Brazos River - Cultural References

Cultural References

• John Graves' travel narrative Goodbye to a River takes place on the Brazos River.
• The Brazos river is mentioned in the Old Crow Medicine Show song "Take 'em away".
• The Brazos River is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's song "Across The Border".
• The river is the setting of the American folk song "Ain't No More Cane".
• The John Hiatt song "The River Knows Your Name" from the album Walk On references the Brazos river.
• K.R. Wood's Fathers of Texas song "Brazos River Song" sang by the late Townes Van Zandt.
• The Brazos River is mentioned in three Lyle Lovett songs: "Walk Through the Bottomland"; "Texas River Song" on the Step Inside This House album; and "Front Porch Song", which Lovett co-wrote with Robert Earl Keen, on Lovett's eponymous first recording.
• The river is mentioned in the Dub Miller song, "Livin on Lonestar Time".
• The song "There's No More Corn On The Brasos" was a hit in the 70's from the Dutch band called The Walkers.
• The river is forded by "The Kid" character in Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian
• The lukewarm headwaters of the Mighty Brazos River is the source of Alamo Beer in Fox Network's King of the Hill.
• Billy Walker mentioned the Brazos in "Cross the Brazos at Waco"
• The former boomtown and subsequent virtual ghost town of Desdemona in Eastland County, founded in 1857, was the first Texas community located west of the Brazos River.
• The Brazos is the focal point of a song performed by Gov't Mule and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top called "Broke Down on the Brazos".
• A version of "Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos" sung by Rick Danko, Janis Joplin, and others, can be seen on the music documentary Festival Express
• In 1980 Lester Bangs recorded the album Jook Savages on the Brazos with the Austin punk group The Delinquents.
• Numerous references to the Brazos River, especially its flooding, can be found in James A. Michener's Historically based novel "Texas"
• Warren Haynes and his band Government Mule wrote "Broke Down On the Brazos" released on the album "By a Thread".
• In The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again Elderly former Texas Rangers use "Brazos" as a rallying call, with the meaning "A ranger needs help".