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A Little Bit of West Texas Trivia

By Jim Richards

 A number of years ago there was an Irish gentleman that came to the El Paso area to settle. He thought he would like farming and ranching so he picked a chunk of land near a little settlement at the foot of the Guadalupe Mountains which is now known as Dell City. He raised his family there in the shadow of El Capitan but had one daughter that seemed to be particularly fond of music. I got to know her because the Irish gentleman had, after his first marriage, some years later married my cousin. (My cousin had also been from a West Texas ranching family but was divorced).

 The daughter moved to Dallas and one day while she was visiting us in Houston, she told me she was originating a vocal musical group in Dallas and that I should come hear the group sing. She had joined up with two sisters that were musically quite talented so she wrote a number of songs and put the group together and picked a name for the group. From time to time she would call me to come hear them when they would perform in small clubs in Houston and we never failed to go. They traveled from town to town in an old van that was their home and dressing room. There were not large crowds and sometimes only 25 to 50 folks would appear to hear the trio, but as they got better they were noticed by Nashville and appeared on many of the Nashville Network programs. The also began to tour county fairs and even did a tour in Japan.

 One day however we heard they were playing at a small place called the Brazos River Bottom in Fort Bend County and when we sat down for the performance our lead singer Irish gal was not present. I went up to the two sisters and asked them where she was. They said she was tiring of the road and had left the band and that they had brought on a new singer to try and keep the group together. We watched the new gal sing and thought she was not a great replacement at the time but she seemed to gain confidence as the performance went on.

 Later, I ran into our Irish lassie at the Texas OU game and I asked her why she left. She told me that she was getting married, was really tired of the traveling, and that she wanted to stay home and raise her daughter.

 The group went on to perform and only a year later the world really discovered their talents. The Irish lady’s name was Laura Lynch, the founder of the group of whom you all know now as  “The Dixie Chicks”.  The replacement singer was Natalie Maines.

 As Paul Harvey would say…”now you know the rest …of the story”

 Jim Richards

2001