Texas Country

Nashville, Tennessee may be Music City, but nobody does country like the singin' sons and daughters of the Lone Star State. Get a triple dose of Texas country when Austin outlaw emperor Willie Nelson takes a swim in the "Whiskey River" — written by San Antonio singer/saint Johnny Bush — at the Texas Opry House. And when the Sir Douglas Quintet stirs up a Tex-Mex tornado on the fiddle-scratchin', steel-guitar-squealin' "(Is Anybody Goin' To) San Antone," they just might be hoping to find the flowery femme that Bob Wills immortalized in the Western swing standard "San Antonio Rose."

Hear from more Texas honky-tonk heroes in Next Steps

With this level of roadhouse royalty on hand, the old Western warning "Don't mess with Texas" starts to make a lot of sense. Original Texas Troubadour Ernest Tubb's deep-drawlin' twang aches as much as his forlorn feet when he's "Walking the Floor Over You." West Texas song-chef supreme Guy Clark serves up the chili and chicken steaks when he gets down to some greasy "Texas Cookin'." After the last enchilada's been eaten, you can take a sip of "Yesterday's Wine" with ol' Willie before Western swing revival kings Asleep At the Wheel call it "Quittin' Time" with some good, old-fashioned Texas boogie.

Stay up past last call with some Lone Star legends in Deep Cuts

As Sir Doug Sahm once said, "You just can't live in Texas if you don't have a lot of soul," and Texans can get down and dirty with the best of 'em. Country rocker Charlie Robison concocts a pub-crawler's neon dream when he wishes on a bright "Barlight." Outlaw country cult hero Ray Wylie Hubbard wears his Lone Star pride on his sleeve on the bad-attitude blues "Screw You, We're From Texas." And taking that Texas toughness to extremes, rough-riding Austin honky-tonker Dale Watson adds some "Ring of Fire" Mexicali spice to his truck-driving sound as he puts his hangover-addled fate in the hands of "Whiskey or God," whichever comes first.

Everything's bigger in Texas, and that includes the ten-gallon-hat-totin', bronco-breakin' sounds of hard country. The kings and queens of Texas country live it large and sing it from the soul, without stopping to worry whose toes their cowboy boots might be stepping on. Fiery filly Miranda Lambert doesn't pause to ask permission before soaking her sorrows in "Kerosene" and setting them ablaze. And Steve Earle doesn't stop to check for oncoming traffic before heading, hell-bent, down the gut-punching country-rock route of "Copperhead Road." But even if "That's Right (You're Not From Texas)," Lyle Lovett's here to reassure you that "Texas loves you anyway." From the jazzy jump of Western swing to the renegade rawness of the Outlaw sound, here's a fittingly hearty helping of true Texas country.