I first saw Rusty Wier the night he opened for BW Stevenson at the new arena at North Texas State University in 1974. Little Ricky drove up from Longview to see BW, and I had bought two tickets to the concert so that he could introduce me to BW. Rusty was a bonus, but a darned good one, as he stole the show from a drunk and petulant BW Stevenson.

 I bought Rusty's album Stoned, Slow, Rugged soon after and played his rendition of 5 O'clock On A Texas Morning more than I have played any other song in my life. I associated Rusty with my new longing to move to Austin, with my long-time love, Jan. The bitter longing of Rusty's 5 O'clock would prove prescient ; Jan dumped me twice in the two years, and as her love went cold I was left with Rusty Wier-laced memories of a relationship that took me years to process.

 Later, not long before I married, I took another love, Jeannie--the woman who almost came between me and my soon-to-be wife--to see a Rusty Wier performance, in a bar--I forget the name, but in the space now occupied by Antone's--on 5th Street in Austin. At one point, I slipped Rusty a $5 to play  5 O'clock On A Texas Morning, and he played it beautifully, and just for Jeannie and me.

A couple of years back, I heard Rusty was playing Hanover's, Pflugerville's premiere (and only) music venue. Laura and I walked to the bar, arriving early and finding a table near the stage.  Rusty entertained a drunk and disorderly crowd, played my favorite song, and even invited his son on stage at one point. But the ambiance at Hanover's left a lot to be desired. Smoke-filled and loud, and crowded with the chaos of too many shit-faced patrons, the venue was unworthy of such a beautific presence as Rusty Wier.

Rusty had bigger hits than my personal fave. Don't It Make You Wanna Dance was his trademark opener and closer. And the very funny song included on the above video, I Hear You Been Laying My Old Lady, was much more of a crowd favorite than my pick. (He once confided to an audience that I Hear You Been Laying My Old Lady took him all of an hour to write and that he didn't think all that much of the song, himself.) I always thought he was best singing sad songs. Gentle and talented, he could wring all of tears from a tear-jerker, and his trademark 5 O'clock on a Texas Morning was the king of tear-jerkers. Rusty Wier, along with his unforgettable interpretation of this song, made an indelible impression of an impressionable young man, and I will never forget him or his music.

The Austin American-Statesman reported today that Rusty Wier died yesterday, in Driftwood, Texas, after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.