Joe West & The Santa Fe Revue St. Valentine’s Day Affair

Tickets are $19.99 advance (plus applicable service charges), $25 day of show.

Catch Joe on KUNM's Afternoon Freeform with DJ Peggy Hessing on Monday, February 6 at around 2:00.

Joe West & The Santa Fe Revue is a new and sophisticated presentation of Alt. Country singer-songwriter Joe West’s music, featuring the string orchestrations of Michael Kott and Ms. Karina Wilson, along with his longtime backing-band plus some very special guests!  With deep roots in Santa Fe, Joe West comes from a family filled with ranchers and artists. Legend has it that one autumn day more than a hundred years ago, the West’s covered wagon came to a halt on a vast piece of prairie land where they homesteaded south of town …the same land where Joe still lives in his grandmother’s old adobe hacienda.

JOE WEST [web site | Amazon.com]
It may seem strange that Joe West’s folk/country tales of U.F.O’s, broken hearts and trailer park liberals enthrall audiences wherever he hangs his hat. After spending many years in New York City as a young actor and subway musician, Joe moved to Austin, TX. During his time in Austin, Joe’s CD, Jamie Was a Boozer, was rated as a top 10 Texas Platter by the Austin Chronicle and became a huge success on indie rock radio stations across the country and in Europe. Now based in his home town of Santa Fe, Joe has continued writing and recording music on the Frogville Records label, including the critically acclaimed CDs Human Cannonball, South Dakota Hairdo and his adorable children’s album, If the World Was Upside Down. Joe has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, sharing the stage with the likes of Arlo Guthrie and The Violent Femmes. 

BEN WRIGHT (Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Background Vocals)
Based in Santa Fe, Ben Wright began playing cello at age 9, studied guitar with his father from age 12, graduated from the Colorado College with a BFA in music in 1997. He has been performing and producing music professionally in Santa Fe and around the world since 2001. He is perhaps best known as lead guitarist and sound technician for experimental electronic rockers, D Numbers, but has also made waves as an electrifying lead guitarist for the beloved bluegrass power-trio, Mary and Mars, The Santa Fe Allstars and various Joe West affiliated projects over the years. Look for his first solo album Tributary coming out on Archipel Records this winter.

MARGARET BURKE (Electric Bass Guitar, Background Vocals)
Born and raised in the cornfields of central Illinois, 12-year-old Margaret taught herself some chords on her Daddy’s 1948 Gibson guitar and has since happily claimed music as her own! In 1987 at the suggestion of a palm reader, she bought an electric bass and has been doing her part to entertain New Mexico audiences in bands like Terry True & Sugar Blue, Sweet Sister, The Joe West Situation and The Cowgirl Brunch Gospel Band. A self described “Servant o’ the Music,” Margaret has been called upon to do recording session work for many local heroes of hers and has been a producer for the acclaimed Santa Fe Bandstand concert series for the past 9 years.

COZY RALSTON (Drums)
When Cozy was 7 years old his teen brother Stanley hauled a set of sparkly-red Slingerland drums to the attic with a warning; “touch my drums and I’ll kill you”! Of course, Cozy sneaked up to the “forbidden” drums every moment he could until he was discovered months later! Instead of annihilating him, Stanley encouraged his little brother to keep playing. By age 13 Cozy became the youngest member of the Perth Amboy, N.J. musician’s union and found himself gigging with many local jazz and R&B greats. About his return after a long break from gigging to raise a family Cozy says, “My kids had gone off to conquer the world. I found myself single without responsibilities. So I returned to my first love, music! After arriving in Santa Fe seven years ago, Margaret Burke invited me to accompany Joe West at country & western music legend Bill Hearne’s birthday show at The Cowgirl Hall of Fame and as they say…the rest is history!”

LORI OTTINO (Featured Guest Vocalist)
Lori remembers singing harmony with her family around the piano before she learned to talk! She grew up in Colorado, but moved to Seattle where she found a group of women who loved to explore sound and their voices as much as she did. Seattle led to San Francisco where she played in the duet Psychodahlia; a sound Lori describes as ambient electronica. San Francisco led to Nantes, France where Lori played with the group Impulse. Then Lori joined a ska/reggae group called Natty Smiling as their vocalist, and co-wrote many songs with them. With a sparkle in her eye, she says, “We were big on the Brittany Coast, around Pornic and Prefailles”. Somehow, France led Lori to Madrid, New Mexico, where she and a bunch of fellow blue grass lovers formed the highly acclaimed group called Family Coal.

MICHAEL KOTT (Cello)
Michael Kott has been called a “transgalactic electro-cellist” and is an accomplished musician who has been playing the cello since the age of nine. Cellist extraordinaire, Kott has received wide critical acclaim and awards for his original compositions and recordings.  

MIKE BARKER
Mike Barker began performing authentic Appalachian music during the “folk revival” of the late 60s and early 70s.  He is a virtuoso on the Autoharp and a pure clawhammer banjo player.  Mike is steeped in the musical fabric of his native West Virginia. Now he is proud to call New Mexico his permanent home. In recent years, Mike has refined his skills focusing on electric alternative Country and tells us he particularly enjoys his recent performances with Joe West.  He can be found performing Old Time, Celtic, Gospel and old Country and Western classics.  Mike is a veteran performer at The Philadelphia Folk Festival, Wolf Trap, and the epic Galax, Mt. Airy and Clifftop Fiddler Conventions.