One evening getting late well I met her at the gate I asked her if she'd wed me in the fall But she only turned away and nothing would she say That aggravating beauty Lulu Walls... John Prine does the Carter Family: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YNm...

She weren't no maid of cotton and he weren't no hell of a man So they must have loved each other like only the lonely can Cause they slow-danced through the neon like a sorrow through a song... REK does Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPn6...

I've got everything I need to drive me crazy I've got everything it takes to lose my mind And in here the atmosphere's just right for heartaches Thanks to you I'm always here at closing time Buck does Merle: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4oP...

Of course, every book has its critics too. V.W. was especially brutal. Y'all can go on and decide for yourselves whether it's worth a damn or not: a.co/d/gZpV3h5

Robert Earl Keen in front of his friend Terry Allen’s ROAD ANGEL (a bronze cast of a 1953 Chevrolet coupe placed unexpectedly in nature, emitting recorded stories, music, and histories from its "radio”).

And I saw the moonlight sliver dead down on her face I knew it was true, she was in the wrong place In the wrong time, in the wrong tale I knew when I'd ask her she'd hiss, "Christabel" Born on this day in 1956: the great Robert Earl Keen.

Merle does Jimmie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgOP...

Well the news is out all over town That you've been seen out runnin round I know that I should leave but then I just can't go, you win again Townes does Hank: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIpS...

If you ain't got that Do Re Mi Well, you better go back to beautiful Texas Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee California is the garden of Eden It's a paradise to live in or see Dang-what Ry Cooder does to Woody Guthrie here: youtu.be/recaULRKw5o?...

Don't y'all forget to get your WOODY incited subs in by the end of the year.

Willie does Merle.

Move with me Magdalene I'm tired of the same old scene Let's go down to San Miguel Let's go be somebody else tonight Come on Magdalene Joe Ely does Guy Clark: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KytN...

Where does COUNT THE DUST take place? Well... Order my new fake true crime multi-generational border town saga from @LEFTOVERBOOKS and find out who the surviving girl is...if any of that sounds intriguing to you: a.co/d/fuyQAZe

With no place to hide I fell into your eyes And I found myself in you Jerry Jeff does Willie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBns...

May I suggest your next spin? Give my new book, COUNT THE DUST, a whirl. Out now from @leftoverbooks.bsky.social: a.co/d/iKEse4P

Here, on Earth, from @leftoverbooks.bsky.social...COUNT THE DUST. Available now: a.co/d/11toswz

Yeah up on the cap rock me and my baby ride We're goin' a hundred miles an hour Cause this ol' Ford can still fly Got Four Roses in a sack and we ain't lookin' back tonight Charlie Robison does Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsm...

Fun interview! Checked out Ags' music. Learned some stuff too. I knew the Czechs and Jamaicans love country. Didn't know about Scandinavia.

O, K L, A H, O M, A Outside Oklahoma OK, LA -Terry Allen, "The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma" (1979) (about a move from OK to LA): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDv... Below, ED RUSCHA, OK (State I), 1990 & Hollywood, 1999, exhibited in OKLA in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum.

Ags Connolly (@ConnollyAgs) is the man y'all. His all covers album of Slim Hand songs is our kinda jam, and his interpretations are worth your money: agsconnolly.com/product/your...

Born (1936) and died (2004) on this day: master of dirty realism, Lucia Berlin. Glad I found her writing. I return to it and think of it often.

Is your smile to tempt a lover Mona Lisa Or is this your way to hide a broken heart Are you warm, are you real Mona Lisa Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art James Hand does Nat King Cole: www.youtube.com/watch?v=In_I...

On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man In a dusty black coat with a red right hand James Gedda & the Big Breakfast do Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

In the night forlorn Ah, the morning's born And the morning shines With the lights of love You will miss sunrise If you close your eyes That would break My heart in two Lyle does Townes: m.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_B...

The incomparable Kinky Friedman was born on this day in 1944. Remember when Cowboys Jamboree did a whole issue inspired by the Kinkster’s life and detective fiction? A Case of Kink: www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/issue-101-a-...

Ethan Hawke & Killer Mike mark out to the genius of Terry Allen at @amoebamusic.bsky.social (and talk Charley Crockett, Merle Haggard, and other cool shit). m.youtube.com/watch?v=B-zw...

My love, my love has gone away My love, my love, what can I really say My love would never see That this world's just not real to me And tonight I think I'm gonna go downtown Jerry Jeff does Jimmie Dale: www.youtube.com/watch?v=04pY...

Well he's crippled blind and crazy He's got his back against the wall Cause the river so wide And man his boat is so small Blaze Foley does Calvin Russell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPy...

I suppose that I could love you But my mind tells me, "No way" It says, "Screw it, you've been through it It's not worth the price you pay" Ags Connolly does Loudon Wainwright III: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_wJ...

Living's just something you're goin through With no place to hide I fell into your eyes And I found myself in you... Jerry Jeff does Willie (and one of my all time favorite songs): www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBns...

I came here looking for something I couldn't find anywhere else Hey, I'm not tryin' to be nobody I just wanna chance to be myself Dwight and Buck do Buck: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0PN...

Well moon lights a-falling, look at that caliche glow And a coyotes howling, he doesn't know that he's too old Headlights are shinin' on all we ever need to know... Charlie Robison does Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsm...

Alice, please believe me I can't go on and on Holding things together With you gone... Dwight Yoakam does Merle Haggard: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A83o...

A lot of mighty fine writers are sayin mighty fine things about my gas station story and I'm mighty grateful for it. COUNT THE DUST is out from @leftoverbooks.bsky.social in December, y'all...

Bus station at sun up Looking for a new place to go He sips his coffee and he pulls at his ring And he thinks of how she looked years ago Tom Russell & Nanci Griffith do the Blasters (song written by Dave Alvin): www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6_k...

Joe Ely does Robert Earl Keen.

Well moon lights a-fallin, look at that caliche glow And a coyote's howling, doesn't know that he's too old Headlights are shinin' on all we ever need to know Charlie Robison does Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsm...

Don't be angry with me, darling, if I fail to understand All your little whims and wishes all the time Just remember that I'm kind of dumb, I guess, like any foolish man And my head stays sort of foggy cause you're mine Dale Watson does Stonewall Jackson: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DkN...

Count the Dust...the trailer.

Terry Allen, HOLDING, 1996

Don't let the stars get in your eyes Don't let the moon break your heart Love blooms at night In daylight it dies @kdlang does Slim Willet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kyf...

And Mary and a shotgun Kept the rattlesnakes away How she kept on smiling No one could ever say Lyle Lovett does Texas Poet Laureate Steven Fromholz: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJAD...

A girl who would murder her own true love Would kill a little bird like me

Their faces gaunt Their eyes were blurred Their shirts all soaked with sweat They're riding hard to catch that herd But they ain't caught 'em yet... White Rose Motor Oil do Bob Geddins' Cavaliers: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQwD...

She took him by his long yellow hair And also by his feet She plunged him into well water where It runs both cold and deep Dylan does Dick Justice: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKK7...

These are the words that cry out of me in the night Like a buffalo herd from a shotgun blast scattered in flight I got a one track mind Going down a one train line Living on dreams half the time Going west Jimmie Dale Gilmore does John Hiatt: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e276...

"I'd like to do a song now that was recoded by a pretty pearly country group known as the Beatles. I know you heard them many times from the Grand Ole Opry..." Willie does the Beatles: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_HL...

And they met out on the highway At the Paradise Motel lounge... -"High Plains Jamboree," Terry Allen (1979) www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQ8... Below: The Paradise (1976 installation created for The Great American Rodeo Show, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth)

Look for Cowboy Jamboree's Terry Allen incited anthology of fiction, cnf, verse and sketches, I FEEL JUST LIKE A DOGWOOD TREE, round about November.

I've been throwin' horseshoes Over my left shoulder Seems I spent all my life Searchin' for that four-leaf clover Hayes does Lefty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf6F...