AN IMPORTANT MEMBER OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION GETS TESTY WITH THE PRESS

LEGISLATURE SHAKE-UP?

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

Final results of several New Mexico legislative races won’t be known until county clerks count provisional ballots, a process that could take several days.

Meanwhile, with the likelihood of several new Democratic faces in the state Senate, Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday there’s a better chance he’ll be able to get along with the Legislature’s upper chamber. The Senate in the past has been a major stumbling block for Richardson initiatives, such as health care reform.

While insisting that he never interferes in legislative leadership battles, Richardson at a news conference blasted one of his chief critics in the Legislature, Senate President pro tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell.

Unofficial returns posted by the secretary of state show three Republican incumbents in the Senate were trailing Democratic challengers. Republican Whip Leonard Lee Rawson of Las Cruces was more than 500 votes behind Democrat Steve Fischmann. Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, had 55 fewer votes than Democrat John Sapien.

And, in a race that turned out not so close, incumbent Sen. Diane Snyder, R-Albuquerque, was defeated by Democrat Tim Eichenberg by a margin of nearly 13 percentage points.

On the House side, three incumbent Albuquerque conservatives were trailing Democrats:

Challenger Bill O’Neill was ahead of Rep. Teresa Zanetti by four percentage points. Benjamin Rodefe was beating Rep. Eric Youngberg by 413 votes. The closest House race was in District 30, where Rep. Justine Fox-Young was 155 votes behind Democrat Karen Giannini.

While the unofficial results include all polling places plus early and absentee ballots, James Flores, a spokesman for the secretary of state, warned that the unofficial results do not include provisional ballots, so the results in closer races are uncertain. “Those will be counted during the canvass,” Flores said. “We won’t know until then.”

Provisional ballots are cast by people who show up at the polls and find their names aren’t listed on the rolls, or by those casting votes away from their home precincts. It is up to county clerks to determine which provisional ballots will be counted, and traditionally about half eventually are thrown out.

Flores didn’t have any totals of the provisional ballots in the close legislative districts. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mary Herrera said there were “tons” of provisional ballots cast statewide on Election Day.

Provisional ballots caused a major problem in February’s Democratic Party presidential caucus. In the extremely close race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it took about two weeks for a final vote count. The caucus was run by the party, but voter rolls were provided by the state.

But even though the latest vote count isn’t final, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, on Wednesday issued a news release in which he welcomed Eichenberg, Fischmann and Sapien to the Senate. “I met with and offered my support and assistance to all of the candidates immediately following the primary election. It is difficult to unseat an incumbent and I am gratified to see that we were successful in those races,” Sanchez said.

Richardson on Wednesday told reporters he hopes newly elected Democratic legislators tend to be progressives, “and this will allow the Legislature to push for new progressive initiatives and new opportunities for change.”

Speaking of the Senate, the governor said, “With these new Democrats likely coming to the Senate, I expect we also may see a number of positive changes in legislation, and with that I see an opportunity to engage in honest dialogue. I see an opportunity to break the gridlock that has plagued our progress on a lot of important issues.”

In addition to new senators who won or may have won Tuesday, some other new progressive Democrats claimed seats in the primary, including Eric Griego and Tim Keller of Albuquerque. Also, Peter Wirth of Santa Fe, who has been a House member for four years, won an unopposed Senate seat.

Asked whether he was hoping for a change in Senate leadership, Richardson demurred, then added, “But I think Sen. Jennings is going to have to answer to his caucus on how he interfered against a Democrat in a race, a Democrat who happened to win.”

He was referring to the Rawson/Fischmann race. Jennings recorded a “robo call” on behalf of Republican Rawson’s campaign in which he took “a stand against the character assassination” of Rawson by Fischmann.

The Democrat had pounded Rawson on several issues, including his use of more than $100,000 in public money to pave a road adjacent to a commercial development he owns. Jennings has said a group supporting Fischmann called his home Roswell one day and suggested that Rawson is a “crook.”

Richardson also criticized Jennings for sending a letter to school superintendents across the state, which warned that because of budget shortfalls some school districts might have to lay off personnel — even though Richardson has said his budget won’t call for layoffs. The letter, the governor said, was “irresponsible and premature.”

Regarding the recorded-phone-call issue, Jennings said Wednesday that while he didn’t endorse Rawson, “If someone is spreading lies about someone, I’m not going to sit and say, ‘Go ahead.’ ”

On the school letter, Jennings said he was only trying to warn school officials to start looking for ways to trim their budgets so they won’t have to lay off anyone. He said he sent the letter because he was chairman of the Senate Education Committee in the early ’80s, when the state had similar budget problems.

“Obviously when the governor is mad, he lashes out at you and goes into attack mode,” Jennings said. “I don’t have to run every letter I send by the governor. He never runs his letters by me.”

Wirth said Wednesday he’s not aware of any leadership challenges in the Senate. “I’ll be watching and listening to see what develops.”

CAMPAIGN 2008 MOSAIC

I was inspired while getting my photos for my column in previous post.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: IT WAS THE ELECTION THAT WAS

It’s over.

The longest election cycle in the history of the galaxy is over.

Hopefully, the volume of new messages in my e-mail in-boxes, both work and personal, will be reduced to humane levels.

My cell phone won’t be constantly buzzing with new text messages from the Obama campaign. (I just signed up last summer to get the news of his vice-presidential pick and suddenly they wanted me to work for them.)

I won’t feel compelled to start off each day looking at the RealClearPolitics.com electoral college map.

Indeed, it’s been a long election. For me it actually started in June 2005, when I followed Gov. Bill Richardson to the great state of New Hampshire. He hadn’t yet declared his candidacy. In fact, it was still more than a year away from his gubernatorial re-election campaign. Though he wouldn’t admit it at the time, Richardson was clearly testing the waters back in 2005 in the first primary state, making speeches, doing interviews and making contacts who could help him in the 2008 primary.

The real campaign, at least for most New Mexico political reporters, didn’t start until January 2007, when Richardson formally declared he was running for president. By the next month I was traveling to Carson City, Nev., for the first Democratic presidential forum. Richardson was there, as was Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, “Mad” Mike Gravel (who brought some much-needed laughter to the rather dull affair) and Tom Vilsack. (Remember him? He dropped out of the race not long after the Carson City forum.)
The only no-show in Carson City that day was Barack Obama. A year later I wondered if that contributed to his defeat in the Nevada caucus.

The presidential race was pretty nonstop after that. There seemed to be a debate every couple of weeks. But things didn’t really get serious in New Mexico until several months later when Pete Domenici announced he wouldn’t seek re-election. Reporters had to scramble to see who was and wasn’t running for Domenici’s seat, then all three of the state’s Congressional seats. Six Democrats and two Republicans ended up on the 3rd Congressional District primary ballot, not to mention two independents early in the race, plus a small army of Democratic politicians who were considering or rumored to be considering the congressional race.

Normally I bellyache every two years about the number of state legislators who get a free ride on election day. But this year I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved that there wasn’t any competition in the Roundhouse races in the Santa Fe area.

I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t fun.

I’ll have lots of fond memories from this election — the freezing cold of New Year’s Day in Iowa, which made January in New Hampshire seem like a tropical paradise; the Democratic cigar party in Denver, plus running in to the likes of Jimmy Carter, Madelyn Albright, The Daily Show fake-news team and Captain Morgan; Obama in Española; John McCain in Albuquerque; Mitt Romney at an Airport Road tire store, just down the street from the restaurant where Caroline Kennedy spoke a few days before; strolling the farmer’s market with Tom Udall; eating tamales with Steve Pearce on a sunny day in Mora County; watching Richardson campaign among New Hampshire Hispanics at a Manchester barbershop; Richardson’s “job interview” ads, Udall’s “parrot” ads, Pearce’s “hippie” ad.

Yes, it was a heck of an election, Brownie. Now I’d better get busy deleting e-mail before my computer goes catatonic.

’60s Flashback: At the risk of mixing my roles as political columnist and music columnist, prompted by the first victory of a black presidential candidate, and the image of tears streaming down the face of the Rev. Jesse Jackson on television after Obama had been declared the winner, I spent a good chunk of Wednesday morning listening to Mavis Staples’ excellent We’ll Never Turn Back. This album, produced by Ry Cooder, consists mainly of civil rights-era songs — spirituals, civil-rights anthems, union songs and even blues, such as J.B. Lenoir’s “Down in Mississippi.” In the middle of the latter tune, Staples does a lengthy spoken part during which she remembers the Mississippi of her youth, when she was forbidden to drink out of certain water fountains.

“My gran’ma said, ‘Young ’un, you can’t drink that water,’ She said, ‘You drink from that fountain over there.’ And that fountain had a sign, said ‘For Colored Only.’ ”

I’m not black, and I didn’t grow up in Mississippi. But I clearly remember back in the mid-’60s, when I was a grade-school kid in Oklahoma. Our class had a field trip in which we rode in an old bus — apparently an old city bus — that had a sign saying: “Back for Colored Only.”

I don’t even remember where our class went that day. All that stands out from that day is that sign. I’m not even sure whether the back-of-the-bus rules still were being enforced in Oklahoma City by that point. But it was still close enough in time that nobody had bothered to remove that weird oppressive message from that bus.

So it’s easy to see why Rev. Jackson shed a tear, and why U.S. Rep. John Lewis, himself a civil rights activist, was speaking so emotionally in television interviews on Tuesday night and why, as blogger Joe Monahan reported, Lenton Malry, the first black state legislator in New Mexico, had tears in his eyes at the KNAW-FM studios when Obama’s victory was announced.

BLOG BONUS: Here's Mavis singing "Eyes on the Prize" from We'll Never Turn Back"

MORE ON JIMMY CARL

My friend Erik Ness, who introduced me to Jimmy Carl Black circa 1980, wrote this piece on our late friend. I cut and paste with his permission.

I learned today that my good and long-time friend Jimmy Carl Black passed away peacefully at his home in Siegsdorf, Bavaria. Sonny, as his friends called him, is a true legend in the annals of rock and roll, and is best known as the drummer for the Mothers of Invention with front man Frank Zappa.

I first crossed his path when the late John Safar and I interviewed him in the KNMS Radio studios at New Mexico State University around 1975. Of course we were surprised to find that the drummer for one of the most inventive and original rock bands of all time was living in Anthony. At the time Sonny had just formed the Mesilla Valley LoBoys and they were starting to rehearse and tour the area. The scene was so interesting I began helping Sonny with all aspects of the band including advance work, management and publicity. Mr. Black knew how to put together a band and the original guys included Tom Levy on bass, Sonny on drums and vocals, Jeff Littlejohn on lead guitar, Bob “Hopper” Shannon on primary drums Mike Collins on rhythm guitar and Chava Villegas on congas. This band quickly built a large following because it had a musical power and creative energy that matched any national touring band at the time.

Sonny was born in El Paso with Cherokee blood and his classic line from the Zappa days, “Hi boys and girls I’m Jimmy Carl Black the Indian of the group” stuck all through his magnificent half century in the music business. During the 1970’s Sonny was cast by Frank Zappa for his breakthrough film “200 Motels” which also featured Ringo Starr a drummer from Liverpool. We premiered the film at the Plaza Theater in downtown El Paso to a sold out crowd and the LoBoys played live on stage before they rolled the film. It was a historic night for music in the area as were all live appearances by the Mesilla Valley LoBoys.

Sonny and the boys loved to play the El Patio in Mesilla because it perfectly fit their working class rock and roll, blues and soul sounds, not to mention and the eclectic crowds that would come from all over the borderland to see their favorite band. During and after his tenure with Zappa’s band Sonny played with some of the greatest musicians of the era including: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Turtles, Chuck Berry and The Moody Blues. Of course as fledgling musicians and college students we loved hearing Sonny’s stories from touring with Zappa in Europe and later painting houses in Austin with the infamous Weird Arthur Brown the author of one of the greatest rock songs ever, “Fire.”

At some point in his career in New Mexico I introduced Sonny to Santa Fe singer/songwriter Steve Terrell who is currently a reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. Jimmy Carl played drums on one of Steve’s tracks on his classic cult album, Picnic Time for Potatoheads and they became great friends in music and life. It was Steve who called me with the sad news. For those of you who were blessed to have known Jimmy Carl Black and enjoyed his music, his sense of humor and life please join me for a tip of the hat to one of rock and roll’s most prolific drummers and also a great friend, husband and father.

I was born in 1938,
An American Indian in the Lone Star State….
Then to California to the Pacific shore
Joined a band called the Mothers in ‘64….
There was hardly a rock star I didn’t know
Back in the days when music had soul.

Jimmy Carl Black from his bio-song “The Indian of the Group.”

Vaya con Dios, Sonny.

Erik L. Ness

Las Cruces, N.M.

NOT EVEN CLOSE

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

It wasn’t even close.

In the past two elections, New Mexico provided the thinnest margins of any state in the presidential race. But Tuesday, Barack Obama was declared the winner of the state’s five electoral votes by national news organizations shortly after the polls closed.

Hundreds of people gathered at Hotel Santa Fe for a party sponsored by Democratic congressional candidate Ben Ray Luján cheered loudly when ABC News, being shown on large screens, announced Obama had won Ohio — a pivotal state in the 2004 election — and cheered even louder when Obama’s New Mexico win was announced.

As it was in states all over the nation, the election was a mighty sweep for Democrats in New Mexico. Not only did Obama win, but Tom Udall won his campaign to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pete Domenici. In the congressional races, Luján easily won his race in the heavily Democratic 3rd District. In District 1, which mainly consists of Albuquerque, Democrat Martin Heinrich was declared the winner by The Associated Press, as was southern 2nd District Democrat Harry Teague.

With Teague and Heinrich’s wins, it would be the first time in 40 years in which Democrats completely controlled the state’s congressional delegation. (For two years, between 1981 and 1983, all the state’s congressional seats were held by Republicans.)

In Santa Fe, a liberal community where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1 (and where there are fewer Republicans than people registered as “declined-to-state”), the Obama campaign seemed to be everywhere — canvassing neighborhoods, calling voters at home and, on Tuesday, standing at intersections, waving at cars with Obama signs. In contrast, the campaign for Republican John McCain in Santa Fe was next to invisible.

However, some Obama campaigners in Santa Fe were fearful and pessimistic. One volunteer said campaign officials were worried the turnout in Santa Fe might not be high enough to offset McCain totals in the more conservative southern part of the state. The apprehension proved to be unnecessary, as Obama carried Santa Fe by more than 70 percent.

There were no public parties scheduled in Santa Fe by the Obama campaign. While the major state parties had victory celebrations in Albuquerque, the Luján party was the biggest public election celebration in town.

Naturally, local Democrats there were jubilant. A small group of women at the party weren’t able to vote, but were excited about Obama’s victory. The women, who came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Morocco, were part of a group from the Middle East being hosted locally by the Council on Foreign Relations. Several wore Obama and Luján buttons, and some said they were getting calls from people back home — even though it was in the wee hours there — wondering whether Obama had won.

“We are very optimistic about Obama,” said Summer Fatany, a radio-show host from Saudi Arabia. “The Bush administration has done so much harm. We’re hoping he can sort out the mess that Bush has left.”

Obama’s win could have direct political repercussions in New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson has been frequently mentioned as a possible contender for secretary of state or some other top position in an Obama administration.

For political tea-leaf readers, there was an interesting development in New Mexico on the eve of Obama’s victory:

Richardson shaved off his beard.

Richardson, who began growing his whiskers shortly after he dropped his own presidential bid in January, on Tuesday denied his shave was connected with any new career move. “I just got tired of maintaining it,” he told a reporter. “I’d decided to do this a long time ago.”

Richardson repeatedly has said he expects to serve out the final two years of his term as governor. “I’m not looking for a job, and I haven’t had any conversations about it,” he said Tuesday night following several television appearances.

Cabinet position or not, winning New Mexico for Obama was a top priority. “John Kerry’s still mad at me,” Richardson has said half-jokingly in various interviews this year when reminded about New Mexico going for Bush in 2004.

But Richardson spent much time campaigning for Obama out of state. He’s been one of Obama’s top surrogates since March, when he formally endorsed the Illinois senator.

And since March, The Associated Press reported last week, Richardson has campaigned for Obama in 19 states. In the month of October, Richardson was out of state campaigning for at least 10 days, hitting states including Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. All those states went for Obama. (Richardson also made at least one appearance in Texas campaigning for U.S. Senate hopeful Rick Noriega, who lost.)

R.I.P. JIMMY CARL BLACK

Jimmy Carl Black, one of the original drummers with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and former New Mexico resident, died of cancer Nov. 1 in Germany, where he'd lived for more than a decade.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Jimmy lived in Albuquerque and Taos for a few years in the early '80s. He had a local blues and rock band called Capt. Glasspack & His Magic Mufflers. And, as I've bragged about for years, he played drums on "The Green Weenie" on my album back in 1981, which made him the Indian of my group.

I knew in my heart when I saw him last year playing at The Outpost in Albuquerque with Eugene Chadbourne (when they played in Albuquerque last year as The Jim & Jack Show ) that it would be the last time I'd ever see Jimmy. It was a great night. Several of his kids drove up from El Paso for the show and Jimmy, although already suffering from his illness, ( "It's a mild form of leukemia," he told me) was in fine form.

My review of that show, which mainly consists of memories of JCB, is HERE and my snapshots from that night can be found HERE.

Better yet, enjoy some of Jimmy's music HERE.

Adios, Lonsesome Cowboy Burt!

UPDATE: The original version of this incorrectly said Jimmy was born in Anthony, Texas, not El Paso.

BEFORE YOU VOTE ...

Be sure to read this profile of our swingin' swing state that pretty much sums things up.

CLICK HERE.

I'm not quite sure who "Stew Udall" is, but there is commentary on some of our political leaders. Here's one:

* Governor Bill Richardson: Is strongly backing Obama in the hopes that he'll appoint him to the Kansas City Athletics' roster.

NEW PODCAST: SF OPRY FAVORITES Vol 1

I've just created a new podcast for your listening pleasure: Santa Fe Opry Favorites, Vol. 1. It's an hour worth of some of my favorite tunes I play on my Friday night radio show on KSFR.

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

CLICK HERE to subscribe to my podcasts (there will be more in the future) and HERE to subscribe on iTunes.

You can play it on the little feedplayer below:




And here's the play list:

The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum
The Death of Country Music by The Waco Brothers
Rainwater Bottle by Chipper Thompson
Life, Love, Death And The Meter Man by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies

I'm a Nut by Leroy Pullens
Psycho by Jack Kittell
The Rubber Room by Porter Wagoner
LSD Made a Wreck of Me by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole

Reprimand by Joe West
Ants on the Melon by The Gourds
Deisel Smoke, Dangerous Curves by The Last Mile Ramblers
Bears in Them Woods by Nancy Apple

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
The Ballad of The Alamo by Marty Robbins
North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson

The Moon is High by Neko Case
The Last Word in Lonesome is Me by Roger Miller

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 2, 2008
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
A Night With the Jersy Devil by Bruce Springsteen
Evil Hoodoo by The Seeds
I Just Might Crack by April March
Lightning's Girl by Nancy Sinatra
Liz the Hot Receptionist by Jesus H. Christ & The Four Hornsmen of The Apocalypse
If He's Good Enough for Lindy by Oscar Brand
Death Letter by Charlie Pickett & The Eggs
Hi Ho Baby by Lightning Beat Man
The Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads
Hello Lyndon by Oscar Brand

Poison by Hundred Year Flood
Helicopter by Fred Schneider & Deadly Cupcake
Tricky Dickie (Was a Rock-n-Rolla) by The Dick Nixons
Snacky Poo by The Del-Mars
James K. Polk by They Might be Giants
Nina by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!
I Fought the Law by The Clash
Harding You're the Man for Us by Oscar Brand
Space Bop by Mike Edison & The Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra
Yes! Yes! Yes! by Edison Rocket Train

LOU REED SET
All songs by Lou except where noted
Oh Jim!
Romeo Had Juliet
Lonsesome Cowboy Bill by The Velvet Underground
Hooky Wooky
Paranoia Key of E
The Bed

Miss Behive by Howard Tate
Rehab by Amy Winehouse
Democracy by Leonard Cohen
Big American Problem by Drywall
People Have the Power by Patti Smith

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 31, 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
Mr. Undertaker by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Wild and Free by Hank Williams III
Jungle Fever by Charlie Feathers
Hillbilly Monster by James Richard Oliver
Wouldn't You Know by Billy Lee Riley
Penny Instead by Charlie Pickett
Bullet in My Mind by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Hush Money by The Collins Kids
The Hydrogen Bomb by Al Rogers & The Rocky Mountain Boys

North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
Hillbilly Fever by Little Jimmy Dickens
Crazy Arms by Jerry Lee Lewis
5,000 Country Music Songs by Ry Cooder
Indeed You Do by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
TV Party by The Asylum Street Spankers
I'm a Fool to Fool Around With You by Hank Thompson
Ghost Woman Blues by George Carter

Down Thru the Holler by Hundred Year Flood
The Wicked Things by Boris McCutcheon & The Saltlicks
How Will You Shine by The Gourds
Million Dollar Funeral by Califone
Forbidden Angel by Mel Street
Snatch It and Grab It by Freddy Hart
Pilgrim on a Train by Gann Brewer
The Bum Hotel by Uncle Dave Macon

Werewolf by Michael Hurley
Murder's Crossed My Mind by Desdemona Finch
Everything is Broken by Bob Dylan
The Gallows by Possessed by Paul James
You Can't Trust Them by Fred Eaglesmith
Something to Think About by Willie Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

OH, A WISE GUY, EH?

Admittedly, I have a hard time envisioning Barack Obama as Moe, but I'm a sucker for the Stooges, so I'm going to post this thing.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BACK TO BERLIN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 31, 2008

Lou Reed’s Berlin is known as the most depressing album in rock ’n’ roll history.

It was released in 1973, and the critics hated it, calling it bloated and overblown and a huge downer. The public ignored it nearly as thoroughly as did the radio industry, which had made a daring and unlikely hit out of Reed’s gay-life celebration “Walk on the Wild Side.”

Indeed, Berlin was a full-force dive into the wild side. It’s a song cycle about a drug-doomed young couple that involves bad dope, domestic violence, crazy promiscuity, the Child Protective Services, and ultimately, suicide.

As Terry Allen would sing, “Ain’t no Top 40 song.”

And yet Berlin has held up amazingly well through the years. Harrowing lines like “somebody else would have broken both of her arms” and “Caroline says as she gets up from the floor/‘You can hit me all you want to/But I don’t love you anymore’” are no less politically incorrect now than they were 35 years ago, but the sad story of Caroline and Jim is an unflinching look at the dark impulses of love and obsession.

In December 2006, Reed and film director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) recorded a concert film over a five-night stint in Brooklyn. The DVD, called Lou Reed: Berlin, and the CD, titled Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse, were released this month.

The original Berlin band was basically a rock-royalty supergroup that included bassists Jack Bruce and Tony Levin, Steve Winwood on organ and harmonium, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. There are some great players on the new version, too, including original Berlin guitarist Steve Hunter and two bassists, longtime sideman Fernando Saunders and Rob Wassermann. Reed’s backup chorus includes soul belter Sharon Jones and bizarro warbler Antony Hegarty. There are strings and horns and even the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

The emotional punch is still there.

The thing about Berlin is that it doesn’t waste a lot of time focusing on the happy times between Jim and Caroline. By the time the ironic “Happy Birthday” segment in the intro plays, grim reality is starting to overshadow any giddy romance. The title song is a bittersweet memory of a small café. The guitar and a bluesy piano add a sad counterpoint to Reed, who wearily intones, “It was very nice, oh honey, it was paradise.”

“Lady Day,” which Reed has kept in his live repertoire for years, still sounds potent, with Reed spitting out his description of the hotel Caroline called home. “It had greenish walls/A bathroom in the hall.” You’d thinking he was singing about hell’s most horrible pit.

If anything, the new version of “Oh Jim” is even stronger than the original. Drummer Tony “Thunder” Smith lives up to his nickname in the song’s intro. There’s a tense guitar conversation between Reed and Hunter and a cool call-and-response with Reed and Jones.

But the real core of Berlin has always been the final three songs.

“The Kids,” which deals with the government removing Caroline’s children from her home, is the one that always gets to me. On the St. Ann’s version, Reed fully gets into the character of Jim, practically shouting the lines, “Because number one was the girlfriend from Paris/The things that they did, ah, they didn’t have to ask us/And then the Welshman from India, who came here to stay.” By the end of the song he’s railing against “that miserable rotten slut.”

As in the original, the song ends with a recording of crying children shouting “Mommy! Mommy!” (A weird little tale about the original song from the All Music Guide: “To ensure that the horror of the song truly hit home, producer Bob Ezrin set up a tape recorder in his own home, then, when his children returned from school, told them that their mother was dead. At least, that’s the legend.”)

This is followed by “The Bed,” a somber, almost whispered, suicide song. “This is the place where she lay her head when she went to bed at night/And this is the place our children were conceived/candles lit the room brightly at night/And that odd and fateful night.”

In the new version, the Brooklyn Youth Choir adds eerie, angelic background sounds. Watching the DVD and seeing the sweet faces, you’re almost tempted to scream, “Get those kids outta there! That’s no place for children!”

But unlike the original album, Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse doesn’t stop at “Sad Song.” It includes the encores — “Candy Says” (vocals by Hegarty) and, because this is a Lou Reed concert, after all, a rousing “Sweet Jane.”

But fitting in best with the mood of Berlin is “Rock Minuet,” an overlooked tune from Reed’s 2000 album Ecstasy. It’s an eight-minute descent into sexual violence and murder — an acoustic number occasionally fortified by some truly monstrous electric-guitar solos.

The new Berlin: come for the drugs and suicide, stay for the back-alley throat slashing.

UDALL AHEAD BY 15 PERCENTAGE POINTS

Republican Steve Pearce might have been aided by the televised debates between him and Democrat Tom Udall. According to Rasmussen Reports, Pearce gained five percentage points on Udall in the past two weeks.

However, that's just a dent. Udall still leads Pearce 56 percent to 41 percent, according to Rasmussen.

Since Rasmussen's last poll, which was conducted on Oct. 13, Udall lost a little and Pearce gained a little in the favorability ratings.

Udall is now viewed favorably by 58% of voters, down from 64% two weeks ago. Forty percent (40%) view the Democrat unfavorably, up from 33%. Pearce is viewed favorably by 49%, up from 43% two weeks ago. The Republican is viewed unfavorably by 47%, down from 53% in the last poll.

As reported in today's Roundhouse Roundup, Rasmussen found Barack Obama beating John McCain 54-44 percent. (Click HERE for more info.)

According to the poll, (500 likely voters interviewed Tuesday), Gov. Bill Richardson gets good or excellent ratings from 48 percent of New Mexico voters , while 20 percent give him a poor rating.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP:

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 1, 2008

San Miguel County Clerk Paul Maez made the latest issue of Rolling Stone — and it’s not a review of his band Wyld Country.

And no, it has nothing to do with the controversy surrounding Maez’s association with a certain Public Regulation Commission candidate, although the headline of the article is “Block the Vote.”

The article, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast, is about voter disenfranchisement and it tells about the disaster that was the Democratic Party Caucus in February.

The article starts out with an anecdote involving Maez and providing a description of Las Vegas, N.M., that I don’t believe came from the Chamber of Commerce:

“These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.”

Kennedy and Palast go on to say that in the caucus, “one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists.”

It’s worth noting that the caucus was not run by the state or the various counties, but by the Democratic Party itself. The party did get its lists from the state, but nobody ever has explained what caused the problems, which led to thousands of provisional ballots being cast, which led to the final results not being known for two weeks. (Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by just a hair.) The party in April canceled a scheduled summit to discuss the problems.

In the article, Maez blames “faulty list management by a private contractor hired by the state.”

That company is ES&S, which has denied any role in the caucus problems. “ES&S’ role related to the New Mexico voter registration database is limited to providing centralized voter registration software, working with the state to implement the centralized system and providing technical support in using the system,” a company spokeswoman told the Associated Press in February.
Another New Mexican quoted in the Rolling Stone story is state Auditor Hector Balderas, who also found his name missing from the voter list during the February caucus.

Kennedy and Palast wrote, “ ‘As a strategic consideration,’ (Balderas) notes, ‘there are those that benefit from chaos at the ballot box.’ ”

Maez has been at the center of one of the major flaps in Jerome Block Jr.’s PRC campaign.

Block admitted lying about $2,500 in public campaign funds that he reported was paid to Wyld Country. Block had maintained that the band had performed at a May 3 rally. But he later admitted the rally never took place after two band members told newspapers there never was such a performance. The New Mexico secretary of state has recommended fines totaling $11,000 for Block and has said Block should return another $10,000 of the public campaign funds he accepted.

Pied Piping: Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday practiced what he’s been preaching around the country — he voted early.

Perhaps he felt obligated to vote early after a headline in the South Tampa News and Tribune called him the “Pied Piper Of Early Voting.”

Columnist Joe O’Neill said Richardson gave a “boilerplate pep talk” in Tampa (he gave one of those in Santa Fe on Wednesday, too). But O’Neill said the governor was “Looking and sounding more animated and affable than when he was a presidential candidate … .”

Richardson was in Florida last week campaigning for Obama.

So if Richardson is the Pied Piper, I guess that makes me a rat.

Right after his speech, I went back to the County Courthouse and voted.

I have to bust myself for hypocrisy here. A couple of weeks ago, while covering a political event, I was asked by a nice woman to vote early and I told her something to the effect that early voting was for Communists. Election Day is a nice American tradition and I usually enjoy going to the school near my house, seeing my neighbors, etc.

But on Wednesday morning, early voting looked so quick and easy, I couldn’t resist. (That sounds like the rationalization of a smash-and-grab jewelry store window thief, I realize.)

The wait turned out to be only around five minutes. And while I didn’t see any of my neighbors, I did see several friends and acquaintances, including a certain television reporter whose voting experience took much longer than mine. He “spoiled” his first ballot by accidentally voting both ways on a judicial retention question, so he had to wait for a second ballot.

Latest from Rasmussen: Obama is leading Republican John McCain 54 percent to 44 percent in New Mexico, according to the latest Rasmussen poll released Wednesday.

In the Senate race, Democrat Tom Udall leads Republican Steve Pearce “by a wide margin,” according to the Rasmussen Web site, but the actual numbers won’t be released until today.
The telephone survey of 500 likely voters in New Mexico was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on Tuesday. The margin of error is 4.5 percent.

Got Clout? Richard Greene, host of Air America’s radio show Clout tonight will broadcast his show live from The Santa Fe Film Center, 1616 St. Michael’s Drive. The two-hour show starts at 7 p.m. and admission is free to the first 100. Air America, a liberal talk-show network, broadcasts in Santa Fe on KTRC-1260 AM.

RIPPLES

Joe the Plumber
Cedric the Entertainer
Larry the Cable Guy
Rosie the Riveter
Floyd the Barber
Popeye the Sailor
John the Baptist
Conan the Barbarian
Vlad the Impaler
Jack the Ripper
Mott the Hoople

MEASURING THE DRAPES?

Steve Clemons, a foreign-policy blogger who used to work for Jeff Bingman, blogged this:

I can't validate this and probably won't try for the time being. But I will report a reasonably high quality rumor that reached me from a high quality source.

The rumor is that McClatchy News is trying to report a story that should Barack Obama win the election, most of the key members of his Cabinet will be announced on Friday, November 7th.

And the two most likely candidates for the job of Secretary of State, according to the rumblings are. . . . .Senator John Kerry and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

Read the whole post HERE.

TERR vs. BLOCK

Jim Terr weighs in on the Jerome Block controversies. "Block Around the Clock" ( the one at the bottom of this post) is the funniest.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 26, 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
THE STEVE TERRELL SPOOK-TACULAR

Halloween Hootenanny by Zacherle
The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon by The Cramps
You Must Be a Witch by Dead Moon
Welcome to My Nightmare by Alice Cooper
Halloween by The Misfits
Bo Meets the Monster by Bo Diddley
Werewolf by Southern Culture on the Skids
Fire by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Witchdoctor's Curse by The Frantic Flattops
Haunted House by Jumpin' Gene Simmons

Devil Dance by The A-Bones
Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) by Concrete Blonde
The Lonely Vampire by Wee Hairy Beasties
Graveyard Stomp by The Meteors
(It's a) Monster's Holiday by Buck Owens
Heebie Jeebies by Little Richard
Don't Fear the Reaper by Clint Ruin & Lydia Lunch

Necrophiliac in Love by The Blood-Drained Cows
Vampiro by Los Peyotes
Scream and Scream by Screaming Lord Sutch
Ribcage Mambo by Frenchy
House of Voodoo by Half Japanese
Voodoo Voodoo by LaVern Baker
Halloween by Mudhoney
Eye of the Zombie by John Fogerty

Witchcraft in the Air by Bettye LaVette
Zombiefied by Electriccoolade
Feast of the Mau Mau by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
I'm a Mummy by The Fall
The Ghost and Honest Joe by Pee Wee King
Edgar Allen Poe by Lou Reed
Voodoo Trucker by Deadbolt
't Ain't No Sin by Tom Waits with William S. Burroughs
Ghostyhead by Ricki Lee Jones

SENATE RACE COVERAGE

My package of stories o the U.S. Senate race appears in The New Mexican today. The main story is HERE.


The Tom Udall profile is HERE.

The Steve Pearce profile is HERE.

A look at both candidates' campaign contributions is HERE.

And don't forget my story on John McCain's appearance in Albuquerque yesterday. That's HERE.

Kate Nash covered last night's Obama appearance in Albuquerque last night. You'll find that HERE.

I'll be covering the final Udall/Pearce debate tonight. That's on KOAT, Channel 7 at 6 p.m.

CONE OF POWER

Nine days out and Barack Obama is winning all the opinion polls. But he also won a lesser-known poll last week.

According to the fine folks at Baskin-Robbins, more people voted for their flavor "Whirl of Change" ("Peanut-Nougat ice cream whirled with chunks of chocolate-covered peanut brittle and a caramel ribbon") than "Straight Talk Crunch" ("Caramel ribbon, chocolate pieces, candy red states and crunchy mixed nuts swirled into White Chocolate ice cream.")

The vote was close -- 51 percent to 49 percent. The icecream giant didn't break down the numbers according to electoral college votes.

For the record, unless they make a sugar-free version, I won't be trying either flavor.

McCAIN IN ALBUQUERQUE

John McCain returned to Albuquerque this morning.

Here's the link to my story.

The weirdest thing I heard heard today won't be found in my story. When Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was introducing McCain, he invited New Mexico supporters to visit Myrtle Beach, S.C. There, the senator said, you'll find a new Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Aquarium, where you can see "Sharks chase Siamese twins."

That might not be an exact quote. Maybe he said the Siamese twins chase the sharks.

Either way, I haven't been able to get that image out of my head since.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 24, 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
I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive by Jerry Lee Lewis
Pick Me Up on Your Way Down by Jimme Dale Gilmore
Bye Bye Blues by Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Honky Tonk Hangover by Miss Leslie
Waiting For a Train by Dickey Betts
Pistol Packin' Papa by Jimmie Rogers
Insane Crazy Blues by The Memphis Jug Band
Jesus Throwed Up a Highway For Me by Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers
Ol' Hen by Gus Cannon
Cluck Old Hen by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Some of Shelly's Blues by Michael Nesmith
That Little Old Winedrinker Me by Sleepy LaBeef
Handcuffed to Love by Johnny Paycheck
Your Atom Bomb Heart by Hank King with Bud Williams & His Smiling Buddies
Sadie's Back in Town by Sonny Burgess
The Wayward Wind by Lynn Anderson with Emmylou Harris
Lawd I'm Just a Country Boy in This Great Big Freaky City by The Bottle Rockets
Medley of Burned Out Songs by Asylum Street Spankers
Mike the Can Man by Joe West

Neck of Tha Woods by Hundred Year Flood
Waiting for the Demons to Die by Boris & The Saltlicks
Your Red Wagon by Paul Burch & His Honkey Tonk Orchestra
I Ain't Got Nobody by Asleep at the Wheel with Don Walser
Last of the Drifters by Tom T. Hall & Johnny Cash
Girl on the Greenbriar Shore by Bob Dylan
Take a Trip by Rev. Utah Smith
Wee Scary Beasties by Wee Hairy Beasties

Railroad Bill by Greg Brown
Blue Wing by Dave Alvin
The Ballad of Jakeleg Judy by The Dolly Ranchers
Wheels by Fred Eaglesmith
Amanda/A Couple of More Years by Waylon Jennings
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TO AILING FRIENDS

Two musicians I know have had some serious health problems lately.

Jimmy Carl Black, former Mothers of Invention drummer and still the Indian of the group, has been suffering from leukemia for a few years now. He lived in New Mexico for a few years in the early '80s. He had a local band called Capt. Glasspack & His Magic Mufflers. And yes, he did play drums on "The Green Weenie" on my album way back when.

I saw Jimmy play the Outpost in Albuquerque late last year and he seemed to be doing well. But now I understand he's taken a turn for the worse.

He's living in Germany now. Do send your prayers.

Victoria Armstrong, a singer and songwriter who has performed around Santa Fe for years with her husband Don, recently had coronary bypass surgery and is recovering at her home in Tucson, Margaret Burke tells me. "... and of course the bills are astronomical and they are in need of dinero.."

Therefore Margaret and others are organizing a benefit for Victoria, Sunday Nov. 2 at 2nd St. Brewery. It's a four-hour show starting at 2 pm.

Musicians who are on the bill so far include Margaret Burke, Jim Terr, Steve Guthrie, Janice Mohr-Nelson, Sid Hausman, Raj Badri, Jono Manson, Bill and Bonnie Hearne, Joe West, Arne Bey and Sharon Gilchrist.

"We won't be selling tickets- but hopefully people will be feeling generous and we'll have plenty of hat passing!" Margaret says.

If anyone would like to send them a check:

Don and Victoria Armstrong
p.o. box 40994
Tucson, Az 85717

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: VIVA LOS PEYOTES!

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 24, 2008

Back in the mid ’60s, when “96 Tears” and “Wooly Bully” ruled the airwaves, the heroes of the sound that would later be termed “garage rock” were Hispanics. Question Mark and all of his Mysterians were Chicanos. So was Domingo Samudio, better known as Sam the Sham, who with The Pharaohs blended Tex-Mex and Memphis soul into an exciting sound.

And even though Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers were gringos, their Sir Douglas Quintet, which included drummer Johnny Perez, also capitalized on the Tex-Mex sound. They might have tried to pass as British, but there was no way to miss the San Antonio in their music.

So with that history, it shouldn’t be surprising that some of the most exciting contemporary bands propagating the garage-band sound come from Spanish-speaking territory. There’s The Hollywood Sinners and Wau y Los Arrrghs from Spain. And from the great nation of Argentina comes Los Peyotes, who recently released their debut album — Introducing Los Peyotes — on London’s Dirty Water Records (also home to The Hollywood Sinners).

These guys have the basic fuzz-Farfisa-and-frantic-rhythm sound down pat. They even get surfy now and then, like on the instrumental opening song, “El Corredor Quemado,” and on “Psicosis V.”

The singer, who goes by the name David Peyote, sometimes sings in English as well as in Spanish. “Action, action ... oh, gimme your love!” he sings in “Action.” Those are some of the only decipherable lyrics in the tune, but really, what more do you need to know?

Just in time for Halloween, there are some good, fun horror hits (well, they ought to be hits) here. My favorite part of “Vampiro” is when the wild bongos come in toward the end. Then there’s “Scream,” which features a recurring screech playing off a frantic guitar.

To show their great debt to the original American garage-band sound, Los Peyotes have a song called “No Puedo Hacerte Mia.” Yes, it’s a Spanish version of The Seeds’ “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.” (The original has recently been excavated for an Axe body spray commercial.) Los Peyotes do the song justice. You’d think Sky Saxon had changed his name to Sky Sanchez.

Consumer note: Introducing Los Peyotes is available on amazon.com as an import. But you can get it cheaper through Dirty Water’s American distributor, Get Hip Recordings. (Click the link, then click “store,” then “exclusive labels,” then “Dirty Water” — you probably can figure it out from there.) Of course it’s even cheaper from your favorite download vendor — eMusic, Amazon, iTunes.

Also recommended:

* Smash Hits by Figures of Light. This is a bizarre little project from Norton Records. The original Figures of Light was a stripped-down prepunk band from New York City led by singer Wheeler Winston Dixon and guitarist Michael Downey. They were influenced by a lot of the usual suspects — early Stones and Who, The Troggs, The Stooges, The Pretty Things, Blue Cheer, etc. (And though Figures of Light doesn’t list them in the liner notes, it’s obvious The Velvet Underground had a lot to do with their sound as well.)

At the band’s first concert in 1970, they destroyed 15 television sets onstage at Rutgers University. An early poster for FOL described their show as “a rock ’n’ roll violence sonata.”

In 1972, they released their first and only single, “It’s Lame,” backed with “I Jes Wanna Go to Bed.” They pressed 100 copies.

It flopped.

Figures of Light broke up and never looked back.

Until a couple of years ago, that is, when Miriam Linna, high priestess of Norton Records, came across one of the original Figures of Light singles at a swap meet. She tracked down Dixon, now a professor of film studies at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Dixon contacted Downey for the first time in 25 years or so, and Figures of Light was reborn.

After all those years, the group was back in the studio, aided by Linna on drums, her A-Bones bandmate Marcus “The Carcass” Natale on bass, and guitarist Matt Verta-Ray (Jon Spencer’s partner in Heavy Trash). They recorded six new tracks in one day.

Smash Hits includes those songs, some recent live and studio recordings, the original two songs from the “It’s Lame” single, and the infamous “Ritual TV Smashing Finale,” recorded live in 1970. (According to the liner notes, Norton honcho Billy Miller said of this recording, “You guys make ‘Sister Ray’ sound like ‘MacArthur Park.’” He wasn’t far off.)

Basically, this is primitive rock ’n’ roll at its most stripped-down. Even the new recordings capture the lo-fi spirit. Like the punk rock that would erupt after the original FOL folded, the songs are full of a certain nihilism and angst leavened with wicked humor. You know they’re just joking on the 45-second “Why Not Knock Yourself Off”: “If you feel like a chronic complainer, why not knock yourself off?/They’ll put you in a 6-foot container. Why not knock yourself off?”

You’re kidding, right, guys?

My favorite cut has to be “Seething Psychosexual Conflict Blues.” Dixon sings, “Sometimes I feel like a woman; sometimes I feel like a man/I got these seething psychosexual conflicts that you won’t understand, oh no!”

Also worthy is “I Got Spies Watching You,” a reckless rocker with a cool tremolo guitar that was recorded as a demo at a Lincoln, Nebraska, studio in 2007. It’s all raw, crazy, and irresistible to those of us who like it that way.

UH OH!

EMILIO'S HEALTH IMPROVING

Former Rio Arriba County political strongman Emilio Naranjo remained hospitalized at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, but one of his sons told me Wednesday night that he is doing better.

Naranjo, 92, was hospitalized about a week ago because of dizziness and possible heart problems, his son Benny Naranjo, a prosecutor with the 13th Judicial District, said. "He's doing a lot better."

Benny Naranjo said he voted early Wednesday and was wearing his "I Voted" sticker on his tie when he visited his father in the hospital. "He saw that sticker and said, 'Way to go," the younger Naranjo said.

Emilio is a former state senator, county sheriff and longtime Rio Arriba County Democratic Party chairman. He was the top political figure in Rio Arriba for more than 40 years beginning in the 1950s.

I first found out about Emilio being in the hospital on Monday and wrote about it HERE.

I interviewed Emilio nearly 25 years ago for a lengthy cover story in The Santa Fe Reporter. I wish I had that in an electronic form so I could post it on the blog.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: HOW TO IMPROVE THE DEBATES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Octobber 23, 2008

Is anyone out there not sick of candidate debates yet?

In recent weeks, we’ve seen three presidential, one vice presidential, two U.S. Senate, and I’m not sure how many Congressional debates.

Last week, we even had a double-header — the last Barack Obama/John McCain debate followed minutes later by the first Tom Udall/Steve Pearce debate.

As always, there have been a variety of formats and a plethora of rules. Frequently you see the candidates questioned by a panel of journalists, sometimes just a lone moderator.

Often there are questions from audience members (or e-mailed questions from television viewers). Sometimes the candidates have their own podiums or stools or they have to sit together at the same table.

Some formats discourage interaction between candidates. I remember a 2006 state land commissioner debate between Pat Lyons and Jim Baca in which both seemed eager to challenge each other. It could have been an interesting night, but the candidates kept getting interrupted by a moderator who insisted on sticking with the boring rules and kept going on to the next question instead of allowing Lyons and Baca to go at it.

Then there was the state Public Regulation Commission forum sponsored by business organizations this week in which the candidates got the questions in advance and read from scripts. Nobody better complain about “gotcha” questions there.

Here’s a few things I’d do if I ran the debates:

* First, I’d have a single moderator. It would have to be someone knowledgeable on the issues. And most important, it would have to be someone with enough guts to interrupt and say, “Please answer the question,” to any candidate who started giving a stump speech instead of sticking to the topic at hand.

* The first part of the debate would be a town-hall format with questions from unaffiliated voters. But, unlike the recent presidential town-hall forum in Nashville, Tenn., the questions would not be pre-screened and pre-approved by anyone. Trust the people! Sure, you’ll get some pointed questions, maybe even a few rude ones. You might even get a stray nut ball now and then. But seeing how the candidates handle those unpredictable questions would tell us far more than their canned answers to canned questions.

* The second part would be the candidates questioning one another. These segments hands down have been the most interesting part of the debates between Udall and Pearce. Udall made Pearce praise George Bush, while Pearce socked Udall with an unexpected question about some child-porn bill. Back in 2006, it was a question from Heather Wilson about raising taxes that stumped her Congressional opponent Patricia Madrid — and may have helped cost Madrid the election.

* The final third would be a feature I’ve never seen on any debate, though it’s almost always done these days during post-debate coverage by television networks: fact-checking. You’d have to have a team of journalists frantically Googling during the early parts of the debate to see who got what wrong. The moderator would then confront the erring candidate. If there weren’t enough provable errors, then the rest of the time could be filled by more questions from the audience — or by the candidates.

Of course, if one candidate got his facts wrong significantly more than the other, his supporters would complain that “the media” was biased against him. But chances are, they’re going to make that claim anyway so let ‘em squawk.

Mr. White Bucks doesn’t buck White: Here’s one of the stranger celebrity endorsements I’ve seen lately.

Actually, it’s not technically an endorsement, but the 1st District Congressional campaign of Republican Darren White on Wednesday released a statement announcing that singer Pat Boone had presented White with an Honorary Guardian of Seniors’ Rights award.

Boone is national spokesman for a group called the 60 Plus Association — “a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues,” according to the group’s Web site.

“I am pleased to present this award to Darren White,” Boone said in a statement. “He is a tax cutter, protecting the pocket books of senior citizens. 60 Plus calls on nearly 5 million seniors for support so I believe I can speak on behalf of seniors when I say that they can count on Darren White. Clearly, seniors will have no finer friend in Congress than Darren White.”

Boone praised White for opposing “the death tax,” which actually is called the estate tax.

But the most interesting claim on the news release was the description of Boone — “a recording artist, movie and TV star second to none in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.”

Second to none? Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few dozen others might take issue with that — and that’s just dealing with the ’50s.

Blog Bonus: I wonder if Pat Boone would groove on the cop-rock band that was second to none in the early 90s, Darren White & The Force.



Where the heck is Bill Richardson? The traveling governor was on the campaign trail again this week, this time in Florida.

He was there Tuesday and Wednesday, attending Obama campaign events in Palm Beach, Immokalee, Port Charlotte, Tampa and Kissimmee. This is according to various online newspaper reports. The governor’s office doesn’t make public announcements of when the governor leaves the state.

Next week, according to The Sandusky Register, Richardson will be in Erie County, Ohio.

DEBATE MANIA

I meant to post this on Sunday, but my article about Saturday night's debate between Tom Udall and Steve Pearce can be found HERE.

Kate Nash covered the CD3 debate for us Sunday night. You can find her story HERE.

Two weeks and one day left, folks!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 19, 2008
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
Working Man by The Cellar Dwellers
Grease Box by TAD
Pleasure Unit by The Gore Gore Girls
Mr. Custer Stomp by The Scouts
Louie Louie by Paul Revere & The Raiders
We're Having Much More Fun by X
The Open Mind by Mudhoney
Snake Eyed Suzie by Thee Cybermen
Fat Angel by Jefferson Airplane

A. on Horseback by Charlie Pickett & The Eggs
Angeline by Figures of Light
Baby Stardust by Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Te Voy Odiar by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!
Blow My Mind by Hollywood Sinners
Action by Los Peyotes
Panic Button by Edgar Allen & The Po' Boys
Long Haired Guys from England by Too Much Joy
Murder in My Heart for the Judge by Moby Grape
Woody Woodpecker by Mel Blanc & The Sportsmen

Moonlight Drive by The Doors
Flames Over Nebraska by Pere Ubu
Lizard's Tongue by Dickie B. Hardy
I'm Gonna Kill You Tonight by Lightning Beat-Man
Don't Go Away by Thee Midnighters
Haywire Hodaddy by The Hodads
Do the Trouser Press by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
The Weirdness by The Stooges
Welcome to My Mind by Duggie Ward

Loneliness by Junk
Do Lord Remember Me by Mississippi John Hurt
You Better Run by Junior Kimbrough & The Soul Blues Boys
Rock Minuet by Lou Reed
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 17, 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
Huntsville by Merle Haggard
Plastic Love by The Riptones
The Struggle in the Puddle at the Bottom of the Bottle by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Good Girls by Bovine
Little Red Corvette by The Gear Daddies
Burn Your Fun by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Davy Crocket by Thee Headcoatees
No Swallerin' Place by June Carter
On This Mountain Top by Johnny Paycheck
Then You'll Know What It Means to Be Blue by Spade Cooley

Tell Ol' Bill by Bob Dylan
Absolutely Sweet Marie by Jason & The Scorchers
Billy 1 by Los Lobos
One Good Gal by Charlie Feathers
The Young Psychotics by Tav Falco
Real Cool Ride by The Hillbilly Hellcats
Ridin' With the Blues by Ry Cooder
Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O Dee by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n' Roll Trio

Between the Whiskey and the Wine by Miss Leslie
Brothers of the Bottle by George Jones
The Drinking Song by Loudon Wainwright III
Wreck on the Highway by The Waco Brothers
Bulldozers and Dirt by Drive-By Truckers
The Winner by Bobby Bare
Crawdad Hole by Gus Cannon

Loser by Dave Alvin
Moon Gone Down by The Gourds
Tennessee by Last Mile Ramblers
Killing Me by Fred Eaglesmith
Former American Soldier by Chip Taylor
Night Accident by Robbie Fulks
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: UNADULTERATED HEARTACHE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Octobber 17, 2008

Warning: Between the Whiskey and the Wine by Miss Leslie is unadulterated hard-core, heartache honky-tonk music. Don’t look for irony. Don’t look for hipster detachment. This is real emotion. Nothing cute here. This is the sacred ground where Tammy Wynette and Kitty Wells have tread. Yuppie slummers, get packing.

Leslie Anne Sloan’s clear, intense voice just stops you in your tracks. Unlike many female country singers, there’s nothing sugary, flirty, or kittenish about Miss Leslie’s voice. She enunciates every word and sings with a power that lets you know she means every word that leaves her lips.

The liner notes let you know that this is a very personal album. According to one of Leslie’s hometown papers, the Houston Press, the singer went through a “rough divorce” (are there any easy ones?) since her previous album. The songs here — every one an original — deal with her struggles with alcohol and coping with the divorce. Archetypal country fare to be sure, but nothing on this album sounds like a cliché.

“This album is about a journey I started several years ago — a journey toward finding myself and living that person without apologies,” she writes in the CD’s booklet. “This album is mainly for anyone who has lost themselves — and ever tried to find themselves in something else — whether it was a bottle, another person, or a song.”

While Leslie’s earlier records — Honky Tonk Revival and the live Honky Tonk Happy Hour — are good authentic Texas country stompers, neither has the emotional punch of Between the Whiskey and the Wine. When she sings lines like, “So keep pouring drinks until I can’t remember/ Cause that’s the only way I know I’m bound to heal” (on “I Can Still Feel”) or “A shot of Makers on my left, a glass of red on my right and somewhere in the middle you’ll find me” in the title song, you get the feeling she knows what she’s talking about.

Even on upbeat songs with hints of humor, like “Honky Tonk Hangover” (“My head is sore, I smell like beer/And all my money is gone”), there’s a troubling aura of truth that gives a troubling aura of truth that give the songs an edge.

Adding power to Leslie’s music is her band, a bunch of two-step studs known as Her Juke-Jointers. The steel guitar of Ricky Davis (who has played in the bands of Dale Watson, Gary P. Nunn, The Derailers, and Asleep at the Wheel) and the fiddle, played by Leslie herself, drive the sound. Rounding out the Juke-Jointers are Ric Ramirez on upright bass (he’s served time with Wayne “The Train” Hancock) and Timmy Campbell on drums.

After a dozen heartbreakers, the last song on the record, “Love Will Find You,” is like a ray of hope. Leslie sings it with just as much conviction as she does her woozy, boozy laments.

Also recommended:

*Dirt Don’t Hurt by Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs. OK, I’m not completely down on ironic, hipster takes on country music.

This lady is probably doomed to be best known for singing, “I love Jack White like a little brother,” in her funny little cameo on The White Stripes’ novelty song, “It’s True That We Love One Another.”

But there’s a reason The Stripes would want Holly on their album. Though not that well known in the States, she has released about a dozen solo albums, plus a couple of live recordings, since the early ’90s. She’s also done a couple of duet albums with British garage band guru Billy Childish. She began her career with a Childish offshoot, Thee Headcoatees, a not-so-slightly deranged garage/punk take on the girl-group sound. (The group did funny odes to Jackie Chan, Davy Crockett, and Santa Claus.)

And yes, “Holly Golightly” is her real name — Holly Golightly Smith, to be exact — even though some assume she lifted it from the character in Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Her latest album — the second released under the name Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs — is a bluesy country romp with a jug-band spirit. The first album under that name was last year’s You Can’t Buy a Gun When You’re Crying.

Dirt Don’t Hurt was recorded in five days in Spain. Holly sings and plays guitar and banjo, while “The Brokeoffs” — actually her longtime sidekick “Lawyer Dave” Drake — sings and plays several stringed and percussion instruments. He gets a solo spotlight on the blues-drenched “Cora.”

One of the coolest songs here is a barnyard meditation called “Cluck Old Hen,” which is, in fact, about a female chicken. “Kick and squall, cackle and strut/I think everyone hates her guts.”

Holly and Dave get nice and spooky on the minor-key “Burn Your Fun,” which warns of religious fanatics taking over. “Better run, better run, better burn your fun/Preacher man’s comin’ for you.”

Religion’s on their minds on another tune, “Gettin’ High for Jesus” (”I’m gettin’ high for Jesus, cause He got so low for me”) featuring a squawking harmonica and tremolo guitar.

By far the prettiest tune on the album, and indeed, one of the most gorgeous country melodies I’ve heard in years, is “Up Off the Floor,” a slow waltz that reminds me a lot of “Tennessee Blues” by Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.

RASMUSSEN ON NM

Good news for the Democrats in the latest Rasmussen poll in this Enchanted Land.

Barack Obama is leading John McCain 55 percent to 42 percent -- that's a margin of 13 percentage points -- while Tom Udall is leading Steve Pearce 57 percent to 37 percent, 20 big ones.

Check out the presidential poll HERE and the Senate poll HERE.

Obama has a 17-point lead among Hispanics in New Mexico. He leads by 15 among women but trails by eight among men.

Rasmussen conducted the telephone survey of 700 likely voters on Monday -- obviously before last night's presidential and Senate debates. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.

There were also numbers for the current president and out governor.

Just 27 percent of likey voters in New Mexico say Presdient Bush is doing a good or excellent job.

Gov. Bill Richardson fares better, but he's below 50 percent. Those polled, by a margin of 48 percent say he's doing a good or excellent job. Only 17 percent say he's doing a poor job.

THURSDAY POLITICS

Kate Nash and I put together a story on the Manny Aragon conviction. You can see it HERE.
And as for the question about the Manny M. Aragon Torreon, the executive director of the center, Eduardo Diaz, told me the center's board at its meeting next month will be looking at the possibility of renaming the tower.

I also covered the Tom Udall/Steve Pearce debate. That story is HERE.

Finally, here's a Youtube that's been making the rounds on political blogs. It's the only debate you really need to see.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: A BLOCK THEORY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Octobber 16, 2008

I don’t usually write about conspiracy theories. My masters at the Trilateral Commission discourage such discussion.

But lately I, as well as other reporters, have been hearing a political scenario that doesn’t seem all that implausible.

As is the case with about 97 percent of all political discussion in Santa Fe in recent weeks, it has to do with the Public Regulation Commission race between Democrat Jerome Block Jr. and Green Party candidate Rick Lass.

First, some background for those who haven’t been keeping up. Block has admitted he wasn’t telling the truth about a $2,500 campaign expense paid to his friend San Miguel County Clerk Paul Maez. Block claimed on the document, and to reporters, the money was for Maez’s country band to play at a rally — an event that later turned out never to have occurred. After this news hit the papers last month, Block returned the money — which came from public election funds — to the state. The secretary of state and attorney general are looking into the matter as a possible fourth-degree felony.

The gist of the scenario is as follows. (Remember, all this is speculation.)

The Attorney General’s Office files criminal charges against Block for filing false campaign finance reports — but not before the Nov. 4 election.

Block, despite a steady stream of bad publicity for months, wins the election.

Sometime after the charges are filed, Block is heavily pressured to step down.

At this point, Gov. Bill Richardson steps in and appoints his own choice, a less-objectionable Democrat, to the 3rd District PRC seat.

You don’t have to believe in chemtrails to wonder if something like this might be in store.

There’s at least a couple of versions of this going around. One friend of mine theorized that Attorney General Gary King is in on the deal, and he would purposely “drag his feet” on filing charges against Block to make the rest of the story all come true.

Another friend of mine — a Democrat who isn’t fond of either Block or Lass — presented this scenario to me not as a conspiracy theory but as his personal fantasy of what he hopes will happen. In this person’s version, “Richardson appoints someone decent” to the PRC.

Of course, Richardson might not be around to appoint anybody. There’s widespread speculation that if Barack Obama is elected president next month, he’ll tap the governor for some post in the new administration.

More Richardson travels: The governor remains active in his out-of-state campaigning for Obama.

On Oct. 3, he traveled to Wisconsin, where he attended events for Obama in Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls. “I am here because Wisconsin will elect the next president of the United States,” he told a crowd of about 100 at a Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee, according to a report on Wispolitics.com by reporter Russell Korinek.

Six days later, he flew to Washington state, where one blogger wrote, “Richardson was a big hit in Spokane Thursday, making a speech to the annual luncheon sponsored by the Gallatin Group and Avista at the Davenport Hotel, and revving up the Democratic troops for Obama and (Washington Gov.) Chris Gregoire later in the afternoon at the Carpenters’ Union Hall in the Logan Neighborhood.”

The next day, Richardson was in Nevada, where he spoke to a Students of Color Leadership Symposium and other events in Las Vegas, then up to Reno, where he predicted “that his state, Colorado and Nevada will prove pivotal in the presidential election,” according to one Reno television Web site.

This week’s New Yorker: I don’t know whether Richardson will be on hand in Las Cruces on Friday to greet Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, who is scheduled to appear at an Obama rally there.

But if he is, I bet he might want to discuss an item from a profile on Biden in this week’s New Yorker.

In the piece on the Delaware senator — who like Richardson ran for the 2008 presidential nomination — reporter Ryan Lizza writes about a conversation between the two.

“According to a senior Biden aide, after a debate in which Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor, argued that he could have all hundred and sixty thousand American troops out of Iraq in a matter of months — something that is logistically beyond reach, according to most observers — Biden approached Richardson backstage and told him that the plan was impossible.

Richardson didn’t seem concerned. ‘I know it is,’ he said. (A spokesman for the Governor said that Richardson does not recall the exchange.)”