Kevin shows the way to this music review by Houston "We-Wish-We-Were-In-Frisco" Press music critic William Michael Smith, who uses what is ostensibly a review of F-Co's latest album to rip into Texas Country Music.

Unfortunately, impressive press kits aside, [F-Co's] The King of Texas is simply another entry in the overcrowded, rapidly-going-stale Texicana New Wave, where me-too bands are cloned faster than lab rats.
[...]
The King of Texas follows the commercially successful least-common-denominator formula developed in the Pat Green kitchen and scrupulously imitated by Cory Morrow and a jillion other neo-Texas country acts that are almost indistinguishable from one another in their kitschy taco'd straw hats. Those partial to music that doesn't dare even the slightest deviation from the original mashed potatoes recipe will probably catapult The King of Texas to the top of our Texas music charts with considerable haste. Yee-haw. Yeah, buddy.

I come here not to praise F-Co, a band that I was probably the least impressed with when we saw them open up for Roger Wilko (whom I'm positive that Mr. Smith would put into the redundant category as well). I come to bury Smith's idiotic notion that Texas Country Music is built on conformity.

In fact, that Cory Morrow is the only one he specifically mentions merely illustrates that point. Just about everyone else he could mention has significant distinctions from Green. Juxtaposing Morrow and Green as an example of the subgenre's monotony is itself redundant because Green and Morrow have been juxtaposed since day one. Why? Because they went to Texas Tech together. They used to play Wednesday night shows together at a bar in Lubbock. They are artistic siblings. Morrow isn't imitating Green any more than the reverse, and Green being signed first (Morrow was actually in talks with a label a few years ago, but they broke down) doesn't suddenly make Morrow an imitator.

There are others that could plausibly fit this format. Roger Creager has a number of beer hall tunes, but he also has a Tejano tune and a touching anthem about getting his deceased grandfather's guns. Kevin Fowler might if you read his lyrics sheet, but his sound is different from most of the subgenre (I don't care for it much, personally, but many many others disagree). Dub Miller writes about beer halls, but also cowboys reacting to the changing world around them. And of course love songs. They've all got love songs that have nothing to do with "kitschy taco'd straw hats."

Now, not having heard F-Co's CD, they may well be the band with nothing else to offer but derivatives of Green, Morrow, Creager et al. If Smith were to leave it at that, neither Kevin nor I would be compelled to write about it. But to dismiss the entire subset would be analogous to dismissing a Smith favorite, Max Stalling, cause Stalling's work is similar to Robert Earl Keen's with only half the range of music.

But Stalling, in Smith's assessment and mine, has quite a bit of talent. Stalling has a narrow range of music but does it extraordinarily well. Why doesn't Smith spend more time explaining why F-Co doesn't have talent (and they might not) and less time explaining why those of us who enjoy the music are mindless conformists with no apparent taste in music.