Last month, I posted a Texas Tunes Dozen which I promised to follow up with a Texas Town Tunes Dozen. This is it.
I still have the Texas senate race on my mind. The Insult Comedian insulted Ken Paxton’s looks and fashion choices the other day. That makes it a mystery as to why he didn’t endorse the senator from central casting, John Cornyn. I’m glad he screwed the pooch, James Talarico looks more like a winner every day.
Trump is convening a mid-term convention next week in Dallas. Some are calling this unprecedented but Democrats held one in 1978. It was when it became obvious that Jimmy Carter was in trouble. The same ill winds seem to be blowing around Trump-palooza.
It’s time for a self-quote from the Texas Tunes piece:
This post is dedicated to Texas liberals. They’re tough and tenacious and their time may have finally come. I can’t let go of my residual skepticism but this could be the year Democrats harpoon the white whale. Thanks, Donald.
The featured image is a tourist map. Consider me a music tourist because I live next door in the Gret Stet of Louisiana, not deep in the heart of Texas. I cover all the listed towns except for two. As Joe E. Brown said to Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot:
Let’s get to the music. I’ve done something different this time. The songs are arranged in alphabetical order based on the town name. For example, Doug Sahm’s I Can’t Go Back To Austin is filed under A. Did that help keep Austin weird? Discuss amongst yourselves.
We begin with a tune called Abilene from Dave Alvin. I selected a live version because live Dave is always the best Dave. Besides, it comes from Austin City Limits.
Let’s set the Wayback Machine to 1975 with a song written by Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell:
Here’s Doug Sahm with the aforementioned Austin tune.
Carlene Carter is a fierce and talented upholder of the Carter family legacy. In this song, she bids Dallas nitey-nite.
East Houston Blues is a song about Rodney Crowell’s hardscrabble upbringing.
El Paso is written by country singer-songwriter Marty Robbins. I’d never heard of him until Bob Weir introduced El Paso as a song by Marty Robbins during a set.
I was more likely than not at the gig below. Winterland was my happy place in the 1970s.
The Texas town blues continues with Steve Earle.
And now for something completely different from Jeff Lynne and ELO.
I love this tune’s punny title Lubbock Or Leave It. Watching this live version was a revelation: I didn’t know that The Chicks rocked so hard live. I do now.
Let’s visit Luckenbach, Texas and get back to the basics of love with Waylon Jennings:
Another punny title about a Texas town. Dwight Yoakam’s pun is actually well above average. Sounds fair to me.
Lyle Lovett. San Antonio. Say no more.
That concludes the Texas Town Tunes Dozen. What’s an Adrastos listicle without some lagniappe?
Doobie Brother Tom Johnston was waltzing through Texas when he saw a sign for China Grove, which is a tiny town near San Antonio. He thought it would be a good song title. He was right.
Our next two Texas town tunes are set in East Texas gulf communities that I’ve visited and found quite congenial.
My cup overflows with lagniappe. We have two tunes that popped up on earlier listicles. There’s a twist: they’re different versions from the same artists, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Doug Sahm.
That’s all y’all.