KUNM YEAR-END WRAP-UP

I meant to plug this earlier.

I was part of a panel of reporters, along with Trip Jennings of the Albuquerque Journal and Jim Williams and Steve Shadley of KUNM, talking about 2007's top stories in New Mexico.

We recorded it last week. It will be broadcast at 8 a.m. Thursday morning on KUNM, 89.9 FM.

FAIRYTALE OF SHANE

Lots of cool people were born on Christmas. Jesus, Cab Calloway and Shane MacGowan.

Yes, the former frontman of The Pogues (and whatever happened to The Popes?) and the writer of one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Fairytale of New York" just celebrated his 50th birthday. (Thanks to Frank for pointing this out.)

Some people seem shocked that Shane made it to 50. But come on, Keith Richards is past 60 and Jerry Lee Lewis is in his 70s.

Personally, I'm just surprised that Shane is younger than me.

Happy birthday, blessed drunkard! I'm a day late, but I bet you're still celebrating.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 23, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays 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

THE STEVE TERRELL CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Silent Night by Bad Religion
Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy by Buck Owens
Egg Nog by the Rockin' Guys
Santa On the Roof by The Rev. Horton Heat
Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope by Sonic Youth
Christmas is Just Another Day by Johnny Dowd
Be-Bop Santa Claus by Be-Bop Santa Claus
Gloria by Elastica
Even Squeaky Fromme Loves Christmas by Rev. Glen Armstrong
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Beatlemas

Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year by James Brown
Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto by Snoop Doggie Dogg
It's Christmastime (Part 1) by James Brown

Christmas Boogie by Canned Heat & The Chipmunks
Santa Claus Boogie by Hasil Adkins
Don't Believe in Christmas by The Sonics
Christmas in Jail by The Soul Deacons

Do You Hear What I Hear? by Imagene Peise
Ao Tumhen Chand Pe by Asha Bhosle
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by BeauSoleil
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl
Mele Kalikimaka by Petty Booka
Deck the Halls by The Klezmonauts
Green Chili Christmas by Robert Mirabal
Christmas Time is Coming (A Street Carol) by Stormy Weather

Happy the Christmas Clown by Conway Twitty & Twitty Bird
Your Christmas Whiskey by Minus Five
Oh Holy Night by Brian Wilson
It Being Nearly Christmas Eve by Jack Clift
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon
Silent Night/What Christmas Means by Dion
Star of Wonder by The Roches
Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS VIDEO!

Here's a worthwhile video for a worthwhile charitable program, the Art Street project at Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless. What s the program? Watch the video.

Fellow New Mexico blogger and a true compassionate conservative Mario Burgos says his company Mudhouse Advertising, will give $1 for every unique visitor that views the video between now and the end of the year.

So click away. If you've got a blog or Web site, post it.

Merry Christmas.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

ALERT: Apparently the 90.7 signal isn't working. But 101.1 FM is.

Friday, December 21, 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 101.1 FM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Oxycontin Blues by Steve Earle
Big Ol' White Boys by Terry Allen
Bongo Ride by Jon Rauhouse
Cowboy Logic by Michael Martin Murphey
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Livc? by Tim O'Brien
Got Me a Woman by Levon Helm
Jole Louise by Daniel Lanois
Lonely Christmas Call by George Jones

Hey Sexy by Robbie Fulks
When the Whiskey Turns to Tears by Cornell Hurd
The Outcast by Dave Van Ronk with Tom Russell
East Side Boys by Martin Zellar
Lou's Got the Flu by Roger Miller
Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keen
$500 Car by Ed Pettersen
Heroes and Villains by Geraint Watkins
Blue Christmas Lights by Chris & Herb

Old Man From the Mountain by The Gourds
Dark Holler by David Bromberg
Walk You Home by Marlee MacLeod
Maybe Mexico by Jerry Jeff Walker
$87 and a Guilty Conscious That Gets Worse the Longer I Go by Richmond Fontaine
Six Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
I'll Be Home For Christmas by The Old 97s

Boxcar by Neil Young
We Never Touch at All by Merle Haggard
Your Great Journey by The Handsome Family
Invitation to Your Party by Jerry Lee Lewis
Can Man Christmas by Joe West
Fare Thee Well Sweet Malley by Robin Williamson
Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends by Joan Osbourne
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: ROCK'S GLORIOUS UNDERBELLY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 21, 2007

If you’re looking for a grand tour of rock ’n’ roll’s glorious underbelly, you shouldn’t miss I Hate CDs: Norton Records 45 RPM Singles Collection Vol. 1.

This compilation — 45 tracks in all — sums up what Norton records is all about — crazy R & B, reckless rockabilly, garage-band snot, immortal punk rock. This music is raw, rowdy, and sometimes raunchy as it thumbs its metaphorical nose at any precious, prissy, pretentious, and self-important airs that rock all too often acquires.

Norton Records, which specializes in primitive rock, was founded in the 1980s by Billy Miller and Miriam Linna. As shown on this compilation, the label happily plays with fire.

This is the devil’s music, the evil jungle sounds the preachers and the White Citizens’ Council originally warned us about — dangerous-sounding stuff that leads to juvenile delinquency, sex, miscegenation, and eventually to an eternity in hell. Much of the material is from the ’50s and ’60s, but it’s far too unrefined for oldies radio. Not that its lyrics are obscene; most of the artists here don’t need to use dirty words to sound outright filthy.

True to the name of the compilation, I Hate CDs isn’t available on compact disc. But you can download any or all tracks at iTunes, Amazon.com, and eMusic.

There are some impressive names on I Hate CDs, some that you might even recognize. There are a couple of Ramones rarities — demos of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” and “Judy Is a Punk.” Question Mark and The Mysterians have a tune here as does rockabilly great Dale Hawkins (most famous for “Susie Q”), guitar killer Link Wray (who does an instrumental called “Vendetta”), and a young Doug Sahm, who sings “Slow Down” with a band called The Pharaohs (but I don’t think these are Sam the Sham’s boys).

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (who comes from “Lubbock by way of Mars,” according to his own hype) provides the title song to the collection. (“The Ledge” is a high school chum of Joe Ely, who speaks his name with the highest praise. But I’m still waiting for a Flatlanders cover of an LSC song.)

There’s a good, scary Screamin’ Jay Hawkins song I’d never heard before called “I Hear Voices.” What I like best about this tune— besides Jay’s sceamin’ of course — is the weird soprano voice that accompanies him at the end of the track.

Raspy-voiced soul man Andre Williams provides one of the few philosophical discussions. “The Monkey Speaks His Mind” is about someone objecting to the notion of man coming from the apes. Of course, the one objecting is an ape. “No monkey ever deserted his wife, starved his babies, and ruined their life.”

R & B icon Don Covay — called Don “Pretty Boy” Covay here — has a raucous little ode to wife swapping on this collection called “Switchin’ in the Kitchen.” And for fans of Kill Bill and those Vonage commercials, the Japanese girl punks The 5.6.7.8’s (known for their cover of the Rock-a-Teens’ “Woo Hoo”) do a fierce version of “The Harlem Shuffle.”

Big Star, the ’70s band led by Alex Chilton, provides one of the album’s poppier moments, a song called “September Gurls.”

Several mainstays of Norton (“the label with the able stable,” as they call themselves) are represented on this compilation. There’s Esquerita, a 6-foot-6-inch, one-eyed, pompadoured transvestite, who, according to legend, taught Little Richard to play piano. Hasil Adkins, the late wild man of West Virginia, sings one of his fine-feathered chicken songs, “Chicken Shake.” (A few years ago, Norton released an entire Adkins album of this curious subgenre. It’s called Poultry in Motion.) There’s Mary Weiss, former singer of The Shangri-Las, whose wonderful “comeback” album Dangerous Games was released on Norton earlier this year. A “bonus song” from that album, a cover of “A Certain Guy,” is on this collection.

And the Norton house band, The A-Bones (featuring Miller and Linna), have a couple of tracks here. “Stop It Baby” features former Flamin’ Groovies singer Roy Loney, and “New Spark” has unsung rockabilly hero Johnny Powers.

Of course, the real fun is discovering the truly obscure artists. Who the heck is Stud Cole? Apparently this Stud’s a rockabilly who never got his due. His contribution here, “The Witch” (not The Sonics’ hit by the same name), makes me want more.

Bunker Hill just might be the craziest soul man you’ve never heard of; he does a rollicking tune called “The Girl Can’t Dance,” which features Link Wray on guitar. “The Limp” by the Incredible Kings is how I imagined all cool, swingin’ parties would sound back when I was a kid.

“Puddy Cat” by Wade Curtiss and the Rhythm Rockers is a goofy, so-weird-it’s-beautiful parody of The Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird” — as if that trash-rock classic needed a parody. Instead of the refrain “papa oom mow mow” of the original song, Curtiss sings “mamma meow mow.”

Speaking of surfing, you’ve got to hear “Surfside Date” by The Triumphs. Not having any liner notes, I don’t know if this was recorded in the ’60s or last month. Whatever the case might be, surf music rarely sounded as primordial.

And if Hasil Adkins didn’t satisfy your hunger for chicken songs, there’s an even crazier tune called “Chicken” by an unknown shouter named Jack Starr.

If you’re an audiophile, beware. Some tracks definitely are lo-fi. Of course, if you’re that much of an audiophile purist you probably wouldn’t like this primitive stuff anyway.

Don't forget to check out the cool drag race-style audio promo over at Norton's MySpace page.

The Steve Terrell Christmas Special: A Santa Fe tradition. Hear Snoop Doggy Dogg, The Pogues, James Brown, Joan Jett, The Trashmen, and Roger Miller sing the songs we love this season at 10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, on KSFR-FM 101.1.

THE TRIB'S LOSS IS OUR GAIN

Here's a little shop talk:

The New Mexican has taken advantage of the Albuquerque Tribune's situation by hiring two of its reporters.

I'm especially pleased that we've hired Kate Nash to help out at the Capitol Bureau. She's done this for years for the Trib and that other Albuquerque paper and knows as much, if not not more, than I do about where the bones are buried at the Roundhouse.

We've also hired Sue Vorenberg, who covers science and health for the Trib. She'll cover science, technology and energy for the New Mexican, and will cover health while Diana Del Mauro remains on maternity leave.

Both Kate and Sue will start in January.

We've been short-handed at The New Mexican. In recent weeks we've lost my bureau partner Dave Miles, Andy Lenderman and Wendy Brown. Things are looking up.