Butch Hancock (l) and Jesse Taylor Credit: Photo By Martha Grenon

The night Jesse Taylor died, Butch Hancock and a fervent band of his musical comrades put on a collective brave face at the Cactus Cafe while celebrating the life’s work of another Texas icon, Townes Van Zandt. “Bittersweet” does not begin to describe what hung in the air at the venue that evening, but in song and spirit the show became an exaltation of Taylor as much as a tribute to one of his peers. Here, three of what one might call Taylor’s girls, Jo Carol Pierce, Martha Grenon, and Margaret Moser, help reveal the West Texas heart, soul, and sinew that went with Jesse’s boyish visage.

This article appears in March 31 • 2006.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.