Tone Ranger with Woven Talon Dreamlines

Southwest Supernatural

Two Santa Fe musicians with deep ties to Taos play an evening of immersive desert dance music.

Tone Ranger (aka Alex Simon), a Santa Fe-based artist quickly becoming one of the region’s most sought-after live electronic acts, returns to Taos Mesa Brewery after making a splash during September’s Jumpsuit Family Gathering. There, he debuted his signature Southwestern sound - ethereal lap-steel guitar and whistling over deep tantalizing grooves that could have only emerged from this desert. After igniting the dance floor for two ecstatic evenings, his music garnered a nickname from the audience: “Taos House.”

After many trips to the Southwest in his early twenties, Simon finally moved to the New Mexican desert in 2016. Seeking a deeper connection to the majestic desert landscape and the truth about the Indigenous experience in this land, he took a farm job in Navajo Nation. This led him to travel up to Standing Rock, where he spent 4 months learning about Indigenous history and the modern struggles facing Native America today. He now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he leads a service project called Sovereign Sounds, seeking to bring recording materials and training to Indigenous communities all across the Southwest. Simon is intent on using music as a method of healing, restoring balance, and bringing people together in a country rife with division.

Opening the night will be Woven Talon Dreamlines, a solo project by Evarusnik composer Andrew Tumason, whose connection with Taos has been a crucial inspiration throughout his musical career. Branching out from his signature orchestral sound, Dreamlines explores a visionary journey with earthy vocals, grooving percussion, and entrancing basslines, written in the magnetic southern lands of New Zealand.  The debut Dreamlines album is due this New Year's Eve.