Ive been in Albuquerque but a couple of months and already impressed with the local and national acts I have seen so far. I have become friends with guitar phenom Ryan McGarvey and did a road trip with him to Las Cruces to see Joe Bonamassa. A fellow guitar prodogy, Joe was playing with BB King at the age of 14. Now thirty, Bonamassa has his own label and management company, the big tour bus and successful merchandise thing going. Joe played the historic Rio Grande Theater and had an amazing sound. His current recording has been #1 on Billboard’s Blues chart for weeks on end. Another local product amazed me as well: A band called Soular. They played at the Launchpad with strong openers Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys and Luma. The Rocketboys recognized my Eisley t-shirt as they were from Texas and knew the band personally.
I made it up for a day of music at the annual Thirsty Ear Festival which featued Americana and folk artists like The Flatlanders and Todd Snider. I caught Cake in Santa Fe and they were fun. I particularly loved the venue, Paolo Soleri which had an intimate mini- Red Rocks atmosphere with a futuristic twist. The back side of the Sandia Mountains that overlook Albuquerque has a road to Santa Fe that passes through an old mining town called Madrid. It was settled by hippies and artists 30 years ago. It has a cool venue/restaurant called The Mineshaft Tavern. I caught Hundred Year Flood there.
You may remember that last year I was in the Phoenix area. I have maintained my ties there. Ive even made jaunts to Vegas(to see Grace Sims and Matt Hopper) and LA(for Kate Earl previewing new songs). Arizona band Blackmarket is now signed to the Japanese division of Rough Trade Records and heads over in December in support of its Japanese EP release which is getting strong radio play. The previously mentioned Ryan McGarvey will be getting out on tour early next year so everyone can see that he may be the guitar player we have all waited for since the glory days of Stevie Ray Vaughn. McGarvey is not to be painted into just the blues corner. He rocks and is a killer guitar player at the age of 21, the skys the limit for him.
The Edge radio stations in Phoenix and Albuquerque provided a couple of worthy events. The first being Edgefest at a farm 30 miles east of Phoenix. The scene was very reminiscent of early Coachella days. The line-up was strong and included Jimmy Eat World, Hot Hot Heat, The Bravery, Mute Math, Eisley and Bad Religion. Lastly, The Edge here in New Mexico sponsored a benifit concert for a local food bank that was headlined by Flyleaf. Held at the Sunshine Theater, over 22,000 cans of food were donated by concert goers. Be watching for my review of the Santa Fe Film Fest which will focus on the music featured in films.
