Hubbard still gains converts as 'the Wylie Lama'

Should Ray Wylie Hubbard ever tire of songwriting and singing, he could just as easily transition into storytelling, poetry, screenplays or nonfiction. He certainly has ample raw material.

Hubbard, like Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker and Jerry Lee Lewis, has outlasted a wild and turbulent life to emerge as a survivor.

Maybe it has something to do with going forth armed with three names, not just two? (Townes Van Zandt, who had been one Hubbard's Texas cohorts, was not as fortunate, Hubbard might note.)

Whatever their secrets, Hubbard makes no secret of his transition to sobriety, thanks to advice he got from the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, who himself had sobered up before he died in a helicopter crash.

"I always say I'm keeping faith in myself," Hubbard says. "One of my maxims is to always keep my level of gratitude higher than my expectations."

It was 1987 when Hubbard left alcohol behind and started his life anew, as it were. In 1989 he married his wife, Judy, whom he had first met when she was the 16-year-old door girl at a Dallas club, Mother Blues. (It had only taken them some 15 years to reconnect.) With her help, booking his tours, publicizing them and selling merchandise at the shows, he began to record and tour again.

His newfound wisdom and maturity have even caused some young musicians who have sought out his advice to dub Hubbard "the Wylie Lama."

He proudly notes that former Beatle Ringo Starr (also a recovering alcoholic) sat in on the 2012 recording session for Hubbard's album, The Grifter's Hymnal, when Hubbard did a version of Starr's song, "Coochy Coochy." And a more recent honor occurred in late May when Joe Walsh invited Hubbard to open a show when Walsh went out on tour with Bad Company.

Poised to turn 70 in November, Hubbard has made peace with the Faustian bargain of that novelty hit, "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," he wrote and recorded in the 1970s. No matter that his old running buddy, Jerry Jeff Walker, first recorded the anthem that some say brought together the unlikely alliance of hippies and rednecks. Hubbard is still expected to sing it nightly, if not more than once.

"I have fun with it," he says. "I still enjoy it. It's not a burden. I still enjoy it."

There's even the chance that another of his songs, "Snake Farm," from the 2006 album of the same name, is slowly emerging as a more recent crowd favorite.

In 2010, Hubbard co-wrote a screenplay that became the film The Last Rites of Ransom Pride, a Western that starred Kris Kristofferson and Dwight Yoakam.

Hubbard -- who embraces, folk, blues, country and rock in his music -- shows no signs of slowing down, having notched two accomplishments in the last year: He released his 16th album, The Ruffian's Misfortune, and published his autobiography, a life ... well, lived, with help from co-author Thom Jurek.

"I have the exquisite pleasure these days of having our son, Lucas Hubbard, playing guitar in my band, so I think I can say life is good," Hubbard says. "Lucas has a great old Les Paul guitar that he hasn't pawned yet, which I had once done, and he takes all the 'rides' on that electric. We have Kyle Snider on drums.

"There's a pretty good arsenal of songs we do, a pretty good repertoire of crowd-pleasing songs, and I'm very grateful for that."

In an unusual touch, Judy Hubbard wrote the afterword in her husband's book, and puts their happy life together in perspective, saying "I have a husband who after 23 years still causes my heart to melt when he straps on his guitar, who continues to reinvent himself as an artist and who has added 'screenwriter' and 'record producer' to his list of accomplishments."

Opening act Aaron Lee Tasjan has worked with Jack White, Kevn Kinney of Drivin' N' Cryin', Sean Lennon, Ian McLagen, Nigel Harrison and Pat Green. A native of New Albany, Ohio, he released the debut album In the Blazes in October.

Weekend on 06/09/2016