A New Official State Song for Texas?

Leroy Shafer, chief operating officer of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, can at least answer that. "I do have season tickets to various events where it's played, particularly the football games at Texas A&M," he says. "I hear it played a lot each year, but I don't know that I have any great affection for it or any great dislike for it. I'm kinda neutral, which is what I think probably most Texans would be."

And, to be fair, "Texas, Our Texas" does have its defenders. "I love my state song," says Casey Monahan, director of the Texas Music Office, the division of the Governor's Office that promotes the state's music industry, mainly through www.enjoytexasmusic.com. "I'll never forget when I heard the Huston-Tillotson choir sing the full song at the dedication of the Bullock Museum. It was beautiful."

Still, for a state that's inspired so many songs — a quick title search of "Texas" on copyright organization ASCAP's Web site returns more than 1,700 results (although several are commercial jingles), and about 800 on rival BMI's site — shouldn't Texas be big enough for more than one official song? Think about it: If Colorado can bestow such an honor on John Denver (a native Texan), it's long past time for Texas to do the same for Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm or dozens more. Here are but a few:

Artist: Willie Nelson

Song: "Beautiful Texas"

Album: Texas in my Soul (1967)

Pro: It's Willie Nelson. Singing about Texas. Need I continue?

Con: Written by former governor and Bob Wills mentor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, "Beautiful Texas" dates from the mid-1930s, so it's not much younger than "Texas, Our Texas."

Artist: Doug Sahm

Song: "Texas Me"

Album: Sir Douglas Quintet's Mendocino (1969)

Pro: Beautiful. Poignant. The true anthem of any homesick Texan.

Con: Still somewhat obscure. Conservatives may chafe at honoring the work of someone fond of employing the word "groove" as both noun and verb.

Artist: Tanya Tucker

Song: "Texas When I Die"

Album: T.N.T. (1978)

Pro: Mentions Willie Nelson. Disparages Yankees. ("New York couldn't hold my attention / Detroit City couldn't sing my songs.") Reflects most Texans' feelings about the afterlife.

Con: May have limited appeal to non-­cowboys, non-Texans. I guess that's kind of the point, though.

Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double ­Trouble

Song: "Texas Flood"

Album: Texas Flood (1983)

Pro: Not country. Iconic Texas blues, as a matter of fact. Strong ties to Houston — recorded here in 1958 by original author Larry Davis, and released on Don Robey's Duke-Peacock label.

Con: A flooded-out Texas with no working phones doesn't give the state tourism board a whole lot to work with.

Artist: Lyle Lovett

Song: "That's Right (You're Not from Texas)"

Album: The Road to Ensenada (1996)

Pro: Reflects modern Texas's enlightened "howdy, stranger" attitude toward newcomers and non-natives.

Con: Even people who do know "Texas, Our Texas" can't remember past the first verse. "That's Right" has ten.

Artist: Mr. Mike

Song: "Texas 2000 (Give 'Em What They Want)"

Album: Rhapsody (1999)

Pro: Would instantly give Texas more street cred than the other 49 state songs combined.

Con: Parents might not like their kids singing lines like "Your wife wanna bone me, homie / that's in her nature / Ill, deal with that / kill that shit or I'ma waste ya" at school assemblies and such.

chris.gray@houstonpress.com