Hailey Tuck & Colin Guerra

I know Hailey Tuck and Colin Guerra through serendipity.  I’d asked Anna Moss for recommendations of musicians in Austin.  This led me to Rebecca Patek and Melissa Carper who live in the town of Bastrop, just 30 miles outside of Austin.  I drove into the town early evening on the day before I was going to meet them.  Hungry, I walked into town to find a meal.  At the courthouse and saw a tiny gazebo full of musicians.  Turns out it was the first time this group had gotten together since the pandemic.   I struck up a conversation with a woman named Christy.  I didn’t look like a local.  She asked me what brought me to Bastrop.  I told her about tinyboatsession.  She told me she the city and that Bastrop had been recently designated a Music Friendly Community by the Texas Music Office.  I didn’t know any of those things existed until then, but it sounded like she knew some local musicians.

The next day I got a call from Hailey Tuck, the Cowgirl of Paris.  She’d recently come home after a decade abroad singing jazz from Paris to Istanbul.  Now she was refurbishing an old house, singing songs, planting a garden, and hanging out with her dog Lula.  We went out on the Colorado River with her friend, Guitarist Colin Guerra, and Lula.  She dressed like a sailor out of the 1920s.   Between her style, voice, and Colin's work on the guitar (and Lula the dog!)  it was perhaps one of the most Wes Anderson moments I have had during this project that already has that vibe.

After singing, we found a tree branch to tie up under for some shade next to some hearty ducks and geese.  Hailey produced a few cold beers and we took a brief respite from the heat. It was all over a bit too soon and it was time to head off to Ladybird Lake in Austen to find my last Tinyboatsessions in Texas. Instagram: @haileytuck @colinguerra