R.I.P. Diego Mulligan

I just learned of the death of KSFR's Diego Mulligan a few minutes ago.

He was a major player in the effort to save KSFR back in the late '90s, when the administration of Santa Fe Community College was trying to get rid of the station. Thanks to those efforts, KSFR emerged as and remains a strong independent station.

Here's a statement from KSFR Board Chair Marilyn Mason:

It is with deep sadness we report the death of KSFR's Diego Mulligan.  He will be remembered not only as the inspiring host of the Journey Home show, but as an avid environmentalist. His daily program provided the platform for educating a generation of Santa Feans about climate issues and the human condition. 
Diego suffered from multiple health problems over the past several years, and we had all pulled for him to recover fully.  His passing is a shock.
I know you'll join me in sending deepest sympathies to his wife Jennifer and children.

Below is Diego's biography, which he wrote for KSFR's website:


Diego Mulligan is the anchor for Santa Fe's longest running daily radio talk show–The Journey Home, on KSFR 101.1 FM, Santa Fe Public Radio, and is an independent alternative all about People, Planet and Politics. The daily show airs live every weekday (M–F) from 5:06 to 6:00 PM MT covering the Rio Grande Valley from Albuquerque to Taos, New Mexico, USA. Diego interviews a remarkable range of local-to-global experts on the nitty-gritty of cultural transformation on our journey home to a more livable world. With youthful curiosity and edgy humor he and his world-class guests explore practical solutions aimed at sustaining person and planet, while enjoying the journey along the way.

Diego is best described as an avid explorer of new options and the innovative power of people. As an aspiring generalist, he understands whole systems and draws attention to the connections that bring us together. His gift as a cultural interpreter is to help people grasp the changes and challenges facing us, and how individuals, families, businesses and communities can navigate their course to a more positive and sustainable future.

Early Background

Born in Miami, Florida in 1950, Diego Mulligan grew up in the Bahama Islands as an American expatriate. He was the first American boy to live fulltime on Grand Bahama, where he was part of a multi-cultural working class and professional community of pioneers, resort developers, underwater divers and seafarers. Diego was seduced by the stunning diversity of Grand Bahamas’s coral reefs and tropical forests, where he learned to SCUBA dive and build thatched huts and tree houses at an early age. As a youth member of the International Underwater Explores Society, he carried diving gear for such notables as Jacques Cousteau, Lloyd Bridges and Walter Cronkite. He has been committed to environmental restoration ever since.

In 1968 Diego began his first career in radio. After dropping out of college ("It seemed irrelevant and not challenging") he gained a coveted First Class Radio-Telephone Engineering license from the Federal Communications Commission and began hosting top-rated music shows in medium and major markets from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to Miami's Gold Coast. He was one of the first DJs to develop the Album Oriented Rock format as an alternative to Top 40 in the late 60s, and went on to develop the now-popular Modern Country Crossover format before leaving commercial radio and TV in 1973. During this period he was also an exhibition sport parachutist (Skydiver) making over 200 freefalls and experiencing a wide variety of interesting situations.

Having protested the draft during the sixties, Diego was one of the first to join the all-volunteer military in 1973. After completing U.S. Army Aviation College with top honors he became an FAA-licensed and fully rated Air Traffic Controller (ATC) serving at one of Europe's busiest airports. Here he earned the nickname 'Emergency Mulligan', due to a coincidentally high number of pilots declaring emergencies during his shift. Though not one of them was his doing, Diego became an expert at dealing with various emergencies and crashes, such as talking down lost pilots in bad weather, and organizing search & rescue missions for downed aircraft from heavy-lift CH-47s to U-2 spy planes. After a near-death experience himself, Diego changed direction and eventually left ATC.

In 1976 entered the emerging field of Sustainable Community Development. After doing several internships, he was invited to join NGO projects in Europe and Africa, among them British-based Green Deserts (1978) where he served as communications director. He then went on to co-found the Tunisian Institute of Appropriate Technology (1980), and create the Community Economic & Ecological Development Institute (1988) and Center for Sustainable Community in Santa Fe (1990), and was co-founder of the Commons on the Alameda, the American Southwest's first successful CoHousing Community (1992). During this 20-year period he spent 12 years working abroad where he studied traditional architecture and village design. He also did extensive field-work in arid land restoration and reforestation, technology assessment and transfer with UNESCO, group governance and consensus building (Findhorn Foundation, Scotland), community economic development (Suffolk, England), and resident directed housing, environmental education, and renewable energy systems both in the nonprofit and private sectors (Santa Fe). As a consultant, he provided professional services for Aldea de Santa Fe (now completed), and Oshara Village (a 462 acre "sustainable transition town" now under construction in Santa Fe County).

He returned to commercial radio in 1993 with the Connections Radio Journal – a daily afternoon drivetime show – and shifted to Public Radio in 1997 as host of the popular daily talk and interview show, The Journey Home on KSFR 101.1 FM, Santa Fe Public Radio. In 2005 he co-founded the New Village Institute, and as the executive director, he consults with nonprofit groups, public institutions and real estate developers on the practical issues of creating a sustainable neighborhoods, community and culture, from resident directed sub-division design to renewable energy and conservation systems.

Politics

Politically Diego is fiercely independent. After starting as campus president of Young Republicans and (Young Americans for Freedom)  in college, Diego composted his rose-colored Republican credentials after interviewing Ronald Reagan up close in an elevator one day. Since then he has participated with the Libertarian, Green and Democratic parties, and considers himself a progressive who embraces the best of liberal and conservative approaches to public policy, but has little interest in the ideologies of Left & Right politics.

Personal

Diego is married to Jennifer Hanan who co-produces The Journey Home Radio Show. He has three children, Mikhaila (27), Joss (20) and Jaden (2). With invaluable support from Jennifer, Diego is living his dream to advance the field of sustainable living, while sharing the process with a growing community of radio listeners, while learning to – above all – enjoy the journey.

Current: 2011– 2013

In 2004 Diego began designing the Oshara Synergy House and began building in September 2009. The idea was to combine deep green building design with a whole systems approach to renewable energy, water harvesting, food growing and home-based cottage industries. Together with Jennifer's input and commitment they decided to go all in, and construct this owner-built family home to include studios for producing The Journey Home Radio Show and other creative content, plus provide space for gatherings, live music, a country kitchen and gardens, and a village innovation workshop as an integrated center demonstrating sustainable living systems.

Two-thirds of the way into the project, in September 2011, Diego suffered a spinal cord injury that required life-saving surgery. This began a health and healing crisis that also caused a debilitating heart arrhythmia that required a pacemaker implant. Then in September 2012 it was discovered that Diego had contracted a fairly rare blood cancer. The disease – though life-threatening – can be slowed with chemotherapy and managed with stem-cell transplant technology scheduled for early 2013.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 21, 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
 OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos

What Do you Do When You're Lonesome by Wanda Jackson

 

THE COPPER GAMINS LIVE

Nightingale

She (?)

Silver Monkey

(?)

Angelitos Negros

This Old Boy

You Keep Around

Candyman

Down on the Farm by Big Al Dowling

1,000,001 by Kelly Hogan

Hot Dog by Rosie Flores

Mighty Lonesome Man by James Hand

Baddest of the Bad by Rev. Horton Heat

Clickity Clack by The Ugly Valley Boys

Black Ship by The Dinosaur Truckers

Love My Baby by Walker & The Texas Dangers

Naco Jail by Mose McCormack

The Cat Never Sleeps by Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights / Volver Volver by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Chris Gafney

Guv'ment by Roger Miller

Big River by Earle Poole Ball

Put on Your Old Red Flannels by The Hoosier Hot Shots

Big Time by The Howlin' Brothers

Honey, You Had Me Fooledby The Defibulators

Sweeter Than the Scars by Shineyribs

Crazy People by The Boswell Sisters

My Heart Was the Last One to Know by Kris Kristofferson 

You're Learning by The Louvin Brothers

Same God by The Calamity Cubes

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: DINOSAUR TRUCKERS & CALAMITY CUBES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
June 21, 2013

One of the most satisfying records in the “underground country” vein so far this year isn’t even from this country. I’m talking about the self-titled album by The Dinosaur Truckers, a (mostly) acoustic quartet from Germany.

A Teutonic melding of Dinosaur Jr. and The Drive-by Truckers? Nope. These guys don’t sound much like either of those bands. They’re closer to the newer breed of country rock represented by groups like The Goddamn Gallows, Honky Tonk Hustlas, and The Calamity Cubes.

Starting out just a few years ago as Pistol Pete & The Dinosaur Truckers (I don’t know what happened to Pistol Pete), this group is a banjo-and-stand-up-bass-centered band with strong affinity for bluegrass, although — simmer down, purists — it isn’t a bluegrass band.

For one thing, these Truckers frequently feature electric guitar (heavy on the tremolo) and a lap steel for that lonesome sound heard on Hank Williams records. The Truckers are fond of minor-key songs that start out slow before exploding into banjo fury or mandolin mayhem. These guys can play, and they like to play it fast when the spirit says “fast.”

If you’re expecting songs with lyrics about sweet country sunshine, forget it. There’s a certain apocalyptic mood that runs through The Dinosaur Truckers, fortified by song titles such as “Burn the Place to the Ground” (a good-time stomp, and musically it is the closest thing to real bluegrass on the album); “Wolves in the Street” (with an ominous chorus that goes, “I had a crazy dream of a long black limousine that was broken down and covered all in rust/There were wolves in the street and vultures in the trees/And a plastic casket that turned to dust”); and the opening track, “Black Ship.”

That one starts out with a burst of electric-guitar feedback, and then comes a primitive, heavy-foot brontosaurus waltz with a slow, ominous “la la la” chorus before breaking into galloping bluegrass mode.

You might think that the moody “Box of Memories” is a long-lost Townes Van Zandt song. It’s one of the slower songs here with a slide guitar that sounds downright ghostly. “Shadow Fallin’ Down My Face” might remind you of something by Calexico thanks to the mariachi trumpets that seem to come out of nowhere.

The Truckers’ prettiest moment has to be the exquisite “Leave Everything Behind,” a song about a guy trying to escape his ghosts. The chorus has a sly reference to an old Merle Haggard song: “And when I wake with change on my mind/And that old radio plays ‘The Running Kind’/And the weather and the wind whispers too me once again/It’s about time to leave everything behind.”


I hope that music this soulful never becomes extinct, no matter where it come from.

Also recommended:

* Old World’s Ocean by The Calamity Cubes I’ve had this album in my possession for more a performance at the Moose Lodge in Austin during the 2012 South by Southwest weekend (a show that the website Saving Country Music rated one of the top live performances of last year). Earlier this year, Farmageddon Records finally released the album.
than a year. I bought a self-burned disc from the band at

The Cubes are an acoustic trio from Wichita, Kansas — banjo, guitar, and stand-up bass. They draw from bluegrass, folk, gospel, country, and rock. And two of the three members — banjoist Joey Henry and guitarist Brooke Blanche — are strong songwriters.

On Old World’s Ocean all of the songs are good, but two of them — “Empty Bottle” and “Same God” — are outstanding. Both are slow, sad ballads written and sung by the gravel-voiced Blanche, a man-mountain of a dude who looks like a meaner version of the old wrestler Hillbilly Jim, but, judging by his lyrics, has a soul as deep and ancient as Leonard Cohen’s.

“Empty Bottle” is the kind of tune the late George Jones could have nailed. “I’d rather have an empty bottle than no bottle at all/To remind me of the good times before last call/To remind me of the taste before the fall.”

By the next verse Blanche is singing about a possibly troubled relationship with “this rowdy woman” whom he vows to keep because “this life is a struggle, and I need someone to hold.” A listener is left wondering whether this love affair has become as empty as the bottle the singer also vows to hang on to.

“Same God” sounds like an existential crisis unfolding before your very ears. What can you say about a song that begins with the lines:

“You and I we’re like cattle in the slaughter house/By the time we realize where we are it’s too late to get out/And all the kicking and biting and scratching won’t do it/And all the endless hoping and praying won’t do it.”

The most jarring part of the song is the bridge, in which Blanche borrows from the Elephant Man, moaning, “And I’m not an animal /And I’m not a criminal/You said you’d save my soul/But it feels terrible.” With the refrain, “It’s the same God that never was,” the song could be an atheist confessional. But it sounds deeper than someone trying to make a theological point. The whole song aches with betrayal and pain, as if the singer is losing his religion as you watch him go down.

These two songs are the best I’ve heard come out of the new country underground. I want to hear more.

Some video action

Some good ol' Kraut Kountry with The Dinosaur Truckers



And here's The Calamity Cubes performing at a bar, on the bar

Copper Gamins Rock The Opry:

Friday night during the first hour of The Santa Fe Opry, The Copper Gamins, my favorite blues-punk duo from the mountains of Mexico, will play live before they have to run off to their gig at The Underground at Evangelo’s (200 W. San Francisco St.; call 577-5893 for cover ).

No, they’re not country (simmer down, purists), but they’re a lot of fun.

The radio show starts at 10 p.m. Friday, June 21, on KSFR-FM 101.1 and streams live at www.ksfr.org.

Tonto's Lonesome Dirge: The Lone Ranger and Me

A story I wrote for today's New Mexican, about the first time Hollywood shot a Lone Ranger movie in Santa Fe brought back a lot of personal memories from 33 years ago.

In the spring of 1980 I had a weekly Sunday night music gig at The Forge, a bar located at The Inn of the Governors where Del Charro is now. I also was freelancing for The Santa Fe Reporter -- mostly music stories at that point, reviews, interviews, etc.

But one Sunday night in late May of that year, something happened during my Forge gig that helped turn me into a newsman.

A guy at a table started getting angry and noisy, accusing people of stealing money from him. He started toward the exit, shouting obscenities then picked up a wooden chair and hurled it, hitting a woman in the head.

I learned this guy was on the crew of The Legend of the Lone Ranger, which was shooting in the Santa Fe area at the time.

Most people I knew had thought it was pretty cool that they were shooting that movie here. Film industry promoters had estimated that the movie would boost the local economy to the tune of $4 million or $5 million.

I'd even written a song called "Tonto's Lonesome Dirge," based on the Lone Ranger mythos -- and influenced by Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan books.

One step at a time, now, kemosabe 

This desert is a most mysterious place ...

I fantasized some big-shot Hollywood type would stop by The Forge for a drink, hear my song and would be so impressed he'd put it in the movie. (Didn't happen. Instead they used a song by a better-known singer named Merle Haggard.)

But the night of the chair-throwing incident I learned that the staff and the regulars at The Forge had become pretty fed up with the Lone Ranger. This wasn't the only incident at the bar involving folks from the movie. In fact, just the night before, the Lone Ranger himself -- actor Klinton Spilsbury had caused a ruckus there, throwing drinks, grabbing a microphone from a singer, banging on a piano while the band was trying to play. (I was friends with that band, a folk group called Distilled Spirits.)

People ought to know about this, I thought. So I talked to the news editor at the Reporter, Marty Gerber and he told me to talk with people involved and put something together.

I talked to a waitress at Casablanca (which was a bar in La Fonda) who said that Spilsbury had hit her after she scolded him about purposely dumping drinks and breaking glasses. I talked to the managers at Casablanca and The Forge who confirmed that Spilsbury was no longer welcome in their establishments.

It was my first attempt at writing a news story. And I suppose that was painfully obvious to the editors. My story was heavily re-written. In the published version I was quoted as a source because I witnessed the chair-throwing incident.

So I didn't get a byline. But I got the bug.

My first news story
Click to enlarge