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Your Most Texas Songs


Texzilla58

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I was born in Ft Worth, of parents who have Texas lineage to preAlamo years. Spent most of my youth as an expat, and then my career moved me all over. We have a Texas film thread going in Movie threads, thought we could do same for songs.
 
My list is not complete, just what’s coming to mind of tunes that made me homesick living elsewhere.
 
Whiskey River - Willie Nelson
Waltz Across Texas - Ernest Tubb
Little Bit is Better than Nada - Texas Tornados
Across the Alley From the Alamo - Asleep at the Wheel
New San Antonio Rose - Bob Wills
LA County - Lyle Lovett
Crazy Arms - Ray Price
Woman Across the River - Freddie King
Master of Sparks - ZZ Top
My Baby Don’t Dance to Nuthin but Ernest Tubb - Junior Brown
I Don’t Think Hank Done it This Way - Waylon Jennings
Does Fort Worth Cross Your Mind - George Strait
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan
How do You Spell Love - Fabulous Thunderbirds
 
There’s a million of them.

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Many of the ones you already listed, for sure.  Plus:

Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love) - Waylon Jennings

London Homesick Blues - Gary P Nunn

A State of Texas - Old 97s

Houston - Larry Gatlin

Bluest Eyes in Texas - Restless Heart

Miles and Miles of Texas - Asleep At The Wheel

 

 

 

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Some way in hell, Gary P. Nunn had never played at the Grand Ole Opry.  For me, that is as bad as Tommy Nobis not being in the NFL Hall of Fame.  Finally, in 2019, they righted that wrong and I was lucky enough to be there.   I've never been so proud to be a Texan. 

Some Lessor known favorites of mine

Pat Alger:  Lone Star State of Mind

 

West Texas Winds:  by John Ims


Texas Me and You - Asleep At the Wheel

 

 

Edited by hullabelew
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JJW -- Hill Country Rain
 

Jesus Christ how did I forget this. It was one of the first JJW albums I had after Viva Terlingua. I was a huge Jerry Jeff Walker fan from around 74. The best version of this song is on the album “Hill Country Rain” which I have but have never seen on CD. It has a long long ending of the chorus with with guitar solos.
I had a shift in high school at KWAM “the best outlaw country this side of Texas!”. The transmitter was on the river side of the levee and when the Mississippi rose every spring I had to crawl down the levee and get in a boat and paddle over to the transmitter shack which was a mobile home on stilts. My closing bumper music was always the end of Hill Country Rain when I signed off at 5am.
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So many great ones mentioned. I was always fond of
- Rolling By - REK

And from Lyle too many to list but some greats:
- Don’t Touch My Hat
- That’s Right You’re Not From Texas
- Road to Ensenada
- Flyswatter Blues (one of the most Texas and Lyle songs ever sung)

ZZ Top
- La Grange
- Just Got Paid

John Hiatt
- Slow Turning (no idea why - just a good song to tear across west Texas to)

Anything SRV or James McMurtry counts.

I also overly equate Texas-ness with Ian Moore, Arc Angels, Storyville, Poi Dog, Abra Moore, Velvet Hammer, Jackopierce, etc of those Austin favorites from when I was in college.

I also had a CD of KGSR Live Broadcasts no.2 from either 1995 or 1994 and that was burned into my brain and still brings back memories of Jester and redwings and Players or Crown and Anchor late night pitchers.

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Velvet Hammer . . . whoa.  I rolled into Austin in the fall of 1982 and got thrown into a Jester dorm room with a guy who would soon become one of my best friends.  He knew some gals from HS in Houston, and I could swear one of them was in Velvet Hammer.  I think their band at the time was some terrible name like Miss Demeanor or some such?  I'm pretty sure he also knew the Bernard sisters -- Robin and Crystal (TV's "Wings", etc.).  Was Robin in one of those pop metal bands?

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Velvet Hammer . . . whoa.  I rolled into Austin in the fall of 1982 and got thrown into a Jester dorm room with a guy who would soon become one of my best friends.  He knew some gals from HS in Houston, and I could swear one of them was in Velvet Hammer.  I think their band at the time was some terrible name like Miss Demeanor or some such?  I'm pretty sure he also knew the Bernard sisters -- Robin and Crystal (TV's "Wings", etc.).  Was Robin in one of those pop metal bands?

They definitely didn’t start out as Velvet Hammer but I can’t for the life of me remember what. There was Sister 7 but that was a different group. And at one point I had an internship at the Austin Grammy/Latin Grammy office and worked with someone named Krissy who was somehow affiliated but i was either too inebriated back then to keep track or too inebriated now to remember or a combo of both. Or I’m just old. I also hope that at some point I hooked up with her but I kinda doubt that now too.
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1 hour ago, Jerry Callo said:

I was partial to the REK version and don't care much for the Bobby Bare Version.  This version, with Charlie Sexton on guitar and Richard Bowden, might be my new favorite version.

I think that's Glenn Fukunaga on bass.

Also, that's the very first evidence I've ever seen that someone actually bought one of those bizarre Gretsch drum kits.

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19 hours ago, Scraps said:

Marty was such a badass 

 

 

I’m a fan of this song. I’d call it Western, not Country. (Both kinds!) I don’t know the history behind it but it seems like it has the basic structure of a sea shanty with some embellishment.

While I heard it on the radio, not sure when or where, I mostly heard it performed by the Grateful Dead. It’s a good example of how even a little cover song that didn’t get jammed out was performed differently every time. Not that the Dead had anything to do with Texas or even played there all that often (only 28 times out of 2,317 shows). But it’s a good song and you can listen to these examples or not.

(Hate will love this one):

As far as I can tell they played the song 390 times and never the same way twice.

 

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