Billy Daely and Bella Roux’s musical and on-stage chemistry isn’t an act, they’re married in real life and go by Shawn and Anna Lightfoot outside of the music world.
The Lightfoots originally hail from Jacksonville, Florida, and now call New Mexico home. Shawn says some of the best driving he has ever done is through the mountains of Tijeras.
On Sept. 28 in Torreon, The Manzano Mountain Retreat Apple Harvest Festival will host Billy and Bella.
Many of their tunes are inspired by the desert itself.
“A lot of people will say that our music sounds like what it would feel like driving down a desert road at night,” Anna said. “And I thought that was a reasonable description.”
They describe their music as “Southwestern Americana,” or “Southwestern gothic,” but their sound is a bit hard to pinpoint, drawing from multiple genres. Billy and Bella’s music is certainly a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll, a little bit folk and even a little bit “dream pop” — a term that has been used to describe their second album, Onward Shangrila. Their new album, Unindicted Coconspirators will be released Oct. 11 with a release show at Echoes in Albuquerque. A single by the same name was released Sept. 6 and is available on Bandcamp.
“It sounds like a solid, alt-country-rock album for sure,” Shawn said. “So maybe we’re genre hopping, maybe we’re just kinda following some vibes. I don’t know. But the next album coming out is definitely the first one that developed here in New Mexico.”
Anna said that the idea of building a shack on a beautiful piece of land and having their own home was what originally drew them to New Mexico. Her uncle was stationed at White Sands during his service in the Army, and as a child, Anna enjoyed beautiful road trips to her uncle’s property in Angel Fire. But the Lightfoots discovered affordable land in Taos is hard to come by. For now, they call Albuquerque home.
“I’ve lived in Oklahoma, I lived in Northern California, I lived in Florida and now that I live here, the people are very kind,” Anna said. “There’s a lot of heart here and it’s really gratifying to simply have casual conversations with strangers that are kind.”
Anna says that the Lightfoots try to be careful about talking too much about the Land of Enchantment because they want to preserve what makes the region so special. They love showing off their new home to close friends, but they half-jokingly say the last thing they want is to be responsible for a huge population influx.
“I literally have friends that I call ‘the conspiracy of silence’ because we don’t wanna overtly tell people how awesome New Mexico can be,” Anna said. “They’ll catch me posting pictures on Facebook and say, ‘Hey, that’s a nice picture. Now, pull it back down.’”
Billy and Bella
2 p.m.
2024 Apple Harvest Festival Opening Weekend
Sept. 28
Manzano Mountain Retreat
210a Los Pinetos
Torreon, NM, 87061
$5.33
Manzano Mountain Retreat Harvest Festival: Apple Harvest Festival — Manzano Mountain Retreat
Billy and Bella Music: https://billyandbellaband.com/about-the-band
Billy Daely: Billy Daely