TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 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
Change in the Weather by John Fogerty
Pink Slip by The Unband
Dopefiend Boogie by The Cramps
I Wanna Be Loved by Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
My Wig Fell Off by Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band
Bless You by The Devil Dogs
You Don't Need a Doctor by The Leaving Trains
This Guy's in Love With You by Faith No More

Stolen Cadillac by Pere Ubu
Jams Run Free by Sonic Youth
Ocean by The Velvet Underground
Mountains by Sparklehorse

Where There Are No Children by Kult
Buri Na Laty by Cankisou
Asfalt Tango by Fanfare Ciocarlia
Ciganka by Kocani Orkestar
Adje Idi by Zdravko Colic
God Bless the Ottoman Empire by A Hawk & A Hacksaw
It Was Floating in the Air by Zach Condon

The Concept by Teenage Fanclub
Shut Us Down by Lindsey Buckingham
Into Oblivion by Lisa Germano
Questions in a World of Blue by Julee Cruise
American Tune by Paul Simon
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

AUTOPSY ON LAND COMMISSIONER RACE

Why, in an election where everyone was talking about a "Democratic Wave" -- and New Mexico Democrats like Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Gov. Bill Richardson were pulling about 70 percent of the vote -- didn't Jim Baca pull it off in the race for land commissioner?

For one thing, despite all the talk about voter disgust and winds of change, it seems in New Mexico, for the most part, incumbents won.

For those not completely ODed on politics, HERE is my analysis of the race, published in today's New Mexican.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 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
Takin' the Country Back by John Anderson
Love's Gonna Live Here Again by Leon Russell
See Willie Fly By by The Waco Brothers
What's a Simple Man to Do by Steve Earle
Wanted Man by Johnny Cash
Barstow Barstool by The Texas Sapphires
Cash on the Barrelhead by Dolly Parton
Miller, Jack and Mad Dog by Wayne Hancock
Whiskey, Women and Money to Burn by Joe Ely
Every Man a King by Randy Newman

Ringmaster by Ramsay Midwood
My Eyes by Tony Gilkyson
Heather's All Bummed Out by Lonesome Bob
Roadmap For the Blues by Butch Hancock
I'd Rather Be Gone by Merle Haggard
Round Eye Blues by Marah
Dirty Leather by Carrie Rodriguez
Don't Let the Deal Go Down by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

Where's the Devil When You Need Him by The Legendary Shack Shakers
Christian Lady Talkin' on a Bus by Blaze Foley
Poor Howard by the Volo Bogtrotters
Shady Grove by Colby Maddox
Mole in the Ground by Doc & Merle Watson
Bottle of Wine by Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs
Shoot Me to the Moon by Dan Reeder
Cowboys to Girls by The Hacienda Brothers
Nashville Bum by Waylon Jennings

Girls by Eleni Mandell
Sold American by Lyle Lovett
Tired Giants by Smutfish
Drinkin' Thing by Gary Stewart
Some Humans Ain't Human by John Prine
Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

THE RACE IS ON !

... and here comes pride at the backstretch ....

Congressional Quarterly has profiles of 2008 presidential candidates.

There's 13 Democrats and 13 Republicans. (Hmmm ... 13, same number as a witches coven.)


Here's one of them:

Bill Richardson — Governor, New Mexico
Rationale: For starters, ethnicity and geography argue in favor of Richardson, a Latino governor in a battleground state that backed Al Gore in 2000 but George W. Bush in 2004. Add to that his varied Washington experience — 14 years in the House plus four years in the Clinton administration, first as U.N. ambassador and then as Energy secretary — and on paper you have the ingredients for national office.
Richardson is a larger-than-life character who is charming on the stump. On policy matters, he is a pragmatist who remains quite popular in his politically fluid state, recently winning kudos for making good on a 2003 campaign promise to save taxpayers $90 million in state budget costs. Governors do well in presidential contests, which is enough of a reason to consider Richardson a player.
Resources: Richardson raised more than $8 million (note from swt: Make that $13 million) for his bid for a second term as governor this year, a sizable sum in New Mexico politics. And his shoo-in standing in that race has allowed him to spread his money around to other Democrats in the state, always good for earning chits to solidify his home-state base in a presidential campaign. Also, the bulk of his campaign funds come from business interests instead of big labor, a good talking point for any Democrat in a general-election bid.
Hobby Horse: Richardson earned foreign- policy credentials as the ambassador to the United Nations, troubleshooting hot spots from Iraq to North Korea, and he also can emphasize his popular management of New Mexico and tout what is expected to be a lopsided re-election victory.
Hobble Horse: Richardson’s closet is not entirely clean. At a minimum, a presidential bid will again bring to light his brush with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, in which he reportedly offered her a job, and revelations that for years he erroneously claimed to have been drafted as a pitcher by the Kansas City A’s.

By the way, one of the Republicans in this list, obviously compiled before the election, (in fact there's a sheepish note at the top of the page) is none other than soon-to-be-former Sen. George Allen.

Macaca '08!

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BUCKINGHAM'S PALACE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 4, 2006

My only real complaint about Under the Skin, the new album by Lindsey Buckingham, is this: What took him so dang long? The last time Buckingham released a solo album, the simple but stunning Out of the Cradle, George Bush was president.
Bush senior.

Buckingham reportedly was working on an album sometime in the Clinton era, but that got shelved when he decided to rejoin Fleetwood Mac for one of those reunion tours. I’m not the first writer to note that this is only the fourth Buckingham solo album in 25 years.

While Fleetwood Mac generally — if sometimes unfairly — is considered the ultimate white-bread, mainstream, corporate, classic-rock band, Buckingham has been responsible for many of its darker, crazier, and more experimental moments. True, Stevie Nicks’ witchy-poo image probably has received more attention, but Buckingham — who recorded an album called Go Insane — is the one who’s truly nuts. I mean that in the best possible way. “I’m a madman out on a bad man route/Looking for paradise,” he sings in “Show You How.”

Buckingham is experimental, though in a pop-savvy way, a Brian Wilson way. I’m sure he’s tired of that comparison, but like Wilson, Buckingham has a way of capturing gorgeous melodies and irresistible hooks and, like a sonic stalker, nearly loving them to death. He addresses his critical reputation as Fleetwood Mac’s resident mad genius in the first line of the second song on Under the Skin: “Reading the paper saw a review/Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew/Now that’s been a problem, feeling unseen.”

The first song, “Not Too Late,” will do nothing to dispel that reputation. The instrumental accompaniment is a hundred-mile-an-hour, Segovia-on-angel-dust flamenco-like guitar.
Basically it’s an acoustic album. Though he’s an ace electric guitarist, Buckingham’s acoustic guitar reigns supreme here. His picking style goes back to old British folk rock bands like Pentangle rather than a Delta blues groove.

And his voice. Sometimes it’s a lonely, breathless whisper, sometimes a Wilsonesque falsetto. Often it’s multitracked, creating a one-man choir. On the chorus of “It Was You,” his vocal parts create a psychedelic calliope.

This is indeed a solo album. The only help Buckingham gets is from Mac-mates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, who supply a rhythm section on the song “Down on the Rodeo,” and someone named David Campbell, who supplies “orchestration” on “Someone’s Gotta Change Your Mind.” Don’t let the orchestration tag scare you. It’s low-key and sounds a lot more like the Memphis Horns than the Moody Blues.

Buckingham wrote all but two of the tunes on the album. He covers the obscure Rolling Stones song “I Am Waiting” (originally from Aftermath, Stones fans) and an even more obscure Donovan number called “To Try for the Sun.” But I didn’t know this until I read the liner notes. Both songs fit seamlessly with the rest of Under the Skin. Buckingham gives the Donovan song a jittery beat you don’t find much outside his productions.

So far my favorite Skin song is “Cast Away Dreams.” Buckingham’s voice is nearly a sob. Over a strumming guitar, he again raises the “visionary” thing, which he seems to view as a burden. “Lay down my visionary eyes dancing on my cast away dreams,” he sings. It’s a song about going away, not coming home, as he comes to grips with the faith he’s lost.

I just hope he doesn’t go away for another 14 years.

Also recommended

* In the Maybe World by Lisa Germano. Sweet Lisa reminds me of the unnamed “she” of Butch Hancock’s “She Never Spoke Spanish to Me” (“She spoke to all the shadows in her bungalow”). Germano’s talking to a lot of shadows in her latest album.

Normally I don’t care that much for sensitive-female singer-songwriters. But Germano, with her broken-wing songbird persona and lyrics so unabashedly self-absorbed they’re nearly clinical, is hard to dismiss.

And she’s almost always sonically fascinating in her lo-fi way. Often there’s a low rumble in the background or some weird discordance about to erupt. Many of the songs here are like dream fragments, featuring demented little piano lines that would be right at home in soundtracks to creepy 1960s black-and-white movies like Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

One of the prettiest melodies on this album — one of the prettiest tunes she’s ever written — is “Too Much Space.” By the end of this song about a love gone wrong, Germano is evoking a scene from Tod Browning’s infamous movie Freaks. “One of us,” she sings repeatedly, as if she’s welcoming herself into the world of the carnival’s human oddities. “One of us. One of us.” (Or maybe she’s just revealing — awkwardly — that she’s a fan of the Ramones.)

On Maybe World, the singer even encounters supernatural beings. When I saw the title “In the Land of Fairies,” I feared Germano had become a born-again New Ager. When I heard the song’s bizarre little melody, which sounds like it’s lifted from some hoary Italian folk tune, I couldn’t resist it. She’s seeing fairies, but they only annoy her. You can almost see her in some garden bickering with little creatures nobody else can see.

Speaking of arguments, in “Red Thread” she seems to be having one with herself. The refrain is a one-woman call and response that begins “Go to hell” and responds with "Fuck you."

But the song has a happy ending: “I love you,” she sings, then answers herself, “I love you too.”

NAKED CONGRESS

I'm sure most of you have seen those "Worst Album Covers" emails and Web pages that have floated around the Internets for a couple of years. Hell, half of you have sent me emails and links to these pages.

The classic list includes this cover by the band Orleans -- one of the few acts listed on these lists that anyone ever actually heard of.

Well here's the deal. John Hall, the lead singer of Orleans just got elected to Congress! CLICK HERE

I'm not sure, but I think the new congressman is the one in the middle.

Almost makes up for Kinky Friedman losing the Texas governor's race.


I think I'll start a exploratory committee for Devastatin' Dave.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: A NEW DEMOCRAT

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 10, 2006

I saw the hair and the mustache across the crowded ballroom.

There among the giddy Democrats celebrating at the Hotel Albuquerque Old Town, was Bob Schwartz, former district attorney in Bernalillo County and, for a few months this year, a candidate in the Republican primary for state attorney general.

Just to be a wise guy, I asked him, “So are you a Democrat now, Bob?”

His answer surprised me. “Yes, I sure am.”

Schwartz, who took a lot of lumps from Republicans for accepting a job as Gov. Bill Richardson’s crime adviser during the first three years of the governor’s first term, said it was unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl who finally drove him from the GOP.

Specifically, he said, it was the day last June when J.R. Damron, who had been the party’s nominee for governor, stepped down and was replaced on the ticket by Dendahl. Some Democrats accused Dendahl of engineering Damron’s exit. Both Damron and Dendahl have denied it.

“I read that in the Sunday paper, and the next day I went down and changed my affiliation,” Schwartz said.

Dendahl and Schwartz go way back.

When Schwartz ran for mayor of Albuquerque in 2001, losing to Democrat Martin Chávez, the Republican establishment backed another candidate, Mike McEntee. At that time, Dendahl was state GOP chairman.

When Schwartz announced his candidacy late last year, Dendahl said: “Bob Schwartz is not regarded by many rank-and-file Republicans as a Republican. Especially since serving for three years at the feet of The Emperor.” You can guess who The Emperor he referred to was.

Dendahl said he’d rather vote for a Democrat than Schwartz.

When the state GOP had its pre-primary convention this year, Schwartz didn’t have enough votes to get on the primary ballot.

During the campaign, Schwartz was part of Democrat Attorney General-elect Gary King’s Truth Squad, which answered attacks from Republican AG candidate Jim Bibb.

Asked whether he might end up with a job in King’s office, Schwartz said, “We haven’t discussed that.”

Nice guys finish last?: Re-elected U.S. Rep Tom Udall was feeling magnanimous at the party Tuesday night.


In an interview, he praised his Republican opponent, Ron Dolin, for running a clean and positive campaign. “He refrained from personal attacks in all our joint appearances,” Udall said.

Of course, a cynic could argue the clean and positive campaign didn’t do Dolin any good. Udall trounced the underfunded political unknown by a 3-to-1 margin.

But in fairness, Udall is a “nice guy” also.

Pat the Cable Guy: The Republicans clearly didn’t have as much fun as the Democrats on Tuesday night.

My colleague, David Miles — who was covering the GOP — reported it wasn’t all gloom and doom over at the Marriott Pyramid North in Albuquerque.

The only statewide Republican to win Tuesday was incumbent Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons.

When Lyons took the stage to declare victory, someone in the audience, using his best Larry-the-Cable-Guy imitation, yelled, “Get ’er done!”

Not missing a beat, Lyons — who kind of talks like Larry, anyway — responded, “We got ’er done!”

Tuesday, by the way, was Lyons’ 53rd birthday.

I’m guessing it was a happy one.

World Wide Weak: Here’s something both Democrats and Republicans can agree upon.

The most useless political tool in New Mexico has to be the secretary of state’s Web site.
For months, reporters, campaign staffers and interested citizens have complained about the campaign finance reports posted on that site.

Most of the reports are not in a format that can be searched. So if you want to know whether, say, Charlie Manson contributed to any of the candidates, you have to go through each report page by page.

Complaints have also surfaced throughout the election cycle about how long it takes to get reports posted to the Web site.

This problem grew into a crisis by the last reporting deadline, Nov. 2.

By the end of that day, the reports of only two statewide candidates — gubernatorial candidates Richardson and Dendahl — were posted on the site.

As a matter of fact, nearly a week past that deadline — the day after the election — those still are the only reports of statewide candidates there.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the site had only the reports of the two gubernatorial candidates, eight legislative candidates, a judicial candidate, a Public Regulation Commission candidate and a handful of county candidates.

No, I didn’t call the Secretary of State’s Office to find out the reason for this. At this point, I don’t want to hear the office’s excuses.

Someone should take the software used for this site back to Toys “R” Us and demand a refund.