By Seth Ginsburg

It wasn’t that Richard Friedman didn’t come from a good family. His dad was a loved and respected professor of Marketing at UT (University of Texas to you foreigners). His brilliant and charming sister was a Foreign Service officer for the USA. But Kinky (named by friends because of his kinky hair) was different.

Obviously there was the creative talent. Kinky was a remarkably prolific creator of songs, books, and performances. I met him at a premier of a one act play that he wrote.

His books were extensions of the man – or at least his imagined self.  A wisecracking NYC detective prowling the Lower East Side in a kid of  Beat/Jewish/Noire world …

Further,  and more fundamentally, he was a man who loved. He sure loved friends, cigars, and dogs – not necessarily in that order – and, as we know down here, he loved Texas.

It was no surprise that he ran for Governor (“How Hard Could it Be?” was my favorite of his election slogans). He embraced Texas as a culture that refused to put limits on personal expression and cultural identification.  How else could he have founded a band called “The Texas Jewboys?”

I had a doubletake  the first time I heard him on record  – playing “The Ballad of  Charles Whitman” – a song about a crazed gunman who randomly shot at the people of Austin from the Texas Tower – killing a (then) astounding number.  Interesting (and sad) that what was, in 1966, unexplainable to the point of absurdist humor is, in the early 21st Century, a near-weekly occurrence.

I was particularly amazed by the name of his band.

Like people of any American subculture, I am aware that there are numerous ways to express one’s affiliation with a particular group.  As a Jew, I was familiar with East Coast Judaism – and its intellectual achievement. Similarly, I was familiar with the sophistication  of West Coast Jewish culture.

Before Kinky, however, I was not familiar with IN-YOUR-FACE Texas Judaism. Kinky created it as its very own  culture center of gravity. It is one that fits in with the worldview of  Kinky’s neighbors – the people of Austin- where Texas cultures are performed with joy, and everyone is loud and proud.

The proud performance of Texas Judaism apparent in the name “Texas Jewboys” (with the musical contributions of Little Jewford) made both elements of the identity seem appealing – at least to me.  Heck, now I live here!!

But then there was the sensitive and profound Kinky Friedman of “Ride ’em Jewboy” – a song that became a nightly companion to inspire Nelson Mandela during his confinement.

He was a complicated guy.

May his memory be a blessing.

• Seth Ginsburg is a Texan, by way of Pittsburg, and an author and musician. Kinky Friedman passed away on June 27th.