Courtesy of Touch & Go/Quarterstick Records

Anyone who has lived in or swept a home in Tucson knows that it’s a dusty town. It’s on the ground, needless to say, but it’s also tumbling around in the air, spiraling in dust devils and sometimes giving the skyline an unsavory beige tint. Desert sediment finds its way into homes, vehicles, streets and even the local music. Local bands and musicians from Howe Gelb to Bob Log III have a recognizable, gritty realness that mixes well with Tucson’s laid back attitude, Old West history and desert surroundings. And Tucson’s current most well-known and critically acclaimed group, Calexico, is no exception. From their instrumental, lo-fi debut, “Spoke,” to the mariachi-infused, Tex-Mex Spaghetti Western sounds of “Black Light” to their most recent release, the indie-rock leaning “Garden Ruin,” Calexico’s romantic, well-crafted music has always had the element of earthiness that Tucson seems to foster.

How appropriate.

Though Burns and Convertino met in Los Angeles, Calexico is well-known as a Tucson band. And it’s an identity that they revel in from the way they often “glorify the beauty of Tucson in interviews” to staying loyal to locals by continuously working with them, even while they are working with internationally known names like Nancy Sinatra, Willie Nelson and Iron & Wine.

Recording with locals Craig Schumacher and Nick Luca of Wavelab Studios has proven to be a perfect fit over the years. Burns said, “(Nick) and Craig, they get it. They understand where we want to go and when we want to shake those things that have defined us before and then when we want to go back to something (in the studio) that is maybe more reliable. They can gage by my level of energy. They can read those signs from all of us.”

The fact that Schumacher and Luca are able to work so intuitively with Calexico is a benefit that comes from not just the number of hours logged in, but breadth and depth of projects they have worked on together.

“They (Schumacher and Luca) do a lot of work with us outside this project – all the various film work and collaborations and whatnot,” Burns said. “So I have to remind people that it’s not just about this project or this band, it’s about the whole picture. I’ll go into the studio and work on, say, a couple tracks with Neko (Case), or Craig will be working with a band, will give a call and say, ‘Can you come in and play some cello?’ So we are helping each other out and are working on the same goal, which is to have some sense of community and ensembleship and learning new techniques from each other.”

And besides the comfort, ease and time-saving elements of working with trusted friends, Burns summed it up simply. “Its fun to have friends that you can share these experiences with and its fun to encourage and be inspired by your friends and see everybody growing from situations that come up.”

It’s also got to be somewhat of a luxury for a band to not have to constantly explain their writing and recording styles to new producers and engineers. And in Calexico’s case, that style is one that is designed to capture the beauty of spontaneity and a natural, less-structured flow of ideas.

“That’s the spirit of Wavelab and recording here in Tucson, is that you have these happy accidents and they can lead to new arrangements or new songs or give a new angle to what we do,” Burns said. “John and I try to write in the studio when we are recording. I may have a fragment of an idea or maybe even a fully realized idea, but I want to bounce it off of John because we don’t practice. We tried renting a rehearsal space and it ended up turning into a storage space.”

It’s also easy to assume that a band that is addicted to touring and learning about new cultures would gravitate to a larger city, but Burns has no plans to leave his beloved Tucson, though he says he has considered moving to another country for a while. His love of other cultures, as well as his ties to his Southwestern roots, began as a child. His parents would bring back records from their travels and his mother would play piano while singing folk songs like “Cielito Lindo” and “Guadalajara.” As a young adult, he would spend hours in 4th Avenue’s Value Village thrift store scouring the racks of grubby records from the ‘50s. The albums offered the “sense of travel and adventure” that he would pursue through his music and touring as a member of Calexico.

“When we were in L.A. recently and meeting with people who were working on ‘I’m Not There,’ their number one question was, ‘You used to live here and you moved to Tucson. Why?’ And that’s a really good question,” Burns said. “I’m not sure why, but it sure has been a beautiful departure from mainstream America and the big cities and the industries who have these predictions of what things should be and what trends are going to happen now. I was never interested at all (in that).” (More on Calexico’s contribution to the Bob Dylan-inspired film in Part 2)

He concluded without hesitation, “It was a nice break to spend 14 years out here – the history, the cultural mix. It’s a nice place to come back to. And when we travel and come back, it confirms our choice.”

Calexico’s “Carried to Dust” comes out Sept. 9 on Touch & Go/Quarterstick Records. The band will be performing at Calexico fan/Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ Go Vote 2008, a benefit to reach young voters on Sept. 20 at the Rialto Theatre. Joining Calexico on the bill will be their longtime collaborators Mariachi Luz de Luna, along with fellow Arizonan Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World.

For more information, visit casadecalexico.com and rialtotheatre.com.