Texas Music

Texas has its own brand of music, of course, no one would expect anything less. Texas music, sometimes called Texas country, or alternative country is a fast growing alternative to the cookie cutter music coming out of Nashville. Texas music displays a "take it or leave it" attitude. Texas singer/songwriters are sending a message to the powers that be in Nashville, and that message is, "Here is my music. I like it. My fans like it. It doesn't matter if you like it or not."

Texas singer/songwriters have very large fan bases and their live shows are electric. They are approachable, regular people who enjoy sharing their talent and their songs. Many represent themselves, and many are represented by small, independent labels. Their love of Texas is often a theme in their songs, and these songs are always popular with the fans.

Pat Green's Southbound 35, opens with "What the hell am I doin' up in Kansas City/I know damn well it ain't where I belong/Think I'll quit my job come 5:00 and find my lonely way back home/Well, my baby said just what are you tryin' to prove here, do you really want to leave me here all alone/I said I'm tired of staring at this ocean full of Yankees, I'd rather be in Texas on my own."

In What I Like About Texas, Jerry Jeff Walker says, "You ask me what I like about Texas/I tell you it's the wide open spaces/It's everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande/It's the Llano Estacado/It's the Brazos and the Colorado/Spirit of the people down here who share this land."

Lyle Lovett, in That's Right You're Not From Texas, says, "You say you're not from Texas/Man as if I couldn't tell/You think you pull your boots on right and wear your hat so well/So pardon me my laughter cause I sure do understand/Even Moses got excited/When he saw the promised land."

In his song, The Great Divide, Jack Ingram shares, "They still listen to high school football/On the radio in West Texas/The lights still shine bright every Friday night/And you can drive 90 miles an hour/Down the highway straight through Cisco/The cops are at the ball game, it's gettin' tight/And the sky gets wider and wider/You disappear like the day/Into the great divide you fade away/It's another world all together/In the middle of God's country."

Kevin Fowler explains Texas pride well in 100% Texan. "Well, I love the sound of the rain on a tin roof/On a hot summer night/Love to hear those hound dogs barkin’/Howlin’ at the full moonlight/Love to see those fireflies buzzin’/Lightin’ up the southern sky/I’m hell-bent 100% Texan ‘till I die."

Pat Green's Songs About Texas says, "I sing songs about Texas/I sing them often as if she were some old lover I used to know/Wish I could follow them back to the homeland every time I hear one on my radio/Twin fiddles playing in my memory, my daddy sang the wonders of old cow town/Silver haired and he's still there under a sky so warm and fair/I tell you friends there's a song in every town/So sing me one more song about old San Antone/It seems like a dream now it was so long ago/And Jerry Jeff Walker can be just like a coat from the cold/Well I'm going home."

Pat Green describes his feelings for Texas in I Like Texas, "Well there's old dancehalls and little cafes/Where you can get a taste of the Lone Star State/Strap on your boots and have yourself a laugh or two/Well there's no line dancin' just straight romancin'/That hill country lore is what I fancy/Where streams run clear and Lord the skies they are so blue."

Ray Wylie Hubbard in Screw You, We're From Texas, bluntly lets everyone know how he feels "Now I love the USA/And the other states/Ahh, they're OK/Texas is the place I wanna be/And I don't care if I ever go to Delaware anyway/Cause we got Stubbs and Gruene Hall and Antone's and John T's Country Store/We've got Willie and Jacky Jack, Robert Earl, Pat, Cory, Charlie and me/And so many more/So screw you, we're from Texas/Screw you, we're from Texas/Screw you, we're from Texas/We're from Texas, screw you."

Steven Dale Jones & Phillip White in Texas, a song they wrote for George Strait, tell us, "There wouldn't be no Alamo/No Cowboys in the Super Bowl/No "Lonesome Dove", No "Yellow Rose"/If it wasn't for Texas/I wouldn't be a Willie fan/Nobody would swim the Rio Grand/I wouldn't be an American/If it wasn't for Texas."

For more on all things Texas, visit http://www.texasspirit.net/