MAX GOMEZ GREW UP IN TAOS, where he began honing his craft—what he describes as “American storytelling with an acoustic guitar”—as a teenager, playing beloved venues like the Taos Inn. His relaxed, rootsy songs have since earned as many as four million Spotify streams. Gomez’s newest album, Memory Mountain, drops August 29. Along with touring the U.S. this summer, Gomez and 25 guests embark on a couple of three-day rafting and camping trips on the Río Chama (August 15–17 and 22–24), where he’ll perform nightly around the campfire.
When I was about seven or eight years old, one of my older brothers picked up an electric guitar. I really looked up to him, and I started playing it more than he did.
We had an old player piano in the house. There was a whole box of scrolls you could load onto the machine there and pump the pedals. Suddenly, the piano would play itself.
I started to perform around Taos when I was about 13 or 14, playing guitar and just putting a toe in the water of singing. The community at large was, and still is, very supportive. Their support is surely what directed me down the path I’ve gone.
My new album, Memory Mountain, is named for a song on the album that I wrote with Michael Martin Murphey. The concept is a Western folk album—a sparse one.
It’s Southwestern road-trip music. I recorded the entire album over the course of about a week at the beach in Los Angeles—in an old house where we built a recording studio—with a guy named Mark Howard.
I like to work with folks that I’m learning from so I can absorb new knowledge. Mark’s an artist himself and a masterful record producer who’s been a part of many historic albums—among them, Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind and Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball.
It was a lovely process, a challenging process. And I’m excited and relieved to get it out.
Snag tickets for upcoming shows at maxgomezmusic.com.
¡Más música!
If you like Max Gomez, check out a haunting live show by fellow Taos folkie Garry Blackchild; find dates on Instagram @garryblackchildmusic.