The Beat is On: Our Annual Guide to the Santa Fe Summer Music Scene

In the following pages we present Pasatiempo’s annual summer preview, a cherry-picked sampling of upcoming musical delights to fill up your summer nights. — Carolyn Graham

JUNE

Sheryl Crow — June 8 at Route 66 Casino, Albuquerque

At 63, the veteran songwriter hopefully isn’t still drinking beer at noon on Tuesdays, as she described doing in her 1993 breakthrough hit “All I Wanna Do.” Crow’s first two albums, Tuesday Night Music Club and Sheryl Crow, spawned five Billboard Top 40 hits: “All I Wanna Do,” No. 2; “Strong Enough,” No. 5; “If it Makes You Happy,” No. 10; “Everyday is a Winding Road,” No. 11; and “Can’t Cry Anymore,” No. 36. While the hits came more sporadically in the decades to come, fans of a certain age will know the lyrics to much of what they hear. Crow had intended for her 2019 album Threads to be her last, then changed her mind after her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, dropping Evolution a year later.

The Kiffness — June 10 at Meow Wolf (Lensic 360)

David Scott, aka The Kiffness, is a phenomenon in South Africa whose music made it to his country’s national radio stations in 2014. At first, he’d play live keyboard and trumpet, and his brother would accompany him on electronic drums. Today, The Kiffness collaborates with several other musicians, both in South Africa and abroad, and goes on international tours. In 2022, he collaborated on the song “Oy U Luzi Chervona Kalyna” with Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band Boombox; the song got more than 18 millions views on Youtube, and The Kiffness donated all royalties (more than $100,000) to Humanitarian Aid in Ukraine.

Pedrito Martínez Group — June 17 at Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery (Lensic 360)

The New York Times called Pedrito Martínez a traditional Afro-Cuban music superstar — and that’s putting it mildly. The musician, whose real name is Pedro Pablo Martínez, was born in 1973 in Havana’s legendary Cayo Hueso barrio, the birthplace — in the 19th century — of Cuban rumba and, in the 1940s, of filin. Martínez has lived in New York City since the late 1990s and is a master percussionist, drummer, songwriter, and singer who’s collaborated with Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Sting, and Dave Matthews, and dozens of Cuban rumba groups.

Ludacris — June 26 at Sandia Resort & Casino, Albuquerque

If your most acclaimed album is called Chicken-N-Beer, you clearly have no problem evoking unusual images for listeners or indulging your silly side. In the rap game, guest appearances on others’ albums is a major source of both clout and cash; MCs often share the mic to provide the listener with vocal and topical variation. Ludacris has released or been featured on no fewer than five No. 1 hits: “Yeah!” (Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris); “Glamorous” (Fergie featuring Ludacris); “Break Your Heart” (Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris); “Stand Up” (Ludacris featuring Shawnna); and “Money Maker” (Ludacris featuring Pharrell). The rapper born Christopher Brian Bridges also acts and was featured in a recent commercial in which homeowners accidentally “conjure” him while complaining about an undesirable situation.

Styx, Kevin Cronin, and Don Felder — June 28, Isleta Amphitheater, Albuquerque

Styx is the kind of band that kept VH1’s Behind the Music series on the air for 17 years. With its ubiquitous hits, warring personnel and differing visions of what the group should be, and easy-to-mock smashes such as “Lady,” “Babe,” and “Mr. Roboto,” the band has long been divisive and often divided. Singer and showman Dennis DeYoung has joined and departed Styx — the latter not always willingly — multiple times. DeYoung sued his ex-bandmates over use of the name Styx about 25 years ago, citing the way two of them disparaged him in an episode of none other than Behind the Music. Longtime members Chuck Panozzo, J.Y. Young, and Tommy Shaw remain with the group, with Lawrence Gowan handling vocals. The band continues to record 53 years after its founding, releasing Crash of the Crown to strong reviews in 2021.

The Marriage of Figaro — Opening June 28 at the Santa Fe Opera

The Santa Fe Opera’s season-opening weekend offers something very unusual — the “re-premiere” of a Marriage of Figaro production. Its 2021 debut came under challenging circumstances, with director Laurent Pelly stuck in France due to COVID-related visa issues. He had to stage it from 5,000 miles away, with an on-site assistant in Santa Fe relaying rehearsal videos to Paris for his comments and corrections. It was far from an ideal circumstance, and a production concept that sounded highly promising didn’t evince much of Pelly’s typical off-kilter wit and invention. The second time around should be more auspicious.

JULY

Charley Crockett — July 5 at Kit Carson Park, Taos (Lensic 360)

Texas-born soulful crooner Crockett’s music hits right in the heart of anyone who loves a traditional old country voice — Haggard, Jones, Williams (senior) — but brings a slate of tunes with enough contemporary edge to remind you he’s of this century. With 15 studio albums under his belt, he’s quietly elevated his profile with such tunes as “$10 Cowboy” and the twangy but trumpety “The Man From Waco,” revealing a broad spectrum style that delivers a dose of classic country with a dash of blues, a slice of folk, and a sprinkle of gospel. Fans at the Taos show will no doubt call for “Tom Turkey,” his homage to a Bob Dylan lyric that wraps a Billy the Kid hook in a New Mexico package.

Red Baraat — July 9 at The Railyard (Lensic 360 and IFAM)

The band Red Baraat, founded in Brooklyn by Sunny Jain on the dhol, a double-sided drum, fuses bhangra, hip-hop, jazz, and go-go to uplift the spirit with Punjabi rhythms accompanied by horns and the guitar. They’ve played for President Obama at the White House, at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, during the London Olympic Games, at the Luxembourg Philharmonic, at Bonnaroo, and during Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.K. Red Baraat kicks off this year’s International Folk Art Market by adding its energetic and joyous music to the Artist Procession in the Santa Fe Railyard.

Digable Planets, The Soul Rebels — July 10 at Revel, Albuquerque (Lensic 360)

Digable Planets released two albums before tensions prompted the hip-hop act to split in the mid-90s, only to reform in 2005 for the release of a compilation album, and again in 2015 to tour. The fact that audiences still want to hear music from those records — Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), released in 1993, and Blowout Comb, which dropped a year later — speaks to their lofty status in the hip-hop pantheon. Both are considered classics in the “conscious hip-hop” movement that hit its apex in the 1990s, with its messages addressing cultural, economic, political, and social issues standing in stark contrast to the violent gangster rap that dominated the charts at the time, creating an incorrect impression among casual fans of what hip-hop really is.

Khumariyaan — July 10 at the International Folk Art Market (IFAM)

Khumariyaan is a band from Pakistan that blends its country’s and other cultures’ traditional folk music with modern styles. The band’s name means “the state of intoxication from music” and says it as it is — when you hear the group, you will catch yourself dancing and losing yourself to the rhythms often devoid of vocals. Khumariyaan was founded 16 years ago during difficult times in Pakistan as a musical form of resistance to neo-imperialist expansion, Talibanization, heavy military presence, and violence. The musicians in the band believe in music as a medium for peace and will have you dancing the evening away at IFAM’s opening night.

Vieux Farka Touré (with Seanchai) — July 11 at the Railyard (IFAM)

Vieux Farka Touré (with Brent Berry) — July 12 at Taos Mesa Brewing, Taos (Lensic 360)

Vieux Farka Touré is the son of the late legendary Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, who himself came from a tribe of soldiers and broke the family’s tradition by pursuing a life of music. Vieux was born in Niafunké, Mali, in 1981 and began his own musical journey, first as a drummer and calabash player at the Institut National des Arts in Mali, while learning to play the guitar in secret, as his father first disapproved of Vieux’s musical inclination . Today he tours the world performing a blend of Mali, rock, Latin, and other African-influenced musical traditions. He’s collaborated extensively with renowned musicians and even performed during the opening ceremony at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

The Shepherd on the Rock — July 13 and 14 at St. Francis Auditorium

Soprano Liv Redpath, clarinetist Todd Levy, and pianist George Fu launch the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s 2025 season with Franz Schubert’s last completed work, The Shepherd on the Rock. Violinist Leila Josefowicz and pianist Gilles Vonsattel team up for George Enescu’s popular Violin Sonata No. 3, subtitled “In the Romanian Folk Style,” and are joined by cellist Paul Watkins for the finale, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in E Minor, composed in 1944. Its immediate impulse was the early death of one of Shostakovich’s closest friends, but it also reflects the horrors of World War II.

Opera Speakeasy — July 19 at San Miguel Chapel

Chamber Music at San Miguel Chapel is the most informal of our summer classical music concert series, as the title of its first program suggests. Soprano Sara Gartland, who possesses “a substantial lyric soprano of great beauty and rock-solid technique” (Opera Today), will be joined by Grace Browning, Santa Fe Opera principal harpist, for the circa one-hour concert. Harp-accompanied opera isn’t really a strange idea; after all, it’s basically a piano turned on its side, minus the case and the keys.

The Turn of the Screw — Opening July 19 at the Santa Fe Opera

The scale may sound small, but Benjamin Britten needed just seven singers, 13 instrumentalists, and less than two hours of music to create one of the gut-punchiest operas ever written. His setting makes palpable the suspense and terror at the heart of Henry James’ short novel. Louisa Muller directs the Santa Fe production; it’s based on her acclaimed 2019 staging for England’s Garsington Opera, which The Guardian described as “a beautiful, unsettling piece of theatre.” If the Romantic-era grandiosity of Richard Wagner, et. al. isn’t to your taste, The Turn of the Screw is the perfect alternative.

Mass for the Endangered — July 20 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Works by two contemporary American female composers comprise the second of three Santa Fe Desert Chorale summer programs. Sarah Kirkland Snider describes her 2018 Mass for the Endangered as “a prayer for endangered animals and the imperiled environments in which they live.” The piece calls for an SATB chorus and a chamber orchestra of 12. Caroline Shaw’s 2016 To the Hands was part of the Seven Responses Project, in which seven contemporary composers were commissioned to write new works in response to Dieterich Buxtehude’s celebrated seven-part Membra Jesu Nostri cantata.

Roots and Rivers — July 24 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

The world premiere of a Desert Chorale commission, The American Road: Six Songs of the Enslaved, Embattled and Emancipated by Nigerian American composer Shawn E. Okpebholo, is at the center of this program of works by living composers. Three other chorale commissions are also featured. Kile Smith’s Northland blends Harlem Renaissance poetry with jazz and blues, Jocelyn Hagen’s Caminante (Traveler) imagines a diverse group of people bonding as travelers, and Reena Esmail’s The Tipping Point depicts the moment the struggle between light and dark in our world tilts toward the former.

Goldberg Variations — July 26 at St. Francis Auditorium

“When you’re named after one of the biggest constellations in the night sky, the pressure is on to display a little star power,” The Washington Post wrote, “and the young pianist Orion Weiss did exactly that in a high-powered and often ferocious recital Saturday afternoon.” Weiss’ traversal of J.S. Bach’s magnificent Aria with 30 Variations (popularly known as the Goldberg Variations) promises to be one of the Chamber Music Festival’s season highlights, and it’s fortuitously scheduled on a Saturday afternoon.

Die Walküre — Opening July 26 at the Santa Fe Opera

It once would have seemed impossible, but when its 2025 season ends, the Santa Fe Opera will have staged more works by Richard Wagner over the past four years than those by Puccini, Mozart, Rossini, or Donizetti. General Director Robert Meya’s Wagner initiative continues with a five-performance run of Die Walküre, the second piece in the Ring Cycle quartet. Conductor James Gaffigan and soprano Tamara Wilson, whose work in 2022’s Tristan und Isolde was exceptional, return for the production. Wilson’s Brünnhilde will be partnered by bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green’s role debut as Wotan.

Buena Vista Orchestra — July 27 at KiMo Theatre in Albuquerque (Lensic 360)

Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos was the original orchestra leader, composer, and trombonist of the Buena Vista Social Club, and has also worked with other world-renowned ensembles like the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Estrellas de Areito. His Buena Vista Orchestra continues the legacy of the Buena Vista Social Club and is joined this year on the ensemble’s world tour by several original Buena Vista Social Club musicians including “Betun” Luis Mariano Valiente Marin on the congas and the bongo and by Fabian García on the bass.

Various artists — The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing (Lensic 360)

Father John Misty kicks off a wild month or so of performers at the brewery-outdoor venue on July 21. Tickets for that show were sold out at press time, but take heart in knowing you can still get a spot on the grass for gritty-Americana singer-songwriter Tanner Usrey (July 27); indie Southern female-driven band Waxahatchee (August 4), and for a complete change of pace, Southern gothic storyteller/rapper Yelawolf (August 7).

AUGUST

Colin Currie — August 7 at St. Francis Auditorium

For centuries a solo percussion recital would have sounded like an oxymoron but no longer, thanks to such performers as Colin Currie and the contemporary composers who are writing ingenious music for the battery of instruments now in common use. The 48-year-old Scotsman has been called “the world’s finest and most daring percussionist” by The Spectator; his program here includes Rolf Wallin’s “Realismos Mágicos” for marimba, Andy Akiho’s “Spiel” for glockenspiel, and the American premiere of a new work by young British composer Dani Howard. Kilts, dirks, and sporrans are optional, laddies.

Ligeti and Enescu — August 10 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center

The curtain raiser is Bela Bartók’s Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano, which was commissioned by jazz great Benny Goodman. Bela gave Benny exceptionally virtuosic and challenging music, especially in its first and third movements, which are based on a Hungarian army recruiting song. Stefan Dohr, William Hagen, and Kirill Gerstein play György Ligeti’s Hommage à Brahms Horn Trio (and return the next day to play the Brahms horn trio that inspired Ligeti). The program closes with George Enescu’s String Octet, composed when the Romanian wunderkind was still a teenager.

Through Roses — August 13 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center

John Rubinstein, winner of Tony and Drama Desk best actor awards for his portrayal of James Leeds in Children of a Lesser God, directs and narrates Through Roses, a “play with music” written by Marc Neikrug, the chamber music festival’s artistic director. It’s a World War II-based memory piece, focused on a violinist who was sent to Auschwitz, where he was forced to perform, often for the sadistic pleasure of the camp’s officers. Through Roses is paired with Chatter’s visceral staging of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, which premiered here in 2019. Baritone Michael Hix returns as King George III, as does director Tara Khozein.

Modest Mouse — August 23, Revel, Albuquerque (Lensic 360)

At 33 years old, Modest Mouse toes the line between hipster-pleasing and touring as legacy band, delivering a nostalgia punch for middle-aged and older listeners. Indeed, the band has slowed down in the studio, recording three albums in the past 18 years. By contrast, its acclaimed first three albums were released in a span of five years. The title of the second of those albums, The Lonesome Crowded West, surely resonates with anyone who has driven to Phoenix and experienced desolation followed by a wall of humanity. The band’s membership has fluctuated through the years, with drummer Jeremiah Green sadly dying of cancer in 2022 at age 45. That’s about how old Smiths icon Johnny Marr was when he played guitar on the band’s nautically themed 2007 album We Were Dead Before the Ship Sank.

SEPTEMBER

The Mavericks — September 6, Santa Fe Opera (Lensic 360)

OK, we know we told you this was a summer preview, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention in advance that The Mavericks, a Tejano-country-rock band with a deep New Mexico fan base, was rolling onto the Santa Fe Opera stage just after Labor Day. The band has a dozen albums’ worth of material to draw from, including their 2024 release, Moon & Stars, which includes collaborations with Americana artist Sierra Ferrell and torch-singeresque Nicole Atkins. ◀