Harlan Tafoya-Kesson: Roots, rock, reggae — and everything else
THERE IS A NAME that keeps coming up among musicians if you’re looking to fill any role in your rhythm section — drums, bass, guitar, keyboards — or if you’re looking to tweak your sound or get your tunes engineered and recorded. That name is Harlan Tafoya-Kesson.
Looking at his below-the-shoulder dreads and Jah shirt, you might categorize him as a mountain reggae guy and imagine that’s all he’s about. You would be mistaken. There is hardly a genre of music that Tafoya-Kesson hasn’t explored, and he is still in his 20s.
“From such a young age, I remember trying at 5 to play my dad’s bass, figure out how his loop pedal worked,” he said. “I wrote a classical sonata in fifth grade. I was very interested in classical piano. I took piano lessons from Dan Daily at Enos Garcia. In sixth grade I played drums in marching band and started private drum set lessons with Cullen Winter. Then around the same time my dad came home with a small home recording rig on the computer, and I started getting into hip hop. Lots and lots of hip hop beats. Then around the end of high school I kind of transitioned into the death metal scene. And then I joined Lonesome Town with my dad.”
His dad is beloved Taos guitar hero Scott Kesson, Lonesome Town’s lead guitarist.
“Harlan is one of the most naturally musical people I’ve ever encountered,” Kesson said. “Ever since he was a little guy, every instrument I ever handed him just seemed to make sense to him. I played everything for him from Billy Cobham to Glenn Miller, Mozart to Motown to Mingus and he loved it all. Well, mostly all. Later he introduced me to modern heavy metal, death metal, conscious hip hop. I really dug most of it and still listen to quite a lot of it. Harlan and a couple of his peers were in our advanced band at Taos Youth Music School — we were teaching rock and roll in our garage band program. His class was definitely our super group! After graduation Tim Long and I asked him to teach music with us at the school and he quickly proved to be a gifted teacher as well.
“He can do it all — live sound, audio engineer, studio audio engineer, mixing and mastering and plays a mean guitar, bass and drums. He’s really the musician I always wanted to be as a young boy and it’s been incredibly rewarding watching him become himself! When he started to listen to reggae and really listen to the history of it, something happened, it grabbed hold of him like no music had before. I’m really excited to see where this music takes him!”
Tafoya-Kesson’s response to a question about his musical influences illuminates the eclecticism in his musicality.
“My top five influences are Steel Pulse, Steely Dan, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and — this is the one that shocks people — the Backstreet Boys. ‘Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely’ is one of the perfect songs of all time, perfect production.
“I’ve played with the Swing Dusters, Lonesome Town, Kim and the Caballeros, the Damn Band, the Noseeums, and my own band, Iriebellion. I’ve traveled all over the Four Corners region, as far east as Tennessee, as far west as California, with the Damn Band, and with too many metal bands to even mention. Playing with Kim and the Caballeros was so much fun, one of the most fun musical experiences I’ve ever had. Rob Watt was our bass player, me on drums, we were real tight.
“As far as sound, I’ve worked with Soundworks with Aidan Bain at KTAO. After I started working with Aidan I got introduced to the reggae scene. I owe a lot to Aidan. So many reggae titans came through KTAO, I fell in love with it. I kept doing hip hop, I got introduced to Lodi, rapper Hilario Ledoux. I produced an album and an EP for him. I’ve worked with the Wailers, Richie Spice, Prezident Brown, Don Carlos, the Marley Brothers and numerous others — if you can think of a reggae titan I’ve probably worked with them.
“This was all while teaching garage band classes at Taos Youth Music School. Teaching was wonderful. I love helping mold young minds. I love to watch the kids bringing in their generation’s sound. I taught there for eight years, until just before quarantine. Tim
Long and my dad taught together. Tim retired and I took over his positions, and then my dad retired and Ryan Beckwith came in. Ryan is great.
“It’s such a wonderful tight knit musical community here, everybody knows everybody and plays with everybody. And you can get away with that in a tourist town, you’re playing to a new crowd every week.
“I’m currently linked up with Fifth Son Records and John Juaquin Wilson, he’s a reggae producer. I got to play on a posthumous Akae Beka release. He [singer, songwriter, musician and poet Vaughn Benjamin, aka Akae Beka] died in 2019, but he had started to record one record with John. John decided to finish it with live musicians, and I helped produce. We’ve been producing records for a bunch of artists that I’m not allowed to list yet. From Jamaica as well as New Mexico.”
And how has his life changed in the unusual circumstances of the past year?
“COVID on some level was a much needed reset. I haven’t stopped creating. I have stopped drinking, changed
my diet, tried to get closer to my spirit. I spend time with my son Cayden who is 7 years old. He is very musical, has a little drum kit, ukulele, guitars and he’s such a naturally good singer. He’s such a natural, it’s a beautiful thing to watch. He has a wonderful relationship with his grandpa. I’ve been with Amber for a year-and-a-half now, she’s wonderful and so funny. We both kind of saved each other through this whole process.
“We’re working on an Iriebellion record, there will be many. Iriebellion is Mike Davis on trombone and vocals, Reyes Cisneros on guitar and vocals, me on guitar and vocals, Michelle Chandler on bass, Lincoln Montes on drums and Christof Brownell on keys. We all lost a lot of our music income and had to get other jobs, but creative people have thrived through this. I’m a chef by day at Sol Food in Arroyo Seco, and I’m making music by night. There’s lots of recording coming up and hopefully more live music. I hope to put together at least one other reggae project. I look forward to getting out there and playing for everyone in the community.”