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This episode is called “Lone Star Stories,” and it’s all about Texas. The three songs include a fictional romance, a larger-than-life true story and a Texas-sized tall tale.

I wrote the first song, “Café Texaco,” not long after I moved South from New York City. It’s a fictitious mariachi-flavored story about a Brooklyn kid who finds work at a Texas border-town gas station café.

The second song, “Lookin’ Back at Luckenbach,” is the true story of an unforgettable trip in 1976. My songwriting partner, Lee Owens, called from San Antonio with unexpected news: We had been invited to perform at the city’s River Festival, and an airline ticket was waiting for me. When I arrived in San Antone, I met Hondo Crouch, the colorful owner and self-appointed mayor of Luckenbach, Texas. After Lee and I performed, Hondo invited us to visit Luckenbach—population four—where we passed guitars around a woodstove before riding across the Texas countryside to his ranch. Lee and I still remember that perfect day and I wrote this song to remember it.

The final song, “Picasso,” merges Pablo Picasso with Western Swing. Actually, Picasso never visited America, but this tall tale story song “paints” him as a secret traveler, landing in El Paso, where he meets a young Texas girl and is hired to create a rodeo poster. Unfortunately, the local cowboys don’t appreciate his unusual artistic style. It’s a classic case of “cubes meet dudes.”

© 2026 David Ray Skinner/Electric Quilt Music, BMI