{"id":11963,"date":"2023-04-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/?p=11963"},"modified":"2025-01-08T11:54:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T17:54:55","slug":"plummeting-down-a-rabbit-hole-of-new-to-me-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2023\/04\/24\/plummeting-down-a-rabbit-hole-of-new-to-me-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Plummeting Down a Rabbit Hole of New (To Me) Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

West Texas is the best Texas
\nFrom the Panhandle to the Trans-Pecos
\nFrom the Llano Estacado all the way down to Big Bend
\nThere’s something in the dust out here
\nThere’s something in the wind.<\/i>
\n ::: West Texas Is The Best Texas<\/i> — The Panhandlers<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was just fixing’ to pull my truck into the garage when an unfamiliar song came on the Outlaw Country station<\/a> on SiriusXM (my go-to alternative when the eleventieth-thousandth repeat of Leader of the Pack<\/em> on the Sixties station<\/a> — which has inexplicably and maddeningly been shifted to channel 73 from the more logical channel 6, [and was replaced by something called the Coffee House with some guy named Ed Sheeran who I thought was Johnny Carson’s sidekick but maybe I’m thinking of someone else; anyway, don’t get me started] — becomes too much) and I was led to let the motor idle just outside the open door until the song finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been born in, grown up in, and then worked in three of the four regions mentioned in the lyrics above — the Panhandle, the Trans-Pecos, and the Llano Estacado — I was intrigued by their mention, so I had to investigate the song and the musicians further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Panhandlers<\/a> is a quartet of Texas musicians, each of which have successful careers apart from the band. Two of them are from West Texas (Midland and Idalou), one is from South Texas (San Antonio), and one from East Texas (Flint). The album is entitled Tough Country<\/em> (here’s a review<\/a>), and here’s the song that captured my attention:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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