Doug Sahm is a Texas legend.  As influential, if not as famous, as Willie Nelson, Doug remains beloved by those who knew him and knew his music.  I was not really one of those people initially.  I knew of the Texas Tornados, but didn’t know how important he was to the history of not just Texas music, but music in general, until I was asked to art direct this excellent documentary about his life and legend by Arts+Labor.

I also got to create the poster for our premiere at SxSW.  Doug passed away in the late ’90s, but I wanted it to feel as though his psychedelic spirit was still with us.  A honkytonk angel, a Texas Tornado, his groove entwined in the Texas sunset.

I didn’t take enough behind the scenes photos working on the doc, but here’s one of an early iteration of the type treatment on the poster and a blurry pic of hard-working producer Jason Wehling doing some coloring.