Bad Boy By Reputation

Diamond in the Rough: Renegade Texas singer/songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard ‘burns down the barn’ at the packed Bosque Arts Center’s Tin Building Theater

CLIFTON – Who doesn’t love a little bit of bad boy in a guy? With his wispy white hair and beard peeking out from under his cowboy hat, his tinted round glasses, and signature slow, earthy drawl, this man and his songs with descriptive lyrics are legendary.

Texas country music bad boy Ray Wylie Hubbard packed the Bosque Arts Center’s Tin Building Theatre to the brim, giving the audience a 15-song set list of all his signature rebel-rouser songs.

“I found out you get more attention burning down the barn than you do taking out the trash,” Hubbard said at the beginning of the concert. “If this is the first time you’ve seen me, you might get the idea that I’m an acquired taste.”

As always, RWH entertained with his humorous anecdotes about the origins of some of the songs, many of which are autobiographical. In his “Background Check” videos on YouTube, Hubbard recounts those interesting tales.

Hubbard carved a name for himself in music circles over the decades, living up to his outlaw reputation by doing it all without ever signing to a major label. And he bucked the notion that the only good country music comes from Nashville. It famously spurred the birth of his Texas anthem “Screw You, We’re from Texas,” sloppy, loud and ornery.

A bit of an outlier when it comes to rock and country music, RWH melds Americana with blues, adds in a bit of country and folk with his harmonica, and it all comes together in his unique, renegade sound, making him a pillar of the Austin music scene.

Within the repetition in lines of his opening song “Rabbit” lies a profound message, about trying a little harder when the going gets tough and trying a little tenderness when possible. Being stuck between “the devil and the deep blue sea,” might mean he's "funky and cool" or just not having a clue in which direction to go. But urging to “get out of the rut and get in the groove.”

Hidden within the rough and edgy lyrics often about women, lies poignant poetry; true diamonds to be found underneath the rough exterior. Like in the song “Snake Farm” – “She kind of looks like tempest storm, she dance like Little Egypt,” or “Bein’ in love with her is like living in a thunderstorm,” from “Tell the Devil I’m Getting There as Fast as I can.”

“You need scars to be a poet,” Hubbard said.

Lyrics from another song by Hayes Carll about a wild woman from wilder days, “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” subtly painted a picture of nights of excess matched Hubbard’s style seamlessly -- “Whiskey bottles scattered like last night's clothes, cigarettes, papers, and dominoes. Well, she laughs for a minute 'bout the shape I'm in, says, ‘You be the sinner, honey, I'll be the sin’” followed by “There's some money on the table and a pistol on the floor, some old paperback books of Louis L'Amour. She says, ‘Honey, don't worry 'bout Judgement Day, all these people goin' to heaven, they’re just in our way.’”

“I’m an old cat, so you get to thinking about your mortality,” Hubbard said, referring to bygone days of alcohol and cocaine-induced wanton actions and bad decisions; days and actions he is not particularly proud of. “I hope God grades on a curve. Maybe a C- won’t get me into heaven proper, but maybe it’s enough to get me into some kind of celestial night school.”

It segued into the 2012 “Mother Blues,” a story about a young musician with a gold top Les Paul guitar hooking up a stripper girlfriend – hitting it off like a metaphor for a hydrogen bomb, a chain reaction of lust and mutual attraction -- only to find the love of his life in Judy, the door girl at the Mother Blues bar.

It’s an ode to gratitude of a life well lived, and a prelude to a happier, more balanced life with his wife Judy and son, who ends up with the gold top Les Paul.

“I’m grateful for the time I get to share the stage with my son,” Hubbard said. “And I’m grateful for the audiences that come out to hear me sing my songs.”

Son Lucas’ soulful, smooth blues guitar was an unusual juxtaposition to the gritty lyrics that just worked; there was a mesmerizing harmony in the contrast. Lucas’ take on blond highlighted eighties hairdo with headband and bleach-splattered T-shirt, also a contrast to his dad’s more scruffy, disheveled look.

And like his lyrics, Hubbard senior’s guitar playing weaving around his lyrics, is more intricate than you would first realize. He learned a style of finger-picking from the great blues guitarists Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. And that’s the only reason he has long nails with black reinforcing varnish on his right hand.

Hubbard’s musical rebirth began soon after his spiritual one: Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s book, Letters to a Young Poet, and encouraged by a friend from Alcoholics Anonymous, Hubbard took guitar lessons at age 42 and learned how to finger-pick. Rilke said, “Our fears are like dragons guarding our most precious treasures.”

At the time, Hubbard played his 1999 “The Messenger,” the first song featuring his new-found guitar skill to his unborn son, it is the first song presented in his autobiography, it is the only song that Hubbard has recorded on three separate albums, and it is one of three songs Hubbard chose to sing at his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2019. It symbolizes Hubbard’s fear of embarrassment at taking music lessons later in life and reached one of his most precious treasures: becoming a proficient blues guitarist.

“His guitar playing is very rhythmic and understated, a perfect vehicle that creates this beautiful bed for him to lay his voice and lyrics on. Fellow singer/songwriter and guitar player Aaron Lee Tasjan said in an interview on the genius of Hubbard’s guitar playing.” He doesn’t play the things you’d normally think a guitar hero would play. He’s not flashy. He plays the truth.”

Undoubtedly best known for his early ‘70s composition “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” the song was inspired by long-haired hippy Hubbard’s experiences dealing with the more traditionally-minded crowded in the local honky tonk. It mirrors the Blues Brothers Jake and Elwood trying to bring “Gimme Some Lovin’” soul to a beer-bottle throwing crowd in good ‘ol country boys’ bar.

One of the more heartfelt tales Hubbard shared to the Tin Building Theatre crowd was the one about “Dust of Chase,” as song seemingly about gambling, but with a deeper meaning regarding mortality. The lyrics themselves are thought provoking, but the story Hubbard told added a whole different layer to the song.

Hubbard’s wife Judy corresponded with about a young soldier in Afghanistan, who shared that “Dust of Chase” was the song his platoon would play before going on patrol. The lyrics about a gambling man “And when the times at hand and I kill a man, I say a little prayer,” and “How small a part of time we share ‘till we hear the sound of wings, I’m lost in the dust of the chase that my life brings,” take on a whole different meaning when you know a young solder is listening to them before a patrol that could change or end his life forever -- a gamble fate takes with his life.

“If we’re going to send these young men and women over there, we need to take care of them when they come back,” Hubbard said, which was greeted with applause and whoops and hollers from the crowd.

A singer/songwriter’s dream came true for the 2024 Texas Troubadour Singer/Songwriter winner Courtney Eoff, who entertained the audience prior to Hubbard’s concert. She was asked to the stage to sing Mississippi Fred McDowell’s swamp blues song “You Gotta Move.” Her vibrant, soulful soprano adding a feminine touch to the spiritual blues, which the audience loved.

“I’m so glad to be Courtney’s follow-up band,” Hubbard said in jest. After his concert his took time to visit with Eoff and her family in the TBT green groom, agreeing to signing T-shirts and photo ops.

Hubbard wrote in the book about his life that he decided to write songs “to improve people’s lives whether it is making them smile, giving them a groove to dance to, inspiring them to sing along, or maybe create some lyrics that can make them forget for a few moments that some darkness has swooped down on them and got them troubled.”

And judging by the many positive reactions from the audience, they got the message. They loved the concert, enjoying an filled with sing along, dance along and cry along; a time to get out of the rut and into the groove.