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Memorable contributions from Carpenter as well as vocalist Tomas Cruz and mariachi trumpeter Jacob Valenzuela. "Rosita" returns as a vocal huapango (a Mexican folk dance and musical style), with an even stronger mariachi flavor. "All The Pretty Horses" is a brief instrumental interlude with composer credits to both Carpenter and the players: guitarist Andrew Stern, bassist Paul Dilley and drummer Gavin McCarthy. "Rosita" (one of the songs from the play) makes its first appearance in instrumental form as a tango, but with a mariachi flavor. The title tune is a song about a dark, fateful attraction: "You're always in my dreams when all these wicked things come true." "Bad Motel" conjures its bleak setting with a basic rock beat, tremolo guitar, and bass saxophone. "Murieta's Last Ride" begins the set with a bit of an overture, snatches of other songs drifting in and out over a martial drum beat. Thirteen additional musicians provide strings, winds, brass, percussion, lap steel guitar, and vocals. In addition to vocals the eight members of the core band play guitars, piano, winds, brass, strings, bass and drums.

Getting to this third installment has been a long process—it is the band's first new release in ten years. Two years later they went into the studio to record mostly new music for the final part of the Weird American Gothic trilogy, including a few songs and instrumental pieces from the play.

The group worked on the play, including a showcase in front of a live audience, but the play was never fully funded and staged.

In 2012 Carpenter was commissioned by the Berkeley Repertory Theater to compose music for a new play based on the true crime book The Barbary Coast, chronicling San Francisco in the Gold Rush era. Dreamland (Cuneiform Records, 2008) was the first, followed by Boy From Black Mountain (Cuneiform Records, 2009). Boston-based band Beat Circus first got together in 2002, and in 2005 leader Brian Carpenter (the only constant member over the life of the band) began working on his Weird American Gothic trilogy of albums, which explore the rich culture of three American mythologies: The American Circus, Southern Gothic literature, and the Old American West.