Author Archives: Tyler King

As I watched May 2^nd’s episode of The Voice online the next day, country singer Mary Sarah from Team Blake, who has been one of the top performers all season long, made a bold move to sing Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man.” Well the move paid off big time. It sounded as if I was listening to the video we watched/listened to of Tammy singing this song in class.

Mary Sarah on “The Voice”

The way she sang the chorus of the song, she sounded exactly like Tammy and really amazed me that someone this young has a voice that can sound so classic like Tammy Wynette.

My parents came into town on the weekend of April 16 and on the last morning they were here, we went to the Nutty Brown Café for brunch. This place is so eclectic. The quaintness of the place was so awesome. It just had a complete Texas, rustic style to it that I really love about place that also host concerts and events like Nutty Brown does.

Nutty Brown Cafe

Oh yeah, the brunch was also amazing. The food was so scrumptious and be prepared to have a light dinner later on in the night, because this food will fill you up. The setup of the restaurant just screams Texas country style to you when you walk in.

As I was reading the latest edition of Texas Music Magazine, Texas football legendary coach Darrell K. Royal helped play a role in establishing Austin as the music city that it is. Coach Royal was just as well known for being a coach as he was for his “pickin’ parties” that would involve passing around the guitar with the likes of Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and others.

Spring 2016 Edition of Texas Music Magazine

Also in this edition, they caught up with who did their first food and music feature since 2006. She provided reviews from 14 different venues including the likes of Kenney Store, Jerry Nelson’s Hill Country, The Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge, along with others.

My perspective of country music has changed in that not all country involves just the twang that most associate with country music but it also has roots from other genres and has also influenced other genres of music as well and country music is not just limited to country music.

Garth Brooks’ “Friends In Low Places” has been one of my favorite songs ever since I got into college. This song is one of best drinking anthems around. There aren’t many songs that people that don’t listen to country music know, but this seems to be one of them as a lot of bars that will play this some time throughout the night. And I swear, a majority of the place will start belting out this song no matter how good they are at singing or not. To add on to that, this just happens to be one of my favorite songs of Garth’s. One of things about this song that stuck out to me, is it brought me back to listen to some older music. Not too old but more of his music and George Strait’s too. The country they played is what true country music should sound like unlike today’s singers that like to add rappers to their song to make a remix. You also don’t see too many still wear the big cowboy hat like Garth and George. You could also see this as a love song. He talks about giving up on a girl after she left him. One of the big things about Garth Brooks, is that he has never wavered from country music. And that shows in the beginning line of the song, “Blame it on all my roots, I showed up in boots…”. That’s all you need to know about Garth in regards to if would ever leave country for another genre. It seems as if his girl was cheating on him and he’s taking ways to get over him. Like by confronting this guy at black tie affair. You could tell that he wanted to get back even and this guy didn’t want anything to do with him. Garth says he’s got friends that are in low places, so he has people who can do anything to help him get back. I believe there is also a little piece of this song about Austin, when he talks about going to the oasis, which happens to be a restaurant out on Lake Travis. Good chance that’s not what he’s talking about even I’ve always thought it was that.

The song Texas Longhorn by Django Walker was a song that really hit home with me during my junior year of high school. Django is an Austin, TX native and grew up a Longhorn fan his whole life. His inspiration to do this song came from his friend Patrick Davis, who is a South Carolina Gamecocks fan and made a song about his South Carolina Gamecocks. The success of the Texas football team around the time that he made the song really helped as this is some of the best football Texas had had in years. A lot of people are going to remember Vince Young and Colt McCoy as they both were able to lead Texas to National Championship appearances. It also doesn’t hurt that not too long before that in 1998 Ricky Williams, who Django mentioned was one of his favorite players, had won the Heisman Memorial Trophy.

At this point of my high school career when I heard the song for the first time, I didn’t think the University of Texas would be an option academically for me. Even with the burnt orange but I was born with, this song was really the point when I decided that I wanted to go to University of Texas. After listening to the song is when I finally realized how much I truly loved UT and wanted to go there. There are many points in the song that resonated with me that happened in my family regarding the Longhorns. It starts off by talking about how the Longhorns archer the only team that you before the fall. Growing up, my mom’s entire side of the family was longhorns and I really never knew of another team to root for. He then continues to go on about the traditions of Texas football, Bevo and Smokey the Cannon. One of the main parts that really stuck with me was when he talked about being chosen to be born a Texas Longhorn. The song also does a great job of recounting events that happened during my generation’s youth as Texas Football fans. This is definitely a song that any Texas fan should listen to and this is a song I always listening to whenever I need me a little pick me up to remind me where I’m going to school at and why.

One community that I would clearly identify myself with would be my immediate family. That would include my parents my two sisters my brother their spouses and their kids. These are the people that I’ve spent my whole life with day in and day out and they’re people that I’m really close with. That’s because they really understand who I am. Country music figures into this community because these are the people that showed me what country music was all about. One of the earliest country music concerts I can remember going to was with my parents at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo when Brooks & Dunn were playing their last tour and they were playing in Houston. Brooks & Dunn was one of my dad’s favorite groups to listen to back in the day.

Brooks and Dunn at Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Going to the rodeo continued for a while as we would always try to find a country music artist to go see, we would go see people like George Strait, Eli Young Band, and the Zac Brown Band. This love for Texas country music followed me into college as I found myself trying to go see artist like Roger Creager and Josh Abbott Band when I was going to school at the University of Texas at San Antonio. As my siblings got older and went off to college they started to find Texas country music which they would bring back and show to me and that’s where I started to grow my love for Texas country music. Whenever we all get together we still find ourselves listening to country music and sometimes even Texas country. As we’ve all gotten older we still try to go to concerts together since we find ourselves listening to similar artists and groups and wanting to see them live. Country music has been in my life for almost all 21 years I’ve been around and it’s kind of like the phrase, “you can take me out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas out of me,” country music will always be something that is a part of me.