The 1970s produced an amazing crop of Texas singer-songwriters, though few have survived without some, shall we say, "life experiences." Transforming the pain and confusion of such experiences into self-revelatory, tight-rocking songs is what the Texas troubadour tradition is all about.

On his latest release "Eternal and Lowdown" on Philo Records, a subsidiary of the roots music specialist label Rounder Records, leading Texas figure Ray Wylie Hubbard shows us how it's done.

After years kicking around Texas, New Mexico and the West with numerous ill-fated bands, Hubbard first made his mark in 1973 with the infamous "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," which paid the rent and bar bills and eventually got him a record contract.

But hard times -- and an extended break -- followed. Then, in 1994, he finally got back to writing and recording under his own name, and the five excellent CDs since have been filled with wry, gutsy songs based on his feelings about life's unexpected twists.

The new songs capture hilarious, embarrassing and depressing memories of his now-over heavy-drinking and drugging years, summed up in "Three Days Straight": "Seven old dogs in the backyard/Six cat gut strings on an old guitar/Three days straight I been puttin'/Everything I own in an old mason jar."

Hubbard tosses off lines right and left with an ironic, clever eye that is as gently self-mocking as it is accepting of the ups and downs of life. On the unapologetic "Don't Bother Asking Me," he gets his priorities straight: "Now you can't tell me I don't care/It's just I'd rather cast a spell than say a prayer/I don't know why I do what I do/I just do."

But more than just a collection of clever insights, Hubbard's songs have a coherence to them that marks them more as poetry than punch lines. He's a storyteller, and a good one, who sets catchy melodies behind his rambling tales of poker-playing, drinking, redemption and tangling with the forces of nature, by which he means, of course, women. On the talking blues of "Joy Ride," the beginning of an affair starts with the observation, "I don't know if she had seen the light, she seemed at home in the dark."

The music is accented by the swirling background organ of ex-Faces' and ex-Stones' keyboardist Ian McLagan as well as the dobro, violin and steel guitar of a tight band of southern rockers. Producer Gurf Morlix (who has worked with Lucinda Williams, among others) adds tasty, second guitar and lifts Hubbard's lyrics right up to the center, where they belong. Along with Steve Earle, Charlie Robison, Kevin Gordon and Robert Earl Keen,to name a few, Hubbard is keeping the craft of blues-rock-country songwriting very much alive.