a little love for "All for Love"

Sonora's Death Row

Some may scoff at The Road Goes on Forever, but it really is a great song, even if every frat daddy puts it around his buddy and sings it in his face when it plays.

Pretty much anything off "Picnic", Broken End of Love, Furnace Fan, Travelin' Light,....The list goes on forever.

Hello New Oreans
New Life in Old Mexico

"Mariano" is hard to beat. I can't pick a favorite between the album and live versions. THAT goes to show how the song stands up on its own. It's just that good.

"Blow You Away" has always been a favorite of mine too. As for setting a mood, the album version of "Gringo Honeymoon" is so laid back. Favorite memory: sitting in the Dixie Chicken on a Sunday afternoon while that was playing. Place was empty. I can't really explain it.

Rollin by
Dreadful selfish crime
I wanna know
I'm comin home
I'll go on downtown
Who'll be looking out for me
Think it over one time

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Some may scoff at The Road Goes on Forever, but it really is a great song, even if every frat daddy puts it around his buddy and sings it in his face when it plays.

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I agree. Back in the summer we were talking about overrated and underrated Texas artists and how too many of them just sing "party songs" about beer and Texas, Texas and beer, and little else. I wrote this about REK and "The Road" which is the party song of all party songs:

Robert Earl's career, and its effects on the genre, are a study on this topic. His most popular and well-known song, "The Road Goes On Forever", is a party song (and in fact, it's the quintessential Texas party song), but it's also a story song. Because of that song's success, countless other "party songs" have been recorded by younger Texas artists trying to re-create Robert Earl's success. However, their songs don't measure up in any way to the greatness of Robert Earl's, and not only that, but they never mature beyond party songs. While "The Road" is a great, fun song, it's only one piece of Robert Earl's collection. He's as good of a storyteller as there is in country/folk/Americana today.

Lonely Feeling.

I'm Comin Home

quote:

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Flew from Boston out to San Jose
Saw our old friends in Monterrey Bay
When they asked me if I'd like to stay
I said I'm comin' home to you

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I've always wanted to see him perform out in Santa Cruz, it has always been interesting to me that he has a huge following in the Santa Cruz area.

[This message has been edited by Scantron882 (edited 10/20/2008 9:18a).]

Gringo Honeymoon

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I think it's called "Shades of Gray" about some minor crooks who the Feds think are big time drug runners

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Close, but not quite. The song was framed around the Oklahoma City bombing. So the feds thought they had the bombers, then realized, "these are just some sorry kids". Note the lyric at the end, "late April '95"

I'm gonna go with

Gringo Honeymoon...somethin about that song. I always seem to droft off when that song plays and can see it all in my head.....

Gringo Honeymoon
Feelin Good Again.

Well put WTA. Always insightful posts.

Gringo Honeymoon is by far my favorite song.

D.J. said it very well: "I always seem to drift off when that song plays and can see it all in my head....."

Lonely Feeling is one of my all-time favorite songs, and it hardly gets any love.

I'm Comin Home and Feeling Good Again are also great.

"Paint the Town Beige"
"Billy Grey"
"This Old Porch" - co-writer

As an Aggie, how can you not prefer the Front Porch Song?

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Lonely Feeling is one of my all-time favorite songs, and it hardly gets any love.

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Agreed. One of my Top 5 songs.

As for "fun songs" I've always been partial to "Don't Turn Out the Lights".

I'm Coming Home is great, too. Mariano is a good song, but the Intro on the Live album is even better than the song. I love that story.

And WTA is right about The Road Goes on Forever. People are always scared to say it because it's the "obvious" one, and they want to look like REAL REK fans, but it really is a great song.

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Mariano is a good song, but the Intro on the Live album is even better than the song. I love that story.

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I love that story too. "I thought, man I haven't had a Schlitt's beer since elementary school."

Okay, I'm going to have to amend my top five and make it a top six. There's just no way I can leave "Dreadful Selfish Crime" off a list of my favorite REK songs.

And even so, I'm still leaving off lots of great ones: "I'm Coming Home", "Mariano", "Rollin' By", "Shades of Gray", "New Life In Old Mexico", "Not A Drop Of Rain", "Jesse With The Long Hair", "Tom Ames' Prayer", "Levelland", "No Kinda Dancer", "Armadillo Jackal", okay I'm going to stop now. I don't know how anyone could disagree with REK being the greatest Texas singer-songwriter of the past 20 years. I know some of those songs were written by others (McMurtry, Earle, etc.), but even the ones he doesn't write he still makes them his own in such a phenomenal way.

[This message has been edited by WestTxAg06 (edited 10/19/2008 11:12p).]

Why has no one mentioned Swervin' in My Lane?

The Front Porch Song (live)

Mariano is a songwriters song. If you ask musicians this question you almost always get this song as one of the top two or three. The imagery is genius and its a very real song.

One of my favorite guitar solos of all time is from lonely feeling. Brotherton is at his best there.

Mariano
and Gringo Honeymoon are my faves

But I love "There's only one s in New Braunfels"

Although "Feelin Good Again" is my favorite, LI really think "Lynnville Train" is up there and Steve Earl's "Tom Ayme's Prayer"

Some of my favorites:

Rollin' By
Love's A Word I Never Throw Around
Willie
I Would Change My Life
Billy Gray
Crazy Cowboy Dream

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feelin good again, and its not even close.

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+1

I sing the praises of REK to anyone who will listen, some who won't, and even people who agree with me right off the bat that he's the king.

REK will always be my favorite artist from the entire "country" genre, Texas/Red Dirt variety included. I don't care if you disagree, that's my personal opinion of the guy and I just wanted to put it out there that I dig his stuff. It seems like almost every REK song is my personal jam. I can't pick one or even a list because there will be a song of his that at one time I wasn't too fond of and then years later I'll listen to it and think "Why didn't I like this one?" Because with new experiences, you know, now I get it.

Corpus Christi Bay.

Front Porch Song.

Feelin' Good Again

No one likes Copenhagen?

slappy:
That's a fun sing-a-long, but I wouldn't call it his best song.

blow you away.

If I were King is a great song too!

Favorite is Mariano.

Honorable mention to Jesse with the Long Hair, Rolling By, The Raven and the Coyote, and Goin' Nowhere Blues.