HYF ON PLAZA -- OR AT LEAST HALF OF THEM

This wasn't your typical Hundred Year Flood show (not that there's anything wrong with a typical HYF show!) Less than an hour before taking the stage, during the opening band, Bone Orchard's set, HYF singer/guitarist Bill Palmer got a call informing him that bass player Kendra Lauman had just given birth to a baby boy.

I'd seen Kendra last week during The Gourds' show. She said her due date was near, but she was determined to make the Plaza gig. Well, she got close ... Actually she'd gone into labor Thursday morning, Bill said. Her husband Jim Palmer, HYF's drummer, had told Bill that he'd better find a substitute rhythm section.

He did. Bassist Susan Hyde Holmes (Santa Fe All Stars, Boris & The Saltlicks, etc.) and drummer David Waldrop filled in. Neither had ever done a Flood gig before, but both play with Bill & Felicia Ford's country band The Cherry Pickers, so there was already musical compatibility. Susan and David stepped up to the plate like pros.

So it was a special show for the band and their longtime fans, an emotional performance that will be talked about for a long time. Flood did a bunch of new songs from their upcoming album, as well as at least one Blue Mountain cover and a classic country song The Cherry Pickers perform, "Delta Dawn." (Though Tanya Tucker and Helen Reddy had hits with that song, my favorite version is the one by Waylon Jennings.


I also enjoyed seeing Bone Orchard, who I hadn't seen since a couple of Thirsty ear Festivals ago. They're a Taos band fronted by a couple, Daniel Pretends Eagle on guitar, banjo and vocals and Carol Morgan-Eagle on vocals.

The group had to struggle through a downpour -- and I confess, I skipped out on one song to buy a cheap pancho at the Five and Dime. But here in New Mexico, a little rain at an outdoor concert is considered a blessing, so it was still a good set.

Besides the songs I've heard on their two albums, Bone Orchard surprised me with a great cover of Cher's "Bang Bang."