The Two-Headed Hippopotamus on a Bootjack Project: Week XI

(The Two-Headed Hippopotamus on a Bootjack Project is a series of impromptu recordings released on a weekly basis. Click the label at the bottom of the post for more details.)

 

Well, I slipped over the July 31st deadline. It was, however, a long weekend in Ontario, and I grappled with the question of what was the right thing - to stay home working valiantly to get it done, or to capitalize on the holiday and go to a friend's cottage.

I went to the cottage. This is the one tiny domain where I'm my own boss, so it made sense. I'm happy, though, that this is the second-last entry in the 'Project. At the outset I began with consciously narrative-based pieces that told a story in almost cartoon fashion. Wondering whether it was a crutch, I started playing with more strictly musical ideas for the bulk of the tracks, so it seemed logical to harmonize the two for the ending.

This piece is lifted from the soundtrack of a non-existent Western called Killingback and Winterbottom. As I mentioned in the Painting with Bug Blood series, the graveyard near my house is a major source of inspiration. One day on my walk there I noticed the names Killingback and Winterbottom on two graves close by each other, and thought they paired nicely. Inevitably, I began to imagine them dueling in a saloon.

Morricone it ain't, but it works well enough. You get to decide who wins (my money's on Killingback). If anyone needs their B-Western scored, I'm available and I understand your vision.

Killingback and Winterbottom