Texas artists show their appreciation

"They appreciate you for whoever you are," said singer Rosie Flores during a panel discussion the "Lone Star Legacy: The Role of Texas in Helping Shape Americana Music" during the Americana Music Conference Friday. "They'll never say to you. 'that's a cool song, but Faith Hill would never cut that'." Flores was one of four four Texas artists talking and singing, and all have gone well beyond Texas for their careers.

Part of the reason is that Texas was an amalgam of ethnic groups and musical influences without a set style, according to Casey Monahan of the Texas Music Office and Dr. Gary Hartman of Texas State University. Zydeco music did not start in Louisiana, but Texas. Ethnic groups would bring their particular style of music with them.

While not necessarily easy to define, part of what makes Texas music is that the artist write his or her own songs. "There's a story telling tradition," Radney Foster said. "For whatever reason, we've held onto that tradition...You had this ability to sing about anything you wanted to. In Townes' (Van Zandt) case, you didn't have to sing very good at all."

Bruce Robison grew up in Bandera, a town of less than 1,000 people. "There was a lot of music there," he said. "Everything was a shuffle."

He recalls Adolf Hofner playing there, who had a many decades long career. "I thought it was the dorkiest (music)," he said. "I found out later they were a real swing band, a contemporary of Bob Wills, and they made some really great recordings."

"I was just immersed in music," he says. "It was everywhere."

Robinson said while he was in bands in Austin in his 20s, he didn't do any writing and worked as a fry cook in a restaurant. The other fry cook was called up to Iraq in the first Gulf War. "This kid was going off to the war," he said. "I was just thinking of starting to write songs. I was in turmoil in my head thinking about thousands and thousands of people getting killed or something. I couldn't get my mind around that concept at all. I decided to write about one soldier going off to war." The song turned out be Travelin' Soldier, a big hit for the Dixie Chicks, which was dropped from the charts because of comments Natalie Maines made about President Bush on the eve of the seocnd Iraq war.

Cross Canadian Ragweed's Cody Canada grew up in Oklahoma, but was influenced by Texas music at a very young age. "My dad took me to see George Strait when I was five. We had front row tickets. My dad was the big shit at the concert that night. My mom had never heard of him, and I sit in that seat and didn't move for an hour and a half and realized that's what I'm going to do. I don't care if I have to eat bread sandwiches for the rest of my life. If I can or can't sing, I'm going to do it."

His sister introduced him to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Buddy Holly."

"The most influential part of my life was about 13," Canada said. " Back when local stations would sign off, on the nights that we had bad storms, tornados and stuff, CMT would play (Foster & Lloyd, the Kentucky HeadHunters)...I'd pop in a (disc)."

During the 90-minute session, each artist would take turns singing songs with Foster turning in "Don't Call Me Lonesome" to start off the music. Flores sang Bring It On, which she wrote with Foster. Canada turned in a tender Bluebonnets Bloom, which he wrote for his son. The quartet closed with "Tonight I Started Loving You Again."

"They should call this panel "Texas, why's it so awesome kickass?" joked Robison during the session.