Article Contributed by Falcon Publicity
Published on 2026-03-27
David Haerle, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter-guitarist, draws inspiration from formative experiences that have stayed with him like half-remembered dreams. His new single, “Tucumcari Tonite!,” looks back on long summer drives through the American Southwest and is rooted in the enduring magic of places like Tucumcari, New Mexico.
“Tucumcari Tonite!”:
https://youtu.be/0rKCzCldA10
Rooted in nostalgia and simpler times, the music video for “Tucumcari Tonite!” embraces new technology to push the boundaries of artistic imagination. Created using AI tools under the direction of award-winning filmmaker Sabrina Doyle, marking her first project to fully integrate AI into her creative process, the video unfolds as a hallucinatory, dreamlike reawakening of an old memory, blurring reality and imagination through a magical road trip seen through a child’s eyes, complete with surreal encounters, ancient landscapes, and even roaming dinosaurs.
Built using Google Veo 3, the project shows how AI can unlock stories that might otherwise be impossible to tell, not by replacing creativity, but by expanding what’s possible when guided by a clear artistic vision. The video blends cutting-edge tools with deeply personal imagery, a grandmother character modeled from a photograph of David’s maternal grandmother, shaping the piece into a tender, intimate work of memory.
“Every summer of my youth, my brother and I went to stay with our maternal grandparents Walter and Anna Duke—or Muz and Papa as we knew them—at their farm in middle Tennessee. Oh, the good times we had with them,” David explains of the inspiration behind “Tucumcari Tonite!”
“Most summers, we would fly there and back from our home in Los Angeles, but on a few occasions Muz and Papa made a road trip of it, driving us one way by car. Pending the weather, I-40 or I-10 would be our route. A few different cars made the trek over the years, but I remember their 1970s brown Buick sedan the best.
“My inspiration for this song was my memories of those road trips and a town called Tucumcari, New Mexico. Tucumcari is located along I-40 and old Route 66. Its place along the interstate amidst the American Southwest’s vast distances without cities and towns makes it a natural stopping place for travelers and road trippers. Tucumcari used to advertise ‘2,000 motel rooms’ and ‘Tucumcari Tonite!’ on billboards coming into town. I remember the town’s name itself captivating me, and I can hear my grandparents saying it aloud.
“My combined recollections from these trips, along with research for the song, conjured up so much in my imagination: souvenir shops, giant cactus, ancient indigenous cultures and costumes, the epic Meteor Crater and Petrified National Forest, billboards and neon signs attracting tourists, themed motels, swimming pools, dinosaur museums, and of course the exquisite feeling of freedom from school that came with summer vacation. So much to make a lifelong impression on a kid.
“But which Kodachrome memory shines more brightly than any other? The image of Muz and Papa and their love for us grandchildren. So join me on this road trip; if we make good time, we’ll be staying in Tucumcari tonight!”
“‘Tucumcari Tonite!’ by musician David Haerle is a nostalgic trip into a 1970s childhood, both real and imagined,” adds video director Sabrina Doyle. “I see it through a distorted, Lynchian lens that pulls its Americana into a sharp focus — like a fistful of desert sand thrown in your eyes. Referencing cult TV shows like ‘Land of the Lost’ and leaning into the mystique of the American Southwest, I invite viewers to step into a parallel Tucumcari where the landscape constantly rewrites itself. To meditate on deep time and the insistence of memory. In order to hallucinate the past, I harnessed the latest in AI-assisted filmmaking. Unlocking personal histories and, also, planetary histories in the form of the giant beasts that once roamed this land. An ancient dream rendered in modern strokes. And a desert world — both fossilized and evolving — that reveals itself anew in every frame, reminding us that anything is possible in the places we carry within us.”
About David Haerle:
David’s music blends rock, folk, and Americana with heartfelt storytelling, warm guitar tones, and a nostalgic yet modern vibe that feels both personal and expansive. His previous album releases, 2023’s El Camino Sierra, 2020’s Death Valley, and 2018’s Garden of Edendale, have all been well reviewed among many notable music publications, including Billboard, American Songwriter, Goldmine, Under The Radar, Glide Magazine, Rock and Roll Globe, Americana Highways, Elmore Magazine, and others.
David Haerle grew up surrounded by music and the music business. His father, Martin, emigrated from Germany to pursue a dream of working in the country music industry and co-founded the independent label CMH Records, setting up shop in the garage and side room of the family home in Los Angeles. David’s maternal grandparents co-owned the first full-time country music radio station in Nashville, WENO, with their partner Cal Young. The King of Country Music himself, Roy Acuff, took David onstage at the Grand Ole Opry before a full house when he was 9 years of age. After picking up his first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, around age 13, David played in rock and alternative new wave bands during the ’80s before becoming a music agent at ICM. When his father passed away suddenly, David took over the family business at just 24 years old. He has served as president of CMH Records, now CMH Label Group, ever since.
But David never stopped playing guitar. In 2011, he decided to record and release his first full-length album. He began in earnest, and the project would ultimately take him roughly seven years to finish. Garden of Edendale was released in the summer of 2018. His second album, Death Valley, was released in the spring of 2020. His third album, El Camino Sierra, was released in April 2023. David is working on his fourth LP, to be released soon.
