D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
March 2010
America's Musical Roots
Silver City's own Bayou Seco, musicians Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie, are helping New Mexico towns coordinate a new Smithsonian traveling exhibit, "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music." As the state's designated scholars, they will assist as communities make the exhibit their own with local stories, lectures and concerts.
The exhibit opens this month at the Geronimo Springs Museum in Truth or Consequences, March 13-April 24, then continues to the Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso Downs, Red River Community House, Folsom Museum, Ilfeld Warehouse in Santa Rosa and Los Lunas Museum of Heritage & Arts.
According to organizers, "New Harmonies" celebrates the musical "story of people in a New World, places they have left behind, and ideas they have brought with them. It is the story of people who were already here, but whose world is remade. The distinct cultural identities of all of these people are carried in song — both sacred and secular. Their music tracks the unique history of many peoples reshaping each other into one incredibly diverse and complex people — Americans."
The exhibit offers opportunities for communities to collect and celebrate their music traditions. As museums showcase local music, they can collect antique instruments, sheet music, program bills and oral histories or photo essays of area musicians and family musical traditions.
For more information, see the Bayou Seco website at www.bayouseco.com