One thing that might be fun is to survey some of the Texas related vinyl 78 rpm recordings on the Internet Archive. We could do several podcasts on that topic alone.
I love many of these old recordings and I especially love the western and cowboy tunes. From Gene Autry to Woody Herman and Bing Crosby.
Many songs are tall tales
Here's a quick taste from 1942 called "The Texas Song (A Cowboy Lament)" by "Texas" Jim Robertson with Orchestra; Bob Miller and Vasca Suede.
As we start out, I intend to cover all kinds of historical media (books, recordings, stories, narratives, poems, art, etc) that is freely available online and related to Texas history.
Over time, we may focus more on specific works, but for now, let's take it all in and see where it leads us.
Let me know if you'd like more of these recordings and some discussion around the songs and the performers.
Here are the lyrics:
I'm going to leave old Texas now They've got no use for the long-horn cow They've plowed and fenced my cattle range And the people there are all so strange I'll take my horse and I'll take my rope And hit the trail upon a lope Say adios to the Alamo And turn my head toward Mexico The hard, hard ground shall be my bed And my saddle seat shall hold my head And when my ride on Earth is done I'll take my chances with the Holy One I'll tell Saint Peter that I know A cowboy's soul ain't white as snow Yet in that far-off cattle land He sometimes acted like a man