A familiar Celtic rock band blows back into town this week and a local charity will benefit. Long a Durango favorite, the band Seven Nations returns to the Abbey Theater on June 23. The show is a fund-raiser for Country Kids With Cancer, a homegrown nonprofit.

Seven Nations is an original band that has invented its own sound and attracted a prodigious national and international following. The five-member group has logged in more than 300,000 touring miles as it melds piano, guitar and vocal elements of American pop and rock with Highland bagpipes and fiddle. The result is a high-energy performance that has sparked interest industrywide. In Durango, the band has repeatedly sold out the Abbey Theatre and the Durango Arts Center.

This Thursday’s show at the Abbey has the added bonus of benefiting the Durango-based Country Kids With Cancer. The organization provides financial assistance to kids in rural areas fighting cancer and was founded by local cancer survivor Sarah Shank.  Sarah was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in 2000 and had to travel more than 800 miles every three weeks for her treatment at Children’s Hospital in Denver.  It was during one of these trips that Sarah came up with the idea of Country Kids With Cancer to help families in rural areas with travel expenses.

For more information on the program or on Thursday’s show, call 385-1031 or log onto www.countrykidswithcancer.com.

A rising national act takes a local stage this Friday. San Francisco’s New Monsoon brings its marriage of world rhythms and rock back to Durango with a June 24 show at the Summit. New Monsoon mixes Latin, Brazilian and Indian percussion, didgeridoo, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, bass and keyboards. At any given performance, the audience enjoys a synthesis of genres, everything from bluegrass to reggae, to funk and rock ’n’ roll. No two shows are the same and fan recordings of performances have become a favorite among tapers and traders in musical communities throughout the country. The music’s heavy Latin and Indian vibe, with progressive use of melody and rhythm woven into the mix, also gets people up and dancing.

2004 was a monumental year for New Monsoon. The band began the year by being awarded Jambase.com’s 2003 Emerging Artist of the Year and went on to perform at major music festivals and venues including Bonnaroo, Oregon Country Fair, the Austin City Limits Festival, Magnolia Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheater and The Fillmore. New Monsoon also performed at last year’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival, a show that was captured live and is now available on CD.

Fresh on the heels of this year’s Telluride Bluegrass, Durangoans have a chance to catch the band in a small, local venue. New Monsoon goes on the Summit stage this Friday at 9 p.m. Call 247-2324 for details.