The Arts

Drama

For more than two decades, the Bullock Texas State History Museum in downtown Austin has showcased the Lone Star Story through fresh and thought-provoking presentations. Check out the feature dramatizations I authored for in-exhibit performance, ranging from the antics of a cattle-punching cowgirl to the insidious influence of 1930s Nazi propaganda.

Yippee Yay!

There’s a new star in Texas! Dala Driftwood punches cattle like a heavyweight and trick-rides a horse like no man’s business. But don’t get to thinking she’s all jingle jangle jingle. Cowgirls stormed the ring before cattle queens tossed their tiaras into it, and a few like Dala had the savvy to take their game from rodeo to studio. Dala rides straight out of the spunk of industry greats, from Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane to Fay Kirkwood and Dale Evans. Her 1940s show is where wild west meets big town, giving wartime fans a welcome diversion and an awesome peek at a new player on a man’s entertainment stage. So, get on in and warm a bench as Dala ditches her spurs and takes trusty Sidekick Ted to town. And to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers: y’all are on notice.

Bullock Texas State History Museum

“Rodeo! The Exhibition” Exhibit

Austin TX, Summer 2018

Maizie O's Longhorn Lounge

What’ll it be today, foot juice or jag juice? Skedaddle on back to north Texas in the Roaring 1920s, where the only thing dryer than Dallas County is the wit of sassy speakeasy owner Maizie O. Her clandestine Longhorn Lounge hides right in plain sight on the downtown drag, and if you manage to get in, you’ll enjoy anything but a quiet drink. Maizie’s got a huge laugh, and sure as shootin’ she’ll prattle your ear off over nonsense like the 18th Amendment, scoffing the law, and why every good Texan deserves a glass now and then. So if you’re still in the dark over how to convert your pumpkin into a working distillery, hurry on over—yes, even you teetotalers. But, for the love of Mike, lower your voice at the door and do not, under any circumstances, ask about the chalkboard. The password is hatchetation!

Bullock Texas State History Museum

“American Spirits” Exhibit

Austin TX, Fall 2017

Stille Nacht

It’s Christmas Eve in 1932, just before Adolf Hitler’s appointment as national Chancellor. Family patriarch Karl sets aside struggles with Depression-era debt to host a traditional holiday homecoming. His kin gather to Parchim, a rural village of the Mecklenburg region where sentiment for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party is on the rise. When Karl’s sister, Ilse, arrives from nearby progressive Berlin after an extended family absence, they discuss the pressing national concerns over social class and finance. But their very family bonds are tested when their dispute comes to the NSDAP—the Nazi Party—and whether leader Adolf Hitler is going too far by instituting identity-building propaganda campaigns designed to unite the citizens of Germany by utterly dividing them.

Bullock Texas State History Museum

“State of Deception” Exhibit

Austin TX, Fall 2016

Music

I’m a lyricist mostly by accident, but a couple of works that gave me great pleasure to write were taken up by one of the truly inspired Irish-Celtic musical vessels of our time. With the airs in its sails of a lineup of individually gifted instrumentalist-vocalists, Kansas City’s Tullamore is propelled by the arrangements of lifelong brother, Mark Clavey. When visiting the tracks below, be sure to sample and buy their fine albums.

The Rangers of Gonzales

How far do you have to go to get a decent Irish ballad these days? Folks don’t usually look for one in Old Mexico of the 1830s, but certain tales from the revolution of sunny Tejas have some pretty surprising twists. For instance, what possessed the men from Gonzales town to ride into the besieged Alamo to their assured death? And what in heaven gave Texans at San Jacinto the superpower to overturn their Mexican foe at the astronomical index of 64 to 1 to secure their Republic? Seeing a mystic shamrock at the intersection of these stories, I crafted the verse “Flight of the Gonzales Rangers,” and brother Mark scooped it up to deliver an Irish ballad that fires on all Lone Star cylinders. Listen closely as fiddler-vocalist Rachel Gaither breathes after-life into the arrangement, and you’ll see ghost riders, too.

Visit Tullamore’s Two to Get Ready album, where you can read the lyrics, liner notes, and play the track for The Rangers of Gonzales.

Timber and Stream

Driving to West Virginia in the first wintry days of 1995, I hashed through ways to articulate my sentiment for my father—a restless, innovative soul in life—but words fell flat. Moments before his memorial, the verse for “Timber and Stream” arrived spontaneously and fully, and I had the tribute I desired. A mill, its loyal builder, the stream: his body, soul and life. The words I delivered aloud formed instantly as music in the ear of Mark, who went on to propose that my tribute be expanded. Our collaboration struck a chord. Andrew Miller of The Pitch declared the lyrics “a tender eulogy” and Indie-Music.com reviewer Les Reynolds pronounced the title composition “a gorgeous melody.” In the melancholic vocals of classic group member and dear friend Mary Hanover, the soul of the song lingers on in the quiet beyond the final track.

Visit Tullamore’s Timber and Stream album, where you can read the lyrics, liner notes, and play the track for Timber and Stream.