I don't think that I've mentioned one of the coolest things about performing at the Albuquerque Folk Festival - meeting Antonia Apodaca! While we were performing on the main stage of the Folk Festival on Saturday morning, I saw an older lady in brightly colored clothing in the crowd who was obviously enjoying the music - dancing, clapping her hands and generally enjoying herself. We found out after the show that she was Antonio Apodaca, one of New Mexico's cultural and musical treasures. Antonia Apodaca was born into a family of musicians in Rociada, NM. A talented guitarist and songwriter and a dynamic button accordion player, she has an extensive repertoire of traditional Hispanic tunes and songs from Northern New Mexico that she learned from her parents and uncles.
We were only able to chat for a minute before I had to head off to a workshop, so I didn't get to see her performance. In any case, as we were getting ready to leave the hotel the following morning, I got a call from the front desk, who said that Antonia wanted to see me. I went down to the front desk, and found that she knew we had missed her performance at the folk festival, so she wanted to play for me! I took her back to the room, and she sang some songs, then we sang some together, and finally, we brought Rory over so that he could play with us - a great way to start a morning!