(Respectfully) Rocking the Plaza Santa Fe Bandstand presents a stellar lineup of musicians on the Plaza and at its new Southside venue

July 5 is the kick-off date for Santa Fe Bandstand’s free, eight-week long summer season of concerts on the Santa Fe Plaza, where solo acts and bands play everything from Latin, salsa, country and bluegrass to blues, funk, rock and jazz.

“We’re really excited about this year’s lineup,” says Michael Dellheim, the executive director of the non-profit community-based organization Outside In Productions, which produces Santa Fe Bandstand. “The season begins with Grammy Award-winning bajo sexto master Max Baca and winds up with Meow Wolf’s “Monster Battle Party” on the Plaza. In between we’ll hear from national touring artists as well as many amazing musicians from Santa Fe’s vibrant local music scene.”

The first band to take the Santa Fe Plaza’s stage at 6 p.m. on July 5 is Lone Piñon, an acoustic trio of Santa Fe musicians that plays contemporary versions of traditional northern New Mexican, Texan and Mexican music.

Musicians Jordan Wax (fiddle, accordion, vocals), Greg Glassman (guitar, vocals) and Noah Martinez (guitarrón, upright bass) have revived and updated the Chicano stringband style that once flourished in New Mexico. They have been playing together since 2013 and sing in three languages-English, Spanish and Nahuatl. “Días Felices,” their latest album, was released in March.

“We’ve listened to a lot of traditional music of the Southwest, both live and on field recordings that were made decades ago,” explains Wax. “While it’s inspired us, we definitely have our own sound.”

Lone Piñon precedes a set by Max Baca Y Los Texmaniacs, who take the stage at 7:15 p.m. Musicians performing the rest of the week are Bill Hearne Trio and The Rifters (July 6), Tiho Dimitrov and Jay Boy & Zenobia (July 7) and Shake Alert and Battle of Santiago (July 8).

A special addition to the 2017 season are four, free summer performances at the Bandstand’s new Southside location in Swan Park at the end of Jaguar Drive.

“The Southside concerts are made possible by generous support from Meow Wolf and The McCune Foundation,” explains Dellheim. “With this newly launched series, we hope to reach more community members.”