TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LEVON'S BACK, FOGERTY'S REVIVED AGAIN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 7, 2007

Here’s a nice little Christmas miracle for you (that doesn’t really have anything to do with Christmas.)

Back in the late 1990s, Levon Helm — best known as singer/drummer/mandolinist of The Band — came down with throat cancer.It left his once-mighty voice a pathetic rasp. He was unable to sing for many years. When he came through Santa Fe in 2001 with the Barn Burners, he was just the drummer.

But the 67-year-old Helm has nursed his vocal cords back to health, and his new solo album, Dirt Farmer, shows him in fine form. The voice that brought us “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is back.

More good news: the material on Dirt Farmer is worthy of that voice. No, it’s not in the same stratosphere as the songs on those classic albums by The Band. But Helm has assembled a fine batch of tunes — including works by Steve Earle, Buddy and Julie Miller, the late Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir, British songwriter Paul Kennerley, and the Carter Family. There’s not a weak song here.

And Levon’s put together a tight little band featuring his daughter, Amy Helm, on harmony vocals (and drums and mandolin on some tracks) and guitarist Larry Campbell (a Bob Dylan sideman in recent years).

As the title of the album implies, Dirt Farmer has an acoustic country feel. There’s lots of fiddle (played by Campbell), mandolin, accordion, and pump organ, which gives an old country-church feel to some songs, like the Millers’ “Wide River to Cross.”

The album starts off with a spirited rendition of “False-Hearted Lover Blues,” which Helm says in the liner notes is a tribute to the Stanley Brothers, but it also has some dark edges of Doc Boggs.

Helms’ voice always has been suited for historical songs. Here he sings Kennerley’s “A Train Robbery,” which deals with the career of Jesse James. (It originally appeared as a bonus track on the CD rerelease of Kennerley’s 1980 song cycle The Legend of Jesse James, a various-artists project in which Helms participated.) “We all know he was nothing but a Missouri farm boy just fighting to stay alive,” Helms sings ofthe famous outlaw.

“Poor Old Dirt Farmer” is a traditional song performed as a Cajun waltz. It’s about a farmer who can’t pay his loan, can’t grow his corn, and ain’t got no home. The story grows more bizarre. There’s a tractor accident: “And now his head is shaped like a tread. But he ain’t quite dead.”

That song gave the album its title, but the real theme song is Lenoir’s “Feeling Good.” Levon trades vocals with Amy (her solo vocal parts remind me a lot of Carrie Rodriguez), and this upbeat blues is a triumphant declaration for him.

It’s great to hear Helm’s voice again.

Also recommended:

* Revival by John Fogerty. This has been hailed as a “comeback” album, even though Fogerty’s been doing comeback albums since1985’s Centerfield. Part of the hoopla is due simply to the title of the record, plus the fact that there’s a song called “Creedence Song.”

It’s true, Fogerty sounds a lot like Creedence Clearwater Revival here. But he always sounds a lot like Creedence Clearwater Revival. I know there were other members of the band who contributed, but face it — as singer, songwriter, and lead guitarist, Fogerty was for all practical purposes Creedence Clearwater Revival.

But forget that particular hype. This is a darn good album, better than his last comeback album, 2004’s Déjà Vu All Over Again.

As you might expect from the man who wrote “Fortunate Son” and “Run Through the Jungle,” there are some pig-bitin’ protest songs on Revival. I know that I panned R.E.M.’s recent protest songs just last week. The main difference is that Fogerty’s tunes rock even harder than they preach.

Fogerty names names on “Long Dark Night”: “Rummie’s in the kitchen/Messin’ with the pans/Dickie’s in the back/Stealin’ everythinghe can. ... Runnin’ down the highway/Shoutin’ to the Lord/Georgie’s got religion/And you know we can’t/Afford more years.”

Even more driving is “I Can’t Take it No More.” Fogerty has a personal message for the president with a stinging reference to a Creedence song: “I bet you never saw the ol’ school yard/I bet you never saw the National Guard/Your daddy wrote a check and there you are/Another fortunate son.” (Hey, I wrote years ago that “Fortunate Son” was the first song ever written about the current president, though Fogerty didn’t know it at the time.)

“Gunslinger” bites even harder. It’s a tune about an Old West town —or a whole nation. Its people’s spirits have been broken by the “wild-eyed bunch” who moved in. “This used to be a peaceful place/Decent folks, hardworkin’ ways/Now they hide behind locked doors/Afraid to speak their mind. ... Wrecked the paper/Closed the school/Tired old judge got roughed up too/No one left to make a stand/They whisper what’s the use.”

The remedy, Fogerty says, is a “gunslinger” to “tame this town” and bring justice. The precursor to this song is Neil Young’s “Looking for a Leader.” But “Gunslinger” is more artful.

Of course, all isn’t politics and protest here. There are some sweet love songs, like “Broken-Down Cowboy” and “Natural Thing.”

My only complaint with Revival is the overt sense of nostalgia. I can take the self-referential “Creedence Song.” Here the narrator isn’t rock star John Fogerty, but a kid whose dad was a rocker who won his mother’s love by playing Creedence songs. But harder to justify is “Summer of Love,” which talks about “freedom in the air” and “flower children lookin’ for the truth.” Fogerty even sneaks in a “Sunshine of Your Love” guitar lick.

Come on, gunslinger. You shoot a lot straighter when you’re looking ahead.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: MORE "MACACA" MEMORIES COME TO NEW MEXICO

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 6, 2007
A young Democratic campaign worker whose video of U.S. Sen. George Allen helped end the Virginia Republican’s political career last year now works in Santa Fe for Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign.

S.R. Sidarth — whom Allen mockingly dubbed “Macaca” during a campaign appearance last year while Sidarth videotaped his speech — is working in Richardson’s campaign communications office, according to a recent blog item in The Washington Post. He is responsible for “compiling daily newspaper articles for the governor, drafting press releases and performing other communication tasks,” the Post said.

Unlike his work for Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who unseated Allen last year, Sidarth is not working in the Richardson campaign as a “tracker” recording speeches of opponents.

Sidarth declined a request for an interview from The New Mexican. On Monday, he told a reporter to submit questions in writing, and he’d have to clear an interview with “my boss.” On Wednesday, he told a reporter, “I’m not interested.”

Allen’s “Macaca moment” quickly spread over the Internet as well as television, raising questions about racism on the senator’s part.

Macaca is the name of a genus of monkeys, but it’s been used as a slur against Africans by white colonists.

“After Allen’s remarks, my heritage suddenly became a matter of widespread interest,” Sidarth wrote in a first-person essay for The Washington Post last year. “I am proud to be a second-generation Indian American and a practicing Hindu. My parents were born and raised in India and immigrated here more than 25 years ago.”

And even though Allen sarcastically “welcomed” him to America and “the real world of Virginia,” Sidarth wrote, “I have known no home other than Northern Virginia.”

He was named Salon.com’s “person of the year.” The Internet magazine called Sidarth “a symbol of politics in the 21st century, a brave new world in which any video clip can be broadcast instantly everywhere and any 20-year-old with a camera can change the world.”

According to published reports, Sidarth is the son of a mortgage banker from Fairfax County, Va. Politics appears to be a major passion of his. Beside the Richardson and Webb campaigns, he worked one summer as an intern for Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

Sidarth used the Allen incident to get into an exclusive campaigns-and-elections seminar at the University of Virginia taught by Larry Sabato, a frequently quoted political scientist who directs the university’s Center For Politics.

Sabato said this week that Sidarth was admitted on the basis of a three-word essay: “I am Macaca.”

Apparently Richardson is lucky to have Sidarth, based on what his old professor told me. He has “an instinctive sense of politics,” Sabato said.

“Sidarth was a wonderful student,” he said. “One of the great joys of teaching is that you meet extremely able young people like Sidarth. He’ll be involved in politics, one way or another, for his whole life. ... Sidarth showed great maturity under fire last year. He was treated very roughly by some adults, and he took it in stride.” (Sabato said some partisan Republicans at the school gave Sidarth a hard time.) “He is well prepared for the trials of life.”

Another “Macaca” connection: Sidarth isn’t the only tie New Mexico has to the Allen-Webb contest this election cycle.

As reported in this column a few weeks ago, Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chávez, who is running for U.S. Senate, hired Blackrock Associates, a California firm that served last year as Webb’s Internet strategist.

The Iowa surprise: It’s only four weeks until the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses, or as a Wednesday e-mail from the Richardson called it “The Iowa Surprise.”

According to recent polls, it would indeed be a surprise if Richardson pulled off a move into the top tier of Democratic candidates.

Real Clear Politics, which averages several polls conducted in the past week, shows Richardson still in a distant fourth place in Iowa, averaging 6.8 percent. The top three candidates are Barack Obama (27.2 percent), Hillary Clinton (25.8 percent) and John Edwards (23.2 percent).

The polls tell a similar story for Richardson in New Hampshire, where he’s in fourth place, averaging 9.1 percent. New Hampshire’s primary is Jan. 8.

FATHER KNOWS BEST

Here's my link to the story about Javier Gonzales and Joe Maestas decidng not to run for Congress. CLICK HERE.

When I talked to Ben Ray Lujan yesterday, I mentioned, "Your dad told me there's a 95 percent chance you'll run."

Ben Ray corrected me. "I think you said he told you 99 percent." (I checked my clip and that's right.)

It was then when Ben Ray added that his father would know.

SO HOW DID I BECOME A POTENTIAL SECURITY THREAT?

I think somehow I've landed on some Homeland Security list.

Last weekend I flew to San Francisco for a conference sponsored by Electionline.org.

Both on the way there in the Albuquerque airport and on the way back in the San Francisco Airport, I was "pulled over" for a "secondary security search." The weird thing is, I was flying on different airlines -- Delta on the way out, U.S. Airways on the way back.

In Albuquerque I only had to walk through a special booth where there's little sudden puffs of air that somehow check your body for chemicals. It kind of tickles.

In San Francisco the search was more of a hassle. I got the puff booth, but I also had to sit and wait while they did chemical tests on almost everything I was carrying with me -- my laptop, my cell phone, my iPod (Christ, the subversive stuff they could have found in there!)

I'm not complaining about the TSA employees. The workers I dealt with were professional, though of course they weren't allowed to explain how I had been chosen for the extra searches.

Of course I've been asking myself that questions. Maybe I triggered it myself on my trip to New Hampshire last summer. I forgot to take my laptop out of the case at the Albuquerque checkpoint and was sent for a secondary search. (I wasn't chosen for the extra screening on my trip back from New Hampshire. The San Francisco trip was the first time I've flown since then.)

Darker possibilities have entered my mind. Could I have written something that angered some government official or politico who called a buddy in the federal government ...

I know. That sounds like a paranoid idiot. But we're becoming a nation of paranoid idiots -- from the conspiracy nutballs to some of the people running the government to anyone who somehow feels "safer" because someone dusted my iPod.

All I know is I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the secondary searches, I'm sick of the little notes I always find in my suitcase after a plane trip telling me that some goverment agent has been rummaging through my underwear. I'm sick of having to take off my damned shoes every time I fly.

Something has to change.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 2, 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
Cold Turkey by John Lennon
Slow Death by The Flamin' Groovies
Endless Party by Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer
Kill the Messenger by The Bell-Rays
Crane's Cafe by TAD
You Got it All ... Wrong by The Hives
Communist Moon by International Noise Conspiracy
Chicago Seven by Memphis Slim

Teddy Bear by The Residents
Leaky Bag by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Transcendental Light by The Black Lips
Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love by The Cramps
(Hot Pastrami with) Mashed Potatos by Joey Dee & The Starliters
Bahamut by Hazmat Modine
Vaquero by The Fireballs
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Tiny Tim

Dumb All Over by Frank Zappa
Love - Building on Fire by The Talking Heads
Prickly Thorn but Sweetly Worn/St. Andrew (The Battle is in the Air) by The White Stripes
Live With Me by The Rolling Stones
Sun Arise by Alice Cooper
Kewpie Doll by The Birthday Party
Something Funny in Santa's Lap by The Moaners

No More by The Dirty Projectors
I Remember You by Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers
When Jack Ruby Met Joe Glaser by David Murray
Blue Intensity by Sun Ra
The Flying Club Cup by Beirut
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: SCARRED AND SCREAMING

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 30, 2007

Johnette Napolitano’s new solo album, Scarred, could almost pass for a Concrete Blonde album. It’s dark, intense, full of sneaky little hooks, sometimes a little overwrought, and, of course, it’s centered around the low, hoarse, frequently world-weary but always sexy voice of Johnette Napolitano.

All it lacks is the distinctive guitar scream of James Mankey (who mixed several tracks but didn’t play on it). A new collaborator, Will Crewdson, plays some pretty good guitar and provides some tasty little electronic gurgles and rumblings here and there.

Napolitano performs a couple of covers on Scarred. There’s a so-so Coldplay song called “The Scientist.” And there’s The Velvet Underground classic “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” though I’m not sure the free world really needs another version of this.

Far more interesting and arresting are Napolitano’s original tunes. Napolitano opens with “Amazing,” a song with a catchy chorus that sounds like it could be a happy love song. “Amazing, you’re amazing. ... And I just want to live in your light.” But as the minor-key melody suggests, there’s something deeper going on. “Look at my hands/Look at my feet/Clumsy stumps of leftover fin.” It’s a song of self-loathing and co-dependency.

It’s not hard to connect this with the title song — a smoldering little masterpiece of inner pain. Here, Napolitano sings of being so damaged by love gone sour that her only refuge is sleep. The lyrics are sparse, but the emotion in her voice as she wails, “I am so scarred,” is downright frightening.

The lyrics of “Save Me” sound like they’re from a woman trapped in a building after an earthquake. “I heard a train on the roof and a burglar alarm/And a shaking foundation/And I tried to hold on. ... And the windows breaking/And the dogs were barking.”

I can’t help but remember the time I interviewed Napolitano over the phone in February 1994 — the day of a big earthquake in Los Angeles that shook her home in Silver Lake. (“I got home about 2:30 this morning. About 4:30 it hit. I just shook in my bed. I crawled on hands and knees, got my dog, and went outside to see my neighbors. ... Something like this puts things in perspective. Life is very short and precious. This is just a reminder.”)

“Save Me” is just one of several “spoken-word” songs in which Napolitano recites rather than sings the verses. Also in this category are “Poem for the Native,” “I’m Up Here,” and “Everything for Everyone.” She’s used this technique occasionally since the early days of Concrete Blonde (remember “Roses Grow”?), but she overdoes it here. On all three of these songs, however, the music builds up to such a powerful rage, I wouldn’t want to tamper with any of the chemistry.

Still, I go back and forth between loving and hating “Everything for Everyone” because of the vintage pop-psych slogans that Napolitano drops into the lyrics. She actually says, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life” and that she wants to be “naturally high.” Oh well, at least the music doesn’t sound like John Denver’s.

I thought I was going to hate “Poem for the Native.” Usually songs by white people extolling the mystic virtues of Native Americans make me cringe. (Except maybe Hank Thompson’s “Squaws Along the Yukon.”) But, to her credit, Napolitano’s song doesn’t fall into patronizing clichés. Plus, the dang thing rocks every time it gets to the chorus.

As for “I’m Up Here,” which closes the album, this song sounds like it might be a furious rant against God himself. “Where was I when the levy broke?/When the husband choked his wife?/Where was I when the priest ruined his son?” (The first one Napolitano thanks in the liner notes is “The Creator,” so maybe she’s hedging her bets.)

Napolitano plays at Santa Fe Brewing Company (27 Fire Place, 424-3333) at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1. David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets open. Tickets are $18 in advance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., 988-1234.

Not recommended:

*White Chalk by P.J. Harvey. Just a year ago, the release of Harvey’s The Peel Sessions 1991-2004 reminded me of what a vital rocker Polly Jean Harvey was, especially when she first started out. Her first three albums (four if you count the outtakes record 4-Track Demos) were nothing short of mighty.

Harvey’s output in the last 10 years has been spotty. But this album is one big splotch. The only people I can imagine voluntarily listening to this dreary dreck are college girls reading Sylvia Plath at 4 a.m. It makes me want to stick my head in an oven.

That being said, the one little thing I do appreciate here are the opening piano notes on the first song, which remind me of the intro to the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” The name of the song: “The Devil.” Clever. But not enough to carry the rest of the record.

Forget the piano, Polly. The world needs your guitar.

*R.E.M. Live. Most washed-up rock bands that insist on carrying on join the casino circuit. Those from commercial rock’s higher strata release two CD, one DVD live packages — heavy on the “greatest hits” and fortified by backup musicians.

I have to admit, many of these songs still have a lot of power. “The One I Love,” “Cuyahoga,” “Orange Crush” (I still don’t know whether they were singing about Agent Orange or the Denver Broncos), and “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth” are well done.

Probably the weakest tracks are the new protest songs “I Wanted to Be Wrong” and “Final Straw.” Don’t get me wrong, I love a good protest song: “We Can’t Make It Here” by James McMurtry, “Nothing at All” by the Waco Brothers, “They Crowned an Idiot King” by Swamp Dogg, “Rich Man’s War” by Hundred Year Flood. But these R.E.M. tunes are anemic.

The sad truth is that R.E.M. has a history to be proud of. I’m just not so sure about the present.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: POLITICAL NEVERLAND

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 29, 2007

When Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez officially announced his U.S. Senate run in October, he said he had spoken recently with Gov. Bill Richardson, whom he called “the next president of the United States.” At the time, Chávez declined to say exactly what he and the governor talked about, though a statement released the same day by Chávez’s campaign said Richardson “indicated” he had no intention of running for the Senate seat.

That wasn’t surprising. Richardson and his spokesmen have “indicated” hundreds of times that Richardson isn’t going to run for Senate since U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, a Republican, announced he’s not seeking re-election.

But in an interview Monday, Chávez provided some details about his conversation with Richardson, indicating there were more indications indicated than originally reported. “He told me he’s not running for Senate, ” Chávez told me. “But then he told me, ‘I never say never.’ ”

The Richardson presidential campaign didn’t respond to a question about his conversation with Chávez except to repeat Richardson is not running for Senate.

Chávez’s version of the conversation reminds me of The New York Daily News’ interview with Richardson in August. When the paper pressed him about his insistence he wouldn’t accept a place on the Democratic ticket as vice president, the governor said, “I never preclude anything.” However, he quickly added, “But I am telling you that I’m not interested.”

Richardson was asked yet again about the vice presidency during an interview Thursday on XM satellite radio’s POTUS ’08 network (the nation’s first 24-hour news radio station dedicated to the presidential race). “Well, I’m not interested in the vice presidency. Obviously, it would be an honor, but I’m going to win the nomination.”

I guess that settles that.

You say it’s your birthday: Chávez might have had a chance to clear things up about Richardson’s possible Senate plans at Richardson’s birthday party a couple of weeks ago.

Only problem is, unlike his Senate primary rival, U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, Chávez never got an invitation to the birthday bash thrown at one of the Santa Fe homes of Andrew and Sydney Davis, who are generous contributors to state and local Democrats.

“Gee, I was at his birthday party last year,” Chávez said. Then, with a wry grin the mayor added, “My invitation this year must have gotten lost in the mail.”

More on Art Hull: For months now, the Richardson administration has insisted Art Hull, longtime lobbyist for Public Service Company of New Mexico, didn’t lobby for the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority Act when he worked for the Governor’s Office as part of PNM’s Loaned Executive program.

Attorney General Gary King’s staff took Richardson’s staff at their word about this when investigating Hull’s role earlier this year. “The governor’s office did not assign Mr. Hull to work on legislation creating the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority,” Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Glenn said in a letter to Ben Luce of the watchdog group Break the Grip, which called for the investigation. Glenn said she found no evidence to the contrary.

However, on Wednesday, Break the Grip announced they had unearthed, via the state Open Records Act, an e-mail from Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos to blogger Joe Monahan on Jan. 30 (after the Legislative session had begun) that said, “With the exception of the governor’s proposed Renewable Energy Transmission Authority, Art is not lobbying on behalf of any of the governor’s energy package.” (That’s exactly what Monahan posted soon after Gallegos sent the e-mail.)

Luce — who says Hull’s lobbying for the bill while on the governor’s staff is a conflict of interest — is calling for the attorney general to reopen the investigation. Gallegos couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday night.

Back to the races: Speaking of Udall, the congressman from Santa Fe has scheduled his formal announcement 11:45 a.m. at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in the city that calls Marty Chávez mayor. He’ll be doing a three-day “announcement tour” with stops in Santa Fe (4 p.m. Saturday at Eldorado Hotel), Los Lunas, Las Cruces, Silver City, Clovis, Las Vegas, Mora and Taos.

Also on Thursday, state Sen. Joe Carraro of Albuquerque will announce his candidacy in the Republican primary for the soon-to-be-open 1st Congressional District seat. Carraro will be facing Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White in that race. Carraro’s announcement is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the George O. Breace Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 401, 2011 Girard S.E. in Albuquerque.

On Friday, a third Democrat formally will get into the Senate race. Santa Fe activist and alternative newspaper publisher Leland Lehrman will make it official. He’ll announce at noon Friday at the Capitol Rotunda. At 7:30 p.m. that night, he’s having an “after party” at the Green Palace, 209 E. Palace Ave, which Lehrman owns with his wife, Vera. The Shiva Brothers are playing music.