CRICKET COOGLER ON YOUTUBE

Earlier today I stumbled across this video of the first two and a half minutes of Charlie Cullin's documentary The Silence of Cricket Coogler. (For more on this political murder CLICK HERE)

Apparently it's originally from the film production company, Cine Vision Productions.

I'd forgotten how Twin Peaks-y the music is in this documentary.

So come on Charlie, let's get this on DVD.

eMUSIC SEPTEMBER

Here's my allotted 90 downloads from eMusic this month:

The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto Back in the mid '80s, a low period in American popular music, it started to make sense that acts such as The Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and most notably Paul Simon began delving into sounds from Africa and other faraway places. Graceland was great, but lots of us wanted to hear the source material. And thus the World Beat floodgates were opened. This compilation was one of the most and most influential from those days. Hearing this again reminds me why I wore out my old cassette tape so many years ago. The alien guitars, the sweet vocal harmonies, the pounding beat. The fiddles and acordions ... Ladysmith Black Manmbazo is here, but the real revelation is the gruff-voiced Mahlathini.

Jack Keruoac Reads On The Road . Just like with The BusBoys last month, I lucked out with this one. I downloaded it early in the month and when I checked back a couple of days later, it had dsappeared from eMusic altogether. Most of the album is exactly what it says -- spoken-word readings from the reluctant Beatnik King. However, there are some truly strange music with Kerouac singing wird improvisional takes on standards like "Ain't We Got Fun." But the real musical treat is a song ("On the Road") by Tom Waits & Primus.


Sir Dark Invader vs The Fanglord by Jon Langford & Richard Buckner
Goldbrick by Jon Langford
I used eMusic this month to catch up on the ever-prolific Langford. (He's at the far left in the picture to the left, which I shot at the Yard Dog Gallery in Austin last March for his autpgraph party for his book Nashville Radio.)

I was wary of the Buckner collaboration. While I'm a fan of both singers, I wondered how compatible they would be on record. Surprise, surprise, this damn thing works, and this album rocks.
My favorite cut is "The Inca Princess," a story of a tall, dark stranger in a Bakersfield bar that tips its hat to Roger Miller's "Chug-a-Lug."

The Langford solo album was the last thing I downloaded, so I haven't spent proper time with it. On first couple of listens though, I don't like it nearly as well as his previous solo outing All the Fame of Lofty Deeds. (There's a cover of Procal Harem's "Salty Dog," but I never really was a fan of that tune.) So far my favorite is the epic "Lost in America," which starts out with Columbus and quickly veers into Abu Ghraib and modern times.


In the Maybe World by Lisa Germano. While Lisa's new one isn't quite up to the level of her classic albums Geek the Girl and Happiness, it's still got just about everything I love about her -- sad, spacey songs about loss, pain and doubt.

This definitely is not party music. In fact, it's more like music you'd want to listen to after getting home from a party that you despised.

Lisa's not afraid to get downright weird. "In the Land of Fairies" is a putdown song aimed at supernatural beings. Yikes!



I Hear a New World by Joe Meek & The Blue Men. This late British producer was the man behind "Telstar," that proud bit of instrumental cheese from the early '60s. Apparently Joe was a true believer in UFOs, the occult and other assorted weirdness. This album of instrumentals was his vision of life on other planets. It's a great companion album for the compilation It's Hard To Believe It: The Amazing World Of Joe Meek

I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass by Yo La Tengo . You'll have to wait until this Friday's Terrell's Tuneup to get my full take on the new one by Yola. Suffice it to say right now that I really like it.

"Minnie the Moocher" by Cab Calloway . Once again, I had one download left so I spent it on Calloway. I picked up this early version of Cab's signature song, which is different -- I'm assuming earlier -- than others I have. But I found a flaw here, an electronic distortion right at the line "Minnie had a heart that was big as a whale. I hope eMusic fixes this.

UPDATE: Oooops. In the original version of this post I forgot to include one of my favorite new albums ....
Gulag Orkestar by Beirut. In a nutshell, this band, lead by a former Albuquerque kid named Zach Condon and including Jeremy Barnes, the former drummer of The Neutral Milk Hotel, sounds like Rufus Wainwright paying tribute to the 3 Mustaphas 3.

Some cools news: Beirut is scheduled to play New Mexico. Oct. 25 at the College of Santa Fe and Oct. 26 at the Launchpad in Albuquerque.

BOOTLEG DEBATE VIDEO

I was wondering where I'd have to go and how much I'd have to pay to get my hands on an unauthorized bootleg video of the Heather Wilson/Patsy Madrid debate last night.

Here's a the good news: Blogger Mario Burgos is giving it away for FREE.

Now if I can find one of the Lou Reed concert at the Santa Fe Opera Saturday ...

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 17, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Sky is a Dangerous Garden by Concrete Blonde
Ask the Angels by Patti Smith
The Room Got Heavy by Yo la Tengo
Bloody Hammer by Roky Erikson
Lost Planet by The Thunderbolts
Dribcot Space Boat by Joe Meek & The Blue Men
Can Blue Men Sing the Whites by Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

Strange Fruit by The Twilight Singers
Poor Born by Dead Moon
Fix These Blues by Heavy Trash
The Criminal Inside Me by R.L. Burnside & The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Idiot Joy Showland by The Fall
Do You Swing by The Fleshtones
Chickenshack by Hellwood
Ain't We Got Fun by Jack Kerouac

BATTLE OF THE BANDS!
FLOOGING MOLLY vs. DROPKICK MURPHYS
with special guest referee SHANE MacGOWAN

Drunken Lullabies by FM
Captain Kelly's Kitchen by DK
Another Bag of Bricks by FM
The Walking Dead by DK
The Rising of the Moon by Shane MacGowan
The Likes of You Again by FM
The Green Fields of France by DK
Within a Mile of Home by FM
Wild Rover DK with Shane

She's a Mystery to Me by Roy Orbison
It Calls Me by Hazmat Modine with Huun-Huur-Tu
Carrying a Torch by Van Morrison
Into the Night by Julee Cruise
Singin' in the Rain by Petty Booka
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 15, 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
Homo Erectus by Ray Benson & Reckless Kelly
American Trash by Betty Dylan
Tear-Stained Letter by Jo-El Sonier
Jason Fleming by The Sadies with Neko Case
Honky Tonk Mood Again by Jim Lauderdale
Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun by Dave Dudley
Rainmaker by Pima Express
Borrow Your Cape by Bobby Bare Jr's Young Criminals Starvation League
The Great Speckled Bird by Rob McNurlin
Colour of a Carnival by Kasey Chambers

Rabbit by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Never Gonna Be Your Bride by Carrie Rodriguez
That Lovin' You Feeling Again by Roy Orbison & Emmylou Harris
The Glory of True Love by John Prine
Cripple Creek by Steve Rosen
What's Wrong With Right by Hacienda Brothers
Wanderin' Star by Shane MacGowan with Charlie McLennan

Hank Williams Memorial Set
Lovesick Blues by Hank Williams
Are You Sure hank Done it This Way by Waylon Jennings
Mrs. Hank Williams by Fred Eaglesmith
Has Anybody Here Seen Hank? by The Waterboys
Please Don't Let Me Love You by Hank Williams
The Great Hank by Robert Earl Keen
Family Tradition by Cracker
The Night Hank Williams Came to Town by Johnny Cash

Honey Do You Love Me, Huh? by Hank Williams with Curley Williams
Hank Williams You Wrote My Life by Moe Bandy
I Think Hank Would Have Done it This Way by The Blue Chieftains
The Car Hank Died In by The Austin Lounge Lizards
Long White Cadillac by Dave Alvin
Nashville Radio by Jon Langford
Hank Williams' Ghost by Darrell Scott
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: SONGS FOR HANK

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 15, 2006


Hank Williams, whose 83rd birthday is Sunday, left behind country music’s greatest catalog of songs. But not only did he create mountains of great songs, he also inspired a bona fide subgenre of country music — songs about Hank Williams.

Hank’s body was barely cold before the tribute songs started pouring out of Nashville, Tenn., which virtually banished him during his lifetime. There were “The Death of Hank Williams” by Jack Cardwell, “Hank Williams Will Live Forever” by Johnnie & Jack, “The Life of Hank Williams” by Hawkshaw Hawkins, “The Death of Hank Williams” by Jimmie Logsdon, and many more.

And in the early ’80s, there was even some local yokel here in Santa Fe who did a song called “Hank Williams Conquers the Martians.”

The tradition continues today, though in recent times Hank appears more of an icon, Faust in a cowboy hat, a symbol of raw talent doomed by human frailties, a personification of the double-edged nature of fame, a lonesome-voiced indictment of the dark side of show business.

Two recent tunes by contemporary songwriters are prime examples of Hank songs. Canadian alternative-country singer Fred Eaglesmith, on his latest album, Milly’s Cafe, brings us “Mrs. Hank Williams,” a sad story of a woman traveling with some drifting cowboy band. Though Eaglesmith is sympathetic, the woman seems half Miss Audrey, half Yoko Ono. “When we got to Cincinnati/I had to put her on a plane/She was fighting with the band/And it was her or it was them ... She doesn’t watch the show/She just stays in the car/And watches the young girls/Outside the stage door.”

Even more poignant is “Hank Williams’ Ghost,” which can be found on Darrell Scott’s recent album The Invisible Man. This is a song of self-loathing, “rage and angst,” and “hillbilly sins,” a self-inventory of a man whose “coulda woulda beens” have been colliding mercilessly with his “shoulda knowns.” Though his name is in the title, Hank doesn’t appear until the final refrain. “Fare thee well and adios/We hurt the ones we love the most/And we blame it on Hank Williams’ ghost.”

I’ve got a feeling Hank’s ghost will continue to haunt songwriters for years to come.

Here are my all-time top 10 Hank Songs:

1. “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” by Waylon Jennings. Back in the mid-’70s, just about the time that outlaw bit was getting out of hand, Waymore unleashed this tune, one of his few self-written hits, which was an indictment of the Nashville machine (“Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars/It’s been the same way for years/We need to change.”) and a fearful look at the direction of his life and career (“Ten years down the road, making one night stands/Speeding my young life away ... Did ol’ Hank really do it this way?”)

2. “Nashville Radio” by Jon Langford. Hank inspired several songs as well as paintings by Mekon/Waco Brother Langford. The two pieces on this blog post are Langford's. His gorgeous art book Nashville Radio contains examples of visual art and music, with several tunes based on the Hank myth on the accompanying CD, including one “Oh No, Hank!” in which Joe Stalin plots to murder the singer. Also there is Langford’s finest Hank song, “Nashville Radio.” The perspective switches from Hank in his final days (“I can shake my hips, but I walk like a cripple and my body is getting too thin”) to the singer’s lonesome ghost (“I gave my life to country music, I took my pills and lost/Now they don’t play my songs on the radio, it’s like I never was”). Langford’s done a few versions of this, including one on his album All the Fame of Lofty Deeds. But worth seeking out is the limited-edition Gravestone EP, where the song is done as a medley with “The Death of Country Music.”

3. “Long White Cadillac” by The Blasters. If you went to the recent Thirsty Ear Festival you got to hear this song’s author, Dave Alvin, do a thunderous version of the song. The original version was by Alvin’s old band The Blasters. It’s a chilling tale of Hank’s death with frightening imagery: “Night wolves moan/the winter hills are black/I’m all alone/sitting in the back/of a long white Cadillac.”

4. “The Car Hank Died In” by The Austin Lounge Lizards. That long white Cadillac also appears in this humorous tune on the album Creatures From the Black Saloon. But this is mainly a stab at Nashville hawking pain and passion as a tourist attraction.

5. “Has Anybody Here Seen Hank” by The Waterboys. A honky-tonk is nothing but an Irish pub in this tribute song from The Waterboys’ best album Fisherman’s Blues. “I don’t care what he did with his women/I don’t care what he did when he drank/I want to hear just one note/from his lonesome old throat/Has anybody here seen Hank?”

6. “The Great Hank” by Robert Earl Keen. Hank is a benevolent ghost in this surreal tune from Keen’s 2005 album What I Really Mean. The song starts out, “I saw the great Hank Williams singing on the stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he was all dressed up in drag.”

7. “Hank Williams You Wrote My Life” by Moe Bandy. This was a hit for Bandy in the early ’80s, and is best-known for the line, “You wrote ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ about a gal like my first ex-wife.”

8. “The Night Hank Williams Came to Town” by Johnny Cash. This was a hit for Cash in 1986. But it was rewritten from a song by T.C. Roberts (real name, Tabby Crabb), called “The Night Porter Wagoner Came to Town.” “Porter” was an early country video hit on the Country Music Television network in 1985.

9. “I Think Hank Woulda Done It This Way” by The Blue Chieftains. This irreverent answer to the famous Waylon song presents Hank as a proto-rock ’n’ roll wild man. It’s one of two Hank songs (the other being “Do It for Hank” by The World Famous Blue Jays) on the influential Rig Rock Jukebox compilation.

10. “Family Tradition” by Hank Williams Jr. Back in his heyday Bocephus seemed to spend half of his time complaining how hard it was being Hank Williams’ son and the other half proudly proclaiming he was Hank Williams’ son.

INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS

The world would be such a nicer place if all our international crises were like this one:

US President George Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.

And now a movie of Borat's adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident.

The opening scene, which shows Borat lustily kissing his sister goodbye and setting off for America in a car pulled by a horse, had audiences in stitches when it was first shown last week.

But the film, which has just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, has prompted a swift reaction from the Kazakhstan government, which is launching a PR blitz in the States.

Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev is to fly to the US to meet President Bush in the coming weeks and on the agenda will be his country's image.

I hope our president can explain that not every American behaves like the Three Stooges.


The Borat response

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 14, 2006

I have to admit I kind of like Gov. Bill Richardson’s latest commercial, the cowboy movie spoof where the governor plays an Old West sheriff.

No, it’s not great drama, and it’s certainly not in the league of Western comedies like Blazing Saddles.

But compared with the 30-second character assassinations that pass for most political advertising in this great nation of ours, Richardson’s horse-opera fantasy is a breath of fresh air.

And those are just the negative ads. Most “positive” political spots are even worse — sickly sweet sentimentality, inane happy-talk, flag-waving drivel ...

And then there was Richardson’s meth-lab ad a few weeks ago that shows apparent ne’er-do-wells cooking what we assume to be drugs in their kitchen while an innocent child plays on the floor with a Tonka toy. Later, we see Richardson marching with a group of uniformed officers.

Then later a bunch of heavily armed cops breaking down a door. In that one, you almost expect the narrator to declare, “Bill Richardson: He cut taxes and brought martial law ... for the children.”

Naw, give me the cowboy movie. In fact, I hope Richardson was serious when at the end of this ad he said: “Next time, let’s make a space movie.” He’d make a great Buzz Lightyear-type character. And how about a faux detective flick with a sultry saxophone soundtrack and the governor in Guy Noir/Nick Danger guise? Maybe a Tarzan parody?


Better yet, a zombie movie in which Richardson has to battle former state auditor candidate Jeff Armijo, who keeps coming back from the dead. (And considering Wednesday’s development in the real-life Armijo saga, this could feature House Speaker Ben Luján as a guest exorcist.)

At this point in the campaign, when Richardson has a wide lead in the polls and an impossible lead in campaign contributions, he can afford to have some fun with his ads. If Republican opponent John Dendahl starts looking like a threat, we can expect that Old West dust to turn to modern-day mud.

Gimme a milk. Probably the funniest gag in the Western commercial is when “Sheriff” Richardson walks into a saloon and, in his best tough-guy voice, orders a milk.

This probably is pure coincidence, but for the record, according to the latest figures from the Institute of Money in State Politics, Richardson has received 14 contributions totaling $27,625 this election cycle from the dairy industry.

In contrast, he’s only picked up $24,125 from beer, wine and liquor interests. These figures are based on campaign finance reports as of the end of May.


Garrey silent on guv race. Former Gov. Garrey Carruthers, a Republican, is not publicly backing this year’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, John Dendahl. But Carruthers isn’t publicly opposing Dendahl, either.

On Tuesday, immediately after Carruthers spoke at a news conference with Richardson in the governor’s Cabinet Room, I asked the former chief executive whom he was backing for governor this year.

He declined to answer, saying his ballot is secret.

It’s no secret Carruthers gets along well with the current occupant of the Governor’s Mansion, despite their party differences.

Richardson named him as co-chairman of the blue-ribbon task force that’s studying ethics and campaign reforms. The two taught a class together last year at New Mexico State University, where Carruthers is dean of the business school. Carruthers was in Santa Fe on Tuesday for Richardson’s announcement of a new program in which the top business students at NMSU and The University of New Mexico will manage the investment of $10 million in state money.

While Carruthers made it clear he wanted to keep his opinion of this year’s governor’s race to himself, he added: “I will say, though, I’ve never voted a straight party ticket in my life.”

For my "Ad Watch" analysis piece on the Richardson "Western" spot, CLICK HERE

For my "Ad Watch" analysis piece on the meth lab commercial, mentioned above (plus anoter Richardson ad) , CLICK HERE

CHEETAH STEAKS WITH CHATEAU MARGEUA

The Corsair's take on Gov. Richardson's recent rescue mission in Sudan is pretty hilarious.

CLICK HERE

JUDGING THE JUDGES

Las Cruces blogger Heath Haussamen just posted a new special report Judging Our Judges that examines the state Judicial Standards Commission and the rash of cases judicial misconduct in the past couple of years. He starts out with a rundown of Dona Ana County judges who have found theselves in hot water in recent years. (More than a third of petitions Judicial Standards has received in the past two years deal with judges from his county.)

There will be a new article posted every day between now and Thursday, so check it out.

(For my own sardonic stab a few months ago at "Judges Gone Wild" CLICK HERE.)