HEADLINER LINE-UP

Click band name or images to listen to their music.

6/8 Levi Platero

Levi Platero is steeped in musical lessons as far back as teaching himself guitar at nine years old from a launchpad of the Three Kings and Stevie Ray Vaughn, Platero’s leads and songwriting reflect a lifetime absorbing music. On “Work Hours,” Platero’s guitar work and songwriting style bring a breath of fresh air to a time-worn topic and make it new. I haven’t really had a lot of jobs in my life, other than being a musician. So in that way I’ve been lucky. But about two years ago was one of those times when I had to do it. I had a job at a hardware store for about six months, and I hated it. I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t have enough hours to earn what I need, but these hours I have still feel way too long.’ I’m a Navajo bluesman who grew up in a Gospel circuit, I have this huge cultural background I’m very proud of but, at the end of the day, I’m also a blues guy and I’m trying to fit in. Trying to bring all those diverse influences and different styles of music I love into a blues context. – Levi Platero Platero is from the Navajo Nation in the Southwest region of the United States.

6/15 Jessica Lynn

Jessica Lynn is being hailed by press around the world as a rocket force and is quickly becoming a household name. A unique face and voice in modern music, she has been seen by millions on the road and in her three full-length nationwide concert television specials. Jessica’s powerful voice and fierce stage presence showcase the multi-faceted singer/songwriter’s instrumental talents playing piano, guitar, harmonica, and the drums.

In five years of relentless international touring, Jessica has shared stages with some of the most recognizable names in country and rock music such as Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Richard Marx, Montgomery Gentry, Lonestar, The Allman Betts Band, Phil Vassar, Jo Dee Messina, ZZ Top, and the “Queen of Country” herself, Loretta Lynn. With one of the most exciting live shows in the business, Jessica has often drawn comparisons to country music superstar Shania Twain. Sustaining a country music tradition, Jessica is joined on stage by her family, with her dad on bass, mom on background vocals, and husband on lead guitar. Her high-energy and dynamic performances have garnered rave reviews from critics worldwide. 

Jessica Lynn is brought to you in part by a generous donation from Quintana’s Music Center in historic downtown Gallup. When planning your next event think about Quintana’s Event Center as well.

223 W Coal Ave, Gallup, New Mexico 87301
(505) 863-5577 or quintanasmusic1@gmail.com

6/22 Rainy Eyes

Rainy Eyes – Born out of revelry and resolution in a redwood cabin tucked into the California coast, endowed with a spirit simmering in wanderlust, and ornamented with the rich traditions of the Louisiana bayou, “Lonesome Highway” marks the resilient return of Irena Eide aka Rainy Eyes. Eleven songs, punctuated with perseverance and perspective that sober up the soul and send it back stronger onto the blacktop. If Rainy’s 2019 folk-infused debut,
Moon in the Mirror, revealed the truth, “Lonesome Highway” tells of the consequences. Much of “Lonesome Highway” was written nearly a decade ago, as Rainy reflected on the juxtaposition of her circumstance. Basking in the joy of motherhood, she was simultaneously confronting a troubled relationship that had turned toxic and untenable.
“Songwriting was my therapy. It was basically how I dealt with the pain and the trauma. The music helped me heal,” says Rainy. “This album is about how I had to help myself. To take that pain and use it. For it not to destroy me, but to make me who I am.”

A Norway native raised mostly by her mother, Rainy grew up dividing time between the urban congestion of Bergen and her maternal family’s sheep farm on the rugged islands of western Norway. She found nature there, in one of the rainiest climates on earth, and relatives eager to shine some light through music; a guitar-playing uncle introduced her to the classics: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones; Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan and more.

Her father, a Serbian musician, was an inspiring, if itinerant presence. A natural performer, she started singing as a young child, and the first time seeing her dad in years, she recorded her first demo with him at 12. Having a rough time in her teens witnessing her fathers addiction and abuse, Rainy grew up fast. At 17, she moved into her own apartment and at 18, she left Norway for Denmark. Within a year, she met and fell in love with an American free-jazz saxophonist and eloped to San Francisco. “There’s this part of me that has to keep moving,” she says.

Her time in the Bay Area was spent teaching children old-time folk songs and honing her multi-instrumental chops on bluegrass and roots music, while her nights were marked at underground jazz clubs in the Tenderloin. She befriended and hung out with Pete Seeger, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Peter Rowan. In addition to running a music space in San Francisco, she hosted camps and kids music classes in the backyard of her Bolinas cabin. In fact, in addition to “Lonesome Highway,” Rainy will release a collection of 70 original and traditional “not for kids only” folk songs for children entitled
Little Folkies on Smithsonian Folkways this Fall

Throughout her splintering marriage and in the process of healing from the difficult separation, she wrote, constantly. At her Bolinas cabin, she gathered with friends and experimented with songs, sounds, and psychedelics. Ric Robertson and Gina Leslie from New Orleans, Phoebe Hunt from Nashville, as well as locals Sam Grisman and Jeremy 

D’Antonio all played a hand. Together a creative spark was lit and helped the initial vision for “Lonesome Highway” come alive.

Within months, as her wandering spirit called, Rainy found herself once again leaving everything behind. Feeling the draw of the music and culture of south Louisiana where she connected with the roots of her musical influences and found time and space to slow down and work on her craft. Forging a friendship with noted Lafayette musician and producer Dirk Powell, they hunkered down in his cypress cabin studio on the bayou. She shared the Bolinas recordings with Powell who heard a potential album within those cathartic cabin sessions. He suggested Rainy track a few more recently written songs, including “Misty Mama,” “Just a Little Rain” and “You Just Want What You Can’t Have,” adding local Lafayette musicians Chris Stafford on pedal steel, Eric Adcock on B3 and Dirks daughters Amelia and Sophie Powell on harmonies.

“Lonesome Highway” marks a hope-filled and assertive new beginning for Rainy Eyes.
As electric guitar and drums now join fiddle and banjo. As highways and mountains offer optimism and escape. As leaving leads to self discovery. Breaking cycles, trusting the universe, and allowing the higher self to lead the way.

6/29 Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience

Two time Grammy winner Terrance Simien, 8th generation Louisian Creole, has been shattering the myths and often misinformation, about what his traditional Zydeco roots music is – and is not for over 40 year. It most certainly is Black American roots music and it is music born of the African American/Black and mixed race French speaking Creoles of South Louisiana. This is the truth and these are the facts.

Simien leads a highly skilled Zydeco Experience band with long time band member, close friend and creative collaborator: Danny Williams (30+ years, two-GRAMMY award winning), keyboards, vocals; Stan Chambers (15+ years, GRAMMY award winning), bass, vocals; Ian Molinaro – Thompson, drums; Michael Christie on trumpet and Noah Boshra, saxophone. Ian MT is a Berklee College of Music graduate and Mike a Shenandoah University graduate ( SU is in the top 10% of music programs in the country). Another Berklee College grad, Ethan Santos, trombone, also lends his skills to us on tour at times.  Noah Boshran, joining us in 2024, is a Tulane graduate.

7/4 The Family Crest

The Family Crest is the brainchild of composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Liam McCormick, orchestral indie band The Family Crest was started as a recording project with co-founder John Seeterlin (bass) as a final release before bowing out of the industry. Instead of leaving music, they were inspired by their peers to set out to reinvent how a band could be created, starting The Family Crest with an audacious and bold vision of cultivating a musical community. “We always liked making music with people – getting a bunch of people together and singing. So we put ads everywhere,” says McCormick. “We posted on Craigslist, distributed flyers, and emailed old friends from school.” The outcome was greater than the original duo imagined, with over 80 people credited on the first recording the band produced and over 500 musicians credited throughout their catalog.

7/6 The Sweet Lillies

The Sweet Lillies, back again for the second year in a row. The Sweet Lillies’ music is, first and foremost, heartfelt and collaborative.  Those defining traits are given life by the quartet of musicians who make up the Lillies. Together they have combined their individual strengths to deliver powerful narratives of life in song.  With their lineup of guitar, viola, upright bass, drums and ethereal vocal harmonies that float like a dream, the Sweet Lillies’ music has a hard hitting original flavor with a forward-looking eye.  They have incorporated all of their cumulative life-experiences into their music, song-writing, and artistry, crafting an uncommonly-beautiful style they have christened “String-Americana” – a nod to the band’s all encompassing musical tastes and willingness to experiment with genres ranging from folk and rock all the way to hip-hop. 

7/13 Def-i with Red Light Cameras

Hailing from Albuquerque, NM, Def-i represents the Diné Nation as one of the Southwest’s most active and prominent touring artists. His performance styles range wide from Hip-Hop and Spoken Word to Contemporary Native-American Acoustic. Emerging from the Underground Indy rap circuit, his eclectic repertoire of talent has allowed him to single-handedly perform regularly throughout the country as an artist, and an educator. His dedication to cultural preservation and lyrical mastery has earned him the respect of hip hop veterans, industry professionals, academics, and upcoming generations.

Red Light Cameras are a show-stopping rock band out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lead by powerhouse vocalist, Amanda Machon, this band packs a punch and always has the dance floor moving as fans belt out the lyrics, singing along with one of the best front people you will ever see.

7/20 Afro-Andean Funk

Afro-Andean Funk is a Peruvian-American band nominated for a Latin Grammy, led by singer Araceli Poma and producer/bassist Matt Geraghty. Their music breaks cultural barriers by creating a powerful sound that blends traditional Andean music and the Afro-Peruvian scene with funk, rock, and West African rhythms.

Formed in 2021, Afro-Andean Funk released their debut album, ‘The Sacred Leaf’ (2022), followed by the latest release, ‘Flower on Fire’ (2023). Both albums, featuring original compositions, address themes of social struggle, shamanic rituals, and cultural traditions. Their goal is to unite musical cultures and, most importantly, bring visibility to endangered indigenous languages, such as Quechua.

Vocalist Araceli Poma has become one of the most representative traditional artists of her generation in Peru. Her work has been defined by creating platforms for female artists to share their stories and struggles against racism and marginalization.

Bassist, composer, and producer Matt Geraghty met Poma in a recording studio in Lima, Peru, in 2019, while filming a documentary series featuring a talented group of women singers from the Afro-Peruvian and Criolla scene. Poma was selected as a featured singer on the album and subsequent documentary, “The Warrior Women of Afro-Peruvian Music,” which was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

7/27 Sage Cornelius

Sage Cornelius (Oneida, Navajo, Potawatomi) is a multi-instrumentalist musician from Topeka, Kansas. He learned honky-tonk/Irish fiddle as well as classical violin when he was young.

We are excited that this performance will be held at Major Market in Zuni Pueblo! Watch out Zuni, the 2024 Levitt AMP Gallup Music Series is coming your way!!!

8/3 Jivin’ Scientists

Formed in 1998, the Jivin’ Scientists have been actively creating music in the south west for nearly 2 decades. A staple in the Tucson, AZ hip hop community, core members Runt (MC), Phen (DJ/producer) and Soundsmith have released 10 official albums and performed on numerous tours. With their signing to Strange Famous Record’s digital imprint SFdigi, the Jivin’ Scientists seek to grow and cultivate their one of a kind sound.

8/10 Charly Lowery, Bandits on the Run & DeerLady

Charly Lowry is a singer-songwriter from Pembroke, NC with roots in the Union Chapel Community. Charly received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from UNC Chapel-Hill. Upon graduation, Lowry moved full-steam ahead in pursuit of a career as a professional musician. For over a decade, Charly has attained regional and national success as both a solo artist and lead singer of alternative rock/ soul/ folk band, Dark Water Rising. In addition to performing with Dark Water Rising and The Ulali Project, she often shares the stage with funk/soul band, “The New Mastersounds”.

In 2004, Charly had the opportunity to compete on the wildly popular television show, American Idol. She ventured through several rounds of auditions to make it to the Top 32. Charly enjoys performing, meeting people, and educating others on the Native American experience. Charly served as a Lumbee Ambassador for the Lumbee people in 1997-98; traveling throughout the country to visit Tribal Nations while attending various conferences, powwows, etc. Her reign as Jr. Miss Lumbee was the catalyst that awakened her spirit to an inherent calling as a “Culture Bearer”. Lowry continues to work on her craft; immersing herself in the culture of American music and expanding her listening ear to various genres, all the while composing songs that give a personal account of her experience as an Indigenous woman walking in two worlds.

Bandits on the Run is an indie-folk-pop-americana outfit consisting of three lead singers, a guitar, a cello, a suitcase drum, an accordion, and various toy instruments. They hail from Brooklyn, NY and are known for their vivacious performance style, genre-defying sound, soaring harmonies, and ability to make music-magic happen everywhere from subway platforms to concert halls. They are comprised of Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn.  Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the subways of New York City, the Brooklyn based outfit has gone on to receive accolades from NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, American Songwriter, NPR Weekend Edition, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project.  

DeerLady, shaking up the world of Indigenous music is indie rock duo, Mali Obomsawin (Odanak First Nation) and Magdalena Abrego’s Deer Lady. Having released their debut album Greatest Hits just this last January, the pair has already enthralled their audience with their unique and complimentary styles, and are quickly establishing themselves as the new Native band to follow.

Obomsawin, a bassist, songwriter, and composer, got her start in music on the clarinet (just one of the many similarities they share with Abrego) and the fiddle, participating in her school band and remembering the jazz music her father would always have playing around the house. Abrego, a guitarist, has a background in jazz music, and over her career, has developed her own personal style, preferring to test the limits with what unique sounds she can bring to her music.

“Reservation Dogs ended up reaching out to us…I was like ‘well I’m sitting on this unreleased album and we hadn’t even decided to be a band yet. It was for the episode ‘Deer Lady’ and so they used two of my songs from ‘SweetTooth’ (a past album) and our song ‘There There’ from the album we created together,” Obomsawin recalled.

When it came time to decide on the name of their new band, the pair originally wanted to name it after themselves, but having already dealt with enough mispronounciations and misspellings from outside their communities, another epiphany struck Obomsawin. “I was walking in the woods of Oregon, and wait a second, let me just do a quick google search if the band name ‘Deer Lady’ was taken, and miraculously, it wasn’t.” Abrego joined in on the excitement with; “It’s native – but pronouncible!”

Charly Lowry

Bandits on the Run

Deer Lady