in

Okemah, and after the government there came to terms with the whole

political aspect of it, they put him in the Oklahoma Music Hall of

Fame and the governor came out to the opening of the exhibit,"

LaFave adds.

"Texoma" is LaFave’s sixth album for Rounder Records, and,

unlike others who are part of the Austin scene, LaFave makes it his

business to get out on the road and tour every year, as opposed to

staying home in Texas — which many Austin-based musicians tend

to do. LaFave says that like Guthrie before him, he gets inspired

to write songs by going out on the road.

"There’s so much music here and in the outlying areas that a lot

of musicians here fall into that velvet rut, and they just play here

in Texas. There’s 26 million people here, and they just eat Mexican

food and live inexpensively," he says, "it’s kind of a trade

off. You can be a big fish in a small pond, or, like me, occasionally

get out on the road and play for 30 people in a small coffee house

where nobody knows who you are. But I find my inspiration out on the

road."

Asked how he writes songs on the road, when so many other musicians

are too wrapped up in the business of getting to the next gig and

getting a proper sound check in before show time, LaFave says he

travels

with a tape recorder in his pocket.

"If I see a billboard and like the words on it, when I get back

to the motel I’ll work on it. For the most part, my songs come from

my road experiences," he says. He agrees with the notion that

it’s very much in the tradition of Guthrie to write songs based on

"Goin’ Down The Road." A glance at the "Texoma"

album’s

song titles tells you more: "On a Bus to St. Cloud," "Rock

and Roll Music to the World," "Red Dirt Song," and "On

the Road to Rock and Roll" are all here.

The folk music magazine "Dirty Linen" describes

"Texoma’s"

sound as "a mixture of rock, folk, rockabilly, country, and

singer-songwriter."

Asked about the roots element that’s not mentioned — the blues

— and LaFave says the blues influence is there as well. He loves

the music of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and other

pioneers in the idiom. "Austin is still a great blues town,"

he says, "when I moved here in 1986, Stevie Ray Vaughan was still

around, and I used to love to go and see him. J.J. Cale has always

been one of my favorite performers," he adds.

"I’ve always loved all the roots music groups of America, blues

and folk, rockabilly and country, everything from Chuck Berry to

Robert

Johnson to Dylan to Bob Wills, Hank Williams and the other older

country

music people," says LaFave.

"I read somewhere that you are what you listen to musically, so

I try not to listen to anything that’s too derivative. I came to

Austin

when Stevie Ray Vaughan was still around, and since then, hundreds

of young kids have moved here trying to be Stevie Ray. I’d rather

go and listen to Albert King or Hubert Sumlin. And I’d rather listen

to Dylan than anyone who’s derivative of Dylan," he explains.

Asked what he makes of this legion of young singer-songwriter types

who don’t know traditional folk songs, LaFave says every once in a

while someone comes along who restores his faith. At the Folk Alliance

conference in Florida, in February, he heard Serene Ryder, a

19-year-old

from Canada. She restored his faith, he says.

"I asked her who she was influenced by and she says, `Roger

Miller,

Leonard Cohen, Hank Williams, and Etta James.’ And then when I asked

her about Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle, she says, `I’m not really

familiar with them.’ I was just so amazed she was into Hank Williams,

and she’s in like five different bands." LaFave has had Ryder

open several shows for him at the University of Texas’ Cactus Cafe,

an Austin folk music venue.

At the Unitarian Church in Titusville on Saturday, LaFave will play

acoustic/electric guitar. He’ll be accompanied by Will Landin on bass

and Danny Click on electric guitar. "Lately, as I’ve gotten older,

my ears are more comfortable playing acoustic guitar," he says.

"They’ll be a little bit of blues, a little bit of rockabilly,

all the roots, and some basic Woody Guthrie and some Dylan. I’m amazed

at the number of young people coming up to me at shows, mistakenly

thinking I wrote some great Dylan song," he says, "Again,

jewels by Dylan and Guthrie shouldn’t just fade away."

— Richard J. Skelly