The King of Texas
Music from the film, at last!
First of all, let me apologize for my long absence! I do have a half way decent excuse that is closlely linked to The King of Texas, and here it is—I’ve been finishing my second Billy the Kid novel, Chivato’s Way, and have just turned in the manuscript to my publisher, Sunstone Press. Talk about getting a monkey off my back, more like King Kong. It was an eight year project to get both novels concieved and written, over forty years if you go back to the original inception point—for it began as a film project idea with my brother—the late and great independent director Eagle Pennell. That’s him above in the cover photo for The King of Texas; a classic still taken during the filming of his second feature, Last Night at the Alamo.
So I’m getting my life back now and the first order of business is to ballyhoo the soundtrack for King of Texas; it’s some of my best work and has been in hiding since 2008, but finally mastered and sequenced last fall and available now on Bandcamp. The King of Texas is an unflinching look at the life, and death, of my brother Eagle Pennell. It also speaks to the rise of independent regional filmaking in America, to what it was like in Austin in it’s heyday, to what it means to be Texan, to what it means to be an artist, what it means to rise, and to fall. It was filmed and directed and edited by a great team—my son Rene Pinnell and his then partner, Claire Huie. We also had great interviewees to help tell the story; all the main cast and crew from his films, and everyone from Rick Linklater to Wille Nelson to Ray Bensen to Bud Schrake. Scoring all of the above made for one of the great musical experiences of my life.
As the film began to take shape and I began digging into the story’s subconcious and unlocking musical themes—I realized to complete the score with all due grit and grace—I would need the help of a top shelf Texas singer songwriter. My first choice was the incomparable Slaid Cleaves and thankfully the music and cinema gods were with me. Slaid came on board forwith and brought some of his best songs; songs that so closely fit my brother’s rise and downfall—that it was as if he’d written them about Eagle specifically. Slaid showed up at my studio on South 5th and I believe we got his voice and guitar tracks down in a couple of sessions. Later I added myself on guitar and mandolin, Ivan Brown on bass, Bonnie Whitmore on fiddle, Tony Redman on National Steel slide, and Peter Stopschinski on piano. The presence of Slaid’s voice and his songs, in both the film and on the album are like Texas super fuel—whatever that is, it’s a thang!
The scores I composed for Eagle’s first three films were of neccessity guitar based. That was my instrument and there was no money for anything grander, but as I’ve found out first hand—limitations can often lead to choices that are correct for the project and inspire your best work. I am reminded of the 1970’s film Deliverance, which has a sparce but indelible guitar-based score, one that is not only esential to the film’s evocative atmosphere but also became part of it’s enduring lore. At the end of a costly production on a small budget film, that’s all director John Boorman could afford—end of story. We had little to no money for King of Texas and the same constraints were in place for our production. There was no choice but to go small and spare. I wanted to stay close to the sound of Eagle’s landmark films anyway, and I also knew that the quieter you are, the bigger the space you’re creating can become. Scores are as much about texture as melody, and far more about ambiance than the size of your orchestra. Thirty years had passed since I’d scored The Whole Shoot’n Match and having evolved a bit as a musician, guitarist, and engineer—I wanted to put all those new ideas about texture and ambiance to work, and did. The soundtrack is mainly accoustic and classical guitars; played using various stylistic approaches from finger picking, to flatpicking, to harmonic string tapping—with a bit of studio magic here and there. I also had a secret weapon in my guitar buddy Tony Redman, who created some amazing sounds and melodies on the Fender Telecaster and Nastional Steel guitars.
The King of Texas premiered at SXSW back in 2008, and was showcased at the foremost SXSW venue—the Paramount Theater. High cotton for us and a grand night that I will always cherish and remember. More recently it was a part of Ethan Hawke’s personally curated collection of Texas Films for The Criterion Channel; quite an evocative and quirky list that also included my brother’s films Last Night at the Alamo and Whole Shoot’n Match. Click on the link above to watch The King of Texas, it tells my brother’s cautionary and consequential story with love, honesty, and a lot of energy.
I’m very proud of this score and so happy to finally present it as an album!
Nearly twenty years on—it holds up very well.