Summer Music Update. The Albuquerque Bio Park concerts are in full swing. It is a blessing to have such a great venue a block away from our house. It seems the weather gods have seen fit to give us unusual weather each Thursday evening, cooling the blazing heat with wind, clouds or even a smattering of rain. This just makes it all the more enjoyable in my book, and cuts down the crowds a bit. Here's a run-down of what we have seen so far.

Sweet Sunny South. This young bluegrass band from Paonia, CO. dresses in 1930s outfits and plays moslty original songs in a very traditional style. They even do old style commercial radio jingles. A great sense of humor a d phenominal musicanship add to their appeal. The sound was set up to give their vocals an echo effect, which made their music sound like you were hearing an old radio broadcast. We bought two of their CDs. Weather was cloudy and cool.

Eliza Gilkyson. Some technical difficulties got this show off to a late start, then halfway through the first song, a fuse blew. It took another ten minutes to replace the fuse. Once all that was out of the way, Gilkyson settled into a powerful evening of hardcore socially relevant folk music. Backed by only a bass player and her son on a single drum, Eliza played with emotions and politics bared to the crowd. Her voice reminded me of Lucinda Williams and her style harked back to the days of Joan Baez. We bought her CD Land of Milk and Honey. I can't stop playing her anti-Iraq War song "Highway 9" over and over in my head. Awesome! It rained twice during the show, but we were equiped with our trusty rain panchos.

Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem. This is at first glance, just another bluegrass band, but in reality, they are so much more. A four piece band fronted by a fiddle playing female lead singer, they played a mix of original folk, bluegrass, rock, jazz, blues and old standards. Their music has a delightfully raw edge, and Rani's vocal's often reminded me of Ricki Lee Jones. They are at their best on the more swinging tunes and the darker more downbeat stuff. We downloaded both their albums off of eMusic, and you should too. It was very windy that evening, and this show had the smallest crowd so far. I would also pick this group as my favorite so far. They reminded me a bit of my favorite group from last year's concerts, The Clumsy Lovers.

Tonight we are going to see the New Age Flamenco/World Fusion group Incendio. The weather is predicted to be stormy again! Tomorrow night we make our first stop of the year at the Zoo Music series for the Latin funk/hip-hop/dance band Yerba Buena! The zoo is alway more crowded and the audience drunker, but this could be a good show. More later.