Two years ago I was in Dallas and ended up stranded due to snow, sleeping on the airport floor with the cowboys, cowgirls and other interstate interients. So it was with a sense of contented anticipation when I escaped the sprawling airport’s tentacles. Arriving in Austin it was uplifting to hear a Lucinda Williams track seeping from the airport P.A. system rather the moozak or the chatter of competing flight calls. The last time I had an enduring impression of an airport was several years ago in New Orleans where a portable bar dispensed cocktails as you waited for your bags…for many that may have been the last thing they remembered. Anchoring my 36 hours in town was a pilgrimage to catch John Prine in concert. For the first time I’d secured the tickets through Twitter… a good thing as it turned out, sitting in row 5, centre in the three level auditorium.

Opening for Mr Prine was Jim Lauderdale who got a toes the twitching and tapping with his Bluegrass tinged jangle. A major Nashville songwriting talent, he has filled his cowboy boots with the proceeds of songs like Twang which is the title track from the latest George Strait album. I especially enjoyed “King of Broken Hearts” which he wrote as a tribute to George Jones. Jones hasn’t recorded it yet but Strait has. Talked to him after his set and he has played Tamworth as wants to play Bluesfest. As I took my seat for the main event I noted that unlike earlier in the week there was not a beret in sight, just lots of beards and denim. Then in a sign that I had spent too much time in planes in the past week I then went through the motions of fumbling for a seatbelt. It wasn’t required for this trip. Prine walked out to a returning hero’s welcome, thunderous applause and whistles before he had the chance to spin one of his yarns. Part of his story is surviving throat cancer so a husky quality to his voice comes from physical suffering. While his eyes sparkle, yours start to glisten as he sketches portraits of loneliness, ageing and quiet despair. What makes all this palatable is his wistful wit, distinctive phrasing and elegance of delivery. That is way Dylan rates him one of the best.

This is how you become lost in Texas…