New Mexico: You CAN drink the water...

Is there a more misunderstood state in our union than New Mexico? Sandwiched between Texas and Arizona, named after... well... MEXICO, one would expect a sweltering hot desert wasteland with nary a well-hydrated soul in site. Ask the folks in Las Cruses, and they'd probably agree with you, but find yourself in Albuquerque and you'll find people, and buildings, and merchants who accept cash money, not just beads... Head further north to Santa Fe and you may even encounter snow.

Yup. Effing SNOW in effing New Mexico. I know... Take a minute to recover from your now severely blown mind...

You know what else you can find in New Mexico? Not a whole hell of a lot of music, that's for sure...

That's not to say that the Land of Enchantment, so coined by native country cowboy Michael Martin Murphey, doesn't have some other interesting tidbits about it. Still don't believe me? Do I need to remind you that it EFFING SNOWS here? Let's see what else the Wiki can tell us...

- Geologists speculate that New Mexico is roughly the same age as the rest of the planet, including it's southern neighbor, regular Mexico... Not so NEW after all eh?

- At a population density of 15 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth most sparsely inhabited U.S. state. Meaning the spaces are far too confining for your average Montanian.

- New Mexico does not rank first or last in any ranking convention among the 50 US states. I guess this would make New Mexico the #1 most mediocre state in the union.

- Nope. That's South Dakota.

- The state flag of New Mexico looks surprisingly like an eye test.

- Apparently my vision is just fine. The horizontal and vertical stripes line up correctly.

- Residents of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, New Mexico's oldest town, likely don't get the irony.

- Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city is located in Bernalillo County. I don't anticipate this information is all that interesting or entertaining, but the next time someone asks you what county houses New Mexico's largest city, you best give credit to how you know the answer...

- New Mexico is famous for chilies, cow skulls, and painting their buildings in pastel hues.

- New Mexico is not famous for their sports teams, which saddens The Isotopes.

- Yes, the Albuquerque Isotopes did get their name from a Simpsons episode.

- Doug Eddings, major league umpire and personal nemesis to Angels fans the world over is a New Mexico native who thinks he should be the central focus of baseball games rather than say, the game itself…

- Bitter? I’m not bitter… ‘The Call’ changed the tone of the entire series and the Angels never recovered from the screwing, but it’s in the past… Really it is…

- Fuckin’ Doug Eddings…

- Billy the Kid, Conrad Hilton, French Stewart, and Ralph Kiner have something in common. They all robbed banks, fought the law, and had unusually large wrists, but small hands.

- Actually, those facts are only true of Billy the Kid, but all four ARE from New Mexico…

- OK, the wrist thing is only true if you believe Emilio Estevez's soliloquy from Young Guns II. Call me crazy, but I think they MAY have just been making it up to further the story line...

OK, enough with the stalling… The list is sparse, but I managed to piece something together… My apologies to the snubbed Amelia Maciszewski, New Mexican sitarist…

Solo Artist: John Denver

Yes. Mr. 'Rocky Mountain High' is a native New Mexican... Now this will come as no surprise to you if you have read the entry on the one-tick-to-the-north land of Colorado, but if your new to The Dance, or only here to read about this entry, then I've now blown your mind... TWICE...

Also, if you have ventured into the great internet wide open in search of nothing more than a blog post about New Mexico's music, PLEASE drop me a comment and tell me what prompted such a random and seemingly futile quest...

I am not a die-hard Denverite... For the most part I find his tunes kind of hokey and trite like most 60's and 70's country-tinged singer songwriters. I'm not a big fan of Freddy Fender, or James Taylor, or Merle Haggard either, but I must admit that one of my favorite all time songs is the John Denver version of his own composition, Leaving on a Jet Plane. Although it was recorded by Peter. Paul and Mary first, and more famously, the words and music just fit better together with Denver's voice, lending a sense of pain and longing that's not even diminished by learning that the song was actually written in an airport waiting on a delayed flight...

Unfortunately, the tune would also become eerily prophetic when Denver left us, on a jet plane, the victim of a tragic accident over the California coast on October 12th, 1997. The Long-EZ aircraft he was piloting crashed at Pacific Grove, just off Monterey.

Honor the fallen New Mexican, even if he did prefer the company of OTHER states...



Band: Beirut

The great Southwest hasn't been an indie rock capital for very long, but they are starting to make a name for themselves. If you have read the Nevada post, you'll know the Silver State is jam packed with up and coming performers, and a few years before them, Arizona was blowing up the alternative airwaves. Who's next? Well I think New Mexico has as good a shot as anyplace, especially if Zach Condon, the voice behind Beirut has anything to say about it.

Way too new to get a shot in any heavily represented state, I can't really go on and on about Beirut's 'musical legacy', but I include them in hopes that if somebody digs this up ten years from now and sees I was high on this act WAY back in aught-nine that mysterious someone will also say to themselves 'Wow... This OC Kerouac really knows his shit!'

I love nothing so much as I love positive affirmations from total strangers... Here, listen to a song!



Honorable Mention: Neil Patrick Harris

So he hasn't put out any albums per se, but dude was in Rent on Broadway for a number of years, and he's NPH for god's sake... That's good enough for me...

That said, I kind of liked when everyone still called him 'that guy who played Doogie Howser' but schadenfreude aside, he's a great actor, funnier than hell, has a tremendous amount of talent and deserves all the pub he's currently receiving. For these reasons and the below, I felt I had no choice but to jump on the bandwagon...



BONUS!: THIS is the greatest song ever about New Mexico, despite the fact that it's singer is Welsh...

Next time, the stalling is over, and it's time to pull the trigger... The selections from New York will likely not anger anyone as much as they anger myself...