New Music Thursday, Dallas Memorials, and the ‘Back the Blue’ Act

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelJuly 14, 2016 10:49 am

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

It’s time for the second installment of our new music series Cut In. This week, Dallas writer Lyndsay Knecht brings us a song from a duo who played an album release show just south of downtown Dallas over the weekend. The band is called “They Say The Wind Made Them Crazy. Knecht picked their song “Puha” from their new album “Far From the Silvery Light” to share this week. It reminded her of her friend Gini Mascorro. Mascorro lives in downtown Dallas and is a much-beloved DJ at KXT in Dallas.  Mascorro’s apartment building was on lockdown twice last week after the shooting that left five officers dead last Thursday. Mascorro told Knecht that downtown needs a smudging ceremony – something that would cleanse the space of all of the pain left by a violent week in the United States. And this track, reminded evoked a kind of sage-burning ceremony, says Knecht.

“Puha” actually opens the album. In it, you can hear an anchor under the guitar melody – it’s called a hammer dulcimer and it’s played by Sarah Alexander.

The word dulcimer means “sweet song” – and this one is the sweetest on the record, which continues into darker territory, searching the raw and vast terrain of loss. Sarah’s operatic vocals act as an instrument of fracture later – she’s a singer you have to witness live when she and guitarist Gregg Prickett make it around Texas.

You can hear more of their music here.

And: All this week memorials and funerals are being held in the Dallas area for the five law enforcement officers killed by a lone gunman last Thursday.

KERA North Texas is profiling each of the men who lost their lives in their series, “Remembering the Fallen.” Lorne Aherns was laid to rest yesterday. KERA captured a moment in Plano when pastor and friend Rick Owen described Aherns and his wife as inseparable. Owen said, “Lorne and Katrina. Lorne and Katrina.  You don’t say Lorne. You don’t say Katrina. You say Lorne and Katrina, they’re a team. Fred and Wilma.  Ricky and Lucy.” Back in Dallas, family and friends remembered DART officer Brent Thompson. His partner, Officer Joseph Kyser described Thompson as a jokester. He told the crowd how one time, Thompson found out a Lieutenant didn’t like to be touched.

“So every time Brent saw this Lieutenant, he would go out of his way to either rub the Lieutenant lightly on the back or reach up and tickle his elbow,” Kyser shared. A private funeral was also held for Sergeant Michael Smith on Wednesday.

Also: After the Dallas shootings, both senators from Texas and a senator from North Carolina have introduced a bill that would increase penalties for targeting law enforcement officers. It’s called the Back the Blue Act. It would do a couple of things, including creating a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years for killing a federally-funded judge or public safety officer.