Mexican Gunfight

Seasoned & soulful songcraft

Mexican Gunfight is a rock band with a big and easy notion of what "rock" can do. Stylistic influences abound: blues grit, country lyricism, the soulfulness of gospel, a jam thrown in ... even tinges of Latin and jazz dot their sonic landscape. But the Gunfight doesn't lay claim to being a blues, country or gospel act ... they're really just a rock band.

The band's instinctive ability to play seamlessly together is perhaps one of the first things to impress, and betrays the band's experience: Mexican Gunfight's personnel have wandered the U.S. tour routes together for nearly a quarter century, in a half-dozen different outfits, thousands of shows and in hundreds of venues (not to mention a variety of interesting vehicles). Perhaps most notably, their incarnation as The Renegade Saints got regional acclaim and national attention back in the early '90s, but even then they were too rockin' to be a jam band, and definitely too free-form to be grunge.

Since that time the members of Mexican Gunfight -- individually and collectively -- have been notable fixtures in the NW music scene; there's a high probability that you have seen at least one of them playing at a bar, club, theater or festival over the last several years.

The Gunfight pays homage to acts as diverse as Neil Young, Hothouse Flowers, Willie Nelson, Santana, Glen Campbell and Little Feat while offering just as much stylistic variety in its originals. They borrow songs from their "ancestral" incarnations, including the Saints but also Kerosene Dream, The Strangers, Dixon, Tremor Guild and Nine Days Wonder. (Bassist Dave Coey -- a prolific songster in all of his bands since the '80s -- has recently popped out a few new tunes that the band quickly worked over live a few times and brought into the studio.)

The spirit behind Mexican Gunfight's music is - simply put - to consider everything fair game and have a blast rocking it up.

Al Toribio, guitar and vocals
Dave Coey, bass and vocals
Ned Failing, drums and vocals
Mike Walker, piano and organ

Official site:

http://www.mexicangunfight.com/

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/mexicangunfight

Taarka Duo

Seismic gypsy hypno-jazz

From the acoustic-rich hills of Colorado comes the accomplished alt. Americana band Taarka. Much like the sizzle of spices and the vibrating of strings implied by its Indian name, the band's sound embodies passion, energy, and taste. Derived from members' diverse influences - bluegrass, pop rock, folk, old-time, Gypsy-Jazz, and Celtic - the band ignites audiences with music that SF Weekly called "a collision of Django Reinhardt and David Grisman."

An established performer at prominent festivals nationwide (High Sierra, Pagosa Folk n' Bluegrass, Mendocino Music Festival, Berkeley World Music Festival), Taarka continues to expand its appeal - recent tours have taken the band abroad to Spain and Canada - and its eclectic catalogue. Its latest album, Fading Mystery (March 10, 2017), is an organic collection of original music with gypsy jazz, pop and traditional inspirations. Featured tracks include the driving "Carried Away," the jolly, folk-leaning "Polyamorous Polly Ann," and the ethereal title track.

?Its seventh studio album to date, Faded Mystery was recorded live near the banks of eastern Virginia's Potomac River and masterfully produced by its own David Tiller (vocals, mandolin, electric guitar), who founded Taarka in 2001 with wife and musical partner Enion Pelta-Tiller (vocals, violin). Members also include award-winning jazz upright bassist Troy Robey (bass) and guitar prodigy Mike Robinson (guitar, vocals).

A musician and performer from his youth, Tiller is a master of mandolin, bass, tenor guitar, and bouzouki. Pelta-Tiller was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland, Calif. A classically trained five-string violinist and vocalist, Pelta-Tiller has a voice that Grateful Web hailed, "reminiscent of Regina Spektor, with the vulnerability and slight hint of defiance that the comparison implies."

After meeting in New York City, the young couple moved west as Taarka and, since 2006, has made their home in the music scene of Lyons, Colorado. "Their voices sound fantastic together ...," wrote No Depression regarding the great talent of this most musical duo, "Enion is a marvelous violin player, and David is her equal on mandolin."

As a band, they have shared the stage with artists like Grateful Dead, Phish, Yonder Mountain String Band, Sufjan Stevens, and The Decembrists. Just this year, Taarka was featured in the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival and as part of the renowned "Bluegrass Underground."

Taarka's previous releases include See Gather for a Winter Garden (2010), Martian Picture Soundtrack (2007), Even Odd Bird (2004), Taarka (2002), Making Tracks Home (2015) and Adventures in Vagabondia (January 2013), from which the powerful acoustic rock instrumental, "A Whole New You," was chosen and included as part of the soundtrack to "1971," a nationally released, feature-length Maximum Pictures documentary.

Taarka's live shows are euphonious affairs by pickers who are "gravity-defying in their dexterity" (R2 Magazine, UK). From their cords and from their strings, they envelop audiences with energy and emotion enough to light any fire.

Website:

https://www.sonicbids.com/band/taarkaband/