THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Laurell subbed for me Friday so I could see X and The Detroit Cobras. Here's her playlist.

Friday, June 6, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Laurell Reynolds

Now Simulcasting 90.7 FM, and our new, stronger signal, 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Solar Broken Home-Steve Terrell
Wasted Days & Wasted Nights-Freddy Fender
This Ol Cowboy-Marshall Tucker Band
Molasses In the Moonlight-Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan
Michael Hurley-I'm Getting Ready To Go/Oh My Stars

Fishing Blues-The Holy Modal Rounders
Wake & Bake-The Assylum Street Spankers
The Protest Song-Neil Innes
Hippy Boy-The Flying Burrito Brothers
Okie From Muskogee-Merle Haggard

Fountain Of Love-Frank Zappa
El Paso-Marty Robbins
A Profound and Beautiful Sadness-Derrol Adams
Other Side to This Life-Fred Neil
Emmylou Harris-Everybody's Talkin At Me

Neil Young-Wayward Wind /Love In Mind (live at Massey Hall 1971)
Johhny Cash-You Wild Colorado
Gordon Lightfoot-Beautiful
Juanita-Rosalee Sorrells

Blue Canadian Rockies-The Byrds
Blue Eyes Cryin In the Rain-Willie Nelson
One Paper Kid-Emmylou Harris & Willie Nelson
Moment of Forever-Willie Nelson

Make You Feel My Love-Bob Dylan
Non Dirle Che Non E Cosi (If You See Her Say Hello)-Francesco de Gregori
Red River Valley-Don Edwards

Defying Gravity-Jesse Winchester
John Hartford-Tater Tate and Allen Mundy
Joe West-The Human Cannonball
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

eMUSIC JUNE

* I've Got to Know by Utah Phillips. I downloaded this one just a couple of days after Phillips died in late May. I stumbled across this album on eMusic was searching for some good songs to play on my tribute to Phillips on The Santa Fe Opry.

This is a 1991 album, recorded during he first Gulf War when Korean war vet/pacifist Phillips was pretty pissed off at the U.S. government. As always, Utah tells the story best (from his Web site):

"During the Gulf War, I got plenty good and mad. I parked my car and wouldn't drive it because I said it wouldn't run on blood. Then, with the help of Dakota Sid Clifford, I went into a small but very fine studio here in Nevada City. I said to Bruce Wheelock, the engineer, `Set up two mikes and start the tape. I'll tell you when I'm done.' For the next seventy minutes I spouted, fulminated, and sang about war, peace, pacifism, and anarchy. I used songs, poems, and rants to make the point, and said, `Okay, turn off the machine.' Bruce said, `Don't you want me to edit it?' I said, `No! I'm mad! Leave it the way it is!'

* The King Khan & BBQ Show I was so happy that an American label (Vice Records) was releasing a King Khan & The Shrines best-of The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines) that I decided to download the album from Khan''s other band that I didn't have. (The one I do have is What's For Dinner?, which I got from eMusic a few months ago.)

The two-man King Khan & BBQ Show is a minimalist project for Khan, as the Shrines is a 9-piece soul outfit with a horn section. However, it's a fuller sound for BBQ (aka Mark Sultan), who normally plays as a one-man band.

This band, however isn't your normal high-throttle blues-bomb duo like The Black Keys, The Bassholes, etc. Sure there's some of that , though these guys usually swerve more to a garage-band sound. You hear aural references to both "Psychotic Reaction" and The Syndicate of Sound's "Little Girl" in "Lil' Girl In The Woods." But what really sets them apart is their wonderful do-wop sensibility that permeates several tunes here. This magic is evident on the first track "Waddlin' Around." Plus, you can even hear a little Righteous Brothers call-and-response in "Bimbo's Theme."


* Recapturing the Banjo by Otis Taylor. Otis gets together with a small army of his fellow contemporary blues warriors -- Alvin Youngblood Hart, Corey Harris, Guy Davis, Keb Mo' -- and jazz banjo man Don Vappie for a banjo-driven feast of sound. These guys want to reclaim the banjo as an African, and African-American instrument. There's old songs, new songs, and fresh takes on some of Otis' greatest hits.

For my complete review in Terrell's Tune-Up, CLICK HERE.

* Flammend' Herz by The Dead Brothers . This instrumental album is a soundtrack by Voodoo Rhythm Records' Swiss "funeral orchestra" for a documentary by Andrea Schuler and Olifr Rutz about Germany's oldest tattoo parlour. The cuts tend to be short (only one tune here being over three minutes), establishing an atmosphere for just a moment, then moving on to the next one. You'll hear traces of gypsy jazz, banjo, accordion, tuba and even some spooky slide whistle on "Geistzug." The Brothers rock out on the first half "Road Worker Blues" (before it turns into a piano meditation) and Sicilian folk music on "Mai Lo Cantado Il Blues." And there's a way-too-short take on one of my favorite Leon Redbone tunes "Lulu's Back in Town." Some interesting stuff, but don't get this before you hear The Dead Brothers' most recent record Wunderkammer, which I reviewed a couple of years ago and also is available on eMusic.

* 10 tracks from The Pretty Things by The Pretty Things. After hearing a snippet of the song "Pretty Thing" by The Pretty Things on the latest Sonic Nightmares podcast, I decided I needed to play that on my Bo Diddley tribute on Terrell's Sound World. So I spent my last 10 tracks of the month on 10 of the 17 tracks available on this 1965 album. Asumedly for some legal copyright reason the song "13 Chester Street" isn't available on eMusic. So I took my points from Pepsi bottle caps and got this stray download from Amazon. So imagine my disappointment when I found out the damned Amazon Mp3 is damaged. Makes weird popping nosies. I want my Pepsi back!

X and DETROIT COBRAS at SANTA FE BREWING CO.

Yikes, what a show!

As faithful blog/Tune-up readers know, I just saw X three months ago at South by South West, and I considered that show one of the best of the festival. I normally don't go see bands that I've seen that recently, but, hell, X is X. Besides, I really wanted to see The Detroit Cobras.

And I'm glad I did.

I had a feeling it was going to be a fun night early in the afternoon when I went to the Brewing Company to buy my ticket (no kiddies, I don't get into concerts for free all the time. Paying for music is good for the economy, good for America and good for the soul.) Sitting at an outside table was none other than the members of X eating lunch. They were a friendly bunch. We talked a little about the Austin show, which they said was fun.

Between those two X shows, I have to say that the band sounded better in Austin, mainly because the vocals were mixed far better than in Santa Fe. Last night it was hard to hear the singing over the roar of the instruments.

But the Santa Fe show was more fun than the SXSW show, which was a live television performance (Direct TV). The local crowd last night was far rowdier and the band picked up on the energy. While in Austin their songs were clear, concise and tight, in Santa Fe they went a little crazy and stretched out at times, keeping those fires stoked.

It was a middle-aged mosh pit. It was the first one in several years for me, and, large as I am, I was being bounced around like a pinball. Yes, it was annoying at first (mainly because several potentially good photos were ruined when someone would come flying into me) , and yes, it did get old after a while. But in the middle, it was exhilarating.

As for the Detroit Cobras, they were good too.

The Cobras are a guitar-based self-described "covers band" that specializes in old R&B and soul tunes with a little rockabilly thrown in. Most of their material is obscure enough it might as well be their own. Singer Rachel Nagey has a husky sexy voice.

They got off to a rather slow start. It was still daylight, which Rachel said was strange for them. These flatlanders also complained about the altitude and lack of oxygen.

But once they got going and the audience warmed up, the magic started working. By the time they did "Shout Bama Lama" (an old Otis Redding tune) the place was on fire. I hope the altitude doesn't keep them away from Santa Fe in the future.

A couple of times during X's set, the Cobras took the stage as background singers/dancers. There seemed to be a good comradery between the two bands -- something you don't always see between headliners and opening acts.

Check out my photos of the concert. You can see X HERE and The Detroit Cobras HERE.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: DIGGING LAZARUS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 6, 2008

No question, Nick Cave is back. Again. Like Lazarus.

True, along with other voices in criticdom, I’ve been saying this about Cave for four years now, starting with the sprawling, double-disc glory of Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, then again last year with his howling, stripped-down Grinderman.

And now with the new Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, Cave and his Bad Seeds sound as tough as ever.

True, he’s plowing a lot of the same themes he’s plowed since he and his band The Birthday Party lurched out of Australia 28 years ago: sex, God, violence, and depravity. It wouldn’t be a Nick Cave album without these elements. But he makes it sound as if he’s discovered buried treasure on just about every song.

And what a great batch of songs.

The title cut is the continuing story of what happened to the guy Jesus raised from the dead, whom he calls “Larry.” As the Bad Seeds play a modified “Louie Louie” riff, Cave tells the tale of Lazarus’ missing years:

“Larry grew increasingly neurotic and obscene/He never asked to be raised up from the tomb/No one ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams/... He ended up like so many of them do, back on the streets of New York City/In a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave, then prison, then the madhouse, then the grave/Ah, poor Larry!”

“Today’s Lesson” is about some kind of illicit affair between a couple of characters named Janie and Mr. Sandman, who “likes to congregate around the intersection of Janie’s jeans.” Martyn Casey’s bouncing bass line carries the rhythm, while Warren Ellis’ screaming guitar battles with two crazy, almost Doors-like organs played by Cave and James Johnston.

The slow, minor-key groove of “Moonland” sounds as if it might be sung by Lazurus/Larry himself. “When I came up from out of the meat locker/The city was gone.” As he repeats phrases like “under the stars, under the snow” and “I’m not your favorite lover” it’s almost as if Cave is channeling a lost track from Astral Weeks, a song too dark and gritty for Van Morrison’s album but related to it in spirit.

One of the strangest cuts here is “We Call Upon the Author.” More pulsating bass, discordant guitar noises, and otherworldly organ (which apparently is Cave’s new favorite instrument). Cave speaks rather than sings most of the song.

The smoldering “Hold on to Yourself” is one of the prettiest songs on the album. The lyrics are erotic and insane:

“There’s madhouse longing in my baby’s eyes/She rubs the lamp
between her thighs/And hopes the genie comes out singing. ... Factories close and cars go cruising/In around the borders of her vision/She says ooh/As Jesus makes the flowers grow/All around the scene of her collision.”

The album ends with an eight-minute opus called “No News From Nowhere.” It’s a relatively mellow tune compared with most of the others on the album. It reminds me a bit of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks era. The lyrics tell of sexual encounters, a violent confrontation with a one-eyed giant, and ghosts of all the girls he’s loved before. He even runs into the heroine of one of his old songs here:

“I bumped bang crash/Into Deanna hanging pretty in the door
frame/All the horrors that have befallen me/Well, Deanna is to blame.” By the last verse Cave laments, “Don’t it make you feel sad/Don’t the blood rush to your feet/To think that everything you do today/Tomorrow is obsolete.”

That might be true, yet very little about this album seems obsolete at all.

Also recommended:

* Hello, Voyager by Evangelista. Evangelista is the name of the 2006 avant-rock solo album by Carla Bozulich, who is best known for her tenure with the alt — very alt — country band The Geraldine Fibbers. I called the dark and noisy Evangelista “bruised gospel.” The best songs there were like passionate spirituals from the inferno.

Bozulich is now calling her band Evangelista. And Hello, Voyager continues down the same path through the valley of the damned. “Winds of St. Anne,” for instance, picks up right where the previous album left off — slow plodding rhythm, ominous guitar drones, distorted, explosive vocals.

The first song to really knock me on the head from this album was “Lucky Lucky Luck,” a bouncy little tale of a reform-school girl: “When I was a baby I was sweet as could be/ I had a good heart but I had to kill it/Eleven years old my blood ran cold, by 13 I had to spill it.”

“The Blue Room” has a melody straight out of some old Disney film (as filtered through The Geraldine Fibbers). It features longtime Bozulich collaborator Nels Cline (now with Wilco) on 12-string guitar. “For the Li’l Dudes,” featuring cello, viola and violins, is chamber music for the criminally insane. The six-minute-plus “The Frozen Dress” is a noise experiment that might have fit in the Eraserhead soundtrack.

The 12-minute title track that ends the album starts out with clunky percussion before settling into a long organ-driven spook-house ride with Bozulich shouting about having no hope. She repeats “the word is love” several times before shouting a bloodcurdling “No!!!!” And it doesn’t get any sunnier from there.

Though much of the music is foreboding, it’s not without humor. For instance, Kenny G fans might be disappointed to learned that the song “Smooth Jazz” isn’t smooth jazz at all!

Bozulich has a real cool Web site, including several free mp3s from various stages of her career; visit carlabozulich.com.

* On the radio: Steve Terrell remembers the late great Bo Diddley Sunday night on Terrell’s Sound World, 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR-FM 101.1. It’s freeform weirdo radio at its finest.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: SHIFTING SANDS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 5, 2008

Could the fall of two longtime state senators from Albuquerque at the hands of self-proclaimed progressive reformers be the birth of a new Senate faction?

Self-proclaimed “Bull Moose” Democrat Shannon Robinson, who has been in the Senate for 20 years, lost by a huge margin to newcomer Tim Keller. Meanwhile, former Albuquerque City Councilor Eric Griego sang “Rockabye, sweet baby James” to Sen. James Taylor, who has served most of one term in the Senate but had nearly a decade in the House, where he rose to the rank of majority whip.

Although it wasn’t exactly a slate, the campaigns of both Keller and Griego were managed by Neri Holguin, a veteran of New Mexico politics since 2000. Both were endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters and Democracy for America/Democracy for New Mexico, a liberal activist group. And both campaigned in favor of ethics reform, not exactly a high priority with Robinson or Taylor.

It’s easy to imagine the two newcomers banding together with fellow Albuquerque progressives like Cisco McSorley, Dede Feldman and Jerry Ortiz y Pino — plus perhaps Santa Fe’s Peter Wirth, who will be moving from the House to the Senate — and give new life to ethics reform, which for the past few sessions has withered and died in the catacombs of the Senate.

I’ll even go out on a limb and predict that conference committees — the Legislature’s “last bastion of secrecy” — will finally get opened. In 2007, a move failed by one vote to open the meetings where legislators hammer out differences in the same bills passed by the House and the Senate.

(And, as I’ve said before, if they do make this change, the Legislature should designate a meeting room as the “Bob Johnson Open Conference Committee Room” in honor of the late director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government who fought against closed meetings for years.)

Of course, once they get to the Roundhouse, who knows what will happen. Sands shift and alliances rise and fall. There is always pressure to get along and go along. But the constituents who elected the new senators are bound to apply some pressure as well.

Best victory statement ever: State Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, who won a close re-election match Tuesday, had only one comment for blogger Heath Haussamen.

He referred to Psalm 140:11, which says:

“May a slanderer not be established in the earth; May evil hunt the violent man speedily.”

That’s pretty cool, especially when you imagine Samuel L. Jackson reciting it.

The blessings of St. Pete: Outgoing U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici is venerated by fellow Republicans, but apparently that doesn’t mean his endorsement is a magic bullet in a GOP primary. Domenici was 0-for-2 for the candidates he endorsed, Heather Wilson for U.S. Senate and Marco Gonzales for Congress in the 3rd District.

Granted, Domenici’s last-minute endorsement of Wilson might have helped her. She was six points behind Steve Pearce in the Albuquerque Journal poll taken right before the endorsement and ended up within two points of winner Pearce.

Gov. Bill Richardson has taken some blog flack for his endorsements of Robinson and Taylor, who both lost by landslides.

But in fairness, other Richardson-endorsed candidates did much better. In state Senate primaries, he endorsed Carlos Cisneros, Howie Morales, Linda Lovejoy, David Ulibarri, John Pinto and Feldman, all of whom won. In Congressional races, the Richardson-endorsed Ben Ray Luján in CD 3 and Harry Teague in CD 2 were victorious.

In the state House races, he endorsed six candidates, five of whom won. And he endorsed Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulousse-Oliver, wife of Richardson spokesman Allan Oliver, who won.

Mr. Lonely: Poor Dan East is about to learn what it’s like to be a Republican in the 3rd Congressional District. He beat Gonzales fair and square in the primary. But on Wednesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued a statement noting the victories of Darren White in CD 1 and Ed Tinsley in CD 2. But they didn’t even mention the heavily Democratic 3rd District, where East will face Luján and most likely independents Carol Miller and Ron Simmons in November.

Get a job: Some influential people are looking at New Mexico politicians for big national jobs.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday quoted U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., suggested a possible running mate for John McCain: Heather Wilson.

“Davis — who hasn’t been shy about criticizing his party and telling Republicans how they need to turn things around in a challenging campaign environment — said that choosing a woman might help ‘balance the ticket’ and broaden McCain’s appeal, particularly if Barack Obama doesn’t pick Hillary Clinton as a running mate.” The WSJ did note Wilson lost her primary Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Monroe Anderson of EbonyJet.com suggested a chief of staff for Barack Obama: Bill Richardson.

“During the double-digit number of debates among the candidates for Democratic Party nomination for president, the governor of New Mexico demonstrated time and time again that he is both level-headed and a peace-maker,” Anderson wrote.

“Richardson, who was one of the highest-ranking Hispanic appointees in President Clinton’s administration, brings the right blend of experience and respect to keep Obama’s White House in order.”