West Texas Supergroup With Lubbock Ties Featured On ‘Yellowstone’
In what's been described as the Blue Collar Boyband of West Texas, The Panhandlers were featured Sunday night (December 5th) on the latest episode of the popular television show Yellowstone.
The Panhandlers are made up of Josh Abbott, William Clark Green, John Baumann and Cleto Cordero, the lead singer of Flatland Calvary. If you're sensing a theme, all of these gentlemen spent some solid time in West Texas, most notably in Lubbock. Abbott, Green and Cordero all spent time at Texas Tech, and Baumann was born in Amarillo.
You can read more about the supergroup of Red Dirt rockers here in this interview they did with The Boot when they formed and released an album in early 2020.
The song featured is called "West Texas In My Eye." It was written by another Lubbock Legend, Charlie Stout, who captures beautifully what it means to be West Texan in both word and photograph.
The Panhandlers' song is featured in the music video below. The video also seamlessly features Stout's photographs of West Texas.
Enjoy the lyrics as you dream about this country of ours on the giant side of Texas.
West Texas In My Eye - The Panhandlers
Written By Charlie Stout
Lately, I’ve been thinking that I could leave this town
I’d cut back on my drinking, stop this running ‘round
Playing songs ’til after midnight, staying up till dawn
There’s something in the dust and wind that keeps me hanging on
And I never thought I’d live to see the day I’d say “goodbye”
I ain’t crying, that’s West Texas in my eye.
I’ll be your blue-eyed bandit if you’ll be my renegade
I count a thousand tumbleweeds roll by me every day
I’d like to grow a rose and stow it in that desert sage
Like a message in a bottle floating down the open plains
Where the Llano Estacado rises up to meet the sky
I ain’t crying, that’s West Texas in my eye.
I’ve seen the thunderheads descend and rip into the ground
The twisted hand of heaven spreading terror all around
Sending farmers into deeper debt and ranchers to the grave
Where towers mark the end of time with slowly spinning blades
’Til the water table falls below the reach of humankind
I ain’t crying, that’s West Texas in my eye.
Lately, I’ve been thinking, I could leave this town
Cut back on my drinking, stop this running around
Playing songs ’til after midnight, and staying up till dawn
But there’s something in the dust and wind that keeps me hanging on
And I never thought I’d live to see the day I’d say “goodbye”
I ain’t crying, that’s West Texas in my eye.
I ain’t crying, that’s West Texas in my eye.