Chuck Pinnell is a veteran member of Austin's vibrant film and music community, honing skills in both worlds since 1978. Much more recently Chuck joined the kinship of writers with the publication of a well-received historical novel. Born into a West Texas ranching family, his work often recalls the past with authentic grit. Chuck’s guitar-based film scores (and albums) are unconventional evocations of mood, atmosphere, and narrative. In a long series of homegrown projects, many quite humble and some blessed with real significance—Pinnell has worked with an abiding stable of Austin stalwarts and a proud number of bonafide Texas legends; including Jimmy LaFave and Eagle Pennell, James McMurtry and Rick Linklater, Jerry Jeff Walker and Al Rienert.
Chuck’s film scores include the influential indie classics The Whole Shoot’n Match and Last Night at the Alamo (acquired by the Criterion Collection in April 2022 as part of a collection of Texas films curated an introduced by Ethan Hawke), Al Rienert's award winning documentary An Unreal Dream:The Michael Morton Story (Audience Award winner at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and airing on CNN Films 2014- 2015), and collaborating with Peter Stopchinski on the lush guitar and orchestra score for Rienert's stirring follow-up, Audubon (originally airing on PBS in 2017 and streaming now on Amazon Prime). Album credits include the producer title on Dark River, a highly regarded Austin All Star compilation of re-imagined Civil War Era Classics, and another producer credit for the exceptional and inspiring 2021 Erin Ivey release, Solace in the Wild.
In 2016 Pinnell returned to a screenwriting project first begun in the 1980’s with his older brother, the late great independent film director Eagle Pennell—a long and challenging journey that ultimately led to the The Irish Singer—Chuck Pinnell’s first novel, the untold origin story of Billy the Kid, published by Sunstone Press in June of 2021.
At the close of 2022, Chuck Pinnell was hard at work on the 2nd and concluding novel of The Irish Singer duology, and contributing guitar and mandolin to Peter Stopchinski’s brilliant score for the feature documentary—Cowboy Bourbon—the unlikely tale of how a small distiilery in the heart of the Texas Hill Country ignited a nationwide movement in craft distilling. Cowboy Bourbon premiered at the Hill Country Film Festival in June of 2023 where it won the Best In Texas award and is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
In the Spring of 2024 Chuck completed the first volume of a continuing series of informal solo albums called The Kitchen Table Sessions. These very personal tracks honor great songs from well-known artists, important to him at various times throughout a long life and career—and will also introduce brand new songs from his own pen. The lead off song is Place to Be, from Nick Drake’s stripped down voice and guitar album, Pink Moon—and part of the inspiration for this project is to remind himself, and his listeners, just how complete and evocative that format can be.
