Fresh news delivered to you every day. Visit our Circulation department for print subscription information. His name is Charlie Robison, and he's alive and well down in Bandera. No one outside of Steve Earle is as good at writing songs about small towns as Robison.
People help each other out.
But because I'm a writer and a liberal, I don't like the small-mindedness. Still, I only feel the need to go into San Antonio once a year. Robison's songs are full of characters that are instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in any dusty speck of a town. When you come from a small town you walk a tightrope between being successful and being the town dumbass. I managed to be both.