TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: GRUELING BANJOS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 30, 2008

“You Just Can’t Play a Sad Song on a Banjo,” is the name of a song Willie Nelson covered a few years ago:

“Now bad news just won’t hang around the banjo/Old dismal gloom will have to disappear/A sad song can’t be played so please don’t be afraid/Cause you just can’t play a sad song on the banjo.”

Steve Martin, a banjo picker as well as a comedian, has made similar statements. Back in the ’70s (when he was funny), Martin had a routine that got a lot of laughs when he suggested Richard Nixon would have had a much better time had he only played the banjo.

Of course it’s not true that there’s no sad songs on the banjo. Classic bluegrass tunes like “Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake,” “Beautiful Blue Eyes” and various tales of murder, mining disasters, and crib death can hardly be classified as cheerful little ditties. And in recent years, Tom Waits and acolytes such as The Dead Brothers from Switzerland have used banjos to create spooky, atmospheric sounds.


And now Otis Taylor and a small army of his contemporary blues honchos completely blow that “happy banjo” theory to smithereens on Taylor’s latest album Recapturing the Banjo. There are sad songs, intense songs, and even a few that hint at “old dismal gloom” on this album.

Like on all Otis Taylor albums, the songs’ lyrics speak of slavery, poverty, death, and tragic love, and there are even some tales of black cowboys. To be sure, there are some cool upbeat tracks, too, like Gus Cannon’s jug-band stomper “Walk Right In” and the Haitian kiddie song “Les Oignons.”

So why does the banjo have to be “recaptured”?

In modern times when someone thinks of a banjo, it’s in terms of bluegrass or other “hillbilly” music. Or cornball Shakey’s Pizza nostalgia Americana — white-bread Americana. Or even worse, it conjures up racist imagery of black-face minstrels plunking the banjo and singing about eatin’ possum with the old folks back home.

In recent decades, black musicians have shunned the banjo to an overwhelming extent. In an interview earlier this year in No Depression, jazz-banjo master Don Vappie, who plays four-string tenor banjo on Taylor’s album, said, “The banjo has many stereotypes to overcome. A lot of black people hate the banjo, because it has come to stand for a very oppressive time.”

The banjo, or at least an early version of it, was brought to America by slaves. It originated as an instrument used by griots, the traditional bards of West Africa. As Vappie explained, “Here’s an instrument that was part of a culture — part of a people — who were taken from where they are and brought somewhere else. And over time, those people had learned to hate something that was part of them, part of their past.”

Vappie has made a career of the banjo — which had an important place in the music of early New Orleans jazz bands. Taylor — who didn’t begin his career as a solo bluesman until the mid-1990s, when he was in his 40s — also has been a proponent of the instrument going back to his late ’90s album Blue-Eyed Monster.

In some ways Recapturing the Banjo is almost like a mini Otis Taylor retrospective. It features new versions of old Taylor songs such as “Bow-Legged Charlie” and “Five-hundred Roses” (both from his album When Negroes Walked the Earth); the garage-band standard/Jimi Hendrix classic “Hey Joe,” which was on Blue-Eyed Monster; and “Ten Million Slaves.” (I have to admit, I prefer the original version of “Ten Million Slaves,” which was on his 2001 album Respect the Dead. The original had a banjo, but it also had a cool fuzzy guitar by Otis’ former lead ax-man Eddie Turner.)

And in some ways, Banjo is almost like a modern blues summit, featuring collaborations with the likes of Alvin Youngblood Hart, Corey Harris, Guy Davis, and Keb’ Mo’. All play banjo and contribute vocals. Taylor magnanimously lets his guests take center stage on some tunes. And the whole affair comes off more like an organic jam among friends than a tacky marketing ploy, which is a huge problem with many guest-heavy albums.

Hart contributes an original song, “Prophets’ Mission,” but his best moment here is his singing of the traditional tune “Deep Blue Sea,” which features percussion reminiscent of Otha Turner’s Mississippi fife-and-drum music.

And even though just a few weeks ago I wrote in these pages that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Keb’ Mo’, his song “The Way It Goes,” which ends this album, is a true delight. It’s just Keb’ — his banjo, his voice — singing about the need to slow down in life.

Still, the real champ on this record is a new original Taylor song; “Absinthe” makes my heart grow fonder. Not only are there dueling banjos but also a dreamlike coronet by Ron Miles and ghostly background vocals by Taylor’s daughter Cassie all over second-line drumming.

While Taylor and friends want to “recapture” the banjo, this album never comes off as some historic-preservation project. It’s just good American music.

Also recommended
*Boogie the House Down Juke Joint Style by The Juke Joint Pimps. This is good stinky blues from Cologne, Germany. This duo, singer/guitarist T-Man and drummer/harmonica-man Mighty Mike play it nice and primitive like a Teutonic version of T-Model Ford and his drummer, Spam.

The song selection isn’t terribly original — Elmore James’ signature “Dust My Broom” and Muddy Waters chestnuts like “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “I Can’t Be Satisfied” among the tracks here).

But I’ll give them points for their take-off on Slim Harpo’s “Hip Shake,” the delightful "Dick Shake."

This isn’t authentic, and purists undoubtedly will turn up their snoots. But these Krauts have spirit.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 29, 2008

We can't accuse the two Republican Senate candidates of trying to dodge The New Mexican.

Both Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce took time out of their busy schedules for interviews with me. And I appreciate that.

But for reasons that still baffle me, both GOP candidates refused to answer a questionnaire consisting of 10 simple yes-or-no questions on a variety of issues. (I didn't submit one to Tom Udall because he's running unopposed in the Democratic Senate primary.)

Just a couple of weeks before, their counterparts in the 3rd Congressional District primary — both Republicans and all six Democrats — answered a similar questionnaire for us.

The deal was to answer all questions "yes" or "no" — just as if they were voting on a bill. Those who wanted to explain their answers could do so with the promise that some of their explanations might be quoted in the profiles we were writing and that their complete answers would be posted verbatim on The New Mexican's Web site.

The questions dealt with issues such as Congress investigating possible war profiteering in Iraq, ethanol subsidies, "net neutrality," medical marijuana and whether Immigration officials should give special consideration to undocumented immigrants who have children who are U.S. citizens.

There were no trick questions. And most of the topics were those both Wilson and Pearce have addressed in speeches and debates.

A spokeswoman for Wilson said her candidate didn't like the yes-or-no format. Some of the congressional candidates also expressed misgivings about that, though all agreed to submit.

A spokesman for Pearce contacted my Capitol bureau colleague, Kate Nash, asking about our deadline. But we never received his answers.

After this long and bitter campaign, I guess it's nice Pearce and Wilson found something they could agree on: ignoring The New Mexican questionnaire.

The swift boats are coming! Rule of thumb: Just about any time a Democrat gets criticized these days, it's not just an "attack." It's swiftboating.

The term originated four years ago when a Republican-funded group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran ads questioning the truthfulness of John Kerry's military record.

Last week, when CD 3 candidate Don Wiviott began his attack-ad campaign against fellow Democrat Ben Ray Luján, Luján's campaign reacted with an e-mail: "Don Wiviott knows his only chance to win is with a Republican Swift Boat-style smear campaign."

But poor Tom Udall. The general election hasn't started and already he's been "swiftboated" twice.

When an out-of-state social conservative group, Common Sense Issues, began conducting a "push poll" here for the benefit of Republican senatorial candidate Steve Pearce, Udall's campaign responded with a fundraising e-mail saying, "The GOP Swift Boat attacks on Tom Udall have begun here in New Mexico." It turned out the push-poll was aimed more at Heather Wilson. Only the homes of registered Republicans were called, the leader of CSI said — though some negative things were said about Udall in the automated calls as well.

On Tuesday, the Udall campaign sent another fundraising e-mail, this one dealing with President Bush's visit to help CD 1 candidate Darren White.

The Udall letter said the visit was "to raise money from big donors to fund their dirty 'Swift Boat' attacks. You can bet this money will directly fund their efforts to distort Tom's record of integrity and standing up for the people of New Mexico."

According to the White campaign, the $317,000 raised at the Bush event will be split between the White campaign and the state GOP.

A state Republican spokesman said the party is expected to get only 20 or 30 percent of the money raised at the event. That money, he said, will go to set up a volunteer get-out-the-vote effort, not campaign ads.

There is one candidate who could make a case about swiftboating.

One of the top contributors to the anti-tax group Club for Growth — which has spent nearly $400,000 in ads calling Wilson a "liberal" — is Houston home builder Bob Perry. Perry has donated big-time to New Mexico Republicans in past elections. And in 2004, he was a major funder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Wilson hasn't been shy about blasting Club For Growth. But she's yet to say anything about swift boats.

Political prosecutions: An interesting part of one of Udall's recent campaign ads occurs when he says, "As attorney general, when I prosecuted corrupt elected officials, it didn't matter to me if they were in my party."

Udall prosecuted one Democratic official — former state Rep. Ron Olguin of Albuquerque, who was convicted in 1992 for accepting a bribe, soliciting a bribe, attempting to commit a bribe and conspiracy to solicit a bribe. Eventually his convictions for accepting the bribe and conspiracy were overturned on appeal. Olguin was sentenced to a year in prison. As a result of the trial, he was formally censured by the state House of Representatives, making him the first — and so far only — sitting legislator in New Mexico history to be censured.

But I wonder if the talk about prosecuting members of his own party might be a subtle jab at a potential Republican opponent. Wilson has been criticized for a phone call to then U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Iglesias says he considered that call pressure from Wilson to hurry up with the prosecution of former state Sen. Manny Aragon, a Democrat, before the 2006 election. Wilson denies that was the purpose of her call.

If Wilson survives the primary, be ready for some not so subtle jabs concerning Iglesias.

NO BIG SURPRISE HERE

Governor Richardson Endorses Ben Ray Luján


Santa Fe - Today, Governor Bill Richardson endorsed Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Ray Luján for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary.

"As someone who knows this district well - as a Congressman and now as Governor - I believe Ben Ray Luján is the most qualified candidate and is best prepared to represent the diverse communities that stretch across northern and eastern New Mexico," Governor Bill Richardson said.

"I am also proud to endorse a candidate who has taken the high road against negative and unnecessary political attacks from some of his opponents," Governor Richardson said. "I trust Ben Ray Luján as the candidate who will stand up for New Mexico. He has worked hard on the Public Regulation Commission to serve the people of New Mexico. No other candidate can match his record of fighting for consumers, increasing renewable energy production and creating regional solutions to climate change."

SUPREME COURT REMOVES RODELLA

The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that Rio Arriba County Magistrate Tommy Rodella is guilty of willful misconduct in office and removed him immediately from office, never to be allowed to hold another judicial office in the future.

The high court made its decision to follow the recommendation of the state Judicial Standards Commission, which accused Rodella of violating judicial rules in three separate cases, following a hearing Wednesday morning. The five justices.

Rodella hugged and kissed his wife Debbie Rodella, a state legislator from Española, his children and other supporters following the decision.

Asked for comment following the decision, Rodella would only tell a reporter, “Thank you for your fairness.”

Chief Justice Edward Chavez, in announcing the court’s decision, said while the court did not agree with all the commission’s findings, there was evidence to support the finding that Rodella was not credible during legal proceedings in the case against him.

The commission said Rodella was guilty of misconduct in three cases he presided over. One was springing an acquaintance arrested for drunken driving from jail.

Another was improperly advising a man and woman from Chimayó in a rent-dispute case in exchange for political support.

The third was improperly telling an alleged victim in a domestic violence case that she didn't have to show up to court to testify against her husband.

The last case was the one that prompted the most discussion from justices during the hearing.
Rodella’s lawyer Justin Pennington admitted that Rodella had made a mistake in that case, but that did not constitute willful misconduct and did not warrant removal.

Read more in Thursday’s New Mexican.

WILSON vs PEARCE

Here's my take on tonight's debate. You can watch video from the debate HERE.

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 28, 2008

U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson at a televised debate Tuesday went on the offensive against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, her opponent in the Republican senatorial primary, saying Pearce is too right-wing to win a general election.


“Statewide it’s extremely difficult for someone who is running as a far-right, cut-government, my-way-or-the-highway Republican to win,” Wilson said at the debate broadcast on KOAT-TV.

“In fact, we have never elected a Republican statewide who is from the far-right extreme of our party.”

Pearce, who represents the southern 2nd Congressional District, said Wilson is “too liberal to serve in New Mexico. ... I think the people of New Mexico want someone who will tell them where they stand and stand where they said they would.”

To which Wilson, who represents the central 1st Congressional District, responded, “It’s amazing to me that someone who is a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, strong supporter of free enterprise, cut-taxes, fair-regulation, pro-defense Republican is called a ‘liberal.’ And maybe that tells us just far out of the mainstream Steve Pearce is.”

Sometimes the rhetoric seemed so biting one easily could imagine seeing clips from the debate used against the Republican nominee in general election Democratic attack ads.

However, despite the intensity of their charges against each other, both candidates pledged to back whoever wins the GOP primary on June 3. The winner will face Democrat Tom Udall, Northern New Mexico’s congressman. The campaign will decide who replaces six-term Sen. Pete Domenici, who is retiring.

During the debate, Wilson nearly always was the first to turn questions against her opponent. Though Pearce got in a few licks, he seemed to be on the defensive for much of the hourlong debate.

Wilson frequently brought up the conservative organization Club For Growth, which is backing Pearce and running ads attacking Wilson as a “liberal.” The group has spent about $400,000 on the ads.

“The advertisements you’re seeing on television are funded by a small group of millionaires, none of whom are in the state of New Mexico who support an agenda that is contrary to the interests of the state of New Mexico in many respects,” she said. “They attack Republicans. They don’t go after Democrats ... and they have been responsible in several states recently for causing the nomination of Republicans who are so far right wing that they’re not able to win when it comes to a general election.”

She accused Pearce of requesting earmarks to fund programs such as a math and science recruitment plan for minorities at New Mexico State University, then voting against it when the Club For Growth tells him to.

Pearce said, “Heather, the Club For Growth is a respected group that measures waste, fraud and abuse in the government. It’s interesting they scored you at 10 percent. They scored Tom Udall at zero.”

Pearce in 2007 got an 82 percent vote from the group. “I don’t score perfectly because I really don’t ask them how I should vote,” he said. “I very rarely look at the recommendations. We simply try to do what’s right for the country. ... We’re going to continue to take the tough votes, the hard votes that will correct the problems of this country. Waste, fraud and abuse are rampant.”

Pearce said one of his main problems with Wilson is that she “tends to take both sides of an issue.” He said she initially did not support last year’s troop surge in Iraq, but then voted to support the surge.

As she has done in previous debates, Wilson stressed that Pearce represents a “safe Republican district,” while her district is much tougher on the GOP. She noted that she received more votes than President Bush in 2000 and in 2004 won her district while Bush lost there to John Kerry.

Pearce, however, noted that Wilson predecessor Steve Schiff never seemed to have the problems getting re-elected that Wilson has faced. He also noted that while she won re-election in 2006 by less than 900 votes, Republican State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons won Albuquerque by several thousand votes.

“I think Heather’s problems in this district are of her own making,” Pearce said.

Wilson spoke of “national special interest groups” spending millions of dollars over the past decade to defeat her. “Steve, you’ve never seen what that’s like,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re in for if the Republican Party is unfortunate enough to nominate you to be our candidate in November.”

Pearce said a strong conservative can win. “When we as conservatives fly the bold colors of conservatism we win. When we fly the pale pastels, we lose.”