Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration – Thomas Edison
The word Conspiracy has an interesting etymology. The business end of that word, “spir,” is common to words like inspiration, perspiration, transpiration, aspiration. From this root also comes spirit, synonymous in ancient Latin with breath. To “Con-spire” means simply to breathe together, with the implication of a shared purpose among the plotters. Most often the word is associated with secrecy and the proverbial smoke-filled room. One occasionally finds the exception that proves the rule, namely the open conspiracy that does not hide itself but flourishes in the full light of day.
Back in October we made an attempt to get at that Bisbee magic, the secret sauce that makes this place so special. Its about the infrastructure, its about the density of spaces in which culture can be made. And its about the people, the people who are drawn to Arizona’s omphalos of creativity. The people who answer the call from deep inside themselves to make that culture here, in the Town Too Big for its Britches. As we said, Bisbee does not simply allow for creativity, it demands it.
Today we celebrate a man who understands the assignment and toils at it, day after day in open conspiracy. We’re talking about Steve Moramarco, of the Steve Moramarco Conspiracy, now simply called “Moramarco!” (no doubt to throw intrepid researchers off his tail). The same Moramarco who publishes a newsletter called This Week in Bisbee (TWIB), and “This Month in Bisbee” as featured on this website. Steve Moramarco of TWIB-fest, the two-years-and-counting music festival organized by the very same Conspirator in Chief.
As if the above weren’t enough, we can add to the list: Moramarco the producer. This fall found the man hard at work on another assignment given to him not by man or woman, but by the town itself. He’s just finished an album called The Bisbee Song Cycle, a collection of Bisbee acts slinging Bisbee songs, currently due to debut on New Years Day, 2026.
Your humble blogger joined the conspiracy, recording an old song called “Hangover Blues,” written in the heady days of the old Stock Exchange open mic scene circa 2008. Joining in, a grip of Bisbee Music Hall of Famers including Frank Tornoe and Sam Panther, Scott Muleman and Russell “Catdaddy” Gillespie. Catdaddy is a Bisbee legend, the best blues guitarist in town and an artist whose paintings lean hard into psychedelic erotica and delectable body-horror. The ideal for “Hangover Blues” way back when was to get Catdaddy to play his electric blues on the track. Thanks to Moramarco, we made that dream come true this fall.
Bisbee Song Cycle includes tracks by such long-time Bisbee stalwarts as the Whiskey Lickers, One Ghost and Daniele Panther, relative newcomers like Astra Kelly and Simon Spencer, and long-revered “institutions” like Beca Reyes and T.S. Eliot Webb. It’s been a labor of love for all involved, a chance for everyone, newbies oldies and all in between, to come together as Bisbonians and, quite literally, sing her praises.
The Moramarco Conspiracy has grown quite a bit these last few years, a fitting fate. The right man at the right place in the right time, Steve immediately picked up on what Bisbee was putting down. He heard Bisbee’s call, to get in here and make something happen, and be your weird, true self. As discussed in a previous entry, the world is awash in sameness and lameness, and hungers for authenticity.* Simply put, Steve gets it, and he’s carved out a good spread for himself in the Open Conspiracy that is Bisbee, the town with a hand forever outstretched to creative types, beckoning with a whisper…
Come, let us breathe together.
