Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1996


That's Right (You're Not from Texas)

Buy That's Right (You're Not from Texas) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




"'That's Right (You're Not from Texas)'" is a song written by Lyle Lovett, Willis Alan Ramsey and Alison Rogers and recorded by Lovett for his 1996 studio album 'The Road to Ensenada'. It was released as the album's fourth single on February 24, 1997.

Due to its use in a series of advertisements promoting Texas tourism, the phrase has also come to be used independently to describe the quirky and sometimes misunderstood attitudes associated with Texas.

Lyrics



'That's Right' is a lighthearted song that lightly mocks the popularity of cowboy fashions in urban settings, and reflects the general sense of Texan pride that newcomers and outsiders often misunderstand.

The second verse is a tribute to the members of Uncle Walt's Band, a band actually from South Carolina who later became associated with the Austin, Texas country music scene.



Those boys from Carolina


They sure enough could sing


But when they came on down to Texas


We all showed them how to swing


Now David's on the radio


And old Champ's still on the guitar


And Uncle Walt he's home with Heidi


Hiding in her loving arms



Lovett was a huge fan of Uncle Walt's band as a college student, and Lovett had gone on to produce Hyatt's 1990 album 'King Tears'. Walter Hyatt died a month before the release of this album.

Other media



In 1999, the Texas tourism board ran an ad campaign featuring Lyle Lovett singing the refrain "That's Right, You're Not from Texas, but Texas wants you anyway."[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005164/otherworks Lyle Lovett - other works] from IMDb

Possibly because of the national exposure of the ad campaign, the phrase has been used independently, even in non-musical contexts as a general expression conveying Texans' sometimes baffling customs. Roger Ebert titled a compilation of responses to his review of the movie 'Friday Night Lights' "That's right you're not from Texas", in which most of the writers rebuked Ebert for misunderstanding the devout Texan football culture.[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20041017/ai_n12563424 "That's right, you're not from Texas"] by Roger Ebert, originally published in the Chicago Observer on October 17, 2004. Garrison Keillor used the same title for a tribute to Molly Ivins, explaining that she exemplified and celebrated a distinct Texan attitude that many others didn't understand.[http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2420 "That's Right, You're Not From Texas"] by Garrison Keillor, originally published in the Texas Observer on February 9, 2007.

Reviews



AllMusic's review of 'The Road to Ensenada' praises several songs on the album as being "funny without being silly".[ Review of 'The Road to Ensenada'] from AllMusic

References



Category:1996 songs

Category:1997 singles

Category:Lyle Lovett songs

Category:Songs about Texas

Category:Songs written by Lyle Lovett

Category:Songs written by Willis Alan Ramsey

Buy That's Right (You're Not from Texas) now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1996



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=908329168.