Song On A Blue Guitar

An old promise, a new ghost, and a resurgent mystery send rancher Joe Steele in search of Toro Duran, his army buddy of some 50 years and a war ago. In a barrio called Tuceros Joe finds himself sucked into a fight Toro and his offbeat amigos are waging to save their cantina and its wildly decorated outhouse-'best little privy on the Rio Grande'-from a Bible-pounding Dallas developer. He meets Arabela, muscular cash-only-and-up-front proprietress of the cantina, along with Wesley Wetherford Jones, resident outhouse artist, Lily and her girls from the nearby whorehouse, Chico and Rico, sheriff and magistrate judge of Tuceros (when they aren't off fishing) and the mysterious Indian from the nearby pueblo. Through the scenario sits Tecolote drinking Tokay, plucking his guitar, and revising events into his one great musical opus. A climactic chase has Joe asking just who Toro is-saint or Satan, hero or humbug, Galahad or PT Barnum-and what he, Joe, is doing scaling a steep mesa past midnight, 300 miles from his own bed, his own spread, and his own business. He may find his answers in Tecolote's song.