Timeless tunes: Celtic music trio to tour in New Mexico

Celtic music trio Kalos will perform four concerts in New Mexico as part of a ten-concert Southwest tour.

From Monday, Jan. 13, through Thursday, Jan. 16, the band will spend their days touring Silver City, Las Cruces, Albuquerque and Santa Fe venues while performing traditional Celtic arrangements.

The band, which consists of fiddler Ryan McKasson, guitarist/vocalist Eric McDonald and accordionist Jeremiah McLane all hail from Scottish immigrant families and are deeply connected to the roots of folk music. Created using sonorous wood (mahogany, spruce and ebony), the group features acoustic instruments that reverberate the classic folklore sounds.

Timeless tunes: Celtic music trio to tour in New Mexico

“Very often with traditional music, people tend to come from one so if you come from that region or if you studied that type of music for so long, that’s kind of the way you subscribe yourselves,” said McDonald. “What’s different about us in that regard is that we’ve all studied a lot of those traditions, but we don’t let that affect what we play.”

To blend all the sounds into one genre, Kalos considers their music Celtic rooted music — something based off of tradition but not exactly traditional.

“I think that some of the generic things that attract us to it are the history behind it,” McDonald said. “The traditional music is sort of like a stream that you add, that you kind of join up with and add to all this music that’s been played for hundreds and hundreds of years.

“You can kind of connect with that person in a way that has been gone for hundreds of years by playing this music and getting sort of an insight into their expression, into their brain, into what their life was like with these songs,” he added.

On the verge of their fourth album — one released under the name Kalos and two more albums released prior to the group becoming a trio — the band is touring the Southwest with their most recent album, “Headland.” Along with songs on the “Headland” album, the band will premiere songs from the upcoming album, which will release in early 2026.

“We’re going to Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and all three of those are states that we all love, that we’ve all spent a lot of time for leisure, and we’re excited to kind of get to know the music scene and the cultural side,” McDonald said.

Kalos has visited New Mexico before, but the band’s members said they’re excited to have the opportunity to get inside New Mexico venues for the first time.

“There are some great venues that we’re excited about and such an intention towards the culture and the acoustic music we like to do,” McDonald said. “Not only that, but we’re excited to spend some time in New Mexico, and we want to get out and have some food and explore the cities.”