By now everyone's heard that Willie Nelson was busted for illegal and dangerous marijuana in Louisiana this week.OK, Willie and crew only got misdemeanor tickets for holding a pound and a half of pot (and some mushrooms). Thank God for the sake of the children that Willie, his 75-year-old sister and two others have to face criminal charges.
Willie of course has been beating the drug-reform drum for a long time. Here is one of his public service announcements he made a few years ago for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. In fact, here's a who;e page of Willie's NORML PSAs.
I'll play a couple of those on The Santa Fe Opry tonight. (Chris Goldstein used to play one all the time on his old show "The Last Hours of Night.")
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And speaking of the Opry, I'll do a decent set to honor the late great Don Walser on the show tonight. Walser was such a giant, his passing was noted even in the Axis of Evil.
(The Opry streams live on KSFR. And hey, if you haven't donated to the latest fund drive, DO IT!)
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There's a new slick magazine dedicated to New Mexico music. Check out OpenMic New Mexico, edited by Rick Huff. I picked up my copy at Natural Sound in Albuquerque this week. There's also a Web site.
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Finally, here's a shoutout to a soon-to-be-former "competitor" Jonanna Widner, who wrote her final column for The Santa Fe Reporter. That's Joanana to the left, with her soon to be former boss Julia Goldberg, in this photo I took at Frogfest last month.Jonanna did well more than her share of keeping the musical conversation going in this town. I read her every week and suspect most of those reading this did also.
One time a couple of years ago she wrote a less than enthusiastic review of some album (was it Brian Wilson's Smile?) At the end of the piece she actually invited readers to check out another view of the album, referring them to my glowing review the week before. I thought that was pretty classy. I probably forgot to thank her, so thanks Jonanna, and good luck in Dallas.
