TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 11, 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
There's a Moon Out Tonight by The Capris
Jack Pepsi by TAD
Army Reserve by Pearl Jam
RBB (Rude Boy Bob) by The Rodeo Carburettor
Benton Harbor Blues by The Fiery Furnaces
Meet Ze Monsta by P.J. Harvey
Start 'em Young (from Radio Pyonyang)

Missing by Beck
Spider's Web by Mission of Burma
Little Miss Chocolate Syrup by The Dirtbombs
We Were Gonna by Dengue Fever
Dead Leaves and The Dirty Earth by The White Stripes
Pappa Won't Leave You Henry by Nick Cave
Molly Ringwald by Andrew Primm

BASEBALL SET


Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Bruce Springstone
Joltin' Joe DiMaggio by Les Brown
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball by Count Basie
A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request by Steve Goodman
Love Is Like a Baseball Game by The Intruders
I Love Mickey by Teresa Brewer with Mickey Mantle
The Kid From Spavinaw by Tom Russell
Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Gene Kelley & Frank Sinatra


House of Pain by Johnny Dowd
Chore of Enchantment by Howe Gelb
Good Shepherd by Jefferson Airplane
A House is Not a Motel by Love
What Would Jesus Do by Chris Thomas King
America the Beautiful by Neil Young
My True Story by The Jive Five
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

BILL MEETS THE BLOGGERS PART 2

The New York Times covered the YearlyKos 2006 Convention in Las Vegas Friday. Here's what Adam Nagourney had to say about our governor.

"I see you guys as agents of advocacy — that's why I'm here," said Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat and a prospective 2008 presidential candidate, who flew here at the last minute ... Bloggers, Mr. Richardson said later, "are a major voice in American politics."

Mr. Richardson's visit was interesting in that he decided to come so late that his name did not appear on any programs; a hand-lettered sign announced a breakfast with him on Friday morning. Still, Mr. Richardson arched an eyebrow when asked whether he had suddenly decided to fly in after learning that many of his prospective rivals for 2008 were here and that Mr. Warner, in particular, was giving a major address on Saturday.

"Warner?" Mr. Richardson responded with a hint of a smile. "Is he here?"

In addition to Richardson and Warner, other possible 2008 candidates at the confab were retired Gen. Wesley Clark and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. Sen. Hillary Clinton declined an invitation.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 9, 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
The Lost Highway by Sabah Habas Mustapha
St. Pete Jail by Panama Red
This Town's a Riot by Bill Kirchen
Invisible Twice by The Rivet Gang
Goodbye Guitar by Tony Gilkyson
Don't Look Now by Dave Alvin
First I Lost My Marbles by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks

Don Julio by Cordero
18 Wheels by Fred Eaglesmith
Your Great Journey by The Handsome Family
It's an Unfriendly World by The Del McCoury Band
Only Mama That'll Walk the Line by The Stumbleweeds
Shut it Tight by T-Bone Burnett
It Takes One to Know Me by Johnny Cash
House on Mulberry Street by Porter Wagoner

BOTTLE ROCKETS SET
Middle Man
1000 Car
Waitin' on a Train
Align Yourself
Sometimes Found
Lawd I'm Just a Country Boy in This Great Big Freaky City
Zoysia

Lonesome Roads by Carla Bozulich
I am Your Destroyer by Gary Heffern
Remain by Jon Dee Graham
Can't You See I'm Soulful by Eleni Mandell
Two Candles by The Backsliders
Out Among the Stars by Hazel Dickens
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

BILL MEETS THE BLOGGERS

I just got a press release saying the governor is traveling to Las Vegas, Nev. to talk to a liberal blogger confab. Richardson, according to his statement, "will address as many as 500 of the nation’s most prominent Internet bloggers today at the YearlyKos Netroots Convention ... "

Right after that, Air America sent an e-mail saying, "Thousands of bloggers and activists have descended upon the Riviera Hotel for what is sure to be an unforgettable weekend of fun and fellowship, punctuated by a first rate lineup of panels and presentations. ... Appearing today (6/9) will be Ambassador Joe Wilson, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Sen. Barbara Boxer.

'Later on this afternoon, you can catch General Wesley Clark and the man/blogger of the hour, Markos Moulitsas, aka Kos of the DailyKos."

They didn't mention our governor.

Early this year, Richardson addressed the blogger menace at the New Mexico Press Association's annual Legislative Breakfast.

I wrote about that on my Legislature blog:

(Richardson) praised political blogger Joe Monahan. “I think we’re lucky that we have one blog that all of you read. Monahan And he’s good. He knows the process.” But, Richardson said blogs are predominantly partisan right-wing efforts full of innuendoes and rumors. He urged members of the press to be “diligent, vigilant and check their sources and not get over-excited in a competitive frenzy to deal with, in many cases, misinformation that is ideological.”

Richardson charged that many bloggers are paid “indirectly” by political organizations. “On both sides,” he said, “But I think the preponderance is on the right.”

I wonder if he'll say the same thing today in Las Vegas.

You can watch the video stream of the conference HERE

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: GRASSROOTS ROCK

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 9, 2006


I’m a writer, not a gardener. So I had to look up the word Zoysia, the title of the new Bottle Rockets album. It’s a type of grass used in suburban lawns. I thought it was a breakaway Soviet republic.

But the image of suburban lawns is at the metaphorical center of this album by Brian Henneman and his trusty band of blue-collar rockers. “But in the meantime, life just goes on/We pay our bills, we mow our lawns.”

Zoysia can be seen as a loose-knit concept album about yearning for normalcy and moderation — yearnings not normally associated with rock ’n’ roll. Sure, artists like John Hiatt have been here before, but Henneman is one of the first rockers who came of age in the ’90s to deal with middle age, middle-class values, and trying to maintain middle ground in divisive political times.

One of the songs here is even called “Middle Man,” which has Henneman grousing, “If I could be a little bit happier/If I could be a little more cranky/If I could be a little more Dixie/If I could be a little more Yankee ...” (Henneman is from Missouri, a Civil War border state).

In “Align Yourself,” Henneman mocks those who give up their individuality to groups and movements. Singing through an electronic filter that almost sounds like a bullhorn, he recites an alphabet soup of various special interests, religions, political parties, and football conferences. “NRA, KKK, Adventists Seventh Day ... FFA, PLO, choose your partner there you go/NAMBLA, PETA, People’s Temple.”

While members of Future Farmers of America might resent being lumped in with the North American Man/Boy Love Association, the message of the song is in the refrain: “Align yourself, define yourself/When you don’t know who you are, you can remind yourself.”

On “Blind,” a slow, twangy tune (complete with mandolin and slide guitar played by Rockets string man John Horton), Henneman sermonizes about the pitfalls of judging people by race and appearance and takes a cheap shot at the American Idol/Britney Spears pop universe. “If we all were blind/would we be surprised at who’d become important in our eyes?”

The most moving track is the title song, which comes at the end of the album. “In my neck of the woods, the town where I live/It’s out in the sticks and conservative/Got lots of churches, we’ve got lots of bars/And the kids ’round here, they fight our wars.”

The lyrics of the bridge remind me of driving through Santa Fe neighborhoods during election season: “Out on the lawns we got campaign signs/We always know when it’s election time/The guy next door, his signs are not like mine/But he’s all right/We get along fine.”

Then there’s that image of the grass, a metaphor of interconnection among people who live close to one another: “If your neighbor gets the zoysia grass, buddy you get zoysia too/And maybe if you hurt yourself, he’ll mow the lawn for you.”

Musically, Zoysia shows the Rockets doing what they do best. They roar like Southern-rock warriors on “Better Than Broken” and “Mountain to Climb” and burn on the Neil Youngish “Happy Anniversary.” They’re also perfectly capable of good-time country, as in “Blind” and “Feeling Down.”

The biggest musical surprise here — and by a landslide the prettiest song on the album — is “Where I’m From,” a slow, mainly acoustic song with trippy chord changes that recall The Grateful Dead’s Aoxomoxoa.

While not breaking much new ground — and not likely to set the commercial woods on fire — Zoysia shows Henneman and The Bottle Rockets living up to that self-description in “Middle Man”: invisible and reliable.

Also recommended:
En Este Momento by Cordero: Fans of Los Lobos and Calexico definitely should check out Cordero. This is a four-piece band (guitar, bass, drums, and trumpet) that specializes in minimalist, Mexicano-influenced rock.

Singer Ani Cordero, who also wrote all the songs, is from Brooklyn by way of Georgia, where she played drums for a side project of the old space/surf group Man or Astro-man? She has also spent time in Arizona, where she got some recording help from Giant Sand man Howe Gelb.

Cordero’s warm vocals are the main draw here; she sings mainly in Spanish. But trumpeter Omar Little and drummer Chris Verene (Cordero’s husband) are indispensable. Verene shows his stuff on percussion-heavy songs like “Come on Dear” and “María Elisa.”

My favorite songs here include “Don’t Let Them Destroy You,” which has an early-’60s girl-group feel (Shangri-Las go south of the border?); “Matadora,” which would have fit in on the first Los Super Seven album; “La Piedra,” a quiet, acoustic waltz that threatens to explode in thunder; the upbeat “Don Julio,” which Al Hurricane should cover; and “Mamá Ven a Buscarme,” which could almost be part of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack.

For more information on Cordero and The Bottle Rockets, check out www.bloodshotrecords.com.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: STARTLING E-MAIL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 8, 2006

During a primary campaign, a reporter receives tons of e-mails and news releases — most of them predictable self-serving drivel.

But a campaign e-mail I got late last Friday afternoon was downright startling.
The subject line read as follows:

“Press Release — J.R. Damron Quits”

Lots of thoughts raced through my head as I clicked to open the e-mail. Was something wrong with the Republican gubernatorial candidate? (I’d just seen Damron a few days before at a Michael Martin Murphey concert, and he seemed to be in good health and spirits. I even snapped his picture backstage with a celebrity, as shown at the right.)


Had GOP kingmakers, perhaps frustrated by Gov. Bill Richardson’s ridiculously huge campaign-fund advantage, forced him out of the race to replace him with some better-known candidate (whoever that might be)?

Had Richardson’s opposition-research operatives unearthed something shocking and nasty?

Had George Bailey’s quixotic write-in campaign suddenly picked up steam?

But when I read the actual message, it was nothing of the kind. Damron had quit his medical practice. He saw his last patient Friday. At first, it seemed like a pretty misleading subject line. But it sure got my attention fast.

(For the record, Damron beat Bailey in the primary by a margin of 99.3 to .7 percent.)

Inside the e-mail: Damron said he was quitting his practice to devote full time to his campaign. He said he’d also be a full-time governor, calling the frequently traveling Richardson an “absentee governor.”

“Richardson planned to be an absentee governor from the start,” the statement said.

Then came something I’d never heard before.

“Almost as soon as Richardson was inaugurated as governor, he had the state Legislature change the number of days allotted for the governor to be out of state from 30 to 180,” the statement said. “Richardson knew from the start he planned to be out of state half a year.”

Something bothered me about that. If that had happened and somehow everyone in the press missed it, I can think of at least six Republicans who would have been calling the next day to make sure someone noticed.

Raul Burciaga of the Legislative Council Service said Wednesday that he could find no such legislation.

“In 1999, the Legislature changed the compensation of the lieutenant governor (for days served as acting governor),” Burciaga said. The lieutentant guv gets an extra $250 a day every time the governor leaves the state.

Richardson became governor in 2003.

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Wednesday that Richardson never asked for — and never received — any such legislation.

In 2002 — the last year of Gov. Gary Johnson’s administration — the Department of Finance and Administration created a “dedicated source” (that’s DFA-speak for a reserve fund) to pay the lieutenant governor for those days, Gallegos said. This took effect in fiscal year 2003.

The fund was originally $26,700, allowing for 106.8 days. “It was based on past history,” Gallegos said. Subsequently, the fund was cut to $20,000, allowing for 80 days, he said. He said Richardson hadn’t exceeded that amount.

Even if this shot was a misfire, Richardson’s travel is bound to be an issue in the upcoming campaign.

Wen Ho who? Speaking of potential campaign bombshells, chances of the Wen Ho Lee case blowing up on Richardson during the campaign were lessened greatly last week when the former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist settled his privacy lawsuit with the government and five news organizations.

The case had turned into a battle over reporters’ confidential sources. Lee accused the Energy and Justice departments of violating his privacy by leaking the fact he was under investigation as a spy for China. Five reporters were held in contempt of court for refusing to disclose their sources.

Last year, federal Appeals Judge David Sentelle singled out the names of Richardson — who was secretary of Energy — and two other Department of Energy officials as being the probable sources of the leaks.

In a sworn deposition for Lee’s lawsuit, Richardson testified he didn’t remember making some statements about the Lee firing attributed to him in various newspapers.

So it looks like Lee got $1.6 million. And maybe the governor got off the hook.

POST-ELECTION STRESS

Three of the four races I was covering for The New Mexican last night turned out to be nail biters.

Only Lucky Varela's legislative race turned out to be a blowout.

In the Democratic race for state land commissioner, Jim Baca held on to his lead, surviving Ray Powell's good showing in Albuquerque. The final unoffical result, posted on the Secretary of State's Web site show Baca with 52.6 percent to Powell's 47.4.

Even more frustrating were the two Rio Arriba County races I was watching.

At 8 a.m., with 43 of 43 precincts reporting, it looks like Debbie Rodella won with 51.1 percent to Moises Morales' 48.9 percent.

And it looks like Tommy Rodella took the magistrate judge's race with 24 percent. Marlo Martinez came in second with 21 percent.

Antonio Manzanares, who was leading when the paper went to bed last night, fell into 4th place.

What to watch now is what Gov. Richardson does about the vacancy in the judge's seat.

Normally a governor appoints the winner of the primary to fill a vacancy. However, several months ago Richardson told a room full of reporters and editors that he would not appoint Rodella.

If he keeps to that, he'll either have to appoint a temporary judge who will serve until the end of the year or keep the position empty for another 6 months. It's been vacant since Rodella resigned last July.

Somehow, my land commission story didn't make it on The New Mexican's Web site. I'll reprint it here:

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 7, 2006

The two candidates in the Democratic primary for state land commissioner were locked in a tight race Tuesday night with the contest too close to call.

As midnight approached, Jim Baca had 51 percent of the vote and Ray Powell Jr. 49 percent with 90 precincts reporting, but neither candidate was ready to declare victory or concede.

Even before election day, Powell and Baca — both former land commissioners — were making nice with each other in a campaign that, in contrast to some primary contests, avoided personal nastiness and overheated criticisms of each other.

In fact, both Democrats made public statements indicating party unity.

“My hat is off to my opponent, Ray Powell, for running a positive campaign,” Baca wrote on his personal blog Monday. “If he vanquishes me, I will be fully supporting him in the general election.”

“Whoever wins, there’s going to be a united Democratic effort to take back the Land Office,” Powell said Tuesday.

This means, at least in this race, that the Democrats won’t be saddled with leftover primary bitterness in a contest where the incumbent has a staggering financial edge.

According to campaign-finance reports filed with the state last week, Lyons, who faced no primary opponent, had more than $469,000 in contributions for his race.

By comparison, Baca had only $769 in the bank June 1 and more than $11,000 in unpaid campaign debts, while Powell had about $50,000 and some $45,000 in unpaid campaign debts.

Lyons already has spent about $200,000 in his campaign during the past year.

The contest between Powell and Baca centered on differences between the candidates’ management styles and temperaments.

Baca portrayed himself as aggressive and unafraid of confrontation with big-money interests and the federal government to protect the land. Powell emphasized consensus building and diplomacy.

Both were highly critical of Lyons, whom they portrayed as being more interested in helping big business than protecting the land.

Earlier this year, Baca blasted Lyons for producing television spots at state expense that featured Lyons. The state paid television stations to run these as commercials. Both Democrats criticized Lyons for using campaign funds to buy a pickup registered in his name.

Some of the criticism has put Lyons on the defensive. He stopped the commercials and sold the truck.

This week, his office released a statement pointing out that so far during his tenure, Lyons has spent $5 million on 144 land-management projects on nearly 17,000 acres of state trust land.
The statement says Lyons has hired an additional biologist, an environmental specialist and a land-management analyst.

UPDATE: Well, actually this story is on the New Mexican site. I'll leave it here anyway.