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Bayou Texan: A Memoir of Known Facts is a work inspired by “Twist of Fate.”
Traveling through time, author, Robert Alan recounts his personal experience as a young Texan raised on the High Plains with regular visits to country kinfolk in Louisiana and strange connection to the hills of Tennessee. Deep roots in two worlds and beyond.

Age 18, blessed with natural ability on guitar, the kid lands in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee.  Record contracts, hanging out on Printers Alley and Music Row. Stars shine bright . . . all is right, till a shadow looms large. Possessed by the world of “Rock and Roll,” the young prodigy stumbles, falls for illusion, and forgets who he is.

One by one, misadventures spiral out of control. Late nights ramble to wind down with a final, sour note in a haunt by Old Natchez Trace. Notchy Run. It is a place in history where those who hide their light gather in darkness to fall from grace.

Convinced he’s lost his edge, the young, natural talent, with nothing to call his own, just gives up. No more will he play music. He sets guitar aside, turns tail back to West Texas.

Though, not so fast. From the wings, an unexpected “Twist of Fate . . .”
Stopover in Louisiana comes a revelation. Most favored kin from the backwoods take him to heart. Tales are told of a family quest. For three generations his grandad, uncle and cousins have been combing the woods in search of buried treasure.

Deep in Kisatchie Forest their story begins. There, his Grandad Nath found stone carvings under rustle of pine. Clues to a trail of seven treasures. Gold bullion and coins buried over a hundred years ago by a notorious outlaw, John A. Murrell and his Mystic Clan.

Hardly a footnote in history, few even know his name today. But in the distant past, legend holds Murrell, The Great Western Land Pirate, to have led a vast criminal enterprise throughout the Deep South.

Maps and waybills written in secret code are brought forth. And the young man is handed a wooden dowel suspended on a string. Fingers that naturally pick guitar now feel an eerie twist as it spins counterclockwise over silver, then clockwise over gold.
Unknowingly, or perhaps by design, the wayward boy is brought back home into the fold.

Then, from shadows, another unforeseen “Twist of Fate . . .”
With measured, even tone his Cousin Tood reveals long before the Civil War Murrell, The Great Western Land Pirate once terrorized the Old Natchez Trace. And to this day still haunts Notchy Run. The very place . . . the very place not far from where a shadow loomed large, and young Robert Alan fell from grace on Music Row.

By night’s end, all is clear.
On this night . . . The young Bayou Texan who swore never again to play guitar, unexpectedly has something to say.

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