Tough and tender, this Texas troubadour has experienced life with all its twists. Ray Wylie Hubbard presents a spellbinding and hilarious evening of songs and stories punctuated by rhythmic finger- picking guitar. Perhaps best know for penning the outlaw anthem, "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," Ray Wylie fills the evening with a palpable sense of joy through the tales of his travels and observations of human- kind. Hubbard has been at the center of honky-tonk rock and roll and Texas folk blues for the past thirty years. His recent albums have created new-found enthusiasm in this Texas treasure.
A bonafide honky-tonk hero, Ray Wylie Hubbard has long been regarded as one of country music's most intelligent voices, pushing the envelope at every turn, all the while making music that is honest and uncompromising.
Ray Wylie Hubbard songs in the 1970s (most notably his anthemic Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother, made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker) all but defined country rock. In the years that followed he evolved into a writer of uncommonly honest portraits of life and love, alternately mixing deep personal sagas with poignant character studies of those traveling on the dark side of the road.
A graduate of Oak Cliffs Adamson High School (near Dallas, Texas), Ray Wylie Hubbard spent time at North Texas State University where he majored in English. As a member of the folk trio, Three Faces West, he spent summers in Red River, New Mexico. Other songwriters who made Red River a lively scene at the time were Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Murphey , Steve Fromholz and Bill & Bonnie Hearne. It was at Red River that Hubbard wrote Redneck Mother. Jerry Jeff Walker added it to his act and in 1973 it appeared on Walker's groundbreaking Viva Terlingua (an album which finally went gold only a few years ago). Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother took on a life of its own. Though the song isn't really an accurate representation of Hubbard's music, it established his reputation. Audiences still call for it night after night.
In the early 1970s, Ray Wylie Hubbard put together the Cowboy Twinkies, a band some claim was the first country punk band. They covered songs by everyone from Merle Haggard to Led Zeppelin. WarnerReprise issued a respectable selling album by the group in 1976. The band released its second album on Willie Nelson's short lived Lone Star Records and toured extensively with Willie. But eventually the Cowboy Twinkies split up and Ray Wylie Hubbard continued on solo, issuing several albums over the next decade and a half.
In 1993 came Lost Train of Thought, issued on Ray Wylie Hubbard's own label. Considering that the album had no national distribution, it sold remarkably well, due in large part to Hubbard's constant touring. The album reflected a new Ray Wylie Hubbard, one who was serious about his music and his songwriting as well as his life and his future. Well received by fans and critics alike, the album served notice that Ray Wylie Hubbard was playing for keeps.
In 1995, Deja Disc released Loco Gringo's Lament. Full of acoustic guitar, Dobro , mandolin, cello, accordion and violin, the album was more a return to Ray Wylie Hubbard's roots than a retreat from the honkytonks that nurtured his spirited country rock sound. In song after song one can hear all the strains of great American roots music: folk, Appalachian, blues, southern swamp and "hard" country. Some of Austin's finest musicians lent their talents to the project, including steel guitarist Lloyd Maines (Joe Ely, Terry Allen) and singer Lisa Mednick .
1997 saw the release of Ray Wylie Hubbard's first album for Philo Records: Dangerous Spirits. Featuring the talents of Mike Henderson and Terry Ware on guitars, and Lloyd Maines on steel, Dangerous Spirits is a journey through country music's dirt roads and dark back alleys. Moody, intense at times just plain flat out beautiful Dangerous Spirits is Hubbard at his most mature and passionate. From the fierce title track to the pretty "Without Lode (We're Just Wastin ' Time)" to the sharp tongued story song "Last Train to Amsterdam," this is Ray Wylie Hubbard at his most introspective and brilliant.
If one wanted to describe the sound of Ray Wylie Hubbard, one could call it American music, born from the time honored traditions of folk, country and roots rock. Or, as Woody Guthrie once said, "It's all folk music, 'cause it's played by folks.''
"... an original, an elder statesman among Texas songwriters, sharing the same space as Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt , Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock."
-- Greg Johnson, Oklahoma Gazette