Tour Diary: New Mexican Delights
I spent a pair of days in The Land Of Enchantment and was treated to new friends, a truly delightful roadside attraction, a walk through history in the sunshine, and a brilliant house show.
Tuesday morning came incredibly early at my home for the evening in Carefree, Arizona. After tossing and turning for two solid hours, I finally gave up the ghost and got up for good just before 4:00 am. Unfortunately, the wifi was not cooperative and my cell service wasn't quite strong enough to get any work done with a hotspot. Undaunted, I made coffee and read for a while to pass the hours. I even tried to lay back down again to get a few more minutes sleep, but never managed to return to slumber.
Slowly, the desert skies began to tinkle with flecks of light coming from the east. I stepped out into the pool area and as the light began to filter in, I took a number of photographs of the Cunningham’s beautiful home. It’s a spectacular house and I was thrilled to get the chance to take a few photos that really translated how stunning the house, and its location truly are.
As the sun made its way upward to begin another day in the desert, purple and pink swaths of color stretched across the sky. Slowly as the morning folded in, pink and purple gave way to more bright and brilliant shades of orange and yellow. Light, streaky clouds scraped the top of the sky to bounce the colors back to Earth in beautiful strands.
After a couple cups of coffee and a few more photos, I hit the road just before 7:00 am and began the drive to Albuquerque and the home of my friends Dave and Amy Purcell.
I began my drive northwestward with a full travel mug, a podcast on the player and an open window on an early morning. The day was off to a good start despite my ridiculously early wake up. Much of the drive to Albuquerque was barren, open land. I drove through several swaths of Reservation Land for native tribes. These outpost communities are so infuriating to me. They sit as a stark reminder of how we have treated the indigenous people of this country. By sticking them out in a desolate wilderness, we somehow think we can make up for or forget the centuries of horrors we brought to those tribes. I thought of the Trail of Tears and the successive decades of oppression and genocide that they have faced at the hands of our forefathers.
By midday I had made my way well into the borders of New Mexico and I stopped for a nap near the small town of Grants. I rolled the front windows down and shut my eyes for a nice long snooze. I grabbed a lazy lunch at a roadside cafe and even got out to stretch my legs for a bit before making the final run to ABQ.
I pulled in to Dave and Amy’s place just after 5:30. Dave welcomed me in with a hug and we got caught up about my tour and life in general. I first met Dave through the Notes section of Substack. Dave is a musician who plays in Radio Free ABQ, a fixture in the Albuquerque scene. When he found out I was going to be on tour, he reached out to try and help me ut a show together in his town.
Unfortunately, Dave was not able to secure a show for me on a Tuesday night, but he and Amy offered to put me up for the night, and to take me out for tacos and beer. We hopped over to High and Dry Brewing for a trio of tasty beers and a delicious fish taco dinner. As Dave, Amy and I sat enjoying our meal, no less than three people they knew from the area came up to join us. It’s clear that Dave and Amy are great folks with a huge network. I met a host of new friends throughout the evening as a variety of folks approached my hosts to say hello.
One of these friends was a guy from Grand Rapids, MI. For nearly thirty minutes we talked about the midwest, Michigan craft beer, the glorious colors of the fall, and the weird, cult-like religious streak that still permeates the west side of our state so deeply. Eventually, we made it back to Dave and Amy’s place for a nightcap, and a few minutes to love on their two adorable Australian Shepherds. I hit the hay at a reasonable hour and went right to sleep.
The following morning, Dave made me a delicious cup of black tea. Normally I am an adamant coffee drinker, but my hosts were on the tea train and I joined them. Dave poured a dense, smoky black tea that came with a notable caffeine injection. The warm cup felt wonderful in my hands. Amy made her patented vegan biscuits and gravy that is a staple for nearly all of the traveling artists they have hosted. While I am not normally a breakfast eater, it was a delicious breakfast and would mean that I could likely skip a midday meal if needed.
Finishing my tea, I brought the cup out to the kitchen just in time to say goodbye to Amy as she ran into a virtual meeting. I gave her a hug, thanked her for breakfast and for the wonderful hospitality. Dave and I chatted for a few minutes longer hanging with the dogs until I made my way to the door.
As I was packing up the last of my gear to head to Los Alamos or my house concert that evening, Dave said, “You know, if you’re going to Los Alamos, you really should go to Tinkertown.”
Dave went on to explain that Tinkertown is a sort of old-school roadside attraction in the mountains outside of Albuquerque. The project first began in 1962 when sculptor Ross Ward began making small, hand carved wooden objects and characters. As he evolved, the work became more detailed, grander and more complex. For nearly 40 years, Ross grew Tinkertown from a small idea of displaying a few of his handicrafts to a multi-building museum that is an ode to his creative spirit.
Although Ross Ward died in 2002, his family carries on the memory of his work by keeping Tinkertown open as a museum to visitors throughout much of the year. Even as a relatively unknown gem, it attracts more than 20,000 visits a year to its doors. On the day I arrived, a Wednesday, Tinkertown wouldn't normally even be open. It just so happened that I was lucky enough to arrive at the same moment as a group from the Kohler Foundation and a local community college. As I spoke with Carla, Ross’ widow, and the pair of women from the Kohler Foundation, I learned that Tinkertown was in the process of finding stewardship with the Kohler Foundation to keep this legacy going on after Carla can no longer continue to run the museum.
For several minutes I learned about the history of Tinkertown and the Kohler’s excitement at preserving it. Carla admitted they were not normally open on Wednesday, but promised she would let me take a stroll through the museum. After a few more minutes of laughing and chatting, Carla told me that she wouldn’t even charge me the $6 entry fee because she had so enjoyed talking with me. I smiled widely and thanked my new friends for their kindness and for allowing me to take a special walkthrough all alone.
To step inside Tinkertown is to enter a new universe. The exhibits and displays are crammed shoulder to shoulder in small, wooden rooms that adjoin in a sort of meandering fashion. The structure feels a bit like an old mine shaft that is now littered with a dizzying display of carved figurines, intricate homes, business and vehicles.
In addition to Ross Ward’s hand carved figures and dioramas, there is a functioning fortune teller booth from the 1920’s, a sailboat that spent ten straight years traveling the globe with just one captain, and there are tchotchkes and ephemera galore.
For nearly an hour, I wandered around ike a schoolboy pushing the buttons to spring animatronic figures into action. I watched circus performers, burlesque dancers, an undertaker on a carriage, a wood splitter, an old western saloon and so much more. The detail and whimsy that Ward embedded in his work is palpable. Tinkertown is not only impressive, it is an absolute delight.
After walking through the entirety of the museum and browsing the ridiculously charming gift shop, I walked back out in to the New Mexico morning daylight to find that Carla and the rest of her crew had headed off to another part of the facilities for a meeting. I heard voices in dicsussion, but was unable to clearly make out the conversation, nor could I pinpoint where they might be so as to say thank you again and wish them the best of luck. I was unable to track them down and also reluctant to interrupt so I made my way out the parking lot, and Aretha and I continued the drive northward.
A few days after my interaction with Carla and the folks from the Kohler Foundation, a woman named Liesl who was one of the Johler contingent, commented on a post that she had so enjoyed meeting me at Tinkertown and that folks were a bit bummed that I hadn't stopped in to say adieu. I was so touched that she reached out to let me know that, knowing it must have been a bit of work to find WAIM alone. I truly wish them the very best of luck in preserving this absolute treasure. It was an absolute delight to meet Carla and the ladies from the Kohler and to get a deeper understanding of just how special a place Tinkertown is.
It was not yet 11:00 am when I hit the road towards Los Alamos. My hosts were not planning for my arrival until the late afternoon. So, even with a couple more hours of road time, I still had a few hours to kill before landing in Los Alamos. I pulled up the National Park Service app on my phone and looked to see if there were any national parks or monuments nearby that I might peek into on the way to my gig for the evening. Almost immediately, I pointed Aretha toward Bandelier National Monument just outside of Los Alamos.
Bandelier is an ancestral land that has been home to the Pueblo since roughly 1150 CE. The site and monument are comprised of a volcanic field in the Jemez Mountains. Beginning in the 12th century, the Pueblo began to use the area as shelter, living in the carved out caves of the cliffside. Over the centuries, Puebloans built larger and more complex structures using the rocks and cliffside as foundations.
A round trip two mile trail takes you along the sections of cliff and rock where the first Pueblo homes were constructed. In several spots, visitors are welcome to climb a bulky wooden ladder to enter the carved out sections of the rock that were once the homes of a proud nation. Some newer sites still exist with more conventional looking native structures. There is also significant structural evidence still scored into the cliff. One can visit the former site of the long house to see just how large a structure the Pueblo were capable of building even in the pre-Colombian era.
For more than two hours, I walked up and down the trails and climbed a few ladders to get a look inside these primitive homes. I studied the carved artworks on the cliff where the long house once stood. I looked down from a bluff to see a field where the remains of a market building still lie in the center of the peaceful meadow.
The crowd was present but not distracting. The weather was very sunny, and quite warm. As the trail curled back towards the visitors center, I pulled away form the mountainside and ambled down into a lovely meadow filled with golden grasses and a few pines. I let the warmth of the afternoon bathe over me as I walked casually back toward Aretha.
By the time I hit Los Alamos, it was just after 3:30 and I made my way up the hills to the home of my hosts, Suzie and Scott Haveman. Like so many of the amazing people I have written about in this space, I got to know the Havemans through the Stand Up With Pete Dominick Podcast. My real introduction to them was this past March at an event called PodJam, that we both attended and where I recorded a live podcast. I haphazardly mentioned that I was going to be touring out west in the fall and asked if they might be interested in hosting a show. To my huge surprise, they said yes.
Scott and Suzie’s house is a beautiful mid-century design that sits atop the hills of Los Alamos. It is a gorgeous spot with a breathtaking view of the mountains and the city. I pulled into the driveway and walked up to ring the bell. Scott was there immediately with a hug and a hearty greeting. Suzie popped in from the other room filled with excitement as they prepped for the impending party. She gave me a huge embrace and told me how happy she was to have me there. I felt right at home.
Over the next hour or so, I helped Scott and Suzie with a bit of party prep. We also made the decision to have the show on the patio. I started a fire in the outdoor fireplace and Scott turned on a gas heater for guests just before they arrived. Once we had a plan for the night, I began getting my gear set up on the patio for my set.
Guests began arriving at the house just before the scheduled 6:00 start time. The Havemans had put together a beautiful spread of veggies, fruits, hummus, mac and cheese, crackers, cold cuts, cheese, breads, and more. There was a wide array of white and red wines that guests began enjoying almost upon arrival. Beers, sodas, and seltzers also stood chilled in buckets ready for waiting attendees to enjoy.
I meandered around the room and was introduced to a host of the Haveman’s friends. I found them all to be interesting, curious and genuine; my favorite sort of folks. I talked at length with a man named Paul who grew up in Los Alamos and he explained some of the history and myth behind the mountains. He shared with me how drastically the town has changed, especially in the last two decades.
Of course, in Los Alamos one is always in the shadow of the National Laboratory that dives the economic engine of the area. First started as the location for the Manhattan Project during World War Two, even 80 years on the government and its scientific research labs in the area are still top dog. The high paying jobs at the lab, make Los Alamos one of the most wealthy cities in America per capita.
The sun fell slowly from the sky while I mingled with the Haveman’s wonderful friends and sipped on a Miller High Life. At 7:00 on the nose, Scott gave me a vey warm introduction to the sizable crowd. The darkness of the New Mexico night rolled in just as I began the opening strains of the first tune. My portable light rig that I travel with lighted up the tree next to my spot on the patio and provided a beautiful backdrop for the evening.
I played a bunch of my original tunes from The Stick Arounds, Harborcoat, and The Pantones. Knowing full well that the guests of the Havemans were all progressives, I shared the story of playing ‘Great America’ in Toledo the night that Donald Trump was first indicted. The crowd roared in laughter at hearing the story and were also very motivated to see Kamala Harris win this election. It felt great to be in a room full of folks who still believed in democracy, equality, and decency.
Not only was Los Alamos one of the very best crowds on the tour, I felt like my voice was especially strong that night. As I played in the brisk early evening on that gorgeous patio I felt grateful, excited, and even a bit proud. Once the set was completed I set my guitar down and went back in to grab a bite to eat and connect further with the crowd.
Several folks came by the merch table to pick up CDs, vinyl, and T-shirts. The Haveman’s generous friends were not shy to pay me for the performance, and a wide number of them took the time to relay how much they appreciated me coming to town. As the crowd thinned out, I felt waves of electricity coursing through me. That night in Los Alamos was about as close to perfection as it gets for a dude like me on the road.
Once the crowd had left, I loaded all of my gear out to Aretha and then I helped Scott and Suzie pick up some of the major debris from the party and battened down the hatches for the night. As we finished up for the evening I thanked them both profusely for an amazing evening. They both smiled, seemingly thrilled with the way the night had gone.
I hit the sheets reminded of the power of this work and the way it affords folks the opportunity to get together in a single space. My work is based on songwriting and storytelling. The touring itself is an act of community building and social reinforcement that might be just as valuable as the songs themselves. I drifted to sleep feeling like the night had been a bona fide success on all of those fronts. While those nights are more scarce on the road than I would like, Los Alamos reminded me how very beautiful, and necessary they are.
Cheers,
Matty C
So grateful that we got to hang out and become friends IRL! Thanks for leaving us with some swag and glad to hear the Land of Enchantment held some enchanted moments for you!
New Mexico sounds like it's been on of the high points on this trip! So happy you, Dave & Amy were able to connect!