Don’t Fence Big Bend

So there I was in the Saxon Pub at a memorial for Jon dee Graham. Up to my table walked a woman beckoning my attention.. I did not recognize her at first I hadn’t seen her in years. It was none other than Cathy Crane. Part of a friend group, who I refer to as the old guard of new sincerity. Cathy had an idea for me to musically protest the building of a wall through Big Bend national Park. This was early 26 maybe February or March. Her idea was to change the lyrics of the classic Cole Porter tune to, Don’t Fence Big Bend. I immediately liked the idea, very clever and musically perfect. She felt I was the one to do it. And I considered it until I came upon the idea to make it a multi artist kind of thing. I didn’t know exactly how I was gonna do it, but I thought I could edit together multiple artist’s takes of the song. The key, timing, none of that mattered. It would just be raw, real, honest, Texas Artist, singing in their own way into their cameras this song. And I could edit it together one line at a time. Depending on the performances I got it could be really magical. I reached out to a lot of artists, some big names, some locals. Luckily many of them responded with the video and followed the instructions perfectly. Some could not accomplish every instruction accurately, but they did their best. Some did not answer at all. So it took multiple asks— one or two even called me and played devils advocate about whether such a project like this could actually move the needle. My position on that is this one project doesn’t have to do all of the heavy lifting. It’s just one piece in a united front opposing the wall. And though I know a couple of people that have tried to justify it or at least tried to ignore it as being a serious problem that needed to be addressed, but most all Texans are united in believing that there’s no reason to build a wall through Big Bend. It’s a waste of money and an environmental disaster. Once I got into the editing room, I was able to play around with a few different edits, shared a few with some of my conservation buddies and people in the industry whose opinion I respect. Got some feedback. Did a couple more edits and finally hit upon this one. Which I am very happy with. It’s got a little of everything in it. And yes, we’re not all singing in the same key. We’re not all seeing to a Click track. It’s not perfect AI slop. Indeed, it is very human and very Texan, except for Nick Offerman. But he loves Texas and he loves Big Bend. He probably is the biggest star in the lineup. I’ve known Nick since before he was famous. He was a Gourds fan. And then he became famous and I still didn’t know because I just don’t pay attention to fame or celebrity or Hollywood or any of that stuff. Anyway, there’s a lot of funny stories I could share about our casual acquaintance. He’s a very sweet guy who I was honored and quite tickled that he agreed to send me these videos. Really cool. I have so many more videos really, great performances in variations that I intend to edit together as well at some point. I just wanted to get this first one done and get it out right now while the damage is been done to Big Bend. I don’t know if this will help at all. A federal government empowered by corruption and the disrespect to the rule of law is not easily stopped by a citizen’s revolt. But we could make existing political currents flow even more against the incumbent party destroying our way of life here in Texas. I am proud of how this came out. I like that it is positive and not preachy. It is playful, passionate but clear in its opposition to this This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinyribs.substack.com/subscribe