THIRSTY EAR DAY (ACTUALLY NIGHT) ONE

Unfortunately duties at work kept me away from the festival until 8:30 or 9 p.m. I got to Eaves Ranch in time to hear the last two and half songs by Hundred Year Flood -- which made me sad. I'd been looking forward to seeing them again. What I heard though sounded tremendous and they really had the crowd going.

I'd also been wanting to hear Boris McCutcheon, a current Albuquerque resident, but I was way too late for that. Got to meet the boy though. He says he'll be doing a bunch of gigs at the Cowgirl in the near future.

And dammit, I missed the Chipper Thompson/Mason Brown/Roger Landes Zoukfest set that opened the show, though I got to hear a little of Chipper and Kim Treiber's acoustic set in the "Hotel" later in the evening.

So the only full set I got to hear was that of Alex Maryol. I hadn't hear him in about two years, and it seems the kid is only getting stronger and more confident. His music seems to be going from good-time bar blues toward an Ian Moore-like psychedelia, which I think is a good thing.

Alex's basic band consists of himself on guitar, Mark Clark on drums and Willie McGee on bass. But the set really came to life when they were joined by guitarist/singer and longtime Maryol partner Ken Valdez and Freddy Lopez on harmonica.

Valdez was just seething with energy. He looked like a rhino about to charge. He and Alex have a wonderful chemistry together. I know they have their own careers and ideas on music, but, to use an old cliche this is a classic case of the sum being greater than its individual parts.

I'll blog on Thirsty Ear more tonight -- unless I stay too late and wait til the morning.