Where does this come from? I understand that this genre does draw on Texas blues traditions to some degree, especially the "barrelhouse" tradition and classic hard rocking blues pioneers from T-Bone Walker and Gatemouth Brown to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

But Texas blues traditions are much broader and richer than the roots of rock. In fact, one very rich Texas tradition could be thought of as the very antithesis of the post-modern blues rock bands: the introspective blues of artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Texas Alexander, and Lightnin Hopkins, people who "took their time to play it right" and made an effort to really deliver the message of a blues song.

At any rate, it bothers me that the name "Texas Blues," which stands with Mississippi Blues as one of the richest and oldest southern blues traditions, is being co-opted by new blues-rock bands. I have mixed feelings about a number of these bands too. Too often it comes across more as a parody of the blues than the blues itself, frantic tempos, corny swamp echoes lifted from old Excello records, lead guitar licks coming at you continually like from a machine gun, and screeching vocals like fingernails on a blackboard.

Slim

The strong contribution of the Texas/Oklahoma area to jazz is also sometimes overlooked, due in part to the fact that too little of it was recorded. But that area boasted some of the greatest jazz and swing bands of the 20s and 30s. What came to be known as the Kansas City sound, that special hard swinging and deeply blue jazz style, had roots in the Texas area.