The Rifters at the Historic Plaza Hotel

Hey, Rifters fans:

Your favorite band is back at the Plaza Hotel Saturday May 12, 8pm. They are the last band in a full day of music all over Las Vegas, at the railroad station, at the golf course, in historic downtown, and in Old Town. The event is the Meadow City Music Festival, letting out all the stops to make the first into the first annual. Check out www.meadowcitymusicfest.com for details as they are posted.

In addition to music, there are gallery openings, sales, double feature at the Ft. Union Drive-in (one of only two operating drive-in movies in New Mexico), and, as one always says in these circumstances, “and so much more.”

The Hotel is offering a package with room for two, Rifters tickets, and free breakfast starting at $85 for a regular room, up to $155 for the honeymoon suite, per couple. This package is only available by calling the Hotel at 505-425-3591, and choosing the 0 phone menu option for front desk.

It’s Highlands University and Luna Community College graduation weekends, so rooms will sell out. And, no, we’re not going to increase the dance floor size yet! But there are fewer tickets than New Years, when the Rifters filled the Hotel with happy dancers.

All About The Rifters:

The Rifters are a band playing their own brand of southwestern folk-country Americana and whatever-else-they-feel-like music, based in and around Taos, New Mexico.

Putting out more music than it seems should be right for three guys on stage, the Rifters employ a wide range of acoustic and electric instruments, combined with soaring three-part harmonies, to provide a mesmerizing variety of music from driving blue-grama-grass to ethereal desert beauty. The years of playing to the dance crowds in their northern New Mexico homeland has given their music a toe-tapping rhythm that is engaging and undeniable. With a pedigree of bands like Hired Hands, the Rounders, and South by Southwest among them, the Rifters are truly a musical voice of their region of high desert vistas and mountain majesty.

The Rifters formed in 2002 in the fertile and creative music scene of Taos, New Mexico from members of two popular bands already active in the area. Jim Bradley and Don Richmond of Hired Hands, and Rod Taylor of the Rounders, who had all known one another for years playing in the acoustic dance-oriented Americana music scene of northern New Mexico, decided to join forces to form The Rifters.

The Rifters are:

Rod Taylor on guitar, mandolin, and vocals. Rod lives in Cimarron, New Mexico and is also head of cattle operations at Philmont Ranch. In other words, he doesn’t just look like a cowboy. Although Rod is well known nationally for playing traditional cowboy music at cowboy poetry gatherings and festivals, his musical influences run from The Beatles to The Allman Brothers to old blues to Willis Alan Ramsey and back again. Rod’s rich lead vocals provide one of the most immediately recognizable elements of The Rifters’ distinctive sound.

Jim Bradley on bass and vocals. Jim is a long-time Taos resident and is a native New Mexican, born in Las Cruces. Jim’s powerful rhythmic and percussive playing provide the pulse for The Rifters’ energetic acoustic rhythms. He has played his Fender bass from Alaska to Manhattan and many places in between, from the mountain bars to the big festival stages with touring national acts. Jim holds down many of the high harmony vocals in the Rifters’ rich vocal arrangements.

Don Richmond on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dobro, pedal steel guitar, harmonica and vocals. Don was a founding member of the near-legendary Colorado band Tumbleweed (1973 – 1990) and the Colorado-New Mexico band Hired Hands (1992 – 2002). Don lives in Alamosa, Colorado and also owns and operates Howlin’ Dog Recording, one of the most respected acoustic-oriented recording studios in the region, and has appeared on dozens of recordings by many of the region’s top artists, as well as numerous projects under his own name and with his former bands. Don’s multi-instrumental skills help provide the variety and excitement audiences enjoy in a Rifters’ performance. He also covers lead and harmony vocals.

The Rifters are at home at a barn dance with the hay and the horses, in a mountain town bar or honky-tonk, or on a festival or concert stage. Their choice of moving and powerful material, both original and by others, their impeccable musicianship, and their strong three part vocal arrangements combine to make The Rifters a crowd-pleasing musical experience.