D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May 2010
May daze.
BLUER THAN BLUE: If you're a blues fan, May is the month you wait all year for. The 15th Annual Silver City Blues Festival once again brings the brightest rising stars of the blues to town on Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30. Back for a second year, Soul Kitchen featuring Hillary Smith will ignite the Friday night kick-off dance — this year at a new location, the Flame, 8 p.m. to midnight. Saturday and Sunday performances at Gough Park are free to the public and begin at 12:30 p.m. This year's headliners include Guitar Shorty and Mollie O'Brien and the Ham Kicker's Club. Saturday will feature the Continental Blues Band with Kas Nelson, the New Orleans sounds of GumboProject, Road House Hounds, the Lionel Young Band and headliner Guitar Shorty. The party moves to the Red Barn Lounge for a Saturday night jam session. Sunday will showcase Silver City favorite Edie & the Silver Blue Roots, the David Booker Duo, Diane Van Deurzen & Lisa Otey with Heather Hardy, Tony Furtado and headliner Mollie O'Brien.
HIGH NOTES: But the blues fest isn't the only thing worth a listen this month. The Hi Lo Silvers, a women's chorus, will present two spring concerts, on May 7 at 7 p.m. and May 9 at 3 p.m., both at the Presbyterian Church on Swan Street in Silver City. In addition to standards, folk songs and music of Broadway and film, the concerts will premiere two original songs about women in aviation — in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the first licensing of a woman pilot (Therese Peltier of France): "Air Heart" by Jansen C. Wooton, the 13-year-old grandson of Hi Lo Silvers director Valdeen Wooton, and "See Her Fly" by Anne Marie Radel. "Air Heart" was inspired by the movie Amelia, about Amelia Earhart. The young composer says, "The first line in the song was actually in the movie, and that was it. It was too good not to be a lyric, so I went upstairs to write the song. To this day I do not know how that movie ends, because I left in the middle."
George Jarden's one-man Gee 'n Ess & "I" tribute to the music of Gilbert and Sullivan returns to the Rio Grande Theatre in Las Cruces May 7-9. Jarden notes that he was born on the 100th anniversary of librettist William S. Gilbert's birthday — coincidence? All sorts of "experiments and games" have been played with Gilbert and Sullivan's work over the years, Jarden says, but he calls his own approach "more traditional than not — no 'witty' changes of words, or new verses to songs; no (I hope) excessive hamming it up. Rather, there's much attempt by me and the designers to milk the original intent to the max extent of which I'm capable — given my understanding of the wit and the drama, and with whatever abilities I do (or don't) have, to play it, say it, sing it, dance it, costume it — all of that. There's an old adage — or, if there isn't, there should be, because it's true: You can't spoof a spoof!"
May 7 is also the date for what Casa de la Cultura hopes will be a new Grant County tradition, its first Viva New Mexico concert, 7 p.m. at the Cobre High Fine Arts Center in Bayard. Featured performers will be Mountain Aire, Oscar Pena and Loretta Chacon.
The Grant County Community Concert Association concludes its season with a 7:30 p.m. May 13, performance at the WNMU Fine Arts Center Theatre by the Hunt Family Fiddlers. The Hunts are an award-winning group of nine singers, Irish step-dancers and fiddlers, who perform bluegrass, Celtic and popular tunes. They're five-time world fiddling champions and have performed for Queen Elizabeth II.
FROM TAILFINS TO TIPPLING:Not every May event is musical, though tunes do figure in most. Silver City's Farmer's Market returns on May 8, 8:30 a.m.-noon, between 7th and 8th streets next to the Big Ditch. That same day, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., is the All Things Art sale to benefit the Silver City Arts and Cultural District. Held at the former Elks Lodge at Texas and Market, it's a community-wide yard sale of art tools, materials and supplies.
The Doa Ana Arts Council presents Flashback, a classic car show on the Downtown Mall, 4 p.m. on May 22, followed by the retro music of "Oldies But Coolies," 6 p.m. at the Rio Grande Theatre.
Then, Memorial Day Weekend once again means the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival, at the fairgrounds west of Las Cruces off I-10, May 29-31. After one of the industry's most successful years ever, wineries from all over the state will come together to offer tastes from their vineyards. New Mexico wines continue to attract attention from all over the world as they win awards at major wine-tasting competitions. Wine will be available for purchase by the glass, bottle or even case to take home.
Of course, there will be music to listen to while you sip. Sunday's headliner is Tribute2Tim, one of the nation's hottest tribute groups offering up the hits of country star Tim McGraw. Also featured during the three days of music will be Nuevo Sol, Undiscovered, the Desperados and more. Along with the wine and song, arts and crafts vendors will be selling jewelry, pottery, melted wine-bottle trivets, cooking and entertaining ware, and local agricultural products like goat cheese, salsa and spices.
Sounds to us like the ideal way to start your summer.