After a show at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton three years ago, country-noir singer-songwriter Brandon “Broke String” Burnett happened to meet two multimedia producers. Datalus Pictures’ Marielena Resendiz and Johnathan Paul asked him to record a song for their 2025 indie Western. Burnett and his group excitedly went to work, and their track “Rattlesnake Moon” not only appeared in Harsh Treatment but won an award for best original song at a Tucson, Arizona, film festival in 2024.
“It’s a good feeling, for sure,” Burnett said, “pretty cool.”
The song and film inspired Burnett and his producer, Calan Rawl, to record a full album of the same name as the movie. Broke String Burnett will celebrate the release of the LP Harsh Treatment with a big show at The Boiled Owl Tavern on Friday with two-steppin’ genius Cory Cross opening.
“The task was a song or two, but I just kept writing, so we went ahead and tracked them,” Burnett said. “It was an experiment, and that’s what we leaned into. I love the album … and it’s just a fun album, I think. I was ecstatic about the opportunity. I’ve always been a fan of Western films and always written original music that played out like a movie.”
The film tells the story of two failed outlaws who, after getting kicked out of their own gang, find themselves pursued by a dangerous tracker, a bloodthirsty mercenary, and a host of sinister thugs, all of them after the priceless treasure the two outlaws do not realize they’ve stolen.
Courtesy the artist
The picture premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival in April 2024. In October 2024, it was screened at the Wild Bunch Film Festival in Tucson and was nominated for awards in 15 categories, including Best Original Song. The movie premiered on Amazon Prime in October 2025 to positive reviews and is now streaming on Tubi and YouTube Video.
Like Burnett’s debut album, 2023’s Doppelganger, and sophomore effort, 2024’s Bloodveins, Harsh Treatment was recorded by Rawl at his South Fort Worth home in much the same way: drums in the living room, guitars in the bedroom, vocals in the bathroom.
Like most of the other nine tracks on Harsh Treatment, the dark, narrative “Rattlesnake Moon” follows an outlaw on the run, this one chased by demons.
“Dark is the night by the light of the Rattlesnake Moon,” Burnett sings in his smooth tenor over a dramatic soundscape that gradually shifts from patient to raucous. “It will show you things you cannot see / Even an outlaw needs a friend, but I’ll take what I can get / Even lost souls can find a way / I ain’t lost yet.”
“I make the music I make because I want to tell stories,” Burnett said. “I don’t think about it too much. I just write songs that I feel, and if it feels important, I will bring the song to the band” — guitarist/vocalist Henry Sepulveda III, drummer John Paul Thomas, and bassist/vocalist Gary Wingrove II — “and go from there. I’m not doing anything different than any other dude with an acoustic guitar. What makes each of us special is our voice. So, I guess I just feel motivated enough that I feel like I have something to say that would resonate. I just stay true to the story that is unfolding inside the songs.”
Broke String Burnett
9pm Fri w/Cory Cross at The Boiled Owl Tavern, 909 W Magnolia Av, Fort Worth. No cover. 21+. 817-920-9616.
