Born in 1912, Conlon Nancarrow was the wayward son of the mayor of Texarkana, Arkansas. Like so many left-leaning Americans in the 1930s, he joined the Communist Party which seemed like the best way to help the working class. Nancarrow was so committed to the movement, in fact, that in 1937 he ran off and fought against Franco with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. "American Mavericks" is a thirteen episode series on American composers who broke with European tradition to innovate a pure sound. The series won a Peabody Award in 2003.