Ear to the Ground

Albuquerque songwriter Oscar Butler returns to KUNM in a solo performance of songs largely from his album "Chorus of my Life." Afterwards he talks about his evolution as a Performing Songwriter and his recent embrace of Blues forms.

The Albuquerque quartet Gilead Rises took a common love for dirty Rock 'n' Roll, science fiction & deft lyrics and were ready to hit local stages when covid lockdown laid its grim hand on us all. They quickly formed their own bubble and went to work recasting old songs and working up new ones. The band joined us in Studios A & C just before the release of their self-titled debut album to rip through a set.

Albuquerque's "feminist honky-tonk" band The Merlettes return as a trio to preview songs they'll be sharing at the upcoming WOMAD 2023 Conference in South Africa. For the interview they're joined by a fourth member, South African bassist/songwriter Aus Tebza.

Albuquerque rockers Dru Vaughter & Noelle Graney came out of the pandemic looking for a new musical outlet after completing their "thematic EP" series with Alien Space Kitchen. Enter veteran drummer Ken Maestas and with him a band is born and finds a much timelier sensibility as you can hear on their debut EP "This Modern Age."

The Albuquerque Jazz quartet Flambeaux had to rethink their approach when founder & reedman Bob Gusch passed away suddenly with local gigs already booked. The addition of John Truitt on soprano sax allowed the group to update their vintage sound as they maintained their none-dare-call-it-a-preservation-band identity.

Santa Fe's Bard Edrington V began his journey in New Mexico music as part of the roots music trio 3 String Bale and has since built a reputation for songs that evoke century-old roots traditions, both as a solo artist & as a member of the Hoth Brothers Band. The album "Burn You Up" finds him taking fuller advantage of the recording studio with songs that may be his most personal to date.

HATAALII (pronounced Ha-TOTH-lee) began making albums of original music at age 15. An Albuquerque resident of Navajo Nation, he's just released his fifth album "Singing Into Darkness" which features a shift into electric instrumentation determined as he says by the "Strangeness" of the songs.

Las Cruces-born & Mariachi-trained, songwriter Melissa Rios forged her own style of acoustic soul for her 2016 debut album "Love & Time." Her third album "Sunlight" finds Rios expanding into a narrativesong cycle with richer orchestration than ever before. In this solo acoustic performance she previews songs from the album in their most direct setting and talks about bringing the project from concept tofruition.

The Albuquerque/Las Vegas trio Mineral Hill return to Studio A to preview their second full-length album "Down With Despair" and stay to talk about making story songs without a set genre (or net). Recorded on by Chip Borton on May 18, 2023 the band are:Jonathan Mack: vocals, electric guitarJohn Funkhauser: keyboards, melodica, vocalsLauren Addario: drums, vocalsFollow the trio at mineralhillband.com

This veteran quartet built their audience playing venues in the EastMountains, and while they became known for their covers, it's theiroriginals that mark them as something special. With their third album"As the Crow Flies" rolling out, the band piled in to KUNM's Studio C(not the smallest stage they've ever played, they say) to play songs oldand new.