NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE

Where are the best places to hear live music in New Mexico? Find these enchanting venues all over the state.

TUMBLEROOT BREWERY & DISTILLERY, SANTA FE

This brewery-distillery combo offers big sound on indoor and outdoor stages, drawing touring acts such as Sierra Ferrell and Talib Kweli, and local faves Esther Rose and Nosotros.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery’s first foray into international gin tasting waters was a successful one, to say the least.

The Santa Fe-based establishment recently took home a trio of medals at The Gin Masters 2025 competition in the U.K. In the Cask Aged category, the distillery’s Navy Strength Gin took home Master Medal — the most prestigious honor — while its High Desert Gin and Botanical Gin both garnered silver medals in the Contemporary category.

While the Tumbleroot gins had already attracted significant interest from outside New Mexico, master distiller Jason Kirkman says it was the first time submitting the spirits to a competition of any kind.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

What is New Mexican music? Like most aspects of New Mexican culture, it’s not just one thing but an ever-evolving medley of cross-cultural influences.

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery in Santa Fe will present “The Big New-Mex Review: A Musical Journey through the Land of Enchantment,” a free concert showcasing the rich diversity of music in New Mexico today. The concert is the brainchild of Lance Bendiksen, a longtime producer and composer, who moved to Santa Fe with his wife three years ago after coming to the area off and on for many years.

PASATIEMPO

On Wednesday, January 28, Tumbleroot Alegría on Agua Fria will serve as both a concert hall and a film set for the Big New-Mex Review, a free live performance and documentary shoot featuring a diverse showcase of New Mexico musicians.

The documentary project is The Big New-Mex Review: A Musical Journey Through the Land of Enchantment, which explores the range of musical traditions and influences that shape New Mexico’s sound. Oscar-winning actor Wes Studi, serving as master of ceremonies, will guide the audience through an experience that blends performance and cultural record. The Big New-Mex Review’s founder is Santa Fe-based producer and composer Lance Bendiksen, whose decades of experience in music production, composition, and scoring for film and television shape the event.

SANTA FE REPORTER

Whether or not the people who live outside of New Mexico understand our fair state's cultural contributions to the broader American artistic landscape matters very little when those who've called Santa Fe and the area home know something about our regional music to be true: We've got a whole mess-load of badass musicians around here. And one show later this week aims to highlight as many of them as possible (not, like, punk and metal, but that's a story for another day) while setting the stage for a forthcoming documentary film highlighting New Mexico music.

TABLE MAGAZINE

At the Pottery Pub on Palace Avenue, every cocktail, beer, or spirit is served in a vessel handcrafted at Paseo. Guests can also purchase pottery or try their hand at making their own. The collaboration is constantly evolving—seasonal cocktails inspire new designs, such as tiki tumblers in summer or mugs for winter hot toddies. In addition to crafting specialty drinks with homegrown ingredients,Tumbleroot distills their own spirits, using locally harvested juniper berries and herbs from the Kirkmans’ garden in their distinctive, award-winning gins.

TABLE MAGAZINE

Would you care for some clay with your cocktail? Absolutely, if you’re at Santa Fe’s Tumbleroot Pottery Pub, where you can sip craft beer and artisanal cocktails from handcrafted ceramic vessels, while making your own masterpiece out of clay.

This unique hands-on experience was concocted by Angela Kirkman, who owns Paseo Pottery. It is a ceramic studio and gallery founded in 1991 by Kirkman, and her husband Jason Kirkman. Her husband also co-owns Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery‘s master brewer and distiller.

“It’s actually an idea that’s been hatching for 30 years,” Angela says. “Jason and I met in college and I started making pottery and he started brewing. We always dreamed of having a place where we could work together. We drink everything at our house out of pottery so we thought about serving everything out of pottery.”

TRAVEL & LEISURE

“I joined my family at Tumbleroot Pottery Pub, a bar with potter’s wheels. “What’s my favorite thing in the world? Sitting around, playing with clay, and drinking cocktails,” said Angela Smith Kirkman, who started the pub with her husband, Jason Kirkman. It’s the kind of place I wish every city had. We ordered cherry limeades (which were served in glazed tumblers) and slabs of sculpting clay. Instead of scrolling on our phones, my husband and I chatted as he made a pinch pot, I sculpted an abstract shape, and my daughter smothered her clay in paint.”"

DARK SIDE BREW CREW

A while back the Crew felt the tremor of a tectonic shift in ownership and management at Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery. We knew there had been a major quake, but out of respect, we kept a tight lid on the seismic activity until someone was ready to chat about the major change.

Over the course of several weeks and events, I was able to catch up with owners Jason and Angela Kirkman, as well as lead brewer and distiller Michael Chavez, to talk about what that major change entailed, as well as everything else happening at Tumbleroot’s three locations.

Turns out there was a lot going on.

DARK SIDE BREW CREW

Earlier in June, just before hitting the road for our Southern Colorado beer trek (featured on the page), I reached out to the very busy brew crew of Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery. I had known they had a lot going on and one exciting major development in the works. It was about time I sat down with them for their Look Back/Look Ahead story, which wraps up the series for 2022-23.

Without hesitation, they agreed to meet up, and so after work one day, I made my way down the road to the brewing facility on Bisbee Court, the one with the charming, comfy bar attached, just on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

If you follow the Santa Fe River from its headwaters high in the Sangre de Cristos down into the foothills, through McClure Reservoir, past the adobe houses that line Upper Canyon Road, all the way along Patrick Smith Park and under Palace Avenue, you’ll find yourself traversing, as the land flattens, what was once fertile farmland irrigated by abundant acequias, their silver branches flowing north and south from the central trunk of the river.