Ray Wylie Hubbard

Ray Wylie Hubbard is a fixture on the XM Satellite Radio Channel Outlaw Radio. As with many of the forefathers of any movement Hubbard has not had the commercial success of many of those that have followed.

For those who follow the Texas music of James McMurty and Robert Earl Keen. I surely am one of those, listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard is like listening to his father. Hubbard can sing, his voice is just ragged enough, but his lyrics and songs are great fun.

I am just now searching his catalog but three songs you must hear are Loose which is a Friday night song if there ever was one, Snake Farm which seems like a silly song until you hear it a few times and realize it is not just funny, it is also a great song.

Drunken Poet's Dream is another strong song. One either likes this kind of music or not, I am certainly becoming a bit of a shill for Outlaw Radio and these artists but there is a reason.

Listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard. Today. Or if you don't Hubbard might just advise you to listen to another song of his" Screw You, We're From Texas."

Songs and Stories by Guy Clark

It is hard to like Texas. I do not like the Dallas Cowboys, I think the whole Texas bravado is dumb, the Texas culture of killing and guns is abysmal and with LBJ, John Tower, the Bush's and now Rick Perry their politics are something scary.

The one thing I do like in Texas is Austin, Texas. It is like an oasis a desert. Out of Austin comes some of the best music in the Texas Alt Country tradition such as James McMurtry and Robert Earl Keen both of whom I have reviewed before.

Today on Spotify we listened to a new collection buy 70 year old, 40 year Texas troubadour Guy Clark. This collection entitled Songs and Stories is perhaps his version of Storytellers. The music is quiet, reflective and intelligent. The stories are heartfelt including tributes to his longtime best friend Townes Van Zandt and his father. The music is well defined, the backup singers are involved. In short this show sounds like one I would be honored to go see.

The music business is hollow and shallow. What we can easily forget in listening to the same music over and over and looking at the wasteland of popular music is that there is so much great music out there.

Keen, McMurtry and Clark have been making music for decades and their back catalogue is like a treasure trove to keep you warm when you give up on " popular" music. Put the CD in, listen to Outlaw Country on Sirius and know that somewhere at least one of these three is on the road doing what he does best. Connecting us to our past with this wonderful music.

Highlights on this album include L A Freeway, Maybe I Can Paint Over That, If I Needed You, Stuff That Works, The Randall Knife and Dublin Blues.

Turn off your mind, make a small drink, and listen thoughtfully to this album. It is a keeper.

Best by Robert Earl Keen

I have found a new artist that goes to the Top 10. Of course my Top 10 has many more than ten artists in it. I have heard references to Robert Earl Keen in live recordings by that other Texas troubadour James McMurtry and around Christmas each year we hear a few plays of " Merry Christmas From the Family."

With Spotify I put his name in and about twenty choices come up, one thing becomes quickly apparent is that Mr. Keen likes live albums as he has recorded several. It never ceases to amaze that so many artists are just below the surface, never quite breaking out into wide ranging commercial success but do carve out a niche for themselves. The work is finding these artists. Once found one feels like he has found a nugget of gold in sea of sand. Robert Earl Keen is that gold.

If not exposed to his music the album Best is a natural place to start. No Kinda Dancer perhaps his oldest hit, first recorded in 1984, is soon followed by Paint the Town Beige. The latter tells of a middle aged man who still wants to be wild but allowing for age and changing circumstances changes the result of his efforts from red to beige. An analogy we of middle age can all understand. Whenever Kindness Fails offers that violence will be brought if one does not accept kindness. Corpus Christi Bay is a story song that works fully. The aforementioned Merry Christmas From the Family is a funloving expression of a lowbrow Christmas recorded live with the crowd joining in on several lines. Gringo Honeymoon continues the success as another great song.

The triumverate for Keen fans however is begun with The Road Goes on Forever told in this case with an intro about free love days, a concert, a girl and meeting Willie Nelson. Feeling Good Again continues the mood and the album ends with the always must be performed in concert I'm Coming Home.

I have not found a bad song in his entire catalogue though there are several what might be called novelty songs such as " That Bucking Song." A gem not on the best album is Drunken Selfish Crime.

I suspect that the fanbase of Robert Earl Keen is an all or nothing thing, not a lot of middle ground. I confess I am not in the middle, this fellow is great. I will listen to it all.