Country Mike Blog

Josh Abbott welcomes Pat Green back to Texas

Mike Sudhalter  |  August 4, 2011

Texas Country newcomer Josh Abbott takes a tour of Texas with the legendary, Pat Green

Longtime Red Dirt fans will be glad to know that Pat Green is back in the Texas Country fold - or at least, that's what his latest song would suggest.

Green, who sings a verse on Abbott's "My Texas," makes references to "Corpus Christi Bay" and Kolaches in the small town of West, Texas.

Yes, the song could be used, or adapted, for a state tourism advertisement. It covers just about every corner of the Lone Star State.

But the most interesting part of the song, and the one that will get the fans talking is Green's line, "if you think polished pop-country crap sounds the best, you ain't met My Texas yet."

Was Green joking, was he poking fun at himself, circa the last decade, or was it his mea culpa to the legions of Texas Country fans who were upset at his Nashville departure? Let me know what you think.

I think the whole Nashville/Texas rivalry is overblown. Everybody's trying to enjoy national success, and if they tell you any different, then George Strait will sell you some beach front property in Amarillo or something like that.

There's great music in both places, and we should celebrate - rather than argue - about it.

Abbott is good, but he'll likely never reach the stardom that his fellow Texas Tech alum, Green, had achieved.

Abbott's "Oh Tonight", the duet with former Nashville Star contestant Kacey Musgraves, and "She's Like Texas", are two of the top country songs - Texas or otherwise - to come across the airwaves in the last couple of years.

Randy Rogers Band and Eli Young Band are both doing a good job of balancing their Texas Country sound with the demands of the Nashville labels.

I think the Casey Donahew Band is good enough to make some noise in Nashville, but if happens, Music Row should let the CDB do their thing, much the way they did with the independent-minded Zac Brown Band.