Dylan Does Texas

Bob Dylan loves Texas. He was good friends with Doug Sahm, has toured with Willie Nelson several times, and seems to have employed half the Austin music scene in his band at one time or another: Charlie Sexton, Denny Freeman, Augie Meyers, Elana James. TCB pal, dynamite gal, and Austin Music Awards backstage doyenne Darcie Fromholz worked as a PA on his minor-league ballpark tour last summer. Hi, Darcie!

So it was probably inevitable that Dylan's XM radio show Theme Time Radio Hour would get around to Texas, and it's no accident he did it in March, the season of Texas Independence Day, rodeos, wildflowers (soon enough, anyway), and SXSW. With his vast mysterious archives, Dylan could fill up three or four shows with songs about Texas, at least, but for this one, he chose nothing but the good stuff: Larry Davis' original "Texas Flood," an ancient clip of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family singing "T for Texas," Hawaiian steel guitar giant King Nawahi & the Hawaiians' "Under a Texas Moon."

Dylan seasons his show with all sorts of Texana: Los Lobos' David Hidalgo talking about conjunto pioneer Don Santiago Jimenez (father of Santiago Jr. and Flaco), a clip from Giant, fun facts about Lady Bird Johnson, Houston founders the Allen brothers, Peacock Records founder Don Robey, and Texasisms like "a worm is the only animal that can't fall down." Thanks, Bob. Come back anytime.

Theme Time repeats 5pm tomorrow on XM channel 40, and Dylan's playlist is after the jump.

Webb Pierce, "Drifting Texas Sand"
Andy Anderson, "Deep in the Heart of Texas"
Jimmy Lewis, "All Those Girls From Texas"
Jimmie Rodgers & the Carter Family, "The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in Texas"
Don Santiago Jimenez, "Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio"
Willie Nelson, "I Got Texas in My Soul"
Larry Davis, "Texas Flood"
Bob Downen, "Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)"
June Christy, "Across the Alley from the Alamo"
King Nawahi & His Hawaiians, "Under a Texas Moon"
Oscar McLollie & Honey Jumpers, "All That Oil in Texas"
Doug Sahm, "Texas Me"
Ernest Tubb, "Waltz Across Texas"
Dixie Nightingales, "The Assassination"
Ry Cooder & Freddy Fender, "Across the Borderline"