Specimens from the Boneyard

Words and Music from Chuck Pinnell

Hello friends. It’s a wet Spring Saturday in Austin and a perfect excuse to sit down and write, says I. This morning I’ve read an early chapter of Moby Dick(that Queequeg, he’s one of the greatest characters in all of literature) and turned down an invitation to go for a rainy walk—so I guess it really is time to discuss Whiskey and friendship—two enduring pleasures with great power to transform.

As 2023 got underway, I was delighted to be working again with my good friend the estemable composer Peter Stopschinski, on a film score which would become the album you see above—A Whiskey Serenade. Like the charred oaken barrels in which white dog matures into the ardent, and the wonderful amber colored distilation itself —A Whiskey Serenade is a sturdy and bracing musical journey— winding through old time Kentucky roots and on to a new Texas flowering of craft distillers. Such great traditions in both states of guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and barley-bree! It’s older in Kentucky, bolder in Texas. The album also features Austin phenom Carrie Rodriguez, and if you haven’t heard her play the violin you’re in for a bold treat indeed. The sojourn begins with Carrie’s fiddle and my mandolin in a fiery duet and never cools off!

Peter and I have been friends and collaborators for twelve years now, through a number of worthy film and album projects, and I’m here to tell you he is a crazy genius Mozartian composer. With such formidable chops you’d think el maestro would be all—mind the flat seven in the eighth bar and please bring the fortissimo on bar four down a smidge—but the real story is far more relaxed, intuitive, and fun. Although he always has an intricate scaffolding erected, whether creating a shimmering orchestral aura or a hoedown, he just as often will turn me lose to improvise to the screen and the piano and the strings, as best I can, with a mysterious twinkle in his eye. When it comes to blending guitar and other folk instruments with orchestral elements, in service to film and it’s flow of imagery and narrative, yes, I’d have to say the best stuff often comes from finding the right phrase—in the moment. It involves a level of trust that goes both ways and if Peter were not such a big-hearted clowning goofball, I would’ve been inclined to freeze up in his studio long ago, instead of transforming somehow into an overachieving one with the force guitar savant and film scoring sage. Ha—that’s a mouthful, but actually kind of true and I’ll let the scores for Audubon, Chasing the Tide, and Cowboy Bourbon stand as proof.

I suppose it’s partly me having the oportunity to reach my potential, after fifty years of playing, but man there’s also some kind of great magic in the right partnership! And I am certainly blessed to have been involved in some elaborate creative cahoots with Peter Stopschinski.

Believe me, I may be my own brand of cracked goofball, but this I Know.