There Were Some Blue and Sorrow Times...

Dallas outlaw "Buckwheat" Stevenson gone, not forgotten, no, hell, no...

When country and western duo Brooks & Dunn signed off last night at the Country Music Association, they sang "My Maria."

It's one of the finest examples of tenor work by a Texas outlaw singer-songwriter The Legendary has ever heard. And there is a lot of it to hear in the land of the Scots-Irish cowboy balladeers, what with "The Lament of a Rake" and "The Streets
of Laredo."

He died an untimely death at an early age - some kind of heart operation, they said - and his songs never fail to lift me up and set me old bony heart free.

I'm a Dallas boy, too. Oak Cliff.

I caught his act a couple of times in out of the way places - bars, show lounges - anywhere the old boy could pick and
let that amazing voice soar above the crowd, the music, to
the clouds - and beyond.

Many things changed when the outlaws came home to Texas -
and stayed. Made me proud of my Lone Star heritage and I
all know to say is thank y'all. You sure fixed things right,
as Woodie Guthrie often said.

Adios, amigos.