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