Roky Gets the Praise and Respect He's Due

Dear Editor,
    I already wrote awhile back about how Texas bands of the Sixties are loved and played constantly on KWVA in Eugene, Ore., where I work, but I couldn't resist after reading this article about Roky Erickson [“Starry Eyes,” Music, Dec. 30]. It makes me love and admire the people of Austin all the more the way Roky is given the respect and praise so obviously understood by you all. What the Elevators did for Austin and Texas in general is impossible to calculate. Personally, it's given me a lifelong intrigue and fascination with names and places like Kerrville, the Jade Room, the New Orleans club in Austin, La Maison in Houston, the Catacombs and the Living Eye, also in Houston. Not that I expect these places to be around anymore, it's just that I have to go there to see and feel the area responsible for and that helped create the heaviest of the heavies, the band against which all other Texas acts wil forever be compared with.
    When I put on “Thru the Rhythm,” or “You Can't Hurt Me Anymore,” or “Slip Inside This House,” it's like I just know it's pure righteousness and the coolest. Nothing touches what Roky and Tommy Hall and Stacy Sutherland and John Ike Walton put down on tape and by association all Texas benefits. I'm so impressed.