Lelia Rodgers's Matagorda Island Discs

This week’s Matagorda Island Discs comes to us from Lelia Rodgers. Officially, she’s the owner of Rudyard’s Pub, but if America was a monarchy, she’d also be the Duchess of North Montrose.

“My first album was a greatest hits compilation (Time Piece, The Rascals) and I thought that I’d never catch up,” she writes. “On that point, I was right. So, chronologically, I’ve tried to choose touchstones.”

1) Traffic‘s John Barleycorn Must Die was the first album I listened to [sides] A and B over and over. I loved the A-side [only] of Led Zeppelin II. At 15, I thought that I could live with just this on a desert island — of course, I was wrong.

2) Jim Dickinson‘s Dixie Fried was not my taste at the time, but his wife, Mary Lindsay, was my riding teacher, so I memorized it. Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins and Furry Lewis — Who knew how rockin’ I already was?

3) Jethro Tull‘s Songs from the Wood is a hangover from them being the first concert I ever saw (A Passion Play tour), so I bought all their albums, and being in Nashville at the time, I had developed a taste for folksy stuff.

4) Old and in the Way, with Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Vassar Clements and Jerry Garcia. It’s still in my dashboard.

5) Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks (Where’s the Money? or It Happened One Bite): This was the band that I saw at [Nashville club] The Exit/In that gave me a taste for intimate live music.

6) Bill Hicks: Dangerous or Relentless. I know this isn’t music. However, out on Matagorda I’m gonna need to laugh, and Bill always does it for me.

7) Death Valley: ¡Que Pasta! When I saw them at Rudz, I couldn’t believe I owned such a cool bar. Oh, and P.S. — best fuck music ever!

8) The Bevis Frond: New River Head. Never got [frontman] Nick [Saloman] to play at Rudz, but met him twice at Mary Jane’s. He’s still my hero.

9) Cake: Fashion Nugget. Last September I went to Red Rocks [in Colorado] to see a bunch of bands that had come through Rudz, and learned that if you get to a big-ass festival like that, you’re not the same band as the one that came through your bar on the way up. Anyway, I saw Cake there, too, who I always kind of liked, but they blew me away there, and I’ve since become a huge fan. “Stickshifts & Safety Belts” — that’s the song!

10) Built to Spill, either Keep It Like a Secret or Perfect From Now On. I really can’t choose. Doug Martsch came through on a solo gig and so rocked.

(Want your own picks to appear in this space? Send them to john.lomax@houstonpress.com. You can write about your picks as much or as little as you want.)