Just What the Free World Needs ... another blog!

Howdy, Steve Terrell from Santa Fe, N.M. here.

My old website recently bit the dust. Dreamwater, the crappy free-web-space "service" I was using somehow deleted my site and won't let me log in. E-mails to their web master bounce back.

So I'm going the blog route. Most the frequently updated material on the old site were my columns in The Santa Fe New Mexican (Terrell's Tune-up, my CD review column; and Roundhouse Round-up, my political column) and playlists for my radio shows on KSFR, Santa Fe Public Radio. (Terrell's Sound World on Sunday nights, The Santa Fe Opry, Friday nights.)

All these things and more will be here.

My employer requires a disclaimer here:

"This site is a personal publication independent of my professional capacity at the Santa Fe New Mexican. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Santa Fe New Mexican or santafenewmexican.com "

So there you have it. Bookmark this page. Tell your friends.

Meanwhile let's catch up on a few things from the time my late great web site croaked:

Playlists

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, Dec. 19, 2003
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
6 Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
I'll Be Home For Christmas by The Old 97s
East Side Boys by Martin Zeller
Marry Me by The Drive By Truckers
Look at Miss Ohio by Gillian Welch
Little Mama by Ray Wylie Hubbard
A Little Bit Lonesome by Kasey Chambers
Let it Snow by Leon Redbone

Drinkin' Thing/I Get Drunk/She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles/Backslider's Wine by Gary Stewart
Lovesick Blues Boy by Paul Burch
Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Mope-along Rides Again by The Band of Blacky Ranchette
Lonely Christmas Call by George Jones

Whatever Your Name Is I Love You by Kell Robertson
Cold Canadian Love by Joe West
Maybe Next Year by Jaime Michaels
Sin Street by Kim & The Cabelleros
Weather Woman by Tom Adler
Who Am I by ThaMuseMeant
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Mark Weber & Selsun Blue

Nervous Breakdown by Whiskeytown
Potato's in the Paddy Wagon by The New Main Street Singers
Gift Horse of Mercy by Butch Hancock
Baby, It's Cold Outside by Albert & Gage
Lucy's Tiger Den by Terry Allen
Blue Christmas Lights by Chris Hillman & Herb Pederson
Let it Rain This Christmas by The Bellyachers
Lone Star Christmas by Jerry Faires
Jesus Won't Come Down Your Chimney by Charlie Louvin
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me by Elvis Presley
CLOSING THEME :Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, Dec. 26, 2003
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Christmas Time WIll Soon Be Gone by Jack White
Seven Months and 39 Days by Hank Williams III
Sold Me Down the River by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
You're Still Standin' There by Steve Earle & Lucinda Williams
That's Not the Issue by Wilco
Rock 'n Roll is a Vicious Game by Ray Wylie Hubbard
My Dearest Darlin' by Doug Sahm
Idumea by Sacred Harp Singers at Liberty Church

You Got the Car by Kasey Chambers
Like a Drug by Garrison Starr
Nashville Radio by Jon Langford
Out of Hand by Gary Stewart
The Bottomless Hole by The Handsome Family
What Makes Bob Holler by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Jamie by Joe West

Six Days on the Road by Dave Dudley
Truckdrivin' Man by Hylo Brown
Nitro Express by Red Simpson & Junior Brown
Truck Drivin' Cat With Nine Wives by Jim Nesbitt
Wildcat Run by Red Sovine
Semi Truck by Bill Kirchen
Diesel Dazey by Killbilly
Diesel Smoke (Dangerous Curves) by Doye O'Dell
White Line Fever by Merle Haggard
Tombstone Every Mile by Charlie Moore
Six Days on the Road by Rig Rock Deluxe

Jackson by Johnny Cash & June Carter
Last Time I Fell by Paul Burch
Two Things by Roger Wallace
Two More Days by Sid Hillman Quartet
Wayside/Back in Time by Gillian Welch
If You Win You Lose by Kell Robertson
Outfit by Drive By Truckers
The Scarlet Tide by Alison Krauss
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Terrell's Sound World
Sunday, December 21, 2003
The 75th Annual Steve Terrell Christmas Special
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.

Must Be Santa by Brave Combo
Silent Night by Bad Religion
Gloria by Elastica
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Beatlemas
Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto by James Brown
Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto by Snoop Doggy Dogg
Santa's Beard by The Beach Boys
Jingle Bells by Johnny Dowd
Deck the Halls by The Klezmonauts
Christmas Island by Leon Redbone

Away in a Manger by Pat Malone
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Beausolei
Merry Christmas to You by Billy Joe Shaver
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon
A Change at Christmas by The Flaming Lips
White Christmas by Otis Redding
Christmas Morning by Loudon Wainwright III

Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies by The Jingle Cats
Monsters Holiday by Bobby "Boris" Picket
Deck the Halls With Parts of Charlie by The Crypt Keeper
St. Stephen's Day Murders by The Chieftains with Elvis Costello
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues with Kirtsy MacColl
Christmas at K-Mart by Root Boy Slim
Jinglecide by The Rockin' Guys
I'll Be Home For Christmas by The Bubbadinos
Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope by Sonic Youth

Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) by The Ramones
Christmas is Quiet by The Wild Colonials
Old Toy Trains by Roger Miller
Amen by The Impressions
Sawade by Terry Allen
No Vacancy by Marlee MacLeod
Nothing But a Child by Steve Earle with Maria McKee
Silent Night/What Christmas Means by Dion
Star of Wonder by The Roches

and here's last week's Terrell's Tune-up, published in The New Mexican on Dec. 26, 2003 ...

A Cosmic Kind of Rage

As singer for the late lamented Afghan Whigs, Greg Dulli was responsible for some of the most intense and passionate rock ‘n’ roll love songs of the 1990s. This was no wimpy “emo” fare. Dulli and his Cincinnati boys drew from the rage of punk rock and the carnal power of soul (and I don’t mean they sounded like some bar band covering Wilson Picket songs).

He sometimes was ridiculed for it, but Dulli never sang of a souring relationship without making it sound downright mythical. You can easily envision Dulli shouting, “It’s in our hearts, it’s in our heads, it’s in our love, baby, it’s in our bed !” alone on a mountain top as the forces of the cosmos converge in black clouds above him.

And when he was on the prowl for love, Dulli made his desires so overpowering, they could pass for the uncontrollable cravings of a serial killer.

Though the Whigs are no more, Dulli’s still brooding and raging, these days with an outfit called The Twilight Singers, whose latest effort, Blackberry Belle, is raw, tumultuous, emotional, sometimes hypnotic, and a little bit evil. (“Black out the windows, it’s party time,” are the first words he sings on the album.)

In other words, it’s prime Dulli.

Although he uses the Twilight name, Blackberry Belle is much closer in spirit to the Afghan Whigs than it is to the trip-hoppy 2000 album Twilight as Played by The Twilight Singers. There Dulli shared vocal duties with Harold Chichester and Shawn Smith. (Not to knock that album, which has its own sinister charm, with Chichester‘s disturbing falsetto and all.)

But this time it's basically Dulli’s show. “There’s a riot going on inside of me,” he sings on “St. Gregory.” It doesn’t take long for a listener to believe it’s true.

“And I’m gonna crawl,” he sings in “Feathers.” “Not that it matters, nobody bleeds the way I do.”

While Dulli’s guitars is prominent here, keyboards, played by Dulli and others, also are central.

Each song helps build the atmosphere on the album, but there are standouts. The clunky horn section on “Esta Noche” gives the song an earthy power. The swaggering “Decatur Street,” with its boiling clavinet, tough percussion and just a hint of wah-wah guitar shows Dulli’s love for Blaxploitation movie music.

There are a few guest stars on Blackberry Belle. Appolonia Kotero -- yes Prince’s leading lady in Purple Rain -- sings on a couple of tracks. Bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart plays some lapsteel on “The Killer,” but he’s pretty much buried in the mix.

This isn’t the case though with Mark Lanegan, who sings lead on “Number Nine,” the last song on the album. Lanegan’s deep croon sounds like the Frankenstein monster, pumped up on sweet wine and romantic poetry. With Dulli singing the choruses, the song slowly builds up into a pounding Afghan juggernaut, ending with a female singer (Petra Hayden) doing some soulful wailing in the style of Clare Torry on Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky.”

By the end it's hard not to believe that nobody bleeds like Greg Dulli.

(http://www.thetwilightsingers.com)

Also Recommended:

Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast. OK, OK, I realize it’s faintly ridiculous for a 50-year-old white Okie to act like an aficionado of hip hop. And to be honest, not much in the rap universe has excited me since Public Enemy in their early ’90s prime.

But from the first time I heard “Miss Jackson” a couple of years ago, I’ve been a fan of this Atlanta duo. Big Boi and Dre 3000 have a lot going for them They're intelligent. They’re funny. They’re funky. And most important, unlike so many thousands of third-rate gangsta goons, they’re musical. As far as I’m concerned, Outkast is the true heir of George Clinton and Prince.

And despite their great commercial success in the past few years, they’re still down-home enough to include an ad for Big Boi’s pit bull breeding service, Pitfall Kennels, inside their CD booklet.

Speakerboxx/The Love Below basically are two solo albums by Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and Dre 3000 (Andre Benjamin) under the Outkast umbrella. This of course has prompted some talk of an impending breakup, which the group denies. (“We never relaxin’/Outkast is everlasting’/Not clashin’, not at all,” Big Boi explains in the introduction of “The Way You Move.”)

The Love Below actually doesn’t sound much like a rap album. It’s a near seamless mix of hip hop, funky soul and jazz. Like Prince Dre is something of a one-man band, playing guitar and keyboards on most tracks.

Starting out with a little cocktail music, (The super syrupy “Intro,” then the breezy “Love Hater”), Love Below" explores all sorts of musical directions. There’s an acoustic tune, “Take Off Your Cool,” with Norah Jones; There’s some Princely nastiness with “Spread.” here’s a breakneck techno-jazzy version of the Coltrane associated “My Favorite Things.”

But nothing really is better than the big hit, “Hey Ya!” a high-excitement soul rave-up.

My only complaint is that some of Dre’s spoken-word skits and between-song interludes get old after a couple of listens

Speakerboxx also is a first-rate effort. There’s a lot more rapping on this disc with guests like Ludicris and Jay-Z -- not to mention the 110 mph mouth of Big Boi himself.

But there’s lots of actual songs here too, such as the Parliamentesque “Bow Tie”; “The Rooster,” which sounds like it’s built upon a Sly Stone outtake; and the spook-house rock of “Bust.”

Big Boi gets seriously political with “War“ (“Operation Anaconda/ask yourself, was it full of bleeps and blunders?/Did they ever find Osama?”)

Although the solo outings are nothing short of amazing, I hope B.B. and Dre recombine for their next record. Outkast might just be the first important act of the millennium.


swt