Make a list of Texans: Willie Nelson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt - among them some of the finest songwriters ever to scuff their boots in the dust of America. It's an incomplete list certainly, but it serves to illustrate the Lone Star State's extraordinary contribution to the art of song. Texans are proud of it, but ask about the secret of the place and they either don't know, or they won't tell you. Perhaps they have taken an oath?
Crowell said it was just that "big ol' sky, a wealth of characters . . . and a sense of humour". Lyle Lovett had no idea whatsoever. Hancock said it was something in the air. Van Zandt said it was in the water. But then Van Zandt, God rest him, never drank water.
Chanteuse Nanci Griffith, another Texan with impeccable Lubbock and Austin credentials, sees it all in rather simple terms. "It's just that there's absolutely nothing to look at," she says, "and you learn to use your imagination very young in life. And your imagination is very important because otherwise you'd be bored to death in Texas. I'm serious about that. I think that's the answer."
But while Texas is certainly dry and flat in parts, it's also a doggedly independent place - a breeding ground for performers who leave the likes of Griffith standing very wholesome yet lonesome in the middle of the road. The Legendary Stardust Cowboy was certainly out on his own, and in later years Lyle Lovett began to write some of the best and most eccentric countryish songs in many years. Guitar virtuoso Junior Brown is another in the weird-genius camp as Texas continues to provide an open-minded base for left-field musicians - something which made places like Austin so attractive to the outlaws of the 1970s. As that professional Texan, Kinky Friedman puts it: "I think Texas is more independent than most places - its got a lot of spiritual-elbow room."
It's also a major factor that Texas is one of the most musically complex places on earth. It is home, not just to the country/folk/outlaw singer-songwriters listed above, but also to the Texan swing of Bob Wills, the blues of Lightnin' Hopkins and Freddy King, the rockabilly of Buddy Holly, the honk-tonk of George Jones, the blues-rock of ZZ Top, the polkas of TexMex and the Hispanic rock 'n' roll of Freddy Fender. Surrounded by such varied riches, you wonder how a young musician ever gets his or her bearings in the first place. For Griffith there was a local solution.
"Well for me it was easy because I fell in love with Buddy Holly and the Crickets as a little tiny child. My first recollection of television was going to my grandparents' house to see Buddy Holly on the Ed Sullivan Show. They came from the same area of West Texas as I did and they became my idols. My parents were very into folk music - Woody Guthrie - and that part of Texas culture came into it as well. Over the years it kind of evolved and my songwriting became Griffith songwriting. I can't imagine if I had grown up in anywhere else but Austin that I would have been exposed to so many different music genres. But from childhood on, my dream was to grow up and be a Cricket. The Crickets say I am a Cricket now."
If landscape and an endless silent vista really is at the heart of such an impressive Texan canon, it's no surprise that so many of the songs are story songs. The greatest storyteller of them all was the late Townes Van Zandt whose songs were sometimes like huge widescreen movies, and other times like the best of American novels. These were songs full of imagery which came easily to us - they were part of an America which was already deep in our heads. Griffith, who also sees her songs as stories, is quick to acknowledge the importance of those books which first revealed the south - even to itself. Her most recent album, The Dust Bowl Symphony, suggests her own ambitions in this regard.
"For me it has always been a combination of life, music and literature. My major literary influence is Larry McMurtry. But when I was a young adolescent, my favourite writers were Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty and William Faulkner - all that southern literature. And John Steinbeck. I think he captured the dust bowl so well that I don't think it can ever be done so well again. I don't know where other people find their muse but I know it was important for me because I was a big reader."
There's inspiration aplenty, therefore, in the flatlands, deserts, plains and hills of Texas. That said, the actual work of a songwriter depends on many less obvious elements. Some, in search of inspiration, get on the freeway and drive to the Gulf Coast. Some, such as Van Zandt, simply disappear on a horse. The rest just sit and wait for the Texan muse to strike, and that inspiration can be as elusive in Austin, Lubbock or San Antonio as anywhere else.
"Yeah, I wait for the lightning. That's the best way because my heart and my mind collect the information like a file cabinet and when all the information is there, the song will come on its own. I go for long periods where I either don't feel like writing or I haven't been inspired by any particular thing, but all of a sudden a bunch of songs will come right in a row. I know it's going to happen so I don't really worry about it. That's probably the best way - not worrying about it."
There's little doubt that Griffith is far too sweet for many ears. That said, it's this very quality, in both her voice and her approach, which has made her so popular, especially in Ireland. But while other country stars have done extremely well with Griffith songs, her own stardom among the hats and boots has been a little limited. That old "new-country" label just never seemed quite right, and at times she seemed pointed rather more at pop. In fact Griffith was always more of a pop-folkie than anything else and it's quite unfair to compare her with some of her less poppy peers. After all, while Van Zandt was out drinking quarts of gin with Lightnin' Hopkins, Nanci Griffith was listening to the Crickets. It's all just part of that big Texas thing - much of it a total mystery to me.
Nanci Griffith plays the Olympia Theatre on May 23rd and 24th