By Logan "Mercy" Hawkes
 Just about everyone knows that Texans are fiercely proud of Texas. And for a lot of good reasons. Where else can you find the Alamo? The tallest State Capitol dome in the nation (seven feet taller than the U.S. National Capitol)? The greatest amount of oil reserves? The largest ranch (the King Ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island)? The largest cattle herd? The largest sugar and rice production in the world?
Texas has produced more U.S. Presidents in the last 100 years than any other state. The first word spoken from the moon was "Houston." Texas is home to the first rodeo (Pecos). Texas is home to the oldest live oak tree (Lamar). The first covered dome was erected in Texas (Astrodome).
Texas is home to the greatest song writers and performers in the world. And here is where I've reached my point for the day - Texas Music, like a grand getaway, can take you on a journey without your feet ever leaving home, a perfect mini-vacation from day-to-day routine when you just can't find the time to wander down the highways of Texas in search of another grand adventure.
The Lone Star State has been turning out music pioneers and greats, in fact, since before the dawn of the Republic. (Ever heard of Running Bear and the Apache Warriors?)
But that brings up the question - What is Texas music? While it is indeed a bit of a paradox, Texas music is versatile music. In Texas, perhaps like nowhere else, natives enjoy listening to George Strait singing about his many exes and then turn right around and bounce their Tush off to the grinding rock of ZZ Top. It's not uncommon to get down to Gatemouth Brown and still enjoy the haunting, sensuous vocal riffs of Selena, or Emmy Lou Harris.
Texas music, you see, is country music. And Texas music is Texas blues, tejano, and jazz, and rock, and punk, and rockabilly, and classical - and so forth. It is diverse if nothing else, but it is so much more. Delbert McClinton once said Texas music is a journey, and that's where this article comes in to play. Regardless whether you are loading up the SUV this weekend and heading out to Big Bend, taking in WurstFest in New Braunfels, or just taking a break at home to catch up on business and the growing shopping list, Texas music can and will fill your weekend with a great getaway of the mind. You can let the music, the lyrics of the songwriters, the art of the composers - take you far away while your feet never leave home.
Okay. But now what? So you're willing to take the musical journey. Whose music should you listen to as you escape this world in search of lost harmonies and haunting guitar riffs, of poetic prose and dynamic verse? There are plenty of Texas music artists ready to help you in your mystical, magical journey.
This article, indeed this web site, is far too small to list all the Texans (or musicians/songwriters that call Texas home) who have made significant contributions to the music industry. But take in the short list below, and get ready to roadtrip your through your own imagination. Rrecognize any these names:
Willie Nelson, George Strait, Janis Joplin, Buddy Holly, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Beto Villa, Doug Sahm, Waylon Jennings, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, Lou Ann Barton, ZZ Top, Bob Wills, Tex Ritter, Gene Autrey, Del Castillo, Cindy Walker, Freddie Fender, Don Williams, Guy Clark, Van Cliburn, Ornette Coleman, Vikki Carr, Ronnie James Dio, Charly Pride, Lyle Lovett, Darrell Lance Abbott, Jacques Abram, Ventura Alonzo, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Laura Canales, Clifton Chenier, George "Bongo Joe" Coleman, Albert Collins, Tony De La Rosa, Clarence Poindexter, Rafaelo Diaz, "Dale Evans" Smith, Lefty Frizzell, Cedric Haywood, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins, Johnny Horton, Freddie King, Selena Perez, Hersal Thomas, Floyd Tillman, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Rodriquez, Townes Van Zandt, Katie Webster, Ray Price, Roy Orbison, Roger Miller, Woodie Guthrie, Frank Beard, Billie Gibbons, Jim Reeves, Freddy King, Hank Thompson, Tex Ritter, Don Henley, Omar Dieke, Marcia Ball, Guy Clark, W.C. Clark, Eric Johnson, Asleep At The Wheel, Junior Brown, Rosie Flores, Joe Ely, the Dixie Chicks, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Emmy Lou Harris, Merle Haggard, Pat Green, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, Shake Russell, B.J. Thomas, Ray Wilie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen, Los Lonely Boys, Gary P. Nunn, Larry Joe Taylor, Billie Joe Shaver, Christopher Cross, Gary Morris, Michael Martin Murphy, Jack Ingram, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Delbert McClinton, George Jones, Kenny Rogers, Little Joe, Jimmie Vaughan, Red Steagall, Butch Hancock, Rusty Weir, Ian Moore, Pontybone, Van Wilkes, Steven Fromholz, Radney Foster, Steve Earle, Boxcar Willie, Bill Haley, Sonny Curtis...to just name a few.
Keep in mind this is just a short list - one I hate to publish, because inevitably, you tend to leave off a lot of important people - possibly a number of good friendI have met along the way who may never forgive me. But the truth is, there are so many great Texas music artists, past and present, that it would be nearly impossible to list them all here. For example, some say Davy Crocket was a great statesman from the great state of Tennessee, but did you know he never had an international music audience in his life until he playedthe big stage at the Alamo? Of course, there was no encore.
Surely you can see what I mean. Call it what you like, but I personally think there's something in the Texas water that helps to turn out so many great musicians and songwriters in Texas. Or maybe it's the magic in the soil.
 Which brings me around to the reason I decided to write this article in the first place! While Texas is a wonderful state to travel, the truth is, we can't all get away every single weekend to go jaunting across the countryside in search of new travel destinatios. Lord knows there are plenty of places out there just waiting to be discovered - or revisited. But when we're stuck at home and unable to getaway. we can always escape by listening to the music of Texans, by Texans and for Texans, that inspires us to discover the essence of the Lone Star through the music, the lyrics and the mood of the music that Texans have laid down before us to savor and enjoy.
Having spent a good deal of my adult life working in the radio industry, and having worked in several states across these greater United States, I have to tell you, listening to Texas music is like coming home from a long journey abroad. It will get inside your head. It speaks to your soul. It entices you to return to your Texas roots - regardless whether you're from Texas or not. In fact, non-Texans often listen on order to become Texans, if but for a fleeting moment, or a solitary stanza.
Before I leave any more participles dangling or end any more sentences with a preposition, let's just cut to the chase here and get you where I'm trying to get you to - that is, to the comfort and intoxication of the sounds of great Texas music. Like my friend Johnny Rodriquez (with whom I spent a short stint in the same band with back in my school years) once said, (repeated, of course, after Charly Pride's original), "Is anybody goin' to San Antone"? Or, in the words of another high school mate of mine, Steve Earle (who never forgave me because I had less pimples as a youth), "the walls have ears and the sky has eyes". Meaning, then, that even inanimate objects and nature itself likes to listen to Texas music.
Huey Lewis called it a new drug. I call it music for the soul.
So join me now for a musical recess from your troubled soul and listen to a short tidbit of what Texas music sounds like. The audio file below will open in your browser's default player, probably Windows Media Player. It might take a moment or two - as sound files often do. But it's worth the wait. Keep in mind this is just a short sample of the diversity of Texas music. (At 768kbps download speed (high speed), it took me about 95-seconds to download).
Happy travels, and watch for more Texas music downloads on this web site in the near future. Bon Voyage!
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