Myrna and The BullDog

Otherwise known as Myrna Cabello and Daniel Cook, the award winning

singing songwriting team known as Myrna and The BullDog first

developed their musical chops worlds apart, separated by only a few

hundred miles of highway. 

Cabello’s bicultural roots has one foot squarely in Austin, Texas with the

other in Mexico.  Growing up in Austin, she revered singers from

Linda Ronstadt to Aretha Franklin.  En el otro lado, she swooned over

throaty divas like Daniela Romo and Soraya.

Meanwhile, in the North Texas flatlands, Daniel was coming of age in a

plainspoken, church-going, whisky-and-gunpowder backdrop where he

was taught to give due respect to Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams while

pledging allegiance to rhythm and blues, and teaching himself rock and

roll guitar licks playing along with cassette tapes of The Beatles and

Led Zeppelin.

After pursuing lives and careers outside of Texas, they found each other

back in Austin in 2004. One of their earliest collaborations had the pair

arguing all night over ‘Hold Me Close (Forever),’ a melancholy love song

penned by the couple. Perhaps it’s Daniel’s tender lyrics, or maybe it’s

Myrna’s fearless determination to expose the heart of a song, because

ever since that night the couple has rarely been apart. They married in

2006.

At the root of their collaborations are the words and music—songs that

speak to universal truths about life and love with bold musical approaches,

often infused with clever dashes of humor, as in “Modern Mexican and

Little Elvis,” a whimsical love song that describes their union, embellished

with delicate accordion, thanks to Michael Guerra (from Raúl Malo and

the Mavericks fame.)

In 2010, Myrna and The Bulldog embarked on a “songwriting journey,”

checking out music scenes in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and of

course, Austin, to refine their musical union. What they discovered is that

while individually distinctive, they mesh sublimely. Myrna’s sultry, bluesy

vocals coupled with Daniel’s well-hewn, plaintive delivery with a side of

twang make for a performance that is as eclectic as it is familiar. Tutored

in the blues, fueled by torch songs, laced with the occasional rock and roll

riff, with nods to Mexican soul, Myrna and The Bulldog’s inventive

performances delight audiences by conjuring all the ghosts of their

musical influences, past and present, while fashioning a musical future