Event Horizon

UNM Honky Tonk via Facebook

On Thursday, April 21, the best kept secret at the UNM Music Department, the school's Honky Tonk Ensemble, opens for New Mexico country music stalwart Kyle Martin at Low Spirits. Martin's got a sound that's wrapped wonderfully around a regional tradition incorporating the best of old and new. His guitar makes music of the type fancied by lonesome cowpokes on the trail while also acknowledging the power and prowess of latter day west-Texas masters like Billy Gibbons. The UNM ensemble, led by professors Dr. Kristina Jacobsen and Byron Ripley, cover the classics, playing the works of legendary practitioners of the genre from Patsy Cline to Buck Owens and beyond. UNM Honky Tonk Ensemble bass player Peter Melada is excited about the gig and told Weekly Alibi, "We have an amazing fiddler, some great guitar pickers and piano players; just about everybody sings. Most of us are multi-instrumentalists. We play more than one instrument and we form different configurations getting different sounds on different songs. There is a tremendous feeling of freedom in the ensemble." The show gets going around 9pm; two-step dance lessons will be provided, too. Low Spirits • Thu Apr 21 • 9pm • $8 • 21+ • View on Alibi calendar