My research and composition center in Marfa.

The Marfa Triptych is three portraits of West Texas as envisioned by Austin-based composer Graham Reynolds. The first installment, The Country and Western Big Band Suite, is set to premiere at the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas on November 16 at 8pm. Tickets are available online in the Ballroom Marfa store.

Half-price tickets are available in the gallery and at the door for all residents of Brewster, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties.

The multimedia, genre-hopping trilogy of performances is inspired by Reynolds’ interest in the intermingled populations of the Texas-Mexico border regions, from ejido to ranch to the visual arts community.

The Marfa Triptych Part One: Country and Western Big Band Suite, is an instrumental suite for 13 players, described by Reynolds as “classic instrumental country meets Western soundtrack meets power jazz rhythm section.” This performance includes contributions from country music veteran Redd Volkaert, along with other members of Reynold’s far-reaching group of collaborators.

This project is inspired by Reynolds’ trips from his base in Austin, Texas to the high desert grasslands of Far West Texas that Ballroom Marfa calls home. His approach combines local musical traditions — from cowboy songs and Southern jazz to the norteño music of Northern Mexico — with a personal perspective that comes from years of scoring film, theater and modern dance performances.

As the project springs from the culture of Far West Texas, Reynolds is currently in the process of working with Ballroom Marfa to coordinate research trips throughout the region in order to experience its culture and history firsthand. Through his own connections and via sources recommended by Ballroom, Reynolds has been keeping an itinerary that includes visits with musicians, historians, storytellers, artists and local legends from Terlingua, Alpine, Presidio, Shafter, Fort Davis, Valentine, Marfa and other far-flung locales in the Big Bend region.

This is the first installment in Reynold’s documentation of his progress, with more to come.

Click here to take a listen to demo versions of two songs from the Country and Western Big Band suite.

Research excursions to Pile of Rocks and Fort Davis in search of inspiration and subjects.

The double rainbow seemed like a good sign for this project.

My interview with Adam Bork led me to watch the sunset from a bench on the west edge of town.

Congratulations to Ballroom’s Deputy Director Melissa McDonnell Luján and Carlos Luján, where tied the knot here in Marfa on August 24. Read a full account of the proceedings in the Big Bend Sentinel …

Images of the exuberant Tejano, country and accordion action delivered by AJ Castillo, The Resonators and friends at Vizcaino Park last weekend. All images by Lesley Brown. See the full gallery of 31 images on our AJ Castillo page.

Tune in to KRTS, Marfa Public Radio, this Sunday night (1 September 2013) from 9-11p (CST) for a very special Inter-Dimensional Music featuring an hour of fresh tunes from Marfa-based electronic musician Celia Hollander, aka $3.33.

Plenty of Texas heads are still ringing from her recent psychedelic desert R&B AV collages in Austin and here in Marfa with William Tyler; regular ID Music listeners will recognize some of her more ethereal compositions from past shows.

Celia will be joining ID Music host Daniel Chamberlin from 9-10pm. Chamberlin plugs his computer into the soundboard from 10-11p, delivering the usual mellow set of kosmiche slop, maybe some Terry Riley or something from the Holter/Barwick-dominated genre of angelic slow jams.

Listen at 93.5FM if you’re out here in the Big Bend, otherwise point your computer at marfapublicradio.org for the live stream. We’re also intermittently active online at interdimensionalmusic.wordpress.com.

We talked with rising Tejano superstar AJ Castillo about his musical family and the stories behind his remarkable customized accordions. AJ Castillo is the headliner at the Marfa Lights Festival at Marfa’s Vizcaino Park this Saturday, August 31. The Resonators open.

Tickets are $20 in advance at Ballroom Marfa, The Big Bend Sentinel and Marfa National Bank. They’re also available for $25 at the gate. Kids under 12 get in free. Read more on our AJ Castillo page.

How did you decide that the accordion would be your instrument of choice?

My grandfather played the accordion and introduced me to the instrument at a very young age. Also when I would go to dances with my parents, I was always drawn to the accordion. Around the age of 9 or 10 I decided that the accordion was the instrument that I wanted to play. I practiced on my grandfather’s accordion until my parents bought me my own.

What makes your customized accordions unique? How do you work with an accordion maker?

Before being endorsed by Hohner, I worked with a close friend of mine who would customize his own accordions. I had different ideas of what I wanted and we would work on them together to make it happen. My favorite of them all is my bright green box, not just the color but the way it feels and sounds when I play it. You can see some of my different accordions on my website. My accordions have a following of their own. A lot of people like the green one and the one covered in crystals is another fan favorite. My newest Gold and White accordion was customized by Hohner. I told them what I wanted as far as the color and hardware then I added the gold plated letters before Hohner added the final clear coat.

What did you learn from your experience as a studio musician?

Being a studio musician was a great experience, I met and worked with a lot of people while doing that. Through that experience I also realized that I could produce and record my own record. At first I was going to record just an instrumental CD because I had never been a singer before. In the end I decided I would try singing and it worked out for the best.

What are the advantages of coming from a musical family?

The advantages are that I’ve been around this business my whole life, it’s what I know. Starting off in the family band was an important part of what shaped me to be the musician I am today.

Are there any special challenges that arise from working with family members in making music?

I love having my brother by my side up on stage and as for my Dad, I’ve been on the same stage with him since I started my musical career as a kid. I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve been working together so long that there really aren’t any special challenges working with family members. The biggest challenge for me is when it comes time to record a new CD, I have so many ideas in my head of what I want to do and to get those ideas to come to life can be challenging at times.

Which other artists — musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, etc — inspire you?

My accordion influences are my grandfather, Steve Jordan and David Lee Garza. I have a wide range when it comes to the music I listen to. I listen to everything from Jazz to R&B to Tejano to Tribal to Regional Mexican to Country. I’m influenced and inspired by it all.

Have you ever traveled to Marfa before? What do you know about our part of Texas?

I have never been to Marfa before but we do have fans from that area. We are looking forward to visiting there for the first time and performing for everyone at the Marfa Lights Festival.

William Tyler at the Highland Annex, August 6, 2013 from Ballroom Marfa on Vimeo.

Video from last week’s Highland Annex show, courtesy of Alex Marks.

$3.33 at the Highland Annex, August 8, 2013 from Ballroom Marfa on Vimeo.

Images from the recent William Tyler and $3.33 show at the Highland Annex here in Marfa. All photos by Alex Marks. See the full gallery here.

Amie LeGette

Piny Showers
August 9 – September 8, 2013
Opening: Friday, August 9, 6-8pm

Please join us on Friday, August 9th from 6-8pm for an opening of Amie LeGette’s painting exhibition at Michael Strogoff.

Michael Strogoff
124 E El Paso St
http://www.michaelstrogoff.com

Friend and artist Mitchell Anderson curates a show, Some Europe in Texas, which opens tonight, August 2, from 6 to 8 pm, at 403 E. Texas in Marfa, Texas.

And for your Friday listening pleasure: Pink Floyd, Live at Paris Cinema, London, July 1970.

Anthony Paletta has a lovely essay in The Awl about the history of drive-in movie theaters that starts out with straightforward nostalgia and heartwarming stories about drive-ins using Kickstarter campaigns to stay afloat. And then because it’s The Awl it takes a turn down a more interesting path, looking at the role of drive-ins as “charnel houses for heavy petting,” their openness to imaginative programming, ties to church experiences and as sites of on-screen catharsis.

Robert Schuller, preacher behind Richard Neutra’s Crystal Cathedral and assorted other preacherly activities, held earlier services at a drive-in, advertising “The Orange Church meets in the Orange Drive-In Theater where even the handicapped, hard of hearing, aged and infirm can see and hear the entire service without leaving their family car.”

The cultural imaging of drive-ins on screen has therefore been a bit complicated. James Cagney hides out from the police in the Sun-Val drive in (watching a Gary Cooper movie on the development of aircraft carriers). John Travolta sets up playground equipment in Grease. The central romantic conflict in Coppola’s The Outsiders starts at the drive-in. In Back to the Future III, Marty McFly sets off at the Pohatchee Drive-in (where a marquee hilariously proclaims a program of “Francis in the Navy, Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.” Dead-End-Drive In, a superb Ozploitation film, imagines a dystopian future where distaff youth are confined in a drive-in and subjected to a constant barrage of trash cinema. Imagine putting up an electric fence around Burning Man and you’re partway to a screenshot. These youths, too, understood a thing or two about the drive in.

In the course of charting this history — a sort of companion timeline to the one offered by Lonn Taylor in his recent assessment of Ballroom’s own Drive-In in the Big Bend Sentinel — Paletta also connects the multifaceted drive-in experience of times past with the vision that informs our project out at Vizcaino Park.

Drive-ins were engaged in a constant battle of invention to attract customers before dusk and most importantly, to keep them eating. According to Segrave, nearly 90% of drive-ins had a playground by 1956. Dances would be held prior to screenings. Other carnivalesque enticements flourished; fireworks, petting zoos, and pony rides with the ultimate aim to extract as much concession revenue as possible from the narrow hours of marketable darkness.

Most programming is family-friendly, but frequently more varied than you’d think. Full Moon Drive-In in San Diego is also a spot to catch Driving Miss Daisy, Rebel Without a Cause, and American Psycho. The Admiral Twin in Tulsa reports banner attendance at its Outsiders and Rumble Fish screenings. Marfa, Texas, is getting in on the act with a suitably out-there Ballroom Marfa sort of drive-in.

Keep reading Paletta’s suitably imaginative essay in The Awl. Find out more about the Ballroom Drive-In by visiting the project space adjacent to the gallery here in Marfa, or visit the Drive-In website. Also stay tuned to David Beebe’s Twitter for updates on his own DIY drive-in, next door to the Boyz2Men taco trailer at Airstreamland.