OUR 2019 COMMISSIONING ENDEAVOR,
MARFA: A COUNTRY & WESTERN BIG BAND SUITE
MELDS TWO MUSICAL LANGUAGES.
Originally commissioned by Ballroom Marfa, the work merges instrumental country music and western soundtracks with a power jazz rhythm section, a classic string quartet, all alongside horn and rhythm sections. In total, a fourteen member ensemble featuring legendary country guitarist Redd Volkaert (Merle Haggard), fiddle prodigy Ruby Jane, and ever-smiling pedal steel player Ricky Davis (Dale Watson).
The suite is the first part of The Marfa Triptych, Graham Reynolds' three musical portraits of West Texas. The multimedia, genre-hopping trilogy of performances were inspired by his interest in the intermingled populations of the Texas-Mexico border regions and the Chihuahuan Desert landscape.
Marfa County had an initial performance in 2013, but it had yet to reach its full potential. Thanks to the support of Kathleen & Harvey Guion and the backing of Golden Hornet, MARFA crossed the finish line with:
a full score
Reflecting lessons learned from the original premiere, the score is mindful of varying musical approaches: western classical notation, jazz charts, and the Nashville number system.
community building
Workshop performances, dialogues, and outreach at live events helped to ensure the endeavor reflected the various perspectives involved both on stage and off.
Studio Album
Original recordings from 2013 were revisited and new recordings captured, with fresh mixing and mastering, resulting in the work's first recorded form, released on all platforms.
Live Premiere
Supported by Sponsors Kathleen and Harvey Guion, the big band was on stage in Austin for the first time, in November 2019 at The Highball, to premiere the work brought back to life.
“MARFA is a cohesive work, aided by great performances, a guileless lack of pretense, and Reynolds’ eagerness to push things beyond the norm. If you haven’t been to this West Texas oasis, it’s almost impossible to describe the spell its strange culture clash casts over the landscape, but now, at least, we have a soundtrack.”
HAVEN'T HEARD IT YOURSELF?
WHERE TO FIND
MARFA: A COUNTRY & WESTERN BIG BAND SUITE
MARFA is the first official release of Golden Hornet Records, a new effort to round out our endeavors and ensure further life for each of our programs. Upon debut, MARFA charted #21 on the NACC Top 200 Non-Commercial and #91 on the Top 200 Overall, alongside the likes of Neil Young, Coldplay, The Highwomen, Tame Impala, Bon Iver, and Van Morrison!
Read up on takes of the album from KUTX, WNYC, and Saving Country Music, to name a few.
Click here to order a physical copy, click here to buy a digital copy, or stream the album by clicking here.
“Graham Reynolds’ projects are also often a collaborative effort, and for this endeavor he calls upon another Austin legend in Redd Volkaert, who is known for his work with Merle Haggard, and for his lead guitar mastery of honky tonk, Western Swing, and jazz—all of which come in handy for this particular enterprise. Also joining Graham is pedal steel player Ricky Davis, probably best known for working with Dale Watson, but whom also plays with many other Austin-based honky tonk bands. Add the Austin string quartet Invoke to the mix, and a few select horn players and other musicians from around A-Town, and they all conspire on this instrumental marvel...”
BRIDGING COMMUNITIES
Classical music audiences tend to be liberals concentrated on the coasts. Country music listeners are predominately conservatives in the land between.
In 2012, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) reported that only 8.8% of Americans had attended a classical music performance in the previous 12 months, compared to 11.6% a decade earlier. "Older Americans are the only demographic group to show an increase in attendance over a decade ago," the NEA study found. But in 2016, country was once again the most popular radio format in America: 13.6% of all listening.
Though divergent in popularity, both genres are up against mis-perceptions and stereotypes - which are, in truth, based on some realities.
Classical music audiences and performers tend to be overwhelmingly white, and aging. Blind auditions and new efforts make a difference in diversity - and Golden Hornet emphasizes curation and programming in an effort to shift these demographics - but the system is still in flux to address the factors that address inequities. Politically, classical audiences tend to be associated with "coastal elite" hot spots and Democratic ideologies. Independents are 25% more likely to 'often' listen to classical music.
A 2004 Gallup survey found nearly 60% of country fans identify more strongly with Republicans, compared with n% who identify as liberal and around 30% who say they're political moderates. The audience is also overwhelmingly white, since the dawn of recording began to define & separate target audiences from the music's actual roots.
MARFA: A Country & Western Big Band Suite brings these players and audiences of disparate ideologies together, counteracting stereotypes, highlighting the diversity that is present within each community, and melding musical languages to create a new one.
André Hayward on trombone at the November 2019 Austin premiere.
The original performers following a workshop performance at Rollins Theatre at The Long Center.
Redd Volkaert at the original premiere in Marfa, TX.
Redd Volkaert & Ricky Davis outside the Dive Bar in Austin, TX in 2014, following a workshop performance.
A view from standing room at The Highball for the Austin premiere in November 2019.
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO THE SUPPORTERS
WHO MADE THIS ENDEAVOR POSSIBLE
Premiere Sponsors
Kathleen & Harvey Guion
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Outreach Sponsors
Shalini Ramanathan & Chris Tomlinson
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Messaging Sponsors
Amy Holloway & Chris Engle
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Raj Patel & Mini Kahlon
Joseph Strickland
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Jessica Brand & Chris Roberts
George & Dona Reynolds
Blake Trabulsi
Rishma Venkatrao