GOLDEN THROAT LIVE

They couldn't get Shatner, and Jack Webb is dead.

But Santa Fe's Golden Throats show of the year will be this Friday night when The Kevin Costner Band plays a free concert at the Rodeo Grounds.

That's not quite as cool as Nancy Apple appearing live on The Santa Fe Opry later Friday night, (10 p.m., KSFR 101.1 FM), but, hey, it's a free show.

Here's a clip of KC giving William Shatner a run for his money



Updated 4-25-17. Original Youtube video deleted.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 16, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and out new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Beat Goes On by The Pretty Things
Loaded Heart by The Gore Gore Girls
Johnny's Got a Gun by Dead Moon
Slime and Oxygen by The Black Lips
Jesus Loves a Jezebel by Goshen
You Better Believe by The Oblivians
When You Touch me by The Reigning Sound
Downtown by Petula's Joy Boys

Sodom & Gomorrah by The Village People
People Who Died by The Jim Carrol Band
Lover's Lane by The Dirty Novels
Carry Me Home by The Hentchmen
Roadhouse Blues by The Doors
Misinformed by Soul Coughing
Shakin' All Over by Lolita #18
Nothin' Shakin' by Linda Gail Lewis



MEKONS SET
(All songs by The Mekons)

Give Us Wine or Money
The Flame That Killed John Wayne
Revenge
Darkness
Shanty
Whiskey Sex Shack
The Ballad of Sally
Perfect Mirror
Cast No Shadow (by The Mekons with Kelly Hogan, Neko Case & Edith Frost)

Chelsea Rodgers by Prince
Mr. Grieves by TV on the Radio
Patriot's Heart by American Music Club
The Phoenix by Judee Sill
The House Where Nobody Lives by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

ROLLER DERBY DAZE

It probably was only a matter of time, but it's official. I'm a roller derby fan!

We went Saturday to the Duke City Derby in Albuquerque, where the Doomsdames kept their perfect record for the season, defeating the Hobots (who, naturally I was rooting for.)

It's a fast-paced game that takes awhile to comprehend and keep track of the scoring, etc. But about halfway through the first period I started catching on.

Though the Hobots lost, their main jammer, Blastoff Betty seemed to be the best athlete there. (She was so fast I never got a decent photo of her. She's not in the picture above.)

Speaking of photos, check my FLICKR page.

After the roller derby, we went to the State Fair, where we discovered a new band: Petula's Joy Boys:

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ARE ETHICAL BILLS ETHICAL?

Legislative leaders, who met Friday to hear representatives of the National Conference of State Legislators talk about ethics reform bills, took a bold stand against pressure from special interest groups.

However, the only "special interests" they tackled were "citizen advocacy groups" and "the media," who have "stirred up cynicism" to pressure the Legislature to pass ethics bills.

Quote of the day was by Senate majority Leader Michael Sanchez: “Are we passing legislation because of demands of a certain interest group? Are we being ethical passing this ethics legislation if we’re passing these bills we don’t believe in because we’re being pressured by these special interest groups?”

For this and other philiosopical paradoxes, see my story in today's New Mexican.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 14, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Chicken Plucker by Charlie Feathers
Way Out by Heavy Trash
Muleskinner Blues by Scott H. Biram
That's No Way to Get Along by Richard Johnston
One Man Against the World (Part 1) by John Schooley
Bad Habit ot Two by Ronnie Dawson
Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White
Parallel Bars by Robbie Fulks with Kelly Willis

Slide Me Some Sugar by Nancy Apple
Goodbye Marie by The Gear Daddies
Qualudes Again by Bobby Bare
Vagabond Motel by Trailer Bride
When the Whiskey Turns to Tears by Cornell Hurd
I'm Happy by Hasil Adkins
When The Hammer Came Down by House of Freaks
When Leon Spinx Moved Into Town by Califone
Take Me Back to Tulsa by Merle Haggard

Perfect Mirror by The Mekons
The Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
Worried Mind by Johnny Dowd
The Great Hank by Robert Earl Keen
I Saw the Light by The The
Window Shopping by Hank Williams
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith
Accidently on Purpose by Johnny Paycheck

Winning Again by Billy Joe Shaver with Marty Stuart
Payday Blues by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Hog of the Forsaken by Michael Hurley
Lonely Just Like Me by John Prine
Cheap Watch by Freakwater
I've Got a Tender Heart by Eleni Mandell
Broken Butterflies by Lucinda Williams
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: POST-APOCALYPTIC DRUID PUNK

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 14, 2007


Natural, the new album by The Mekons, is a deceptively subdued effort marking the 30th anniversary of these punk-rock survivors. If the band was getting back to its roots with the previous effort, 2004’s Punk Rock — on which The Mekons covered old songs by The Mekons — on the new one, the band seems to be exploring even deeper roots.

With songs written following a retreat at an old farmhouse in the remote English countryside, the lyrics and much of the music suggest a primordial journey back to ancient, pastoral Britain — the days of pagan joy when country folk danced around old stone circles and talked to mysterious birds.

“The twisted trees sing/Dark, dark, dark/Broken branches hidden/Far down below,” Mekon Tom Greenhalgh moans on the dirgelike first song.
“We wait for fire/We used to dance/Around the stone head/It used to sing to us,” Jon Langford sings on “Perfect Mirror,” which, if you didn’t pay attention to the lyrics, would sound like a spooky cowboy song.

“Dance the toes right off your feet/Making up the story as you go/The dancers are all dead we know/Behind the white stone door,” Sally Timms sings in “White Stone Door,” a lilting tune featuring an African kalimba.

The Mekons’ Web site has a section of notes on the album, with references to The Golden Bough, Yeats, the I Ching, the Talmud, and Goya.

You can almost imagine getting lost in the soft, seductive, sometimes meandering sounds, gradually realizing that, all along, the members of the band have been busy constructing a giant wicker man — and you’re inside waiting for the burning.


“Ignore the human sacrifice/Burning, in the desert burning/Take no notice take no care/Burning, in the desert burning,” go the chantlike lyrics of “Burning in the Desert Burning.”

But the song isn’t really a description of some ancient druidic rite. There are references here that have modern implications. “Martyrs queuing up for heaven/Burning, in the desert burning/Children queuing up for hell/Burning, in the desert burning.”

Sometimes it seems that this record is set in some post-apocalyptic society populated by rural gangs of outlaws. Paste magazine quoted Timms describing Natural as “campfire recordings in the nuclear winter.”

“The children have been told to kill/And taught to pray for plenty/And on the earth where blood is spilt/The few must feed the many,” Greenhalgh and Langford sing on “Give Me Wine or Money.”

Natural may be hard to warm up to for Mekons fans longing for rousing rockers like “Thee Olde Trip to Jerusalem,” “Memphis, Egypt,” or “The Flame That Killed John Wayne.” But there are some great moments here.

With its plunking banjo and honking harmonica, “Give Me Wine or Money” shows that The Mekons, while dabbling in a wide variety of styles, remain the greatest punk-country band. And “The Hope and The Anchor,” thanks to Timms’ breathy, angelic vocals and Susie Honeyman’s fiddle, is one of the prettiest tunes The Mekons have ever done.

This is the perfect album when you feel like dancing with ghosts.

Also recommended:
* Going Way Out With Heavy Trash by Heavy Trash As founder and frontman for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jon Spencer was known for reducing the blues to its raunchy essential spark. Teamed up with Matt Verta-Ray, Spencer’s Heavy Trash does much the same with rockabilly. This is Heavy Trash’s second album and it’s even more fun than the (self-titled) first one.

Rockabilly is the basic building block here, but this is heavily mutated and mutilated rockabilly, beyond the “psychobilly” of decades past. Spencer sounds like a dangerous lunatic screaming through a megaphone at a riot.

On “That Ain’t Right” the Trash boys, backed by The Sadies, sound like nastier versions of Johnny Cash. “Crying Tramp” is a tremolo-heavy, ’50s-ish swamp ballad from Mars. But my favorite is the song “Way Out,” which shows the influences of Link Wray, Johnny Burnett, and The Yardbirds. There’s just a touch of organ and snarling shis might be trash, but it’s trash done right.

* One Man Against the World by John Schooley and His One Man Band. Those who attended this year’s Thirsty Ear Festival were treated to the crash ’n’ bash one-man blues of Memphis street musician Richard Johnston. Well, here’s a Texas version of Johnston, an even crazier one-man blues machine named John Schooley.

Like Johnston, Schooley plays guitar (lotsa slide!), drums, and sometimes harmonica simultaneously. He sometimes drifts into country music, knowing full well the cultural and cosmic connections between country and the blues, creating a raw but joyful noise way beyond what you’d think a lone humanoid could produce.

Schooley covers R.L. Burnside, Howlin’ Wolf, the late Lee Hazlewood (“If you don’t like Lee Hazlewood, I don’t like you,” Schooley says in the liner notes), and the rockabilly classic “Wildcat Tamer.” And he’s even got an original murder ballad, “The Crooked Path,” based on a true story about the killing of four people in a house in Missouri in 1951, in which the killer confesses, “They were good neighbors, but they didn’t like me.”

Radio Mekons: It’s been a few years since I’ve done a full-fledged Mekons set on Terrell’s Sound World. So tune in this Sunday on KSFR-FM 90.7 (simulcast on 101.1 FM). The show starts at 10 p.m., and I’ll start playing The Mekons at 11

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: MORE PARTIES, MORE PALS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 14, 2007

Only weeks after the controversy that ensued after longtime Gov. Bill Richardson pal and campaign contributor Gerald Peters held a fundraiser for Richardson’s presidential campaign while negotiating a state contract, another longtime Richardson pal and campaign contributor is hosting a fundraiser for Richardson’s presidential campaign.

This time, the longtime pal is Paul Blanchard, whose business interests include racetracks in Albuquerque and Hobbs. The fundraiser is scheduled for Sept. 21 at Blanchard’s home in Albuquerque.

Blanchard, who leases The Downs at Albuquerque from the state, this year applied to move the operation to a 500-acre site in Moriarity. There he’d build a one-mile oval racetrack, 22 barns, horse-breeding farms with training facilities, a casino, a hotel, a food court and a truck stop. The estimated cost of the project is $65 million.

Julian Luna, executive director of the state Racing Commission, confirmed Wednesday that the proposal is still pending.

Asked about the fundraiser, Richardson campaign spokesman Tom Reynolds said, “At all times and without exception, Governor Richardson makes decisions and acts only in the best interest of New Mexico. Contributions or support of any kind have no effect on decisions made by state agencies or the Governor’s Office.”

That’s basically the same answer given by Richardson and other spokesmen last month when asked about the Peters fundraiser.

Blanchard couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Peters event was held at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in August. At the time, a Peters company was negotiating with the state over a contract to build a new Department of Transportation headquarters in Santa Fe. After controversy erupted in the newspapers, Richardson’s office announced the state would re-bid the project.

Blanchard’s contributions: Richardson and Blanchard have been friends for years. Blanchard is included in the dedication of Richardson’s autobiography Between Worlds.

Richardson appointed Blanchard to the state Board of Finance during the governor’s first term and to the state Investment Council for the current term.

The racetrack owner served as Richardson’s finance chairman in his 2002 campaign. In addition to raising cash, Blanchard, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, donated $10,000. His wife, Kandace Blanchard, gave another $10,000 in 2002, while The Downs at Albuquerque contributed $100,000.

In 2006, Blanchard contributed $80,000 to Richardson’s re-election. His Zia Park operation in Hobbs gave $37,500, while The Downs at Albuquerque contributed $36,000.

In the presidential race, both Paul and Kandace Blanchard have donated $2,300, which is the maximum contribution allowed for the primary season under federal law. That’s also reportedly the suggested amount to contribute at next week’s fundraiser.

Not one, but two fundraisers: Political blogger Joe Monahan reported this week that in addition to the Blanchard event Sept. 21, Richardson also will be attending a less exclusive fundraiser in Albuquerque at which the admission cost is a mere $25.

I wonder which party attracts more people who have or who want state contracts.

Cover Boy: Guess whose smiling face graces the cover of the September issue of Accent Albuquerque magazine. None other than former state Senate juggernaut Manny Aragon.

This is surprising because Aragon has been lying low in recent months, following his indictment on federal corruption charges in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Courthouse scandal.

Aragon apparently talked with the magazine, going a little beyond the brusque statement he gave reporters the last time I saw him, in April at the federal courthouse in Albuquerque.

“Those of you who were in the courtroom know that I have pleaded not guilty,” he said then. “I have only one further statement. I am completely innocent.”

In Accent Albuquerque, Aragon refers to the fact his case was the investigation that last year spurred Sen. Pete Domenici and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, both Republicans from New Mexico to call U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Iglesias later said he felt pressured to file charges against Aragon and others before last November’s election. This, many say, would have helped Wilson’s tight re-election race.

But the charges weren’t filed until this year, several months after Iglesias was fired by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Iglesias was one of eight U.S. attorneys fired allegedly for political reasons.

“I’m somewhat disheartened that the FBI took the unheard of step of saying that they had completed their investigation in the news media shortly before U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was pressured by Republican political figures to indict me,” Aragon told the magazine. “I think the U.S. attorney wasn’t acting earlier because they had no case. I believe the FBI and U.S. attorney may have received political pressure.”

Aragon also was quoted saying, “Every single billing at metro court had been justified as far as I can tell. They should have looked at this case a lot closer.”

Aragon and others indicted are accused of skimming more than $4 million from the state by padding invoices.

YOU THINK YOU HAVE PROBLEMS?

Thanks to Molly for alerting me to this.

R.I.P. ROBERT HARLIN BEASLEY

As a reporter, I've written my share of obits. But I've never written one as direct, honest and strangely moving as this one, which appeared Sunday in my old hometown paper The Daily Oklahoman.

Here's some of it:

Robert Harlin Beasley Whether the glass was half full or half empty, Harlin drank it anyway during the 86 years he roamed the planet-up and down. A less-than-secure childhood punctuated by a split in the nuclear family that took him from Oklahoma City to Hydro at the age of nine and took his father away, created a life-long struggle with depression. He was a bright kid and despite being a city slicker, he got along with the farm boys of Hydro and was a pretty good Judge of livestock. His real passion was music, the clarinet and sax, and placing them in his western-swing band at dances in the southwest, at one of which, he met a certain Helen Swanda of the famed Swanda girls of Carnegie. Another passion was alcohol, the muse that almost works. Booze and a band, what could be better? ... We will cherish the memories, even the scary ones, so in !ieu of flowers, buy another round.

This man was loved.

God's western-swing band just got rowdier!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 9, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Guest Co-host: Stanley "Rosebud" Rosen
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and out new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM

POST LABOR DAY SPECIAL
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Plenty Tough and Union Made by The Waco Brothers
There is Power in the Union by The Solidarity Singers
Joe Hill by Paul Robeson
Winds of Change by Doc Metzger
Ship Gonna Sail by Utah Phillips
Sweetheart's on the Barricade by Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson

Oh Freedom/No More Auction Block by Kim & Reggie Harris
Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed
Men With Broken Hearts by Hank Williams
Let it Ride by Bill Hearne
Dark As a Dungeon by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
By the Sweat of My Brow by Hazel Dickens
Empty Pocket Blues by Ronnie Gilbert with Robin Flower & Libby McLarren

The Death of Mother Jones by Gene Autry
Brother Can You Spare a Dime by Bing Crosby
I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister/Rebel Girl by Bucky Halker
Bread and Roses by Healy & Jurvavich
Bread and Roses by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anyore by John Prine
Mr. President Have Pity on the Working Man by Randy Newman

Babes in the Mill by Dorsey Dixon
This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
Port of Amsterdam by Dave Van Ronk
Bush War Blues by Billy Bragg
DeColores by Brooklyn Women's Chorus
We Shall Not Be Moved/Roll the Union On by Joe Glazer
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis