eMUSIC JANUARY

* The Roots of The Cramps by various Artists Hot diggity dog! Not only is this a serious eMusic bargain (56 tracks for 12 credits!) it's a serious dose of rockabilly, R&B, surf and garage obscurities.

In short, these are the songs The Cramps covered or, in some cases the tunes that The Cramps mutated into their original songs. (Listen to "Strolling After Dark" by The Shades and you can easily understand why Lux and Ivy were inspired to add a teenage werewolf.)

There's lots of overlap here with a now-out-of print 2007 compilation called Songs The Cramps Taught Us. But that only had 31 tracks.

Among my favorites here are "Miniskirt Blues" performed by The Flower Children, an early band of Simon Stokes; the bubblegum classic "Quick Joey Small" by The Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus; a version of Elroy Dietzel's "Rockin' Bones" by a young Ronnie Dawson; and "Storm Warning," some pre-Dr. John gris-gris from Mac Rebennack.

Then there's the girl-biker anthem "Get Off the Road" by The R. Lewis Band. "We are the Hellcats who nobody likes/Man-eaters on motorbikes." Well, I like 'em


* Interplanetary Melodies by Sun Ra. If Lux Interior runs into Sun Ra up in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, they will have a lot more to talk about than you might initially imagine.

You see, Herman Sonny Blount not only played cosmic jazz, but also dabbled in recording doo-wop and R&B in the 1950s. And damned if he didn't make that sound cosmic too! One of the bands represented here was even called The Cosmic Rays, but they're not as otherwordly as The Nu Sounds, a Ra vocal group performing songs like "Spaceship Lullaby" and "Africa."

Norton Records recently released three CDs of this material. I picked up Rocketship Rock over on Amie Street. (My favorite tracks there are the down and gritty "Hot Skillet Mama" by Yochanan -- there are two versions here -- and the short version of "I Am Gonna Unmask the Batman" by Lacy Gibson.) I'll definitely pick up The Second Stop is Jupiter before long.

* Ow! Ow! Ow! by Barrence Whitfield. Good news: Rounder Records is now on eMusic. That means classic '80s Barrence albums are now available.

For those unfamiliar with this contemporary R&B wildman, I'd start out with Live Emulsfied, (which I already had) -- if only for "Mama Get the Hammer" and "Bloody Mary."

But Ow! Ow! Ow! is a fine choice too. Not a bad track here and some, like "Girl From Outer Space" are downright crazy. And for those who like Whitfield's slower, prettier side, "Apology Line" is one of his finest ballads.


PLUS:

* Sun Recordings Vol. 1 by Jerry Lee Lewis. Here's another good eMusic bargain. Several years ago I downloaded eight tracks from this album. With eMusic's new pricing plan, they only charged me four credits for the other 12 tracks.

Those familiar only with the smattering of Lewis hits they play on oldies radio might be surprised to know that Lewis' fire went well beyond "Great Balls of Fire." He did an excellent version of Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush," not to mention his raucous cover of The Dominos' "60 Minute Man."

But even back in those Sun Records years, Jerry Lee displayed his knack for country music. "Who Will Buy the Wine," included on this volume, has as much soul as The Killer's honk-tonk classics like"What Made Milwaukee Famous" and "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye."

* Seven tracks from No Requests Tonight by The Devil Dogs. This is a live album, released in 1997 by the Dogs, a fine New York punk/trash trio. It's a California show and the stage patter consists largely of East Coast/West Coast abuse Previously my favorite Devil Dogs tune was their cover of former New Mexico Music Commissioner Tony Orlando's grease ballad "Bless You" from the Choad Blast EP. But here the The Devil Dogs cover Bono -- Sonny Bono, that is. Their version of Sonny's proto-hippie lament "Laugh at Me" is a heart-warming delight.

* The tracks I didn't get last month from The Kids Are All Square - This Is HipGirlsville by Thee Headcoats and Thee Headcoatees. Most of the ones I got this month were by Thee Headcoatees, Billy Childish's "girl group" of the '90s, which included Holly Golightly, Miss Ludella Black, Kyra Rubella and Bongo Debbie.

There's a great cover of The Beatles' "Run for Your Life" (remember the John Lennon Rolling Stone interview in which he was expressing politically-correct remorse about this tune?) Meanwhile, "Melvin" is a re-write of Them's "Gloria." But none of these are as cool as "Wild Man," in which the singer sounds as if she's on the verge of a lust-induced nervous breakdown over the boy next door's uncivilized daddy.

BIG SHOW AT AZTEC

Hey Santa Fe readers,

Be sure to join Gregg Turner, Lenny Hoffman, Tom Trusnovic and me 7 p.m. tonight at the Aztec Cafe.

We're going to sing about the love between our brothers and our sisters all over the land.

In addition to the music, Turner has arranged a PARASITIC EXORCISM by 'alt' healer, Tobi Wilde. Bring your parasites.

No cover. No shame.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 8, 2009
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

Back From the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Who Put the Turtle in Myrtle's Girdle? by The Western Melody Makers
Bright Lights & Blonde Haired Women by Ray Price
A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C) by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Bloody Bill Anderson by South Memphis String Band
Let it Roll by Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy
Duck for the Oysters by Malcom McLaren
It Pays to Advertise by The Farmer Boys
Tequila Sheila by Bobby Bare

Green Tree Boogie by Bill Haley & The Saddlemen
I Didn't Mean to Be Mean by Ray Campi
Lord, Mr. Ford by Jerry Reed
Hayride Boogie by Tillman Franks with Webb Pierce
Voodoo Queen Marie by The Du-Tells
Coyote by The Bootleg Prophets
Creole Boy With a Spanish Guitar by Nancy Apple
Train of Life by Roger Miller
Love-a-Rama by Southern Culture on the Skids

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS
(All songs by Elvis Presley unless otherwise noted)
King of the Whole Wide World
Big Train from Memphis by John Fogerty
Heartbreak Hotel by The Cramps
Reconsider Baby
Este Bien, Mamacita by El-Vez
Crying in the Chapel
Jailhouse Rock by Jerry Lee Lewis
My Boy Elvis by Janis Martin
Tiger Man
Rockabilly Rebel by Orion
One Night of Sin

The Birth of Rock n' Roll by Class of 55
Everybody's Getting Paid But Me by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Ain't Always Lived This Way by Jacques & The Shakey Boys
Evil On Your Mind by Jan Howard
We Three (My Shadow, My Echo and Me) by Wayne Hancock
I'm Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail by The Everly Brothers
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Comical Correction: This post initially said that "Jailhouse Rock" was done by "Jerry Lewis." Actually it was The Killer, not the Nutty Professor.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: NEW GARAGE ROCK GOODIES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 8, 2010


Most rock ’n’ roll bands that model themselves after the Rolling Stones try to be subtle about it. Not The Chesterfield Kings. They’ve always been blatantly proud of it — and never more so than on their new CD/DVD Live Onstage ... If You Want It.

The title alludes to the Stones’ first live album — Got Live If You Want It! The Kings are introduced as “the second-greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world.” Singer Greg Prevost prances around like Jagger and bassist Andy Babiuk even looks like Brian Jones. And most obvious of all, listen to the guitar hook of “Flashback.” Remind you of a certain Jumping Jack?

So dock them points for originality. But still, you’d have to have a heart of stone (dang, it’s contagious!) not to get a jolt from the rockin’ fun these guys bring. Just like the old slogan of the lethal product from which they got their name, they satisfy.

The Kings, from Rochester, New York, have been around since the late ’70s and releasing records since the early ’80s. Along with groups like The Fuzztones and The Fleshtones, The Kings were leaders of a garage-rock revival in that era.

In the mid part of the past decade, the band came under the sway of a certain mobster named Silvio Dante (a little in-joke for fans of The Sopranos) aka Little Steven Van Zandt, who made them a flagship band of his label, Wicked Cool.

This album, recorded live at a Rochester television studio, includes material going back at least as far as The Chesterfields’ 1994 album Let’s Go Get Stoned — which is cool, because so much of their older material is hard to find. (Some of the earlier albums have apparently never been released on CD.)

Some of the highlights of the show are “Johnny Volume,” in which guest sax-man Chris Wicks wails like Bobby Keys in his prime; “I Walk in Darkness” — a pure ’60s garage-rock thriller with its Farfisa (or at least Farfisa-sounding) organ (by guest keyboardist Paul Nunes) and Yardbirdsian harmonica (by Prevost); “I’m So Confused, Baby” — Nunes’ organ riff sounding like it’s borrowed from “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”; and “Transparent Life,” which reminds me of “Paint it Black.”

While the basic sound of The Chesterfield Kings is right out of the ’60s, part of this album is a journey into the ’90s. I’m referring to an “unplugged” four-song segment. The Chesterfields go “country” on Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home” (which they first recorded for Let’s Go Get Stoned). But the best tune from this part of the show is the country-bluesish “Drunkhouse,” which sounds like some long-lost Beggars Banquet outtake.

Speaking of going country, the first verse of “Stayed Too Long” starts out as if it’s going to be a rocked-up version of the Louvin Brothers’ “The Christian Life,” the opening line being “My friends tell me that I should have waited.” It soon veers into another direction, however.

One small quibble: recording this performance at a TV studio probably ensured good sound quality. But I bet The Chesterfield Kings would sound twice as crazy before a hopped-up nightclub crowd where people aren’t sitting politely in chairs.

More goodies from the garage

* In the Blue Corner by King Automatic. He’s a one-man garage band from Nancy, France, playing guitar, keyboards, harmonica, and drums and melding them all together through the magic of tape loops. It’s high tech and primitive at the same time.

On Automatic’s previous album, I Walk My Murderous Intentions Home, he displayed a knack for garage noir. He carries that even further on the new record, On Blue Corner, his second release on Voodoo Rhythm Records. KA expands his sound, showing more influence from blues, sinister jazz, and Jamaican rock-steady.

A couple of my favorites here are “Doctor Jekyll & Sister Hyde,” which suggests blues from some dark alley with a piano riff lifted from “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” and “Things Are What They Are but Never What They Seem,” which has a melody that might have been inspired by an all-night binge while listening to Tom Waits albums — though it sounds like Jerry Lee Lewis is playing piano.

“Let’s Have a Party” could be Martians playing rockabilly, while “Le Redresseur de Torts,” with its thumping bass and drums answered by harmonica honks, might be described as a brontosaurus blues. Then there’s “Mood Swings” — with its slinky, sleazy organ and faux Jamaican-rhythm guitar, it could almost be a scene from a movie in which something’s about to go terribly wrong in a cocktail lounge.

*A Different Kind of Ugly by The Sons of Hercules. Here’s Texas’ answer to The Chesterfield Kings. They might be from San Antonio, but the Sons are far more influenced by The New York Dolls, The Stooges, and other proto-punks than they are by Doug Sahm.

Singer Frank Pugliese belts ’em out like a world-weary pro wrestler taunting an opponent. He’s already won a place in punk-rock history. His 1978 band The Vamps opened for The Sex Pistols at their San Antonio show.

While offering few revelations, this album is good rocking fun. I love how Dale Hollow’s guitar goes from Chuck Berry to Cheetah Chrome in nothing flat on “Still Waitin’.”

Back from the shadows again: After a two-week holiday break, The Santa Fe Opry returns to KSFR-FM 101.1 at 10 p.m. Friday night. And don’t forget Terrell’s Sound World same time, same channel, Sunday night.

Steve Terrell live: I’m doing an increasingly rare personal musical appearance on Richard Nixon’s birthday with ex-Angry Samoan Gregg Turner and Lenny Hoffman at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, at the Aztec Café (317 Aztec St.). There’s no cover.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 3, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Jack Ruby by Camper Van Beethoven
Miniskirt Blues by The Flower Children
The Snake by Johnny Rivers
Laugh at Me by The Devil Dogs
Mystery Plane by The Cramps
I Walk in Darkness by The Chesterfield Kings
Mystic Eyes by Them
I am Gonna Unmask the Batman by Lacy Gibson
Theme From The Cheaters by Southern Culture on the Skids

Shoulder Pads by The Fall
No One Has by Mudhoney
It's Lame by Figures of Light
Booze Party by 3 Aces & A Joker
Night of the Phantom by Larry & The Bluenotes
Eagle Never Hunts the Fly by The Music Machine
Sock it To Me by Mitch Ryder & His Detroit Wheels
Spreadin' Your Love Around by Rev. Peyton & His Big Damn Band

Traveling Mood by Wee Willie Wayne
Real Gone Lover by Smiley Lewis
The Girl From Kooka Munga by Tommy Ridgley
Cherry Red by Little Richard
Gunpowder by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
I Can't Get No Ride by Barrence Whitfield
The Hurt's All Gone by The Detroit Cobras
Come Back by Dex Romweber
Bow-Legged Woman, Knock-Kneed Man Part 1 by Bobby Rush
Scream and Scream by Screaming Lord Sutch
Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus

Girl of Ye Ye by Zoe & The Stormies
Things are What They Are But Never What They Seem by King Automatic
(Hot Pastami With) Mashed Potatoes by Joey Dee & The Starlighters
Ding Dong by Johnny Dowd
Whiskey and Wimmin by John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat
God's Been Drinking by Bernadette Seacrest & Her Provacateurs
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

FIRST BIG ENCHILADA OF THE DECADE!

Happy New Year, podlubbers!

To kick off the new year (and the new decade) The Big Enchilada presents a rocking ragtag compilation of tunes from three sources -- The Free Music Archive, The Live Music Archive and Music Alley.

There's tunes from The Dirtbombs, Dead Moon, The Butthole Surfers, The Mekons, Giant Sand, Paul "Wine" Jones, The Minutemen, Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!, New Bomb Turks, Miss Ludella Black and more.

The Free Music and The Live Music archives are great places to legally download and listen to free music. But I encourage you also to go out and buy music from all these artists that you like. (That goes for all the musicians I play on The Big Enchilada.)

CLICK HERE to download the podcast. (To save it, right click on the link and select "Save Target As.")

Or better yet, stop messing around and CLICK HERE to subscribe to my podcasts and HERE to directly subscribe on iTunes.

You can play it on the little feedplayer below:


The official Big Enchilada Web Site with my podcast jukebox and all the shows is HERE.

Here's the play list:

Free Music Archive Set
(Background Music: Mission Bucharest by Pharoas)
Puto by Davila 666

Nina by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!

Johnny's Got a Gun by Dead Moon

Pretty Lightning by New Bomb Turks

Crows by Modey Lemon

Stop Arguing by Paul "Wine" Jones

Baltimore Raven by Little Howlin' Wolf

Live Music Archive Set

Wreck My Flow by The Dirtbombs

Who Was In My Room Last Night? by The Butthole Surfers

Beaten and Broken by The Mekons

Tumble and Tear by Giant Sand

I Feel Like a Gringo by The Minutemen

Gravity by Buick MacKane

Music Alley Set

(Background Music: Mr. Potato by Kahuna Kawentzmann)

Cannibal Girls by The Hydes

Bleed for You by Los Hories

Tumbleweed Blues by Howlin' Tumbleweeds

Mean Maria by Don Juan y Los Blancos *

Deadbeat by The Hoodlum Circus

(I Swear) From This Witness Stand by Miss Ludella Black & The Masonics

(Background Music: Graveyard Hand by Get Three Coffins Ready)

* (I gave the wrong name for Don Juan y Los Blancos on the podcast itself. Sorry guys)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BEST OF 2009

Last week I wrote about my favorite albums of the decade. Here’s my favorite of the past year.

* Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. This Austin, Texas outfit doesn’t see soul music as some fragile museum exhibit — it’s a funk/punk Saturday night fish fry that never ends. The horn section is loud, the guitar has a bite, and the organist sounds as if he has been force-fed a steady diet of Jimmy Smith and The Animals. And Lewis shouts like Wilson Pickett’s long-lost grandson.

* Dracula Boots by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds. Brian Tristan, the El Monte, California, native better known as Kid Congo Powers, has been a member of The Cramps as well as of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Gun Club. With The Pink Monkey Birds, his M.O. is reciting strange tales over insane psychedelic guitar. Sometimes there’s New Wave-y keyboards adding some science-fiction zing to the mix. There’s a song about Santa Fe’s favorite ghost La Llorona, two songs about Santa Claus, and a cover of a funny Thee Midnighters tune.

* Not Now! by The A-Bones. This band of New Yorkers — led by the first couple of Norton Records, Billy Miller and Miriam Linna — sounds like those anonymous combos playing at sinister nightclubs or hopped-up youth dance parties in black-and-white teen-exploitation movies. A little dangerous, a little sleazy, but ultimately inviting because they’re so much fun.

* Viper of Melody by Wayne Hancock. Wayne the Train is perhaps the greatest living purveyor of ’50s-style roadhouse honky-tonk. With a tip of the hat to western swing and a sly wink at rockabilly, Hancock is retro to be sure. But he never sounds hokey. My favorite song here is a murder ballad, “Your Love and His Blood,” which contains a should-be-classic line: “The next time we’re together, you’ll be on the witness stand.”

* Raw, Raw, Rough by Barrence Whitfield. His first solo album since 1995 is full of early rock ’n’ roll/crazed R & B spirit. Barry probably gets sick of Little Richard comparisons, but in many ways such talk is well deserved. He also can sound almost pretty — in an Otis Redding kind of pretty.

* Invisible Girl by The King Khan & BBQ Show. There’s a big element of stripped-down blues bashers like Flat Duo Jets and White Stripes in KK & BBQ. But what distinguishes this dynamic duo is its anchor in raw doo-wop. The basic sound, therefore, is punk-rock roar, embellished by some Ruben & The Jets/Sha Na Na/rama-lama-ding-dong silliness but frequently based on some seriously gorgeous melodies and occasional sweet harmonies.

* Ruins of Berlin by Dex Romweber Duo. Speaking of Flat Duo Jets, founder Romweber was back this year with a new duo, this time with his sister Sara. Some songs sound like Flat Duo Jets Mach II. But other tracks feature guest musicians including a bevy of female guest vocalists, such as Exene Cervenka, Neko Case, and Chan Marshall. Try not thinking of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet while listening to Marshall singing “Love Letters” with the Duo.

* Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective. My one concession to “modern” rock and my one favorite you’ll probably find on most those real rock critics’ list. Some of this music sounds like an advanced civilization of space creatures who worship Brian Wilson. One of my favorite songs of the year is the sweet, euphoric and irresistible “My Girls.”

* The Fine Print (A Collection of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008) by Drive-By Truckers. I find this collection of outtakes, alternate versions, cover songs, and other previously unreleased tracks fresher than the Truckers’ past couple of studio albums. The strongest cut is Patterson Hood’s slow burner called “The Great Car Dealer War,” about a guy paid to torch vehicles at a car lot. The best lyrics: “I don’t ask questions, I don’t assume/I just take a long hard look when I walk into a room.”

* High, Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project by Loudon Wainwright III. Wainwright plays lots of songs associated with Poole — a hard-living, ramblin’, gamblin’, singing moonshiner — as well as some original tunes about the influential singer. It’s hard to find anything as cosmically kooky this year as Wainwright’s version of Poole’s “I’m the Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World.”

Honorable Discharges

* Haymaker! by The Gourds
* Blue Black Hair by The Del Moroccos
* Before Obscurity: The Bushflow Tapes by Tin Huey
* Tangled Tales by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
* Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women

Best Live Album/DVD Set:

*Live From Axis Mundi by Gogol Bordello

Best Oldies Compilation:

* I Still Hate CDs by Various Artists

YEAR-END TIDBITS

I just got off the phone with my old musical crony and ex-Angry Samoan Gregg Turner, who has arranged a night of music, fun and weirdness at the Aztec Cafe, Saturday Jan. 9 (Richard Nixon's birthday!)

It'll be Gregg, Lenny Hoffman and me -- a loose-knit goon revue we once called The Hatchet-Wielding Jews, as per this 2004 David Alfaya poster seen here -- and perhaps some special guests, singing our songs and whatnot, about 7:30 p.m. until 11 p.m.

xxxxxxxx

Last week in Terrell's Tuneup, I looked back on my favorite albums of the decade and tomorrow I'll present my favorites of the past year. (Check this blog later tonight).

But Jessica Cassyl Carr of The Weekly Alibi in Albuquerque asked me (and others) to look into the future and what we'd like to see happen in music in the next decade. You can find my words of wisdom -- along with those of The Handsome Family's Brett Sparks and Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and a Hacksaw -- HERE.

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And finally, be on the lookout for the next episode of The Big Enchilada Podcast, coming very soon.

You can subscribe to my free monthly (or so) podcast HERE.

Happy New Year, everyone!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 27, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Long Green by Barrence Whitfield
I Found a Peanut by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
I Hear Sirens by The Dirtbombs
Geraldine/The Lover's Curse by The A-Bones
Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
What a Way to Die by The Pleasure Seekers
Amazons & Coyotes/No Confidence by Simon Stokes
Viper of Melody by Wayne Hancock

Three Hairs and You're Mine by King Khan & His Shrines
Anala by The King Khan & BBQ Show
Big Booty Woman by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Sui Bong by Dengue Fever
Alcohol by Gogol Bordello
Tex-Mex Mile/My Name is Jorge by The Gourds

People Who Died Set
People Who Died by The Jim Carrol Band
It's a Hard Life by The Seeds (for Sky Saxon)
Flat Foot Flewzy by NRBQ (for Steve Ferguson)
Hadacol Boogie by James Luther Dickinson
I'm Wise by Eddie Bo
Red Hot by Billy Lee Riley
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns by The Cramps (for Lux Interior)
Swelters by Vic Chestnut

My Girls by Animal Collective
Nashville Radio by Jon Langford
Bold Marauder by Drywall
Little Pony & The Great Big Horse by Drive-By Truckers
My Heart is the Bums on the Street by Marah
Donut and a Dream by Tony Gilkyson
Girls by Eleni Mandell
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

HERE THEY GO AGAIN

I don't know who this "Roundtable" is. Seems pretty square to me.

I'm talking about Tom Sharpe's story in today's New Mexican about the panel of downtown merchants and others wanting to move some events off the Plaza.

Here's the part that made me pig-bitin' mad:

On Monday, the roundtable mulled over the idea of meeting early next year with leaders of the eight major annual Plaza events — plus Outside In, the organization that sponsors free music on the Santa Fe Plaza Bandstand during the summer — to see if some of the events might be moved to the Santa Fe Railyard, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center or other venues.

(Merchant H.C.) Potter said the first question they should be asked is, "Is it necessary to have your event on the Plaza?"

I'm prejudiced here, because I usually catch several Santa Fe Bandstand shows during the summer and I love seeing the Plaza come alive with activity at night. The crowd usually is predominantly local, but you see lots of tourists enjoying themselves in the crowd as well. (The above photo was taken at The Gourds' July 2008 show.)

Of course, I'm just a local and not the type who drops big cash bucks in the galleries and boutiques, so who cares what I like, right?

This issue of what should and shouldn't be allowed on the Plaza has been around since at least the early '80s when I started my career as a journalist. The truth is, some -- not all -- downtown merchants just wish locals would stay away.

When I was covering City Hall for the Journal North in the mid-80s, one of the burning issues of the day was the scourge of street musicians and food vendors in the downtown area, which according to some of the merchants of the day were gauche and offensive in the eyes of the nice people who spent money in the galleries. Not only that, these musicians and street sellers were unfair competition for the tourist dollar, some shopkeeps contended.

"Gee, I'd like to buy that $5,000 painting, but I just spent all my money on a hotdog and a tip for a guy singing Dylan songs ... "

A few years later, working for The New Mexican, I covered a concerned merchants gripe session at City Hall about the very topic of "too much activity" on the Plaza. One newly-shop owner stood up and said he wished they'd get rid of Fiesta, or at least hold it somewhere other than downtown. This guy called me the next day aghast that I'd quoted him. Some of my readers apparently were upset about the idea of moving Fiesta and called him up and told him so.

If they get serious about moving the Bandstand series, I hope local music fans do the same.

And with city elections coming up, maybe we should get some bumper stickers saying "I like Santa Fe Bandstand AND I VOTE!"