NEW HAMPSHIRE BOUND

I'll be in Manchester and Concord, N.H. this weekend covering Gov. Bill Richardson's latest campaign trip there.

On Sunday night, starting about 5 p.m. Mountain Time, I'll be live blogging the debate, which is being shown on CNN. You can find that here on this very blog.

I've also promised to do a call-in with The New Mexican's Web site, which plans to run the audio.

I'll probably even snap a few photos up there. Check this site, The New Mexican, and my dynamic FLICKR page.

Here's a look at Richardson's schedule this weekend:

Saturday, June 2

New Hampshire- Eastern Time
WHEN: 9 am
WHAT: House Party at the Home of Jim Stevenson
WHERE: 468 Webster Street, Manchester, NH

WHEN: 10:30 am
WHAT: New Hampshire Democratic Convention
WHERE: 144 South Street, Rundlett Middle School, Concord, NH


WHEN: 1:45 pm
WHAT: The Governor will walk Union Street with Lily Mesa, Eva Castillo,
and Sonia Parra, ending at Don Quijote Restaurant
WHERE: Start at 362 Union Street, Manchester, NH

Iowa- Central Time
WHEN: 4:30 pm
WHAT: The Governor will participate in PrideFest 2007
WHERE: Greene Square Park, Cedar Rapids, IA

WHEN: 5:30 pm
WHAT: Iowa Hall of Fame Dinner
WHERE: Crowne Plaza, Five Seasons Hotel, 350 1st Avenue NE, Cedar Rapids, IA

Sunday, June 3

New Hampshire- Eastern Time
WHEN: 7:00 pm
WHAT: CNN, WMUR and the Union Leader 2008 Democratic Presidential Debate
WHERE: St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH

WHEN: Following the debate
WHAT: Debate Watch and post-debate party
WHERE: Richardson for President NH Headquarters, 545 Hookset Rd., Manchester, NH

I won't be going to Iowa with the campaign.

And I won't be doing my radio shows this weekend either. Laurell is sitting in for the Santa Fe Opry Friday, while Dan will be doing Terrell's Sound World Sunday night. Hear them on KSFR, 90.7 FM.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: LITTLE JOY IN BLOGVILLE FOR BILL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 31, 2007

The reviews are in, and there’s little joy in Blogville over Gov. Bill Richardson’s network-television performance Sunday on Meet the Press.

A quick survey of Google’s blog search shows overwhelming criticism about the presidential contender’s answers when asked about his initial support for the Iraq war, changing his opinion on the latest immigration bill, serving on oil-company boards, shifting positions on gun laws, his response to a dead Marine’s mother who says she’s been politically exploited and New Mexico’s embarrassing rankings in national statistics on poverty, crime and education.

Connecticut journalist Colin McEnrow, who blogs on the Hartford Courant’s Web site — and says he “kind of likes” Richardson — wrote, “I have to assume that, when they cut to a break, Richardson vomited into a waste basket. It was that bad.”

Comments on the liberal Daily Kos blog also largely were critical. One Kos commentator was “flabbergasted” by the interview, writing in all-lower-case: “he’s obviously a very bright and talented guy, but he was absolutely terrible in an hour long, one on one setting. he seemed to embody so many of the common stereotypes about dems, especially the ones about not taking firm positions. … get thee to a media trainer, bill.”

Mainstream Web media also was harsh. MSNBC’s First Read had this to say about the appearance: “If you missed Bill Richardson’s appearance on ‘Meet’ on Sunday, the campaign is probably pleased.”

Slate’s John Dickerson wrote perhaps the most blistering review, saying Richardson “self-destructed.”

“Richardson is a world-famous hostage negotiator, so it was poignant to watch him fail to rescue himself from his own hostage crisis,” he wrote. “By the end of the hour, he wasn’t answering questions so much as swatting at them. … Sometimes, he contradicted himself within just a few breaths. After explaining why he changed positions on the assault-weapons ban, he broadly asserted, ‘I don’t change my positions.’ ”

Missed opportunities: Some bloggers complained the show’s host, Tim Russert, was too rough on the governor. Some even charged the interviewer tends to go softer on Republicans.

But there were a couple of times that Russert let him slide.

For example, when he played the Richardson “interview” ad, he could have questioned why Richardson was bragging about getting a “cease-fire” in Darfur when that agreement he helped negotiate was being broken before the ink was even dry.

And when Richardson gave his standard “I had to make a living” answer when asked about serving on oil company boards, Russert could have said, “What? Henry Kissinger was paying minimum wage?” (During that period when he was on the oil company boards — between jobs as energy secretary and governor — Richardson was senior managing director of Kissinger McLarty Associates, an international consulting firm headed by the former secretary of state.)

For his part, Richardson missed a chance when he was explaining the different stories about a conversation he says took place at the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq. (Richardson says Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin’s mother talked to him about death benefits are for those killed in action. The mom denies ever having that conversation.) The gov could have scored points with Democrats by saying, “At least I go to some of these funerals of our soldiers and Marines killed in this war — unlike a certain commander-in-chief.”


Stee-rike!: What seemed to get the most reaction, however, is the grave national issue of Richardson’s torn allegiance between the Boston Red Sox and The New York Yankees.

This not only upset fans of both teams, but those who said his statements make him look like a pandering politician.

A New Hampshire blog called No Looking Backwards railed against Richardson’s latest baseball dilemma in a post called “How to Be a Carnivore and a Vegetarian.”

But all the above is wrong: At least according to Richardson’s campaign Web site, which found some blogs that praised Richardson’s performance. One, called The Appletonian, boldly declares the governor “did pretty well.” (Bizarre! That post was up Wednesday afternoon. But by the time I posted this column on the Web it had disappeared from the site.)

Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley blogs that “Gov. Richardson was candid and direct and handled the tough questions well. He looked very Presidential.”

But Shipley might have been on an intense caffeine and sugar high: “The coffee in the green room at NBC is great and the pastries are sinful — I had too many while watching the governor’s appearance.”

More Bill TV: Richardson will surely have an easier time on his next national television appearance. C-SPAN, cable television’s public-affairs network, plans to show the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame dinner Saturday, where Richardson and some of his rivals are scheduled to speak. That begins live at 5:30 p.m. MDT.

The next night, Richardson is to participate in a Democratic presidential candidate debate in New Hampshire on CNN, which shows here at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Adios Villaraigosa: Besides those reviews of his Meet the Press appearance, the Richardson campaign got some bad news this week when Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles, endorsed U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the California primary.

Richardson supported the Hispanic mayor’s 2005 campaign, during which New Mexico’s Democratic Party sent six staffers to Los Angeles to help with the effort. Richardson launched his campaign in Los Angeles this month, though the mayor was conspicuously absent.

“I know Bill Richardson quite well, and I think I’ll say his strength is his experience and his record, not his ethnicity,” Villaraigosa told The New York Times.

But apparently that strength wasn’t strong enough to get the endorsement.

R.I.P. LAURA ELLEN

The music in Heaven just got better this week.

Laura Ellen Hopper of KPIG Radio in Watsonville, Calif. died Monday. You can read her obit HERE.

I didn't know her well. Never met her face-to-face. But I recall how nice to me she was when my CD came out back in 1996. She not only put it on the KPIG play list for awhile, but she wrote a letter of recommendation to another station for me. And she told me not to get discouraged by stations that weren't cool enough to play the type of stuff we like.

Most importantly, I admired her work. KPIG is one of the cooler commercial stations on the face of the planet. And before she created KPIG, she co-founded KFAT, which had to be the coolest station in the Universe.

Laura Ellen will be missed.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 27, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
NEW: email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Need Somebody by ? & The Mysterians
Juvenile by The Black Lips
Slip Insde This House by The 13th Floor Elevators
Can't Be So Bad by Moby Grape
Mooney by The Kilimonjaro Yak Attack
Riot on Sunset Strip by The Standells
Edith by Buick MacKane
Nest of The Cuckoo Bird by The Cramps


Bill Richardson Campaign Theme Suggestions

Mr. Big Stuff by Jean Knight
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now by Emmett Miller
Billy Boy by Jerry Lee Lewis
Built For Comfort by Howlin' Wolf
The Envoy by Warren Zevon
Bill Richardson by Angel Espinoza
I Want to Grow Up to Be a Politician by The Byrds

Time Travel Freaks by The Harry Perry Band

Echoes from Neptune/Shenandoah by The Surf Lords
Shredded Heat by Dick Dale
Let Loose the Kraken by The Bald Guys
Whittier Blvd. by Los Straitjackets
The Ghastly Stomp (Everyone's Doin') by The Ghastly Ones
Cha Wow Wow by The Hillbilly Soul Surfers
Escape Velocity by Man or Astroman?
Fish Taco by Surfacide
Ginza Lights by Satan's Pilgrims
Land of the One Percenters by The Bomboras
Black Widow by Link Wray

Let's Get Radical by Gogol Bordello
Willesden to Cricklewood by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Red Angel Dragnet by The Clash
Another Side of This Life by The Jefferson Airplane
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 25, 2007
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 Eggs of Your Chickens by The Flatlanders
Monkey Face Gene by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Artificial Flowers by Cornell Hurd Band
Join the Club by The Wacos Brothers
The Lucky and the Lonely by Randy Kohrs
I'm Gonna Take You Home and Make You Like Me by Robbie Fulks with Donna Fulks
Big Ol' White Boys by Terry Allen

Hoy Hoy by The Collins Kids
Rockin' Bandit by Ray Smith
Treat Me Right by Cliff & Barbara Thomas
Baboon Boogie by Jimmy Murphy
Split Personality by Clyde Leopard's Snearly Ranch Boys
Good Rockin' Baby by Sid King & The Five Strings
Red Hot by Billy Lee Riley
Down on the Farm by Big Al Dowling
Low Down Dog by Sleepy LaBeef
Religious Discussion (Sam Phillips & Jerry Lee Lewis)
Wild One by Jerry Lee Lewis

Jack's St. Pete Blues by Ronny Elliott
No Good For Me by Waylon Jennings
Night of the Wolves by Gary Heffern
Road Too Long by Bill Hearne's Roadhouse Revue
Weary Blues From Waitin' by The The
God's House Ringing Dark and True by The Gourds
Do You Call That A Buddy by Martin, Bogan & Armstrong

Coldwater by John Hammond
Icewater by Peter Case
Three Chords and The Truth by Ry Cooder
Goin' The Country by C.W. Stoneking
Border Radio by Dave Alvin
Wish I Could by Marlee MacLeod
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

PETE'S POLLS

My story about Sen. Pete Domenici's falling poll numbers in this morning's New Mexican can be found HERE.

Survey USA's recent poll on Domenici and Sen. Jeff Bingaman can be found HERE.

To track Survey USA's monthly polls on Domenici for the past two years, CLICK HERE

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS (AND A COOL VIDEO)

First the bad news:

Frogville John informs me there will be no Frogfest this year. That's disappointing because last year's was so much fun for the few of us who attended. But I can't blame him. You blew it, Santa Fe! (For my thoughts on last year's Frogfest CLICK HERE and HERE)

But the good news is that Frogville is hosting three concerts at Santa Fe Brewing Company this summer. The first two already are set:

JUNE 9th 6pm-1am
A CD release party for Goshen's Lioness

7 pm Hundred Year Flood
9 pm Boris & the Saltlicks
11 pm Goshen
with special MC, Joe West
$10.00 at the door

June 27th 7pm-12 am
a double CD release Party for:
ThaMuseMeant's never settle for less and Nathan's In his own worlds

ThaMusueMeant
Nathan Moore
Taarka
This will be the only New Mexico show this year for these guys. I don't have the price on this one yet.

I just spotted this video of Hundred Year Flood doing "Rich Man's War" at last year's Frogfest. It brings back memories of a great show. (If you look at the audience shot near the very last you'll find my pretty face.)

(Speaking of HYF, the group is scheduled to appear on this Sunday’s “Gotta Dance” program on KSFR 90.7 FM, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time. You can hear a stream of the show on the KSFR site.)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BLUES DON'T GET MUCH BETTER

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 25, 2007

For years and years I’ve basically dismissed John Hammond Jr. as a well-meaning but inconsequential blues interpreter. Granted, Hammond, who is playing at the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Friday, May 25, has been at it for 45 years now.

The son of the hallowed producer who discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen, Hammond the younger released his first album in 1962, the same year Bob Dylan’s first album was released. This was an era in which Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and Son House were doing the coffeehouse circuit, and the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson ruled Chicago like tribal warlords.

My attitude toward Hammond was always, “Why should I listen to this guy when I can listen to the originals?” Undoubtedly some latent reverse-discrimination attitude was at work here.

I’ve got to admit that attitude didn’t change until a few years back, when Hammond released Wicked Grin, a blues-upped collection of songs by Tom Waits. I guess you could ask, “Why should I listen to this guy when I can listen to Waits’ originals?”

But on that 2001 album, Hammond did everything artists are supposed to do with cover songs. He got to the kernel of each tune and added fresh perspective. There are several cuts on Wicked Grin — “Murder in the Red Barn” for instance — that I like as well as or better than the originals. The album made me re-evaluate my attitude toward Hammond.

But I don’t think it’s just my attitude that’s changed. I think Hammond has gotten better with age. Not only does his most recent work rock more than before, but his voice has aged exquisitely. Whether he’s going into a falsetto cry on Junior Well’s “Come Into This House” or doing a one-man call and response on the choruses of “Take a Fool’s Advice,” he sounds like a grizzled blues prophet.

While I’m not ready to say that Hammond’s latest album, Push Comes to Shove, is as good as Wicked Grin, the new record is one of the freshest-sounding blues efforts I’ve heard in months. It’s nice and raw, hard-edged in places but with a lighthearted feel throughout most of the tracks.

He’s assembled a cool little roadhouse band, with the most valuable player (besides Hammond himself) being Bruce Katz on keyboards. Most of the record features Hammond on electric guitar, which, as far as I’m concerned, is Hammond’s greatest strength despite all his years as an acoustic-blues troubadour. On this album, Hammond’s guitar is loud and raunchy but not flashy. It grates and howls.

Push is produced by Garrett Dutton, better known as the one who put the Love in G. Love & Special Sauce, a group known for its hip-hop-informed blues rock.

In the album’s liner notes, Hammond’s wife, Marla, says the producer met the artist at a 1992 Hammond show near Philadelphia. Dutton was too young to drink at the time, and he approached the first couple he saw who looked like they were old enough to buy him a beer. It turned out to be the Hammonds. (The notes don’t say whether the couple defied Pennsylvania liquor laws and illegally purchased alcohol for a minor.)

Hammond and Dutton next crossed paths in 2005 at a train station in Japan. And from that encounter this album grew.

Although Hammond’s never been known as a songwriter, most of my favorite tunes on Push are Hammond originals. This includes the title song, which kicks off the album with some nasty, distorted guitar licks; “You Know That’s Cold,” which rocks hard with Hammond on National steel guitar and harmonica; and “Take a Fool’s Advice,” which sounds as if he’s communing with the restless ghost of Willie Dixon.

For all us Wicked Grin fans, there’s a Waits song here called “Cold Water.” It’s a gospel-flavored tune, a natural singalong number that reminds me of The Band at the group’s best. Katz even sounds like Garth Hudson on organ and accordion. The good-time feel of the song is belied by some of the verses that describe a grim world:

“Seen them fellows with the cardboard signs/Scrapin’ up a little money to buy a bottle of wine/Pregnant women and Vietnam vets/Beggin’ on the freeway, ’bout as hard as it gets.”

Modern blues just doesn’t get much better than this.

Hammond plays at 7 p.m. Friday; Santa Fe Brewing Company is at 27 Fire Place off N.M. 14, south of Santa Fe. The cover is $19 in advance and $25 at the door; call 424-3333 for information.

Hammond also plays the Outpost Performance Space (210 Yale Blvd. S.E. in Albuquerque, 505-268-0044) at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 26. Tickets are $25 or $20 for Outpost members. And he’s at the Silver City Blues Festival at Gough Park (corner of Pope and 12th streets) at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 27. If you want to drive down to Silver City, the festival is free.

Also recommended:
*King Hokum by C.W. Stoneking. Speaking of acoustic-blues troubadours, here’s a record by an American-born singer who moved to the outback of Australia as a child and got his start busking on the streets of Melbourne.

Performing all original material, Stoneking goes right for the swampy, spooky soul of the blues on songs like “Don’t Go Dancin’ Down the Darktown Strutters Ball,” which opens with a clanging bell, a barking dog, and ominous footsteps. Stoneking plays a banjo that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Waits tune like “Murder in the Red Barn.” By the end of the first chorus he’s joined by his band, The Primitive Horn Orchestra, which could only be described as Dixieland Goth. (They sound a lot like Stoneking’s Voodoo Rhythm label mates The Dead Brothers.)

But as the title reveals, most of the album is dedicated to hokum — funny, suggestive blues that springs from vaudeville and even minstrelsy. I hear echoes of 1920s and ’30s acts like Barbecue Bob & Laughin’ Charlie and Butterbeans & Susie (especially on the comic dialogue of “You Took My Thing and Put It in Your Place”). And “DoDo Blues” sounds a lot like an old Emmett Miller blackface routine.

It’s politically incorrect on several levels, but it’s loads of devilish fun.

CAMPAIGN THEMES

My column about possible campaign themes for Bill Richardson is getting a good response and lots of suggestions. I'm saving them all for another column in the near future. (Talk about lazy journalism ... letting the readers do the work!) E-mail me with your suggestions or leave a comment on this blog.

Meanwhile, I'll play the ones I listed, plus a couple more on Terrell's Sound World Sunday night. I'll do that portion of the show about 10:30 pm (Mountain Time). You can hear it on the Web from the KSFR site.

I found a few versions of some of those songs on YouTube. Check 'em out.

PRIVATE PRISONS

My story about New Mexico paying far more for private prisons than other state do can be found HERE.

It's another case of big campaign donations having nothing to do with state policies.

Here's a study that the Institute of Money in State Politics did last year about campaign contributions from private prisons. CLICK HERE Scroll down to page 94 and you'll see that little ol' New Mexico is in the Top 10 states for political contributions for these companies.