Post courtesy of Bill Nevins at Albuquerque ARTS magazine.

Here is some information on a really fun weekend music destination, just a short scenic drive north from Albuquerque or Santa Fe:

At the 10th Annual Taos Solar Music Festival, Friday through Sunday June 27, 28, 29, 2008, you will see, hear and dance to some of the most varied and exciting musical artists of our wide, wonderful world, all in the cool breezes and shade of Kit Carson Park, in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.

Here’s some of the music you will enjoy:Plena Libre is San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Multi-Grammy nominated 13 piece orchestra. One of the hottest tropical bands today. Known for their high-energy show and hard-driven Puerto Rican rhythms. Plena Libre is considered the Ambassadors of the Puerto Rican Afro-Rican music, Plena and Bomba.

Steve Earle is a singer songwriter, a published writer, a political activist, a tv actor (The Wire), who has become known as “the hardcore troubadour”.

Allison Moorer is a Grammy-nominated alt-country singer and the younger sister of Shelby Lynne. Since the release of her debut album Alabama Song, she released seven albums and eleven singles. She is married to Steve Earle and the couple perform together on Steve’s latest album, Washington Square Serenade.

The typical Collective Soul song has a one-word title, runs between three and five minutes, prosecutes a catchy ’70s-style melody over warm, burbling ’90s-style guitars, frets about the human condition, and dominates rock radio for months at a time. These mellow Georgia boys have enjoyed a longer and more fruitful run than most of their flashier grunge-era peers. Ed Roland, a Southern preacher’s kid who was forbidden to listen to rock & roll growing up, is the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer whose spiritual concerns and studio perfectionism define the band, and each of Collective Soul’s albums has its share of smartly crafted hits.

Pacifika is the multi-talented Silvana Kane, a Peruvian born singer, re-formed pop sensation (West End Girls), and accomplished actress with a love of flamenco, electronica, and textured percussion; Adam Popowitz a Canadian bred guitarist adept at new wave, classical, and pop, and a skilled producer responsible for a catalogue that includes indie rock and Armenian folk music; and Toby Peter, a dub wise bassist born in Canada and raised in Barbados, explorer of jazz, hip-hop, metal and Caribbean grooves. Together the Vancouver based trio is making a new kind of global pop, music that nods to its diverse international influences, while forging its own unique voice. Jazz infused and Latin tinged, marked by gently flowing melodies, deep grooves, waves of cracking percussion and the occasional burst of exhilarating guitar noise, Pacifika’s comfortable, complex sound defies categories, creating soothing soundscapes held together by Kane’s smooth, intimate vocals.

The Coup’s new album, Pick A Bigger Weapon, kicks off with a classic Boots Riley line ? “I’m a walking contradiction/Like bullets and love mixin’?” ? and then it just gets better. After a 14-year career that has defined the word “uncompromising”, the Coup return armed with bigger funk and taller tales. The Coup, part of the sub-genre of radical, political hip hop align themselves with other radical hip-hop groups like Dead Prez. Their music is characterized by electronic sounds and bass-driven backbeats overlaid by humorous, cynical and sometimes violent lyrics criticizing capitalism, pimping and police brutality, among other things.

And

you’ll also see and hear . . .

More fantastic music, ranging from Albuquerque’s own world- music dance super-group Concepto Tambor and Taos’s “Americana Goth” heroes Bone Orchard to to Susan Tedeschi’s soulful blues and the rootsy reggae of Jamaica’s Taj Weekes and Adowa. Friday’s show will feature Hal Ketchum, “the smoothest voice in country” and The Bodeans, surely one of America’s finest rock n roll bands. And special treats will be the first-ever appearance of Sharon Gilchrist’s new band and the two-steppin’ heaven of Don Richmond and the Grifters. A dancing place, indeed!

“Taos Solar Music Fest is a destination event,” says Dawn Richardson, Co-Founder and Director of the Taos Solar Music Festival www.solarmusicfest.com, which has its 10th Annual Solar Music Festival this June 27-29, Friday through Sunday in shady, spacious and beautiful Kit Carson Park in the heart of downtown Taos, New Mexico. “People plan their vacations so they can be here. I’d love to have even more folks from other parts of New Mexico come up and join us. Taos has a wonderful climate, especially this time of year. That’s why we always hold it the end of June–just after Summer Solstice and before the Fourth of July.”

Solar Fest is very family friendly, with free admission for kids ten and under and plenty of kids’ activities. This year there will even be free Segway rides for all ages. And Taos is well known for both classy high end and friendly affordable restaurants, like El Taoseno http://www.taoseno.com/ ,where fresh grilled trout is a house specialty. Then there’s the patio of the romantic Taos Inn http://www.taosinn.com/, with superb margaritas and a pleasant view of the lively street scene just a short walk from the Solar Fest grounds. Taos also has plenty of reasonably priced accomodations during Solar Fest, such as at Indian Hills Inn http://www7.taosnet.com/indianhillsinn/Inn.html , and there is plenty of camping close by. (See the Solar Fest site www.solarmusicfest.com for more information on lodging, dining, and other Taos attractions.)

The concert grounds and the Solar Village in the same park offer not only tasty food and drink (including the famed and friendly brewpub tent) and fine art and craft work for sale, but also intriguing exhibits of state-of the art alternative energy and energy-saving techniques. A visit to Solar Village is great fun, and well worth the trip to Taos all by itself. And mmmmmmmm, those solar-baked cookies!

People travel from all over to Solar Fest each year mainly for THE MUSIC– the most eclectic, satisfying and downright HAPPY musical experience of any festival you are likely to attend. No matter what type of music you think you like, you’ll discover something new to whet your interest AND you’ll hear that good old comfortable stuff as well. Guaranteed–You will leave Solar Fest with a new favorite artist!

A dancing place, indeed!

Taos Solar Music Fest is the breezy, joyful, tuneful place to be on a late June weekend.

More information is at www.solarmusicfest.com or by phone at (505) 758-9191.

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