Courtesy of Bale Creek Allen Gallery
To understand what s so special about the exhibition Promised Land, opening this week at Bale Creek Allen Gallery, it helps to go back to Baltimore and the Washington, D.C., area in the early Seventies, when Nixon is sweating through Watergate and John Waters is shaking up Charm City with
Pink Flamingos. A guitarist meets a drummer, and they hit it off and play in a band together – original songs mostly, but they aren t above playing covers for a gig at a D.C. Holiday Inn. (There s a fun story there, but maybe later.) This goes on for a few years, then when Tricky Dick is long gone and the bicentennial is in full swing, the two go their separate ways – the guitarist to L.A., where he starts a punk band; the drummer to NYC, where he starts a career in art. But they ve gotten pretty tight, so they stay in touch. Eventually, one moves to Austin, and then the other. And at some point, the guitarist finds – get this – an