National Parks Photographer Mark Burns - Chapter 1

A conversation with National Parks Photographer Mark Burns about his past achievements and future endeavors.

Photos: https://ktrh.iheart.com/featured/houston-texas-news/content/2023-08-03-my-heart-of-texas-photographer-mark-burns/

The National Parks Photgraphy Project: https://thenationalparksphotographyproject.com/photographer-bio/

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi everyone, I'm KTRHS Sharaf Fryar, and this is my heart of Texas.
From the get go, my heartof Texas has been an attempt to
define Texas and being Texan from myown perspective, personal from a small town

(00:34):
upbringing and professional as a veteran newsbroadcaster in major urban areas across the state.
This time shifting that perspective a bit, we're talking to Native Texan Mark
Burns, a professional print or stillphotographer as we TV folk always call them,
but through his lens, a notedstill photographer with a very active and

(00:57):
penetrating eye. My time in Alaskawas really special because I had never been
to Alaska before twenty fourteen, Iguess, And I was there in twenty
fourteen and twenty fifteen and like Julyin August, and I'd go up there
for four or five six weeks ata time both of those years to get
photographs because I think we have eightpart national parks in Alaska and they're just

(01:19):
massive, and it's it's just it'sa completely different animal than the parks that
we have down here that are youkind of can see and feel the boundaries
so much easier down in the lowerforty eight in Alaska because they're just so
big, and you can fly overthem in a bush plane for an hour,
you know, or more, andyou're just flying and flying and flying.
And up there I saw those sceneslike where you're you're in the bush

(01:42):
plane, you're eight hundred nine hundredfeet above the tunder of flying and you've
got five thousand cariboo down below yougoing in every direction. And I remember
flying over when we were going fromthe airfield and Cotsabue, Alaska to into
Gates of the art at National Park. We're flying and I looked down to
my left, I remember, andthere's this grizzly bear just running through the

(02:04):
across the tundra, and as wewent over, he stands up and looks
at the plane as we're going over, and I'm looking at kind of the
shadow of the plane going across thetundra as he's standing up looking upwards,
and we're only at that we wereprobably you know, six eight hundred feet
above the ground at that point.And things like that that were just they
made me think that we need wildernessfor nothing more than the sake of having

(02:29):
wilderness, because it just seems soimportant. I guess that we have that
sort of land that is relatively untouched. We don't need to put a lodge
there. There's enough lodges down inother areas of Alaska. And also,
I think my mind went into kindof a geological time mode more because all

(02:50):
these places like the Grand Canyon andthese natural areas that you're photographing, they
took millions of years a lot ofthem to form to become what they are
now. And when you are inthat world every day so much, you
just start to really Number One,I would feel just what am I?
I'm just a spec in this bigtime that is way way beyond anything I

(03:15):
can comprehend. And I'm thinking,I'm going to come photographed this cathedral of
nature before me, and you know, my life is going to be gone
and over and just a blink ofan eye for the time that it took
for this to form, and thathas been here in the millions of years
that it took to create, Andso just things like that, it was
very powerful. Mark Burne's describing animpact of his five year odyssey to photograph,

(03:40):
print, and display museum quality visionsof every national park in America,
marking the centennial of the National ParksFoundation. It debuted at the George HW.
Bush Library at Texas A and MUniversity. The end product a black
and white masterpiece prints. We'll talkabout it in a bit, but the
project proved to be a realization ofhis childhood passion. You knew this though,

(04:05):
this was something you were born with. You knew that you wanted to
be a photographer, or at leastyou had a fascination for it. I
did, yeah, from a veryyoung age. I mean I can remember
vividly being somewhere around that seven toeight year old range, and one trip
in particular that that kind of tome is a kind of a beginning point

(04:28):
in my mind. We were wehad a we had family my mom's side.
The family had relatives up in EastTexas to live sam Rayburn Lake.
Actually when it was pretty new lakeat that time, they actually didn't even
have telephones. They had like shortwaveradio or some kind of radio communication.
We would go up and they hada couple of cabins we'd stay in,
and we were in the family's house. I remember one morning and I got

(04:48):
up and I had walked down thehall and I saw this little literally the
little brown Kodak Brownie camera sitting ontheir dresser, and I just walked in
there and picked it up and walkedby the lake and started walking down some
trails and taking pictures of the lakewith little bushes and trees in the foreground
and stuff like that. And thenI came back to the house and they're

(05:10):
like, you know, where wereyou? And I'm standing there holding a
camera, and apparently I shot upall the film that was in there and
just came back to the house.So I don't know that they appreciated that
that much at that time, therelatives, but using all their film up.
But I remember that as kind ofa starting point in my mind when
I really just felt like I gotto go take some pictures of this lake

(05:30):
beautiful. So anyway, that's kindof the starting point in my mind,
and I kind of remember being veryinterested in photography, and from there it
just grew and continued. Had yourown dark room that you sort of make
shift put together by the time whatyou were a teenager. Oh, I
did a little dark room in thebathroom probably by the time I was twelve,
laying a piece of plywood that kindof went over the top of the

(05:51):
toilet somehow, and you weren't reallytaught, you were self taught. You
just sort of did it. Ialways loved black and white. I mean
that's the one common thread as Ialways loved the look and feel a black
and white. From a young age, I was very much into wanting to
master that craft, and I wouldlook at what I had done and decide

(06:11):
do I need to do to moveit up a step and make it a
little better, And so just alwaystrying to better myself in that way.
But from a young age, forsure, you were a little kid with
an old soul. That's a goodway to put it. I do feel
that way, and I think thatold soul sometimes helped in the way you
see things as well. When youhave a camera in your hand, I

(06:32):
think it gives you a different perspectivesomehow and sometime and how you see that
world that you're photographing, and Ithink it helps. Yeah, you told
me once that a landscape photography,you're not shooting what you're seeing. You're
trying to shoot what you're feeling.Exactly, Yeah, exactly. When you
walk up to the Grand Canyon,I mean I've walked up to it many

(06:54):
times, and I The Grand Canyonis a place where I have the same
response or reaction almost every time Iwalk up to which is just wow.
I mean, it's just this.It's just bigger than life. When you
look at it, it's so bigsometimes that it doesn't even look real.
It looks like is that a paintedmovie backdrop out there that looks like this?
But it's it's just can be sojust grandios. I guess when you

(07:15):
when you see it, that's whatyou're trying to convey in that print.
Is that is that feeling that youhave when you when you walk up to
it and you're there in person,and you and you feel it. You
know, you see it, butyou're also feeling it. So that's what
I'm trying to convey with the photography. It takes a lot of thought though,
to figure out how in the worldare you going to transmit to people

(07:38):
you have no action to capture there. Yeah, that's true. When I
did the National Park Photography Project,I was doing landscape photography diconstantly for almost
for four and a half years,and that was just a great time to
be able to really hone that craft. What I learned to do in that
project was what I'd learned what Iwas not going to do, if that

(08:00):
makes sense. I'd look at ascene and it would have one or two
good elements, but it wouldn't havekind of that third element that would be
what I was looking for that reallykind of makes it a special image.
And it got to where you wouldknow from every day looking at landscapes and
shooting landscapes, I start with compositions, then the sky and the atmosphere is
it doing what I wanted to Andthen you would look at the where the

(08:22):
sun is and where the sun isgoing to be going, and you'd think,
well, it could be a reallygood shot for or four hours or
maybe I get there in the afternoonand I think, no, I need
to come back tomorrow morning before dawnand start over again. But this is
the composition that I want. Butit's really kind of just I would see
that composition and say, this iswhat I'm going to really invest in in

(08:43):
this shot. But it's then waitingfor that atmosphere to cooperate. When did
you know that you had the shotthat you were actually capturing the feeling or
capturing the soul of the place.That's a very good question, and most
of the time I would pretty muchknow because I've been doing it so much
at that time in my life.And again I'm jumping forward now to the

(09:05):
National Park Photography Project, which wastwenty ten to twenty fifteen in that window,
and those special things would happen asAngel Adams used to call silver light,
which is, to me, it'swhen the light is kind of you
have directional shadows, but it's it'sfeathering into the fuse clouds. So you
have directional light where you see yousee mild shadows, but you don't have

(09:26):
tense contrasting shadows. So you're openingup the shadows by the fact that the
sun is looking through the edges ofclouds or looking through thin, high layered
clouds or whatever it may be.That gives it kind of that that special
glow. And when those things,all those elements come together and you have
depending on what's in your foreground andwhat's your composition is I would just look

(09:50):
through the lens or look at theground glass if I'm using a few camera
and you just say this is it. And so a lot of it is,
you know, I may wait forthree or four or five hours,
but then ever it starts to happen, and you see the light moving into
what I've been waiting for, andyou see that it's about to feather.
The cloud is about to feather rightacross the sun. And then it happens,
and it may maybe thirty seconds thatyou have that optimum window to shoot.

(10:15):
At that time, I'm shooting theshutter release and normally using a cable
release and bracketing we call it,which is where you add a stop or
subtract to stop of light, soyou get a little bit of some variables
in your negatives to be able topick from in the end. But when
I know, then it's like,okay everything. It's like you do nothing
for four hours but watch the lightand wait, and then when it happens,

(10:37):
it's the whole thing can be overin thirty seconds. Actually, Mark
Burns, the landscape photographer, wasideally equipped to freeze passing action. He
began his real career as a teenagerdoing sports photography for print. Career day.
Mentors at his high school, Eisenhowerin the Aldean District took notice of

(10:58):
this talented year photographer and suddenly hefinds himself on the field of the Astrodome
taking photos at Houston Oiler games.But this time I'm probably seventeen, maybe
around their years old, and andliked it a lot because again I'm a
young guy and you're in the HoustonAstrodome, which you know, eighth wonder
of the world, and you gotthe Houston Oilers playing professional football, and

(11:20):
it was like, man, thisis big time, you know, down
here on the field photographing these guys. So that was a lot of fun,
but really good practice and really settingme up well for with the knowledge
of, you know, what todo with sports photography. So then when
I got out of school, alot of photography jobs. I was pretty
good, pretty good photographers art withbut I had a lot of people that
were offering me work to do freelancework for him, so I just kind

(11:43):
of went into that. And thenthe Euston Hurricane professional soccer team formed.
They were in the North American SoccerLeague that included Pelee with the New York
Cosmos, and we had a playerKyle O Junior that was kind of our
star that came in from Dallas toplay for us. But I remember I
saw that on television, I thinkon the news channel thirteen news. I'm

(12:03):
sure probably you have to say that. And I remember Houston as a new
professional sports team, and I soI just kind of said, you know,
I'm gonna go over there and seeif I can work for him.
So I literally put together a portfoliowhich I already kind of had found out
where their offices were, and droveover there and walked in and said,
you know, who's your director ofpublic relations and marketing or whatever. And

(12:26):
they kind of looked at me like, well, who are you, you
know, and I said, I'mI'm Mark Burns. I'm gonna be your
team photographer, you know, andthey and they were just getting started that
only they even played a game atthis point yet they were literally just had
just moved in the offices. Andso anyway, this woman walks out,
Diane Olson, I remember, andshe says, Hi, can I help
you? And I said, yeah, I'm Mark Burns. I'm I'm your

(12:46):
next team photographer. They're all justlooking at me like, you know,
this is this guy, what doyou have any work we can see?
You know? So I opened upa portfolio case and put on the table
and I looked at it. Anyway, Sure enough, like a week later,
I'm the team photographer for the EustonHurricane soccer team right out of high
school. Basically that was great andenjoyed it and got it again. They

(13:07):
played in the Houston Astrodome, soI was very familiar with the light in
there in that environment that day andnight game, so that worked out well.
But then we had a writer therefrom the that worked for the Hurricane
that about a year later, wentto work for the Houston Oilers Oiler Report
magazine that Bud Adams started with theHouston Oilers there, which was I think

(13:28):
it was a like a bi weeklyor something magazine that they did, and
he brought me over to talk tothe Oilers about being their feature photographer and
they looked at my stuff and hiredme. So then I'm now I'm,
you know, doing that soccer stuff, and I'm the feature photographer for the
Oiler Report, and then, youknow, then I ended up leaving into
the soccer work and just devoted mytime to doing the football. But that

(13:50):
was a great kind of a period, and I was at all the other
games at that point, and thishas kind of been at the tail end
of the Love You Blue year,so just it's a great environment to be
working and in the Astrodome and seventyeight seventy nine sort of a window in
time I was there. I workedfor the Oil Report, I want to
say, like seventy nine through maybeeighty two somewhere in there, and I

(14:16):
was photographing the oilers though with thoseother gentlemen in seventy eight as well.
So that was a great time tobe in the Astrodome during that whole Love
Your Blue phenomenon that Houston had atthat time. Most of us have grown
up with video video moving action,and when we think of sports, we
think of moving action, and yetyou were doing moving action but capturing it
stopping it. Yeah, I alwaysbeing the feature photographer was I think a

(14:41):
perfect fit for me because I wasalways kind of looking for the kind of
the artsy shot, if that makessense with sports stuff. But so then
I would say I was looking forthe game within the game, or the
focusing on just they would give mea handful of players, you know,
to focus on rather than just shootingthe game. So it would be more
like I'm going to I'm focusing onEarl Campbell for this game. I'm focusing

(15:03):
on Dan Pastorini, I'm focusing onRobert Brazil, you know, whatever it
may be. In most games,I would have two or three players that
I'd be you know, keying inon, but it was not just like
you're photographing the whole game, Sowhat would happen a lot. I remember
that was kind of funny with allthe other photographers because you know, there's
probably twenty thirty still photographer or somethinglike that then on the field, and
most of them that are doing thenews stuff, they're all just kind of

(15:26):
a group, a pot of themthat's moving in a similar way around the
field to record the game action andwhat's happening. And I would frequently,
I remember there would be like fifteenof them on one sideline, all going
north when I'm the sole guy goingsouth basically, and they like, where
are you going? And I'm thinking, well, I'm I'm trying to get
the shot from this angle back herethat's you know, a totally different shot

(15:50):
than what they're going to get,you know, for the newspaper sort of
a thing. So I spent alot of time photographing football in that manner,
you know, where I'm I'm kindof purposely trying to be at an
angle that they're not at and alot of times that allowed me to get
that kind of that game within thegame shot or the photograph that showed more

(16:11):
feeling from the player or I don'tknow how to put it, but I
think it's what you're you're talking aboutis bringing out more of the soul,
trying to get more the soul,the soul of the game. Yeah,
on an individual player level a lotof times. So anyway, that was
a lot of fun. That wasa great time in my life. I
think for a photography and learned alot, learned a whole lot, and

(16:32):
working for the Houston Oilers Oiler Reportmagazine, I met so many key and
influential people later in my life thatelevated my photography career more when I started
doing commercial work things like that.The road was a winding one from Mark
the Oilers part time work gave wayto a full time management position as director
of photography for the Houston Gamblers.He was only in his early twenties.

(16:56):
Whenever the USFL Houston Gamblers ended innineteen eighty five, I went into kind
of a little bit of a funk. It was so it was it was
like for two or three years beforeI got into myself into the commercial photography
deal all the way. I endedup going out to and living on and

(17:17):
working on a ranch between Wharton andl Campo, Texas. It was about
a six thousand acre cow calfe operationranch that was out there that a friend
of my dad owned. You know, lived in a little hundred year old
farm house that was like a mileoff the highway, and but I helped
doing ranch work and they had ahorse for me in the stables that we'd

(17:37):
used for working cattle and all thatkind of stuff. You know, that
was another kind of a Texas experiencethat that was really hard work. But
I did that for a couple ofyears and lived out there in that little
old farmhouse, and then you know, finally I said, okay, I'm
ready to go again and let meget back to Houston. And that's when
I kind of dove into the commercialphotography thing. But it was definitely appreciation

(18:00):
for that calcalfe ranch life sort ofa I don't know, an appreciation for
and like I don't really want todo this anymore. It's like I want
to get back to my photography thing. Freelance commercial work led to marketing West
Coast wineries and tantalizing still lives ofvineyards and wine caves, oddly leading him
to the Bush Library, where hecurated an exhibit, the Culture of Wine,

(18:23):
and suggested a wine auction for anupcoming Bush Library fundraiser. I was
the MC of that, and that'swhen our paths first crossed. So that
exhibit, the Culture of Wine wasup and running, and Jane Becker,
president Bush's chief of staff, andI went to dinner in Houston and she
said, you know that the exhibitis wonderful. Everybody loves it, and

(18:45):
have you thought about doing something elsedown the road that maybe the Presidential Library
would like to host? And Isaid, yeah, you know, actually
I'm finished reading this book America aboutthe National Parks, and that's about all
I got out was the phrase thannational Parks, and gene Becker just,
you know, threw her arms upand said, oh, we got to
do it. We got to doit. You know, that's a great
idea. I love the parks andI so it kind of just came together

(19:07):
quick, and she said, youknow, we need to we need to
get with put together advisory committee andjust start making thing happen. When she
said, put together advisory committee.I thought, well, I don't know,
I've been I can do this myself. And anyway, I learned very
quickly that I'm so glad that shewas there to help put together this advisory
committee and guide me kind of throughthat process because it was this project,

(19:29):
the National Park project, was waybigger than just what I could do when
needed lots of help, and weended up putting together a great committee and
we got it done. The waythese things just sort of fall into place.
How does this happen? Things likethis, I'd look at and I
think I can do this. Youjust start doing it, and you go
out and planning. I dig onplanning, and that really the heart of

(19:52):
it. I'm a good photographer.I can hold my own when when I
throw down the portfolio or the workand it's I know it's going to be
good, you know, the bestwork that I can. Yeah, just
having an attitude like I guess,kind of a this Texas spirit of I
can do this, and I'm youknow, just watch me. And if
somebody says you can't do that,Mark, I mean that just it's almost
like I want them to say thatsaid, then I can really turn it

(20:14):
on. Of course, most peopledon't realize you did not take jets to
most of these national parks. Youactually drove your own personal vehicle, which
you now has how many how manymiles on it? Oh? Yeah?
That so it's a yeah, mytwo thousand and eight Toyota FJ Cruiser.
It's it's got right now about threehundred and fifty thousand miles on it.
But I think the project I putI want to say, like about one

(20:37):
hundred and seventy thousand miles of drivingon that vehicle during the project, But
it drove to every national park inthe lower forty eight at least once,
and many of them, you know, two or three times as the project
progressed. So that was I calledthat my most valuable player that had helped
me get a lot of places andwas a great vehicle. And you still
have it, still have it?Yeah, I love that vehicle. It's

(21:00):
kind of my little I call itnow, my little a follow spacecraft kind
of thing. I'm trying to getit to the I want to drive it
to the moon and back basically,So I think it's it's like maybe four
hundred and forty thousand miles to theMoon and back something like that. So
I'm closing in on it now.With three hundred and fifty thousand, You're
out there in the wilds and everynational park, and you had to see

(21:22):
every manner of wildlife, anything thatstartled you, anything that frightened you,
anything that really excited you about theanimals. People back in Texas would always
want kind of what were the wildlifereports? Did you see any bears?
Where I ended up taking my photographof cat and My National park was Funnel
Creek, which we flew on oneof the bush plane to float plane actually

(21:42):
from the cat My headquarters over tothe Funnel Creek area and landed on a
little pond, and then we hikedabout maybe half a mile or three quarters
of a mile across the tundra tothis kind of bluff overlook and which was
Funnel Creek down below. And whenyou walked up to that overlook, there
were probably I think they were likesixteen or eighteen Alaskan brown bears down there

(22:03):
in the creek getting salmon tea andthey it was pretty magnificent when you first
walk up and see him and therethese are big bears. I mean,
they're you know, they when theystand up there, you know, when
you were from probably average probably eightfeet tall or something like that, when
they stand large bears, and severalof them came up the bluff within probably
ten twelve yards of me when youwere sitting there with a camera on a

(22:26):
tripod, and they just would comeup the bluff and look at you.
And it was very disconcerting in thebeginning to see this bear with claws that
are about as long as my fingers, that are ten or fifteen yards away
from me looking at you. Butthen they would just go off, and
they were full. They'd been eatingall salmon all day. And so we
had the pilot he's carrying a fortyfour magnum across his chest and for protection,

(22:51):
and we all had bear spray andstuff with us. But again,
when you're looking at a bear thatsize ten or twelve yards from you with
nothing but some dirt between you andhim, that can of bear spray is
hopefully will help, but it doesn'tfeel very reassuring at that point. But
anyway, they were the bears Ithought were really cool. They knew exactly
where you were, and they justkind of did their thing and we did

(23:11):
our thing. And there were noissues with that. But the pilot said,
now that's because we're down here andthey're eating all this salmon, and
they got more salmon than they caneat. But he said, if we
were up north of the Arctic Circleand one of these bears saw you,
you know, you'd be on themenu. So the moose, on the
other hand, I did have someconfrontations with moose that were a little scary.

(23:33):
And when I was in Grand TeaTime National Park, the people there
at the headquarters it was calving season, so they they were, you know,
the young moose were with their mothers, and some of the people and
the rangers in the park headquarters said, you know, watch out for.
The worst thing is, you know, encountering a mother with the calf,
you know, so watch out forthat. So sure enough, it's like

(23:56):
the second morning, I'm I'm overan area called where the box Bow of
the Snake River is, where MountMount Moran is, and you know,
the sky had gotten light where youcould see a little bit, but it
had not the sun had not comeup yet, and I heard all of
this rockets up on the hillside tomy ride and down through the trees above.

(24:17):
I don't know, maybe twelve yardsin front of me, you know,
pop out this mama moose with herbaby, and she stops immediately,
and they both stand there and shestarts, you know, kind of pounding
one of her hoofs on the groundand her ears go back, you know,
on her head, and I'm thinkingthis is not good. Fortunately,
she just kind of turns and trotson down the hill and the baby follows,

(24:41):
and then they swim across the riverto a little island that was out
there. Had another encounter in DenaliNational Park with a bull moose that was
a really big bull moose that cameout of the willows and just I had
a rent a car when I wasup there and I'm on this little dirt
road some and this, you know, I had pulled over and a little

(25:02):
pull out and again my camera anda tripod, and this bull moose comes
out and it literally I went around, I walked, you know, ran
around the rent a car once ortwice as the bull moose is kind of
going around the rent a car withme, and then finally it just went
down the hit the embankment a littlebit more into some other willows and started,
you know thrashing its head back andforth like it was pissed off at

(25:26):
something. But that was interesting.Actually got while I was going around the
rent a car, got a coupleof iPhone pictures of the bull moose.
So hold the thought, We'll beright back that snapshot of the bull moose.

(25:55):
It's posted at kagh dot com onthe My Heart of Texas page,
along with some of my own snapshotsof Mark's work in museums and in my
own collection. As part of theadvisory board for the National Park's photography project,
I avidly followed his travels in projectsCan't You Tell? And as usual
I can't get all the stories intothis first chapter, so we're doing more

(26:18):
detailed descriptions of specific National Park landscapesin the Mark Burns Chapter two podcast immediately
following this one. How it tookhim some eight days to finally capture the
heart of Old Faithful in Yellowstone,for instance, and Old faith was one
of the most interesting photographs that Idid for the project. In some ways,

(26:41):
problem is in my mind, Igot this perfect kind of image of
this geyser eruption happening in the landscapearound it and below it and behind it
as all just tramed up real Nie. So that's like in my mind's eye
as I'm seeing it. And thenI think it was on the maybe the
eighth morning that I ended up finallygetting the photograph that I wanted of that

(27:02):
geyser, and it was just atotally again. I got there, left
the cabin about three am. Igot there before sunrise. I get set
up, I'm waiting, it's atotally still morning. It just finally,
finally, at all the conditions happenedto be right for what I wanted to
get, and I got this.I'm very very happy, but that it's
the guys or the water channel goesup and it almost it's like the steam

(27:25):
vapor almost kind of did a role, sort of a look where you had
this kind of rounded roll look wherethe water is falling back down from the
guyser. I'm very happy with thatphotograph. But I close this chapter one
with a hope that some of yourheart has been captured too, by the
quietly proud Texan who shows so manyattributes of my personal lone star heroes.

(27:51):
Gamblers folded, and so you wentoff and worked on a cattle ranch while
you figured out what the hell amI going to do. But because you
had to support yourself well, Ilearned how to ride a horse well,
and how to stack hay real well, and how to fix fences, you
know, I learned. I gotvery very proficient at you know, fixing
barb war fences. I fact,fencing flyers were pretty much in my pocket

(28:11):
every day. To me, itwas another experience, another layer in my
life that kind of in my backpocket that may be somewhere down the road
you can put to good use.You may not realize it, but I
see in you everything that is greatabout being Texan or living in Texas.
Well, it makes me smile reallybig because I'm very very proud to be

(28:33):
a Texan and I definitely feel thatthere is that element, that Texan element
that you're you know, you're goingfor that I feel that, you know
all the time, and I'm proudto be from Houston. More ahead in
chapter two. As I close nowwith thanks to the KTIRH producers Jeff Biggs
and Jacob Danto, who do theheavy lifting technical work of My Heart of Texas