Ray Wylie Hubbard with Jeff Plankenhorn

Ray Wylie Hubbard is a legendary Texas singer/songwriter whose tough but literate music ranges from personal introspection to rowdy barroom anthems.

A leading figure of the progressive country movement of the 1970s, singer/songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard remains best known for authoring the perennial anthem “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother.” Born November 13, 1946, in Soper, Oklahoma, Hubbard and his family relocated to Dallas during the mid-’50s. There he learned to play guitar, eventually forming a folk group with fellow aspiring musician Michael Martin Murphey.

From his humble beginnings as an Oklahoma folkie in the ’60s to his wild ride through the ’70s progressive country movement, and onward through the honky-tonk fog of the ’80s to his sobriety-empowered comeback as a songwriter’s songwriter in the ’90s, Ray Wylie Hubbard was already a bona fide legend by the time he really found his groove right at the turn of the century. That’s when he finally felt confident enough in his guitar playing to dive headlong into his own inimitable take on the blues.