Admit It, Austin — Willie Belongs to Houston Too (At Least Partly)

Willie Nelson around the time he lived in Houston in the late ‘50s

I’m going to start traveling back and forth between Houston and Austin this week for work, which means that once I have to confront the most existential Texas question of all: What music do I listen to while traveling through Columbus, La Grange, and Bastrop? And do I listen to the same music going both ways or do I try to find something appropriate for each direction?

This is an important question for anybody, but especially for somebody like me, who is so focused on the question of place. Because, inevitably, place and music are powerfully intertwined. Partly it’s because great music emerges from particular places: Think the Beatles and Liverpool, or the Beach Boys and Los Angeles, or blues and the Mississippi Delta, or jazz and New Orleans.

But partly it’s because we experience music in particular places, and those connections always remain with us. Even though I grew up to be the mayor of a surf town in Southern California, I cannot listen to the Beach Boys without thinking about the first time I heard them: Shivering in my brother’s cold room in the winter in Upstate New York while the 45s rotated on the turntable.

As I have written previously, there’s a pretty obvious answer for the westward trip to Austin: Willie. If there’s even been a powerful emotional connection between…