SPINDRIFT: GHOST OF THE WEST (Dir. by Burke Roberts) captures the psych-western cinematic band known as SPINDRIFT as they travel across the Western United States during their "Ghost Town Tour" of Oct 2012. The concept of the film came to Kirpatrick Thomas when the band was working on its forthcoming album which was shaping up to be an album full of "Golden Age" of Hollywood Cowboy Western covers. The idea was to expand on the idea and to explore the Ghost Towns and more distant vistas of the Wild West. All the while, the band would perform the music in its proper environment: To nobody but the western spirits that remain (and the film crew of Director Burke Roberts, plus Cinematographers J.T. Gurzi and Rich Ragsdale of course). What they got was much more than they bargained for. They covered a massive amount of territory. Such Historical places as Deadwood's Saloon #10 (where Wid Bill was shot), Tombstone (they perform a humorous number Big Nosed Kates and on the site of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral), the picturesque Sonoran Desert, the baddest of them all Bodie Ghost Town, Charlie Manson's etchings in Belmont, NV, a run in with a giant elk and just so much more. However, where the film really accelerates, is within the audiovisual journey. Evident in the editing, the well crafted hauntingly lonely musical selections, and the ebb and flow of the picture itself. There is no doubt that a journey of this venture could deliver such visual treasures. The reality becomes evident that only a band such as SPINDRIFT and a hardened DIY cowboy Director like Burke Roberts (they actually visit and film on the same Historic ranch he grew up on in the film) could conceptualize and undertake such an massive and unique outing. The results are a visually breathtaking, well crafted, Historical look at our past, present, and future of the American West.
