You can only squeeze so many banjos, two-steppers and fiddlers into a single Saturday afternoon. If you don't watch your elbows, you might get a rosined bow where God never intended.

Though rooted in two different cultures, Iraqi oudist Rahim AlHaj and Indian sarodist Ustad Amjad Ali Khan have each flourished under the same sun: the belief that music is a singularly uniting art form that can transform the world for the better.

Usually, drunken ideas only sound brilliant while you're sloshed.

Max Moulton and three of his friends from Dixon beat the odds and came up with a solid idea for a music festival while blitzed. "Alcohol was kind of the catalyst," Moulton recalls. "Booze cures all."

That was three years ago. Since then, there have been two installments of their Kannaroo music festival in Sunshine Valley, situated just north of Questa. The third Kannaroo features 12 bands from New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, a guitar shred-off competition and an improperly sized volleyball game.

Religious Girls (East Bay, Calif.), Jessie Williams and Colton Saylor (California, California), and Our Brother the Native (Ann Arbor, Mich.) split the cross-country difference and meet in Albuquerque at CiRQ art gallery (712 Central SE, just west of I-25) on Wednesday, June 24. Yoda’s House acts as Southwestern ambassador. 8 p.m., $5, all-ages. (Laura Marrich)

Albuquerque's Nikki Kelly sounds like she just woke up. Her sleepy, raspy and understated vocals set up the scene for everything she crafts instrumentally. Kelly plays guitar, piano, accordion and ukulele on her self-titled release, but the record is hardly cacophonous. Subdued folk keeps its cool and the biggest surprises come when Kelly's voice shoots high into the air. Lyrically, Kelly covers boredom, smoking and all matter of relationship troubles. She has a quiet, self-assured delivery and enough patience to stay away from overreaching. Her songs shun gaudy ornamentation—their simplicity is their greatest strength. (SM)