Sing Along - The Woods Boots

This was the first song I wrote after I released Rescue.  It’s always a weird thought about what that next song will sound like especially after it has been many years making a record.

“The Woods Boots” is about Lindsey taking a pregnancy test at the Woods Boots in Colorado City, TX the weekend we were in Robert Lee, Texas for Tyler Wallace’s wedding.  I was given the honor of playing the pre-wedding music out in a canyon on the Wallace ranch where Tyler and Allison got married.  I decided my “look” wouldn’t be complete without a cowboy hat—an accessory I somehow evaded for my 36 years as a Texan.  I figured rightly so that there would be some sort of badass western wear or cowboy hat store somewhere close by.  I looked it up and Woods Boots had some notoriety in the area.

We decided to go eat lunch first at a place called Lucy’s.  It was a typical sort of west Texas cafe/restaurant sort of place.  I had a chicken fried steak which was OK.  I forget what Lindsey had.  She thought the food was great.  This was suspiciously out of character for her as she generally does not like any food we get when we eat out.  I didn’t think much of it because Lucy’s did have a sort of west Texas charm.  The empty streets of Colorado City made the cafe feel like the town center even though this was probably just the rhythm of a normal day in Colorado City.

After a sufficient amount of chicken fried steak, a sort of mediocre side salad, and a disappointing Pepsi, we headed to Woods Boots.

Like most western wear and boot stores, Woods Boots is a large building sitting atop a large parking lot in need of repair after many hot, dry summers.  We walked in and felt like the outsiders we were.  I asked to try on a few cowboy hats I thought I liked, but shockingly, there were very few hats which would fit my (apparently) large head.  I guess I learned two things that day.

I found a hat— not really the material or color I wanted—but it was a hat that fit and I sort of liked that it was a stye I would not have picked for myself.  Apparently the rule is that you should wear straw in summer and wool in winter.  This wedding was in spring but in Texas everything feels like summer.  It was a Stetson and came in a fancy Stetson hat box which I still have.  It blew off my head one time while we were on the Wallace family property which was embarrassing, but I looked like a real folk/roots musician in the few photos that were taken of me so I call it a win.

And my cowboy hat did look good.  It’s a dark green color and looks like a hat someone would wear to a wedding.

I found myself to be somewhat distracted at the reception after the ceremony.  Had I not been so enveloped in pondering what my life would look like once I had a plane on the runway I might have really partied at Tyler’s wedding.  I kept thinking about the thing that was going on with my partner and our little (growing) organization.  So after I played and did my service to Tyler and Alison I stayed the requisite time and left—which is a sad thing to do at Tyler Wallace’s wedding.  I was too distracted by the thought of being a dad to really be able to enjoy the reception.  I did make Lindsey be the designated driver on the weirdly long journey back to the hotel in Colorado City.  I kept saying “I’m going to be a good dad” both for Lindsey’s benefit and my own.

Download or stream “The Woods Boots Woods” from Bandcamp.