Since the 1970's, the Fiasco Brothers have been getting together in Albuquerque to share their love of bluegrass and traditional music. Besides getting together for a weekly jam, they'll also play weekend gigs, like weddings. If nobody hires them, they're likely to get together anyway and play just for the fun of it.
Each year, (25 years in some cases), they make a pilgrimage to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. Former members, whose lives have taken them from Albuquerque, make a special effort to make it to Winfield for this annual reunion.
Click this photo for closeup. (Warning: 138K)
Others from New Mexico attending the Festival tend to congregate around the Fiasco Brothers. When the current group, the former members and other New Mexicans all try to camp together, you have the start of a big campsite. Then along come others (like me, Don Shorock) who simply enjoy their company enough to want to camp nearby and you're talking about a fairly large group of 30 or more people. When this group photo was taken, several had already left for home, but it's still a pretty large group to squeeze into a baseball diamond.
The Fiasco Brothers have camped for years in the West Campground in the vicinity of the US-160 bridge. Over the years, the group has moved uphill and recently has occupied the softball field near the bridge.
Nearby, you'll also find Don Koke's Froggy Mountain Campground. It's not unusual to see people from one of these campsites visiting with, and jamming with, members of the other. That's to be expected, though, because the Fiasco Brothers are about the most neighborly group you'll ever meet.
I hope you'll enjoy the photo memories on the following pages. If you have photos of the Fiasco Brothers that you'd like to share, e-mail me and we'll work out a way to do it.
