Alex Kannan and Gavin Watts of the Reformers join PSO conductor, Barry Stone, for an interview about their music and influences on the occasion of the release of the Porch Swing Orchestra + The Reformers split EP.Gavin Watts is an Austin-based polymath whose proclivities include painting, and high-level research in the field of public special education,–Gavin is an Assistant Professor of Special Education in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University–San Antonio. Gavin plays with Cougar Island and in the Answers with Lauren Grant, who was featured on PSO no. 153, here in the ATX and if that isn't enough, Gavin also has been cooking up some of his own country songs. The Reformers make soundtracks for films that don't exist, at least that has been their tagline, but now Alex and Gavin are producing films in IRL informed by their music.Alex made an award-winning documentary, La Cita with Grecia Arlene Maldonado Valenzuela which is a tribute to the LGBT activist, Jeanine. The film empathetically documents Valenzuela's daily struggles as a trans woman living in Tijuana.When Alex is not busy sculpting landscapes with his keyboards or directing films, he runs his own legal firm specializing in immigration issues in California.Reformers Tracks featured on the podcastTrunk of a ChevyMondayBlood Warrant (Main Theme)SkeletonsPSO + Reformers Split EPSteel Stream Guitar Careful with That Xu Jian Interstellar RailroadPorch Swing Orchestra + The Reformers Split EP on BandcampThe Reformers on Bandcamp and SpotifyAlex Kanan’s films La Cita (Trailer and Film)  and El Mago (Trailer and Film)Gavin’s Film, a music film by The Reformers, Llewellen Gavin’s Musical Ecosystem at Watts Happening Records Get full access to Porch Swing Orchestra at porchswingorchestra.substack.com/subscribe

This episode begins with the newest PSO, no.212, which was recorded in the traditional manner on my porch but with a twist. After spending some time in Mark Menjivar’s studio talking about field recordings, bird calls, archives, innumerable sound gadgets, and exciting new projects, Mark lent me a curious piece of sound hardware crafted by Brooklyn-based electronic savants Critter & Guitari, the Organelle M. Thanks, Mark! You can use the Organelle to make beats, as a synthesizer, or to process sound, which is what I did. For this week’s piece, I routed the audio recorded on the porch through the Organelle and cycled through the approximately 200 delay patterns (I only used around 5) to create some cool textures to augment my improvised melody. The cars and the air conditioner sounded amazing too. Listen for Mark's PSO collaboration from June of last year, no.142 Cicada Song, which is included in this week’s streams (podcast and on YouTube), The piece combined a field recording Mark made on July 17, 2018, outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, TX, with music recorded from my porch in Austin. Mark's recording captured a clarion call by Gloria Rubac protesting the imminent execution of Chris Young. In both our recordings, you can hear the song of summer cicadas in the background, which creates a shared space for reflection and meditation on the deep implications of our criminal justice system.In addition to Mark’s piece, another highlight from the stream is a collaboration with my longtime friend Shannon Spurgeon. PSO no. 113 Princess Moonstep was released in September of 2020. Shannon sent me a tune featuring a sample from the Dukes of Hazard in tribute to his dad, who had recently passed away. The title, Princess Moonstep, is taken from a racehorse his dad owned, which won a bunch of races at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, Louisiana. Shannon provided the piano, the samples, and the percussion. I brought in some slide guitar.Also featured is PSO no. 81 Science Fairport Convention, made in the aftermath of many an egg splatter sacrificed in the name of science and in service of my daughter’s Covid science fair project of January 2020Here is a list of all the recordings included in this week's episode.no. 212 Quilted Daze and Delays, July 5, 2023 no. 142 Cicada Song with Mark Menjivar, June 3, 2021 no. 81 Science Fairport Convention, January 20, 2020no. 68 Sprinkler Shadow, September 19, 2021 no. 113 Princess Moonstep with Shannon Spurgeon, September 30, 2020 no. 175 Eye of the Song Storm, May 17, 2022Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with photographs made on-site. Performed and recorded at home and away, solo and with others – birds, guitars, and trucks conspire to form a chance-operated orchestra of delight.The Podcast and YouTube streams include the most current PSO piece along with randomly selected pieces from the past. Get full access to Porch Swing Orchestra at porchswingorchestra.substack.com/subscribe

Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project that pairs music recorded outside with photographs made on-site. Performed and recorded at home and away, solo and with others – birds, guitars, and trucks conspire to form a chance-operated orchestra of delight. The Podcast and YouTube streams include the most current PSO piece along with randomly selected pieces from the past. This edition includes a beautiful poem written and read by Emily Scarlet Kramer, originally posted in the heady months of April 2020. Its message of hope and care feels just as urgent today. no.211’s title was inspired by poetry, so it’s fitting that the Pod and YouTube streams also feature the medium.Also in the streams is PSO no.50 from March of 2019, a piece inspired by Wallace Steven's book of poems Spring and All. In my introduction, I reproduced the following fragment from this book-length poem that might as well be the PSO credo.Our orchestra is the cat's nuts – Banjo jazz with a nickleplated amplifier to soothe the savage beast –0:00: no.211 I + Bird + Music Create a Universe the Size of a Bathtub, June 20, 2023 3:06: no. 58 | Sundials and Sirens, June 13, 2019:4:36: no.186 Gleaming the White Cube, Lora Reynolds Gallery Oct 19, 2022 6:20: no. 93 Tune Poem, poem written and read by Emily Kramer, April 26, 2020 8:11: no. 207 From Where I Sit, May 4, 2023 10:21: no. 50 Spring and All March 19, 2019LINKSOG PSO site at https://porchswingorchestra.org/See the images and listen without the introduction at https://youtu.be/LZbjJIkQ5oQPSO Newsletter https://porchswingorchestra.substack.com/ Get full access to Porch Swing Orchestra at porchswingorchestra.substack.com/subscribe

On this podcast and subsequent episodes, Every two weeks or so,  I will share the most recent PSO piece and follow that with about 20 minutes of pieces randomly selected from the archives.This week begins with a cassette from the soundtrack of Carl Sagan’s PBS series, The Cosmos.The synths from The Cosmos are broken up and rearranged and combined with an improvised acoustic guitar captured on the porch. It's the cosmic and the particular or the Infinite and the finite. I loved that series, Sagan’s shaggy do and comfy corduroy, the mock turtle necks- everything in a kind of space-age beige all in the service of evoking the possibility of meeting alien life. And he made the Golden Record! which was attached to the Voyager spacecraft and spun out to leave our solar system in search of being found by an extraterrestrial with a turntable. "Only Connect" is the mantra for art-making coined by EM Forrester, and I love the impossibility and the hope embodied in the golden record gesture. The formation of PSO owes much to Sagan’s endeavors.Following no. 210, This installment spans a range of tunes and feels. Tense days before the November 2020 election and the sounds of a neighborhood celebrating the election decision with fireworks in a debut with my youngest daughter who was just learning how to play the guitar. There are hums from Friday Harbor marine research boats, light saber sounds gleaned from my bedside clock with an electromagnetic mic and the twang of my dad’s nearly unplayable old Gibson guitar plucked on the shore of Birch Bay in the Pacific North West in 2019.A YouTube stream of these pieces where you can see the images with titles and dates. https://www.youtube.com/@PorchSwingOrchestra Visit the PSO project site: PorchSwingOrchestra.org To join the Newsletter and/or support the project you can find PSO on substack at porchswingorchestra.substack.com. There is no paywall but Substack allows the option to contribute which will help PSO do more Get full access to Porch Swing Orchestra at porchswingorchestra.substack.com/subscribe