Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, jingle all the way…oh how sad we are to say…Nancy Laflin was forgotten today…
New Mexico has a new song. That’s not it. The new state song, perhaps fittingly, is a cowboy song which will be sung around campfires for ages to come, or maybe three weeks.
Here’s what is bothersome. In the extensive press coverage of this breaking news – Polly Summar wrote 26 paragraphs in the Albuquerque Journal alone – there was not one mention of the name Nancy Laflin.
Come on! Nancy Laflin is the reason we have music in New Mexico. Operas would close, karaoke bars would vanish, we would all hum off key were it not for Nancy Laflin. Nancy just happens to be the first and only director of the music commission established in 2005 by Governor Bill Richardson.
(You may note there was no reference to “Big Bill” or “Chubby Cheeks” or “Snickers Bar Billy” or any of the other snide tags this column hung on the governor in recent years. No, sir. This guy is going to be a member of the United States Cabinet and I know my place. I also know he will be chummy with the Internal Revenue Director.)
The reason Nancy is a heroine to many of us is she is a former journalist who escaped the business of daily deadlines – and in her case, running after ambulances with one heel missing and a cameraman trailing – when she entered the cushy, fulfilling world of government work.
When Governor Bill Richardson appointed Ms. Laflin to become the state’s first music director, I was immediately suspicious. TV Babe becomes music director. I immediately questioned Nancy Laflin’s credentials, not out of envy, understand, but concern for the taxpayer’s dollar.
Those suspicions were dashed one early morning when Nancy stood in her breakfast nook and sang to me, in perfect pitch, the entirety of “O Fair New Mexico.” Forget the University of New Mexico grad is also an accomplished professional singer who performs the national anthem at the Pitt, I am convinced she is the only person in the state who can sign “O Fair New Mexico” and is thus eminently qualified to be its music director.
(You should note that when Ms. Laflin stood in her breakfast nook and sang “O Fair New Mexico,” I was not present. This was a telephone deal.)
Obviously, our new cowboy song was created under Nancy’s watch. “Under New Mexico Skies” was written by Syd Masters, of Edgewood, and chosen by what Polly Summar calls “a small group of intrepid members of the New Mexico Music Commission.”
The upcoming Legislature must approve “Under New Mexico Skies.” Appropriately, then, there is a smidgen of controversy. The issue is New Mexico already has a Western song, “Land of Enchantment,” written by Michael Martin Murphey, of Texas.
That’s an outrage, says the commission. We don’t need any Texans writing our cowboy songs. We New Mexicans can yippie yi yo with the best of them. Meanwhile, as the Legislature sorts this all out, Nancy Laflin will be busy with other projects including a tribute to Buddy Holly and other Clovis-based rockers in the early years.
What is the future of music in New Mexico with our governor, the eminent and distinguished Mr. Bill Richardson, moving on to Washington? Not to worry, thank you. Nancy reports the husband of Diane Denish, our new governor, has a fantastic voice and is a member of the Duke City Chorus.
So it is we end on a happy note.
(Ned Cantwell – ncantwell@beyondbb.com – is singing a different tune with Bill gone.)