Intensity	Stupidity:Nudity Ratio 3:1	Budget Low

There is a certain song writing style that comes out of Texas. The songs are frequently stories. They tend to be first person and believable. They are rarely directly about love. They hardly ever reference other songwriters. There is usually a feeling of confidence and strength in the way the songs are put together and performed. And no matter how closely the song is related to the earliest forms of rock and roll, they never say those words.

Which brings us to Lubbock, Texas. Buddy Holley was born and raised in Lubbock and is buried there. Holley was a talented and innovative musician and has had a lasting impression on rock and roll despite his early death. Holley is not the only great musician to come out of this strange small town, but is probably the most well known, which is a shame. Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Lloyd Maines are very talented musicians and songwriters that most Country Western fans have never heard of. If you have not heard of them and are not already a fan, Lubbock Lights is not likely to make you want to run out and get their albums. Most of the music is very rough and lacks the production and quality of studio recordings, so anyone who needs clean, polished music is not likely to appreciate the artistry. The film is more about the musicians than the music. We don't so much get great examples of the music but we do get long interviews with the Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Lloyd Maines reminiscing to the point of rambling. Of course, it is a documentary and not a performance video, so that shouldn't be too surprising, but they did they have to tease me twice with the intro to Boxcar at one point and then show Butch Hancock playing the last few bars on guitar and harmonica? Would it have killed them to put a few complete songs like that as an Extra?

Turns out Lubbock is a dry town, that means no alcohol within city limits. Of course this means that on the other side of the highway that marks the city limits there are lots of bars with lots of live musical acts. Buddy Holley saw Elvis play one of these places in 1955 and was inspired to turn to the dark side (rock and roll). Some of the guys in the movie have played those same bars for nearly 40 years in between tours around the world. None of these musicians ever became huge stars, though Joe Ely came closest and Lloyd Maines is Natalie Maines' dad and produced their Grammy winning album Home. It was actually quite a surprise for me when Maines first came on the screen. I was sure I knew who he was but could not place him and then when I did, it brought a lot of things into focus for me. Maines played on Ely's first album in 1977 and one year later produced Terry Allen's Lubbock (on everything). Maines is a talented musician, but he is even better as a producer. Given the amount of pure talent in Lubbock and a genius like Maines it is no surprise the amount of great music that came out of the area. When the Dixie Chicks got Maines to produce their album it was not because they were throwing Natalie's poor old dad a bone. Most producers try to make you sound like someone else, Maines brings out the unique sound of the artist. That is part of the reason that Home sounds like a country album but is so much richer than most of them. The songs don't sound the same and aren't all love songs or "I remember mama" songs. There is a short interview with Natalie where she talks about telling people that her dad is a country musician, but not like those country musicians. This brought a huge smile to my face. Natalie got the Dixie Chicks into a world of hurt when she called President Bush an idiot. A small group of people started calling up radio stations that played their songs and threatened to boycott the advertisers. The radio stations caved and the Dixie Chicks all but vanished from radio though they still had a strong concert following. When they released a new album in 2006 which featured the extremely non-apologetic "I'm not ready to make nice" the record hit number one on the Country charts without any country radio airplay. So when she talks about "those country musicians", I have a pretty clear idea of who she is talking about.

I have always maintained that in order for me to respect a musician, they must be able to sit down with one instrument and their voice and impress me. This movie was filled with musicians that impressed me. I dearly would have loved to have been able to see much more of this footage. Overall this is a pretty effective documentary created by a fan. The musicians are all presented in a very good light. Any skeletons that might be around are safely left in the closet. The movie does make it sound like Lubbock is the alternative country music capital of the world, which is not quite true. Other Texas artists like Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, and even Lyle Lovett play with a similar style. Perhaps all that time sitting around the campfire and entertaining each other taught these latter day cowboys how to tell stories. Maybe living a hard life made tough times seem transitory and endurable. Most songs you listen to the lyrics for a clever phrase or two, these guys write songs that you listen to the lyrics to find out what happens next. Is Lubbock the best place to hear this type of music, maybe. Is it the only place to hear it, definitely not. Are all the best players there, sorry, but no. There are some other really good Texas songwriters that don't live in Texas not to mention Tom Russell who was born in LA and Kinky Friedman who was born in Brooklyn. As I mentioned before, if you like these artists you will find this documentary pretty enjoyable. Don't rent it if you are not sure on the musical style, it does not do a good job of showcasing the music.

The title of the film "Lubbock Lights" is in reference to a famous UFO incident from 1951 where not only were there sightings of several V shaped formations of lights, but someone actually got a few pictures that have been endlessly reproduced. The government's UFO experts explained them away as Plovers being illuminated by the new brighter street lights, but not everyone bought that explanation. Our musicians in the movie take the joke and run with it, but what can you expect from a bunch of self proclaimed bull shitters? These guys spend a lot of time sitting around topping each others tall tales, so what do you think their response to such a leading question would be? I'll give you a hint, it is not going to be "no". I was vaguely expecting one of them to seriously start taking about playing for little green men one night.

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