Texas Music

Texas has its own brand of music. Sometimes called Texas country or alternative country, it 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. Some represent themselves, some 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."

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."

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, tells 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 those who live in Texas or have plans to visit, the best places to catch a live Texas music show are Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Floores Country Store in Helotes, and Luckenbach Dancehall in Luckenbach. Expect to have a great time!