “sweetness is my weakness.”
“Used to feel love, now I wanna hurt you/real bad/real slow,” he confesses as the Shaft-like guitar starts to boil in “Early Today (and Later That Night).”
“This world is wicked/it’s beautiful,” he sings on “Wicked.”
But in the last song, “Get the Wheel,” Dulli, alone at a piano, sounds as if he’s gone soft on a skirt: “Last night was all right,” he sings in his cool rasp. “I wanna see you again.”
And you know she’ll be back.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: HEATHER & NSA
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 9, 2006
Congresswoman Heather Wilson made national headlines this week when she broke with the White House and said she had “serious concerns” about the National Security Agency’s warrantees wiretaps of American citizens and wanted a full investigation.
On Wednesday, President Bush reversed his position and provided the House Intelligence Committee with highly classified information about the operations. (Here's Wilson's latest statement on the issue.)
The New York Times, in a Wednesday editorial about the NSA wiretaps, called Wilson’s statement “one hopeful sign of nonpartisan sanity” and said, “With Karl Rove reported to be threatening Election Day revenge against anyone who breaks ranks on this issue, Ms. Wilson deserves support for a principled stand.”
But someone not lining up to support Wilson is her re-election opponent, state Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who in a news release said Wilson’s move is nothing more than an election-year effort to separate herself from the administration.
“Rep. Wilson could have stood up to this illegal program sooner,” Madrid said. “As chairwoman of House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, Wilson had direct oversight of this program, and she did nothing. She could have — and should have — taken action sooner.”
Madrid also blasted Wilson for voting in 2003 against repealing the “sneak-and-peek” searches on Americans allowed in the Patriot Act.
In addition to Madrid’s criticisms, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee joined in.
“If Heather Wilson is trying to raise her profile by publicly taking on the Republican establishment, it must be an election year,” DCCC regional spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said in an e-mail. “But when push comes to shove, she never quite gets around to putting her vote where her mouth is.”
Said Bedingfield: “She did this exact same song and dance with Abu Ghraib in 2004 and then voted against a congressional investigation.”
Wilson in 2002 made several statements against the abuse in that Iraqi prison, calling for open discussions on the issue.
However, a month before, Wilson voted against a move to establish a select committee to investigate the treatment of detainees in the war on terror — including allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners. That measure was defeated in the House with all Republicans voting no.
Wilson spokesman Enrique Knell said Wednesday that Wilson wouldn’t comment on the Madrid and DCCC statements.
Singing cowboys: We’ve got the official state song, "Oh Fair New Mexico," written by Elizabeth Garrett (the daughter of Sheriff Pat) and the official translated version of the state song, "Asi Es Nuevo Mexico," by Amadeo Lucero. There’s the official state bilingual song, "New Mexico Mi Lindo Nuevo Mexico," by Pablo Mares, and the official state ballad, "The Land of Enchantment," by former Taos resident Michael Martin Murphey.
So how about a state cowboy song? Rep. Gloria Vaughn, R-Alamogordo, has one in mind — one simply called New Mexico, written by R.D. Blankenship and Calvin Boles, now deceased. The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee is scheduled to hear Vaughn’s HB232 today.
But in the Legislature’s apparent quest to proclaim enough state songs to make a box set, it’s been hard to settle on a state cowboy song.
One year in the 1990s, several songs competed for that distinction. None of them made it through the Legislature.
And in 2001, Rep. Dub Williams, R-Glencoe, tried to pass a bill to declare an official “state western song” — I think that’s pretty close to a “cowboy” song — called "Song For New Mexico," by James Hobbs of Capitan.
The soft-spoken Williams was surprised that year when he got an analysis of his bill from the Legislative Council, declaring the song to be “sexist, racist and religiously unacceptable.” For one thing, it referred to “cowboys” instead of “cowpeople.” (I’m not joking.) The bill passed the House that year but died in the Senate.
One of the co-authors of the latest would-be state cowboy song was something of an icon for popular music in southeastern New Mexico in the postwar era.
Calvin Boles, who died in 2004, started the Yucca record company in Alamogordo in 1958, according to an obituary in The Alamogordo Daily Times (and reprinted in hillbilly-music.com ) The company released 237 singles, including early work by an El Paso kid named Bobby Fuller, who later would have a national hit with "I Fought the Law." Boles and his wife/bass player, Betty, recorded eight albums with their band The Rocket City Playboys.
Betty Boles contacted Vaughn about the song, the lawmaker said.
The committee will hear a cassette tape of the song, sung by Calvin Boles. As a music critic and a connoisseur of old-time country music, I say they’re in for a treat. It’s a cowboy waltz with a strong steel guitar. Boles had a voice similar to that of Ernest Tubb.
Vaughn said Wednesday that she hasn’t heard any criticism of the words to New Mexico. It does use “cowboy” instead of “cowperson,” but it doesn’t have any lyrics about “a pretty, dark-eyed señorita,” which triggered the political-correctness police in 2001.
I guess someone could make something of the line, “Where missiles are flying, Spanish mission bells toll.” But come on; Boles was from Rocket City.
February 9, 2006
Congresswoman Heather Wilson made national headlines this week when she broke with the White House and said she had “serious concerns” about the National Security Agency’s warrantees wiretaps of American citizens and wanted a full investigation.
On Wednesday, President Bush reversed his position and provided the House Intelligence Committee with highly classified information about the operations. (Here's Wilson's latest statement on the issue.)
The New York Times, in a Wednesday editorial about the NSA wiretaps, called Wilson’s statement “one hopeful sign of nonpartisan sanity” and said, “With Karl Rove reported to be threatening Election Day revenge against anyone who breaks ranks on this issue, Ms. Wilson deserves support for a principled stand.”
But someone not lining up to support Wilson is her re-election opponent, state Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who in a news release said Wilson’s move is nothing more than an election-year effort to separate herself from the administration.
“Rep. Wilson could have stood up to this illegal program sooner,” Madrid said. “As chairwoman of House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, Wilson had direct oversight of this program, and she did nothing. She could have — and should have — taken action sooner.”
Madrid also blasted Wilson for voting in 2003 against repealing the “sneak-and-peek” searches on Americans allowed in the Patriot Act.
In addition to Madrid’s criticisms, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee joined in.
“If Heather Wilson is trying to raise her profile by publicly taking on the Republican establishment, it must be an election year,” DCCC regional spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said in an e-mail. “But when push comes to shove, she never quite gets around to putting her vote where her mouth is.”
Said Bedingfield: “She did this exact same song and dance with Abu Ghraib in 2004 and then voted against a congressional investigation.”
Wilson in 2002 made several statements against the abuse in that Iraqi prison, calling for open discussions on the issue.
However, a month before, Wilson voted against a move to establish a select committee to investigate the treatment of detainees in the war on terror — including allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners. That measure was defeated in the House with all Republicans voting no.
Wilson spokesman Enrique Knell said Wednesday that Wilson wouldn’t comment on the Madrid and DCCC statements.
Singing cowboys: We’ve got the official state song, "Oh Fair New Mexico," written by Elizabeth Garrett (the daughter of Sheriff Pat) and the official translated version of the state song, "Asi Es Nuevo Mexico," by Amadeo Lucero. There’s the official state bilingual song, "New Mexico Mi Lindo Nuevo Mexico," by Pablo Mares, and the official state ballad, "The Land of Enchantment," by former Taos resident Michael Martin Murphey.
So how about a state cowboy song? Rep. Gloria Vaughn, R-Alamogordo, has one in mind — one simply called New Mexico, written by R.D. Blankenship and Calvin Boles, now deceased. The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee is scheduled to hear Vaughn’s HB232 today.
But in the Legislature’s apparent quest to proclaim enough state songs to make a box set, it’s been hard to settle on a state cowboy song.
One year in the 1990s, several songs competed for that distinction. None of them made it through the Legislature.
And in 2001, Rep. Dub Williams, R-Glencoe, tried to pass a bill to declare an official “state western song” — I think that’s pretty close to a “cowboy” song — called "Song For New Mexico," by James Hobbs of Capitan.
The soft-spoken Williams was surprised that year when he got an analysis of his bill from the Legislative Council, declaring the song to be “sexist, racist and religiously unacceptable.” For one thing, it referred to “cowboys” instead of “cowpeople.” (I’m not joking.) The bill passed the House that year but died in the Senate.
One of the co-authors of the latest would-be state cowboy song was something of an icon for popular music in southeastern New Mexico in the postwar era.
Calvin Boles, who died in 2004, started the Yucca record company in Alamogordo in 1958, according to an obituary in The Alamogordo Daily Times (and reprinted in hillbilly-music.com ) The company released 237 singles, including early work by an El Paso kid named Bobby Fuller, who later would have a national hit with "I Fought the Law." Boles and his wife/bass player, Betty, recorded eight albums with their band The Rocket City Playboys.
Betty Boles contacted Vaughn about the song, the lawmaker said.
The committee will hear a cassette tape of the song, sung by Calvin Boles. As a music critic and a connoisseur of old-time country music, I say they’re in for a treat. It’s a cowboy waltz with a strong steel guitar. Boles had a voice similar to that of Ernest Tubb.
Vaughn said Wednesday that she hasn’t heard any criticism of the words to New Mexico. It does use “cowboy” instead of “cowperson,” but it doesn’t have any lyrics about “a pretty, dark-eyed señorita,” which triggered the political-correctness police in 2001.
I guess someone could make something of the line, “Where missiles are flying, Spanish mission bells toll.” But come on; Boles was from Rocket City.
THOSE LONG-HAIRED BOYS FROM ENGLAND
Thanks to my internet buddy Phil from North Carolina who reminded me that 42 years ago this week, The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
February 9, 1964.
I was in 5th grade.
My first reaction was surprise that they were white. They'd been playing "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" a lot on WKY in OKC and I just assumed they were a black R&B band.
When they did "All My Loving," I knew in my heart they were immortal.
(Anyone remember the guy who did card tricks who followed them on Ed Sullivan? I didn't either until I bought the DVD a couple of years ago. His name was Fred Kaps. Poor bastard!)
At school the next day the Beatles were all anyone talked about.
My grandfather became extremely fascinated with them. For the next few months any time a friend would come over he's say "What do you think of those long-haired boys from England?"
I was a little disappointed though the next week when "I Want to Hold Your Hand" knocked The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" off the number one spot on WKY's Top 50. The Trashmen were shortchanged, just like the card-trick guy.
Monday, February 06, 2006
TENT ROCKS
Helen left her photos of our Saturday hike at Tent Rocks National Monument on my computer, so I'll post a few here.
This was my first time there. Anton's too. We were all impressed. It's so otherwordly -- "the landscape of Pluto" is what I kept saying. (The "blue" photo below reminds me of a Van Gogh painting.) Hard to believe it's so close to Santa Fe (just down the road near Cochiti Pueblo.)
The hike was fairly easy too, which is good because I'm so out of shape. At some points though you have to pass through very narrow spaces between the rock walls. It's definitely not for the claustrophobic.
(Helen took the two top photos. A fellow hiker snapped the one below.)
LET'S SPEND SOME TIME TOGETHER
Boy, we've sure come a long way since nearly 40 years when Ed Sullivan made The Rolling Stones change the lyrics to "Let's Spend the Night Together."
Thank the almighty Lord Jesus that the censors at ABC (or was it the NFL?) were diligent last night in protecting America's youth from the foul-mouthed, lech Mick Jagger, who gladly would have exposed THE CHILDREN to sexual innuendos in the songs he sang at The Super Bowl.
From the Associated Press:
In "Start Me Up," the show's editors silenced one word, a reference to a woman's sexual sway over a dead man. The lyrics for "Rough Justice" included a synonym for rooster that the network also deemed worth cutting out.Read the whole account HERE.
Despite those artless cuts (I thought my satellite dish was messing up when the sound cut out), I thought The Stones did a fine job. I especially liked the grungy version of "Satisfaction." Unlike the AP guy, I appreciated the "ragged" quality of their performance. It seemed like real rock 'n' roll to me.
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, February 5, 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
Dropkick Me Jesus by Bobby Bare
Stupid Girl by The Rolling Stones
Love Your Money by Daisy Chainsaw
Sex, Fashion and Money by The Grabs
Shame by P.J. Harvey
She Looks Like a Woman by The Fleshtones
10,000 Beers Ago by Dicky B. Hardy
Oblivion by Mudhoney
Jolie's Nightmare by Chuck E. Weiss
My Mammy by Al Jolson
Early Today (and Later That Night) by Greg Dulli
Jangling Jack by Nick Cave
Local Boys by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Wave of Mutilation by The Pixies
Witches by Bichos
Hothead by Captain Beefheart
Another Land by The Residents
Be With Me Jesus by The Soul Stirrers
Gather at the River by Davell Crawford
Joy by Isaac Hayes
Sing a Simple Song by Chuck D, D'Angelo & Isaac Hayes
My Troubles Are So Hard to Bear by Ethel Davenport
When the Saints Go Marching In by Eddie Bo
Into the Woods by My Morning Jacket
Hell Yeah by Neil Diamond
Road by Concrete Blonde
Roll Away My Stone by Mark Eitzel
Wishlist by Pearl Jam
Prairie Fire That Wanders About by Sufjan Stevens
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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
Dropkick Me Jesus by Bobby Bare
Stupid Girl by The Rolling Stones
Love Your Money by Daisy Chainsaw
Sex, Fashion and Money by The Grabs
Shame by P.J. Harvey
She Looks Like a Woman by The Fleshtones
10,000 Beers Ago by Dicky B. Hardy
Oblivion by Mudhoney
Jolie's Nightmare by Chuck E. Weiss
My Mammy by Al Jolson
Early Today (and Later That Night) by Greg Dulli
Jangling Jack by Nick Cave
Local Boys by Graham Parker & The Figgs
Wave of Mutilation by The Pixies
Witches by Bichos
Hothead by Captain Beefheart
Another Land by The Residents
Be With Me Jesus by The Soul Stirrers
Gather at the River by Davell Crawford
Joy by Isaac Hayes
Sing a Simple Song by Chuck D, D'Angelo & Isaac Hayes
My Troubles Are So Hard to Bear by Ethel Davenport
When the Saints Go Marching In by Eddie Bo
Into the Woods by My Morning Jacket
Hell Yeah by Neil Diamond
Road by Concrete Blonde
Roll Away My Stone by Mark Eitzel
Wishlist by Pearl Jam
Prairie Fire That Wanders About by Sufjan Stevens
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, February 04, 2006
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, February 3, 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
I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You by Hank Thompson
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 by Jessi Colter
Come as You Are by The Mammals
The Glory of True Love by John Prine
Ashes of Love by Chris Hillman
Bean Vine Blues #2 by M. Ward
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush
Give Him Another Bottle by James Talley
Bloodshot Anniversary Set
The Lost Soul by The Handsome Family
De-Railed by 16 Horsepower
Magnificant Seven by Jon Rauhouse
Behind That Locked Door by My Morning Jacket
I'd Be Lonesome by The Old 97s
Chicken Road by Kelly Hogan
Burn the Flag by The Starkweathers
Sputnik 57 by The Minus 5
I Fought the Law by The Waco Brothers
THE GOURDS SET
(All songs by The Gourds except where noted)
Burn the Honeysuckle
When Wine Was Cheap
Pickles
Weather Woman
2,000 Man
Virgin of the Cobra by Kev Russell's Junker
Blood of the Ram
My Name is Jorge
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Concrete Blonde
Death Grip by Boris & The Saltlicks
Nothin' But Godzilla by Will Johnson
Brass Buttons by Gram Parsons
Rosalie by Bob Neurwirth
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
(except I spaced out and didn't report on time this month. Sorry, John!)
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You by Hank Thompson
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 by Jessi Colter
Come as You Are by The Mammals
The Glory of True Love by John Prine
Ashes of Love by Chris Hillman
Bean Vine Blues #2 by M. Ward
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush
Give Him Another Bottle by James Talley
Bloodshot Anniversary Set
The Lost Soul by The Handsome Family
De-Railed by 16 Horsepower
Magnificant Seven by Jon Rauhouse
Behind That Locked Door by My Morning Jacket
I'd Be Lonesome by The Old 97s
Chicken Road by Kelly Hogan
Burn the Flag by The Starkweathers
Sputnik 57 by The Minus 5
I Fought the Law by The Waco Brothers
THE GOURDS SET
(All songs by The Gourds except where noted)
Burn the Honeysuckle
When Wine Was Cheap
Pickles
Weather Woman
2,000 Man
Virgin of the Cobra by Kev Russell's Junker
Blood of the Ram
My Name is Jorge
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Concrete Blonde
Death Grip by Boris & The Saltlicks
Nothin' But Godzilla by Will Johnson
Brass Buttons by Gram Parsons
Rosalie by Bob Neurwirth
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
(except I spaced out and didn't report on time this month. Sorry, John!)
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