When Buffalo musician Bean Friend first started writing his newest album, his wife couldn’t just hear the music. She could see it.
In Maris Grundy’s imagination, Silverado the cowboy—a Clint Eastwood type— swaggers in an embroidered suit, face obscured by the wide brim of his black hat, while Friend’s album scores the events of his life: love, loss and violence.
The album, La Chachalaca, is a new path for Friend’s music. Known for his rock bands and solo ambient albums, including “The Moving Decade,” which he recorded inside Silo City’s grain silos, Friend ventures into mariachi music in his recent work. He was inspired by “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” composer Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western scores, punk rock band The Bronx’s mariachi project and Cuban music ensemble Buena Vista Social Club.
“It sounds like you’re listening to a movie soundtrack,” Grundy says of the new album.
And what’s a movie without costumes?
Friend and Grundy decided to bring Silverado, the fictional hero at the heart of the album, to life on the cover. To do so, they needed to find a charro outfit, the traditional suit worn by Mexican mariachi performers. It typically consists of a bolero jacket and tight pants embroidered in colorful thread.
They took a black pair of Levi’s jeans and a black jean jacket, staying true to Friend’s punk roots, and brought them to Stitch Buffalo Executive Director Dawne Hoeg to be transformed into an elaborately embroidered charro outfit.
Hoeg asked Ser Eh Paw, a Burmese refugee with extensive embroidery skills, to embroider the suit. Paw often works on Stitch Buffalo’s special projects because of her precise handiwork. Hoeg estimates that around 60 hours of labor went into the suit.
“It was a really great collaboration because [Friend] trusted in our artistic abilities,” Hoeg says.
Paw hand-embroidered traditional white stitching, roses (representing love) and marigolds (representing death and tragedy) throughout the suit, and a large chachalaca bird, which was designed by Grundy’s cousin Jake Grundy, onto the back. A wide, flat brim black hat completed the look, and photographer Mark Duggan shot Friend in the suit for the cover.
Silverado’s outfit reflects his narrative arc throughout the musical vignettes Friend plays on “La Chachalaca.” Grundy envisions his story ends in a shoot-out, as his romance with his rival’s daughter was doomed from the start.
“If we had no limits to our resources, this would be a great background to a movie,” Grundy says.
La Chachalaca comes out on July 14 through Nudie Records. The album launch and listening party is at 9 p.m. July 21 at Duende at Silo City. Free and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to wear Western-inspired clothing.
