The Super Eights "Texas" Live at High Noon Saloon Madison, WI August 23, 2006

Now, I despise Texas as much as the next right-thinking American (that is to say, a lot), but when I first saw the Super Eights last fall, this is the song that stuck with me after the show. A lullaby based on "Deep in the Heart of Texas," this is maybe the group's sweetest song, and certainly their softest. It's an almost mournful tone given the song's subject matter -- all the expansive natural wonder that no longer represents a state dominated by energy conglomerates, big-money politicking and suburban sprawl. Texas isn't a whole other country anymore, it's Houston now, and it's been left behind in many ways by an American West that is remaking itself in progressive populism. Mourning it seems both odd and right as the prairie wind sound of this song passes through you.