Article Contributed by IVPR
Published on 2026-03-24
Austin, TX – March 24, 2026 — Earlier this month, to a sold-out theater of eager film and music fans, along with legendary musicians, Shadowbrook Studios’ highly anticipated limited documentary series, They Called Us Outlaws, made its worldwide debut at SXSW Film and TV Festival. The 90-minute pilot episode, “The Prologue – Waylon, The Dillo, and That Outlaw Bit,” gave viewers a taste of the ten-years-in-the-making, ten-part series from award-winning and critically-acclaimed documentary filmmakers Eric Geadelmann and Kelly Magelky. Presented in association with the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, the project is a lore-filled lesson on the impetus of the movement itself, immersing the audience into the cold beer and cheap pot counter-culture of Austin. It centers on the legendary venue Armadillo World Headquarters, which, back in the 1970’s, was a mere block away from the Rollins Theater at the Long Center where the series premiered on March 15.
Attendees included cosmic cowboy legends Michael Martin Murphey, Gary P. Nunn, Bobby Earl Smith (of Freda and the Firedogs), the acclaimed singer/songwriter and “outlaw sweetheart” Kimmie Rhodes, Texas Heritage Songwriter Hall of Fame members Bruce Robison and Jack Ingram (who is also the narrator and an exec producer of the series), multi-hyphenate Chris Coleman (co-producer and TCUO’s original music composer), Wesley Schultz and Lauren Jacobson (The Lumineers), the Armadillo World Headquarters partners Eddie Wilson, Mike Tolleson, and Jim Franklin, and legendary Austin photographer Scott Newton, to name just a few.
While one of the series’ biggest champions and the matriarch of the outlaw movement, Jessi Colter (Executive Producer), was unable to attend, she wrote a beautiful letter to be read at the premiere screening that ended with this: “Truly, this film marks time never to be forgotten. Thus, Outlaw lives on.” The “outlaw” spirit itself is the main character throughout the entire series, something Geadelmann spoke with Billboard about on the 50th anniversary of the classic album Wanted! The Outlaws. “At the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about,” he says. “It’s not a fuck-you to the industry. It’s an exploration of what it means to be an artist and follow what’s inside yourself.”
“It was a tremendous privilege to World Premiere at SXSW, and to honor Austin and so many of the artists and key enablers that contributed to the 1970’s scene and sound that we continue to celebrate under the outlaw banner,” said Geadelmann. “This entire endeavor is a tribute to so many of these heroes, and an effort to spotlight current artists that have the courage to also do it their way while hopefully inspiring the next generation to pick up a guitar and make their own path.”
Magelky echoed, “As a prologue to a larger series, this was our opening statement, an unfiltered entry point into the world of these artists and the culture—raw, independent, and unapologetically human. We were deeply focused on shaping a tone that feels honest and lived-in, something that reflects the era at its core. Premiering at SXSW felt like the perfect place to start that journey with an audience, and the energy in the theater was incredible.”
Early critical acclaim came in from Saving Country Music, which wrote of They Called Us Outlaws, “this is the motherlode, the Holy Grail of film projects,” and The Austin Chronicle, which provided backstory to Geadelmann and the project, succinctly summed up the spirit of the prologue, writing, “They Called Us Outlaws seeks the independent artistry behind country music’s mythic Seventies.”
After the premiere, artists and VIPs, friends and fans spilled over to Austin’s iconic Waterloo Records for a revelry-filled afterparty sponsored by the cosmic cowboy outpost in Texas’s Hill Country, Luckenbach Texas, featuring music from internationally recognized DJ and Tyler Childers’ co-producer and tour DJ Charlie Brown Superstar, who played multiple sets of signature “Outlaw Funk” remixes exclusively created for They Called Us Outlaws—releasing to the public in the future via a unique collaboration with WhizzbangBAM. More on that soon.
At the Waterloo Records afterparty, the project’s official poster was unveiled by Austin musician and poster artist Billie Buck, as a callback to the 1970’s era of Austin’s hippie culture when artistic expression flourished not only in multi-genre music, but photography and especially poster art. Buck said, “An armadillo gets its wings every time someone peeks under the curtain into the world of outsider art. Sleepy ol’ Austin was heavily instrumental in the favorable divergence from mainstream music in the late 60s and early 70s. From The 13th Floor Elevators and Shiva’s Headband at Vulcan Gas Company, to Doug Sahm and Freda & The Firedogs at Soap Creek Saloon, to Willie and Waylon at the Armadillo. I love seeing the spotlight shine on our little freakshow.”
This world premiere at SXSW also served as the official launch of Shadowbrook Studios, which specializes in producing documentary films and select scripted adaptations of the true stories featured in its non-fiction projects. Without fanfare, Shadowbrook’s filmmakers have been all over the globe, developing, financing, and producing a slate of films and series totaling over 50 hours of music and sports programming to be released in 2026 and 2027, with announcements forthcoming on the individual projects.
For more information on They Called Us Outlaws, please visit theycalledusoutlaws.com.
About Shadowbrook Studios
An Austin-based boutique documentary film studio, Shadowbrook Studios launched at SXSW 2026 in conjunction with the world premiere of the highly anticipated music documentary series They Called Us Outlaws. Already positioned to be one of the industry’s leading non-fiction film producers, Shadowbrook currently boasts a slate of award-winning and critically-acclaimed projects (via acquisition) and long-form films in production. Multiple series are in post-production, totaling over 50 hours of premium content to be released in 2026 and 2027, including prestige programming in music and sports.
