Society Hall  "where community celebrates!"

Society Hall, at 400 Ross Avenue in Alamosa, is excited to invite the community to a free outdoor celebration Saturday September 26th , starting at 4:00 PM.  Board member Don Richmond explains, “Every year we block off Fourth Street and get one of the city stages and throw a party for the community with some great music, food and drink, and to celebrate another year of Society Hall bringing great entertainment to the Valley and to thank everyone for their support!”

This year Society Hall has one of the San Luis Valley's most loved and missed musicians and people, Mr. Billy Bond, coming back from Prescott, Arizona with his friend Kyle Phelan to play some music and see some friends, followed by a reunion of Hired Hands, a great band which featured Billy, Don Richmond and bassist Jim Bradley, both currently members of the Rifters. It will be a wonderful afternoon and evening of music and fellowship - we hope to see you there! And once again, it's free! (Although we will be inviting folks to donate to the Hall to keep us going for another year.) Here's some more info on Billy and Kyle -

Billy Bond, Jr. is one of the founding members of Hired Hands who returned to the band’s lineup in 2001. Billy covered many of the lead vocals for HH, playing both fingerstyle and flat-picked guitar, and is widely recognized as one of the premier dobro players in the region. Billy’s musical roots are deep in bluegrass, having been one of the original members of the Rocky Top Bluegrass Band in the late 1980’s and the bluegrass fusion band (with Don) the Rock Bottom Band. But just when you think you’ve got him pegged as a hardcore bluegrasser he’ll pull out his lap steel and play you some blistering blues-rock. Billy’s powerful and soulful voice plays a primary part in the commanding group vocals of Hired Hands. Whether in the almost sibling-like duo blends with Don or with Jim’s soaring high harmonies layered on top, the listener is touched, moved, and engaged.

Billy moved to Prescott, Arizona more than 20 years ago and has continued to play music in that very active music scene. Billy will open the show playing a set with his Prescott duo partner Kyle Phelan.

Kyle Phelan plays guitar and sings from his soul, rooted in southern rock and blues. He writes songs that connect with real emotion and the raw feeling inside of all of us.

He picked up the guitar at 13, played his first open mic night at 14, booked his first gig at 17 and never looked back. He spent the last 13 years solely as a professional musician in Phoenix, AZ and Chattanooga, TN. He moved to Prescott, Arizona in June of 2025 and balances his busy schedule from beautiful Groom Creek.

When you see Kyle play, you can expect to hear a mix of blues and country, some slow jams, a few soul covers and tons of original music. Music is a dynamic art, it is constantly evolving and moving, and if you want to experience all of the beauty that music has to offer, you have to move too. Kyle’s unique blend of his favorite genres will leave you smiling, singing along and coming back for more.

It will be a great afternoon of free music and fellowship outside on the street and the patio at Society Hall! The schedule isn't all nailed down yet, but things will probably start happening around 4:00 PM. Hope to see you there!

Singer-Songwriter Leticia “Tish” Hinojosa was born on December 6, 1955 in San Antonio, Texas to Mexican immigrant parents. She is the youngest of thirteen siblings. Displaying her lifelong interest in music, Hinojosa began performing at an early age. She has released 16 albums between 1987 and 2026 in English and Spanish in a variety of musical genres such as folk, country, pop and Latino. Hinojosa’s interest in cultural diversity is a recurrent theme in both her work and her personal life, and is expressed not only through her award-winning cross-cultural musical productions but also in her volunteer work with several humanitarian organizations and causes.

Tish left San Antonio in 1979, moving to northern New Mexico where she honed her songwriting and singing skills and worked as back-up singer for country artist, Michael Martin Murphey. She also lived for a period in Nashville, Tennessee. During this time, she worked as a demo singer for Mel Tillis’ publishing company. She eventually settled in Austin, Texas in 1988 where she was welcomed by Austin’s vibrant live music scene.

In 1987 Hinojosa recorded her first self-released album, “Taos To Tennessee”. After her move to Austin, she was signed to A&M Records and released her first internationally acclaimed record “Homeland”. The song “Donde Voy” (Where I Go), earned quadruple platinum status in South Korea. In 1992, she signed with Rounder records, releasing five albums with that label. “Culture Swing” was named Folk Album of The Year by the National Association of Independent Record Distributers (NAIRD). “Cada Niño”, a bilingual (Spanish-English) children’s record won the prestigious “Parent’s Choice Gold Award” in 1996. Other records on this label are “Frontejas” a collection of original and traditional Spanish language songs celebrating the Texas-Mexican border, “Sign of Truth”, and a live record, “The Best of Tish Hinojosa Live”, recorded at one of Austin’s premier listening rooms “The Cactus Café” on The University of Texas campus in 2002.

In between her time at A&M and Rounder Records, Tish recorded with Austin based “Watermelon Records”, releasing her popular Spanish language live record “Aquella Noche” (That Certain Night), and the Christmas themed “Memorabilia Navideña”, re-released later in 2002 as “From Texas For a Christmas Night” on the New West record label.

In 1994, Tish signed with Warner Brothers Records in Nashville and produced two albums alongside acclaimed producer Jim Ed Norman – “Destiny’s Gate” and the bilingual and all Spanish “Dreaming from The Labyrinth”/ “Soñar Del Laberinto”. In addition to an active recording and touring schedule, Hinojosa appeared on multiple television broadcasts including the ABC TV special of the Alma Awards in which she was an honoree and performed duets with Dwight Yoakam and Kenny Loggins. She also made three separate appearances on PBS’s “Austin City Limits”, appeared on Good Morning America, on ONYX TV in Germany, WDR TV Germany, SWR TV Switzerland, and VPRO TV Netherlands.

Hinojosa’s humanitarian works include serving as spokesperson for both The National Latino Children’s Agenda and The National Association of Bilingual Education, and was active with The United Farmworkers of America. Tish also performed at The White House by invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton.

Hinojosa was married to entertainment attorney Craig Barker from 1982 to 1999. Barker managed her career and filled in as bass player in her band. The couple have two children, Adam Craig Barker, born in Nashville in 1984, and Maria Cristina Barker (Nina), born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1987. Tish lived in Hamburg, Germany, from 2005-2013. While there, she recorded three albums, “A Heart Wide Open”, “Our Little Planet”, and “After the Fair”, and continued touring throughout Europe and the U.S.

In 2018, Tish recorded an album entitled “West”. In 2019, she was inducted into “The Texas Institute of Letters” – the second singer-songwriter after Willie Nelson to achieve that honor. Tish and her husband, Lynn Nixon, divide their time between Austin, Texas, and Tubac, Arizona. She continues to write, record and tour. She enjoys spending time with her large extended family in San Antonio, with her children, and five grandchildren.

Hinojosa continues to support Humanitarian, Bilingual, and cultural causes, particularly Hispanic cultural causes through her performances and participation in school and cultural outreach programs.

The ReMemberers are a multidisciplinary trio weaving ritual storytelling, global song, and multi-instrumental virtuosity into an experience that feels part theater, part concert, part ceremony. Violet Southard's numinous voice, Alex Harvey's resonant strings, and John de Kadt's percussive tale-telling create an atmosphere where ancient myths breathe again — told, sung, and drummed into presence.

John carries handpan, kanjira, cajón, and water drums, and has played and recorded with Krishna Das, collaborated with Mickey Hart, and spent years alongside Robert Bly in the mythopoetic storytelling world. Alex plays satar, baglama, harmonium, shakuhachi, and mandolin.

Each gathering begins with an inherited wisdom tale and unfolds as a journey inward. Musical traditions from across the planet converge in this awakening of ancient folklore. The ReMemberers, in partnership with their audience, rekindle one of humanity's oldest customs: coming together to listen, imagine, and be transformed.

About The Firebird

A Russian folktale dating back ten generations is revived this season in a fresh retelling. In a forest gone silent, a young Huntsman finds a single golden feather blazing on the path before him — a feather shed from the burning breast of the Firebird, the most extraordinary creature in all the world. Against the counsel of his talking horse, he takes it. And from that one moment of ambition, everything unravels.

Task by task, a tyrannical ruler — the ego made sovereign — escalates his demands on the obedient Huntsman who stumbles deeper into complicity with the authoritarian regime. The Huntsman makes one compromise after another until he can no longer remember where his own will has ended and the tyrant's began.

Courage won't be enough to answer that call. Neither will serenity. Only a willingness to be completely undone.

This is a thousand-year-old Russian folktale. It is also a story about right now.

The ReMemberers bring this ancient tale to life through voice, world percussion, and acoustic strings in a ninety-minute performance that feels equal parts theater and concert. An evening that will remain with you like an old friend returning home.

For more information – Site: https://www.rememberers.org/ Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1219620000?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

As both an excellent songwriter and a powerful performer, Patty Clayton is one of the best-known and most beloved female performers in the western music genre. Known as having a voice “as pure as the prairie wind”, Patty is a performing songwriter who renders her own brand of Buckaroo Ballads and Western Swing inspired by her life in the West. Patty was named the International Western Music Association Female Performer of the Year in November of 2024 for the second time.

Accompanying Patty will be the current two time IWMA Instrumentalist of the Year Ernie Martinez and bassist Dan Welch. Ernie’s musical career spans over 40 years teaching stringed instruments at Denver's Swallow Hill Music School. He is the go-to accompanist for many of the musicians and recording artists of the Colorado Front Range, knowing no boundaries in his ability to add just the right instrument to a performance. Dan studied music at the University of Colorado, where he proceeded to teach guitar, perform classical guitar programs and also performed with the Lorelei Duo. After pausing his musical pursuits to focus on his career and family, he returned as an active performer, playing a variety of instruments in Denver’s bluegrass and worship communities. Dan believes in bringing joy to listeners through his love of music.For more information on Patty check out her website at www.pattyclayton.com.

In January 2024, Kim Richey found herself in Mexico, gazing out at a sea of people singing along to “I’m Alright,” one of her classic tracks. The three folks on stage with the veteran, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter were also raising their voices in harmony. To her right sat Brandi Carlile, to her left, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Brandy Clark. The formidable foursome was participating in a songwriter’s round only half-jokingly dubbed “Titans of Americana” at Carlile’s female-forward Girls Just Wanna Weekend festival on the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

“That was nuts looking out and seeing everybody arm-waving and singing along,” says Richey, still both incredulous and cheered by the memory of performing with that supergroup and later appearing alongside other Girls Just Wanna Weekend-ers Annie Lennox, Lucius, Allison Russell, and Sarah McLachlan among others. “It was just like, ‘wow’!”

Kim is celebrating the release of her 10th studio album, titled Every New Beginning. From her critically acclaimed self-titled 1995 debut to Long Way Back… The Songs of Glimmer in 2020, Richey has consistently impressed listeners, garnered accolades, and attracted famous fans with her deft songwriting and crystalline vocals, both of which have made her an in-demand collaborator.

Richey has penned No.1 hits for Radney Foster (“Nobody Wins”) and Trisha Yearwood (“Believe Me Baby (I Lied)”)—the latter earning her a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song—as well as songs for Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Loveless, and Brooks and Dunn, among others. Her voice has graced scores of recordings, providing peerless harmonies, including Jason Isbell’s watershed Southeastern, Trisha Yearwood’s Everybody Knows, Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams, 

Reba McEntire’s Starting Over, and Has Been by Capt. Kirk himself, William Shatner. Most recently Richey co-headlined that night of Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend Festival in Mexico, sharing the stage with a wide range of artists including Carlile—who cites Richey as a formative influence—Brandy Clark, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Annie Lennox, Allison Russell, and Sarah McLachlan. She was also a special guest at Jason Isbell’s annual Ryman Auditorium residency, sitting in to reprise her role for the anniversary performance of Southeastern. Richey is touring the US this fall and winter in support of Every New Beginning.

Four Shillings Short, the husband/wife duo of Aodh Og O’Tuama from Cork, Ireland and Christy Martin from California, bring together music, stories and folklore from the Celtic lands to celebrate the Ancient Celtic Bonfire festival of Samhain, known as Féile na Marbh (the Feast of the Dead). Samhain (pronounced 'sow-in' meaning 'the Summer's end') marks the end of harvest, beginning of Winter and the Celtic New Year. Traditionally celebrated at the end of October/beginning of November it is the origin of Halloween/All Hallows Eve, All Souls Day and Dia de los Muertos.

It is believed that on Samhain or 'Ancestor Night', the border between the world of the living and the dead is thinnest. Candles are lit at the graves of loved ones, offerings of food and drink left out for the Ancestors and bonfires lit throughout the countryside. Many of our modern day customs are based on Samhain including ghost stories, Halloween costumes, bobbing for apples, and the jack-o-lantern.

Touring in the US & Ireland since 1997, Four Shillings Short are international touring multi-instrumentalists who perform traditional and original music from the Celtic lands, medieval & renaissance Europe, India and the Americas on a fantastic array of instruments (over 30) including hammered & mountain dulcimers, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, recorders, tinwhistles, medieval and renaissance woodwinds, north Indian sitar, charango, bowed psaltery, banjo, Native American flutes, bodhran, guitar, ukulele, doumbek & darbuka, spoons, vocals and even a krumhorn. Performing close to 100 concerts a year, they have released 13 recordings and live as full time troubadours, performing at music festivals, theaters & performing arts centers, folk societies, libraries, house concerts, retirement communities, schools & churches.

Aodh Og O’Tuama grew up in a family of poets, musicians and writers. He received his degree in Music from University College Cork, Ireland and received a Fellowship from Stanford University in California in Medieval and Renaissance performance. He plays tinwhistles, Medieval & Renaissance woodwinds, recorders, doumbek (from Morocco), darbuka (from Egypt), Medieval bowed psaltery, Native American flute, wooden spoons and sings in English, Gaelic & French.

Christy Martin grew up in a family of musicians and dancers. From the age of 15, began her training on the north Indian sitar, studying with Tony Karasek (a student of master Sitarist Ravi Shankar) and Rahul Sariputra (a student of Allaudin Khan). In her 20’s she took up the hammered dulcimer and studied with Maggie Sansone, Dan Duggan, Cliff Moses, Robin Petrie, Tony Elman and Glen Morgan. She also plays mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, banjo, guitar, bodhran (Irish frame drum), Andean charango, medieval psaltery, ukulele and sings in English, Irish and Sanskrit.