Odessa, Texas

Everything Odessa is known for

35 songs mention this city 40 artists from here

Odessa, Texas, a city in West Texas known for its oil and gas industry, has a notable connection to music. Our collection features 34 songs that mention Odessa and 40 artists who call it home. Among these artists is the country group Treaty Oak Revival, and the city is also referenced in songs like "Odessa" by Charley Crockett.

The city's musical offerings include venues like the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center, which hosts a variety of performances from classical to contemporary genres.

Music in Odessa

Songs About Odessa

Your Hand in Mine (w/Strings)
Explosions In the Sky
85%
Sonho Dourado
Daniel Lanois
85%
Seagull
Bad Company
85%
Odessa
Charley Crockett
82%
"I've got Odessa on my mind, I stay worried all the time"
Odessa
Sam Baker
82%
"He was an Odessa boy with a daddy in the money"
Odessa
Caribou
80%
"Song about Odessa"
Odessa
Animals As Leaders
80%
"Song about Odessa"
Odessa (Live from the Ryman)
Charley Crockett
80%
"Song about Odessa"
odessa
COVET
80%
"Song about Odessa"
Pipeliner
Teague Brothers Band
55%
"Snorted my per diem on the way home from Odessa"
Loving County
Charlie Robison
54%
"And I worked the rigs on out in Odessa"
West Texas Degenerate
Treaty Oak Revival
53%
"Well I'm headed to Odessa"
Corsicana Lemonade
White Denim
52%
"From Odessa up to Dumas"
South Texas Tradition
John Baumann
49%
"They ain't seen a woman since Jag's in Odessa"
Odessa Snow
Micky & the Motorcars
45%
An Ugly Fact of Life
Explosions In the Sky
25%
The Sky Above, the Field Below
Explosions In the Sky
24%
To West Texas
Explosions In the Sky
23%
Your Hand in Mine (Goodbye)
Explosions In the Sky
23%
Lonely Train
Explosions In the Sky
23%

Showing top 20 of 35 songs

Artists From Odessa

T
Treaty Oak Revival
country Pop: 78
N
Nathan Milstein
classical Pop: 59
P
Patrick B Ray
country Pop: 55
C
Creed Fisher
country Pop: 46
T
The Shades
rock Pop: 41
C
Cindy Cruse Ratcliff
gospel Pop: 38
S
Starkid
other Pop: 33
F
Follow the Awakened
metal Pop: 32
T
The Velvets
r-n-b Pop: 29
S
Stefani Montiel
latin Pop: 24
I
Inna Faliks
classical Pop: 22
A
Al Perkins
country Pop: 19
H
H. Owen Reed
classical Pop: 19
M
Mishka Ziganoff
folk Pop: 16
I
Irving Mills
jazz Pop: 15
A
Ania Dorfmann
classical Pop: 14
K
Knights Bridge
rock Pop: 14
R
Ronnie Smith
metal Pop: 11
J
Jack Eric Williams
other Pop: 11
S
Sam H. Stept
other Pop: 11

Showing top 20 of 40 artists

Rivers & Roads in Song near Odessa

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Odessa.

Interstate 20 10 songs

History of Odessa

Odessa, TX RoadyGoat

Odessa. The name itself echoes across the plains, a little slice of Ukraine planted right here in West Texas. It's a place where the horizon stretches forever, dotted with mesquite and prickly pear, a land carved by hard work and shaped by a spirit you won't find anywhere else. Interstate 20 cuts through it, a concrete river linking us to the rest of the world, but Odessa keeps its own rhythm. You might not expect a place this far out to breed so much talent, but look closer.

Westside, TX RoadyGoat

Westside, Texas, wasn’t named for grand vistas or westward ambition, just its simple location west of other settlements sprouting up along the newly laid railroad tracks back in the late 1800s. That railroad, though, was everything. It connected the cotton and grain fields blanketing this part of the Brazos River watershed to the wider world, drawing in folks looking for opportunity. While the town's name might not hint at it, the echoes of those early families are still felt in the bones of this place. You can feel it most strongly on Friday nights beneath the stadium lights. High school football isn't just a game here; it’s a ritual, a shared experience passed down through generations. The cheers echo the hopes and dreams of a community tied to this land. Maybe that’s why the local legend of a time capsule buried near the old schoolhouse resonates so deeply – it's a reminder that even in a place as unchanging as Westside seems, time still marches on, carrying stories with it. The slow pace here isn’t stagnation, it’s a quiet appreciation for the roots that run deep, watered by the same river that fed those first cotton crops.

Westside, TX RoadyGoat

Westside, Texas: it's a place that might not jump out on a map, but it holds a certain charm. Established back when the railroads were snaking through the state, it sprung up west of its neighbors, hence the name. Standing here at 420 feet, you get a slightly better view of the surrounding lands than you might expect. Cotton fields and grain silos still dot the landscape, a reminder that agriculture is the heart and soul of this place. But Westside is more than just fields and quiet roads. It’s a community, and you feel that most strongly on Friday nights at the high school football games. Everyone comes out, and for a few hours, the whole town is united under those stadium lights.

Kyle, Christopher Scott

1974

Christopher "Chris" Scott Kyle, U. S. Navy SEAL and the U.S. military's most lethal sniper, son of Wayne Kenneth Kyle and Deby Lynn (Mercer) Kyle, was born in Odessa, Texas, on April 8, 1974. Kyle grew up in rural North Central Texas. His father worked for Southwestern Bell, but the family also maintained a small cattle ranch that Chris worked with his parents and younger brother Jeff. As a small boy, Chris Kyle had a Daisy BB gun, and when he was eight years old, his father bought a 30-06 rifle for Chris to use on their hunts together. Kyle attended high school in Midlothian, and during his time there he played baseball and football and rode horses. After graduating high school in 1992, Kyle, who had been active in the Future Farmers of America, studied agriculture at Tarleton State University. At the same time, he worked as a professional bronco rider until he suffered severe injuries that resulted in a dislocated shoulder, broken ribs, a bruised kidney and lung, and the insertion of pins in his wrists. Kyle retired from bronc riding but became a ranch hand on a ranch in Hood County while he attended college classes. Kyle had often stated that his two possible ambitions focused on either ranching or joining the military. In 1996 he found himself at a shopping-mall military recruiting office. He had originally gone to talk to the army, but when they were not there, a navy recruiter informed him about the Navy SEALs. Kyle signed up but was initially rejected due to the pins in his arm. He subsequently quit school and decided to go back to ranching full-time. However, in the winter of 1997–98 he received a call back from the U. S. Navy and was invited to attend Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training in Coronado, California. He officially joined the navy in February 1999. Upon completing the six-month training course, he was eventually assigned to SEAL Team 3 in April 2001. Shortly after completion of BUD/S, Kyle met Taya Studebaker at a local bar in San Diego, California. She worked in San Diego as a pharmaceutical representative. They married in 2002 before his first deployment. They had two children, a boy and a girl. Kyle, who had gone through the SEALs extensive sniper training, served four tours during his enlistment and fought in the war known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was deployed for the initial invasion of Baghdad in 2003, to Fallujah in 2004, to Ramadi in 2006, and back to Baghdad in 2008. In the course of his career, he had a record-breaking 160 confirmed kills, although the U. S. Navy has adjusted the number through the years. During his tours, he was also twice shot and survived six improvised explosive device (IED) attacks. His expert marksmanship and courage resulted in a silver star and four bronze stars with valor. Kyle, who achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer, earned a number of military honors, including Marksmanship Medals for Rifle and Pistol Expert, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. Promoted to chief instructor, Kyle wrote the first U.S. Navy handbook for snipers. His work not only attracted the attention of the U.S. military but of his enemies as well. During his tours Kyle acquired the nickname “The Devil of Ramadi” and had a bounty of up to $80,000 placed on him by Iraqi insurgents. In 2009 Kyle retired from the Navy SEALs after four deployments and ten years of service. Saying that his departure was one of the hardest decisions he had to make, he chose to prioritize his family and address marital difficulties back at home. Kyle came back home but experienced personal challenges in the transition from war to everyday life. The family settled in Midlothian, Texas, and he started his own tactical training and security business called CRAFT International. His autobiography American Sniper (written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice was published in 2012 and became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Kyle made a number of television appear

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Permian Basin

1920

One of the two richest oil fields in the world. Discovery began in 1920 at a Mitchell County Well. Next came the 1923 big lake strike, then the wild 1925 boom in Upton County, followed by production in Andrews, Crane, Ector, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Ward, Winkler and 24 other counties. In some years new wells averaged 38 a week. Fortunes were Mae, lost, then regained--all within months. So great were yields that oil brought 50 cents a barrel, while drillers paid $5.00 a barrel for drinking water. Area is 88,610 square miles, with center here at Odessa. Extends across a deeply buried prehistoric sea that more than 250 million years ago contained much fish and reptile life, including dinosaurs. Shores and islands later grew giant vegetation, until earth changes buried animals and plants in pockets that turned hydrocarbons into petroleum. In 40 years from its discovery, the Permian Basin, was producing 53% of total oil in Texas 20% of U.S. crude oil. It is one of the world's largest producers of channel carbon black. Other by-products sulphur, asphalt, synthetic rubber ingredients and petrochemicals.

Historical Marker → · 3.0 mi away

Ector, General Matthew D.

1861

Enlisted 1861. Lieutenant 3rd Texas Cavalry. Fought Arkansas, Missouri and Indian territory. As colonel led 14th Texas Cavalry Kentucky invasion. Made brigadier general 1862 to command famed Ector's brigade in Tennessee and Mississippi battles. Wounded four times without leaving Chickamauga field. Under constant fire 70 days in Georgia. Lost leg in Atlanta 1864. Assigned to defense of Mobile, Alabama. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy erected by the state of Texas 1963,

Historical Marker →

Odessa Telephone Exchange

1897

Began operation about 1897, with Edna Fielding as "central" (operator). After Miss Fielding's death in 1902, the Rev. G. B. Ely, a baptist minister, purchased the exchange. Pioneer rancher A. Quincy Cooper bought the system in 1911, and extended service to rural areas, utilizing barbed wire fences as telephone lines. While checking his repairs on a barbed wire line on Jan. 25, 1915, Cooper interrupted the first transcontinental telephone call between Alexander Graham Bell in New York and his assistant in San Francisco. In 1928, the exchange became part of the southwestern bell telephone company.

Historical Marker →

Bush, George Herbert Walker

1944

George Herbert Walker Bush, forty-first president of the United States, was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. He was the second of five children of Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy (Walker) Bush. George Bush was named for his maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker, and he had two middle names because his parents couldn't decide whether to name him George Herbert Bush or George Walker Bush. Bush grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he attended Greenwich Country Day School. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He played baseball and soccer and was president of his senior class. When the United States entered World War II following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Bush was eager to enlist in the military. At the age of eighteen and just after graduation, he volunteered to join the United States Navy. He completed his preflight training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in June 1943 was commissioned an ensign and thus became one of the youngest aviators in the U. S. Navy. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron (VT 51) in the Pacific Theater and carried out missions as pilot of a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber off the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto . On August 1, 1944, he was promoted to lieutenant junior grade. On September 2, 1944, over the Pacific island of Chichi Jima, Bush's airplane was struck by anti-aircraft gunfire and caught fire. According to Bush's account, he ordered his two crewmates, William "Ted" White and John Delaney, to put on their parachutes and bail out. Bush did the same and landed in the ocean. He kicked off his shoes to reduce his weight and inflated his life jacket. Then he swam to an uninflated life raft, which he inflated and climbed aboard. He was rescued by the submarine USS Finback . Both his crewmates were killed. The episode deeply affected Bush, who said he always wondered why he was spared. He returned to the USS San Jacinto in November 1944 and, in total, flew fifty-eight combat missions. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation (awarded to USS San Jacinto ). Upon his return to the United States, he was assigned to a training wing for new torpedo pilots in Norfolk, Virginia. When Bush returned from the war, he married Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York, on January 6, 1945. The two had met at a Christmas dance in 1941. After his discharge from military service, George Bush went to Yale University, where he played varsity baseball, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, joined the exclusive Skull and Bones society, and earned his degree in economics in 1948. After graduating from Yale, Bush decided not to follow his father into the investment banking business. He wanted to try something different. In 1948 George, Barbara, and their young son George Walker moved to Odessa, Texas, where he began his oil and gas career as a clerk with IDECO (for International Derrick and Equipment Company, a subsidiary of Dresser Industries ), for a $375 per month salary. Bush worked his way up in the business. In 1950 the Bush family moved to Midland and grew to include John Ellis (Jeb) Bush, Neil Mallon Bush, Marvin Pierce Bush, and Dorothy Walker Bush. Another daughter, Pauline Robinson (Robin) Bush, died at the age of three of leukemia in 1953. With partner John Overbey, George H. W. Bush founded an oil exploration company, Bush-Overbey Oil Development, Inc., that later merged with another enterprise to form Zapata Petroleum in 1953 and Zapata Offshore Company in 1954 ( see PENNZOIL ). In 1959 the family moved to Houston, where Bush continued his oil and gas career. He eventually resigned as chief executive officer of Zapata in 1966. Inspired by his father, who by this time was a Republican U.S. senator from Connecticut, Bush wanted to go into politics himself. He began his political career when he was elected Harris County Republican Party chairman. In 1964 he ran for the United States Senate but

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Ector County

1926

Ector County is in West Texas on the lower shelf of the Great Plains and on the northern border of the Edwards Plateau , bounded on the north by Andrews County, on the west by Winkler County, on the east by Midland County, and on the south by Crane and Ward counties. The county's midpoint is 30°53' north latitude and 102°33' west longitude, about thirty miles southwest of Midland. The county was named for Mathew D. Ector , a Confederate general and Texas jurist. It covers 907 square miles of level to rolling land with elevations that vary from 2,500 to 3,300 feet above sea level. The annual rainfall is 13.77 inches. The average minimum temperature in January is 30° F; the average maximum in July is 96°. The county has a growing season of 217 days, though less than 1 per cent of the land is considered prime farmland. Ector County's geology is significant since the county is a major producer of petroleum products. Oil in the Permian Basin was formed in comparatively shallow reservoirs bound by Permian Age limestone. Above the oil a large gas cap formed, which in modern times provides the energy for producing the oil underneath, making the Permian Basin nearly ideal for oil and gas production. Over 35,897,000 barrels of oil were taken from Ector County lands in 1990; between 1926, when oil was first discovered in the county, and 1990 the county produced 2,726,524,140 barrels of petroleum, making it the second most productive oil county in Texas. Impressive evidence of prehistoric Indian culture in the area that is now Ector County exists in the Blue Mountain pictographs, which depict various prehistoric hunting scenes. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the area was within the range of Comanche hunters, but was not particularly attractive to them because of the region's limited water resources. Ector County was marked off in 1887 from land previously assigned to Tom Green County, and was attached to Midland, Crane, and Upton counties for judicial purposes. As early as 1881 promoters of the Texas and Pacific Railway encouraged immigration by offering to haul farm machinery and household goods for prospective settlers at no charge; they ignored the limited rainfall and predicted a splendid agricultural potential for the area. Pointing to the county's supposed resemblance to the steppes of Russia, a railroad official named the first settlement in the county Odessa; in 1882 the town became one of nine stopping places on the railroad's route through West Texas. In 1886 the Odessa Land and Townsite Company was formed in Zanesville, Ohio, to sell farmland in Ector County; the company's exaggerated promises and bi-monthly excursion trains failed to attract enough buyers, however, and by 1889 the company was bankrupt. In fact the region was most suitable for ranching, and for many years Ector County was known mainly for its fine Hereford cattle. Much of the land in the county was owned by the University of Texas. But, as pioneer J. J. Amburgery later pointed out, the area did present one decided advantage to prospective farmers: "Land was pretty cheap out there. I bought seven sections of school land for $1 an acre." During the late 1880s and in the 1890s settlers began to trickle in. In 1890 the census enumerated 224 residents, and in 1891 Ector County was formally organized, with Odessa, the largest town, designated as the county seat. In the early 1890s Methodists established a small school, Odessa College, but it burned down in 1892. By 1900, there were twenty-five farms and ranches in the county, and the population had grown to 381. Between 1900 and 1930, despite periodic droughts, farmers continued to move into the county in small numbers. A few farmers experimented with cotton production during this period. In 1908 about 800 bales of cotton were ginned in the county. In 1910 cotton was planted on 222 acres in the county; in 1920, when only about 80 acres in the entire county was devoted to cereal crops, cotton culture o

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Things to Do in Odessa

historical 1.8 mi away
Ratliff Stadium

Odessas Permian High School and the football team chronicled in Buzz Bissingers 1990 book Friday Night Lights made this West Texas stadium legendary. Permian…

Sports in Odessa

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Odessa Bronchos — Odessa — a college & pro athletic pipeline

4 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Odessa High School, a Class 6A powerhouse in West Texas, has a proud tradition of developing athletes who excel at the highest levels. Many former Bronchos have gone on to make their mark in major college and professional sports, showcasing the talent nurtured right here in Odessa. These alumni represent the dedication and skill fostered within our school's athletic programs.

Among the notable athletes are Gene Babb, who played linebacker and fullback for the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. Bradley Marquez was a Texas Tech football player and minor league baseball outfielder for the New York Mets, later playing professional football for the Los Angeles Rams. Derrick Shepard played wide receiver for the University of Oklahoma and the Dallas Cowboys, and Richard Wortham was a college baseball star at the University of Texas and a Major League Baseball pitcher.

Pro/D1 alumni
4
Class
6A
Founded
1909
Key Players
  • Gene Babb — , linebacker and fullback for San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys
  • Bradley Marquez — , Texas Tech football player and minor league baseball outfielder for the New York Mets, p
  • Derrick Shepard — , wide receiver for University of Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys
  • Richard Wortham — , college baseball star at University of Texas and former Major League Baseball pitcher
The moment

Richard Wortham, a college baseball star at the University of Texas, went on to become a Major League Baseball pitcher.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Odessa

93 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Odessa on the Map
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