Denton: Ray Wylie Hubbard at the University of North Texas

In the fall of 1965, Ray Wylie Hubbard enrolled at North Texas State University (now called the University of North Texas) in Denton as an English major. The university sat in a North Texas college town already developing a reputation for serious music. Moreover, the school’s jazz program was one of the finest in the country, and its students absorbed musical influences that went far beyond standard country and pop sounds. Consequently, Denton gave Hubbard not only a college education but an immersion in a world where music was taken seriously as art.

Ray Wylie Hubbard was drawn to folk music during his Denton years. The folk revival of the early 1960s had swept through college campuses nationwide, and North Texas State was no exception. In particular, the hootenanny tradition brought young musicians together in informal settings to play, listen, and develop their craft.

The young Hubbard spent summers during this period in Red River, New Mexico, playing folk music with a trio called Three Faces West. It was during these college years that he began seriously developing the voice and writing style that would eventually produce some of the most celebrated songs in outlaw country.

Denton: The University Town That Shaped an Outlaw

It was during those New Mexico summers that Hubbard wrote “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother.” The song became famous when Jerry Jeff Walker recorded it in 1973 on his live album Viva Terlingua, captured at Luckenbach, Texas. Consequently, a song born from the college folk scene eventually became one of the defining anthems of Texas outlaw country.

The University of North Texas in Denton is now one of the largest universities in Texas. It continues its tradition of producing serious musicians who carry the state’s heritage forward. Today, the campus stands as a landmark of Texas music culture — and the English major who enrolled there in 1965 went on to change American music.