When Kinky Friedman came to Abilene

The passing of Kinky Friedman is reverberating not just around the Lone Star State, but across the nation as well.

The 79 year-old musician, satirist and former Texas gubernatorial candidate died at his home in Medina, according to the Texas Tribune, fighting Parkinson's disease in his later years.

For Abilenians, Friedman's most notable appearance in recent memory came in July 2006 when he challenged Gov. Rick Perry in the general election. He appeared at Texas Star Trading Co. during that run, autographing a new book and holding court within the store as fans and the curious came by to take in the spectacle.

I'd drawn the assignment to photograph him for the paper. Nearly 18 years to the day later, I recall him as a self-assured man with more than a bit of swagger, his large cigar as much of a prop as a personal vice. I wondered then how much of this appearance was promotional book tour versus political appearance, perhaps both were in equal measure.

He quipped and quoted throughout the event, and if he said something outrageous, it went past me. At the time, he was the latest in a line of populist candidates running for a high-profile office, which also garnered him no small measure of national attention, as well.

Looking back, one can recognize him as one of the cultural gadflies in danger of evaporating from the popular zeitgeist as the age of social media has metastasized within our shared discourse.

With so many Facebook pages, X posts, Instagram influencers and Tik-Tokers, could a Kinky Friedman flower once more? Can a signal pierce that noise?

Maybe it already has. But with so many voices, how to find it?