The Texas Music Office touts the slogan, ”You can’t hear American Music without hearing Texas”. Kathleen Hudson’s book, TELLING STORIES, WRITING SONGS: AN ALBUM OF TEXAS SONGWRITERS illustrates why. Her collection of interviews with 34 noteworthy songwriters reveal how these artists (and often singers, as well) have developed on the diverse landscapes of Texas culture; and how they amazingly impact many facets of the national music scene with their songs. Marcia Ball puts it concisely in her interview. “Texas has everything, and that’s my description of Texas music. It has spawned everybody from Flaco Jimenez to T-Bone Walker to Janis Joplin. It runs the gamut.”

As one considers only several of the Texas songwriters interviewed ...Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Tish Hinojosa, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Copeland, Johnny Winter, Lyle Lovett… several genres of American music immediately spring to mind. Author Hudson not only helps us explore how the artists feel about their Texas cultural roots, but also asks them questions about their creative processes, their approaches to songwriting and how they feel about music in general. Steve Earle says, “Music ought to say something. I feel like songwriting was elevated to the level of literature a long time ago, and I feel like it ought to be kept that way.”

When asked about songwriting, Richard Dobson says, “It’s like fishing. Maybe you’re fishing in the unconscious, not the ocean. You just never know what you’re going to pull out of there. Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you wait days on end and never get anything.”

Songwriters like Lyle Lovett broach the problem of finding time to write on top of a performing career with “I have to organize my everyday life to allow me to always be working on trying to write. If I just try to block time off and do it, it doesn’t always work.”

Many a Texan tries to tell folks from outside the Lone Star State how special Texas music is.. B.B. King says it eloquently in the book’s preface: “Music is akin to the air--everybody breathes it--and the air in Texas is rich.” Enjoyably, Kathleen Hudson’s book captures the often non-conforming and unique spirit of Texas music by exploring a broad spectrum of its popular songwriters and balladeers.

TELLING STORIES, WRITING SONGS-An Album of Texas Songwriters is published by University of Texas Press and available at many bookstores.

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