Camino Crankie PROJECT

El Camino Real de los Tejas

Modern archaeology keeps moving back the date of the earliest known human occupation of “Texas”. Well more than 14,000 years ago, people were following other creature’s trails to livable places and distant destinations, all the while honing and perfecting these pathways for their evolving uses. Coahuiltecan guides brought the Spanish along these old braided roads to the home of the Caddo, and the Spanish named the route “El Camino Real de los Tejas”.

El Camino Real de los Tejas Crankie Suite is an epic low tech expedition across time and Texas. Brian Beattie tells the story in song while Valerie Fowler cranks the plot along in their home made crankie box. Valerie’s extra-natural depictions of historic places and people in Texas meld with Brian’s “Billy Gibbons meets Mr. Rogers” musical stylings to create a dream like atmosphere that carries you, song by song, forward and backward through time. Yet all the while, it’s simply a trip from the Rio Grande to San Antonio, Austin, Nacogdoches and beyond, and it’s all along that old storied road, El Camino Real de los Tejas.

El Camino Real De Los Tejas Crankie Suite PRESS

Thanks to Joe Nick Patoski and Texas Highways for giving us some love!

The Camino Crankie Project is dedicated to helping to illuminate and spread the word about Texas’ greatest untapped cultural legacy, El Camino Real de los Tejas. We use our unique edutainment spectacle as a starting point to spark interest about “El Camino”, and we have used it as a fundraising tool for the Onion Creek Metropolitan Park Archaeological Project. We are partnering with “El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association” to bring The Camino Crankie to your town! Stay posted for more details!

Camino Crankie Performance history

May 21st, 2023, Wessels Hall, Pioneer Farms, Austin Texas. 2 shows, 11am and 2pm

April 14th, 2023, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association (ElCaT) annual meeting, Bastrop Texas

March 30th and 31st, 2023, 2 benefit performances for the Onion Creek Metropolitan Park (OCMP) archaeological project, The Wonder Chamber, Austin Texas

February 25th, 2023, Benefit performance for OCMP archaeological project, Stricker House, Austin Texas


November 27th, 2022, Benefit performance for OCMP archaeological project, East Side Pedal Pushers, Austin

October 22nd, 2022, Sassafras festival, San Augustine, Texas

May 28th, 2022, Austin ElCaT meeting to promote formation of local chapters, ElCaT headquarters

May 24th 2022, Benefit for OCMP archaeological Project, Toups household, Austin Texas

May 21st, 2022, Benefit performance for the Onion Creek Metropolitan Park Archaeological Project, Ulrich Manor, Austin


April 22nd, 2022, ElCaT Annual Meeting, Floresville, Texas


April 4th, 2022, debut of the full length crankie, The Wonder Chamber, Austin

November 12th, 2021, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association (ElCaT) annual meeting, McKinney Falls, Austin

October 20th, 2021, a filming for Oakwood Cemetery Chapel’s award winning “To Relate” project, Onion Creek Metropolitan Park, Austin

Brian Beattie and Valerie Fowler’s earlier crankie collaborations

In 2019, they produced and performed a musical crankie for Valerie’s art show at Camiba Art Gallery in Austin, “The Story of the Deer in the Road”. Here is Valerie’s art talk, including “The Story of the Deer in the Road Crankie Suite”. 

In 2018, they produced and performed “The Flower Hill Suite”, a musical crankie about the Smoot Family and their historic “Flower Hill” homestead on West 6th Street in Austin- This is a video of a performance we did at the house.

In 2014, Brian and Valerie released a musical audiodrama that takes place in depression era Austin called “Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase”. Brian wrote and produced the recording, and Valerie illustrated the 64 page booklet-


Valerie created a series of long multimedia artworks on scrolls of paper, animating some of the musical’s songs. They then produced a live performance of “Ivy” at the State Theater in late 2014, featuring Valerie’s first “Crankies”-

They toured the east coast with the crankie as a duo performing a scaled down version of the musical in late spring of 2014, and toured the west coast in early 2015. Here are some more crankies from “Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase”-