The unique “Old West-meets-cosmos” flavor of “Firefly” is one element of the gone-too-soon Joss Whedon show that has continually garnered fans for the series, and now it has inspired a music project by Americana rock band The Fallen Stars.
When the husband-wife music duo realized Whedon”s space western would be a perfect fit for their sound, they began working on a project called “Leaves on the Wind.” (Thanks for making us choke up over Wash all over again!)
Each song in the project is a tribute to an individual episode of “Firefly.” The Fallen Stars” Bobbo and Tracy Byrnes are working through the series in order, starting with the episode “Serenity.”
To craft each song, “we sit down, watch the episode together. I”ve usually got a pencil and paper, and [Bobbo] usually has a guitar,” Tracy told HitFix.
The Orange County, California-based duo visited HitFix”s offices to talk about “Leaves on the Wind” and to perform a shiny session of songs from the project.
Below, watch their performance of “Goodnight Kiss,” their song based on the episode “Our Mrs. Reynolds.”
In the video interview at the top of this page, you can hear some of “Stronger Than Steel,” a tribute to the women of the series, based on “Shindig.” That track plucks some of Kaylee”s words from the episode and mixes them in with The Fallen Stars” original lyrics. As Tracy notes, Whedon and Jane Espenson”s dialogue is already terrifically lyrical.
When it came time to write music for the episode “Jaynestown,” Bobbo and Tracy decided to have some of their own fun with the song already in that episode. They updated that rousing ballad with their “True Story of the Hero of Canton,” where Tracy sings about what really happened when Jayne visited the mudders of Higgins” Moon. You can check out The Fallen Stars” performance of that song in the video at the bottom of this post.
The duo has released songs based on episodes through “War Stories” on two EPs, available on their website. The Byrnes plan to keep on being mighty music-makers for the Browncoats crowd. Next up from them: a song based on episode 11, “Trash.”