Resurrecting the Singing Cowboy
The Cast of Characters That Inhabit Eric Duran Valle's Art
By Jade Darr | Photos by Tyler Boshard
Despite being well-acquainted with the culture and landscape of the American West, Eric Duran Valle is also the sort of man who puts his cards on the table rather early — and this is a good thing. Eric radiates the sort of energy that belies his passions: a welcoming, charismatic personality that connects to his experience as an educator, the sort of niche-yet-inviting aesthetic of an artist and musician, and the build of a cowboy who’d as soon brave the wilds as sing campfire stories to a bunch of campers. He’s spent the last few years constructing art projects that fit right in with his personal image. First and foremost is his “Ranger Roscoe” project, which has manifested itself as a hybrid radio-play and musical record with film content attached to boot.
Eric’s passion for the work runs so deep that he wanted to interview in character as “The Scoundrel,” a renegade musician who mythologizes his fictional universe. It seemed only fitting that we pair Eric’s hybrid, multifaceted work with a multifaceted interview. Without further ado, our first dual interview with Eric and “The Scoundrel.”
I sit down with Eric in the gorgeous yet homey studio where he recorded his record, “Ranger Roscoe Rides Again!” The space suits him to a tee. It’s home to well-loved musical equipment that ranges from vintage mixers with old-fashioned sliders and displays to flashy digital workstations; it almost feels like a musical history museum. There are couches and chairs, a few snacks scattered around the space, and of course, musical instruments resting comfortably around the perimeter of the room. Eric’s smiling and ready to jump into things immediately, and one of the first things we end up talking about is film.
“They say that every movie is a miracle,” Eric tells me. “It's being able to make something come together… a bit of a challenge, but also very fun. It allows people who have very different skills and talents to all come together and make something really cool.”
If you watch the film elements of Eric’s project, you can absolutely tell that it’s a work of art made by friends. Joy radiates out of the framing and faces on screen, and there’s a mixture of passion, craft, and community that really jives with the communal ‘old west’ vibes of the music and visuals.
It’s also clear if you read the credits for Eric’s record, where a host of musicians are credited for the impressively wide range of instruments on sonic display. In addition to the array of musicians who form the “Scoundrel Symphonic,” the credits for the record include more unexpected contributors like Felicia Fuller who provided “farm animal sounds” and local announcers Nathan Tannenbaum and Joe Shoenmann as in-universe newsmen. To top it all off, Eric incorporated the sounds of Nevada itself into the record’s sonic palette, visiting Boulder City’s Nevada State Railroad Museum to record the train sound effects heard on the album. “Ranger Roscoe Rides Again” is clearly a labor of community love, one that showcases the history and people of the land it inhabits. When Eric talks about the purpose of his work, it’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect to hear from someone involved with PBS like himself — it’s about community, positivity and connection.
While the appeal of the record is universal, Eric is also deeply engaged with the more underground elements of the arts scene, and his music strives to engage with precise elements of composition, sound design, and history. He cites Sergio Leone, Godspeed You! Black Emperor among others while explaining the project’s vision. However, the project is also a personal one for Eric, one that stems all the way back to his childhood.
“First, I just wanted to make a concept about the singing Cowboy character, because I've always been fascinated by westerns since I was a little kid,” says Eric. “I wrote the radio play because I knew I wanted a dialogue component in addition to the music.”
As for the spirit of the project, it’s a definitively positive, uplifting one. For Eric, the vision was couched in the sort of figures and attitudes that he sees as unilaterally positive for an audience to experience.
“I always envisioned [Ranger Roscoe] as if Mr. Rogers was a cowboy,” says Eric. “There's a disturbing, lack of sincerity in modern times. The thing about the Western is that it can be used to tell contemporary themes. It can be used for Nostalgia, it can be used, you know, for political purposes. What I was really intrigued by was how the ‘singing cowboys,’ particularly Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, were huge — you could not go anywhere without seeing, you know, their picture up somewhere — and then over time they fade away and disappear. And I was like, well, why is that? And so The Scoundrel kind of tries to figure that out, I was like, what was it about this person that made them such a phenomenon and then they just sort of disappear from time.”
When Eric disappears and a suspiciously similar Scoundrel character comes for his turn in the interview, the vibe changes — but not all that much. The Scoundrel, despite his name, is clearly an altruistic figure who is deeply invested in the good of people around him. He simply wants to proliferate knowledge and positivity in the circles he runs in, and the main way he does this is through his music.
“Art should affirm life,” says The Scoundrel. “I hope people listen to my music and feel heroic. It should make them feel empowered. It should inspire them to make their own creations by realizing how you don't have to play to any sort of market, or trends or things like that. You simply speak the truth. The fact that it's out there is what's important, right?”
The Scoundrel is also engaged with the process of making music; he is, after all, a character creating work as himself, reminiscent of artists like The Gorillaz or even Eminem’s Slim Shady (although Scoundrel is much nicer, more pleasant to talk to…and dare I say a musician whose work I enjoy more.) When The Scoundrel speaks of making the record, there’s a mix of worldbuilding and technical music-speak mixed into his dialogue. The purpose of the record for The Scoundrel isn’t just to bring good music to the people, but to build an appreciation of people and times gone by.
“I would say I wanted to pay homage to Ranger Roscoe and the days of yesteryear,” says The Scoundrel. “In some of my other songs, you've heard that inspiration of the old west. And so I wanted to make sure there was a picture show happening. You heard the film real and like what you hear on the actual record is an actual film real spinning. I recorded that myself.”
However, The Scoundrel can’t help but ultimately circle back to community: the friends and the collaborators who helped turn the project from an idea to a reality. When I asked him who was key to finishing the record, he spreads the net wide as far as possible.
“It's everyone — all the voice actors, all the musicians,” says The Scoundrel. “The fact that they were willing to take time out of their schedules to help was incredibly moving, which I think kind of hones in the message of Ranger Roscoe about being kind and compassionate and also having community.”
If you hear the name Eric Duran Valle around Vegas, you might hear whispers of a kind, generous artist who wants to bring communities together to form art. He’s clearly the kind of guy who ends up forming the heart of an artistic community. But if you hear whispers of The Scoundrel, well…never mind. It might be a similar tale, even if it’s in a universe that lies next door to ours, one where hope and kindness are worthy of their own tall tales in the desert.
To listen to “Ranger Roscoe Rides Again!”, go to the Scoundrel of the Sage’s Spotify radio or watch on YouTube. You can follow along with all things Eric by subscribing to EricDuranValle.com or following him on Instagram @scoundrelofthesage or @vegasvaquero
