"That's Right (You're Not from Texas)" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Lyle Lovett | ||||
from the album The Road to Ensenada | ||||
Released | February 24, 1997 | |||
Recorded | 1996 | |||
Genre | Country, western swing | |||
Length | 4:54 | |||
Label | Curb/MCA | |||
Songwriter(s) | Lyle Lovett, Willis Alan Ramsey, Alison Rogers | |||
Producer(s) | Lyle Lovett | |||
Lyle Lovett singles chronology | ||||
|
"That's Right (You're Not from Texas)" is a song written by Lyle Lovett, Willis Alan Ramsey and Alison Rogers and recorded by Lovett for his 1996 studio album The Road to Ensenada . It was released as the album's fourth single on February 24, 1997. [1]
Due to its use in a series of advertisements promoting Texas tourism, the phrase has also come to be used independently to describe the quirky and sometimes misunderstood attitudes associated with Texas.
That's Right is a lighthearted song that lightly mocks the popularity of cowboy fashions in urban settings, and reflects the general sense of Texan pride that newcomers and outsiders often misunderstand.
The second verse is a tribute to the members of Uncle Walt's Band, a band actually from South Carolina who later became associated with the Austin, Texas country music scene.
Those boys from Carolina
They sure enough could sing
But when they came on down to Texas
We all showed them how to swingNow David's on the radio
And old Champ's still on the guitar
And Uncle Walt he's home with Heidi
Hiding in her loving arms
Lovett was a huge fan of Uncle Walt's band as a college student, and Lovett had gone on to produce Hyatt's 1990 album King Tears. Walter Hyatt died a month before the release of this album.
In 1999, the Texas tourism board ran an ad campaign featuring Lyle Lovett singing the refrain "That's Right, You're Not from Texas, but Texas wants you anyway." [2]
Possibly because of the national exposure of the ad campaign, the phrase has been used independently, even in non-musical contexts as a general expression conveying Texans' sometimes baffling customs. Roger Ebert titled a compilation of responses to his review of the movie Friday Night Lights "That's right you're not from Texas", in which most of the writers rebuked Ebert for misunderstanding the devout Texan football culture. [3] Garrison Keillor used the same title for a tribute to Molly Ivins, explaining that she exemplified and celebrated a distinct Texan attitude that many others didn't understand. [4]
AllMusic's review of The Road to Ensenada praises several songs on the album as being "funny without being silly". [5]
Nanci Caroline Griffith was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She appeared many times on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985. In 1994 she won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American country singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. Active since 1980, he has recorded 13 albums and released 25 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man". Lovett has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. His most recent album is 12th of June, released in 2022.
Guy Charles Clark was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Kathy Mattea, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith and Chris Stapleton. He won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture of You.
Willis Alan Ramsey is an American singer/songwriter, a cult legend among fans of Americana and Texas country. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in Dallas, Texas. Ramsey graduated from Highland Park High School in 1969, and was a prominent baritone in the school's Lads and Lassies Choir. In his senior year, he played a leading role in the musical Carousel. He released the critically acclaimed album, Willis Alan Ramsey, in 1972 on the Shelter label. The album included "Muskrat Candlelight" which was covered by America in 1973 and by Captain & Tennille in 1976.
Robert Earl Keen is an American country singer-songwriter and entertainer. Debuting with 1984's No Kinda Dancer, the Houston native has recorded 20 full-length albums for both independent and major record labels. His songs have had cover versions recorded by many musicians, including George Strait, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, The Highwaymen and Nanci Griffith. Keen has toured extensively in the US and abroad throughout his career.
Step Inside This House is the seventh album by Lyle Lovett, released in 1998. In contrast with his earlier albums, populated mostly by songs penned by Lovett, House is a double-length album of cover songs written by fellow Texans.
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1996.
"Friend of the Devil" is a song recorded by the Grateful Dead. The music was written by Jerry Garcia and John Dawson and the lyrics are by Robert Hunter. It is the second track of the Dead's 1970 album American Beauty. Like most of American Beauty, the song is largely acoustic and opens with Garcia playing a descending G major scale in the bass register.
Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was "one of the main movers" of Austin, Texas's progressive country scene in the 1970s and '80s.
Walter Hyatt was an American singer and songwriter. His group, Uncle Walt's Band, was involved in the alternative music scene in Austin, Texas.
Smile: Songs from the Movies is a 2003 compilation of songs performed by Lyle Lovett for various movie soundtracks between 1992 and 2002. Smile was the fifth project by Lovett that did not introduce a new collection of his own songs during the expanse of time between his 1996 Grammy winning The Road to Ensenada and My Baby Don't Tolerate. Other projects included a 1998 cover album, a 1999 live album, a 2000 movie soundtrack, and a 2001 anthology. The release of Smile led some reviewers to speculate the Lovett might be experiencing some sort of writer's block. Another possibility is that Lovett was taking it easy following a 2002 injury from an accident involving a bull on a family farm in Texas. During the incident Lovett's leg was broken in 20 places. A fracture to his thumb also left him unable to play guitar for an extended period.
The Road to Ensenada is the sixth album by Lyle Lovett, released in 1996.
Uncle Walt's Band was an Americana band founded in Spartanburg, South Carolina, by Walter Hyatt, Champ Hood, and David Ball. They were among the most popular acoustic bands in Austin, Texas, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and were particularly noted for their intricate 3-part vocal harmonies as well as a sound that combined traditional country motifs with jazz, bluegrass, and Beatles-esque influences.
American singer-songwriter and actor Lyle Lovett has been active since 1980, and has recorded fourteen albums and released 25 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man".
Kat Edmonson is an American singer and songwriter who calls her music vintage pop.
Carroll DesChamps "Champ" Hood was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist. He was inducted into the Austin Music Memorial in 2011, the Austin Chronicle’s Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a five-time recipient of the Austin Best String Player Award.
Jeff White is an American bluegrass guitarist/mandolinist, songwriter, record producer and sound mixer. Jeff White has performed and produced albums with many artists including: Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, The Chieftains, Lyle Lovett, Tim O'Brien, The Travelin' McCourys, Michael Cleveland and The Earls Of Leicester. White won the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, for Best Bluegrass Album with The Earls of Leicester. One of Jeff's key mentors is award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland. Jeff and Michael have earned four International Bluegrass Music Awards for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. Jeff produced several of Michael Cleveland's albums. Jeff has toured with banjo picking Earl Scruggs and Louise Scruggs. Jeff White has produced and released three solo albums: in 1996 The White Album, in 1999 The Broken Road and in 2016 Right Beside You.
Ray Herndon is an American country singer/songwriter and guitarist known mainly for playing with Lyle Lovett's Large Band and McBride & the Ride.
Billy Williams is an American producer, arranger, and guitarist. He is most known for his production work with Lyle Lovett, sharing a 1997 Best Country Album Grammy award with Lovett as producers of The Road To Ensenada.