TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 22, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
America the Beautiful by The Dictators
The Kingdom of My Mind by The Blood-Drained Cows
Bumble Bee Zombie by Roky Erikson
Bumble Bee by The Casual Dots
Sonic Reducer by The Dead Boys
Libertines in My Scene by The Dirty Novels
Summertime by Ricky Nelson
Death Wears an Overcoat by Bichos
Jolie's Nightmare by Chuck E. Weiss
Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody by Al Jolson

You Are My Sunshine by Spider & The Crabs
On the Outside Lookin' In by The Upside Dawne
Shake & Fingerpop by Tide
Crawfish Song by The Astronauts
Love Man by Otis Redding
Quiero Ser Como Wau y Los Arrrghs!!! by The Hollywood Sinners
Rey Los Tablistas by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!
I'm Happy Too by Hubb Capp & The Wheels

Rock 'n' Soul Music by Country Joe & The Fish
Land of the Freak by King Khan & The Shrines
If You Leave Me by Andre Williams & The New Orleans Hellhounds
Everlovin' Man by The Dirtbombs
Cream by Prince
Premadawnut by Fishbone
Am I the One by The King Khan & BBQ Show

Whittier Boulevard by Los Straitjackets
Mega Bottle Ride by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Yo Frankie (She's Allright With Me) by Dion
Heartbeat of Time by Scott Kempner
Who Will Lead Us by The Gutter Twins
Jesus of the Moon by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Ramona by NRBQ
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

UDALL vs. PEARCE ON ENERGY

My story in today's New Mexican on the differing views on energy policy of Senate candidates Tom Udall and Steve Pearce can be found HERE. The sidebar on key energy votes can be found HERE.

This morning the Pearce camp "demanded" a debate on energy policy with Udall.

"Pearce called for the two camps to begin immediate talks to determine the location and format for the debate," the news release said.

I can't imagine Udall not agreeing to debate with Pearce before the gerneral election, but at the moment when polls show him up by 25 percentage points, I'm betting he's not in a rush.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Bears in Them Woods by Nancy Apple
It'd Be Sad If It Wasn't So Funny by Lonesome Bob
Poor Little John by Roger Miller
Deisel Smoke, Dangerous Curves by Doye O'Dell
Roll Truck Roll by Laura Cantrell
Rolling Stone by Neko Case
Poisonville by Ronny Elliot
Creole Stomp (Happytown) by Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys
Dancing Shoes by Mama Rosin

The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll by Carl Perkins
How's My Ex Treating You by Jerry Lee Lewis
Walk on Out of My Mind by Waylon Jennings
Rebel Rouser by Jim Stringer
My Eyes by Tony Gilyson
Billy 1 by Los Lobos
Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) by Willie Nelson & Calexico

Lawrence Jones by Kathy Matea
Are They Going to Make Us Outlaws Again by Hazel Dickens
Waiting For The Demons to Die by Boris & Saltlicks
The Girl on the Side by The Boxmasters
Wildwood Flower by Cedar Hill Refugees
Checkout Time in Vegas by The Drive-By Truckers
The Seeds of My Destruction by Cornell Hurd

I'll Give You Needles by Scott Kempner
Whatever Happened to Cheetah Chrome by Tommy Womack
Lonely Town by Julien Aklei
Gun Blue by Goshen
Tower of Song by Martha Wainwright
Invitation by Richard Buckner
A Whorehouse is Any House by Bonnie Prince Billy
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: SUPERGENIUS SOUL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 20, 2008

Back in 1968, Country Joe & The Fish envisioned the concept of “rock ’n’ soul” music with an exhilarating, if tongue-in-cheek song by that name.

“Now this ain’t soul music, mind you, this is rock music. But it’s got soul to it, if you can dig that. And now the band would like to play a new riff they just learned, we call a sockin’-it-to-you.”

Forty years later that sockin’-it-to-you spirit is embodied by a Canadian guitar picker of East Indian heritage who lives in Germany — ladies and gentlemen, the mighty King Khan. As Country Joe might say, his love is like a rainbow.

Since the turn of the century, Khan has been ripping up European audiences. He released a couple of CDs with buddy Mark Sultan as The King Khan & BBQ Show, a hard-charging blues/garage duo distinguished by its love of doo-wop harmonies.

But even more impressive is Khan’s work with The Shrines, a nine-, 10-, or 11-piece (depending on which account you read) full-fledged psychedelic soul band, complete with horn section. At one point, the group included a Japanese go-go dancer named Bamboorella who, according to an early press release, “traded a life of crime, sex, and drugs for a life of rock ’n’ roll, sex, and drugs. With her salacious dances she enthuses both men and women alike.”

Khan’s is an amazing sound. But even more amazing is that until June 17, the young king hadn’t been available on any American record label.

Vice Records, the same independent label that’s home to The Black Lips, just released The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines, a best-of compilation complete with a Bollywood-style album cover and liner notes from The Black Lips’ Jared Swilley. The album features tracks from the band’s three albums — Three Hairs and You’re Mine, Mr. Supernatural, and What Is?! — plus various singles and EPs.

While you can often detect punk and garage rock influences in Khan’s grooves, and the pace of some tunes like “Land of the Freak” is closer to speed metal than to soul, Khan and the band clearly respect the traditions of soul. This is no silly parody. It’s a legitimate update of the genre.
Among my favorite tracks is “Took My Lady to Dinner,” a tune that might owe its hooks to the Beatles’ “Drive My Car.” The narrator in the song sits in horror as his girlfriend orders “15 pounds of ribs, deep fried with some burgers on the side” not to mention the ice cream for dessert. In the refrain, Khan sings, “She’s fat, she’s ugly, I really really love her.”

“Welfare Bread” has a sweet, Southern melody, though the arrangement reminds me a little of Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.” There’s even a little “Born to Run”-style glockenspiel. It’s a poor man’s love song. “You don’t have to pay your bills anymore, now/You just have to eat my welfare bread.”

Whoever compiled this album had no way of knowing that Bo Diddley would die just a few weeks before the release. So I guess it’s just righteous synchronicity that Diddley’s “Crackin’ Up” is the only cover song on Supreme Genius. Khan does it justice with his tremolo guitar and ragged vocals.

The real showstopper, though, is “Shivers Down My Spine,” a dark, bluesy, minor-key song in which Khan sounds like he’s at the end of his rope and in some kind of vampiristic relationship (”She bites me square on my neck/I say, ‘Baby, what the heck?’”) The tune features a cool, spooky organ solo by Freddy “Mr. Ovitch” Rococo (aka Fredovitch).

I’m hoping this is just the first shot fired in the King Khan & The Shrines invasion of America and that Vice releases an album of new material in the near future. Because, like Country Joe might say, “Everywhere I go, you know that it’s always understood/Rock and soul music is doggone good.”

More super sounds of soul
* Daptone 7-Inch Singles Collection, Vol. 2 by various artists. I’ve been yakking about the latest great soul revival for a couple of years now. The one record company most responsible for this delightful phenomenon is Daptone, a New York label that has been cranking out the soul for several years.

The collection features several tunes by Daptone’s two greatest stars — Sharon Jones, the corrections-officer-turned-songbird who is fast becoming the 21st-century Aretha Franklin; and Lee Fields, who’s loud and proud about his musical debt to James Brown but is a dynamic performer in his own right.

There are other acts here too, like shouter Charles Bradley, The Mighty Imperials, the Dap-Kings (who regularly back Jones and also recorded with Amy Winehouse), and Antibalas, here under its original name, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. The band’s appearance almost makes up for the absence of The Budos Band, one my favorite Daptone groups, which, like Antibalas, explores the relationship between African music and American funk.

Fields shines here with the slow Stax/Volt-sounding “Could Have Been.” Shouting over a gutbucket guitar, sweet organ, and sax-led horn section, Fields sounds like Howard Tate in his prime.

The song that really stands out on this collection is Jones’ version of “I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).” Yes, that weird psychedelic pop gem that served to introduce the world to Kenny Rogers (with The First Edition), circa 1967.

The lyrics (by a young and apparently stoned Mickey Newbury) are gibberish (“I woke up this morning with the sundown pouring in/I found my mind in a brown paper bag within,” and so forth) But Jones sings it with gospel-fired intensity, and those Dap horns respond in kind.

Sorry, CD lovers, this album is only available as a download. You can find it on iTunes, Amazon or eMusic.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: A TRAVELING CONGRESSMAN

A Washington, D.C.-based institute dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue" by holding seminars and forums for Congress members in various parts of the world has paid more than $100,000 since the turn of the century for travel expenses for U.S. Rep. Tom Udall and his wife.

In trips paid for by The Aspen Institute, Udall has gone to conferences on "the global environment" in Lausanne, Switzerland, Barcelona, Spain, and Rome; a confab in Florence, Italy, on "the convergence of U.S. national security and the global environment"; conferences on "political Islam" in Helsinki, Finland, and Istanbul, Turkey; meetings between Chinese and American scholars in various cities in China; an education-reform conference in Canún, Mexico; and two conferences on Latin American policy in the beach resort city of Punta Mita, Mexico.

And don't forget a "congressional planning" meeting in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. — a popular location for congressional retreats — back in 2001.

The total cost of Udall's Aspen trips was $105,066.66.

The Legistorm Web site, which compiles a database of congressional trips, makes a notation — a dollar sign symbol — on the Punta Mita trips to indicate hotel charges were "unusually expensive." The hotel charges for Udall and his wife, Jill Cooper, were $3,175 for the January 2006 trip and $2,950 in January 2005. But that's probably just a case of Punta Mita being a pricey little town. Nearly all of the Aspen Institute's 61 trips for senators and representatives to Punta Mita listed at Legistorm have the "unusually expensive" icon.

Udall's trip to China last year, which cost more than $29,000, was the fourth most expensive trip a member of Congress has reported since 2000, according to Legistorm. The most expensive one was a $31,000 trip to London in 2000 by Rep. Thomas Billey, R-Va., and his wife, which was paid for by the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.

In response to questions Wednesday about Udall's Aspen trips, spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said in a written statement: "The world is a dangerous place and there are complex global issues facing New Mexico and the nation today. Tom Udall has proven he'll do what's right for New Mexico and the nation by constantly working to expand his knowledge and maintain a strong grasp of the serious issues impacting us today. ... These high level policy conferences give Congressman Udall the opportunity to focus on the key issues affecting New Mexico and the nation. The Aspen educational programs have never cost the taxpayers a dime, and the Congressman has never missed a vote by attending them. ... Every week Congress is in session, the Aspen Institute also holds policy briefings and sessions with distinguished scholars and international experts that the Congressman attends."

What is the Aspen Institute? According to Aspen's Web site, the institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization created in Aspen, Colo., by Chicago businessman Walter Paepcke. Now headquartered in Washington, D.C., the institute has campuses in Aspen, Colo., and near the shores of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

The institute's board of trustees includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; former Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner; David Gergen, who has been an aide to several U.S. presidents, most recently Bill Clinton; and former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell.

Former Secretary of State (and Bill Richardson employer) Henry Kissinger; former Defense Secretary and World Bank President Robert McNamara; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker are listed as "lifetime trustees."

According to a written statement by former U.S. Sen. Dick Clark, D-Iowa, director of Aspen's Congressional Program, in 2006, funding for the program was provided solely by Carnegie Corp. of New York, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, The Packard Foundation, the Charles S. Mott Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Asia Foundation.

Though corporate contributions aren't accepted for the congressional program, Aspen's most recent annual report lists dozens of corporate sponsors — assumedly for other institute activities. According to the most recent tax form available, Aspen took in nearly $55 million in contributions in 2005.

According to Legistorm, which has compiled congressional trips going back to 2000, Aspen has spent more money on congressional travel than any other group — more than $4.9 million on 894 trips.

Its closest competitor is the American Israeli Education Foundation, which has spent $2.5 million on trips since 2000.

According to Legistorm's breakdown, Aspen has spent more than $3.4 million on travel for Democratic members of Congress, compared with $1.5 for Republicans.

Other Aspen Institute trips: Udall isn't the only member of the New Mexico delegation to travel on Aspen's dime. Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman and his wife traveled to London in August 2002 for a conference on U.S.-Russia relations; to Helsinki alone in 2003 for the same conference on political Islam that Udall attended; and alone to Moscow in 2003 for another conference on U.S.-Russia relations.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., along with her husband and two children, went to the same conference in White Sulphur Springs that Udall went to, courtesy of the Aspen Institute in 2001.

Grubesic won't leave early. When state Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, defeated incumbent Roman Maes in the 2004 Democratic primary, Maes, a senator since 1985, resigned to give Grubesic a little head start and a little extra seniority.

But Grubesic, who didn't seek re-election this year, said this week he won't do the same for state Rep. Peter Wirth, who won the Democratic primary unopposed and faces no general election opposition.

"I was elected to a four-year term and I intend to serve it," Grubesic said. Another factor in keeping his seat, he said, is the prospect of the long-threatened special session — currently rumored to be in the works for August or September, though anyone who really knows anything about it is keeping mum.

Wirth said this week that he doesn't mind waiting until January to take the District 25 Senate seat. In fact, he said, if there is a special session, he'd probably be more comfortable in his current House seat than as a newcomer to the Senate.

He said he's met with Grubesic recently, "just to talk about what I've gotten myself into."

PERSONAL FINANCE REPORTS ON SENATE CANDIDATES

You can read my story about the personal finance statements of New Mexico's two candidates for U.S. Senate, Tom Udall and Steve Pearce HERE. These are requried to be filed once a year by members of Congress.

As you can see, neither of these millionaires is going to have to be eating Snack Ramen anytime soon.

Udall's report is HERE.

Pearce's is HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 15, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Hell or High Water by Hundred Year Flood
Son of a Gun by Goshen
Albert Goes West by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Selling the Wind by Pretty Girls Make Graves
The Wicked Messenger by The Black Keys
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
Kill You Tonight by The Sinister Six

El Perversio by Deadbolt
Get Happy by Simon Stokes
Mumble and Bumble by The Seeds
These Boots Were Made For Walking by Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer
It's Not Bad by The Shakers
Marylou by The Astronauts
Big Boy Pete by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Draygo's Guilt by The Fall
Cha Wow Wow by The Hillbilly Soul Surfers
Mi Saxophone by Al Hurricane

Torture by King Khan & The Shrines
Can't Stop Thinking About You by Charles Bradley
Dirty Old Woman by Denise LaSalle
Cosmic Slop by The P-Funk All-Stars
Slow Bus Movin' (Howard Beach party) by Fishbone
Sherilyn Fenn by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Can You Deal With It by Andre Williams & The New Orleans Hellhounds

Global a Go Go by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Shanghai by Hang on the Box
Soba Song by 3 Mustaphas 3
Sober Driver by Dengue Fever
Dyplomata by Kult
I'm Going to Leave You Satisfied by Divorced
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

R.I.P. LARRY WILSON

I was saddened this morning to hear about the death of Larry Wilson, the man whose giant spray-foam dinosaurs have amazed travelers south of Santa Fe for more than 20 years. You can read Anne Constable's obit HERE.

I interviewed Larry about nine years ago for my "Roadside Attactions" series I did for The New Mexican about weird and wonderful things along New Mexico's highways. I found him to be a very nice guy and way too modest about his art. Here's my section about Larry's creations from the May 30, 1999 issue of The New Mexican.

...the place that some locals refer to as "The Dinosaur Ranch." Actually, it's an otherwise mundane business called Thermal Coatings & Insulation, which specializes in insulating roofs and walls with polyurethane foam.

The company had been doing business at the site for several years. But in the mid 1980s, owner Larry Wilson turned it into a roadside spectacle when he built a couple of giant, realistic prehistoric critters out of rebar, wire and polyurethane. Wilson said he's been interested in dinosaurs since his childhood. He built the first one for his granddaughters who were studying dinosaurs in school.

"They came and said `Grandpa can you make a dinosaur,' so I said I'd try," Wilson said last week. "Of course, I don't think they were expecting anything that big."

Wilson said he had a large piece of rebar that suggested a brontosaurus. "I kept adding onto it and it took on a life of its own," he said.

Wilson sold that bronto and three other of his first dinosaurs to the city of Clayton's Chamber of Commerce. "They'd found some dinosaur tracks in an arroyo so they thought this would be a good way to promote that as a tourist attraction," Wilson said.

Other polyurethane dinos would soon replace the originals.

For the past several years the dinosaur display has featured characters that look like they belong in the 1969 cowboys `n' dinosaurs sci-fi flick Valley of the Gwangi -- a polyurethane cowpoke aside a polyurethane horse, roping a tyrannosaurus rex.

In a nearby coral there are more monsters -- a mamma and baby brontosaurus, a stegosaurus, and an honorary dinosaur a giant horny toad. Wooden owls are mounted on the four corner posts, in a futile attempt to keep birds away from the creations, birds presumedly fearing owls worse than they do dinosaurs.

Then, over at the company building there's another tyrannosaurus looking as if he's bursting through the wall. "He was originally outside," Wilson said. "But he fell over and broke his legs."

Although school classes and church groups often arrange for tours, Wilson said he has to keep his beasts behind a closed fence due to potential liability problems, as well as a spate of vandalism that plagued his dinosaurs about a year ago.

Though his dinosaurs have proven popular, Wilson has resisted temptation to cash in on his creations. He no longer sells his dinosaurs. "That would make it a job and then it wouldn't be fun anymore," he said.

"Besides, I'm not a good artist. Sometimes I'll have one eye bigger than the other or one leg longer. If I was doing them on commission, I couldn't do that. But when I do them for fun and make a mistake I'll just say this species hasn't been discovered yet."

STRINGER, KOMA, SPIDER & THE CRABS

Friday night on The Santa Fe Opry I played a song called "Chevy Headed West" by Jim Stringer & The AM Band, off their new album Triskaidekaphilia . It's a moving, bittersweet song about a couple of young guys on a road trip to California in 1968, worrying about Vietnam and learning about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on their car radio.

In an early verse, Stringer sings the praises of KOMA, that renown 50,000-watt AM radio station in my hometown of Oklahoma City that blasted across the Great Plains every night (from Texas to Chicago, Stringer sings, but it also was heard out here in New Mexico.)

As I kid I mainly used to listen to WKY in OKC. But I'd frequently switch over to KOMA. They played the same basic music as WKY, but they'd always be advertising teen dance parties at VFW halls all over the Midwest -- Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota. There were several bands these ads would talk about, but the one name I remembered was Spider & The Crabs. What a bitchen band name! How could a Spider gig be anything less than totally cool? As a grade school kid I'd fantasize about going to these places. To hell with California dreaming. I wanted to go see Spider & The Crabs in Pierre, S.D.!

Stringer and I were e-mailing Saturday and I mentioned my KOMA memories. He told me that all those bands that advertised on KOMA were managed by a company called Mid-Continent Entertainment. Jim was in a couple of those bands, The Upside Dawne and Tide.

Furthermore there's a Web site that has MP3s of more than 20 of those groups including both of Stringer's early groups, The Red Dogs, the Bluethings ... and Spider & The Crabs!

It's a real treasure trove. CLICK HERE and enjoy!

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 13, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays 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: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Daddy Was a Preacher, Mama Was a Go-Go Girl by Southern Culture on the Skids
Wild Old Nory by The Wilders
Jessico by The Kentucky Headhunters
Bow-Legged Charlie by Otis Taylor
Chevy Headed West by Jim Stringer & The AM Band
Uncle Sam's Jail by The Hacienda Brothers
I'm a Gonna Kill You by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Daddy Rhythm Guitar by Paul Burch
Animal Hoedown by Harry Hayward

Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson
Rice and Beans by Utah Phillips
The Righteous Path by The Drive-By Truckers
Pigsville by The Waco Brothers
My Name is Jorge by The Gourds
Ruins of the Realm by James McMurtry

Rita's Breakdown by Mama Rosin
Brand New Mojo by Boozoo Chavis
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Be My Chauffeur by Clifton Chenier
Alligator Man by Jimmy C. Newman
Down in the Bayou by The Watzloves
Give Him Cornbread by Beau Jocque & The Zydeco High Rollers
Sugarbee by Cleveland Crocket
So Long Baby by Jo-El Sonnier
Zydeco Around the World by Rockin' Dopsie

By the Sweat of My Brow by Hazel Dickens
I'd Rather Be Gone by Merle Haggard
Train of Life by Laura Cantrell
Lead Me On by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
I'm Watching the Game by The Boxmasters
The Salty Sea by I See Hawks in L.A.
Lorena by John Hartford
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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