KUNM Studio Sessions

Tonight's feature performance -- the second of two -- is a Studio A session with Fred Johnson.  This trio of long-time Albuquerque musicians came together strictly for the joy of playing, but quickly found themselves inside a sound that could adapt to multiple musical styles, including some of their own back catalog songs.

Recorded by Roman Garcia on May 2, 2017 Fred Johnson are:

Joe Silva: vocals, guitars
Sean O'Connor: vocals, banjo
Mark Weaver: tuba, percussion

Keep up with Fred Johnson recordings and performances on Bandcamp.

Tonight's feature performance -- the first of two -- is a Studio A session with Fred Johnson.  This trio of long-time Albuquerque musicians came together strictly for the joy of playing, but quickly found themselves inside a sound that could adapt to multiple musical styles, including some of their own back catalog songs.

Recorded by Roman Garcia on May 2, 2017 Fred Johnson are:

Joe Silva: vocals, guitars
Sean O'Connor: vocals, banjo
Mark Weaver: tuba, percussion

Keep up with Fred Johnson recordings and performances on Bandcamp.

Shreveport-born Julian Dossett arrived in Albuquerque last year with the solo album "3 Poisons" newly-released on Brister Street Records.  For this performance his recently-formed Blues trio works out on Dossett originals.

Recorded live in Studio C on April 14, 2017 by Matthew Finch, the players are:

Julian Dossett: vocals, archtop guitar
Michael Graff: lead guitar
Kevin Maher: drums

Keep up with Julian Dossett at bristerstreet.com.  He is repped locally by Jams of Enchantment.

Vaivén is a Flamenco trio consisting of Albuquerque guitarist/composer Calvin Hazen with Santa Fe stalwarts John Gagan and Robbie Rothschild.
For this visit, the as-yet unrecorded Vaivén performed as a duo.

Recorded on March 24, 2017 by Roman Garcia the Vaivén Duo are:

Calvin Hazen: guitar
John Gagan: upright bass

Follow Vaivén on Reverbnation.

Albuquerque's Prism Bitch is a band of many names.  As they begin work on their second ep the band stopped by Thursday "Freeform" for a plugged in recording & conversation with host Brandon Kennedy.

Recorded live in our Main Studio by Brandon Kennedy

Prism Bitch is:
Lauren Poole, Emma Crane, Lila Rose, Chris Walsh & Teresa Esguerra

Find them currently at prismbitches.bandcamp.com

The trio Lone Piñon represents a new generation of musicians drawn to "roots music desde el Norte" --  the traditional styles of New Mexico & Northern Mexico.  To celebrate the release of their second CD "Dias Felices" the band came by Studio A to play & talk about their particular approach to song-gathering.

Recorded on February 13, 2016 by Roman Garcia.

Lone Piñon are:
Jordan Wax: violin, accordion, vocals
Greg Glassman: vocals, guitar
Noah Martinez: upright bass, guitarron, vocals

Follow Lone Piñon at www.lonepinon.com

Overnight Freeform host Martin Adam Smith caught up with the improvisational musical/comedy group Rumble in Studio A.  This excerpt of a longer visit shows the group at their spontaneous best.

Originally engineered by Roman Garcia, post production by Martin Adam Smith and Jefferson White.

Find Rumble on FaceBook.

 (Encore--Time to check out our Zoltan session again!)

This program features Albuquerque's Zoltan & the Fortune Tellers recorded live in Studio A.  While Studio A had been the recording studio for their new album "Songs of Spring" Zoltan & Co. decided to play work from both before and after the making of that album.

Recorded by Roman Garcia on August 24, the band for this session are:

Zoltan Szekely: vocals, guitar
Terry Bluhm: bass
Nick Baker: percussion

Keep up with Zoltan by googling the band's name or go to zoltanszkly.wixsite.com/zoltanorkestar.

On Dec 13, 2016, Albuquerque band Eileen & the In-Betweens returned to Studio A, playing all new songs from their new album to be released in the Spring. They also chatted with Matthew Finch about their music and upcoming release.

For this performance Eileen & the In-Betweens are:
    Eileen Shaughnessy: lead vocals, guitar
    Lazarus Letcher: viola, vocals

    Ben Martinez: keyboard, trumpet
    Tanya Nuñez: bass
    Kenny Broyles: drums, vocals
    Christy Cook: vocals
    Stephanie Graner: vocals  

Recording by Roman Garcia with Marshall Broyles and Ben Montoya. 
Video by Jefferson White.

Shaughnessy performs both with the In-Betweens and solo. Keep up with THEM at eileenandtheinbetweens.bandcamp.com, and with HER at eileenshaughnessy.com.

This session finds The Handsome Family in quintet configuration (5 players, 10 instruments) returning to Studio A with songs from the album "Unseen."  We were especially honored that The Family chose to spend the evening with us over Game 7 of the World Series.

Recorded on November 2, 2016, for this session The Handsome Family were:

• Brett Sparks: vocals, guitar, piano
• Rennie Sparks: vocals, Kala bass
• David Gutierrez: vocals, pedal steel, mandolin, guitar
• Alex MacMahan: guitar, pedal steel, organ
• Greg Williams: drums, percussion

Engineer: Roman Garcia
Asst. Engineer: Ben Montoya
Asst. Engineer/Camera: Marshall Broyles
Videographer: Jefferson White

Keep up with Handsome Family music, art, video, prose and scientific research at www.handsomefamily.com.

In a preview of the release party for her CD "If the Static Clears" songwriter Gabrielle Louise dropped by Tuesday "Freeform" with Albuquerque's Justin Evan Thompson to trade songs and stories of a life in music and the peculiar charms of Las Vegas, NM. 

Hosted and engineered by Jalila Arthur on November 1, 2016.

This Studio C session joins Albuquerque songwriter Kevin Herig with the now-Colorado-based Meredith Wilder as they share new songs and old and talk about the songwriters' group they both participate in.  They're joined for the interview by local group member Sage Harrington.

Recorded on October 24, 2016 by Matthew Finch.

Santa Fe band Cloacas brought their "folk music of an unknown country" to Friday "Freeform" for a rare Albuquerque performance.  Hosted and engineered live by Mary B. on October 31, 2016, the multi-instrumentalists of Cloacas are:

Johnny Bell, Ben Gerhards, Damon Griffith, Sabrina Griffith and Michael Smith (clarinetist Lenore Gusch was unable to join her bandmates).

Keep up with them at www.cloacasmusic.com.

This session features Albuquerque musicians Cali Shaw, Zack Freeman and Julian Wild in an impromptu performance/conversation.

Songwriter Shaw was invited to curate the October edition of  the NM Song Swap hosted by the "Art of the Song" program.  For this edition, Shaw reached beyond the singer/songwriter pool to include vocalist/beatboxer/MC Freeman along with Wild, leader of the "alt-everything" group Wild Humans.   The scheduled Song Swap will also include Eileen and the In-Betweens leader Eileen Shaughnessy.

Recorded in Studio C on October 10 the musicians are:

Cali Shaw: vocals, banjo
Zack Freeman: beatbox, vocals
Julian Wild: vocals, baritone banjo

Engineered by Matthew Finch.

Follow these artists by name on all social media.
 

On September 23rd and 24th the ¡Globalquerque! Festival of World Music and Culture returned to the National Hispanic Cultural Center for its 12th year, and for the 12th year KUNM was there to broadcast the musical performances.

This year's 5 hour broadcast featured concerts from the Journal Theater and the Main Stage, but that was hardly enough time to capture the full scope of these artists. 

Below are the full sessions with only slight editing. They were engineered and mixed for broadcast by Roman Garcia, Ethan Stein and Marshall Broyles.

For more information on these performers visit www.globalquerque.org.

Click on the "¡Globalquerque 2016!" title above to show the audio content.

Since arriving in New Mexico in 1992 Jono Manson has established himself as a performer, a songwriter and a record producer, currently running The Kitchen Sink Studio in Santa Fe.  He came by Studio C with a pair of vintage guitars to play songs from his forthcoming release "The Slight Variations."

Recorded in Studio C on September 19, 2016 by Matthew Finch, Jono Manson sings and plays a 1949 Gibson L-48 archtop and a mid-30s Monterrey tenor archtop in CGCG tuning.

Keep up with Jono Manson at www.jonomanson.com.

On July 12, the Albuquerque instrumental trio Pray for Brain returned to Studio A with new orchestration of tunes from their debut CD "None of the Above" and some new material to top it off.  Recorded in Studio A by Ethan Stein, Pray for Brain are:

Mustafa Stefan Dill: electric double-neck oud-guitar
Christine Nelson: upright bass
Jefferson Voorhees: drums, percussion

Post-production thanks to Jefferson Voorhees and Mustafa Stefan Dill.
Pray for Brain are at work on a new recording project.  Find them at www.7dmedia.com.

Albuquerque songwriter Kristina Jacobsen has appeared on KUNM with the classic country outfit The Merlettes as well as performing her own songs from the album "Three Roses."  For this feature she returns with her guitar & three new songs, each inspired by a different region of the world.

Kristina Jacobsen: vocals & guitar.

Recorded in Studio C on July 6, 2016 by Matthew Finch.

In this session, Drastic Andrew leader Andrew MacLachlan dropped by for a solo spin through songs on his 2015 release "Live Without Warning."

Keep track of Drastic Andrew at www.drasticandrew.com.

This program features the band Baracutanga, one of Albuquerque's most adventurous progenitors of Latin Music in a preview of their performance at the inaugural Festival Chispa.  In the interview segment Tom Frouge of Avokado Artists talks about launching this new festival of "Alt-Latino" Music in Albuquerque.

Recorded at UNM's Johnson Field on April 16, 2016 by Eli Willard with Roman Garcia, Barracutanga are:

• Jackie Zamora
• Kilko Paz
• Micah Hood
• Carlos Noboa
• Nick Baker
• Paul Gonzalez
• Randy Sanchez

Special thanks to Marshall Broyles on ASUNM. Online editor Jefferson White.

Keep up with Baracutanga at www.baracutanga.com.

In this second of two features we catch up with Red Light Cameras, twice voted Albuquerque's favorite band by readers of Weekly Alibi.

Recorded live on stage at UNM's all-day Fiestas event on Johnson Field on April 16, 2016 Red Light Cameras are:

Amanda Machon: vocals
Chris Walsh: guitar & vocals
Barney Lopez: bass & vocals
Joey Gonzalez: drums & vocals

Recorded & edited by Roman Garcia with Eli Willard.
Special thanks to Marshall Broyles of ASUNM

In this first of two features we catch up with Red Light Cameras, twice voted Albuquerque's favorite band by readers of Weekly Alibi.

Recorded live on stage at UNM's all-day Fiestas event on Johnson Field on April 16, 2016 Red Light Cameras are:

Amanda Machon: vocals
Chris Walsh: guitar & vocals
Barney Lopez: bass & vocals
Joey Gonzalez: drums & vocals

Recorded & edited by Roman Garcia with Eli Willard.
Special thanks to Marshall Broyles of ASUNM

Keep up with this band on Facebook or www.redlightcamerasband.com.

For tonight's feature we step back two years for a session with the Todd Tijerina Trio, playing songs from his then-new CD "Shine On."  Recorded just before the 2014 midterms, the set includes Tijerina's Motivate the Vote song"Get in Line."

Recorded on October 30, 2014 the trio are:
Todd Tijerina: vocals, guitar
Doug Heidt: bass
Donnie Frank: drums

Recorded by Kevin Kissiel
Keep up with Todd Tijerina solo & acoustic as well as the Tijerina Trio at www.tijerinaband.com.

Freefall is an Albuquerque-based improvisational trio.  In our previous feature we heard excerpts of the piece "4/7/16" and spoke to the musicians about their approach to playing structured improvisation.  The piece's title derives from the date of the performance and is presented without edits or post-production flavoring.

Recorded on April 7, 2016 Freefall are:
James Whiton: electric bass & loops
Greg Williams: drums & percussion
Muni Kalasinghe: violin.

Engineered by Roman Garcia
with Jefferson White, Chip Borton & Tai Merino

Follow Freefall on James Whiton's Facebook & SoundCloud pages.

In this feature we meet Cerillos based songwriter and producer performing songs from her solo album "Torquoise".

Engineered in Studio C by Matthew Finch, April 26, 2016.

On April 16, KUNM's production team brought their gear out to UNM's Johnson Field for the annual day-long Fiestas put on by UNM Student Services.

The event included performances by high-octane local bands Red Light Cameras, Baracutanga, Mountain Head & The Riddims; plus out of town headliners Bright Light Social Hour and many more.

Broadcast mixing Engineers: Eli Willard and Roman Garcia

Assistant Engineeer: Tai Marino

Performance highlights below...