A mob of college fans swarms the edge of the stage at Billy Bob’s pumping their fists in the air. With one twang of the guitar, the crowd screams in unison, “We were southbound 35, headed down the road, hit the border by the morning, let Texas fill my soul.” Texas Country Music star Pat Green encourages the fans to take over the song while he shakes his blonde hair, jumping around in his bare feet.
An energetic crowd like this packs the doors of Texas dancehalls on any given Saturday night, proof that Texas country music has reemerged with a youthful brilliance.
While Willie and Waylon seemed to fade away into stardust memories, their music has inspired the new kids on the block who have made Texas country music popular once again.
Pioneers of the industry like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Steve Earl, Charlie Pride, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen and Jerry Jeff Walker, wrote and sang about Texas, the Hill Country, old Dancehalls, Highway 281, honky-tonk romances and Texas-bound trains. Together their Texas-influenced lyrics created a new genre of music, uniquely their own.
According to the Web site GetCountryBack, “Texas Music is a style of music that has its own unique sound. It is roots oriented, no frills country music, with a harder edge to it. It encompasses many diverse sounds.”
While the popularity of the originators may have weakened for a while, the rising stars such as Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Kevin Fowler, Roger Creager, Jason Bowland and Charlie Robison have shifted Texas Music back into high gear. The growing list of artists proves the popularity of the Texas Music genre.
On any Wednesday through Saturday night, SMU students flock to local bars or dancehalls jamming to raw Texas sounds from already popular artists as well as artists trying to make their big break in the industry such as Cooder Graw, Kevin Fowler, Randy Rogers Band, Jason Boland and many others.
“There is almost always someone to go see play on the weekends somewhere near, especially while I’m at home in McAllen. It’s even worth a short drive just to hang out with friends, listen to great music and be a part of the energetic crowd, all sharing the love for the same kind of music,” sophomore Susie Biddle said.
In addition to the Texas Music style resurgence, the revival of Texas Music has inspired a renewal in State pride. This music’s influences can be heard and seen all around SMU’s campus … on t-shirts, bumper stickers and even at theme parties.
“I think SMU has recently reclaimed Texas, whereas, it didn’t seem as popular and relevant before. Now, the bookstore carries merchandise with Pat Green, Luckenbach and other artists’ logos, while representing SMU school spirit. This demonstrates the new popular trend of Texas Country,” explained student, Shea Henry.
Walking around campus, one can barely tell the difference between a student sporting an actual Texas artist’s logo on the back of a T-shirt and a sorority, fraternity or club T-shirt that has “borrowed” the same idea and stylized typography.
“Many cars have the SMU bumper stickers that look similar to the Luckenbach or Pat Green logo now. These students are not only showing school pride, but affiliate the campus with a sense of Texas pride also,” Biddle said.
Many sorority and fraternity parties are Texas themed, playing Texas Country Music to which everyone starts screaming in unison as soon as the songs begin to play.
The Texas music frenzy reaches beyond Texas born-and-bred students. Young adults transported from other states enjoy the sound, too.
For some, it reminds them of their home in other southern states, while other students from farther up north just enjoy the sound of real red dirt Texas Music.
“Texas country music has a sound of its own, it isn’t as twangy as the country music at home in Georgia, but does share some of the same qualities, such as similarities in lyrics that I love,” student, Benna Deese described.
While many consider Austin the Nashville for Texas music, the Dallas and Fort Worth areas are not far behind when considering the choices of venues they have to offer the artists.
From small, hole-in-the-wall saloons to grand venues such as the Smirnoff Center, one can almost guarantee that at least one Texas music artist will play on any given weekend.
Many of these dancehalls and bars boast the fact that they have been the birth-place for many of the great artists from Texas, some for over 30 years now.
At Adair’s Saloon, a historic landmark in Dallas, boasts on their website that “you’ll find the stage where many an artist has graced.
From the likes of the Dixie Chicks and Jack Ingram, so many of these Artists made there way from the stage at Adair’s to the national spotlight. You will also see and hear the best upcoming bands tooling their craft on this very same stage.”
Credit is given mainly to Pat Green for popularizing Texas Music once again by bringing it to the high school and college kids, along with the twenties to thirties aged crowd.
Green updated the old twang of Country music, integrating more of a rock beat and catchy lyrics into his songs that a new generation of Texans relates to.
No matter if Green sings about road trips, the Texas Hill Country, college, drinking beer or Texas dancehalls, the crowd knows the words and screams along with him, often drowning out Green, himself.
Texas Music and artists pride themselves on being original. They don’t want the typical, cliché country song that so many artists in Nashville sing.
In the popular Jerry Jeff song, he explains, “you ask me what I like about Texas … it’s another burrito with a cold Lonestar in my hand, it’s a quarter for the jukebox, play some songs by your favorite Austin, Texas band.”
These artists sing about real things that they care about, which most of the time include their women, drinking, dancehalls and basically Texas in general.
The raw, unpolished sound draws the crowd.
“It’s the authenticity of both the lyrics and sound that gives Texas music its mystique,” fan Beau Longino said.
Many artists openly express their opinions about not giving in to the Nashville style as in the lyrics of Cory Morrow’s, “Fightin’ the Nashville Blues.” Often, during concerts, true fans are quick to chant with the artist in between songs, “Nashville Sucks!” over and over.
Even their T-shirts proclaim the opinion that these artists do not want to be the next Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney, even though they very well could make it that far.
While some Texas music artists such as Pat Green have switched to larger recording companies based out of Nashville, most of their sounds remain true to Texas.
Green stated in an interview with Texas Monthly, “If I spend the rest of my life playing Texas dance halls, that’s fine with me. That’s where I will always feel most comfortable.”
“Part of what makes Texas music so special is the fact that these guys don’t want to sound like the rest, and they promote their albums the old way … by playing in bars night after night and creating a following,” expressed Henry.
What makes Texas Music so distinct is the true love the artists have for Texas itself.
Their passion overflows whether in love songs, such as Green’s “Three Days” or lighthearted songs, including “Beer, Bait and Ammo” by Kevin Fowler. These artists’ country sounds, rock-in-roll energy and Lone Star attitude have rekindled the dancehall tradition and reclaimed the honky-tonks all around.
After a much wanted encore finishes, sweaty fans, with little voice left from screaming, trample over beer bottles on the floo
r toward the exit.
As they file out of the old, historic dancehall into the dark Texas night they continue to hum the songs they have just heard to themselves.
Until next weekend, in the words of Robert Earl Keen, “the road goes on forever and the party never ends.”
