Western Music

San Antonio museum celebrates sounds of the West with this exclusive series

The Briscoe's music salon series, Sounds of the West, begins January 7.

Photo courtesy of Briscoe Western Art Museum

In a few days, the Briscoe Western Art Museum will kick off its inaugural music salon series, Sounds of the West. Three live performances that showcase the American West will take place over the next three months.

The intimate performances will be held in the Gloria Gaines Clingman Education Gallery, which seats around 70 people. Jenny Chowning, head of education and programs at the Briscoe, explained that the program was designed to be an intimate, warm experience and not a performance hall event. Indeed, attendees will have the privilege to see world-renowned musicians and scholars perform in an up-close and private setting.

Chowning hopes that the program continues after this initial series and that it continues to evolve to showcase even more music traditions. She and her colleagues want to show that the West is not solely in the past but "dynamic and contemporary" as well. Chowning explained what we can expect to see at each performance.

Settling The West in American Popular Songs, January 7 at 3 pm
Acclaimed music scholar Michael Lasser will be accompanied by pianist and vocalist Alan Jones and vocalist Cindy Miller to perform popular songs from Broadway and Tin Pan Alley about the American West. Lasser prefaces the musical numbers with a historical context and interjects with amusing tidbits of information. Together, the trio create an entertaining, cabaret-style performance.

Chowning explained that the focus will be on how Broadway musicals like Oklahoma and Annie Get Your Gun helped formulate the idea of the American West. She went on to say that, "it's not necessarily accurate, but it certainly addresses the stereotypes of the American West and the public consciousness about what it looks like, who lives there, and what it means to go West." They will also be performing songs specific to San Antonio. And rest assured, there would be no rendition of "Home on The Range."

Conjunto Meets Country Western, February 21 at 6:30 pm
For the second event, the Briscoe invited none other than "The Queen of the Accordion" herself to perform. A local San Antonio legend, Eva Ybarra's instrumental skill has astonished audiences and gained her national exposure for many years. Chowning said that asking Ybarra to be a part of the music salon series was an obvious choice because the opportunity to see her perform in such a small setting will be a powerful experience. She will weave together the music traditions of conjunto and country western, which is meant to engage the local San Antonio audience. Chowning explained, "we really wanted to create a suite of programs that would be appealing to people who lived here."

The Texas Woman, Her Heritage in Song, March 21 at 6:30 pm
The final event of the music salon series will take place in conjunction with National Women's History Month. Pianist Ruth Friedberg and soprano vocalist Flicka Rahn will perform songs, "that were either written by women or were intended to be sung by women from a whole range of people who lived here in Texas," according to Chowning. Their selections will cover a vast array of music traditions, including Native American, Spanish, Mexican, Latina, French, and German. Chowning said the goal was "to showcase the complexity of the American West and show it's not just this idea of cowboys and Indians, but it's actually much, much more deep in terms of the participants and people who live here and the cultural heritage that comprises this region."

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Attendance is free, and guests are encouraged to explore the museum's galleries before and after the shows. For more information on Sounds of the West, please go here.

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Movie Review

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 plays to the interests of video game fans

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was one of the few video game adaptations that managed to appeal to both fans of the Sega game and those who just want to watch a fun movie. As the series moved into a second and now third film, though, it’s become increasingly reliant on giving the video game fans what they want, with not as much attention paid toward simply telling a good story.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) continues to live with human friends Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), as well as Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who stuck around after the events of the second film. Dispensing with any kind of narrative coherence, the trio is called away by an undefined military force to help with the escape of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), another alien hedgehog who has been locked away off the coast of Japan for many years.

Suffice it to say that the trio does not initially fare well against the powerful Shadow, forcing Sonic to do the unthinkable: Ask his nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), for help. What Sonic doesn’t anticipate is that Shadow has a history that left him with a grudge against most of human society, and he’s intent on using his powers — with a little help from his former mentor, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey) — to exact his plans for revenge.

Made by the same team of director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the film is a combination of manic action, jokey sequences, and a dash of heart. The addition of Shadow ups the mayhem considerably, and the filmmakers rarely slow things down (although, oddly, the super-speed of Sonic and company feels lessened this time around).

The initial casting of Carrey gave the comic actor permission to indulge in whatever wackiness he could imagine, and giving him two roles in this film means double the nonsense. Ivo and Gerald (who’s Ivo’s grandfather, for the record) face off in a number of silly scenes, none more absurd than a dance sequence aboard a space station threatening to explode Earth (yeah, this movie is a lot).

Does the plot make a lick of sense? Absolutely not, but the filmmakers seem to acknowledge that fact, throwing anything and everything at the screen to try to entertain kids and/or fans of the video game series. It should come as no surprise that the end credits tease yet more characters from the video games joining the franchise, making it abundantly clear who is expected to get the most enjoyment out of the series going forward.

In addition to Carrey, the voice actors continue to make the characters fun. Schwartz and O’Shaughnessey provide the cartoon-style acting, while Elba and now Reeves give a nice counterbalance with their deep and serious voices. Marsden and Sumpter aren’t given much to do this time around, and Krysten Ritter shows up as Director Rockwell, a character who’s mostly there to move what little plot there is further along.

A four-quadrant movie is one that appeals to all ages and genders; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a one or maybe two-quadrant movie at most. But it’s more fun than the other family-friendly offering this Christmas season, and fans of the video game will likely love the depiction of their favorite characters on screen, so it’s doing something right.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

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