South Padre Island to Rio Grande Valley International Airport, Harlingen, on Texas Highway 100 and FM 510 and 106 (33 miles) This narrow two-lane shortcut from the beach to the airport is one way to avoid the congestion and speed traps on U.S. 77. It slices through parts of the
Presidio to Lajitas on FM 170 (50 miles) At first El Camino del Rio dips and winds along the Rio Grande through a maze of low, dry arroyos framed by bare lunar landscapes. Before long, the West Texas sky looms so large that it practically swallows the road. The 15
Why Grand Prarie's Bobby Patterson of KKDA-AM is my favorite deejay in Texas.
Everything you need to know about getting around in Big Bend, from where to stay inside the park to where to get diesel fuel.
For some of us, there's nothing better than a cold longneck bottle of Big Red.
Senior editor Joe Nick Patoski tells the story behind this month's cover story, "Big Bend 2002."
For some of us, there's nothing better than a cold longneck bottle of Big Red.
Whether you want to hike it, raft it, drive it, or all of the above, here's everything you need to know to get the most out of a trip to Texas' greatest treasure.
All over Texas, ranchers are putting up eight-foot fences to keep their deer from roaming so they can charge more for hunting leases. Purists say shooting such deer doesn't amount to "fair chase." Biologists say penning them in causes disease. I say it's the best thing that could happen to
Read all about it: Alpine residents win big during the town's newspaper war.
BLUES REVIVAL The Starlight Barber Shop on Camp Street in Crockett was one of the first stamping grounds for bluesman Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins, the unofficial poet laureate of Texas who eventually worked his way up from the street corner to Carnegie Hall before his death, in 1982. The all-purpose cafe,
Notes on notable musicians.
Forget about the Rocky Mountains. For first-class kayaking, fishing, and bird-watching, head to the Lower Guadalupe after Labor Day, when the drunken armada of tubers retreats to shore and nature returns in full strength.
Photographer Laurence Parent and senior editor Joe Nick Patoski talk about climbing, the best shot, and their new book, Texas Mountains.
In an excerpt from their forthcoming book, Texas Mountains, senior editor Joe Nick Patoski and freelance photographer Laurence Parent celebrate the wild beauty of the state's sierras.
San Antonio's Clear Channel Communications may dominate Texas' airways, but the way it does business is tuning out to the best things on the radio.
When one of his reporters turned up missing in Mexico, the editor of the San Antonio Express-News took on one of the most important assignments of his life.
The first queen of tejano music, Laura Canales broke the gender barrier in the seventies and eighties and paved the way for Selena Quintanilla, the superstar who put tejano on the map. But by the early nineties, when Selena’s career had begun to take off, Canales had vanished from
“Brad Pitt is going to see me! All of Hollywood is going to see me!” That’s what 47-year-old Carrie O’Brien thought when she first spied the July 2-July 9 double issue of Sports Illustrated, the one featuring her and four of the other original Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on the cover.
He’s the kid pitcher who went directly from Houston’s Westchester High School to the show. Twenty days after pitching in the state finals—and two weeks after the beleaguered Texas Rangers selected him as the number one pick in the amateur draft and paid him a $65,000 bonus—eighteen-year-old David Clyde
From the start, Joe Dealey, Jr., had been groomed to take a leadership role at the Dallas Morning News. The great-grandson of the founding publisher, George B. Dealey, he joined the family business full-time in 1970, working in employee relations, and after a stint in the Army, entered the management-training
Bob Mong knows he's facing many challenges, and he certainly didn't ask me what I'd do if I were in charge of the Dallas Morning News. I thought I'd offer some nickel advice anyway.
Texas is changing before our eyes, but fried pies, drive-in movie theaters, and other vestiges of earlier days are all around. To find these treasures, we risked life, limb, and cholesterol count-and had a blast from the past.
What's the story on Bob Mong, the new editor of the The Dallas Morning News? He has a newshound's instinct, an insider's touch, and his work cut out for him.
Jeff Henry believes his new Schlitterbahn on South Padre Island will be a success. It just might take a whilebut, hey, that's okay.
In a state that's becoming more conservative, two young editors at the Texas Observer are reenergizing a magazine that won't leave the left behind.
Summer’s blast furnace is firing up. Luckily, Texas is a paradise of spring-fed pools, sparkling beaches, and more. Here are our picks for the best places to chill out, get wet, and go off the deep end. Plus extra web-only information!
Colleyville's library plot.
McAllen's terminal condition.
Fort Worth's horse play.
The El Paso mayor's race.
Senior editors Anne Dingus and Joe Nick Patoski tell the story behind this month's cover story, "50 Things Every Texan Should Do."
Have you gotten lost in the Big Thicket? Attended a South Texas pachanga? Whether you’re a newcomer or a native, following these suggestions will give you a crash course in all things Texas—and one heck of a good time.
Thirty years ago the cosmic cowboy-progressive country sound swept through Austin, the first full-blown scene in what has evolved into Austin music. But of all its trailblazers—Jerry Jeff Walker, Willis Alan Ramsey, Willie Nelson—Bobby Bridger is the one who has stayed most on message. The Houston resident has remained true
Ever since I first saw them perform together at the ages of six and eight, Will Sexton has operated in the shadow of his older, more famous brother, Charlie. That’s a shame, considering that Will’s music has historically stayed closer to their roots; when Charlie was a sixteen-year-old Hollywood teen
At its inception in the early eighties, the heart and soul of La Mafia, the most enduring group in tejano, was los hermanos Gonzales: Oscar y Leonard. The former was the singer, the latter the guitarista. But by the time they hit their stride in the mid-nineties with “Un Million
These days, a plane trip can entail more time in the terminal than in the air. But why get stressed when you can have a massage, taste Texas wines, go for a jog, check your e-mail—even eat gumbo while watching (other people’s) planes take off? A survivor’s guide to DFW,
SRV breaks out of the gate with Little Stevie Vaughan before he was Stevie Ray. A member of Paul Ray and the Cobras, the kid’s doing “Thunderbird”—the upbeat, swinging standard by the Nightcaps, Texas’ first great white-boy blues band—a song that every Dallas kid with an electric guitar and an
The 1962 soul-pop hit “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” and appearances on American Bandstand put Beaumont’s Barbara Lynn on the map as the world’s greatest (though perhaps only) left-handed female blues guitarist. That reputation has carried her ever since, despite just three new albums recorded over the past fifteen years—a
Rising high above the floor of the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico's Museo Maderas del Carmen nature reserve is like a whole other country. Plus: information on how to visit the park.
With more than thirty albums under his belt, it would seem that Rodolfo “Fito” Olivares, Texas’ king of the tropical sound, is taking a giant leap with his first concept album, Zoológico Tropical. Not necessarily so. The Houstonian frames his signature alto sax over his trademark cumbia beats in songs
For the birds.
In the early seventies Doug Sahm put out a 45 with a song called “Be Real” on the A-side. It was released under the pseudonym of Wayne Douglas (Sahm’s Sir Douglas Quintet was riding the psychedelic wave in San Francisco at the time), the thinking being that disc jockeys would
The economics of beach tourism.
Life around the town of Crawford sure was slow until George W. Bush bought a ranch there.
Visualize Sheryl Crow in overalls, or maybe Ani Difranco with a down-home Texas perspective: that’s Terri Hendrix, the singer-songwriter-entrepreneur-czarina, in a nutshell. Born and raised in San Antonio and now living in San Marcos, Hendrix is a walking advertisement for sunny confidence and boundless enthusiasm, qualities that she’s been polishing
Five years after Selena's death, tejano music is struggling to be heard.
The places, people and stories behind Texas music.
Meet the senior class of what might be called Texas Music U. four up-and-coming acts that should graduate to the big time.
How did Lloyd Maines get to be a revered guitarist and record producer? How did his daughter Natalie find fame as a Dixie Chick? Chalk it up to musicianship—and kinship.
