Sunday, December 15, 2002

Life in the Big City

Hanging my hat out in the boonies, I often forget I live in the eighth largest metropolitan area in the US.

(Boonies defined as 1604 by Sea World -- Yup, the outer rim)

Every once in a while, San Antonio reminds me it has a scary urban side.

For example -- I was meandering home from an evening at Casbeers -- where I caught a fellow named Max Stalling who was good enough to warrant buying a CD, but more about that later -- when I passed the last gas station before my subdivision.

The place was crawling with squad cars and the parking lot and fuel pumps were circled with yellow crime scene tape. Something bad must have happened.

I just checked the local news sources and although there were plenty of lurid stories detailing murder and mayhem, nothing had hit about this incident yet.

*Sigh*

Hopefully no one was hurt too badly.

I mean the last time a cop had his roll bar flashing in my neck of the woods, a cow on the lam had wandered near the street.

But back to Stalling -- who has a sort of western swing or country rock-a-billy style, but more country than billy -- if you know what I mean.

He sang several songs which mentioned small town Texas -- places my old hometown used to compete against in one A ball -- like Comfort, Crystal City, Leakey, Hondo...

There was even a stage reference to the Purple Sage -- which was a juke joint on the outskirts of Uvalde when I was a kid. What a blast from the past.

The CD I chose is titled Wide Afternoon and I picked it for the second song -- "Runnin' Buddy" -- which is about a guy whose best friend gets a girl in San Antonio and doesn't have time for him anymore. Very catchy and cute. It ends with the fella asking his friend if his girl has any San Antonio friends for him.

Since the chorus in printed on the inside of the CD packaging, I'll infringe his copy right a little...

Hey runnin' buddy, what'll you say to a twelve pack?
Hey runnin' buddy, whatcha say to settin' some lines?
Hey runnin' buddy don't you remember the good times we had
Before you hooked up with that San Antonio girl?

(Who knows -- maybe you'll click over, listen to him, and consider a purchase. There is a sample of each song here.)

Note:

This is all part of an ongoing campaign to find quality local performers... I'll report more as I find'em. This fellow doesn't really count as he is from Dallas.

posted by Bohica at 3:04 AM