Stephen W. Terrell's Web Log

A published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 31, 2004

NEW YORK _ Former New Mexico Gov. "Lonesome" Dave Cargo has always had a tenuous relationship with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party when he was in office in the late 1960s. And Cargo's move Monday won't do much to endear himself to GOP regulars.

Cargo has helped to launch a group of moderate Republicans called Back to the Mainstream, which urges the GOP to go back towards the center. The group purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times to greet Republican delegates on the first day of their convention.

"The Republicans have gone far enough to the right, they're going to fall off the cliff," Cargo said in a telephone interview.

"We've let the extreme right push us," he said. "It's time to push back."

Cargo isn't exactly lonesome in this endeavor. He's joined by about 20 other political figures. Trouble is, there are few, if any, contemporary GOP leaders. The biggest names were in power about the time that Cargo was governor.

Among those signing on are former Gov. William Milliken, a three-time Michigan governor; Daniel Evans, a former Washington governor and U.S. Senator; former New Hampshire Gov. Walter Peterson; former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton; and two former Environmental Protection Agency chiefs Russell Train and William Ruckelshaus.

Cargo said he started the group with Larry Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller.

Republicans should be better on civil rights and environmental issues, Cargo said. "Some of these important environmental laws we have were passed when Richard Nixon was president," he said.

But even though he is critical of the Bush administration Cargo said Back to the Mainstream as an organization isn't endorsing or threatening to endorse Democrat John Kerry.

"I'm not terribly enthusiastic about Kerry," he said.

Broadway Joe

New Mexico delegates who went to a Sunday night performance of The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre were greeted by a few dozen protesters who heckled and held signs with anti-Bush and anti-war slogans.

"They wanted to yell at rich Republicans," said state Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque, a delegates. "But most the Republicans there aren't the type who would be spending money on Broadway plays."

The New York convention host committee and The New York Times sprung for Broadway tickets for delegates Sunday night.

"Some of the delegates complained about the protesters being so loud," Carraro said. However, Carraro, a former resident of Manhattan, was undaunted. "I told them that's just New York. It's just loud here. They had to be loud to be heard at all."

Full disclosure on graft:

There were no Broadway tickets for reporters, but there was a gift bag for reporters registering at the Hotel Pennsylvania Monday morning.

The black canvas shoulder bag (with the logos of the Republican National Convention and "NYC 2004") was packed with goodies.

Among the swag: a copy of the Guide to New York City Landmarks, a children's book about a bunny on a bicycle called Miffy Loves New York City, a History Channel DVD about Ellis Island, a Con Edison pocket flashlight, a disposable camera, a tiny packet of Dunkin Donut coffee, a pack of red, white and blue M&Ms, a pack of Listerine strips, a Statue of Liberty tie pin with the AT&T logo and a "Limited Convention Edition" box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, featuring an elephant holding a sign reading "Republicans in 2004."

But no apple:

On the last day of the Democratic convention in Boston, a law enforcement officer working the press entrance to the Fleet Center confiscated my jar of Bill Richardson salsa, which the New Mexico delegation was giving away to promote the state. The Secret Service wasn't impressed by the promotional tool, saying it violated a rule against glass jars in the convention center.

On the first day of the Republican convention I had another contraband food item confiscated.

An apple.

This convention has a rule against round fruit, which apparently some fear could be easily hurled at politicians.

"No round fruit is allowed," the officer told me. "You should have brought a banana."

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 31, 2004

NEW YORK _ Anyone who thought security was intense during the Democratic National Convention last month ought to come to New York for the Republican convention.

Compared to New York, the security in Boston was Woodstock.

"It's a sign of the times," said U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici. "I've been to some conventions where there was almost no security."

Besides GOP conventioneers, New York this week has been a magnet for anti-war and anti-Bush protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people marched Sunday to demonstrate against the Republicans. Today has been designated as a day of civil disobedience by some protest organizers.

Domenici, who has been going to Republican conventions for more than 30 years, said that besides the post-Sept. 11 fear of terrorism, extra security is needed because of the intensify of bad feelings by many toward President Bush.

"Some people have been sold on the idea that the president is mean and hateful," Domenici said. "I know him well and I know that this just isn't true."

Delegate Joe Carraro, a state senator from Albuquerque, agreed. "There really is a lot of animosity over the issues of the war."

In the streets around Madison Square Garden, where the convention is taking place, there are police every few yards on the sidewalks and large clusters of police on the corners.

You literally can't even get away with jaywalking. There are barricades preventing pedestrians from crossing anywhere but at the intersections. At some intersections officers use orange plastic temporary gate material to keep pedestrians from crossing streets until the police say it's time to cross.

Entering Madison Square Garden, reporters must pass through not one but two checkpoints with metal detectors. This also is the case for delegates said Darren White, a delegate from Albuquerque.

Even the hotels where delegates are staying have far more severe security than convention goers saw in Boston.

Boston's Sheraton downtown, where New Mexico Democrats stayed, had a near carnival atmosphere with delegates, party officials and even radical protesters from the Lyndon LaRouche campaign milling about and merchants hawking humorous anti-Bush paraphernalia.

In contrast, only guests can go inside the Roosevelt Hotel, where the state's Republican delegation is staying. Five or six police officers guard the front door of the hotel.

And the police presence doesn't go away when the convention isn't in session. During the early morning hours Monday police presence was strong in the area. Many weary-looking uniformed officers took breaks in all-night coffee shops and delis, some chatting with their fellow cops, some sitting alone staring blankly into cups of coffee.

New Mexico Republicans said Monday they've never seen such a police show of force.

Carraro said he is still amazed that his party would chose New York City, and especially surprised that the location would be Madison Square Garden.

"I grew up here," Carraro said. "Madison Square Garden has to be the hardest place for security. There's subways running under it, There's an Amtrack running beneath it. I was surprised they'd chose this place."

White, who is Bernalillo County sheriff, said "This is the tightest security situation I've ever encountered."

White complimented the New York City Police -- the most visible of dozens of law enforcement agencies working around Madison Square Garden.

"They're performing spectacularly," White said. "The last thing you want to is to come here and not be able to have fun for fear of something going wrong."

A state tourism official in New York this week expressed frustration with the heightened security

"I was stunned at the level of security in Boston, but this is Boston to the nth degree," said Jon Hendry, director of marketing for the Tourism Department.

"I am totally screwed," Hendry said. "I'm driving a 34-foot motorhome and I've been hassled by city cops, state cops and cops I've never heard of."

Hendry said every time he enters Manhattan Island police search the large brightly painted motorhome. "I have to take everything out of it," he said.

He concedes that one thing that probably made it easier on him in Boston was the fact that Gov. Bill Richardson was the chairman of the Democratic Convention and had worked closely with the city of Boston. “We had some contacts there," he said.

Even native New Yorkers are amazed by the huge concentration of law enforcement.

Curtis Sliwa, who founded a citizen protection group called The Guardian Angels in the 1970s because he felt the subways and parks were unsafe now says New York City is "the safest place on Earth."

"That's because there's a cop every five inches," Sliwa -- wearing his trademark red beret and red Guardian Angels jacket quipped during an interview Monday at the Stage Door Delicatessen, across the street from the convention hall

Sliwa, who currently is a radio talk show host on the conservative WABC, said he went to the 1992 Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden.

"There was almost no security there, he said. "Of course the city swept the area of all the hookers and pimps and homeless people right before the convention started."

I'm flying to New York City today to cover the Republican National Convention for The Santa Fe New Mexican. I'll also be filing reports for KSFR, 90.7 FM.

I'll post most of my New Mexican coverage here on this blog, but also check the paper's Web site.

Here's the preview in this morning's paper:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 29,2004


A month after the Democratic Party’s John Kerry love fest in Boston, Republican leaders from across the country will hold their own extravaganza to lavish praise on President Bush — and to officially nominate him and Vice President Dick Cheney for another term in the White House.

Like the Democrats, the Republican National Convention is expected to follow the three-Ps principle: Propaganda — pounding in the Republican message on television; Pep Rallies — getting the faithful charged up; and Parties — lavish receptions, dinners and other social events, courtesy of big corporations and other special interests that have found a fun-filled loophole in “soft-money” laws.

But, unlike the Democrats, a fourth “P” undoubtedly will be a significant part of the Republican convention story.

Protests.

While the protests in Boston last month seemed anemic and halfhearted, anti-war and anti-Bush activists have for months been planning for demonstrations and disruptions at the New York convention.

State Sen. Joe Carraro of Albuquerque, a convention delegation who served on the GOP Platform Committee, noted that several convention speakers — U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — “have different positions on different issues.”

Carraro said this will be a great symbol of GOP unity.

But while some of the speakers will have more moderate opinions than Bush on social issues such as gay rights, abortion and stem-cell research, Carraro said there will be no disagreement on the podium on perhaps the biggest issue of the campaign — the war on Iraq. All will agree with Bush that the war was necessary.

“This will showcase what the president has done and answer some of his critics,” Carraro said. “The president has to show he’s got party unity. If he’s unable to show that, he’s got a problem.”

There is little doubt, however, that New York will be anything but a huge display of party unity.

New Mexico delegation

New Mexico’s Republican Party is sending 21 delegates and 21 alternates to New York. According to a news statement earlier this month, the state’s delegation is among the most diverse in the convention, with 43 percent of delegates members of minority groups.

Delegates include some of the top GOP leaders in the state — U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, former Interior Secretary and U.S. Rep. Manuel Lujan, former gubernatorial candidate John Sanchez, state Sen. Joe Carraro, state Reps. Jeanette Wallace and Jane Powdrell-Culbert, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White and Public Regulation Commission candidate and former San Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. John Gonzales.

Before the Democratic Convention last month, much was made of the increased visibility the New Mexico delegation there would receive because Gov. Bill Richardson was convention chairman.

There hasn’t been quite the same attention paid to the state’s Republican delegation. Barbara Longeway of Albuquerque, the delegation’s coordinator, said in a recent telephone interview that the Republican delegation doesn’t have as many activities planned as their Democratic counterparts. “We don’t have Bill Richardson’s money,” she quipped.

But plenty will be offered to keep the delegation busy.

Like all delegations, New Mexico’s is invited to see a Broadway play tonight, courtesy of The New York City Host Committee and The New York Times. New Mexico delegates are invited to a performance of The Phantom of the Opera at The Majestic Theatre.

Also planned for the delegation is a tour of the Fox News studios Wednesday.

It’s not all fun and parties in New York for the delegation, however. Longeway said each state delegation has been asked to perform some type of community service in New York. New Mexico’s delegation has agreed to work for several hours at the Latino Pastoral Action Center in the Bronx. This is a Pentecostal group that has several programs including those dedicated to gang intervention, crisis counseling, an after-school academy and other activities.

Republican party time

Just like the Democratic Convention, the GOP will have plenty of breakfasts, receptions, fund-raisers for various candidates, luncheons, dinners, concerts and late-night parties — nearly all of which are sponsored by corporations and business groups.

According to politicalwatchdog groups such as the Alliance for Better Campaigns and the Center for Public Integrity, corporations, unions and other special interests are now using lavish parties at political conventions as a way to buy access and influence — skirting the new campaignfinance laws that prohibit “soft-money” donations to political parties.

Because of the restrictions, according to a report on the Center for Public Integrity’s Web site, “large quantities of cash have been pouring into host committee coffers and into hands of party planners, where lavishness is the name of the game.”

Domenici, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, will be honored at several such events during the convention. On Monday, the American Petroleum Institute is sponsoring a reception honoring Domenici at the River Café. On Tuesday, Dow Chemical is sponsoring a breakfast honoring the state’s senior senator.

And Wednesday, the American Gas Association, Edison Electric Institute, the National Mining Association, The Nuclear Energy Institute and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association are sponsoring An Evening By the Lake Honoring Chairman Pete Domenici at The Loeb Boathouse at Central Park.

In Boston, New Mexico’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a past chairman of the Energy Committee, was honored at special events including a harbor cruise paid for by the Interstate Natural Gas Association and a breakfast sponsored by Public Service Company of New Mexico.

According to a report by the Campaign Finance Institute, at least 38 companies that gave Republicans $80,000 or more each in soft money in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles also donated to the New York host committee to pay for the convention.

Fighting the man

Many have speculated that next week’s protests in New York could be the biggest at a convention since the 1968 convention in Chicago — which climaxed in what an official report labeled a “police riot,” where police clubbed and beat demonstrators.

Estimates of the number of anti-war and anti-Bush protesters expected to descend upon New York have been as high as 300,000.

Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe told The Associated Press on Friday that he was worried his party would be blamed if the demonstrations at the Republican Convention get out of hand. “I think they’re almost hoping for problems up here,” McAuliffe said of Republicans.

Demonstration organizer Jason Flores-Williams says he doesn’t care if the Democratic Party or John Kerry suffers because of the protests in New York. Flores-Williams is an activist, political writer for High Times magazine and a former freelancer for The New Mexican.

“It’s bigger than John Kerry or George Bush,” he said in a phone interview from New York on Friday. “We need an instillation of fear from the people to the people in power.

“In the end, I’m probably going to vote for John Kerry, but when you get down to it, Kerry’s just another Skull & Bones member.” The Skull & Bones Society is a secret organization at Yale University to which both Kerry and Bush belonged.

Rep. Joe Thompson, RAlbuquerque, an alternate delegate, said Friday that he thinks fears of protests are overblown. “I don’t expect there to be any effect whatsoever,” he said Friday. “They won’t disrupt our purpose for being there.”

Asked whether McAuliffe was correct that Republicans would benefit from violent protests, Thompson said, “Well, if we see Terry McAuliffe out there chucking eggs, that might help us.”

“There’s really a vibe here,” Flores-Williams said Friday. “The convention hasn’t even started yet, and already there’s been 90 arrests. Basically what’s happening now is there’s just a giant, constant protest.”

Shortly after Flores-Williams made that comment, another 200 people were arrested in a protest involving bicycles.

Today, 250,000 people are expected to march against the war in Iraq.

But Flores-Williams said Tuesday is the big day. “We’re calling it A-31, the day of direct action,” he said. “That’s the day we’re going to shut down Manhattan.” Sit-ins, marches and street theater are scheduled.

“If we don’t do something, we’re going to lose the American dream to the corporations,” Flores-Williams said. “We’ve got to fight the man!”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has estimated the cost of security for the convention at $65 million. The federal government is expected to cover most of that.

Friday, August 27, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

(Before show started. Southwest Stages ended early)
Rebel Flag in Germany by Jason Ringenberg

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
My Baby's Gone by The Backsliders
Bonnie Blue by The Shiners
Take This Job and Shove It by Bobby Bare, Radney Foster, Buck Owens & Jeff Tweedy
Mystery by Simon Stokes
Motorcycle Man by The Riptones
Drunk By Noon by The Handsome Family
Deep Red Bells by Neko Case
You Shouldn't Have by Elizabeth McQueen

I Remember You by Steve Earle with Emmylou Harris
Baghdad Baghdad by Acie Cargill
Motel Time Again by Bobby Bare Jr.
Banned At the Bluebird by Betty Dylan
Fools Hall of Fame by Johnny Cash
Brilliant Disquise by Elvis Costello
North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
Mister Love by The Buckarettes
Can Man Christmas by Joe West

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS SET
Puttin' People on the Moon
Sink Hole
Daddy's Cup
18 Wheels of Love
Outfit
Southern Thing

Come a Long Way by Kate & Anna McGariggle
Deep as Your Pocket by Tres Chicas
Whiskey Willie by Michael Hurley
Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son by Tom Russell, Dave Alvin & Peter Case
Something to Thing 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

A version of this story was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 27, 2004

Despite the title of her book, Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk, Maureen Dowd doesn’t want it to be lumped in with the avalanche of Bush-bashing works currently filling the nation’s bookstores.”

“I went to the book fair in Chicago and was just stunned by the number of Bush-bashing books,” the New York Times columnist said in a recent telephone nterview. “I had no idea there were so many. I mean you see books about Condi’s dog. The market was saturated.”

While working late one Friday, she said, she noticed “13 or 14 (anti-) Bush or Cheney books. They’re coming in faster than I can read them.”

Dowd will be in Santa Fe this weekend to sign copies of Bushworld, at Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia St., at 4 p.m. Saturday.

So how is Bushworld different than the other George-must-go books?

Dowd’s book, which mainly consists of her columns, deals with the “father-son drama” of the current presidents and his father, who was in the White House from 1989 to 1993.

“I love the father-son drama in Hamlet and the father-daughter drama in King Lear How your parents shape your life, that’s the part that interests me,” Dowd said.

Indeed, one of the major recurring themes is how Bush the younger has moved to repudiate much of his father’s term.

As she wrote in the introduction of Bushworld, “With each passing day of the Bush restoration, it became clearer that we were entering the primal territory of ancient myth in which the son must define himself by vanquishing the father. While W. loved his dad and was close to him, he wanted out of his shadow … From the start, W. and Karl Rove used Bush pere as a reverse playbook; if they avoided his father’s missteps with the right, they could keep their base happy.”

Later in the book, Dowd wrote, “It must be galling for Bush pere to hear conservatives braying that the son has to finish the job in Iraq that the father wimped out on. ... His proudest legacy, after all, was painstakingly stitching together a global coalition to stand up for the principal that one country cannot simply invade another without provocation Now the son may blow off the coalition so he can invade a country without provocation.” (This is from a column originally published months before the Iraq invasion)

“… But W. has spent a life running from his father’s long shadow, trying to usurp Daddy’s preppy moderate Republicanism with good ol’ boy conservative Republicanism,” Dowd wrote.

A major difference between Dowd’s book and many of the partisan anti-Bush screeds is her friendly relationship with the first President Bush, who was in power when Dowd had the White House beat for the Times.

In the phone interview Dowd started to say, “how much I love” the senior Bush, but corrected herself to say “like.”

The former president described his relationship with Dowd as “a love-hate” relationship.

She later said, “I don’t think in terms of love or like. I don’t want to have dinner with or be friends with the people I write about because I might have to come down on them hard in my next column.”

But she maintains a correspondence with Bush Sr. She said he sends her “comic, wacky screeds” about The New York Times.“He reads the Times very carefully,” Dowd said. She contrasted this with the current President Bush’s statements that he never reads the papers.

The elder Bush has never told Dowd how he feels about her contention that some actions by the current President amount to a repudiation of his father’s administration.

“I think there’s a WASPy compartmentalization there,” she said. “It’s not like a Eugene O’Neill play where they thrash it out at the end. The father tries to focus on how proud he is of his son, how proud he is that he and his son are the only father and son elected president since the Adamses.

“He doesn’t focus on his son’s statements like ‘We’re not going to cut and run’ in Iraq or that he’s the heir of Ronald Reagan. I think that would be too painful for (the elder Bush.)

“They’re very thinned skinned, but I can relate to that,” she said. “I am too.”
Like her role as a journalist, Bushworld, Dowd said, is not about taking a partisan position, but about “tweaking those in power.”

After all, back in the late ‘90s, some Bill Clinton partisans considered her an enemy for the harsh way her columns treated the president during the Monica Lewinsky scandal Some Democrats assumed she was a Republican mouthpiece, even though in reality, Dowd was even more harsh on special prosecutor Ken Starr.

Although they are harder to find in the book than her complaints about Bush, there also are also some shots fired at Democrats.

John Kerry, she wrote, “has a tendency toward striped-trouser smugness.” She mocks Kerry “when he puts on that barn jacket over his expensive suit to look less lockjaw -- and says things like `Who among us doesn’t like NASCAR’ …”

Talking in the interview about the Bush-Gore debates in 2000, she compared the Democratic candidate to “a waxy orange candle.”

Dowd has been criticized for questioning political leaders on what kind of movies, television shows and music they like. She said she’s interested in the interplay of “personality and power,” insisting that much information about a politician can be found in asking these questions.

In Bushworld, Kerry listed “40- 50” movies. “It was almost like he was trying to get the right answer,” Dowd said in the interview. “Kerry was trying a little too hard.”

While it was obvious that Bush wasn’t as attuned to cultural matters - he named baseball as his favorite “cultural experience,” Dowd found him to be more real and down-to-earth. “That’s a quality that people found charming in 2000.”

“Washington looks like Troy, in a bad way,” she said. “There’s barricades around all the monuments. It makes me sad, because I was raised in Washington, D.C. But it’s a perfect metaphor on how politics is today.”

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 27, 2004

Some critics have hailed The Drive-By Truckers as the second coming of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the undisputed heirs to the throne of Southern rock royalty.

I don’t think that gives the Truckers nearly enough credit.

Although they will never be a fraction as popular as the “Sweet Home Alabama” boys, the Truckers are 10 times deeper. And they rock just as powerful.

With their latest album The Dirty South, the DBTs have unleashed their third straight masterpiece of insightful -- and strong rocking -- observations of Southern life, Southern mythology, Southern pride, Southern shame and Southern horror. The new album continues in the same direction -- and I believe surpasses -- their previous works Decoration Day and Southern Rock Opera.

(Actually, it’s the fourth straight solid DBT album if you include their rollicking, often hilarious 2000 live CD Alabama Ass Whoopin’ .)

The Drive By Truckers, for those who have been denied their pleasure, features three singers and songwriters, OTs (original Truckers) Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell, who came aboard on last year’s Decoration Day.

(And credit should be given to an unofficial Trucker, artist Wes Freed, whose spooky cartoons full of big cars, full moons, twisty trees, sexy women and demonic creatures have added to the allure of the last three DBT records.)

Once again, the Truckers take us on a backroads tour of the Deep South, where they look with unflinching eyes at the lives of the people who live there, the heroes they look up to, their wisdom, their lies.

Some heroes you’ll recognize. There‘s some rock ‘n‘ roll history lessons in “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac, which is about the Sun Records heyday while “Danko / Manuel” is about the two late members of The Band.

Two songs, “Boys From Alabama” and “The Buford Stick” serve to deflate the legend of Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame. Between these two is “cottonseed,“ a minor-key acoustic tune by Cooley that doesn’t specifically mention Pusser. But -- with its talk of “greed and fixed elections, guns and drugs, whores and booze” -- might be part of a trilogy.

Isbell‘s “The Day John Henry Died” is more than a sad ode to the mythical steel drivin’ man. It’s a rage against an economy that uses human beings like machines before discarding them.

But the best stories are the ones about folks you’ve never heard of. In “Puttin’ People on the Moon,” (whose spiritual ancestor is Gil Scott Heron’s proto-rap tirade “Whitey’s on the Moon”)

The narrator’s an unemployed Alabama auto worker who’s bitter because the Ford plant shuts down “while over there in Huntsville, they puttin’ people on the moon.”

He scrapes by with running numbers and selling drugs. Meanwhile his wife gets cancer. By the end of the song she’s dead and he’s working at Wal-Mart, “and now over there in Huntsville, even NASA’s shut down too. By the end of the song, the guitars sound like they’re about to explode and Hood sounds as if he’s about to start throwing punches at politicians, preachers or anyone else who might get in his way.

There’s sentimentality in these stories, but none that’s not hard-won. Cooley has a couple of “Daddy” songs. In the opening cut “Where the Devil Don’t Stay,” the beloved father is a bootlegger -- but Mama turns him in.

But even better is “Daddy’s Cup,” which is centered around a racecar driver’s advice from his father, a former racer who had to quit after damaging his eyesight in a crash. From childhood he knows his true purpose in life is “Daddy’s second chance.“ After his pitiful first race, Daddy says, “If you quit now, son, it’s gonna haunt you all your life”

He doesn’t quit, but the driver’s still haunted. He races on with Daddy’s picture on the dashboard. “Since then I’ve wrecked a bunch of cars and I’ve broke a lot of bones …,” Cooley sings. “I lost more than I won but I ain’t gonna give up/Til they put me in the ground or Daddy’s name on that cup.”

Hood’s “Lookout Mountain” -- featuring raging guitars worthy of Crazy Horse -- is a man contemplating suicide. He’s wondering about the aftermath: “Who will end up with my records/Who will end up with my tapes?/Who will pay my credit card bills?/Who will pay for my mistakes?”

The arguments are strongly weighted against the singer throwing himself off the mountain. But somehow he still sounds undecided.

It’s hard to find rock ’n’ roll this tough, this serious any more.


Also recommended:

*Killers and Stars by Patterson Hood. The Dirty South is a main-course album. But this one’s a nice appetizer. It’s a low-fi, home-recorded collection of 11 original songs and one cover (Tom T. Hall’s “Pay No Attention to Alice”) by the DBT singer. According to Hood’s liner notes, it was recorded when “I had just gotten divorced, was fighting with the band … and a good number of my friends. I was feeling pretty freaked out and isolated ...”

These are prime conditions for some twisted songwriting. And indeed there are some fine disturbing songs here. “The Assassin,” is the strange tale of a killer who’s lost his taste for his art. “Belinda Carlisle Diet” is a bluesy rage about “cocaine and milkshakes.”

But the most memorable tune is “Fire” a metaphor of a doomed love. Is it really about a house fire? If so, was it an act of arson by the singer?

While it’s interesting to hear these songs at an early stage, the above listed ones and several others leave me wanting to hear the full Drive-By Trucker treatment.

Meet the Truckers: No, not literally. But you can get a lot more familiar with their music Friday night on The Santa Fe Opry, KSFR, 90.7 F.M. Hear songs from The Dirty South and previous Drive By Truckers albums. Opry starts at 10 p.m., the Truckers set right after 11 pm.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 26, 2004

Texas millionaire home-builder Bob Perry isn't just interested in John Kerry's military career. Perry also has used his checkbook to become involved in New Mexico politics.

Perry has been in the national news for being the major contributor to the controversial Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In case you've been living in a distant dimension the past week or two, that's the Vietnam veterans group who have dominated much of the nation's political discussion due to their television ads and a book claiming the Democratic presidential candidate lied about his Vietnam experiences.

The New York Times and other publications have identified Perry as a close friend of President Bush's political director, Karl Rove, and a past contributor to Bush. Perry, a Houston resident, donated $200,000 to the anti-Kerry veterans.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Perry also has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to various conservative and Republican political action committees, such as U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Majority Issues Fund; former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey's Majority Leader's Fund; The Club for Growth, an influential PAC dedicated to lower taxes and smaller government; and the College Republican National Committee.

According to an Aug. 8 story in the Los Angeles Times, Perry has donated more than $1 million to the Texas Republican Party and at least $200,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a tort-reform advocacy group.

Perry also has jumped into New Mexico politics. In 2002, he was the biggest individual contributor to Republican gubernatorial candidate John Sanchez. According to the Washington D.C.-based Institute on Money in State Politics, Perry gave the Sanchez campaign $183,000, while Perry's wife Doylene gave another $55,000.

Combined, that's more than what the Perry family gave the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

In May the Associated Press reported that Bob Perry was the top contributor to the Republican Party of New Mexico for that reporting period. Sometime between late 2003 and May he gave the party $37,500.

Contacted Wednesday, Sanchez, who is regional director of the Bush-Cheney campaign, said he wasn't aware that Perry was main contributor to the Swift Boat group.

"He was a good supporter of ours," Sanchez said. "I never met him (face-to-face) but I talked to him on the phone."

Sanchez took the official party line on the Swift Boat controversy: "That's an individual group entirely separate from the campaign."

Governor of where? Carmen Villa Prezelski, an Arizona delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Boston last month, wrote a column in the Tucson Citizen recently in which she expressed some bemused frustration at people mixing up her state with ours.

"Not being one to let my state take a back seat, I always corrected them, and believe me, they kept me busy, and New Mexico was especially prominent since its governor, Bill Richardson, was the chairman of the convention," she wrote.

Prezelski told of an encounter with a convention volunteer at Paul Revere Mall.

"'Geez,' he said, 'Did you get a load of that paint job on the RV that your governor has been riding around in?'

"Well, of course I had seen that RV. It was a sight to behold. It had a bright yellow background and had all sorts of glorious Western scenes painted on it.

"'Oh that,' I said. 'That belongs to the governor of New Mexico.'"

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Wednesday the yellow RV wasn't actually the governor's. It belonged to the state Tourism Department, which was in Boston promoting the state (New Mexico, not Arizona) and is expected to be in New York next week for the Republican convention.

CLICK HERE

I didn't realize it until this morning but The New Mexican web site has a poll concerning my brother, Jack Clift and the controversy he stirred when he played on The Plaza last month.

Click here for original story.

Click here for the poll. (You'll also find links to Jack's music.)

Here's the poll questions:

Is Jack too dangerous for Santa Fe?

A. very dangerous! detain them immediately and indefinitely
B. keep these tunes under strict surveillance
C. general light monitoring of activity advised
D. approachable
E. friendly and inviting
F. certified Plaza-safe

Remember, your vote counts. If you don't vote you have no right to complain.

Chuck the Duck alerted me to this story about music in the presidential race. Our friend Ed Pettersen is quoted there.

The story, by Newhouse News Service writer Delia M. Rios begins with a discussion of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," which was played in Boston as the Democratic National Convention.

Funny thing is, a couple of weeks ago at President Bush's appearance, they played a marching band version of "This Land is Your Land" as the president was exiting. I couldn't resist bugging a couple of my Republican friends. "Did you know they're playing a song by a known communist?"

They looked at me like I was crazy.

Just in case anyone was planning to go to Marah's show at The Paramount tonight, be warned that the band had to cancel due to their van breaking down in Arizona.

Tell your friends.

Sunday, August 22, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Love Buzz by Nirvana
Never Say Never by Romeo Void
The Flame That Killed John Wayne by The Mekons
Smash It Up by The International Noise Conspiracy
There Is No Time by Lou Reed
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
I've Gotta Be me by Iggy Pop
Cecilia Ann by The Pixies

Pigeon Heart by Marah
The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth by P.J. Harvey
Gus the Polar Bear From Central Park by The Tragically Hip
Someone's Watching by X
Over the Border by Eric Burdon
Love Hates Me by Texas Terri Bomb
Dead Quote Olympics by The Hives
Black Rat by Big Mamma Thornton

The City Sleeps by MC 900 Foot Jesus
Karen Revisited by Sonic Youth
Muzzle of Bees by Wilco
Baby Elephant Safari by DJ Keri & DJ 43
That Chick's Too Young to Fry by Louis Jordan


The Majesty of Love by Jon Dee Graham
It's Your Birthday by American Music Club
Days of Wine and Booze by The Minus Five
It'll Never Be Over For Me by Los Lobos
The Alternative Route to Vulcan Street by Super Furry Animals
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, August 20, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Honky Tonk Girl by Rev. Horton Heat
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenburg
Fujiama Mama by Wanda Jackson
Flying Saucer Rock & Roll by Billy Lee Riley
Payday by Jesse Winchester
Payday Blues by Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks
I Threw It All Away by Elvis Costello
11 Months and 29 Days by Dave Alvin
Pass Me By by Mary McCaslin
The Star Spangled Banner by Betty Dylan

Ring of Fire by June Carter Cash
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight by Emmylou Harris
Weighted Down by Jay Farrar
Goddamn Lonely Love by The Drive By Truckers
Gold Dust Woman by Waylon Jennings
Busted by Peter Stampfel
Your Dice Won't Pass by Sally Dotson

Cowboys and Rodeos by The Buckarettes
Cowboy Hula by Nani Lim Yap
Ukelele Lady by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band
Hula Blues by Sol Hoopii
Rockahula Baby by Junior Brown
Hawaiian Roughrider by Leabert Lindsey
Yellow Roses by Ry Cooder
Hilo March by Roy Smeck
Sombrero Hula by The Buckarettes

Mike the Can Man by Joe West
What Are Their Names by David Crosby
Lotta Love by Neil Young
Love Has Brought Me To Despair by Berzilla Wailin
Sittin on Top of the World by Doc Watson
Queen Of The Silver Dollar by Emmylou Harris
Dance All Night by the Highwoods String Band
Country Blues by Doc Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 20, 2004

A national anti-Ralph Nader, pro-Democrat group is buying ads on New Mexico television stations criticizing the independent presidential candidate for accepting help from Republicans.

David Jones, president of Washington, D.C.-based TheNaderFactor.com, said Thursday that his group is purchasing time for 60-second television ads in New Mexico as well as Wisconsin. The group also will be advertising in newspapers in Santa Fe and Madison, Wis.

Both states are considered “battleground” states for the general election.

“Something strange is happening in American politics,” the commercial says. “George Bush’s rightwing Republicans are now helping Ralph Nader ... Nader working with Republicans. Who knows? Maybe Republicans and Nader know something we don’t.”

The ad mentions New Mexico among seven states where Republicans allegedly are helping Nader.

Jones pointed out that New Mexico and Wisconsin have a Sept. 7 deadline for petitions to get Nader on the general-election ballot. Nader must get more than 14,000 petition signatures to get on the state’s ballot.

The television spots will begin running Tuesday in both states, Jones said. He said he didn’t know how much the group was spending in New Mexico.

“This is one of the strangest alliances in modern politics,” Jones said of Nader and the Republicans who are helping his effort. “In your state, there’s a Republican state senator who is distributing Nader petitions.”

Jones was referring to Sen. Rod Adair of Roswell, who last week attached downloadable Nader petitions to the newsletter he sent to his email list of nearly 24,000.

“We happen to believe that every candidate — right or left of center — should be on the ballot,” Adair wrote last week.

He agreed that having Nader on the ballot would hurt Democrat John Kerry, but argued that other minor parties, such as the Libertarian Party, take votes away from Republicans.

“How pathetic,” said Carol Miller, Nader’s New Mexico coordinator, when told about the anti-Nader spots. “This may help us. People are getting turned off by the Democrats’ efforts to keep Nader off the ballot.”

Jones said his group is made up of veterans from the campaigns of several former Democratic presidential contenders including John Edwards, now the party’s vice-presidential candidate; Howard Dean; and Wesley Clark. Jones said he worked in Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt’s presidential campaign.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 20, 2004

Four years ago, the band Marah, then under the tutelage of Steve Earle, released Kids in Philly, an exhilarating, exuberant shout of freedom. There were Van Morrisonish soul shuffles, Bruce Springsteenlike tales of street characters, in a fresh sound colored by ringing Mummers banjos.

The best song on the album was “Round Eye Blues,” a frightning account of the Viet Nam in which the rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack of the war takes on new portentous dimensions in the midst of a firefight. “I was shakin’ like Little Richard/I was sweatin’ like old James Brown …”

But the Philly kids’ follow-up, Float Away with the Friday Night Gods was an overproduced, empty sounding disappointment. A big blast of nothing.

It’s one thing for musicians to want to experiment and want their art to grow. It’s another thing to lose touch with who they are.

But now Marah has returned with 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, a new record that returns to the rootsy, soul-driven sound that made their fans love them in the first place.

And yes, there’s even banjos on the song “Pigeon Heart.” (not bluegrass banjo, but brightly strummed Mummers style, adapted from the music from Philadelphia’s Mummers Day Parade.)

Marah has been compared with Springsteen, Morrison, Tom Petty, fellow Phillyite Phil Spector among others. I hear some echoes of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker in Marah’s sound too, especially on the new album. Listen to the doo-wop drenched “Pizzaria” (a rare lead vocal from Serge) and the love ballad “Sure Thing.”

20,000 Streets starts off with a relatively slow reflective tune, “East,” with a prominent flute and harmonica playing off the guitars. It fades into a classic early Mercury Revish cacophony, including the sound of one of those obnoxious auto burglary alarms that serves as a bridge into the second song “Freedom Park.”

This tune is the real beginning of the album. It’s a high-charged soul sing-along that hijacks Little Anthony & The Imperials’ “Shimmy, Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop” to celebrate a concrete covered place near the airport that used to be a park, now full of broken glass and bittersweet memories.

The most unforgettable character on 20,000 Streets is the transvestite prostitute in “Feather Boa” who hates his own manhood and foresees a violent end to his sad life.

“Standing on the corner/Alone with the wind/Cocaine in his system/And it’s colder than it’s ever been.”

But the most touching story on the album is found in the song “Soda,” the tale of a doomed interracial romance. The most heartbreaking part of the song isn’t the hateful death of the main character. It’s the verse where he explains, “They call me `Soda’ because when I was a baby/My mother was so young/That soda was all she gave me/ It made me sickly, that’s why I shake.”

When Marah’s at its best, they can make you shake in more ways than one.


Marah will play The Paramount, 331 Sandoval St., 10 p.m. Monday, Aug. 23. Tickets are $5.00

Also Recommended:
The Great Battle by Jon Dee Graham. Graham is known for the growl in his voice. But Graham’s vocals are full of a world-weary resignation. It’s as if he knows he won’t get the girl, won’t come out on top, and in general, that he stands a good chance of messing everything up.

And even so, this former bandmate of Alejandro Escovedo (in the long departed True Believers) can moan a perfectly beautiful tune about “The Majesty of Love” without a hint of irony.

At first I was somewhat disappointed that this album doesn’t have any rockers half as fierce as “Laredo (Small Dark Something)” from his previous album Hooray For the Moon. And nothing as off the wall as his inspired cover of “Volver” from that album.

Indeed, Battle, produced by guitar whiz and Dylan sideman Charlie Sextron, is just a slower, more somber album. And while it might not knock you in the head, it will claw for your gut.

One of the most memorable songs here, “Robot Moving” is a slow burner in which the singer marvels about the fact he’s still waking up in the morning. “I always swore I’d never use the word `irony’ in a song,” he moans (after he’s already used the word in all the preceding verses) “ ’ course the irony is I never meant to live so long.”

Indeed, coping with the dismal dregs of middle-age is an ongoing thread through many songs here. On “Something to Look Forward To,” Graham sings about going home from work, watching cop shows on t.v. (“watch the poor people fight”) and waking up the next morning wearing last night’s clothes. “It was supposed to be different now,” he sings.

But the narrator of these tunes can wax optimistic without sounding like Little Mary Sunshine. “You give me something to look forward to,” he sings to a woman who apparently is willing to put up with a guy who passes out in front of the tube watching cop shows.

And in the album closer, “World So Full,” a sweet ballad with a melody that suggests gospel (and a steel guitar part that suggests jazz), Graham, “I know it’s hard, but I know it’s sweet/complicated and incomplete/But I am in love, I’m still in love/with a world so full.”

As always, Graham’s choice of covers is interesting and he makes the songs his own.

There’s a fast-paced rendition of Neil Young’s “Harvest” that almost makes you wish Neil would have done it this way instead of the plodding faux-country style of the original.

Graham gives the old gospel tune “Lonesome Valley” a new blues-drenched melody. But more important, he give it his raspy roar. He turns it into a proud declaration for loners and iconoclasts everywhere.

I just found out from my pal Erik Ness that The Desperados, the Las Cruces band that backed me up on my "Farm Bureau sessions" a few years ago, truly are the kings of western swing.

The band won the Academy of Western Artists' award for Western Swing Duo/Group of the year last month in Fort Worth. The desperado beat out Asleep at the Wheel, Hot Club of Cowtown, two bands calling themselves The Texas Playboys and others.

Check out their latest CD Roots and Branches.

About five years ago, Erik recorded me singing two songs in the basement of the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau. The bureau had just moved into its present location. We recorded at the old, abandoned building. Erik later took the tapes to a proper recording studio and added tracks by The Desparados. Check out the song Parallel World on this page.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 18, 2004

Populist agitator, author and radio personality Jim Hightower backed Ralph Nader for president four years ago. But on Wednesday he told a Santa Fe audience that he's supporting Democrat John Kerry this year.

"Ralph Nader is a longtime personal friend of mine," Hightower said. "I love the man. But I do not support him for president."

Referring to the Bush administration, Hightower said, "These people are not only nuts, they're dangerous. We've got to unite and get him out."

Hightower, wearing his trademark straw cowboy hat, spoke before about 200 people at a luncheon at the Eldorado Hotel. The event was sponsored by KSFR, Santa Fe Public Radio.

A former Texas state commissioner of agriculture, Hightower is known for his down-home style. He didn't disappoint his audience Wednesday as he sprinkled his speech with phrases like, "This makes me happier than a hog in a fresh wallow," and wisdom such as "Even a dead fish can go with the flow."

The luncheon doubled as a book-signing for Hightower, who sold and autographed several copies of his latest work, Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush.

Referring to himself as "an itinerant book hustler," Hightower said his 57-city book tour is designed to "spread the populist gospel. I want to raise some issues, raise some hope and raise some hell along the way."

Said Hightower, "You can fight the gods and still have fun."

Despite his decision not to support Nader this year, Hightower was critical of efforts by some Democrats to curtail Nader's campaign.Democrats in several states have challenged the Nader organization's attempts to get a place on the ballot.

In New Mexico, Democrats have been vocal in pointing out that the Nader campaign hired a Republican-owned organization to gather petition signatures. Nader must have more than 14,000 signatures by Sept. 7 to get on the ballot in New Mexico.

"Efforts by Democrats - some Democrats - to assail the Nader campaign are destructive," Hightower said. "Don't worry about Ralph. Push ahead."

Even though Hightower wants Kerry to win in November, he said "Beating Bush is a progressive victory. It's an essential step, but it just gets us back to square one. We're going to have to be in the face of the Kerry Edwards administration. Our fight is not for Kerry. Our fight is to take back this nation."

He described Kerry as "the lesser of two elites." But he added, "Franklin Roosevelt was an elite. It's certainly possible to rise above your class.

"Kerry will only be as good as we make him," Hightower said. "We'll cheer at his inauguration, but the next day we'll be across the street at LaFayette Park saying, 'Where's that health care for everyone?' "

Hightower said it's up to citizens to take action in their own communities and not wait for leaders to do it for them.

"It's no longer enough to be progressive. We've got to be aggressive," he said. "The powers that be are regressive. They're stealing faster than a hog eats supper."

In his travels, Hightower said, "I see a very different America than the one they show you in the media. People are not cowering in fear, not marching in lockstep with the commander in chief and not rolling over for corporate interests."

He praised Santa Fe for being one of several cities to pass its own Living Wage Ordinance instead of waiting for the federal government to raise the minimum wage by $1.

He also praised communities that have "stood up to Wal-Mart" by thwarting the giant discount store's plans for new stores.

"People are asking the right question - 'Whose town is it?' " Hightower said.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 19, 2004

It used to be that Gov. Bill Richardson had to give reporters jobs in his administration before they started singing the governor's praises in public.

But after last week, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

As reported by The Albuquerque Tribune, three Albuquerque television news anchors gave introductions for Richardson at the recent Border Governors Conference, reading scripts written by the governor's office.

And apparently one of them was downright sparkling.

Monica Armenta of KOB-Channel 4 reportedly credited Richardson for "one of the most dramatic economic turnarounds in U.S. history" and said he "has done more for New Mexico in two legislative sessions than any previous governor accomplished in decades."

Richardson, according to the account, referred to Armenta as "the Katie Couric of New Mexico."

That hurts.

I thought I was the Katie Couric of New Mexico.

If nothing else, the governor's cozy relationship with the TV news folk has united people with disparate views.

In an e-mail newsletter, state Republican chairman Alan Weh referred to the introductions: "Unfortunately we encounter the media's liberal bias on an almost daily basis; here is a blatant example we wanted to share ..."

Weh gave the phone numbers of the two stations, urging readers to call " if you think that three news anchors subjectively stumping for Governor Richardson is biased or inappropriate ..."

Meanwhile, on the left, Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra, a publication of the New York-based organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, agreed that such an introduction was inappropriate.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Naureckas said, "News anchors are not expected to be entangled with the governor's office. Reading P.R. handouts from the governor's office is entanglement."

Naureckas added, "A lot of people have serious doubts that news media is as impartial as it claims to be. Stories like this confirm those suspicions."

But two of the three anchors said Wednesday their roles in the introductions were significantly less than Armenta's. Armenta couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

Nelson Martinez, also of KOB, said all he did was say the names of the various governors and where they were from. The only compliments he gave were directed to an old table at the conference on loan from the Palace of the Governors.

"My script was very cut and dry," Martinez said. He said he wouldn't have said the same things his colleague did. "I know where the line is," Martinez said.

Cynthia Izaguirre of KOAT Channel 7 said, "to be lumped in with remarks by another anchor is libel."

The only thing she said about Richardson was that he was "a very busy man," Izaguirre said. "The governor and I have had some tough interviews."

Who's the brain?: An e-mail advertising the debut of a new anti-Bush film Bush's Brain - a critical profile of political adviser Karl Rove - excitedly announced that the film would be showing in major cities later this month.

But the list makes me wonder how serious the folks in charge of this are about trying to affect the election.

Of the 19 cities listed, nine are in California - one of the bluest of the blue states by virtual every estimation - while four are in Texas, where George W. Bush would have to forget the Alamo to come even close to losing. The other cities include the Democratic strongholds of New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Nothing in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, or New Mexico.

Somehow, I don't think Karl would have done it this way.

Sunday, August 15, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Want to See You Bellydance by The Red Elvises
You Broke My Mood Ring by Root Boy Slim & His Sex Change Band
Everybody's Gonna Be Happy by The Kinks
Abra Cadavaer by The Hives
Greasy Heart by The Jefferson Airplane
Gypsy Eyes by Jimi Hendrix
Jenny I Read by Concrete Blonde
Uncomplicated by Los Lobos

Monsters of the Id by Mose Allison
Wake Up Sally by Stan Ridgway
For A Thousand Mothers by Jethro Tull
Flowers and Beads by Iron Butterfly
The Letter by P.J. Harvey
The Gnome by Pink Floyd
Let's See Action by The Who

Isley Brothers Set
Shout
Hello I'ts Me
I Turned You On
Fight the Power
Ohio/Machine Gun

I Know You Are There by The Handsome Family
About To Begin by Robin Trower
Indian Summer by The Doors
Kiss From an Old Flame by Mercury Rev
Melt Away by Brian Wilson
Rivendell by Rush
Port of Amsterdam by David Bowie
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, August 13, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Shakin' the Blues by Gail Davies & Robbie Fulks
The Boys From Alabama by Drive-By Truckers
New Fashioned Imperialist by Jason Ringenberg
King of Fools by Billy Joe Shaver
Pigeon Heart by Marah
Union Square by Eric Ambel
Innocent When You Dream by Elvis Costello
They Call The Wind Mariah by The Buckerettes

Sputnik 57 by Jon Langford
Blinding Sheets of Rain by The Old 97s
Robot Moving by Jon Dee Graham
Madman by Chrissy Flatt
Stranger in the Mirror by Jody Reynolds & Bobbie Gentry
Are You Still My Girl? by Joe West
Been a While by ThaMuseMeant
On the Sea of Galilee by Emmylou Harris & The Peasall Sisters
The Bum Hotel by Uncle Dave Macon

Crow Hollow Blues by Stan Ridgway
My Sister's Tiny Hands by The Handsome Family
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
Richland Woman Blues by Maria Muldaur
Uncle Smoochface by Michael Hurley
New White House Blues by Peter Stampfel & The Bottle Caps
Shake That Thing by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
I Love Onions by Susan Christie

Beautiful Dreamer by Raul Malo
Wild Irish Rose by George Jones
Foot of the Bed by Tres Chicas
Green Green Rocky Road by Dave Van Ronk
Single Girl by 16 Horsepower
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Jacob's Ladder by Greg Brown
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 13, 2004


Although backers of Ralph Nader’s bid to get on the New Mexico ballot say they’re confident he’ll make it, a prominent conservative Republican is trying to help make sure Nader can overcome Democratic efforts to block him.

State Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, on Thursday asked the nearly 24,000 recipients of his e-mail newsletter to sign petitions seeking a ballot slot for Nader, who is running as an independent presidential candidate.

“We happen to believe that every candidate — right or left of center — should be on the ballot,” Adair wrote, attaching a download of the official Nader petition for his readers to sign and distribute.

The national Democratic Party, fearing Nader will be a spoiler for their presidential candidate in a close race with incumbent Republican George Bush, has lined up an army of volunteers in 20 states to fight Nader’s ballot efforts by challenging the validity of petition signatures.

Nader supporters abandoned their effort to get him on the ballot in Arizona after Democrats challenged thousands of petition signatures there. In New Mexico, the Nader campaign has to gather more than 14,527 valid signatures by Sept. 7 to force election officials to list his name among the presidential choices.

Nader’s New Mexico coordinator, Carol Miller, said Thursday she is responsible for about 100 volunteers who have been traveling the state gathering petition signatures.

“We got about 100 signatures at the recent Ani DiFranco concert (in Santa Fe),” she said. Referring to the left-wing singer’s fans, Miller said, “I don’t think there were many Republicans in that crowd.”

Adair said Thursday that he decided to distribute the petitions because he didn’t like the way television news reports were handling stories of Republicans helping Nader get on the ballot.

“If the Republicans were trying to keep the Libertarians off the ballot,” he said, “we’d get fried.”

Adair said Nader’s presence helps the Bush ticket. But he said other parties, including the Libertarians, aid the Democratic ticket headed by John Kerry.

Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik has secured a spot on the New Mexico ballot.

Adair wrote in his e-mail that “the Republicans have never tried to block the Libertarian Party in New Mexico — and there is little doubt their votes in 2000 cost President Bush New Mexico’s five electoral votes.”

Libertarian candidate Harry Browne got just over 2,000 votes in New Mexico four years ago, when Bush lost to Al Gore by 366 votes.

State Democratic Chairman John Wertheim on Thursday said Adair’s mass e-mail “demonstrates conclusively that Ralph Nader’s effort to get on the ballot is not a legitimate effort. It’s an effort orchestrated by the Republican Party.”

Miller, Nader coordinator, said she believes state Democratic officials are following the advice of former U.S. Rep. Toby Moffett.

Moffett, a former ally of Nader's, told the New Mexico delegation to last month’s Democratic National Convention that polls show the best argument to use with potential Nader voters is: “Ralph is in bed with Republicans.”

As Published in the Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 13, 2004

To paraphrase one of his songs, Stan Ridgway is just a little too smart for a big dumb music industry.

Ridgway is known to weave elements of jazz, techno-pop, horror-movie music, blues and country into his sometimes dark, sometimes funny, sometimes outright lovely songs. The basic sound is rooted in the spooky, New-Wave, Wall of Voodoo rock from which he sprang and often colored by his trademark chromatic harmonica. But listing the ingredients hardly does justice to his sound. He’s hard pressed to describe it himself.

“As one plays more music and gets older, all music comes together,” Ridgway said in a phone interview last week. “Unless you’re into marketing.

“At this point in my life I just play the music I like,” he said. “But I should probably think of a clever little label for it. Metropolitan Rodeo? Neo-Neanderthal? Fuzzy Folk?”

Ridgway will play Santa Fe Saturday as part of a “broken elemental trio,” with his wife Pietra Wexstun (of the band Hecate’s Angels) on keyboards and Rick King on guitar and slide.

Twenty-plus years after a fling with national fame when his old band Wall of Voodoo’s pioneering music video became an early staple of MTV, Ridgway is still best known as the guy who sang “Mexican Radio.”

One recent article about Ridgway called “Mexican Radio” an “albatross” around the singer’s neck, claiming the artist is burdened by the song‘s success.

“Music is all about hits for some people,” he said. “I read an interview with Randy Newman where someone asked him what he’d be remembered for. He said `Short People.’ Sure, people who like him know Randy Newman’s got all sorts of great songs. But most people will remember him for `Short People’ because that was the hit.”

He still performs his MTV hit. “But we do it in a different way,” he said without elaborating.

But even back in the New Wave era, Ridgway already was showing big hints of his deeper talents. On Wall of Voodoo’s Call of The West, the album containing “Mexican Radio,” there was a low-key little heartbreaker called “Lost Weekend,” a sad dialogue between a couple who’s just lost everything they had in Las Vegas. You couldn’t pogo to it, and it never got its own video, but “Lost Weekend” was a punch in the gut.

The truth is, he ought to be famous for his impressive, iconoclastic musical output since the Wall of Voodoo came tumbling down -- seven albums of original music under his own name, another one of big-band standards and show tunes, one under the name of Drywall (he swears a follow-up to Drywall‘s Work the Dumb Oracle is just around the corner), an album of otherworldly instrumentals in collaboration with his wife, a bunch of live albums available only on the internet, an out-of-print compilation of his soundtrack music … and I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t a few so obscure even I haven’t heard of.

But even more that his unique brew of musical styles and influences, Ridgway’s greatest strength is his story-telling. He sings of losers, loners, small-time crooks, drifters, screw-ups and the women they love. He tells tales of bartenders suffering mid-life crisises, low-level smugglers, street vendors who sell newspapers, lonely kids listening to train whistles, old women too scared to leave their homes.

Not to mention “fuzzy folk” ballads honoring Johnny Cash, CIA godfather “Wild” Bill Donovan and a ghostly Marine named “Camouflage.”

Sometimes Ridgway’s lyrics tell elaborate stories. Sometimes they sound like conversations he might have overheard at a bus station.

Ridgway said he likes to write about characters on society’s margins. “Those are the stories worth telling in a song,” he said. “When you’re listening to music, you really are a solitary listener, even if you’re with other people. We’re all stuck in our own skins and you can’t get out. We’re encased in this skin and bones. When you play a song, it sings directly to your soul.

“I’m always drawn to this character,” he continued. “He’s got bits of me and people I know.”

Of some of the recurring themes in his songs -- the drifter arriving in a strange new town, the man on the highway, running from the law -- Ridgway said, “Sometimes my songs are obsessions. I start writing it and I find myself saying `Here I go again.’ “

Ridgway would be rich if he had a buck for every story about him that compared him with Los Angeles detective writer Raymond Chandler. That probably started because the title song of his first solo album, The Big Heat was about a private eye.

“I’m not arguing about being compared with Raymond Chandler,” he said. “It’s better than being called the Pinky Lee of Rock, or, as one reviewer called me, `The Porky Pig of Rock ‘n’ Roll.’ That was something to do with my voice.”

Ah yes, the Ridgway voice, an acquired taste to be sure. The All Music Guide describes it as an “unforgettable adenoidal vocal delivery that makes him sound like a low-level wise guy in one of those old Warner Bros. gangster films of the '30s.”

“The first time I heard my own voice it was just horrible,” Ridgway said. “I thought, `What a creep! What a jerk!’ “

Ridgway’s latest album, Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads & Fugitive Songs, has backwoods stompers, a sad cocktail jazz ballad called “Our Manhattan Moment,” a Civil War love song, a couple of songs that really are about fugitives and a sinister-sounding cover of an obscure Mose Allison tune (“Monsters of the Id“).

Ridgway was happy when he learned that Allison had performed “Monsters” last month at his Santa Fe concert. He said he sent Allison’s son a copy of the cover. “He played it for his dad right before Christmas,” Ridgway said. Allison’s song told Ridgway Allison’s reaction was “Stan got it right.”

Then there’s “Afghan/Forklift,” which deals with a warehouse worker who stumbles on to a terrible secret that compels him to unsuccessfully attempt to warn the president.

But like Bobbie Gentry holding on telling anyone what Billy Joe McAllister threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, Ridgway demurs when asked what was in those mysterious crates bound for Afghanistan.

“All I can say is that it was once a much longer song,” he said. “I chopped it up and lost some verses.”

Ridgway, 50, apparently has had his sense of drama ever since he was a kid growing up Barstow, Calif.

Even before he got involved with rock ‘n’ roll, he said, he’d spend hours producing homemade “radio shows” with his brother and making 8mm movies of plastic models of werewolves being set on fire.

“We’d do anything having to do with ghost stories, myths, monsters,” Ridgway said. “I have a theory why people our age liked those Universal monsters so much -- Frankenstein, The Wolfman. … Those monsters were like overgrown children. They weren’t normal. They were looking for friends and trying to do the good thing, but they’d always make a big mistake and got the whole populace to rise up against them. Just like being a teenager.”

When: 8 p.m. Saturday Aug. 14
Where: The Paramount Lounge & Nightclub, 331 Sandoval St.
How much: Tickets are $15 at CD Cafe, The Candyman, Bar B (after 5:00 p.m.), the Lensic Box office (988-1234) and online at Tickets.com.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 13, 2004

For 40 years or so the songs of The Isley Brothers have popped up unexpectedly on the soundtrack of the collective consciousness of America.

The highlights of the Isleys’ lengthy career can be found on the new two-disc collection The Essential Isley Brothers.

Back in 1958 there was that primal "Shout," in which the three oldest brothers Ronald, O’Kelly and Rudolph followed the Ray Charles gospel/soul road to a joyful destination.

A few years later during one of those teen dance craze phases, they reemerged with "Twist and Shout," inspiring a certain British quartet whose later version became more famous.

There was a brief fling with Motown, producing a minor hit "This Old Heart of Mine," that sounds a whole lot like the Four Tops. There was a period where they had a young guitarist sideman who would later become famous as Jimi Hendrix.

Then in the late ‘60s The Isleys reemerged with a new crop of younger brothers, guitarist Ernie and bassist Marvin and Isley in-law Chris Jasper on keyboards.

With the cool and funky "It’s Your Thing," the group showed that they weren’t some nostalgia act.

By the mid ‘70s the Isleys had completely reinvented themselves as the funkiest of the funky. Their album covers and publicity photos of that era show that they were right up there with Parliament and Earth, Wind & Fire in the wild multi-color Afrosheen, Superfly/Superpimp/Superhero fashion stratosphere.

But more importantly their music also was in the same league as the funksters whose music remains timeless.

With 1973‘s "Who’s That Lady," Ernie Isley established himself as a guitarist for the ages.

And if you think Public Enemy came up with the concept of "Fight the Power," think again. The brothers’ 2-part, 5-minute gurgling soul workout from 1975 was an unusual call-to-arms during the relatively sedate Gerald Ford era. Even though the lyrics of the song protest people who complain about Ronald playing his music too loud, the rebelliousness is refreshing.

The above listed tunes are on The Essential Isley Brothers, as is the relatively obscure -- an, actualy inconsequential -- "Move Over and Let Me Dance," an early ‘60s track featuring Hendrix on guitar.)

There are plenty of lesser-known Isley cuts here. "Keep On Doin’ " and, especially "Freedom," both from 1969, are great examples of the Isleys transforming from the soul shouters of their earliest incarnation to the Funkytown champs of their later years.

And one thing I’ve always loved about the Isley Brothers is their incredible knack of taking lightweight pop and turning it into burning soul. Carol King’s "Brother Brother" and Seals & Crofts’ "Summer Breeze," are prime examples here.
As strong as the music is on this collection, I’ve still got a few quibbles with the compilation.

First of all, there’s the whole issue of rampant repackaging that grips the music industry. The mighty Sony Empire released a fine 3-disc Isley retrospective It’s Your Thing just a few years ago. I guess the new Essential package is for the benefit of those who can afford a two-disc set but can’t afford a three-disc set.

Secondly, this collection is extremely skimpy on early Isley material. There’s just a handful of pre-1969 songs. While it’s certainly true that the funky early ‘70s were the Isley Brothers’ greatest period, more from their formative years would have given more context. (It also would have helped had the selections been in at least a rough chronological order.)

And finally, from the you-can’t-please-everyone department, there are a few missed gems that should have been in this collection.

An obvious omission is the Isleys’ cover of Curtis Mayfield’s "I’m So Proud," which is one of their most gorgeous tunes.

And an obscurity that I’d have loved to have seen here is the group’s cover of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young’s "Ohio," the song about the Kent State killings, which appeared on the Isleys‘ 1971 Givin‘ It Back, done as a 9-minute medley with Hendrix‘s "Machine Gun."

At the time they were criticized because they deviated from the original opening line, "Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming," instead singing "Tin soldiers with guns they’re coming."

It’s not clear why they changed it. Some assumed they didn’t want to offend Republican Isley fans, but if that was the case, why do that song in the first place?
Perhaps they wanted to make the song more timeless. Even without the image of Dick Nixon, the Isley version of Ohio is a bone-chiller. While Neil Young captured the rage and anger in the original, the Isleys captured the fear of watching a government violently turn against its own people.

Also Recommended:

*Live It Up by The Isley Brothers. Two of the eight tracks of this recently re-released 1974 record appear on The Essential Isley Brothers.

But this one’s worth it if only for their gut-wrenching, Isaac Hayes-inspired cover of Todd Rundgren’s signature song "Hello, It’s Me."

Not only that, there’s a bonus cut -- a version of the title song as performed on The Dinah Shore Show in 1974. Yes, the Isleys in the kitchen with Dinah. When the hostess proclaims, "I really felt that!" at the end, you know it had to be true.

Hear some Isleys this week on Terrell’s Sound World, 10 p.m. Sunday on KSFR, 90.7 FM -- now web casting on http://www.ksfr.org/. And don’t forget The Santa Fe Opry -- same time, same station Friday.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 12, 2004

At the seemingly neverending campaign appearances in New Mexico by the national candidates, event organizers for both major political parties have made a sharp separation between the national and local press.

There are separate seating areas (although at Wednesday’s Albuquerque visit by George Bush, Dan Balz of The Washington Post sat with the local yokels). Sometimes there are separate entrances.

At last month’s rally for John Kerry and John Edwards at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, New Mexico reporters were kept away from a post-speech food spread for reporters traveling with the national ticket.

At Bush’s Albuquerque campaign event at Eclipse Aviation, however, the division went even further.

When this writer stepped out of the building to use the restroom, there was a friendly Bush volunteer assigned to escort people to the facilities.

“Are you local press or national press?” she asked.

Yes, it’s true. Separate-but-equal portable toilets for the local and national press.

Attempts to get an explanation from the Bush campaign about the reason for separate toilets were not successful.

Presidential speeds: The next time there’s a complaint about Gov. Bill Richardson speeding on the state’s streets and highways, Richardson can say he only was acting “presidential.”

According to a White House press pool reporter, quoted in the Washington Times’ online Insider section, an “uneventful motorcade to the airport” with President Bush last Sunday in Kennebunkport, Maine, turned out to be a pretty wild ride.

The reporter, Edwin Chen of the Los Angeles Times, wrote that “at various points along the way, the presidential motorcade traveled at speeds that exceeded 75 mph, according to the speedometer. And this was mostly on a narrow, curving, and sometimes hilly two-lane road — sans sidewalk. More than once, we could hear tires squealing.”

Chen continued, “Adding to the thrill of the chase were the occasional clusters of people — including children — obviously out to catch a fleeting glimpse of (Bush). Among them, at one point, were more than a dozen seniors, in wheelchairs.”

Chen wrote that people in the press vehicle clocked the van’s speed at various points at 50 mph (in a 25 mph zone), 60 mph (in a 35 mph zone) and above 75 mph (in a 45 mph zone.) “The white-knuckles ride lasted about 25 minutes,” Chen reported.

According to The Washington Times account, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the reason for the high speeds was “to minimize the motorcade’s inconvenience to the local residents.”

Unlike Richardson’s spokesmen, the White House didn’t say the speeding was done for security’s sake.

American Indians for Kerry:

About the time that Kerry and Edwards were speaking Sunday at the 83rd annual Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Pow Wow in Gallup, their campaign released a list of 39 American Indian leaders who have endorsed the Democratic ticket.

Among them are three New Mexicans, including Santa Fe lawyer — and former acting state Democratic Party chairman — David Gomez, a member of Taos Pueblo.

The other two listed by the Kerry campaign are LaDonna Harris, president of Americans for Indian Opportunity and a member of the Comanche Tribe who lives at Santa Ana Pueblo, and her daughter Laura Harris, executive director of Americans for Indian Opportunity. Laura Harris also is daughter of former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris.

My story on the Kiwanis Club vote last night to allow Katy Lilienthal to assume the role of Fire Dancer at the burning of Zozobra this year -- contrary to the announcement by the club last week -- somehow didn't make it onto The New Mexican's new improved web site this morning.

(NOTE: Since posting this earlier this morning, the New Mexican web site guru has told me that the story will be posted on the site. But I'll keep this here anyway.)



As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 11, 2004

Despite an announcement last week to the contrary, a divided Santa Fe Kiwanis Club voted Tuesday to allow Katy Lilienthal -- daughter of longtime Fire Dancer James “Chip” Lilienthal -- to put the torch to Zozobra this year.

At the end of a sometimes heated, sometimes emotional three-hour meeting, the organization voted to keep the Fire Dancer in the Lilienthal family this year, although next year Kiwanis could choose another dancer.

“I’m overwhelmed, overjoyed,” Katy Lilienthal told a reporter after the organization’s 16-11 vote to accept her as her father’s successor. “I just want to put my best foot forward and be positive.”

Last week the club -- which has the rights to the annual pre-Fiesta event, which attracts tens of thousands of revelers to Fort Marcy Ballpark -- announced that Helene Luna would be Fire Dancer.

Luna for the past eight years has performed the role of “Gloom Queen,” who dances before the Fire Dancer appears in the pageant.

However, Downtown Santa Fe Kiwanis Foundation board members said Tuesday that the board never actually voted to give the position to Luna. A press release sent to local papers last week was wrong, several board members said.

The announcement that Luna had gotten the job angered Chip Lilienthal, who told the crowd at last year’s burning that he was passing the torch -- literally -- to his daughter.

But in last week’s press release, Kiwanis lawyer Ray Sandoval said, “"We know that Chip Lilienthal made the announcement to the crowd last year that his daughter would be performing the dance this year but that wasn't something that was his to give away.”

Both Luna and Katy Lilienthal live in Denver.

An emotional Luna thanked club members who wanted her to be the Fire Dancer. “All I can say is that when I was called last week I was so honored. … I would love to be the Fire Dancer. I just want to be part of the show. This is teamwork.”

Ray Valdez, who has produced and directed Zozobra for 10 years, told the club that Luna deserved to be chosen for the Fire Dancer role.

“She’s been the understudy for eight years,” he said.

As a condition of her approval, Kiwanis required the Lilienthal family to give up any claim it might have on intellectual rights to the Fire Dancer.

At the outset of the meeting Bryan Biedscheid, an attorney for the Lilienthals, said there was a question whether Chip Lilienthal had some sort of intellectual rights to the Fire Dancer character, which was passed on to him in 1970 by dancer Jacques Cartier, who performed the dance for 30 years before.

Valdez told Lilienthal, “I’ve done this for 10 years and I never felt I owned anything about Zozobra. I do it for the good of the community and for the kids. But I always felt that you, Chip, feel you own this Fire Dance.”

Chip Lilienthal said he has never considered using the Fire Dancer role to benefit himself or his family, and never considered marketing Fire Dancer posters or merchandise. One member had raised that possibility.

Biedscheid also said that suing the Kiwanis Club was a possible option if Katy Lilienthal wasn’t allowed to dance.

This angered some organization members.

One man said “Chip’s holding the Kiwanis Club hostage,” while a woman accused Lilienthal of “blackmailing” the organization.

“A lawsuit would create more gloom than could be burned with Zozobra,” one member said.

Chip Lilienthal said he hadn’t considered suing Kiwanis. Katy Lilienthal also said there had been no discussion.

Both Chip Lilienthal and Kiwanis Foundation president John High told reporter they wanted to apologize to the community for “airing dirty laundry” in public in the Fire Dancer fight.

Some members said they didn’t see why the Fire Dancer role was so important because most people go see the event just to watch Zozobra, a 40-foot monstrous puppet, go up in flames.

“People have made a cult out of Zozobra,” one woman said. “I believe Will Shuster would be horrified. It was supposed to be just fun.”

The artist Shuster, who died in 1969, created Zozobra in 1924. He gave Kiwanis Club the rights to Kiwanis in the 1960s.

The Kiwanis Foundation Board will be responsible to come up with a set way to select -- and to fire -- the Fire Dancer. Some members suggested auditions for the role.

( Here's links to my previous stories on the recent Zozobra controversy:

August 5 2004

August 4, 2004 )

A BBC straw poll released yesterday showed the The Blues Brothers movie to have the most popular movie soundtrack in Great Britain.

Runner-ups included the soundtracks for Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Saturday Night Fever and Dirty Dancing.

I'm not a British straw voter, but here's some of my favorite soundtracks:

Repo Man: Some great mid 80s L.A. punk rock including "Agent Secreto" and "La Bamba" by The Plugz, "When the Shit Hits the Fan"
by The Circle Jerks, "TV Party Tonight" by Black Flag and a super bitchen title song by Iggy ("... pages from a comic book/A chicken hangin' from a hook/I didn't get fucked and I didn't get kissed/I got so fucking pissed ...)

House of 10,000 Corpses: compiled by Rob Zombie and mainly has his trademark ghoul metal, but also includes oddball cuts by Buck Owens, Slim Whitman and Helen "Betty Boop" Kane.

The Horse Whisperer: never saw the movie, but it's got Don Walser singing "Big Ball's in Cowtown," Iris DeMent doing Johnny Horton's "Whispering Pines" and the song that led to The Flatlanders' reunion, "The South Wind of Summer.

Wild at Heart: It's got "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaacs and "Baby Please Don't Go" by Them, but best of all is a long, weird Bizarro-
World David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti blues "Up in Flames" sung by Koko Taylor. Not to mention not one but two Elvis songs sung by future (short-time) Elvis son-in-law Nicolas Cage. (Speaking of Lynch and Badalamenti, I love both Twin Peaks soundtracks, the one for the TV show and the one for the movie, which wasn't nearly as bad as most critics said it was.)

And don't forget some obvious ones like, The Harder They Come, the album that introduced reggae to millions of people back in the '70s, O Brother Where Art Thou?, which was so important to the movie it should have been nominated for best supporting actor.

And then, of course, there's a whole sub-category -- soundtracks of concert films, some of my favorites being The Last Waltz, Only the Strong Survive, Down From The Mountain, The Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, Tom Waits' The Big Time, Laurie Anderson's Home of The Brave, and Sign O The Times by Prince.

Feel free to use the comments button to list some of your favorite soundtracks

For the second time this year, the mighty Kell Robertson (He's a poet, he's a picker, he's a prophet, he's a pendejo ...) has made it onto the cover of The Fringe, a Santa Fe monthly arts and culture rag.

This time it's not a profile but an account by Kell of his recent tour into Colorado and the Midwest. The title is Road Kell.

So pick it up. It's free. And while you're at it, the No Depression with my profile of Kell is still on the stands. It's the one with Dave Alvin on the cover.

Sunday, August 8, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Pachuco Mambo bu Don Tosti
Soho Meu by Maria Bethania & Gal Costa
If You Feel by The Jefferson Airplane
Secretarial by A.C. Newman
Louie Louie by Iggy Pop
Never Shut Up by Texas Terri Bomb
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
I Think I Smell a Rat by The White Stripes
Diabolic Scheme by The Hives

Love Gun by Rick James
Blow Your Top by The Soul Destroyers
Jockey Full of Bourbon by Los Lobos
My Radio Sure Sounds Good To Me by Graham Central Station
Hey Hey Louisa by Jon E. Edwards
Cold Blooded by Rick James

STAN RIDGWAY SET
(All Songs by SR except the first one)
Lost Weekend by Wall of Voodoo
Afghan/Forklift
Picasso's Tear
Bing Can't Walk
Monsters of the Id
Can't Stop the Show

Little Big Hair by Milo de Venus
Poison Ivy by The Von Bondies
Kick the Dog by The Three Johns
Hell is Chrome by Wilco
Fish of God by Bing
Bubbles in the Wine by Dex Dubious
Days by Elvis Costello
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, August 5, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Back From the Shadows Again by The Firesign Theatre
Ain't No God In Mexico by Waylon Jennings
Someone To Give My Love To by Al Anderson
Roll Another Number/Albuquerque by Neil Young
Tornadoes by The Drive-by Truckers
Freedom Park by Marah
It's Not Easy Being Green by Rex Hobart & His Misery Boys
Carve That Possum by Uncle Dave Macon

Ramblin' Round by Linda Ronstadt
Wheels by Emmylou Harris
The Nothing Song by Mary Lee's Corvette
I'll Probably Live by Kell Robertson
Alone and Forsaken by 16 Horsepower
Too Much Wine by the Handsome Family
So Doggone Lonesome by Johnny Cash
The Werewolf by Peter Stampfel

Rockin' Chair by Stan Ridgway
Pissin' In the Wind by Simon Stokes with Texas Terri
Someday Soon by Judy Collins
Don't Touch Me by Eleni Mandel
My Old Kentucky Home by John Prine
Les Fleurs by Beausoleil
Tit Monde by Taj Mahal

Those Memories of You by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris & Linda Rondstadt
Wild Bill Jones by Highwoods String Band
Second Cup of Coffee/Carefree Highway by Gordon Lightfoot
Pancho and Lefty by Michael Hurley
Traveling Man/Lonely Coming Down by Dolly Parton
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 6, 2004

O.K., I’ll admit that the first thing I checked on the cover of The Hives' new CD, Tyrannosaurus Hives, was whether there were any songs that have The Hives in the title. (Past examples of this little quirk are "The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime," "The Hives Declare Guerre Nucleaire," and "The Hives Introduce the Metric System in Time.")

There isn’t. And yes, lover of tradition that I am, I was a little disappointed.

But that’s the only disappointment I found on Tyrannosaurus Hives. Once again the Swedish demons have given us an album full of relentless guitar rock, charged with raw energy and lunatic rage tempered by subtle humor. If any band can claim the title of "The Ramones of the 21st Century," it’s got to be The Hives.

There are few hints of bold new musical directions on the new album. Everything you liked about Vedi Vidi Vicious -- fast, furious, short tunes (the longest here is 3 and a half minutes and four songs are two minutes or less) with simple but addictive guitar hooks and sing-along melodies.

Kicking off with "Abra Cadaver," singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist wails about someone trying to "stick a dead body inside of me."

"Love in Plaster" has a chorus that sounds like it wants to abrupt in to an apocalyptic Yardbirds rave-up. Meanwhile, I bet Joe Strummer listens to "Dead Quote Olympics" in Heaven and smiles proudly.

But my favorite cut here is the most untypical tune, the minor-key "Diabolic Scheme," which features Blaxploitation strings and a wonderfully obnoxious guitar solo. Best of all, the song is a showcase for why Almqvist is called "Howlin’."

Also Recommended:
*Pawn Shoppe Heart by The Von Bondies. Unfortunately this Detroit band is best known as the group whose singer (Jason Stollsteimer) was savagely pummeled in a barroom fight by former friend Jack White of The White Stripes.

But even though Stollsteimer came out a distant second in that highly publicized brawl, the music of the Von Bondies is in no way weak and puny.

The quartet is an equally mixed bi-gender band (with bassist Carrie Smith singing lead on one song, "Not That Social."

Like The Hives -- with whom they are frequently lumped in, along with he White Stripes, The Vines, The Strokes, etc. as part of the "garage band revival" -- the VBs play punchy, stripped-down guitar rock. They owe a lot to their mid-to-late ‘60s forbearers, as you can hear a little bit of The Count Five and (especially) Love (Arthur Lee’s band) in their sound.

And in the slow, slinky, blues-soaked "Maireed," fans of Country Joe & The Fish might even hear a little "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine." Along with The Hives’ "Diabolic Scheme," this might be the genesis of a new sub-genre: "garage noir."

*Your Lips, My Ass! By Texas Terri Bomb. I first became aware of Texas Terri a couple of years ago when she provided throaty background vocals on a couple of country (!) songs on Honky, an excellent, unjustifiably overlooked album by biker-rocker/menace-to-society Simon Stokes.

There’s not a trace country on this album, except in the rare spots where tattooed Terri’s Texas twang sneaks through her screams and ravings.

(The album starts and ends with "spoken word" tracks -- actually just (mercifully brief!) crazy ranting by Terri. "I hope my brain blows up!" she bellows at the start of the album. At the end she’s screaming "Turn it offffffffffff!!!!!! Turn it offfffffffff!!!!!"

In between is joyous punk rock, pure and simple, owing tremendous debts to Raw Power-era Stooges, early Joan Jet and the late Wendy O. Williams.

Highlights here include "Never Shut Up" (featuring Wayne Kramer of the MC5 on guitar), "Raunch City" and "I Got a Right," a high-velocity cover of an old Stooges song.

This is what punk sounded like back in the era long before anyone thought punk-rock would ever be used in automobile commercials. It might be a little too strong for those who like their punks to be a little cuddly and female singers to be a little vulnerable.

*Live in Chicago by The Three Johns. Even before The Waco Brothers, The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and all those other side bands, The Mekons’ Jon Langford always seemed to be involved in some extracurricular musical project. In the mid ‘80s there was The Three Johns.

Along with John Hyatt (note, not "Hiatt") and Philip John Brennan -- and a drum machine named Hugo -- Langford played a crazy sounding bastard-of-New-Wave sound with spaghetti-western guitar and loopy-goopy vocals.

The most ready comparison would be to The Fall. Like Mark E. Smith’s immortal ensemble, The Three Johns sound incomprehensible yet somehow dangerous, especially with the stinging guitar repeating riffs.

Most the songs are originals, such as the ominous "Death of the European" after which Langford announces the Johns actually are The Smiths. Similarly, at the end of "The Day Industry Decided To Stop," the band plays the melody of the Irish patriot song "The Foggy Dew," to which Langford drolly attributes to the then-popular Celt-rock band Big Country.

There’s a funny mutation of "Like a Virgin" (called "McDonna") and a version of T-Rex’s "20th Century Boy."

This album, never before released on CD, had been out of print for years. Langford recently re-released it on his new label, Buried Treasure.

Back in the Saddle: Steve Terrell returns to The Santa Fe Opry 10 p.m. Friday on KSFR, 90.7 FM -- now web casting. Also check out Terrell’s Sound World, this week featuring selections from the above-reviewed CDs -- same time, same station Sunday.

As Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 5, 2004

Organizers of the recent appearance of Vice President Dick Cheney in Rio Rancho came under fire this week for a controversial move to keep dissenters away — requiring people they didn’t know to sign pledges of support for the Bush-Cheney ticket.


But one Santa Fe Democrat who went to the rally at Rio Rancho Middle School said he didn’t have to sign any loyalty oath.

“Nobody made me sign anything,” said Santa Fe City Councilor David Pfeffer. “That was just to keep out the people from ACT.” He was referring to America Coming Together, the anti-Bush “527” group that has been active in door-to-door canvassing in the state.

Of course Pfeffer already was known to the Bush-Cheney camp. He made headlines a few weeks ago by publicly endorsing Bush.

State Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell — never at a loss of words — described the situation from his view in a recent e-mail newsletter:

“ ... paid protesters were trying to organize to disrupt the Cheney event and very likely vandalize Rio Rancho Middle School — with motor oil, obscene graffiti or other acts of violence,” he wrote.

Describing a group of protesters who were denied entrance to the rally, Adair wrote, “The troublemakers, hecklers and vandals were in fact kept out of the Cheney event. They stood outside and showed their obscene signs, shouted the F-Word at the Vice President and anyone else who came by, poured motor oil on themselves, and generally behaved liked hoodlums.”

Courtney Hunter of ACT had a different view of the event. She said the protest was peaceful and denied that her group was involved in any plans for vandalism or acts of destruction.

She denied she is a hoodlum.

“ACT was part of a coalition of progressive groups and citizens,” she said Wednesday. “The Republicans did their best to keep ordinary citizens out of the rally. But people wanted to tell him what was going on in the country.”

One protester did pour motor oil on himself, Hunter confirmed. “He was not part of ACT.”

Pfeffer said he didn’t see any of the protesters Saturday.

“My own take is that protest is disruptive when somebody’s trying to make a speech, whether it’s Democrats wanting to protest the vice president or Republican students disrupting John Kerry. Both are disrupting free speech.”

The Libertarians are coming!

Cheney was in Rio Rancho Friday, while John Kerry and running mate John Edwards will be in Las Vegas and Gallup this weekend.

But the major parties aren’t the only ones with national candidates coming to the state.

Libertarian Michael Badnarik is coming to New Mexico next week and has scheduled not one but two appearances at Santa Fe’s Tribes Coffee House, 139 W. San Francisco Street, next Wednesday. The appearances are at noon and 6 p.m. Aug. 11.

The Libertarians have joined Bush and Kerry in airing television commercials in New Mexico. In fact, Badnarik’s commercial, called “Peace President,” is showing only in New Mexico. Badnarik has bought $65,000 worth of air time in the state, according to a written statement by the campaign.

Forget Bush, Kerry and the presidential race. It looks like the most divisive political battle in Santa Fe at the moment is the decision over who is going to be Fire Dancer at Zozobra.


James "Chip" Lilienthal was responsible for that role since 1970 when it was passed on to him by the original Fire Dancer Jacques Cartier. Last year Lilienthal announced he was retiring and was "passing the torch" to his daughter Katy. I interviewed Chip back in 1980 or '81 for The Santa Fe Reporter and he said back then that when he retired, he'd like one of his daughters to take his place.

However, the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which owns the rights to Zozobra, had a different idea. The club announced Tuesday that Helene Luna, a former Santa Fe resident now living in Denver, is the new Fire Dancer. The Kiwanis press release said pointedly that the role was not Lilienthal's to give away.

I wrote about it in today's Santa Fe New Mexican. CLICK HERE.

Tom Knoblauch, who substituted for me on the Santa Fe Opry Friday, just sent me his playlist. Tom subtitled his show "Country Music the way Goddess Intended," and dedicated it to Bonnie Hearne.

Friday, July 30, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Guest Host: Tom Knoblauch

Come On In by Patsy Cline
I Want to Be With You Always by Bill Hearne
Full Moon Night/How Can I/Lay Your Head Down Baby/Tumbleweed/Forever Young by Albert & Gage
Dark Side Of Town/Milk & Honey/Peace Call by Eliza Gilkyson
Have Mercy/Women's Prison by Loretta Lynn
Blue State of Mind/Sing to Me by Grey DeLisle
Wrecking Ball by Gillian Welch
I've Got a Tender Heart/Tell Me Twice by Eleni Mandell
Burning Down/Lonesome Wind/Blue Sky Lonely/Why Is Love Like That by Toni Price
Man Overboard by Libbi Bosworth
You Don’t Care What Happens to Me/I'd Understand Why/Exactly Like You by Hot Club of Cowtown
Heartbreak Hill/Bluebird by Emmylou Harris
I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline
World Without Tears by Lucinda Williams
Raven Dove by Dolly Parton
Tornado by Rory Block
Full Moon Night by Albert & Gage

Sunday, August 1, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Help On The Way by The Grateful Dead
You Can't Sit Down by The Electras
A Little More For Little You by The Hives
No Regrets by The Von Bondies
Del Davis Tree Farm by Primus
You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erikson
Don't Slander Me by Lou Ann Barton

Moonlight by Bob Dylan
Shame by P.J. Harvey
Molly's Chambers by Kings of Leon
The Slim by Sugar
One Hit Wonder by Texas Terri Bomb
Death of the European by The Three Johns
The Poliitcs of Time by The Minutemen
The Godfather by Satan's Pilgrims
Champagne Time by Rithma

I Wanna Be With You by The Isley Brothers
Call My Name by Prince
Blowin' Your Mind by O.C. Smith
Lost and Paranoid by The Soul of John Black
Children of Production by Parliament
Jon E. Edwards is in Love by Jon E. Edwards

Drink to Me, Babe, Then by A.C. Newman
Are We Family by The Tragically Hip
Come by Fleetwood Mac
Requim for the Masses by The Association
Theologians by Wilco
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

(I knew I'd forgotten something ... here's Friday's Tuneup)

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

The Tragically Hip is one of those bands that’s consistently strong, during their 20-year history. With their muscular guitar attack and the passionate vocals of Gordon Downie -- whose voice suggests Michael Stipe with more testosterone -- these Canadian road warriors virtually always satisfy.

The Hip’s new album, In Between Evolution, is a dark but inspirational work, if not quite their best. That honor belongs to Day For Night, their 1995 effort.

No song on the new one quite matches "Nautical Disaster" from Day For Night, a terrifying you-are-there account of a nightmare. But surprisingly the one on the new CD that comes closest has a seemingly light-hearted title. "Gus The Polar Bear From Central Park."

With its distorted guitar hook and plodding beat, Downie seemingly gets into the mind of a zoo animal to create an offbeat treatise on isolation and paranoia.

"What’s troubling Gus overhearing conversations/that it’s because your either them or me/when it’s either them or it’s us anything that moves and/everything you see is something to kill and eat."

The idea that the world has turned into a colder, harsher place permeates this album. There’s the ominous song "Meanstreak" creates the image of a town invaded by "strangers": ""The sssh sound of their boots/on the tops of the grass/as their hay wagon/rolled past …"

War images pop up everywhere. "Makeshift," built around what sounds like a long-lost Bachman Turner Overdrive riff, starts out "You do the combat math, I’m the war artist/You can’t take your shots back, I have to watch them miss."

"If New Orleans Is Beat" has one of the prettiest melodies the Hip have ever played, but keeps with the basic theme of a world turned wrong. "No one will give you a thing these days/They’d rather kill it or throw it away/you don’t `do’ dark American streets so/if New Orleans is beat … where’s that leave you and me?"

According to Downie, the macho, jingoistic hot-new-country star Toby Keith inspired "It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night."

"He said `We are what we lack’/and this guy’s the autodidact/Stares in to the glare of them TV lights/It can’t be Nashville every night."

The obliqueness of the words combined with the passion of the band’s playing create a foreboding mood that’s hard to shake.

More Canadian cool:

The Slow Wonder by A.C. Newman. Last year we knew him as "Carl" Newman, one of the front people -- along with Neko Case and Dan Bejar -- of The New Pornographers, those quirky and infectious rock/posters from Vancouver. (For those keeping track, their album Electric Version topped my Top 10 list last year.)

Newman’s first solo album sounds a lot what you’d imagine the third New Pornographers CD will be. Sure you miss sweet Neko’s singing, but most the other "pornographic" elements are here: snappy, hum-able melodies and addictive hooks that stick to your innards, simple guitar-based arrangements, and Newman’s rubbery voice that often slips into falsetto. There’s not a song here that wouldn’t have fit in on Electric Version.

Like the Pornographers, Newman’s album already is earning him comparisons to The Kinks, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson. I’ll add a couple of my own -- Badfinger and The Replacement’s Paul Westerberg, especially his early solo work. And the last song, "35 in the Shade" with its relentless drumbeat might remind you of The Who’s "Armenia City in the Sky."

Though The Slow Wonder is consistently satisfying, the strongest two songs are right at the beginning of the CD.

The opening song "Miracle Drug" starts out with a drum beat that might make you think you put on the Wild Tchoupitoulas CD by mistake. But when the guitars come in, and especially when Newman’s voice comes in a few seconds later, you know it’s no Mardi Gras. In a rushed, near frantic voice Newman sings, "He was tied to the bed with a miracle drug in one hand/In the other a great lost novel that, I understand, was returned with a stamp that said 'Thank you for your interest, young man.’ "

From that crazed image of rejection, suicide and craziness, Newman gives us one of his prettiest songs to date, "Drink to Me, Babe Then," a wistful song of love. The melody is sad as an acoustic guitar strums prominently (a snakey slide guitar waiting until the refrain.) The whistling solo in the middle of the song (a call-and-response with a subdued wah-wah guitar) brings an almost vaudeville or British music hall feel.

With or without the Pornographers, Newman is going to be a musical force to watch.

Also Noted:

Together We’re Heavy By The Polyphonic Spree. The robes are back. But is this a good thing?

I was initially fascinated by this group of 20-plus Texans in their shall-we-gather-at-the-river robes that made you wonder whether this was the product of some bizarre love cult, a group whose first CD, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree, inspired about two thirds of the critics who reviewed it -- including me -- to mention Up With People.

Yes, I was smitten by that album, especially the song "Follow the Day," which also captured the imaginations of Volkswagen, who used it on an t.v. commercial and the makers of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, who put it on their soundtrack.

But while I compared the first album to The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, this time out the sound is closer to bad Electric Light Orchestra and stale Moody Blues, even with former Pere Ubu member Eric Drew Feldman helping out on production.

O.K., I admit, I'm grudgingly fond of the self-help hymn "Two Thousand Places." But not much else here makes me want to put on a robe and witness for the Spree.

Maybe next album they’ll change their style to a ’70s revival band and call themselves "The Polyester Spree."

PERMANENT LINK posted by SWT : 8/01/2004 08:50:55 PM   

More tales from the Democratic Convention
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 1, 2004

BOSTON _ Pundits and critics have complained that last week’s Democratic convention was a scripted production without a trace of spontaneity or real drama.

Indeed, Wednesday morning at the New Mexico delegation breakfast, John Pound -- a Santa Fe lawyer who headed John Kerry’s state campaign during the New Mexico Presidential Caucus season -- discussed plans for a t.v. moment that would take only a few seconds later that night -- the ritual roll call vote, when all the state delegations official cast their votes for Kerry.

At the convention, Pound was one of two New Mexicans who, during the floor sessions, was stationed in “The Tank,” a room that in Pound’s words, was in “the bowels” of the FleetCenter. His job was where his job was to keep an eye on how the delegation looked on television. He had to make sure the delegates held up the right sign at the right time, etc.

As far as Wednesday night’s roll call was concerned, New Mexico’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who was the head of the delegation, would do the talking for the delegation. The question, Pound said, was who would get to gather around the lieutenant governor when she cast the vote.

“It’s a human tendency to want to get up by the New Mexico banner to be on television,” Pound told the delegates. But he said delegation leaders were deciding on which people would get to surround Denish for that moment. He said the decision would be made on factors including ethnicity, gender and other factors, the goal being to reflect the state’s diversity.

Stand-off on Canal Street
But early Thursday evening there was a potential outburst of drama and spontaneity outside of the convention hall that few wanted to take place -- a confrontation between police and protesters.

Earlier in a week a Boston police officer walking through the so-called “Free Speech Zone,” a stark fenced-off area near the FleetCenter, told a reporter while the protests had been low-key up to that point, large numbers of “anarchists” to come to town on the last day of the convention.

“We’re calling Thursday `D-Day,” the officer said.

Indeed, Thursday saw a large influx of anti-war protesters. A few hundred marched up Canal Street to the barricades on Causeway Street near the convention center. Someone burned an double-sided effigy of Kerry and George W. Bush and police responded quickly.

Hundreds of black-clad, helmeted riot police, with chest and shin pads and ominous night sticks formed rows and pushed the protesters back a few yards. And there they stood for the next hour or so in a tense stand-off.

On the other side of the fence on Causeway Street, out of the view of the protesters -- but right in from of the media pavilion next to the convention hall -- another battalion of riot police gathered in rows. Reporters watched from the outside stairway as the officers prepared to replace their fellows on the front line.

But despite the obvious tension, on Canal Street, at the line where police stood almost nose to nose with the demonstrators, it didn’t seem that anyone really wanted violence.

A few yards back from the front line, a man with a bullhorn congratulated the demonstrators for standing up to the police and not backing down.

But none of the protesters were baiting the cops. And though the officers looked grim and Darth Vaderish in their black uniforms and helmets, beneath their visors were worried expressions of men who looked like they’d rather be almost anywhere else.

Things had gotten calm enough that reporter Amy Goodman of the left-wing radio and television show Democracy Now! was able to sit on the ground right up on the front line to tape interviews with demonstrators as police loomed above just a couple of feet away.

As protesters began drifting away, one Boston cop watching the action from about a block away on Canal Street agreed that the storm had apparently passed -- at least for Boston. In fact, according to press reports, the day ended with no serious injuries and only three protest-related arrests.

However he added ominously, “This wasn’t `D-Day.’ You know when `D-Day’ is? August 29, that’s when `D-Day’ is.”

August 29 is the day before the Republican National Convention starts in New York City. Far more protesters are expected there.

Amy, What You Gonna Do?
A few hours after the stand-off, gadfly Goodman had a confrontation with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.


She caught Richardson immediately after he had been on a panel discussion on Larry King Live to talk about Kerry’s acceptance speech.

Though Richardson normally is eager to appear on national media, this time apparently he wasn’t.

Here’s a transcript of the brief encounter, cut short by the governor, posted on the Democracy Now! website:

Goodman: Governor Richardson,-- is Kerry’s foreign policy an escalation? He’s talking about more troops in Iraq and talking about the Sharon policy. I'm Amy Goodman with Democracy Now! Radio and Television.

Richardson: No. Senator Kerry is an internationalist. He wants to operate our foreign policy with our alliances, with our allies, and not go it alone.

Goodman: But he's talking about, he's talking about more proof —
Richardson: I'm sorry. Please get that out of my way.

Assumedly the “that” Richardson referred to was Goodman’s microphone.

Salsa as Security Threat
My only bad encounter with authority at the convention was Thursday afternoon when convention security confiscated my jar of Bill Richardson salsa at the X-ray machine in front of the FleetCenter.

The New Mexico delegation was giving away the promotional salsa -- actually it’s Garduno’s restaurant salsa with a promotional label -- at its daily breakfast meetings and at the convention itself.

A delegate had given me a jar at breakfast and I’d stuffed it in my laptop case. I hadn’t thought of any possible problems in getting it through security. After all, the night before comic/commentator Mo Rocca had shown a jar of the salsa during a segment on Larry King Live.

But when the security X-ray machine at the media entrance spotted the jar in my case, an officer told me that I couldn’t take it in. They had nothing against hot sauce or even Richardson. It was the glass jar that concerned them.

He put the salsa on the ground under the machine -- along with seven or eight other jars of Richardson’s salsa.

I went back to retrieve my jar when leaving FleetCenter after Kerry’s speech. However, an officer told me that all the salsa had been emptied and thrown away.