I Don't Want to Live in Texas When It's May

"I Don't Want to Live In Texas When It's May" is a family collaboration - I wrote a poem which became lyrics once my son Ted set them to music. For the video the instruments are all played by Ted, Diane is in charge of images and your blogger "Annie in Austin" is the singer.

But for my play Roots In Austin this song belongs to the character Caroline.

I don't want to be in Texas when it's May ... no, the place I long to be is far away.

She may be having fun as an Austinite now, but she misses Illinois when the lilacs bloom at Lilacia Park in Lombard.






Most of this song sounds like a rollicking beer joint tune, but one stanza was designed for flower geeks. If you can't catch some of the lilac names, here's a transcription:

Just the list of names is wonderful to me -
"Ludwig Spaeth", "President Lincoln", "Charles Joly".
The Syringa roam worldwide -
let petite "Miss Kim" inside,
Happy members of one great big family.

All songs, performances and videos are copyrighted. This video made for station stsrec.