Life Gets Lifey

Life Gets Lifey is what I always like to say, what I really mean, is that things happen beyond my control. It’s how I react to them is what really matters, I mean like this blog , call it writers block, laziness, or something else. I also really don’t care what anyone thinks of me. That is what makes me, well me.

For the most part, my life rocks . I mean just last weekend I found myself on the Baylor campus in Waco Texas for something that was better than I could have ever imagined. The wife got me tickets to The Boys from Oklahoma, featuring Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours, Shane Smith and the Saints , and American Aquarium.. next thing i know there’s Wade Bowen on the bill.. then a series of other amazing performances by several of all my all time favorites throughout the night , including Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen.

Add in the final song of the night , Django Walker, son of the world famous late Jerry Jeff. Django sang a song that his daddy made famous which in my opinion helped to put songwriter Guy Clark on the map.

LA Freeway.

The whole concert had this kinda energy.. it was really something to see in person.

When the Turnpike Troubadours got back together a year or so ago, I recall, tweeting.. “all we need now is for Ragweed to come back”

Well.. now they have and I got to see them live in person after a 16 plus year’s hiatus..

And Gawddamn I am happy!

Pancho.

A Mother Who has Raised A Son so Well

Redneck Mother by the great Ray Wylie Hubbard kicks off every Mother’s Day for me. My mom is cooler than your mom as she actually got to meet Ray Wylie Hubbard when they just called him “Ray.” He played a little gig up in Red River New Mexico back when the band was known as Three Faces West.

I owe a lot of my musical taste to my mother. When I was a kid she was a member of one of those companies where if you paid .99 cents you got to pick like ten albums, the catch was that they just kept sending albums after that and then charged you full price. I don’t know how many millions my mother spent on music but my brother and I were raised on anything from MoTown to Southern Rock and everyone in between. My musical tastes today can still go from Ice Ice baby to Frank Sinatra plays Juarez in the quick push of a button.

Was Redneck Mother Ray Wylie Hubbards starting point? The song was inspired by a bumper sticker and a gun rack in the parking lot of a honky tonk in the mountains of New Mexico a short time before I was born. Jerry Jeff Walker recorded it and gave me my first intro to the song writing ability of Ray Wylie. On the tally sheet I keep in my mind, I list Ray Wylie Hubbard in the top 5 greatest Texas Songwriters.

Happy Mother’s Day You Redneck Mothers wherever you may be. Happy Mothers Day happy to my mother, who is still the coolest there is.

Just to give you an example of the simple greatness of Ray Wylie Hubbard, check out the bridge of Redneck Mother- sing it in the style of Jerry Jeff if you must but remember Ray wrote it and he is a songwriter who still gets paid for writing songs:
M is for the mudflaps you gave me for my pickup truck
O is for the oil I put on my hair
T is for T-bird
H is for Haggard
E is for eggs
And R is for red neck

Pancho.

Gettin By

The first time I ever gave an honest listen to Jerry Jeff Walker was when I found his album, Viva Terlingua. I say found because literally I found the album. It has been said that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. At the young and impressionable age of ten I was an avid dumpster diver. In the dumpster behind my parents home I found a box full of records. Jerry Jeff’s Viva Terlingua was one and I still have it today.

As most all of us know. Jerry Jeff Walker was one of the original Texas Musicians and there hasn’t been many who could hold a candle to his sounds and styles. It was Jerry Jeff who first recorded the poetic lyrics of Guy Clark. Jerry Jeff also wrote many of his own songs that are still popular today.

The world lost Jerry Jeff Walker in the middle of a pandemic but his music will always be on my playlist. I will always hear his song in my brain.

Another great Texas singer and songwriter, Steve Earl , who has previously released tributes for the late Guy Clark and of Townes Van Zandt has begun his own tribute to the music of Jerry Jeff Walker, Earle’s cover of the Walker penned . “Gettin’ By” recently released on Spotify

A great remake of the same old song. Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Gettin’ By” originally released on the Viva Terlingua Album in 1973.

“Don’t matter how you do it , just do it like you do it, I’ve been down this road once or twice before.”

Pancho.

Sad Birds

In the beginning of 2021, just after the world began to awaken after a yearlong slumber, I first heard Graycie York. She had released her single “Texas Rain.” To be quite honest, I only listened to the song that very first time, because I thought it was some sort of Townes Van Zandt tribute. In 2001, a collection of recordings was released on an album of various artists including Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Freddy Fender. The track listing of the album were songs that had been written by Townes. That album was titled, “Texas Rain.”

Graycie York’s Texas Rain wasn’t about Townes at all, it hit different. At the same time those seemingly sad lyrics and sad guitar notes were very similar to that deep cutting dark sounding music that only Townes Van Zandt could make.

Texas Rain now has over 2 million streams on Spotify alone and has placed Graycie York high up the ladder in the Texas Music charts.

York’s latest release her EP Sad Birds gives me indication that she will do it all again this year. She named the EP and her title track song after one of her favorite quotes, “Sad Birds Still Sing.”

Sad birds still Sing

This compilation of sad allows me to reflect upon my past and present. A sad ballad also reminds me that I am the master of my own destiny and that I don’t have to stay stuck in that dark hole. I have been able to find the tools and ask for the assistance necessary to climb out of those holes and begin to see the light of day.

The Graycie Lyn York penned, “Just Another Night.” Is a perfect example of how I used to live my life, and how love changed everything.

Sad birds may still sing, but they also have the ability to fly,

Pancho.

All for the love of a Cowboy

Ian Tyson definitely rates high on my list of the greatest songwriters to ever live. To Ian’s pen fell many cowboy songs. The Canadian cowboy, Tyson, is best known for his songs “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon.”

“Someday Soon” and my personal favorite by Ian Tyson, “Navajo Rug,” rank in the top 100 Western Songs of all Time, by the Western Writers of America.

Tom Russell, Jerry Jeff Walker and so many more artists have covered Tyson’s music through the years. Corb Lund has just released the latest cover of one of Ian’s tunes. “Montana Waltz”

Lund’s latest album Songs My Friends Wrote is set to release in April. The album also will contain Corb’s versions of songs written by artists like Hayes Carll and Tom Russell.

Corb Lund’s tribute to his fellow cowboy songwriters is certainly going to be epic..

All for the love of a cowboy-

Pancho.