Society Hall  "where community celebrates!"

High Desert Acoustic Duo is a musical collaboration of cello, fiddle, guitar and vocals from a broad range of traditions as well as original songs. Cellist Mark Dudrow is well known and much admired for his virtuosic playing in many regional ensembles and accompanying many artists, and Justin Dean is an equally accomplished fiddler, and veteran of many musical adventures and projects around his northern New Mexico home.

For more than 20 years Mark and Justin have entertained audiences along the upper Rio Grande. Their unique blend of songwriting and tunes draws inspiration from all points on the musical map and also from the raw rugged beauty of the landscape around them.

The Duo specializes in live performances and the connection that happens in the moment with an audience, so unless you happen to catch a live show at a brewpub, local benefit, farmer’s market or backcountry wedding you are more likely to find them hiking, skiing, harvesting firewood or floating in the backcountry than on YouTube!

They are known for performances that manage to be both tight and polished and yet delightfully improvisational, displaying both of the members' wonderful instrumental skills. As Salida music promoter Clark T. Roberts says, “These guys aren’t serious, but they’re seriously good!”

Chris Arellano and his brother Rodney on bass and vocals are both natives of Costilla, New Mexico, perched right on the Colorado border at the southern end of the San Luis Valley. They both grew up playing in their father’s band around southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Chris's musical journey has since taken him from the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles, to major label record deals in Nashville, through performances in New York City to running his own music teaching academy in Oregon.

The Arellanos have a remarkable range of musical influences and expressions, from the Norteno music they grew up playing in their father’s band, to the high desert folk/Americana music Chris learned to love in Red River, New Mexico, while learning to write songs with his friend and mentor Eddy Lee Bullington, well known to area audiences as a member (with Michael Hearne) of the popular South by Southwest band, and also as a member (with Don Richmond) of the regional favorite Hired Hands. Chris and Rodney are able to blend these different musical streams seamlessly, and delightfully, in the music that they call “Nuevo Americana” (also the title of Chris's 2nd CD), creating a true expression of the beauty, richness and diversity of the musical heritage of this area.

If you add in Chris's superb command of multiple stringed instruments and voice, honed by years of experience as a recording artist, studio musician and producer in Nashville, with the amazing sibling harmony he and Rodney so effortlessly create, along with Rodney's rock-solid bass work and you have the ingredients of a remarkable performance, and an amazing musical evening. Chris and Rodney will also be joined at Society Hall by Taos legend Jimmy Stadler on keyboard and guitar

Chris's second CD, released on Alamosa's own Howlin' Dog Records, features several original songs, two of his father's Norteno-styled tunes, as well as songs from his mentor Eddy Lee and Nashville legend and friend Verlon Thompson. The CD has received rave reviews from fans and DJ's alike, and is in heavy rotation on regional radio. Two cuts from Arellano’s previously released self-titled album held #1 positions on New Mexico Radio Charts and Cuentas Que Te Vas and Puno de Tierra were respectively the #6 and #3 most requested songs of the year in 2015. This CD project also received a Los 15 Grandes De Nuevo Mexico Music Award from the New Mexico Latin Music Academy. In 2016 the album received nine seperate nominations for New Mexico Hispano Music Association Awards, including Songwriter of the Year, Artist of the Year, and the Rising Star Award.

Aaron A. Abeyta is a Colorado native, Professor of English and the former Mayor of Antonito, Colorado, his hometown. Abeyta is also the co-founder of The Justice & Heritage Academy.

He is the author of five collections of poetry and one novel. For his book, Colcha, Abeyta received an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award. His most recent book, Ancestor of Fire is shortlisted for the Reading the West Book Award. In addition, his novel, Rise, Do Not be Afraid, was a finalist for the 2007 Colorado Book Award and El Premio Aztlan. Abeyta was awarded a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for poetry, and he is the former Poet Laureate of Colorado’s Western Slope, as named by the Karen Chamberlain Poetry Festival. Abeyta is also a recipient of a Governor’s Creative Leadership Award for 2017. Abeyta was a finalist for Colorado Poet Laureate, 2019.

Society Hall board member and Alamosa musician and record producer Don Richmond remarked, “We are so excited to host Aaron at Society Hall, and to share his incredibly powerful poetry with our audience. To me, he is the true poet-laureate of our region, and everyone should experience this area we love through his words, eyes and expression.”

Aaron has over 100 publications including 'An Introduction to Poetry, 10th ed.,' Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, & Drama, 8th ed.' ‘Conversations in American Literature: Language, Rhetoric, & Culture’ ‘The Leopold Outlook’ ‘Colorado Central Magazine’ ‘The High Country News’ and numerous other journals.

For more information on Aaron, visit his website at aaronabeytapoet.com.

Martin Gilmore is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in Denver, Colorado. He is an instructor of folk and bluegrass music at the University of Northern Colorado where he teaches guitar, vocals, and directs the bluegrass ensemble. He has recorded two solo records which feature members of Hot Rize, The Infamous Stringdusters, and FY5. In 2017 he recorded a collaboration project titled East-West with famed oudist Eslam Elabaty in Cairo, Egypt where he lived from 2015-2017. He is an acclaimed songwriter and teaches songwriting at Swallow Hill Music Association in Denver, Colorado. Martin is the lead singer and plays guitar and bouzouki in the MG3. Martin is a member of the bluegrass band Long Road Home featuring Pete Wernick on Banjo.

Nick Amodeo is originally from Des Moines, Iowa. Nick is a multi-instrumentalist playing styles from bluegrass mandolin to reggae bass to honky-tonk guitar. In 2005 he won the prestigious Rockygrass mandolin contest and has performed for many years as a sideman for the celebrated blues artist Otis Taylor. Nick has toured throughout North America and Europe, sharing the stage with such legends (and personal heroes) as Buddy Guy, Etta James, Mavis Staples, Chuck Campbell (The Campbell Brothers), Mollie O'Brien, Ron Miles and many more. Nick has also had the opportunity to teach music at Regis University, Naropa University, Swallow Hill Music School, Colorado Roots Music Camp and is currently a popular instructor on Jamplay.com. Nick lives in Denver, Colorado where he teaches and plays music full time. Nick plays guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki in the MG3.

Ian Haegele is a bassist who has played with many of the Rocky Mountain region’s best acoustic groups including The Jeff Austin Band, Long Road Home, and Thunder and Rain in addition to playing with the MG3. He received a master's degree in music performance from the University of Northern Colorado. Besides folk and bluegrass music he performs with many chamber groups and orchestras around the Front Range of Colorado. He recorded his solo record Low Roamer in 2017 which features the members of the MG3. Ian is originally from Wawatosa, Wisconsin.

Acoustic adventurers Stillhouse Junkies explore the worlds between roots, bluegrass, Texas swing, blues and rock. The free-flowing musical interplay and improvisation make every show unique as they weave their way through high-energy, intricately composed original songs, never taking the same path twice.

Based in the Southwestern Colorado town of Durango, the band consists of founder Fred Kodak on guitar and mandolin and longtime member Alissa Wolf on fiddle. They’ve recently been joined by Nederland, CO’s Matt Thomas on upright bass and Nashville, TN’s Eric Lee on mandolin, guitar and fiddle. Lee and Thomas formerly played together in the award winning band Man About a Horse.

Formed in 2017, Stillhouse Junkies plan to release their fourth album in early 2025. Their prolific songwriting, tight vocal harmonies, and blistering instrumentals earned them a prestigious International Bluegrass Associations’s :Momentum Band of the Year” award in 2021.

As they tour relentlessly across the United States and abroad, Stillhouse Junkies are gaining a reputation as one of the most exciting bands in the acoustic music scene. They have played such beloved festivals as Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Rockygrass, Merle Fest, and ROMP, and their busy schedule has seen them supporting Willie Carlisle, The Lil Smokies, and Asleep at the Wheel.

Join us in their Americana experiment and be the one to say you saw Stillhouse Junkies before they were huge. From festivals to performing arts centers - Stillhouse Junkies will deliver a one-of-a-kind experience!

For 60+ years the Limeliters have entertained standing-room-only crowds with their incredible musical talent and zany sense of humor. They first made their mark in folk clubs and on college campuses during the height of the folk music boom of the early 60′s, which led to numerous TV appearances. With different configurations over the years, the group has preserved their signature vocal sound.

The Limeliters were formed in July, 1959 by Louis Gottlieb (bass), Alex Hassilev (baritone), and Glenn Yarbrough (tenor). It was springtime in Los Angeles, and “Cosmo Alley” was the nightclub to frequent. Lou Gottlieb, fresh from obtaining his Ph.D in musicology, just happened to be in the audience when Alex Hassilev and Glenn Yarbrough appeared on stage to sing a duet together. It was a chance meeting . . . and a legendary one. Lou, who was then working as a vocal arranger, originally thought that “these two guys” could help him make some demos for The Kingston Trio. However, when the three started working together, they could not restrain the magic.

Soon, they packed up and headed to Aspen, Colorado, to work at a ski lodge called “The Limelite,” which Glenn and Alex had purchased after singing there during the previous ski season. After a short period of perfecting their act, they set off for the “Hungry i” in San Francisco, which at the time, was the West Coast nerve center for the mushrooming contemporary folk movement. The owner had just had a group with three long names strung together and wasn’t about to put “Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb” up on the marquee!! But the group hadn’t really decided on a name yet. So where had they last been playing? When they answered “The Limelite,” he said, “that’s your name from now on!”

Their success was immediate. Only two days after their professional debut, the group received offers from three recording companies and in early 1959, they released their first album on Elektra. Soon after, they signed with RCA and a string of best selling albums followed, making the Limeliters a household name.

The Limeliters’ album, “Tonight in Person” reached number 5 in the U.S. charts in 1961. Their second album made the top 40, and their third release, “The Slightly Fabulous Limeliters,” made the top ten in the same year. But their one album with the longest staying power is undoubtedly their album of folk songs for kids of all ages, “Through Children’s Eyes” For three years, The Limeliters were the musical representatives for Coca-Cola. Their rendition of the jingle, “Things Go Better with Coke” became a national hit.

More than all the albums, what The Limeliters are truly famous for is their trademark “Limeliters sound.” Never having a true chart-topping hit record, they are loved for a large collection of rousing songs including such audience-pleasers as “There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight,” “City of New Orleans,” “A Dollar Down,” “Have Some Madeira M’Dear,” “Lonesome Traveler,” “Wabash Cannonball,” “Whiskey in the Jar,” and many others which are performed on their 25+ record albums and in their exciting concerts.

During the seventies, in response to an ever-greater demand from their many fans, starting in 1976, The Limeliters embarked on a series of yearly reunion tours with Glenn Yarbrough. These were so successful that in 1981, Alex and Lou decided to reform the group and to get back into the mainstream of entertainment.

Today, after 6 decades in the music business, The Limeliters are still one of the most exciting and entertaining vocal acts touring the country.With the addition of newest members, C. Daniel Boling and Steve Brooks, The Limeliters are poised to “pass the music on” to new audiences, young and old.

The New York based Progressive Americana group Nefesh Mountain Band has been hailed as one of the formative boundary-pushing ensembles in roots music. The band's creators and dynamic husband and wife team of Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff have created a world and sound all their own; blurring the lines between Americana, Bluegrass, Folk, Jazz and Blues with a masterful hand as songwriters, instrumentalists and composers alike. The band, declared “A Powerhouse Unit” by Rolling Stone and "Introspective lyrics and world class musicianship” by American Songwriter, takes the listener on a deeply personal journey that embodies their own wild nature and unbridled free spirits, bridging compositional prowess and prolific songwriting with deft instrumentals and jams.

Since their formation nearly a decade ago, Nefesh Mountain has been proudly open and vocal about their background and heritage as Jewish Americans, and are among the first preeminent Americana / Bluegrass bands to infuse Jewish tradition and soul into the beautifully diverse tapestry of American roots music. For them the music is wholly American, freely expressing their own identities while at the same time addressing the hate, discrimination, anti-semitism and racism that still remains at large in America and the World today.

The band has recorded and shared the stage with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, John Doyle, Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers), Mark Schatz (Bèla Fleck, Nickel Creek), Mike Gordon (Phish) and Tony Trischka among others. The Troubadours along with their band continue to forge new paths in unknown territory, armed with Zasloff and Lindberg’s strong, smokey, and folksy vocals and Lindberg’s soulful and masterful skills on guitars and banjo alike.

In 2021 they made their debut at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN and in recent years have performed various Festivals, PACs, and countless venues including Mountain Stage, Merlefest, Wintergrass, Ossipee Valley, Kaw River Roots, Thomas Point Bluegrass and more. Through the years Nefesh Mountain has officially showcased and been a proud member of AmericanaFest, Folk Alliance, and the IBMA.A

Doni and Eric are on road year-round with the Nefesh Mountain band; a collective of violinists, mandolinists, pianists, bassists, drummers and multi-instrumentalists including David Berger, Erik Alvar, Ben Plotnick, Danny Fox, Maddie Witler, Avery Merritt, Korey Brodsky, Thomas Cassell, Julian Pinelli, Josh Day, Dan Klingsberg, Noah Fishman and others