Given how many of Monsieur Malle’s films I truly cherish, not to mention the joy of watching then-newlywed actors Amy Madigan and Ed Harris work together, it’s a wonder I still haven’t seen ‘Alamo Bay’ after nearly four decades.
So I can’t comment on whether the critical drubbing given this tale of racial conflict along the Texas Gulf Coast was merited or not. But I can unequivocally say the evocative soundtrack is a keeper, with a delicate main theme that (once it builds melodic muster) measures up to the wistful beauty of Mark Knopfler’s ‘Local Hero’ pieces. Ry Cooder devised the score with his usual musicologist’s ear for authenticity as well as a sterling ensemble of session legends: Jim Keltner on drums, Jim Dickinson on keys, Jorge Calderon on bass, David Lindley on whatever David Lindley feels like playing. Madigan sings; so do Hidalgo and Rosas from Los Lobos. Fear’s Lee Ving voices ugly anti-Vietnamese sentiments requiring narrative context to avoid cancellation. And John Hiatt probably gleaned the most out of this experience: two years later both its slide-guitar sound and masters of rootsy finesse (Cooder and Keltner along with Nick Lowe) would become the bedrock of his long-overdue mid-career breakthrough ‘Bring the Family.’
#SoundtrackSunday 006.1
‘Alamo Bay’
Slash, 1985
d: Louis Malle