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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The best Texas songs

I offer up a number of lists and rankings and such on this journal. This one comes courtesy of retired political consultant par excellance Mike Lindley. It's his compilation of the 10 best songs about Texas, of which he writes: "after #1, which is iconic by itself, - the order from there becomes highly subjective, help me with better choices.."

Here's his list:

1. LaGrange -- ZZ Top
2. San Antonio Rose -- Bob Wills
3. El Paso -- Marty Robbins
4. Eyes of Texas -- UT Marching Band
5. Red River Valley -- Woody Guthrie, among others
6. Lukenbach, Texas -- Waylon Jennings (Willie, too)
7. London Homesick Blues -- Gary P. Nunn
8. Hill Country Rain -- Jerry Jeff Walker
9. (Tie) China Grove -- Doobie Bros
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind -- George Strait

Not a bad list but I would have to include Steve Fromholtz's "Texas Trilogy" in any list of Texas songs as well as something from the incomparable Austin Lounge Lizards, specifically "Dallas Texas" that contains these two immortal lines:
1. "So I'm going back to Dallas Texas to see if anything could be worse than losing you" and
2. "Most cities have soul but Dallas must have been at the bank when they passed it around."

And then there's Jimmy Dale Gilmore's "Dallas" that asks the plaintiff question "Have you ever seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night?"

I also love Tom Russell's "Mineral Wells," David Rodriguez's "Ballad of a Snow Leopard" and Shake Russell's "Travelin' Texas," "Out on Comanche Trail," "River of Innocence" and/or "Something in the West Texas Wind."

But, I got to admit, Mike's list is a great one.

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