John Morthland
John Morthland has been writing about music since 1969 when he began working as an associate editor at Rolling Stone. He has also been an associate editor at Creem and Country Music magazines and is the author of The Best of Country Music (Double Day, 1984). He is currently a contributing editor to TEXAS MONTHLY and lives in Austin, Texas.
Features
BBQ08
Eighteen hungry reviewers. 14,773 miles driven/flown. 341 joints visited. Countless bites of brisket, sausage, chicken, pork, white bread, potato salad, and slaw—and vats of sauce—ingested. There are only fifty slots on our quinquennial list of the best places to eat barbecue in Texas. Only five of those got high honors. And only one (you’ll never guess which one in a million years) is the best of the best.
Grease
At restaurants across Texas, there are any number of things that taste better dipped in egg and milk, dredged in flour, and pan-fried in hot oil. If you think steak is the only chicken-fried, uh, delicacy, wake up and smell the bacon. And the antelope. And the lobster. And…
The 100 Best Texas Songs
Two are by Willie. Which songs, exactly? And what about the remaining 98? You’ll have to check our list to find out.
Top Fifty
Pit Stops
Where are the best places to eat barbecue in Texas? Six years ago we published a highly subjective—and hotly debated— list of our fifty favorite joints, and now we’ve gone back for seconds. Ten intrepid souls drove more than 21,000 miles in search of 2003’s worthiest ‘cue. Here’s what they came back with: the top 5 and the next 45, plus honorable mentions, great chains, and meat by mail.
A Good Mango Is Hard to Find
Unless you’re Susana Trilling, who taught me how to prepare traditional Oaxacan dishes at her cooking school in Mexico. This month she’ll teach you too—right here in Texas.
Shaggy
Tuning in to Shaggy.
Unsentimental Journey
Ornette Coleman's radical theory of harmolodics helped redefine jazz. His relationship with the music business has always been troubled, however, and today the Fort Worth native suffers from benign neglect. But his tenor sax still packs an emotional wallop.
Merry Texas Christmas, You All
Ten tunes by Texas artists to jingle your bells.
This Place Is A Zoo
Want to get up close and personal with kudus and kangaroos, tigers and toucans, okapi and orangutans? We're especially fauna these zoos, the ten best in the state.
Gladys Porter Zoo, Brownsville
Music • Elida Reyna
Tops in tejano.
The Meating
Three friends, seven years, untold pounds of barbecue pork chops and prime rib, and a single tradition that elevates the experience above mere food.
Wills Power
Sixty-five years after his first recording sessions with the Texas Playboys, 25 years after his death, Bob Wills is still the king of western swing.
Musical Marginalia
The places, people and stories behind Texas music.
A Big Hit
How Nolan and Reid Ryan are Expressing themselves in Round Rock.
Play Ball, Y'all
Meet eight Texas teams that are bringing America's pastime—the gimmicky, anything-goes minor league version—to a stadium near you.
Culture • José E. Limón
Folk hero.
aaaaaaiiiiieeeee!
From Poltergeist to the Steel Eel, Texas has five of the nation’s best new roller coasters. And they’re all a scream.
Cemeteries
Simple wooden crosses in Terlingua, carefully delineated stonework in Jefferson: Five great graveyards that run the gamut.
Johnny on the Spot
Country singer Johnny Rodriguez has had a career full of highs and lows, but with a murder trial looming, his lowest day may be yet to come.
EDUCATION • Diana Natalicio
Diversity U.
Music • LeAnn Rimes
Little miss hits.
The Other Cabeza de Vaca
Lockhart and Soul
Gone To Kansas City
Quindon
The Kids Are Alright
Fourteen-year-old country prodigy LeAnn Rimes is singing a Blue streak. But she’s not the only Texas teen tearing up the music scene.
Music • Kirk Franklin
The voice of God.
No Smoking
Welcome to Llano, the real barbecue capital of Central Texas. The proof is in the pit.
Columns | Miscellany
O, Canadian!
The Panhandle town may be the first in Texas to decide to base its economy on nature tourism. Judging by the results, it won't be the last.
Buried Treasure
Secret Santas, take note: Here are my picks for the state's most underrated or underrecognized CDs of the year.
Prodigal Son
After years of ignoring Woody Guthrie's time in Pampa, residents of the tiny Panhandle community are finally singing "This Land Is His Land."
We Are the World
With colorful music and dynamic performers who hail from Africa, Asia, and all points in between, the Houston International Festival puts the globe onstage.
Polka Dotty
Bitter ethnic rivalries. Fragmented musical styles. Who knew that polka fans could be so hard-core? Not Denton's Brave Combo.
Whole Other Country
Texas artists find a new home at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame.
Tennison, Anyone?
Chalee Tennison wants to reclaim old-time country music.
Spurred On
How Hockley's Fred Whitfield lassoed his place in pro rodeo history.
Unsung
On the record with Chris Strachwitz, whose Arhoolie label has quietly built the world's best collection of indigenous Texas music.
Swamp Thing
It's no croc: September is alligator season in Texas, and hunters are taking to the marshes hook, line, and rifle.
On the Fringe
You might have thought Waco’s Hank Thompson, a forebear of today’s alt-country scene, was dead and gone. But faster than you can say “No Depression,” he’s back, and even at 74, he shows no signs of slowing down.
Songwriter
Move over, Anna Nicole Smith. Mexia’s biggest celebrity is Cindy Walker, who penned hits made famous by everyone from Eddy Arnold to Bob Wills.
Blues Brothers
Long John Hunter and his guitar-slinging friends sharpened their axes in and around Port Arthur, so their recent return was truly a homecoming.
Hog Wild
They’re a major nuisance in rural Texas— but, boy, do they taste good.
Folk Hero
He’s one of the most influential men in American music. So why haven’t you heard of Alan Lomax?
Class Acts
Long before they were chart-topping musicians, Erykah Badu and Roy Hargrove made the grade at an arts magnet school in Dallas.
Soul Survivor
His mentor, Sam Cooke, is long dead, but Dallas’ Johnnie Taylor is alive and well and still living at the top of the charts.
Horn Free
After years in New York’s jazz trenches, trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe has come home to Smithville in search of the simple life.
Royal Blue
For decades, Bobby Bland has personified the definitive post–T-Bone Walker Texas R&B style. Even at 67, no one can dethrone him.
Voice of Amerykah
Whether or not Erykah Badu is the Billie Holiday of hip-hop, her uplifting songs and soulful singing are winning fans from coast to coast.
Tenor of the Times
Dallas sax player Marchel Ivery has impressed jazz greats like Red Garland and Art Blakey. So why isn’t he more famous? For one thing, he won’t blow his own horn.
Golden Oldie
After playing for years in relative obscurity, 57-year-old Ronnie Dawson is the latest cult hero in the cultish world of rockabilly.
To B or Not to B?
Cesar Alejandro’s low-budget action movies aren’t exactly number one with a bullet, but the El Paso director is sure he’ll be hot in Hollywood—some day.
Walser Across Texas
Beloved by bubbas and the Butthole Surfers alike, 350-pound yodeler Don Walser is country’s current cross-generational king of cool.
Wasted Days
Freddy Fender has one of the most affecting voices in the music business. So why isn’t he a star?
Shell Game
Son of a gun, you’ll have big fun—and terrific fresh crawfish—at these seven Louisiana seafood joints.
Low Steaks
How a cut of meat from the wrong side of the street rose to culinary stardom, plus a guide to Texas’ most authentic fajitas.
Out of Sync
Nearly everyone agrees that the nation’s best college jazz program is in Denton, but critics wonder if it isn’t mired in the past.
Food Get Your Goat
Juan Espinoza’s classy cabrito puts Johnny’s restaurant in front of the herd.
Plains Song
When Lubbock-born songwriter Butch Hancock steps onstage, West Texas haunts his music.
Fire Power
The habanero chile stokes the burning desire of pepper lovers everywhere.
Red Beans and Blue Notes
When in New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, do as the locals do: Search out the neighborhood restaurants and clubs.
Crispy Critters
Carnivores have their steakhouses, herbivores their sprout spots. Now insectivores can munch their way through the Aztec menus in Mexico City.
V.I.P.: The Leroy Preston Songbook
Love Letters
Ideal
The Texas Trumpets
Reporter
Clifford Antone (1949-2006)
The legendary Austin club owner, who died May 23, helped launch many a Texas musician, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Charlie Sexton. ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons remembers the larger-than-life music impresario.
Five Guys Walk Into a Bar
The Great Battle
The Revolution Starts...Now
Music
Blues, rockabilly, classic honky-tonk—and maybe even Jimmy Buffett.
Movimiento Popular
Westernaire
Marvelous Things
Wheels of Fortune
Presumed Innocent
Rolling with Marcia Ball.
Mama’s Gun
A Stagecoach Named Desire
Uma
Trainfare Home
Consent to Treatment
The Spectacular Johnny Horton
Dallas Alley Drag
Greyhound Blues
Waltz Across Texas
Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers
CDs by Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers, Sister Seven, and Bob Dorough.
Sweet Inspiration
The Big D Jamboree Liive
Sour Notes
A tejano rift widens.
Beef 101
An A&M extension class gets beefy.
It’s Not Over
Okay, he isn’t exactly sexy. But he’s hot! And he’s dead! The busiest balladeer in Texas these days is… Roy Orbison.
Joe Cool
Joe Ely hits the road.
Statues of Limitations
Which version of history should be promoted by El Paso’s new statue series: the Wild West or the mild West?
Television
The newest bilingual TV star.
Meat Feat
An East Texas hot links meat-and-greet.
Heavenly
The heavenly hits of God’s Property.
Hot Stuff
Spicy-food impresarios turn up the heat on each other.
Ring Class
A knockout boxing program in West Texas.
Eva, Diva
Listening to conjunto queen Eva Ybarra.
Web Exclusives
Clifford Antone
ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, environmental activist Robin Rather, and others remember the legendary Austin nightclub owner who died May 23, 2006.
Sharp Shooter
Richard Young knows it takes a lot of practice—and a little natural ability—to be a proficient cowboy action-shooter.
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