LONE STAR
(Daring/Rounder)
Red, white, and blue. The three colors of the Texas flag traditionally stand
for courage, purity, and loyalty, but they also stand for elements that are a
much bigger part of both our history and our reality: red, for blood; white,
for surrender; blue, for sorrow. The lofty ideals set down by Texas fathers
Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and Mirabeau B. Lamar just don’t seem to hold
up in a state wracked with racial tension, poverty, drought, and violence. And
nowhere in the state are these conditions more evident, and these tensions so
pronounced, than the Texas-Mexico border, the setting for John Sayles’ new
film, Lone Star. Sayles’ latest is about setting right the wrongs of
previous generations and coexisting, if not harmoniously, at least civilly,
with your neighbors — be they black, brown, red, white, whatever. At least on
the film’s soundtrack — if nowhere else — it’s a reality. But Texas music has
always been like that. The conjunto of the borderlands flows naturally into the
polkas and waltzes of the German settlers, which segues easily into Western
swing, then of course country, and from there it’s not much of a leap at all
into R&B, the blues, and rock & roll. Texas music is seamless in a way
that life in Texas seldom is. Beginning with conjunto tunes from Conjunto
Bernal and Fito Olivares, the Lone Star soundtrack shuttles
chameleon-like through Texas’ musical roots. Also included are blues shuffles
from Little Walter and Little Willie John; Kirbyville’s Ivory Joe Hunter’s
supersmooth, swamp-poppy “Since I Met You Baby” (and a version in Spanish from
Freddy Fender — how’s that for erasing cultural lines?); vintage country from
Patsy Montana & the Prairie Ramblers; and Lucinda Williams’ “The Night’s
Too Long,” which manages to sound both forlorn and hopeful. That, when you
think about it, is the story of Texas: forlorn in life, hopeful in song. —
Christopher Gray
“Bonus Tracks” reviews all local and Texas-based releases
commercially: Send to “Bonus Tracks,” The Austin Chronicle,
PO Box 49066,
Austin, TX 78765
This article appears in June 28 • 1996 and June 28 • 1996 (Cover).