Ambient music, modern dance, and cowboys.

portable recording studio

There was something new and different at the Starlight Theatre last night.

Paul Sprawl and his wife Leralee Whittle are building an artist residency retreat here in Terlingua. They plan to have housing, performance space and audio/video recording facilities.

They’re still building, but their first “resident” was Ted Killian, a composer from Oregon. Ted plays guitar- actually, Ted uses a guitar as a source sound and manipulates that sound through walls of technology.

Last night, Ted and Paul improvised over two hours of very cool ambient music. Paul played Moog synthesizer, guitar, and sang. Ted played his guitar rig and a Daxaphone. Leralee set up a dance space and danced/performed while Ted and Paul played. Continue reading “Ambient music, modern dance, and cowboys.”

Viva Terlingua Music Festival Day 3 – Saturday night!

Saturday night at the Viva Terlingua Festival- rocked. My only regret was that I couldn’t be in all 3 venues at the same time. I missed some great music- and some great photos- while I was hearing great music and taking photos.

At the Boathouse, JW Louis, Matt Harlan, Patrick Green, and the Rock Bottom String Band played- a night of excellent songwriting and crowd-pleasing bluegrass.

At La Kiva, Bruce Salmon opened the show, Tahoma (with the new guitar player- even better than last year) played, followed by Penny Jo Pullus. The 7-piece John Bush Band closed the show.

The rock walls of La Kiva were vibrating with excellent music and Continue reading “Viva Terlingua Music Festival Day 3 – Saturday night!”

Viva Terlingua Music Festival 2015 Day 2

Friday night at the Viva Terlingua Music Festival was another historic night- So much good music.

At La Kiva, Trevor Hickle previewed songs from his soon to be released CD, and then was joined by his dad, Danny, for some serious (seriously) outlaw country music.

Aaron Todd played an elegant set of classical and flamenco (flamingo?) music. Breaking Light played a stunning set of psychedelic instrumentals.

At the Starlight Theatre, Ashley Monical added a glaze of class with her songs. The Lavens rocked the house, and the Dead Pyrate Society played unapologetic rock and roll.

The boathouse had Texas acoustic music- Mark Allan Atwood, Claude Butch Morgan, Ken Gaines… they all played timeless “poets with acoustic guitars” music. We could have been at Sand Mountain or Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant circa 1972… Continue reading “Viva Terlingua Music Festival 2015 Day 2”

Viva Terlingua Music Festival 2015 – Day 1

Day 1 at the Viva Terlingua Music Festival this year was pretty amazing.  There was live music all night long at the Starlight Theatre, the Boathouse, and La Kiva.

It was the first time La Kiva has been open in a long time.

All the performers were great, but the closing act at La Kiva was historic.  Butch and Rory Hancock were joined by Bob Livingston and Bradley Kopp. Butch played and sang his amazing songs, Bob played bass and sang harmony, and Rory and Brad laid down some blistering guitar. Continue reading “Viva Terlingua Music Festival 2015 – Day 1”