TO GIVE AN OVERVIEW of popular music from this enchanted land, I’ve created a special playlist of 30 songs by New Mexico artists. Call it a virtual stuffed sopaipilla of sounds that span the early 1950s through recent years. It’s available on YouTube to include some rarities and reach the widest possible audience.

Most of the tracks aren’t well-known beyond our borders. But “Bottle of Wine” by the Fireballs, who hailed from Ratón, was a national Top 10 hit in 1968. And while Michael Martin Murphey is nationally known, his song “Summer Ranges,” included here, is not one of his major hits. I once heard him sing a heartbreaking rendition of it in Las Cruces at the funeral of a mutual friend.

The rest is a mix of rock, country, folk, Chicano soul, and traditional and contemporary Indigenous music. You’ll hear love songs, sad songs, funny songs, historical songs, and one trippy psychedelic song, “I Wanna Come Back from the World of LSD” by the Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2.

Some cuts come from New Mexico’s greatest labels: Lance, Frogville, and Hurricane—a family operation in Albuquerque that released essential records of the late Al Hurricane and his brother Baby Gaby, among others. The list also includes Angel Espinoza’s ode to one of New Mexico’s most controversial political figures, “El Corrido de Emilio Naranjo,” and a spooky lament to our most famous outlaw, Billy the Kid, by Nocturne Spark, the nom de song of musician Alysha Shaw, from Santa Fe. 

Speaking of Billy, we lead off with a song written by the daughter of Pat Garrett, the guy who killed him: Elizabeth Garrett’s “O Fair New Mexico,” our official state song, recorded in 2014 by Cerrillos resident Busy McCarroll. There’s also a classic country song, “I Love You a Thousand Ways,” written in the Chaves County jail by former Roswell resident Lefty Frizzell. He was 19 when he got in trouble with the law for a one-night stand with an underaged fan. The song was an apology to his wife. 

Compiling a list like this inherently means leaving out great choices. So please, after you hop down this musical rabbit hole, let us know what you think belongs here. Most importantly, don’t worry about lists. Just keep supporting music by New Mexicans. 

Get into the groove at nmmag.us/terrell-playlist or click play below.