Ooooh, classic Texas music....

...here: "This old porch is a big ole red and white Hereford bull, standin' under a mesquite tree in Agua Dulce, Texas...he keeps on playin' hide and seek with that hot August sun, sweatin' and a pantin', 'cause his work is never done..."
I don't remember offhand which Robert Earl Keen album the studio cut of this song is on, but the one I've always heard was from Keen's first live album, recorded at the Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas back in 1989 when he was still doing the bluegrass music. What he's doing now is completely different than what he was doing back then. I remember when I first heard the original version of "The Road Goes On Forever" and thinking, "this is nothing like the live cut!" Which, of course, was on Keen's second live album, No. 2 Live Dinner. Taken together they're quite the contrast. If I had to choose I think I'd take Keen's bluegrass-flavored music over the Americana country-rock, but then the new live versions of "The Road Goes On Forever" and "Goin' Down In Style" are damn good.