SFR Picks—Week of August 22

New folk, Zozo, cheese it and all the pretty petroglyphs

Flowery

Elise Southwick and crew get folky

With the upcoming release of the band Azalya's COLORED RED, former solo songstress Elise Southwick firmly cements herself as one of the most talented and fresh local folk voices to watch and listen to.

RED is a revelation, recorded by local mastermind David Badstubner (who also appears on the album) and featuring country genius Greg Butera and Southwick's new-ish musical partner Louise Lodigensky, with whom her vocal harmonies are so heavenly it's almost a tear-jerker. Southwick herself is pitch-perfect as both vocalist and musician, a College of Santa Fe alum who many might know better as one of the guitarists from local indie act Treemotel. But her Appalachian roots-folk style merged with a longterm love of the banjo makes up her main project, even if it wasn't ever her intention to go that route.

"I don't really know how to describe it," Southwick says of her love of the stuff. "Folk music is really personal and true, very relatable, and I think that vibe drew me in."

She grew up in Houston, a place she says is "a big gross city without any nature," but her time in college in Santa Fe kept her here for good. That outdoorsy vibe is all over RED, particularly on tracks like "Ms. Tree" and "Steel City," both beautiful reminders that life and beauty are fleeting both. "I would consider myself an environmentalist," Southwick muses. "It's one of the most profound things." That ethos permeates the album.

Expect more collaboration with Lodigensky in the future but, for now, the CD release show at San Miguel Mission with backup from local titans like Butera, Casey Andersen and Will Dyar is more than enough.

"We're hoping to let everything melt together," Southwick adds. "We're trying to make it a more collaborative thing in the future."

(Alex De Vore)

Azalya CD Release Show: 
8 pm Friday Aug. 24. $10.
San Miguel Mission,
401 Old Santa Fe Trail,
983-3974

Woah-Zobra

Santa Fe's Kiwanis Club kicks off its sixth iteration of ZozoFest this week, unveiling the design of Old Man Gloom himself alongside three days of family-friendly partying at the Santa Fe Place Mall. Get a glimpse of the bastard—he's '60s-themed this year as part of the Zozobra Decades Project—as you hear dance jams from DJ Badcat, folktales from Lone Piñon's Jordan Wax and tunes from Sol Fire. Get your face painted, take part in arts and crafts and, most importantly, stuff Zozo with all your doom and gloom to be burned to death at the 94th Annual Burning of Zozobra on Friday Aug. 31. (ADV)

ZozoFest: 
5-9 pm Friday Aug. 24; 10 am-8:30 pm Saturday Aug. 25;
noon-4 pm Sunday Aug. 26. Free.
Santa Fe Place Mall (old Sports Authority space), 5250 Cerrillos Road,
855-ZOZOBRA;
burnozobra.zom/zozofest.

That Good Herb

Perhaps the Santa Fe Botanical Garden isn't the first place that comes to mind for a cheese-making class, but for local cheese aficionado Sascha Anderson's upcoming workshop on herbal cheese, it's a no-brainer. "The Botanical Garden is packed full of plants that can flavor cheese, ripen cheese and even turn milk into cheese," she tells SFR. "It's cool because plants often impact the flavor of cheese via an animal's diet, and here we'll skip the messenger to impact the flavor of cheese directly with wildly flavorful herbs." Go and learn. Make it cheesy. (ADV)

How to Make Your Own Herbal Cheese: 
1-3 pm Saturday Aug. 25. $25-$30. Santa Fe Botanical Garden, 715 Camino Lejo, 471-9103.

The Writing is on the Rocks

Up at the the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project's Wells Preserve in Velarde, the public can see thousands of ancient rock drawings on twice-weekly guided hikes—but those hikes, while awesome (we did one), only cover a tiny area. Many more petroglyphs can be found on MPPP's 6,800-plus protected acres. Each year, the MPPP sends 40 trained, dedicated and tenacious volunteers out into the rocks to find "The Best of the Best" petroglyphs and archaeological features on land not open to the public. Now, speaker Candie Borduin presents a slide show and lecture about the 60 best images captured this year, as well as stone tools, ceramics, remnants of historic sheep corrals, camps and trails. (Charlotte Jusinski)

Best of the Best Petroglyph Recordings: 
6:30 pm Tuesday Aug. 28. $5.
Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Center,
848 Hwy. 68, Alcalde,
852-1351;
mesaprietapetroglyphs.org.

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