When did country radio stations in Texas start playing anti-war songs?

[Czolgosz]

I was driving to work in Texas today. As I was switching from one station to another, I ran across a country radio station, when I heard this song "We Can't Make It Here Anymore" by James McMurtry. Here are the lyrics:

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore
See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day
Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are workin? two jobs and livin? in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore
Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the damn little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why
In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

Here is a link to an audio clip from the song <http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002059.html >.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

1. The started playing them when the aspens began turning n/t

[Arugula Latte]

2. Wow. That is amazing.

That's real folk music, telling it like it really is.

I'm simply astounded that that radio station played that in Texas. Was it a regular corporate station?

[Texasgal]

25. Why are you so "Astounded"?

There are ALOT of anti-war folks here.

What's so....ASTOUNDING?

[Czolgosz]

27. I was astounded too because those are powerful, meaningful lyrics and not

what I expect to hear on most commercial radio stations and certainly not what I am used to hearing on country radio stations.

[Texasgal]

28. Do you not think that in this huge state

That we don't have independent radio?

edit: spelling

[Czolgosz]

36. No. I'm from Texas. I know that Houston and Austin and elsewhere

in Texas they have great and independent radio stations. I'm just not used to hearing songs like this on the country radio station in my smaller south Texas town. Are you telling me that this song is getting airplay at country radio stations across Texas? If so, you will have made my day.

[Texasgal]

37. No, this song was not played on

mainstream radio, it was played on independent radio.

I'm just trying to help clean up some of the glaring misconceptions about Texas.

[mom cat]

67. There has been some damn good indy media in Texas for years!

[sendero]

72. Good luck with that...

.... people think racism is evil but they have no problem with regionalism. They can all kiss my ass.

[wellstone_democrat]

80. Well the Dixie Chicks still don't get play in Lubbock

and you ain't hearing that song here either---I'd bet my pay check on it.

Now Austin? San Antonio? They are different. Big cities, wild people!
(I need a weekend in the eastern part of the state....)


on edit: oh, it was Corpus---see? its the wild radical eastern half of the state!

[Texasgal]

41. Let me clarify here:

It seems so SHOCKING to people that this song was played on INDEPENDENT radio in Texas.

I am just trying to find out where the shock value lies... what's so shocking about an anti-war tune being played on independent radio in Texas? I don't get it.

[eridani]

68. The OP probably didn't know it was indy radio

Can't really tell if you are just driving through and randomly flipping channels.

[Czolgosz]

74. Here's how the station defines itself on it's website texasradio947.com

http://texasradio947.com/aboutus.bmp

Seems like a country radio station to me. I have no gripe with radio station. And it was a damn fine song they played.

[geomon666]

75. It's an independant station.

You can tell it's not Mega Corporate owned because it doesn't have ads and logos smeared all over it.

[Batgirl]

30. me too

We're so used to radio being the conduit for idiotic commercial tripe, when you hear something that's actually great you can't help wondering "how the hell did that one get through?"

[Texasgal]

35. Sure, I can understand that....

But the OP's title was this INCREDULOUS " We heard this in TEXAS"

OMG! Stop the presses.... they actually played something different in this state.

The misconceptions here are MIND blowing.

[rainidame]

33. ditto

I am from TX and the only thing you left out was . . . commercial, country radio station IN TEXAS,

criminy, it wasn't too long ago the dixie chicks were boycotted for less.

[Arugula Latte]

43. Texasgal, let me explain.

I said I was astounded because at first I'd assumed it was a corporate station playing it, and I didn't think they'd "allow" that on the air.

I know there are a lot of anti-war people in Texas, and I know the whole state is not Bush-lovin' conservatives.

[Czolgosz]

26. It was this station: http://texasradio947.com/, which is an independent

station (NOT Clear Channel).

[Gruenemann]

39. Looks like a COOL station!

Not your typical popcountry nashvegas crap. I'll have to check it out next time I go to Port A.

They started playing this song way back, on KSYM in San Antonio. It's a college station, 90.1 FM, very interesting and varied programming.

[musette_sf]

55. I had to listen to commercial Texas country radio

a couple of months ago, while visiting on business. Someone had the radio on in her car. They play "The Star Spangled Banner" every hour on the 55 minutes. I love America but

Reminded me of KWKH-AM in Shreveport many years ago... it was "Sacred Time" every hour on the 55 minutes

[alarimer]

64. Thats the Corpus station

they play quite a bit of anti-war stuff (or things that could be construed that way at least). Like Steve Earle. You will not hear Toby Keith on that station at all. Very little mainstream country even (although still too much for my taste at that).

[2bfree]

79. That's the station I listen to!

I love it, the owner is a democrat too!

[FreedomAngel82]

54. And in Texas!

[SammyWinstonJack]

73. I would've been astounded too. I stopped listening to the country

music stations simply because of the Toby Keith et al pro war songs they were constantly playing. Couldn't stomach it.

[flamingyouth]

3. Those are pretty amazing lyrics.

I wonder what the support for the war is in Texas right now. Seems like Texas has lost an astronomical amount of soldiers there.

[patrice]

4. More evidence that it's time for a new Populism. n/t

[rocktivity]

5. We know McMurtry can write books--I suppose he can write songs, too.

rocknation

[jobycom]

13. It's his son.

James McMurtry is Larry McMurtry's son.

"Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry, known for his hard-edged character sketches, comes from a literary family; his father, novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, gave James his first guitar at age seven, and his mother, an English professor, taught him how to play it. McMurtry began performing his own songs while a student at the University of Arizona and continued to do so after returning home and taking a job as a bartender. When it transpired that a film script McMurtry's father had written was being directed by John Mellencamp, who was also its star, McMurtry's demo tape was passed along, and Mellencamp was duly impressed, serving as co-producer on McMurtry's 1989 debut album, Too Long in the Wasteland. McMurtry also appeared on the soundtrack of the film (Falling from Grace), working with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely, and Dwight Yoakam in a one-off supergroup called Buzzin' Cousins. McMurtry has continued to record, releasing albums in 1992 and 1995. Walk Between the Raindrops followed in 1998. 2002 saw the release of Saint Mary of the Woods, his last for the Sugar Hill label. He signed with Compadre the following year, releasing Live in Aught-Three in 2004 and Childish Things in 2005. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide"

[rocktivity]

21. Then I was right--which puts the joke on me, LOL

But didn't one of McMurtry Senior's books become a movie? (Gets off shiftless lazy ass and does her own research) Yes, The Last Picture Show.


rocknation

[LostinVA]

29. Much more than one, many, inc. - "Terms of Endearment"

[Jane Austin]

34. Hud, from McMurtry's novel Horseman Pass By.

And don't forget Lonesome Dove - - incredibly good TV mini-series.

[jobycom]

38. Pulitzer prize winning Larry McMurtry

has had several movies and miniseries, including The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Lonesome Dove, Commanche Moon, Dead Man's Walk, Streets of Laredo, The Evening Star, and a little film called Hud.

Yeah, his dad's good.

[Caoimhe]

47. I have now officially read

every single one of Larry McMurtry's books. I love the guy. The type of author you wish could live forever and keep churning out great books.

The last couple I read very slowly.. knowing that I was getting low in material. I suggest reading ANYTHING from McMurtry. His screenplays are good too, but to plunge into his books is to understand what great literature is.

PS In November there will be a controversial film coming out.. the screenplay by Larry McMurtry, called Brokeback Mountain. With Jake Gyllanhall (sp) and Heath Ledger as two cowboys who fall in love WITH EACHOTHER. Should be interesting to see how that is received. Another reason I love McMurtry, he isn't afraid of cultural taboos.

[jobycom]

51. I don't like all his books

I really hate his style of writing, but I like his stories, and some of his characters are brilliant. Gus McCrae, especially in Lonesome Dove, was as good as anything ever written. Robert Duvall once remarked that he thought McCrae was as great a character as Hamlet, and to me, Duvall has the heft to say that.

But some of his books, like Streets of Laredo or Dead Man Walking really seemed too much like caricature to me. So did Texasville (which I've never finished). He makes vivid characters, and his writing style of writing a scene from each character's viewpoint without changing his third person distance works well when it works. But when it doesn't work, it annoys the heck out of me. And when he's off, his characters are just too cartoonish, too extreme.

At his best, though, like Lonesome Dove, he's brilliant.

A friend of mine used to take writing courses from McMurtry in Houston. Made me jealous. This was before Lonesome Dove, so he wasn't as well known. McMurtry said that one of the first reviews of his first book called him a "minor regional author." McMurtry had that phrase put on a teeshirt and wore it to his lessons. By then, of course, he was no longer minor.

Just my ramblings on McMurtry.

[Caoimhe]

58. I have thought of making a pilgrimmage

to Archer City to see his book city.

Yeah I agree that not all of his books are as good as say Lonesome Dove. I did finish Texasville, and saw the movie. Both were silly.

The best scene in Texasville (which really didn't make it into the movie) was during the town celebration, during the marathon, when the tumbleweed storm hit. I almost fell off my chair reading his narrative of it.

Another one of my favorites is "Moving On" which by all rights could be called a prequel to Terms of Endearment. All my Friends Are Going to be Strangers was another good one that is a sequel to Moving On. I love the fact that his trilogies and quadrilogies (is that a word?) can be read separately or in sequence. His non-fiction is also pretty good.

The last book I read of his was called "Paradise" and was basically a narrative of his journey by boat through some South Pacific Islands, his description of the natives and his tour-mates who were mostly European jet-setters. Great read.

[rwork]

6. Very powerful lyrics

and many thoughts.

[riverwalker]

7. amazing

Just amazing. Wow.
I wrote off country music after Toby Keith and the "boot up your ass" song. Then Dolly Parton singing about sacrificing your son in Iraq "just like God gave HIS only son" sort of clinched it for me. Glad they have regained their senses.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. When a country station plays a song like that

you know that Bush and his cronies are in deep trouble.

How long before they do a cw version of Volunteers for America by Jefferson Airplane?

[converted_democrat]

9. The words to that song are so "real." I wish I could actually hear it....

Guess I'm going to have to breakdown and buy the CD. Looks like a great song, with a great message.

[RebelOne]

19. Click on the link at the end of the song.

You can get a free download.

[converted_democrat]

23. Thank you for the info!! n/t

[Digit]

10. What powerful lyrics

I am glad to hear that it gets airtime.
I wouldn't mind owning a CD with that song.

[jobycom]

11. That's not anti-war, it's typical working class blues

Country has always been like that, from Hank Williams on. Listen to "Song of the SOuth" by Alabama, or "Feed Jake" by Pirates of the Mississippi. Country is the natural successor to Woodie Guthrie (who also wrote silly songs about cars, as the new Nissan commercial demonstrates.)

There was an anti-war movement over Iraq, but it didn't get a lot of airplay. But now, things are falling apart, and as always, the second place to feel it is the South (First place being the inner city). Those who have opposed Bush (Bush doesn't get 100% of the white vote in the South) will now get their chance to be heard. Others will convert.

When I was in Gulfport after Katrina, my mother (former Reagan supporter) wore her Kerry shirt every day for two weeks. A year ago people would have picked fights everywhere with her. Now no one did. A couple of people applauded the shirt. In one hardware store, where we were standing with no power in a flooded store with holes in the ceiling and paying in cash, one of the workers joked that when he wore his Kerry shirt, they gave him Hell for it. One of the other guys in the store started to defend Bush, and my mother lashed into him. He backed down. He had no heart for the fight. No other Bush supporter did, either.

That's how it changes. You don't change minds. You weaken their confidence. Then they slowly admit, sometimes not until they walk into the ballot box, that their guy has failed, they they no longer believe
what they did. Then we win.

The South isn't an alien land. (To me, the north is). It's just tied to the economy in a different way. More agrarian, less unions. All these purist Kucinich or Nader values make no sense in the South. All they want is a moderate. All they get to choose from are perceived extreme liberals (not true, but they believe the Dems want to take their guns and their religion) and moderate conservatives (again not true, but that's how they campaign). Now they are beginning to not like the results of the people they've chosen.

Bad sign for Republicans. Thanks for posting this.

[ComerPerro]

17. You're right about that. But one disturbing aspect

Is that conservatives hear this song, agree with the lyrics (well, some dismiss it as bullshit and liberal lies) and then turn around and blame the left for the troubles.

Its insane.

[jobycom]

42. We won't convert many conservatives.

What we'll convert are people like my neighbor. He's a Republican who voted for Clinton because his wife's father knows him. He has a Confederate flag in his garage, uses the N word (not around me, because I leave when he uses it) drinks Bud, listens to 70s rock in his garage at two in the morning, and is a white seperatist, though not a white supremacist (hard to explain the difference if you don't already know it).

The last year he's been grumbling about Bush. The day after Katrina, he watched the story of the man who let his wife go during the hurricane when she told him to take care of the kids (a black man, which is important to know considering this guy's background). This redneck started crying and left the room. Two days later he told me he'd never vote for another Republican.

It's not the conservative ideologues who will change. It's the vast middle, who believe what the MSM and their preachers say, and vote accordingly. They are started to see that what they hear and what they see aren't the same. They don't care about party, they care about their lives, and their friends, and their country. Right now, many of them are seeing that Bush betrayed them.

I don't know if we'll win the South. But the Republicans will have to work harder to win it. And if the Repubs run John McCain or someone else the south doesn't connect to, they'll have to spend a lot of time making sure they can carry the south. And if we have a southerner on the ticket--they could even lose a state.

[Uncle Joe]

61. Good post jobycom.

I also believe the South has been brainwashed by the corpwhorate owned MSM and their preachers, who care only about obtaining/maintaining power and creating fault lines within our nation. The corrupt, indifferent, incompetent reaction by the Bush administration to the devastation created by Katrina and the treason coming to light regarding the lies about Iraq and the outing of our own CIA agent all for political spite have worked largely to unplug the South from this corpwhorate owned MSM created Matrix. I believe the Republicans will pay a heavy price in 2006 and possibly 2008.

[kywildcat]

12. Reminds me of

Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp during the Reagan mis-administration.
When the rust belt and corn belt are speaking out, gotta listen.

[LynnTheDem]

14. "Will die for oil"

Yep.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

15. thanks, i have been looking for this song

i heard it once a few weeks ago on the radio and it was great. i have been curious as to who the artist was.

thanks alot!

[Batgirl]

16. I love this guy

Went to Chicago last weekend for the express purpose of seeing James McMurtry on his tour. That show rocked! He's a great lyricist and guitar player, and his band the Heartless Bastards are great musicians.

The club they played in was full of a cross section of people ranging from young hipster types to old guys in windbreakers and sans-a-belt slacks. I think many of them came specifically as the result of having heard this particular song. When they played "We Can't Make It Here" the bar suddenly turned into an anti-Bush rally with people screaming their approval after every verse.

I was already a fan but this song blows me away for obvious reasons. I've been hearing it on XM radio for a few months now, but I've also heard that terrestrial stations are playing it.

James McMurtry is from Texas, and he's one of those people who never set out to write political songs, but started feeling the current situation is too awful to not speak up.

You can listen here:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.vi...

[Roland99]

18. He was in town here last night but I wasn't able to go.

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. Who is this guy

and why does he hate America?

Powerful stuff.

[Batgirl]

22. He also appeared at Çamp Casey

"Onstage at Camp Casey, the Crawford vigil organized by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, McMurtry ends a 30-minute performance with the song that earned him his invitation to play, "We Can't Make It Here." Clocking in at just under eight minutes, it's an alternate state-of-the-union, a scholarly commentary on the economy, the war, and arrogant leadership. "Stark and wrenchingly direct, this may be the best American protest songs since 'Masters of War,'" wrote author Stephen King, who downloaded the song from McMurtry's Web site, where it was hastily posted a week before the 2004 presidential election."

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-09-...

[Cults4Bush]

48. I was there for that at Camp Casey 2, the crowd went nuts for it.

It really really brought home the message of why we were there in a more general context... I was very moved by it, I know at least a thousand others were as well.

[Batgirl]

50. I'm sure that would have been a great moment

to witness and be a part of.

[Cults4Bush]

53. It was and I wasn't the only DU'er out there thinking of all our DU'er

compatriots who so badly wanted to be there and couldn't.

You were thought of and well represented.

[Momgonepostal]

24. Don't think I've ever hear "bourgois" in a Country song

The whole thing is much different from the Toby Keith pseudo-patriotic crap I usually hear.

Great song!

[derby378]

31. What next? Steve Earle and the Dixie Chicks? (n/t)

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. When what is called the political micro climate has changed

this is just one ore sign of it

[progressoid]

40. Why do country music artists hate America?

[tk2kewl]

44. James McMurtry rocks! And if anyone wants to see him in NYC...

I have one extra ticket for 10/23

[Batgirl]

45. You are awesome

Sure hope someone can take you up on that offer.

[tk2kewl]

46. me too... i'd hate for it to go to waste

i bought 4 tickets. my wife and brother will join me, but i still have one more

[Elwood P Dowd]

49. I posted about this song a few weeks ago

Heard it on a rock station here in Alabama. People are waking up all over the place. Bush's approval rating in one poll here had him in the 40s - quite a drop from last fall's 60s.

[Hubert Flottz]

52. Hard hitting...the truth!

Great song. We have waited a long time for the truth.

[file83]

56. Ed Schultz should play this entire song on his radio show....

...that would be powerful.

[Fly by night]

57. Y'all might like "Takin' My Country Back", by the Honkey Tonkers for Truth

This was a project of the Music Row Democrats in Nashville last year. Got lots of airplay around the south and on country stations across the country. (I even played it early this month to open my presentation at the National Summit to Save Our Elections in Portland, OR). Here are the lyrics:

TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK

COUNTRY MUSIC'S GOT MAMAS AND DADDYS
WE GOT BAR ROOMS AND OLD HEARTBREAK SONGS
BUT I'M HERE TODAY TO STAND UP AND SAY
HOW I FEEL ABOUT MY HOME SWEET HOME
WHAT'S LEFT, WHAT'S RIGHT AND WHAT'S WRONG... AND

I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK
SON, YOU AIN'T BEEN DOIN' HER RIGHT
OH I BEEN WATCHIN' YOU AND I DON'T LIKE
HOW YOU'VE BEEN TREATIN' MY STARS AND STRIPES
YOU TOOK OUR JOBS AND SENT 'EM OVERSEAS
NOW WE OWE BILLIONS TO THE RED CHINESE
YOU BLEW THE BUDGET AND YOU BOTCHED IRAQ
SO I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK

WE HAD A BUNDLE IN THE TREASURY DRAWER
MORE THAN THERE HAD EVER BEEN BEFORE
BUT VERY DAY WE'RE DROWNIN' DEEPER IN DEBT
MAYBE FOUR YEARS SHOULD BE ALL YOU GET
THEN YOU GAVE TAX BREAKS TO THE MILLIONAIRES
AND TRIED TO MAKE THE WORKIN' MAN PAY
BUT YOU CAN'T TAX A MAN WHEN HIS JOB'S NOT THERE
NOW LOOK AT WHERE WE ARE TODAY. HEY

I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK
SON, YOU AIN'T BEEN DOIN' HER RIGHT
OH I BEEN WATCHIN' YOU AND I DON'T LIKE
HOW YOU'VE BEEN TREATIN' MY STARS AND STRIPES
YOU GOT TOO MANY FANCY FRIENDS FOR ME
THE SAUDIS TREAT YOU LIKE YOU'RE ROYALTY
YOU BLEW THE BUDGET AND YOU BOTCHED IRAQ
NOW I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK

NOW I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WERE HOT
'CAUSE BIN LADEN NEVER DID GET CAUGHT
SO YOU SAID WE HAD SADDAM TO BLAME
TRIED TO TELL US IT WAS ALL THE SAME
BUT NOW THE YEARS ROLL BY AND OUR KIDS KEEP DYIN'
YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A PLAN TO BRING 'EM HOME
AND THOSE WMDs YOU PROMISED ON T.V.
HEY ADMIT IT, YOU FIGURED IT WRONG

SO I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK ....

NOW YOU DON'T KNOW MY NAME, BUT YOU KNOW WHO I AM
I'M YOUR EVERYDAY WORK HARD, PLAY HARD
RAISE KIDS AND PRAY HARD COMMON MAN....
AND LORD KNOWS I LOVE THIS LAND...THAT'S WHY

I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK
SON, YOU AIN'T BEEN DOIN' HER RIGHT
OH I BEEN WATCHIN' YOU AND I DON'T LIKE
HOW YOU'VE BEEN TREATIN' MY STARS AND STRIPES
YOU SAY "UNITE" BUT YOU DIVIDE US MORE
CUSSIN' EACH OTHER ON THE SENATE FLOOR
AIN'T WE SUPPOSED TO BE ABOVE ALL THAT?
HEY I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK
I GOT MY FAMILY AND MY CHURCH AND FLAG...
NOW I'M TAKIN' MY COUNTRY BACK


You can download the mp3 at this web-site:

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004582.php

[elehhhhna]

59. He played that at Camp Casey. Powerful stuff.

[jtagls]

60. I'm anti-war

Just get the terrorist and dictators to put down their weapons first.

[Czolgosz]

62. Who should we bomb next to get Osama to put down his weapons?

[alarimer]

63. A lot of Americana stations will play that

But probably not mainstream ones. I have heard it here in Corpus at 94.7 but they also play the hell out of Steve Earle, especially Rich Man's War.

[Czolgosz]

65. 94.7 in Corpus is the station where I heard it.

[CitySky]

66. Wow. Amazing lyrics.

I'll listen to the song when I get home. Thanks for sharing this.

"Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away."

An aside: Country music has finally crept into my soul. Took almost 3 years in Texas for it to happen, but I acutally like country music now. It was sort of an epiphany I had on a road trip just 2 weeks ago, no kidding.

Do we have a cowboy-hat smiley?

[hippywife]

69. It's not a country song or artist, either.

McMurtry and his band, The Heartless Bastards, are Americana. I posted the direct link to this song on several forums of DU six months ago when I first heard it and it dropped like lead in every one of them.

This song aside, he is really excellent. I play his Live in Aught-Three CD like crazy!

He's in Columbus, OH tonight at Stache's at 11th and High for only $14 at the door. A deal at twice the price!!

[Batgirl]

70. heh, I've seen at least a half dozen such threads

over the past few months (inc. 1 by me) that did the same thing...glad to see this one generated much more response. Agree, it's not quite accurate to pigionhole him as a country artist. Although I mainly hear him on XM Cross Country, pretty much sounds like rock'n roll to me.

[CitySky]

77. yep - now that I can hear it, it's more what we call

"Sound of Texas" on my local community station here in Houston, KPFT. A coupla years of listening to stuff like this and a lot of blues, though, has somehow freed my ears to like country now to.

Thanks for tuning us in to this guy!

[hippywife]

78. Pacifica Radio! Excellent! n/t

[sendero]

71. What...

... AN INCREDIBLE SONG.

A few months back I tuned to a country station and they were playing a similar "protest" song.

I was amazed. I'm in Texas too.

on edit: this was a commercial station, not an "indy".

[Batgirl]

76. Buzzflash just planted a big kiss on our guy McMurtry

http://www.buzzflash.com/jukebox/05/10/blu05009.html

[Kralizec]

81. Two words: Johnny Cash -- read them lyrics'....