The Messenger: RWH

Ray Wylie Hubbard has heart and soul and grit. He is a voice crying in the wilderness- vox clamantis in deserto, a ragtag prophet with a gold-top Les Paul and an old tweed amplifier, and a fellow anyone would be proud to call his uncle.

RWH's song, "The Messenger," references the Bohemian (with a capital "B") poet, Ranier Maria Rilke. Rilke wrote what was to be known as "Letters to a Young Poet," a slim volume that has touched many lives, including mine. When I think of Rilke, I think of the old robber baron castle near my wife's hometown of Varnsdorf, Czech Republic, a place Rilke once visited, and for which a dear friend of mine, the late composer Igor Heinz, wrote the Tolstein Requiem. I remember standing among the ruins wondering how Rilke felt in that place and if he felt the same way I did.

Here is a link to Ray Wylie Hubbard's "The Messenger" recorded in Austin on his birthday a couple of years ago. This one reaches the marrow.


http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=ray+wylie+hubbard+the+messenger

Trigger

Willie bought Trigger in 1969 after a drunk at John T. Floore's stomped his Baldwin guitar beyond repair. Today Trigger looks like something you would have a hard time selling in a pawn shop. But that guitar has one of the finest voices in the world. And I like the idea that the guitar was born in Nazareth. Here is a great article from Texas Monthly about that mythical guitar.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/trigger/ 

Euro-Waylon

I have not heard too many foreign language versions of Waylon and Willie songs, but here is a Czech version of "Good Hearted Woman" by Michal Tucny, who made a good living interpreting outlaw country songs.
In 1983 Michal Tucny did his good-natured version of the song in a music video filled with unusual haircuts and science fiction lighting. Honestly, I should not be making fun of 1980s haircuts considering that in 1983 I was still three years away from growing an ill-advised mullet.

On a side note, Waylon and Willie wrote "Good Hearted Woman" in a motel room in Fort Worth in 1969, and it is about Ike and Tina Turner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJsEjTsJATw

 

Crooks Pics

Here are some pictures that my wife, Martina, took at the Crooks show in Fort Worth.

The Singing Brakeman

Jimmie Rodgers, the singing brakeman, is sometimes called "the father of country music." He was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1897, but many do not know that he lived in Kerrville, Texas for a time. He is famous for the song "Blue Yodel," which is also called "T for Texas." After Jimmie Rodgers died in 1933, Rodgers' widow loaned Ernest Tubb her late husband's 1927 Martin 000-45 guitar, which he played for the next forty years. Here is a link to Jimmie Rodgers playing "Waiting for a Train," filmed in 1928.

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0LEV04ZBgdW1lAAiIpXNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGZyA2FhcGx3BGdwcmlkA1Bqd3FlYWJzUVdxRjZOODk0Q2Q0REEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzkEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzQEcHFzdHIDamltbWllIHJvZGdlcnMEcHFzdHJsAzE0BHFzdHJsAzM0BHF1ZXJ5A2ppbW1pZSByb2RnZXJzIHdhaXRpbmcgZm9yIGEgdHJhaW4EdF9zdG1wAzE0NDMzMDA5MDY-?p=jimmie+rodgers+waiting+for+a+train&fr2=sa-gp-search&fr=aaplw


Here is Ernest Tubb posing with the Jimmie Rodgers guitar.

Hummingbirds in the Burbs

Despite the fact that we live in the middle of the suburbs, the Texas native plants in our little yard attract plenty of wildlife. I particularly enjoy the hummingbirds that come to dine on the red yucca blooms. Hummingbirds love these trumpet-shaped blooms so much that the plant is sometimes called "hummingbird yucca."

Interesting hummingbird fact: Each species makes a different humming sound based on the number of wing beats per second.

Sengelmann Hall

A while back we enjoyed some live music at Sengelmann Hall in Schulenburg. This old hall has long tables like one would expect in a German-style dance hall and has an overall good vibe. Folks like Hayes Carll, Billy Joe Shaver, and Junior Brown have played there. This place is the real deal.

http://sengelmannhall.com/welcome

Crooks

We recently had the privilege of seeing this fantastic Austin band play in Fort Worth. According to Texas Monthly, Crooks' music can be described as "a rueful, hard-edged, and authentic country sound that also flirts with bluegrass, garage, Tejano, mariachi, and Southern rock." We bought a copy of their new CD, "Wildfire," at the show, and I think I listened to it four times in a row before I finally took it out of the CD player. 

http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/listen-austin-outlaw-country-band-crooks-with-flaco-jimenez/#sthash.5f0d9nAB.dpuf 

Here is a link to "Fork in the Road" from Ray Benson's Texas Music Scene.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I0_IPmCg9I

National Humanities Medal: Larry McMurtry

The great Larry McMurtry recently received a National Humanities Medal at the White House. Not too shabby for a fellow from Archer City, Texas.

http://news.rice.edu/2015/09/03/rice-alum-author-larry-mcmurtry-receives-national-humanities-medal/

Big Tex

After eleven months of well-deserved slumber, Big Tex is standing tall in Fair Park. He's looking great considering that in 2011 he did his best imitation of Burning Man. Of course, we all know that you can't keep a 52 foot tall cowboy down.

                                                                                                   

Menger Hotel

One of my favorite places to stay in Texas is the venerable Menger Hotel in San Antonio. The Menger is situated across the alley from the Alamo, as the Bob Wills song goes. Famous guests include Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Sam Houston, Babe Ruth, and Bob Dylan. Teddy Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders in the bar.

I stayed at the Menger a while back and was given a free "upgrade." That's right. I was placed in the King Ranch Suite. The suite, of course, is considered to be the most haunted place in the hotel, and, considering that the hotel was completely booked, it looks like the person who had booked the suite was too afraid to sleep there. Captain Richard King of King Ranch and Santa Gertrudis cattle fame died in that very room. In fact, he died in the very bed where I slept. The bellman, to his credit, assured me that the mattress had been changed. That is reassuring considering that Captain King died in 1885. 

I will not pretend that I slept particularly well in the King Ranch Suite, and I will not lower my credibility by relating a tale of what some would consider supernatural weirdness and others merely a psychosomatic manifestation of a theatrical, overactive imagination. Nonetheless, if you have never stayed at the Menger, I highly recommend it. The hotel is truly a Texas treasure.   

Hometown by Handlebar

In the past, I lived in plenty of fascinating places and history was everywhere. While teaching in the Czech Republic, if I had a three day weekend, I would hitchhike to Vienna, spend a couple of days in Prague, or take a trip to the ruins of a robber baron castle a few kilometers from my home. There was always something new to learn. These days I am back home in Fort Worth, and I focus my attention on Texas in general and my immediate surroundings in particular.

A blog that I really enjoy is Hometown by Handlebar. When I first starting reading it, little did I know that it was written by former Fort Worth Star-Telegram writer Mike Nichols. When I was kid, I always loved reading his humor column after getting home from school. In fact, it was probably Nichols' tutelage through that column that landed me at the UIL state journalism competition my senior year of high school. Here is the link to Hometown by Handlebar.

http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/

Carolina Chocolate Drops

This morning we enjoyed listening to the Carolina Chocolate Drops while we ate bagels and lox. The Carolina Chocolate Drops share a wealth of knowledge about traditional music (and African-American string band music in particular) in their liner notes. Their musical influences are broad, and their erudition is impressive. They have even recorded a Tom Waits tune and played with the Chieftains.

Here they are playing "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine." It'll put a smile on your face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjyw-nW0D90