Thursday 20th - Lubbock

Drove down from Austin to Lubbock today. First part was on Highway 71, which took me through the hills west of Austin to the outskirts of San Angelo, where I got onto Highway 87 to come through to Lubbock. The first section of the drive was very scenic with quite a few hills. The mid-section was sandy but also had a few hills as well as lots of wind farms. The final part was all parched flat brown plain.

The hotel is right by Buddy Holly Street - he was born here. Buddy Holly was very influential because he combined rockabilly with a melodic approach which is more folk-based. This, in turn, was a major influence on many English performers, in particular Paul McCartney. Much of the melodicism of the early Beatles, then, derives from here !

Musically I had a strong selection of CDs on - the new Wilco album, "Perspex Island" by Robyn Hitchcock (great to finally get hold of that on CD), Johnny Cash's "Unchained" (one of the series of American Recordings), Wilco's "A Ghost Is Born", Emmylou Harris's "Elite Hotel", "Roadmaster" by Gene Clark, and then finally the new Wilco again. Hard to pick a highlight - the new Wilco is brilliant, and "Perspex Island" was a revelation to me as I'd never properly caught the lyrics before and had dismissed it as a lightweight, poppy, album, yet it is actually a pretty dark and serious work largely concerning how to cope with loss when you're an atheist. As a struggling Christian going through a divorce I really engaged with that. However the winner, once again, was Mr. Cash. His series of "American Recordings" begun in the 1990s with Rick Rubin are a very solemn, gripping, and yet humorous collection. He has amazing depth and authority in his voice, and the music is perfect.

Overall it was so refreshing to be driving on roads other than Interstates. Also I had a very nice lunch at a place called Eden, and the service was excellent. Texans seem to really like English people. I am now ahead of schedule - I'd only planned to reach San Angelo by now. Tomorrow I will be continuing north to Amarillo, where I pick up Interstate 40 and head west towards New Mexico. There's been a major drought round here and things are especially serious further south - Mexico has real problems now.