New Mexico has long been a crossroads of cultures, and its musical landscape reflects its history of diversity. Lone Piñon is part of a new generation of musicians who embrace the full scope of that complexity. Onstage, they cluster around a single microphone and play with a contagious energy, tying together several dozens of dance forms that resonate in their home state. The result is a new sound, rooted in respect for the past and undeniably alive.

The band features three musicians whose careers have woven through a wide spectrum of roots music before converging in 2012 in Northern New Mexican and Mexican music.  

Jordan Wax (fiddle, accordion, vocals) grew up in Missouri and was traditionally trained by master Ozark fiddler Fred Stoneking and Central Missouri dance fiddler John White. He worked as bandleader and accordionist for a Jewish dance band for years before his work with Missouri and New Mexican fiddle styles inspired him to travel to Mexico for a 6-month immersion in Mexican huapango fiddling in the Huasteca region of San Luis Potosí. 

Greg Glassman ( guitar, vocals ) is from Brooklyn, NY. He first explored traditional music as a clawhammer banjo player with the Gnawa musicians of Essouira, Morocco. A reformed drummer, he began singing pre-war gospel and country music with the Sacred Shakers, and traveled to Veracruz Mexico to study regional Son. He has composed music for several feature length films and documentaries, most notably for Ken Burn’s ‘Baseball’ (Original banjo score ).

Noah Martinez (guitarrón, upright bass) grew up in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque immersed in the music of his community: Onda Chicana, New Mexican rancheras, punk rock, norteño, honky-tonk, Western swing, and the jaranero movement recently arrived from southern Veracruz. He is a descendant of several generations of activists who have worked to protect the agricultural and cultural traditions of Native New Mexicans and he raises sheep and goats on his family’s land in the North Valley of Albuquerque.

“Ultimately, you sense the band’s deep respect for the music and cultures from which it emerged, honoring its integrity with the purity of their all acoustic instrumental approach. There is no updating going on, but there is a subtle blending, like a good spice mix, as they bring their diverse backgrounds to this music. New Mexico itself, you might remember, was Mexico (along with Arizona, Texas Nevada and California) until what is called on this side of the border the Mexican-American War of 1846-47, which resulted in massive U.S. expansion. It has the highest percentage of both Hispanic and Indigenous populations of any contiguous U.S. state. But it’s also close to the Midwest and it of course borders Texas and Oklahoma. All of this is present in New Mexico, and it is present in the music of Lone Piñon as well.