The Artist is also is performing on a mini-tour in the region and Austin

AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, November 15, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, TEXAS -- The Big Bend National Park of the National Park Service, in cooperation with the non-profit National Parks Arts Foundation (NPAF) and the Big Bend Natural History Association announced today that Russell James Pyle, a musician & songwriter based in Albuquerque, NM, will be one of the park’s two November 2016 residents. Pyle’s residency is sponsored directly by the park at Big Bend.

Russell James Pyle was born and raised in the Lancaster, PA, area but also spent much time in his youth in Virginia, both in Richmond and in the Shenandoah Valley. Russell was educated at Eastern Mennonnite University, in Harrisonburg, VA, Webster University, in St. Louis, MO and the University of New Mexico. He moved to New Mexico ten years ago, drawn to the powerful open spaces of the high desert landscape. As Pyle explains: “The desert is the single most influential landscape in my music at the current time. I think there is metaphor sprinkled throughout, but the one that sticks in my craw is struggle. We all have to struggle to survive, and nothing knows that more than life in the desert.” Pyle comes to his art practice from a pretty unusual background in counseling and specifically in the relatively new field of Eco-Psychology. Though still certified as a counselor in NM, Pyle started working full time years ago as a troubador, songwriter, and musician in one of Albuquerque’s most popular original folk bands, The Porter Draw. He is currently working as a solo artist.

Pyle is looking forward to living, playing and creating music in the vast ambience of the park. he has often been and played in the Terlingua area and he has always felt the pull of the isolated big bend and Rio Grande country: “The people who have resided on both sides of the river for generations are desert angels who’ve made a place that is seemingly inhabitable completely the opposite. I want to know how. I want to know if the desert has affected them in the way it affects me and gives them the strength to keep going.” says Pyle. He believes that this is a perfect opportunity to use the natural sounds found in the park as part of a sonic palette to make experimental sound art that combines his human musicality with the power of the healing sounds of nature in dialogue with itself. Says Pyle: “I am currently fascinated by ambient music of all kinds. I am soaking up classic ambient works by composers as popular as Brian Eno and as obscure as Harold Budd. I’m incredibly excited by the idea that tones can both represent and invoke emotional states even if they are not in a traditionally melodic arrangement. I’ve done a bit of work with combining this element to traditional songwriting, and I am excited to dive further into these soundscapes.”

While at the park he plans to engage with visitors both informally and in performance venues. He has set up a micro-tour in the big bend and hill country area which will kick off during his residency at the park. Pyle will perform Two 7:30 PM shows Friday, November 25 at Rio Grande Village Amphitheater and Saturday, November 26 at Chisos Basin Amphitheater. Russell describes his plan for the performance and lecture as a way to integrate his passion for music with his experience in the field of ecopsychology, and hopefully to encourage dialogue with the public about their experience of the Park. “My program will be a mix of me playing songs with an ecology bent and then me talking to the audience about ecopsychology, or how we can maintain positive mental health by interaction with the natural world. It will be a family friendly event and I hope to have a discussion with the audience about how nature, and Big Bend in particular, affects the way they think about themselves and the world, and how this can translate into conservation efforts on an individual level.”

The tour kicks off towards the beginning of the residency, and the dates and venues are as follows:

11/2: High Sierra, Terlingua TX 7pm
11/13: High Sierra, Terlingua TX 7pm
11/18: Starlight Theater, Terlingua TX 7pm
11/20: Hole in the Wall, Austin TX, 8pm 

The Park Service is very excited to host a pair of artist residents this November. The November residency this year is shared between Pyle, a musician and ecopsychologist, and Nicholas Collier, who will be NPAF’s Big Bend’s first U.S. Veterans in the Arts Artist-in-Residence sponsored by the Big Bend Natural History Association. As the Park’s Superintendent, Cindy Ott-Jones, explains “As the National Park Service celebrates our Centennial year in 2016, we look forward in our approach to serving park visitors, while remembering our heritage of service.” Programs like Big Bend’s residency add value dynamically to the Park experience for visitors now and in the future and represent the highest aspirations of the Park Service’s goals for the next century.

NPAF is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to the promotion of the National Parks of the U.S. through creating dynamic opportunities for artworks that are based in our natural and historic heritage. This project is supported by the Big Bend National Park Projects Budget, the National Endowment for the Arts, Big Bend Natural History Association, and other generous benefactors. All NPAF programs are made possible through the philanthropic support of donors of all sorts ranging from corporate sponsors, small business, and art patrons and citizen-lovers of the Parks. NPAF is always seeking new partners and donors for its wide-ranging artist-in-residence programs.

Cecilia Wainright
National Parks Arts Foundation
505 715 5492
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