TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 11, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our 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
You Dress Up For Armageddon by The Hives
I Remember You by Deadbolt
Mystery Trip by The Chesterfield Kings
Ain't That Her by The Remains
Doin' the Shout by John Lee Hooker
Justine by The Righteous Brothers
Gruby Jak Elvis by by T. Love
Flower Punk by The Mothers of Invention
Life of Pain by Black Flag
What I See by The Dirty Projectors

Kicks and Chicks by The Zipps
I'm Bigger than You by The Mummies
I Met Roky Erikson by Daniel Johnston & Jad Fair
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson
Deep in The Woods by The Birthday Party
When My Love Comes Down by Grinderman
Action by Electriccoolade
Nobody Gets Me Down by T-Model Ford

Let Them Knock by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Hey Sallie Mae (Get Off My Feet) by Lee Fields
Come on In by The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker
Everybody is a Star by Fishbone
I'm So Proud by The Isley Brothers
B-A-B-Y by Carla Thomas
Talking Old Soldiers by Bettye LaVette

VETERAN'S DAY SET
Veteran's Day by Tom Russell
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen
Sam Stone by Swamp Dogg
Western Hero by Neil Young
Navajo Code Talker by Vincent Craig
The Green Fields of France by The Dropkick Murphys
Soldier's Things by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TOM AND HEATHER SHARE A STAGE

U.S. Reps. Tom Udall and Heather Wilson shared a stage today at the Veteran's Day celebration in Santa Fe. Both were smart enough not to talk about the Senate race or other partisan matters during the ceremony.

Udall told me afterward that he'll be making a formal announcement sometime during Congress' Thanksgiving break. He said he might be announcing his campaign team sometime this week.

Wilson wouldn't talk about Udall's entry into the race -- or who she'd rather run against, Udall or Marty Chavez.

I dragged my son to the event. He took a picture of his dad in action:

TEACH ME TO GO TO A MOVIE ON MY DAY OFF

While I was enjoying American Gangster, Tom Udall's staff was announcing that he's entering the U.S. Senate race.

In other developments, Don Wiviott, who has for months been running for Senate, is switching to Udall's open House seat. State Auditor Hector Balderas told my editor he's not running for CD 3, while County Commissioner Harry Montoya told me he definitely is. Former State Rep. Patsy Trujillo is forming an "exploratory committee" for the Congressional race.

See the wire story about Udall HERE.

A memo from Udall's pollster, showing Udall beating anything that moves, is HERE (Thanks, Heath)

And my analysis piece Friday is HERE.

And yes, I did like American Gangster, thank you very much.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the New Mexican's story in Sunday's paper.

DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY ...

I was listening to The Twisted Groove on KSFR after my show last night (early this morning) and heard a song that was hauntingly familiar. The title was "Monkey Ska" by ska pioneer Derrick Harriet. 

It was the refrain that nearly made me fall onto the floor: "Don't know what to say the monkey won't do." 

 You see, when my son was two or three he said he'd written a song called "Don't Know What to Say What the Monkeys Won't Do." I was amazed. 

Just the title alone filled me with wonder. I compared him to Captain Beefheart. But obvously, after hearing Harriet's song on the radio that my son had heard it as a toddler. It's not the type of music his mother would be listening to, so I still was amazed. 

But this morning when I played a clip of the song I found on the Internet, my son, now 15, remembered he'd seen it on the cartoon show Animaniacs. Sure enough, we found it on YouTube.

 

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 9, 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
Ghost Riders in the Sky by The Last Mile Ramblers
I Told Her Lies by Robbie Fulks
If Tomorrow Never Comes by Todd Snider
Nothin' by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Dark End of the Street by The Flying Burritto Brothers
Skip a Rope by The Kentucky Headhunters
Daddy's Cup by Drive-By Truckers

Kiss Me Honey/Wang Dang Blues by Hank Penny
Been Down Too Long by Scott Birham
Roly Poly by James Luther Dickinson
Brand New Heartbreak by Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh
Dollar Dress by The Waco Brothers
Don't Make Me Pregnant by Tammy Faye Starlite
The Week of Living Dangerously by Steve Earle



HANK THOMPSON TRIBUTE
All songs by HT except where noted
Oklahoma Hills
Sting in This Old Bee
I'm Tired of Prestending
The Wild Side of Life
Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells
Three Times Seven
I Like My Chicken Frying Size
Squaws Along the Yukon
Whoa Sailor by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Rub a Dubb Dubb
A Sixpack to Go


Long John Blue by The Cerrillos Islanders
Blue Asian Reds by Terry Allen
I Guess We Shouldn't Talk About That Now by Bettye LaVette
I'm Not Coming Down by Ed Pettersen
Cupid's Arrow by Amy LaVere
It Only Rains on Me by Don Williams
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

SWEET LORDY JESUS!

"Sometimes I feel like Arthur Bremer
In my motel room
I got my pornographic comic books
I'm hearing voices from the tomb.
I've been stalking you like a cobra, baby
Ready any time you like.
Ain't nothin' gonna stop me, mam
When it's time to strike ..."

From "Pinhead for Your Love"
Stephen W. Terrell, poet.
Circa 1978


And now they're freeing Artie Bremer, the guy who shot George Wallace down in 1972. And it looks like Sarah Jane Moore might be getting out too. (But not Squeaky. She apparently likes prison life.) Here's a story about it: CLICK HERE.

Could this lead to an aging (would-be) assassins speaking tour? It's got to be worth at least one big Larry King show.

R.I.P. HANK THOMPSON

Hank Thompson died on Tuesday.

Another great country singer gone ... and so soon after Porter Wagoner.

My brother just sent me this picture of himself, our pal Jeff Hett and Hank from the mid 70s when my brother and Jeff went to the Hank Thompson School of Country Music at ehat is now Rogers State College in Claremore, Oklahoma. (Junior Brown later went there and taught there.)

I've told this story before: I was introduced to Hank Thompson by none other than Roger Miller in the early '80s when Hank played at the Line Camp in Pojoaque. That was a wonderful night for my ego! I still remember sitting around the Line Camp dressing room with Roger and Hank. "Steve's from Oklahoma City," Roger said. "He's from Reno Street." (That was an area of downtown OKC once known for its rough bars.) Hank, who used to have a televison show in Oklahoma City, got a kick out of that.

A few years earlier, when Hank played the old Ramada Inn bar on Cerrillos Road, my date and I were asked by the management not to dance. I guess a couple of hippies doing the Reno Street Swing or whatever it was was intimidating the regular customers.

Yes, there will be a tribute to Hank Thompson on tonight's Santa Fe Opry (the show starts 10 pm Mountain time on KSFR, 101. FM in New Mexico and streaming on the Web. )

TOM UDALL: WILL HE GO FOR IT?

My analysis piece on Tom Udall's possible Senate bid can be found HERE.

My story on the Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll on the New Mexico Senate race is HERE

But why read that when you can see the poll itself?

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: IMMORTAL SOUL

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

Soul belter Bettye LaVette made a more-than-respectable “comeback” album a couple of years ago. Her new effort, Scene of the Crime, shows that I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise was no fluke. This woman, with her slightly raspy voice and impeccable taste in material, is on fire.

LaVette’s late-blooming career is a weird story even by show-biz standards. She’s toiled away on the fringes of success for more than 40 years, and she’s just starting to reach her prime. She’s a true example of someone who has only gotten better with age.

LaVette started out in the 1960s, the golden age of soul, though she never quite became a household name. In 2000, the European label Munich released a live LaVette album called Let Me Down Easy: In Concert. Her performance of its title song still twists my head off. The record wasn’t a runaway hit, but apparently some people who counted heard it. LaVette started recording in this country again.

Two years ago, LaVette got the full Joe Henry treatment — covering songs by contemporary songwriters like Dolly Parton, Sinead O’Connor, Fiona Apple, and Lucinda Williams with a rocking band. I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise is a good album, a really good album. But — I’ll go ahead and say it — Scene of the Crime is a great one.

First of all, there’s the matter of the band. The Drive-By Truckers, yes, the alt country/neo-Southern rock wild boys (and girl) who made it OK for punk rockers to admit they like Lynyrd Skynyrd, play behind LaVette. But that’s not as weird as it sounds. As Truckers fans know, DBT founder Patterson Hood is the son of Muscle Shoals session bassist David Hood. Plus, the band toured this year with Stax/Volt soul keyboard/songwriter great Spooner Oldham (including a stop in Santa Fe in May.)

On LaVette’s record, DBT sounds like Muscle Shoals: the Next Generation. (Oldham and David Hood are along for this ride too.)

LaVette is no stranger to Muscle Shoals. She recorded an album there called Child of the Seventies about 35 years ago — which, in keeping with LaVette’s hard-luck biography, was not released until a few years ago.

It’s true, DBT provides a harder-edged sound than the musicians on I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise. But the band never overwhelms LaVette; it seems to inspire her.

The album grabs a listener immediately with a slinky swamp rocker called “I Still Want to Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am),” written by Alabama native Eddie Hinton. There are several cool rockers here that seem natural for LaVette. John Hiatt’s “The Last Time” sounds like it was written for her. “You Don’t Know Me at All” is nice and bluesy.

And LaVette also shows she can nail the slow ones. “Choices” is a song George Jones did just a few years ago, after a well-publicized alcoholic relapse. I don’t know how much of this tune applies to LaVette’s own life, but when she sings, “I found I liked drinkin’” a listener finds her completely believable.

But the showstopper is a weird old Elton John song I’d completely forgotten called “Talking Old Soldiers.” I had to check the credits to make sure it wasn’t a Tom Waits “grand weeper.” The song is the lament of a sad old veteran at a bar. One of the most frightening musical moments I’ve heard in years is when LaVette shouts “How the hell do they know what it’s like to have a graveyard for a friend.”

Among the most satisfying cuts is “Before the Money Came (The Battle Of Bettye LaVette).” Not only is it a rocking little number, but LaVette looks back on her career: “Some folks didn’t know my worth/Didn’t know where I fit in/40 years I kept on singin’ before the money started rollin’ in.” It’s a fitting triumph.

Also recommended

* 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Ms. Jones is the undisputed queen of the current soul revival. She’s been making music since girlhood — singing in church and getting gigs as a background singer for R & B and even disco artists. But she had to keep a day job for too many years. She worked as a corrections officer on Rikers Island in New York — if that ain’l credentials, I don’t know what is.

Jones made several singles for the Desco label in the late ’90s but didn’t make her own album until 2002, when she was in her 40s.

Some accuse the singer of being retro. True, this music fits right in with good old Stax/Volt records. The Dap-Kings are nice and horny, with funky, Steve Cropper-ish guitar by Binky Griptite. True, it’s not hard to imagine Otis Redding singing “When the Other Foot Drops,” and “Let Them Knock” could have been a hit for Carla Thomas. But I don’t find the songs old-fashioned in the least. It’s just strong, honest music — about love, lust, and tears — that I like for the same reason I like those older records.

Jones saved the best for first on this album — the title song is a minor-key steamer. But there’s not a weak tune here. There’s a little Motown gloss on “Tell Me” and a little bit of the swamp in “Nobody’s Baby.” And I bet the trumpet solo at the end of “Keep on Looking” goes on a lot longer when the Dap-Kings perform it live.

* Wattstax: Music from the Wattstax Festival and Film. Speaking of old Stax music, this recently released three-disc collection is a treasure-trove. Most of the material has been released before, but this is definitive.

Wattstax, for the uninitiated, was a 1972 music festival in Los Angeles, organized by the Memphis-based label and emceed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

There are classic performances by stalwart Stax stars like the Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, and Carla Thomas. Unfortunately there’s only one Isaac Hayes song here — “Theme From Shaft.” (Hayes’ full-length At Wattstax is worth seeking out.)

But even more fun is the abundance of worthy, if not as famous, Stax acts such as The Emotions, the Soul Children, Rance Allen, Lee Sain (who does a tune called “Them Hot Pants”), and Hayes’ songwriting partner David Porter. Perhaps my favorite cut is the nine-minute “Son of Shaft” by the wonderful, funky Bar-Kays.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE POLITICAL UNIVERSE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 8, 2007

Welcome to the center of the universe. The political universe, at least.

That designation was bestowed upon this state last week by Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza.

“With an open Senate seat for the first time in 25 years and THREE open House seats, New Mexico is shaping up as the center of the political universe in 2008,” Cillizza wrote. “Who says big states have all the fun?”

To pick a nit here, in reality, this is the first open Senate seat here in 35 years. Twenty five years ago, Democrat Jeff Bingaman defeated incumbent Republican Harrison Schmitt. Republican Pete Domenici won an open seat in 1972.

In citing three open House seats, Cillizza is assuming Rep. Tom Udall will join the rest of the state’s current Congressional delegation — Republican Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce — in running for Domenici’s seat.

“While Udall is still being somewhat coy about his intentions, there is little doubt in the Washington political world that he will be a candidate and that he’ll enjoy establishment support both inside and outside the Beltway,” Cillizza wrote.

But, to paraphrase Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chávez, who also is running for U.S. Senate, we should let New Mexicans decide whether we’re the center of the political universe, not people in Washington, D.C.

While talking politics this week, University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson made the comment: “This is really the place to be in ’08 for politics. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Sounds like the center of the political universe to me.

The candidate glut: If Udall runs for Senate, I’m not going to run for his seat in Congress. Neither is state Rep. Peter Wirth, and I’ve got the press release to prove it.

But I assume everybody else is.

In reality, Democrats who have said they are considering the Congressional District 3 race — if Udall runs for Senate — are Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Ray Luján, state auditor Hector Balderas, former County Commissioner Javier Gonzales, current County Commissioner Harry Montoya, former state Rep. Patsy Trujillo, Española Mayor Joe Maestas, Sheriff Greg Solano and lawyer Geno Zamora.

So far.

Your petitions are no good here: The sheer number of possible District 3 contenders has some state Democrats worried about a strange little law that slipped through the state Legislature last year.

House Bill 1156, which won unanimous approval of both legislative chambers and was signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson, makes it tougher for candidates to get on the primary ballot.

Before the new law, candidates won a place on the ballot if they received at least 20 percent of the delegate votes at their party’s preprimary convention. Those who got less than that magic figure still could get on the ballot by submitting additional petitions with signatures of registered voters to the secretary of state.

The new law got rid of the petition option. Those who get less than 20 percent are out of luck.

Only trouble is, the large number of Democratic candidates in District 3 could increase the chances no candidate reaches the 20 percent mark at the preprimary convention. And, under the law that passed, there is no provision to get anyone on the ballot with less than 20 percent.

Here’s a little nightmare for Democrats: No candidate gets enough delegates to secure a place on the ballot. The GOP runs one candidate who automatically wins a Congressional seat in a heavily Democratic district.

“We’ve got a very unusual situation,” said Laura Sanchez, executive director of the state Democratic Party on Wednesday. “The party rules didn’t anticipate that scenario.”

Sanchez’s Republican counterpart, Adam Feldman, through a spokesman, agreed.

“There need to be provisions in the law for situations like this, which offer another path onto the ballot; candidates should be required to go through the party convention phase first, and the alternative path should make the prospective candidate show that he/she is a Republican capable of competing in a state primary and general election. Requirements should be difficult and truly test a potential candidate’s fortitude.”

A spokesman for the secretary of state said Wednesday that the office is working on a proposed fix. The Legislature would have to amend the law in its next session and tack on an emergency clause. Both parties hold their preprimary conventions March 15.