Episode 109– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music
This week we are re-releasing Kene Terry’s popular episode about the music scene in New Mexico.
In this episode of the “I Love New Mexico” podcast, host Bunny Terry chats with her musician nephew, Kene Terry. Kenny shares his musical journey, discussing his band, The Ghost Runners, and their Americana/alt-country sound. He reflects on recording music in his shop, the evolution of music technology, and his dream venues in New Mexico. The conversation highlights the charm of dive bar music scenes and the essence of live performances. Kene also expresses his love for New Mexico’s landscapes and culture, emphasizing the importance of community and collaboration in his creative process.
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
Featuring:
Kene Terry
Kene is a father, husband and musician. He has been playing music in new Mexico for 20 years. Everywhere from Las Cruces to Cold Beer, New Mexico. Kene’s current band The Ghostrunners can be found on the links provided. Be on the lookout for more Kene Terry music coming soon!
Episode Transcript
Bunny: (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native New Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, Talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of, in chat. We’re excited that you’re here and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. Hi there, and welcome to the I Love New Mexico podcast. I’m Bunny Terry. And, um, I have a special guest today, Kene Terry, who just happens to be my nephew, but is also one of my favorite musicians. And the person who records the intro music, that’s from his first album. And so welcome Kene. I’m so glad you could be here.
Kene: (01:16)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Bunny: (01:19)
Well, you’re, you’re, um, you’re not just a celebrity in our family. You’re sort of a celebrity across the state. At least I think so. You started playing music years ago, and you’re a songwriter and I’m just curious, tell tell our listeners who you are a little bit of your New Mexico story, and then we wanna hear about the music piece. Where did that come from?
Kene: (01:48)
Okay, so my story I guess would be, I started playing guitar when I was about 16. You, which your son had a big hand and teaching me how to play. And you know I kind of, when I got to college, I kind of got a chance to play quite a bit more and started learning more, more music and kind of got to the point of maybe I should write some of my own stuff. And so that’s kind of how that came to be. I started playing in bands. My first band was 2002, and so we, you know, there’s been countless different groupings and different band names and everything since then in 20 years, I guess.
Bunny: (02:47)
wow, Is it, it’s 20
Kene: (02:49)
Years. 20 years. Yeah. Yes. And so, the song New Mexico was actually written by a friend of mine, his name’s Coal Brekebill, and one of his writing partners from about, I would guess 2004, 2005, somewhere in there. And, uh, they actually wrote it as a bluegrass song. And it actually has like, oh, I don’t know, I think I recorded it with like two verses, or maybe three, but I think it has like five verses and like some really sweet bluegrass breakdowns, but I don’t know if they ever recorded it. I think I may have the only recording of that. So, um, but yeah, it just, whenever I remember the first time I heard it, I was like, Oh, I gotta start playing that song. It just . And of course, like the last, the last time we played, we actually had to play it twice cuz somebody missed it and they were like, We gotta hear that song. .
Bunny: (04:01)
Well, you’ve played in some… Well, first of all, I think we should tell people, you know, our listeners who don’t know you, can you first tell them where to find you, if they’re looking online, if they’re looking for some, I know, um, we play you on Pandora. Um, is there a place where people can find your music and can you tell ’em what you’re classified as?
Kene: (04:24)
Sure. So we’re, we’re classified I guess if genre wise, we’re classified as, uh, Americana, alt Country, somewhere in there. Um, but we’re on all the platforms. Well, like, I use Tidal which is T I D A L. It’s a little more artist friendly, um, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora any of those. And then, so the current group is called the Ghost Runners. And so I think we’re at ghost runners music.com. Um, and then we’re of course on Instagram and Facebook and there may be a band camp we’re on there, so there’s a, there’s quite a few different platforms to find us. And then of course, the old, older stuff. Uh, the first record is under Kene Terry, which is just, my name with a weird spelling . And then, uh, you better
Bunny: (05:26)
Tell him what that is.
Kene: (05:28)
. So it’s, uh, it’s k e n e t e r r y. And then the second record was released as Kenny Terry and the Bourbon Cowboys. And that record was called Jackelope. And, so yeah, there’s, there’s those and maybe a Ghost Runner’s record.
Bunny: (05:48)
Well, and we’ll also put links, we’ll provide links for everybody. But, you’ve played, um, in a lot of fun places. You know, you’re I mean, you opened for Randy Rogers, is that right? Where was that?
Kene: (06:04)
That was in Portales. That was at Eastern, yeah, that was in oh five, I believe. But yeah, we’ve, and we’ve opened for, uh, we’ve opened a few times for Roger Klein and the Peacemaker. Um, we got to hang out with those guys some. And so, and there was a few others in, you know, in between there and before and after.
Bunny: (06:32)
Yeah, so, so you, you and I kind, we have this, um, um, equal obsession with sort of following people around, um, New Mexico. Look, I, well, I think, who did, did we go and see, um, who did we see out at the bridge at Santa Fe? We,
Kene: (06:49)
We did see Roger Klein out there.
Bunny: (06:51)
Oh, Oh, okay. That’s who we saw. And, oh my gosh, now I can’t, now I can’t think of his name. The guy that did the movie with,
Kene: (07:01)
Um, yeah, I think we also saw Ryan Bingham.
Bunny: (07:04)
Yeah, Ryan Bingham. Now there’s a New Mexico musician. We ought try the kid on the show, right?
Kene: (07:11)
Hos. Absolutely. He’s
Bunny: (07:13)
A Hobbs guy, right?
Kene: (07:14)
Hobbs. Mm-hmm. .
Bunny: (07:16)
Cool. Cool. And you recently played a really fun gig. Um, uh, you gotta tell people about that. Where’d you play this? Cause I think it’s such a cool thing. I wanna interview those folks who are running that joint. Talk about that
Kene: (07:31)
For sure. Um, so we played, oh, it’s been a couple weeks ago, I think it was Labor Day weekend, we played at, uh, it’s called the Colfax Tavern. But it’s, I don’t know if I, I don’t know, but everybody just calls it cold beer New Mexico, and so it is in between Cimarron and Ratone, and it is literally out in the middle of nowhere. But it’s an incredible venue. I mean, it’s so, it’s just so cool. Like, like 20 beers on tap, a great stage, like great food. Like, it’s, it’s incredible. Like, I can’t believe it’s out there. So , it’s, it’s really cool.
Bunny: (08:15)
So do people go, do people go to, they go there and camp? I don’t get, I mean, how do you, if you’re gonna go there and drink beer, what do you do?
Kene: (08:24)
Yeah. You know, some people just like dry camp out there. I know that’s what we did. We, you know, we had friends with a camper and we just pulled up in the parking lot. And there was a few others that did that. Um, but people came from Raton and from from camping in Cimarron Canyon and from Roy, Mosquero. I mean, there was, there’s just kind of a, there’s quite a group of folks that, that kind of call that their home base as far as their little tavern. So,
Bunny: (09:00)
So you, you play, I mean, all the guys you play with are from New Mexico, right?
Kene: (09:05)
Um, yeah, I believe so at the moment.
Bunny: (09:08)
Except for Shem who’s a New Mexico guy who ran Mississippi, right?
Kene: (09:12)
Yes. Uhhuh .
Bunny: (09:15)
But he’s an Allmogordo guy. I was just thinking about, music venues here. I mean, they’re the ones that a lot of folks, especially a lot of folks in Santa Fe now. I mean, I mean, he had a gig one time at the Cowgirl, right? What happened to that one?
Kene: (09:31)
We, so we actually did, and it was back with the Bourbon Cowboys in those days. And, uh, it was the latter part of December of, I think that was oh six. Um, but it was like one of the, it was like a, a weather anomaly for New Mexico that year. We took off from portals, the, I mean, it was probably 50 degrees clear skies by the time we got to Vaughn on our way in, the snowflakes were , they were pretty good size. They were three four inch snowflakes, and it was coming down hard. And, uh, I remember a guy in that truck stopped there, and Vaughn was like, If you go south, you’re gonna be fine. But if you try to hit the interstate, it’s, it’s shutting down already. So we’re like, ah, we’re good. And of course, we had the whole band, um, we had a couple of girlfriend, three girlfriends, maybe, I don’t think anybody was married yet. One of the girlfriends was like eight and a half months pregnant, . And so we, of course, we take off and we’re five miles out of Vaughn, and we’re like, We’re not gonna make it. I don’t know, you know, like we were just, we were, the, the roads were just, they were ridiculous. And so we ended up getting stuck in Willard that night. Like luckily we made it to Willard. We got stuck there for three or four, three nights, four days.
Bunny: (11:07)
So, so we have to tell people what Willard is, .
Kene: (11:13)
So I don’t know the population there, but it’s, I’m, I’m guessing under 200, maybe under a hundred. I don’t know. It’s very, very small. And, uh, yeah. So we, we camped out in their fire station for a few days. We, the Willard Cantina was still up and going at that point in time. And so yeah, we, the community took really good care of us. We found that Cantina and went over there and made friends with those guys. And, uh, we actually ended up playing a show at the Cantina. . There was nothing else to do. We had all our stuff, and so we never made it to the cowgirl. We just, we never hooked back up with him after that. But we did, we played the, the Willard Cantina after after like a UFC fight or something that they all wanted, that they had bought. And, uh, we just, we jammed out for, for like 12 people, I think.
Bunny: (12:12)
. That’s so funny. Well, I know, Patrick, who owns the Cowgirl is now my friend, so maybe I’ll, send him a copy of the podcast and see if they might wanna rebook you from 2006.
Kene: (12:31)
Right
Bunny: (12:32)
On. That would be hilarious. I, what do you think about New Mexico music? Do you think that, Um, you know, I know the Alzheimer’s, like Bill her who, um, used to hang out, like I think Bill Hern taught Lyle Lovett and Rod Robert, Earl Keen, how to play guitar, I think that Bill and Bonnie, um, who are, and Bonnie’s passed away now. But those, those are like old New Mexico musicians from way back. And they live down in Texas at the time. And then, You know, his nephew, why can’t I think of his name? He does the, the Taos Big Barn dance. But I mean, I think the Americana scene is pretty alive and well here, don’t you?
Kene: (13:16)
Oh, yeah. It’s, I mean, like, of course those guys, I know that a lot of those, those guys that like, I guess would be considered like Texas artists pioneers of that, of that kind of their Americana genre, you know, a lot of their, their beginnings were in Red River, um, Ray Wiley, Hubbard, and, uh, Robert Earl Keen, like those guys kind of, they, you know, they, that’s kind of, they cut their teeth on a lot of their stuff right there. Um, and of course, I mean, it’s just getting ready for this podcast. I was kind of looking up some of the, the different gems of musicians and, and like, you know, really, you know, kind of some people that set the standard in the, in the industry itself were, you know, came from right here, you know, Norman Petty and Clovis, um, that was a, that’s, you know, his contribution to, to rock and roll and, and country rock and roll are huge. Um, there’s all, you know, like John o Manson there in Santa Fe, like, he’s done some incredible stuff. And, uh, I mean, just, just the list is, I mean, it goes on and on and on. So it’s, uh, it, it’s, it’s kind, I would get, I would say, like, you know, being this close to Texas, like, everybody’s like, Oh, you know, all the music is is from Texas, but, but we’ve had had such contribution to it as well that it’s, uh, often overlooked, I think.
Bunny: (14:56)
Well, so for, for people who don’t know, um, Norman Petty is sort of famous for doing something else besides influencing what, but have you been to the studios in Clovis?
Kene: (15:09)
I have, yeah. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And so, so one of the guys that plays with us a lot is, uh, Johnny Moha, who is another New Mexico musician, legend. But yeah, so when I worked for the Chamber of Commerce in Clovis, right out of college, and so yeah, I got to hang out at that studio and hear a bunch of old stories and, uh, meet some of those old guys that recorded in that studio. And like, some of those stories are just unbelievable of how, just like, how, like how Johnny was telling us just a couple months ago about how Buddy Holly came to record with Norman and
Bunny: (15:54)
How was that? I’m curious about why. I mean, he was from Lubbock, right?
Kene: (15:58)
So yeah, he’s a Lubbock guy. But he actually was on with a, with a label outta New York City and wasn’t getting any traction. Um, he had a record, I think maybe with Deca, uh, which was a, a big label at the time. And they were kind of like writing him off. They were kind of like, you know, man, like, it, it’s just not happening. And, uh, from what Johnny was telling us that, uh, buddy called Norman, cuz he had really good rates as far as like his studio time and his producing time. And he called Norman up and was like, Hey, can we come over? You know, we’re gonna be back in Texas, whatever. And kind of the rest was history after that, they got a good deal on some studio time and went over there and, I mean, made one of the, you know, the records that influence the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and like just a pretty big a monumental moment in rock and roll history. Really?
Bunny: (17:01)
Is that where they recorded? That’ll be the day. I can’t remember.
Kene: (17:04)
Yeah, I believe, I think all of those, of course. And Johnny was telling us those had already been recorded under, under Deca, and he was saying a lot of that, uh, some of the, the back and forth with Buddy and the, the major label, all that, that conversation is on YouTube. And he said like, You can, you can get on there.
Bunny: (17:29)
You’re kidding?
Kene: (17:30)
And you can hear these phone conversations of Buddy, like asking the guy, Hey, can I get my masters? I’m gonna, And of course they’re like, No, you, you know. So anyway, however, it, it came to be, he, he got a hold of, he had a few songs with them that ended up being big, but, but a lot of those, those they, they wrote right there in the studio with Norman and Norman was a big part of kind of those songs coming to be.
Bunny: (18:00)
That’s so cool. That’s like, that’s the Clovis New Mexico claim to fame, right, .
Kene: (18:05)
Oh, yeah. You know, and it’s, it’s funny that like, that studio sits out there and it’s out on seventh Street, so it’s kind of like, it’s off the beaten path for work what Clovis is now. But it, like, it’s crazy, You go in that studio and it’s set up exactly the same way as when the cricket is recorded there. So like, it’s just amazing, the, the, you know, tiny little, it’s kind of a house converted, but it’s, it’s incredible.
Bunny: (18:36)
So, you guys did something really cool, I, and you, and I didn’t tell you, I was gonna ask you in advance, I didn’t tell you I was gonna ask you about this, but I’m still really fascinated by it because, um, during the Pandemic, you and Jimmy Niece and I, I don’t know if Shem was part, you guys did something kind of cool, didn’t you? Where you were like, right. Was it like you were writing a song a day, or, Oh, what was the,
Kene: (19:01)
Well, so I don’t know, Shem was, he was more involved in like, in kind of the production of those. But yeah, so yeah, well, I guess it was during the pandemic that, uh, of course like nothing was really open, mu like live music wasn’t really happening. And uh, of course, so Jimmy, who I’ve played with now for, I think we decided the other day, it’s like 17 years. We’ve kind of been like musical partners, I guess you’d call it. Um, we would, you know, he would be working, you know, he’d be taking a break at his job or he’d be at his house and he would send me a, like a voice memo recording, you know, and like with a text, Hey, what do you think of this one? Oh, cool. And so I was like, Oh, well I’m writing two, so I’d send something back to him, What do you think of this one?
Kene: (19:54)
And so, I mean, before we knew it, we were like two weeks in and I was like, I was trying to keep up with him cuz he was kind of on a tear. And so I like, I’m like, Jimmy, like that’s like 15, 20 songs that we’ve each contributed in the last, you know, in the last like 10 days. And, and so like, we were like, well, maybe, and at that time we weren’t of, like, even before the Pandemic, we weren’t really playing. The band would get together once, twice a year, and we were kind of like, maybe we should do something, you know? And so we, that, that kind of like sparked us kind of getting things out of the closet and firing things back up. And we recorded a few songs with Shim and, and so yeah, like, it, it, uh, I I always thought, um, outwardly like The Pandemic was gonna be really great for artists, but I was thinking of, you know, guys that you, you see on TV or you know, on, on the radio or whatever, and it really, like, it really helped us as well. I mean we got busy and wasn’t a lot to do. And so, uh, yeah, so we, we actually do have, there’s probably, I don’t know if there’s a hundred songs, but there’s a pretty good, a pretty good grip of songs out there that were, like, Jimmy just told me the other day, he’s like, Man, we need to start recording some of that beyond demos. And I was like, Yeah, I think we do. So,
Bunny: (21:33)
So where, so where do you record something? I’m curious about that.
Kene: (21:37)
So I record out in my shop and yeah, so like I have a little setup out there and uh, you know, we just try to try to isolate things as much as we can. And then, you know, we’ve done different setups where like with, with our pedal steel stuff, I’ll send, I’ll send a track to, to Johnny and he’ll kind of have a listen and he’ll send me back some samples of stuff that he’s, you know, and then we’ll kind of collaborate there. And, then he’ll, like, Johnny will, he’ll help me with mixing certain, you know, certain parts of the song and, you know, maybe bring this in or, you know, he kind of, kind of acts like a producer, but not, he’s pretty, you know, he’s pretty hands off. He kind of lets us figure out things. We’ll send stuff off to Shem and he kind of does the same thing with some production. And, and so yeah, like it’s, it’s pretty grassroots type of stuff. But, uh, you know, I think if I think in the next year we’d like to get in somewhere and, you know, make like quote unquote a real record with a group of musicians and some collaboration and face to face ,
Bunny: (22:53)
You know, there was just somebody I was reading about in the New Mexico magazine, a woman who now is making music in Amarillo, or I’m sorry, Albuquerque, um, who’s, who created her own studio at home. I’m just really, Can you do that? I mean, is it possible?
Kene: (23:11)
Oh yeah. You know, that and like thinking about Norman’s studio, they would record the band all in one room, and so they’d have to like, try to isolate everybody. I mean, there was just so much to it. And now just with, you know, with just technology, I mean, recording a podcast over, over a kind of a zoom is, is kind of just, you know, it’s a telltale of, of how far technology has gotten us. And, and I still believe in some of that old, you know, like you can’t beat a lot of that old analog stuff, but for convenience and getting things done, I mean, you can, the sky’s the limit really of, of what you can do with a computer and a microphone, really. So.
Bunny: (23:55)
Wow. Well, I’m excited. So if you had a dream, let’s talk dream venues first. Like, if you had a dream venue in New Mexico, where do you think you’d like to play? I mean, what I mean, Cold Beer, New Mexico sounds to me kind of like a dream place to play , but
Kene: (24:12)
I’m just, I’m curious if you’ve ever thought, Wow, if I could play in this one place?
Kene: (24:21)
Oh, I don’t know. You know, um, we got to take, you know, our, our girls went to that, uh, that camp at the, at the opera this summer.
Bunny: (24:32)
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Kene: (24:33)
And like seeing that place is just like, it’s just such a massive, you know, you just, you can’t miss it. Like, so something like that would be really cool.
Bunny: (24:42)
And the acoustics are perfect.
Kene: (24:43)
Acoustics are perfect. And I mean, I think like when I think about it, and this may be backwards as a musician, but uh, not so much as a new Mexican, is that when I think of venues and I guess this shows my age as well, when I think of venues, I think of like the city that I’m going to, or the town or the village or whatever. Um, but I think about like, oh, I went, you know, so and so that I went to college with, I think, you know, they live over there. So now I can, like, it’s an excuse to see an old friend or to go eat at a certain place that, you know, that we, you know, we all have those places, like you have to eat here when you go there. And so, like, just like you talking about those Red River venues, um, my kids love Red River, and so I’m always like, Man, if we could get something up there, the kids could go and we could, you know, they like to go ski in and then they like the summertime up there.
Kene: (25:47)
So yeah, like, of course, there’s, a lot of, for me that like my, uh, like if I had like a bucket list venue, it might be some of those old venues that we used to play that don’t exist anymore. You know, like, uh, one place we really loved was Hurricane Alley in Las Cruces, in Las Cruces. It was all those New Mexico State kids, you know, And, uh, I don’t think it’s there anymore. It’s a different name or it’s a different type of venue now. And so, yeah. You know, it’s just something like that that you’re just like, Oh, I remember, you know, I remember those old times or, you know, I mean there’s just, there’s great places all over the state that, you know, there’s, there’s cold beers, Colfax, taverns all over the state that, you know, all these hidden gems that Willard Cantinas that are out there. So,
Bunny: (26:44)
So, so maybe we should do a dive bar, music venue tour.
Kene: (26:52)
. Yeah.
Bunny: (26:53)
Maybe we should try to talk to all those people and then like, line up a line up something. I always wanted to write a coffee coffee table book that was dive bars in New Mexico. So, like what’s the one in, um, White Oak?
Kene: (27:07)
Oh yeah. Um,
Bunny: (27:09)
This podcast would be much easier if I had a memory…
Kene: (27:14)
In White Oaks.
Bunny: (27:15)
White Oaks. What’s the name of that? Um, Oh,
Kene: (27:18)
I’ve seen, We, were gonna play there, uh, like pre-covid and, and kind of, you know, that kind of fell through during, during the pandemic, but, um.
Bunny: (27:29)
You had a gig there?
Kene: (27:31)
Well, yeah, uh, we had a drummer at that time that, uh, he, he spent a lot of time down there, and so we were, we kind of had like an open invitation and we, you know, it just kind of didn’t happen. And then when the world stopped, we, you know, it just kind of didn’t, didn’t end up in fruition. So, but no, that’s, I’ve seen pictures and videos of that place and , that’s a, that’s a cool little cool little place. So,
Bunny: (28:01)
Yeah. Yeah. So I think we’ll, we’ll put that on our list and, um,
Kene: (28:06)
On the tour. Yeah,
Bunny: (28:07)
Yeah, let’s put that on the tour. Um, , that’d be so much fun. That’d be so cool.
Kene: (28:13)
I also, there’s another cool story. A guy that I used to play with, um, his dad was telling us, and they were musicians, they helped us out so much and when we first started, and his name is Larry Loose, and he was telling me a story one time, he said, Yeah, Kenny, we were down in Silver City one time, and there was like four of us in a little tiny dive bar, and I don’t remember which one it was down there, but he’s like, there was like four or five people sitting in this bar and this band was setting up, said we were just kind of excited to, to hear some live music. And it ended up, it was Waylon Jennings and his, you know, and his band, his crew, they were just passing through and he said they just sat there and they played their stuff and they played all like bunch of rock and roll cover songs and stuff, and for like five, six people and the bar staff.
Bunny: (29:10)
. That’s so cool. That’s like the first time I ever saw Guy Clark, um, play, you know, we’re both huge Guy Clark fans, but we just went, I just saw accidentally somewhere in a newspaper because this was way before the internet that he was gonna be playing in Red River at a songwriting festival. And, um, we went and there were like 27 people watching Guy Clark play, and he sat about, you know, he played about eight feet from me. And I was like, and the same thing is true, you know, they used to do a festival here called, um, the Thirsty Ear Festival that they did out at the Eves movie ranch here in Santa Fe, and I saw Guy Clark play there, and I was like, These guys don’t care how many people show up. They just want to play music. You know, It wasn’t like he was, he needed a, you know, he wasn’t the kind of songwriter performer who needed, you know, a 45,000 audience. He just wanted to play music. He just wanted people to hear is music that seems like Yeah.
Bunny: (30:23)
Yeah, that’s, or I’m sorry about New Mexico anywhere, but in Santa Fe too, you know, people like Yeah, the bourbon cowboys just show up at the cowgirl. Yeah.
Kene: (30:34)
Yeah. Well, I mean those songwriters I’ve heard, I’ve heard guy talk about it a bunch and you know, like endless endless amount of those guys that I look up to. And, it’s not so much about, of course they do want people to hear it, but a lot of it’s kind of therapy for the songwriter is to kind of get that out and, you know, kind of tell that story or get that feeling kind of out of their head or out of their heart or whatever.
Bunny: (31:06)
So I’m supposed to ask you , but first I think, I think you need to tell folks where you’re living now and what’s your favorite thing about New Mexico? That’s, I think we wanna give people a place, but, Oh,
Kene: (31:21)
Well, so I live in Logan right now, so we’re on the east side of the state. We’re in Quake County. Um, you might know closer, like what are we like 8,000 population in Quake County? Probably. Oh,
Bunny: (31:35)
Do you think
Kene: (31:36)
It’s that much? I don’t know. It’s
Bunny: (31:39)
Twenty Four miles from Tucumcari. That’s how people can figure it out.
Kene: (31:42)
Yeah, so we are, um, we’re pretty rural. And then I, we spend a lot of time in Harding County, which is where my wife is from, and uh, they are, I don’t know if they have a thousand people in
Bunny: (32:00)
Harding County. Oh no, I think they have like 435.
Kene: (32:03)
. Yeah, they’re super rural, but, uh, so yeah, we, uh, we actually, the ghost runners the band now. We, we tell everybody that when they’re like, because when we say Americana, people are like, what? I mean still to, you know, what is Americana? And so we just tell people, well, our brand of Americana, like, we call it rural rock, so
Bunny: (32:27)
That’s a great way to put it.
Kene: (32:28)
Yeah, we think it’s rock and roll, but it always comes out as country, so that’s . But yeah. Oh man, my favorite part about New Mexico. Holy cow.
Bunny: (32:41)
You can have more than one.
Kene: (32:42)
Well, like I said before, like there’s so many places that, I mean there’s so many places in New Mexico that I just, you know, I just adore that, you know, I love being in Santa Fe. You know, we spent, it’s been a while, but we spent so much time in Las Cruces. I love that place. And of course there’s tons of places in between. You know I love going out to, to the ranch at my in-laws, um, spending time out there.
Bunny: (33:17)
Just so people know, their ranch is really close to the bell, right? I mean, their address is Roy, but they’re close, they’re down the hill close to the Bell Ranch, right?
Kene: (33:27)
Yeah. You know, I mean, as far as the bell is so huge that they’re only, I mean, they’re 10 miles from, from parts of the bell, Um, but from the headquarters of Bell, I don’t know, they might be, might be 30 miles, but it’s, Yeah, it’s out there in, uh, they’re partly in Harding County and partly in San Miguel. And, uh, lots of, I think you’ve been out there once or twice, so, I mean, it’s just, it’s gorgeous and it’s, uh, miles and miles of, uh, of space, you know, And so I love being, being out in those parts, but I also, you know, I get, I get just as excited to, I mean, hell go to the Cowgirl and, and have a bite to eat or have a beer or, and see some music or whatever. So.
Bunny: (34:21)
Well, so here’s what I’d like to do for the next podcast that you’re gonna be on. Cuz cuz we know we wanna come back or talk a talk more, but I’d like, you know, if we could come up with a list of you know, New Mexico musicians that, that we can interview and, um, talk to even do it together. It’d be really fun to, you know, we, we talk a lot about place and we talk a lot about food. And I’m about to do podcasts about New Mexico books. But I think I mean, like I said, I think the music scene is alive and well and it’s everything from, um, you know, opera to Americana. So let’s figure that out. Let’s, first of all though, let’s set up a dive dive bar tour.
Kene: (35:19)
Sure. So, Oh, yeah I think that’s gotta happen.
Bunny: (35:22)
. I think that’s gotta be our priority.
Kene: (35:24)
Yeah, that’s, that is a good priority.
Bunny: (35:26)
So Cool. Well, you send me a list of ideas and I’ll do the same thing and then we’ll set it up.
Kene: (35:30)
That sounds
Bunny: (35:31)
Good. Okay, Kene, thanks for being here. We’re gonna put up links to all of your music and we’re gonna, since you guys have a hundred songs, we’re dying to hear how you get. We wanna hear the next album. How’s that?
Kene: (35:44)
Sure. Me too. Me too. , yeah.
Speaker 3: (35:47)
Okay,
Bunny: (35:48)
So cool. We’ll talk soon. Thanks so much. All right.
Kene: (35:52)
Thank you so much.