CF77|You all may go to hell, and I will go to Texas. -Davy Crockett

The Llano Estacado is a land of missed opportunity.  Had Coronado not been so hell-bent on getting rich quick, he would have discovered a land rich with agricultural potential.  Had he dug a few holes he might have even struck oil.   But his quick survey of the surface only revealed “endless plains.”  Five hundred years later, Buckminster Fuller would unwittingly sum up the Coronado expedition’s blind oversight when he stated, “pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.”

Art imitates life; we have a tendency to gravitate toward every new face to hit the screen, every new voice to float across the airwaves. We quickly forget the sounds and images we loved as early as a year ago.  We’re a bit lazy in that regard - we wait for the machine to feed us, rather than feeding ourselves.

As such, we allow great resources to disperse because we are ignorant of their value - illustrated succinctly by the painfully small group of people who made time on a Thursday night in late April to listen to the music of Billy Joe Shaver during his visit to Bash’s 2 in the Lubbock, Texas Depot District.

Billy played one timeless classic after another to the good people who had gathered to look beneath the surface of a weathered old man into a heart rich with creativity.  The room was quiet not for a lack of patrons but for honest respect as Billy offered countless insights from the years he’s walked this often excruciatingly dry earth.

It’s easy to understand how one might have missed hearing about Billy Joe’s April appearance in Lubbock; after all, many local music fans were simply too partied-out from the previous evening’s performance by pop-rockers Three Doors Down to consider going out for a second night in a row.  Nonetheless, it seems an injustice to miss the soulful harvest of an evening with this hero of a vanishing breed.

The Llano Estecado is rich with resources to those who see beyond the endless plains.  Those not diligent to seek below the surface will seldom see the sparkle of a gem like Billy Joe Shaver in their lifetime, barring a fortuitous encounter on a warm spring evening in Texas.  In fields of quality entertainment, fortune favors the prepared.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. — Thomas Jefferson

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Charlie

Ever wonder what happens to your data when you leave your Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4.0 GB in the pocket of your jeans, running it through forty minutes of flooding in the washer, and another hour in the dryer set on the highest temperature possible?

Absolutely nothing, apparently.

If you are the guy who picked me up and hung me on a coat hanger in Ms. Booth’s art class in 8th grade, I just wanted you to know that I forgive you. I’m finally over it.

Here’s a contestant in the Chuck Wagon Cookoff held during the 2007 National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas.

Preston Wait, fiddle player extraordinaire, lays the charm on lovely Jill.