Texas Music Goes Cold

This recent severe cold snap got us to thinking…what are the best songs from the Texas Music canon that relate to cold weather? While there are countless songs inspired by good times and warm weather, what happens when the mercury drops and creative moods are as gray as the sky? In the case of the five songs below…magic happens.  If you think we missed some (and I’m sure we did), let us know.

“Snowin’ On Raton”-written by Townes Van Zandt and covered by Texas Music stalwarts Robert Earl Keen and Pat Green, this song makes you truly feel the bitter cold of a desolate New Mexican winter.

“In My Arms Instead”-while not specifically about cold weather, the opening lyrical salvo fired of “all the leaves have turned to rust, and the air is getting thin, I can see my breath, the night is closing in…” nails the way in which emotional misery can be amplified by terrible weather when the temperatures cool off.

“Coast of Colorado”-this Rusty Wier classic dreams of a California earthquake causing he and his LA lady to be reunited on the newly minted west coast that is shaped by Colorado’s snow-capped mountains.

“Like a Coat From the Cold”-with this song, writer Guy Clark uses the analogy of love as a coat and performer Jerry Jeff Walker warbles in a tone so weary that you think ice might start coming from the speakers.  Just as a coat provides warmth in the coldest of times, so does love.  The simple lyrics pack a powerful punch as Clark muses on the ways the lady beside him has warmed his life up from the cold depths it once inhabited.

“Feelin’ Good Again”-Robert Earl Keen paints a picture so vivid of downtown Bandera on a Saturday night in late winter that you can practically feel the chill north wind blowin’ as the spring comes on by the time he reaches the chorus.