Society Hall Proudly Presents: ALMA & Friends

Society Hall is proud to host the Alamosa Live Music Association’s “ALMA & Friends” concert!
Don Richmond will be hosting the show, and will start things out with a few tunes of his, and will also sit in a bit with the other performers. Don has been making music in his homeland of Colorado and New Mexico for more than 55 years. Influenced by the wide-open spaces and isolation of the San Luis Valley, he has made his living in a variety of musical realms and endeavors, including performing, producing, and songwriting.
Barry Monroe has been delighting audiences around the San Luis Valley since he showed up here back in the 1980s, a refugee from the big city of Miami, where he had been playing since his days with the Briarwood Singers back in the early 1960s. Interestingly, Barry told us that is is almost the 60th anniversary of a very memorable gig for him, when the Briarwood Singers opened a show at Carnegie Hall on February 12th, 1964, for a new British group on the scene called the Beatles. Barry has played with numerous ensembles since he arrived in the valley, but is most known for his solo shows, showcasing his superbly crafted and moving songs and his soaring tenor voice. For this show he will be accompanied by vocalists Tim Brenner and Susan Coutant, know collectively as the Cheap Therapy Singers. Barry and Cheap Therapy tend to feature upbeat tunes with a beach sort of vibe, something they call “Tropical Pop”.
Ruben Dominguez and Rose Vialpando are both members of an extended musical family that has been playing music in the San Luis Valley for generations, and they have both also taken these traditions forward with their own original and more modern music. In 2022 Ruben was awarded the prestigious Los Hilos Culturales Premio Award, awarded to traditional folk artists from the Upper Rio Grande Region; Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico. He is the third member of his extended family to receive this award, and the first to receive it so early in his career. Ruben also plays with the variety band “The Sol Boyz”, playing popular Spanish, rock and country songs, as well as their own originals.
Rose Vialpando also grew up in the midst of this same extended musical family in the San Luis Valley. Rose was greatly influenced by the musicians in the family including her mother, several uncles and an aunt. Eventually, moving out of the family home she was away from her familia and away from the tradiciones of the cultura for many years. During this time, she always felt something was missing. One of the catalysts in helping her to return to “la música” was working as a counselor and social worker with women that needed help finding their voices. Because of her work with these women and her own journey to finding her voice and speaking her truth, she was inspired to return to her music. She composed and recorded a CD with the title song, ‘Hallando Mi Voz.’ (Finding My Voice); a little bit different style than “la música tradicional” that she’d grown up with, but it was a beginning of a journey. Soon after, she joined her uncle Salomon Lopez, and formed the performing duo of “Los Cancioneros del Valle.” Rose and Salomon released a two volume CD entitled Dos Voces - Dos Guitarras which features many of the traditional, rancheras, corridos and valses. Rose was also honored in 2017 as the recipient of the “Hilos Culturales Lifetime Achievement Award,” for her contribution in the preservation of the Spanish Colonial Folk Music of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.
Ol’ Scratch is the South-Central Colorado’s premier original band. Playing what they call “Acid Funk” (like Acid Rock but funkier!), Ol’ Scratch continues to collect accolades, standing gigs, ability, adored originals, and rearrangements of classics! Born out of a drive to explore, Gabe Swanson and Marc Eaton have used Ol’ Scratch as a platform for the to do just that, explore American music. With major influences from Blues, Jazz, Rock n’ Rock, Funk, and the Jam Band scene on top of their decades of practice, experience, and classical training, Ol’ Scratch has been pushing the standard of live music in the region since their inception in 2018. Forging into 2024 on the freshly written, soon to be recorded, album of horn-line influenced funk-rock with heavy blues and R&B flavors, the boys are rising head and shoulders above their regional peers. Riding the years of growth in their fanbase and expanded reach beyond the San Luis Valley, Ol’ Scratch is quickly becoming known as the band to watch, and to see live, in south- central Colorado.

[@DoctorJoanieTool]

This is amazing. Thank you so much for these amazing artists and authors and talents you invite to perform and stream. I look forward to whatever is next. I just found your amazing venue via Sam Robbins !!