Music
April 29, 2020
All 144 Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked
The recording career of country music’s greatest artist, surveyed, sized up, and sorted on the occasion of his 87th birthday.
Personal Essay
June 28, 2019
Farewell to the “Rambling Boy,” Lonn Taylor
The Fort Davis historian and raconteur knew and loved Texas and its people like no one else.
Being Texan
October 21, 2015
G-G-Ghost Stories
All Hallows Eve, which descends from the grand Celtic festival of the dead, was stirring up a cauldron of supernatural activity long before kids started donning costumes to harvest candy from the neighbors. But, alas, for some time, Halloween and the belief in spirits of the departed have
Sports
February 26, 2013
Pro Football’s Biggest Star
Former Dallas Cowboys equipment manager Jack Eskridge, who died earlier this month at 89, didn't just create a logo. He defined the city and the sport.
Sports
January 21, 2013
Why the Cowboys Should Go Socialist
Hey Jerry, want to win another Super Bowl? Sell the team to its own fans a la Green Bay Packers, says Dallas Cowboys author Joe Nick Patoski.
Music
January 21, 2013
Still ZZ After All These Years
So what if they’re not cranking out hits and selling out concerts the way they used to? After nearly three decades, no one makes better blues rock than ZZ Top.
Travel & Outdoors
January 21, 2013
The “Drive” Drive
ROUTE: West of Ozona to Sanderson DISTANCE: 85 miles NUMBER OF COUNTIES: 3 WHAT TO READ: James H. Evans’s Crazy From the HeatA drive whose sole purpose is to experience the simple pleasure of being behind the wheel has a few requirements. The route must lead west, because that’s the
Travel & Outdoors
January 21, 2013
The Music Drive
ROUTE: Turkey to Lubbock (the long way) DISTANCE: 366 miles NUMBER OF COUNTIES: 13 WHAT TO LISTEN TO: Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be the Day and Waylon Jennings’s Ol’ WaylonWest Texas is the Texas of wide-open spaces, but it is also the Texas of music giants, starting in the Rolling Plains
Feature
January 20, 2013
Bill, Due
After more than two decades in the movie business—including star turns in Apollo 13, Twister, and now his own Traveller—Fort Worth’s Bill Paxton is finally getting what’s coming to him.
Music
January 20, 2013
Money in the Making
Houston’s new movers and shakers don’t hang with the Wyatts or Sakowitzes. They’re Eightball, Scarface, Lil’ Keke, and the other power players of the city’s rap music scene.
Food & Drink
January 20, 2013
Chili Relations
Food fight: The most ridiculous, overblown squabble this side of the legislature.
Media
January 20, 2013
Dead On Deadline
Why reporters who cover the border are finding themselves more and more under the gun.
The Culture
January 20, 2013
Boone Pickens Wants To Sell You His Water
And you’re going to need it, eventually, since Texas’ most precious natural resource is being depleted at an alarming rate. His plan is to pump vast amounts from his land in the Panhandle and pipe it to parched cities like El Paso and San Antonio—for a hefty price, of course.
Music
January 20, 2013
The Queen Is Dead
When Selena Quintanilla Perez was killed on March 31, Texas mourned—and around the world, the veneration began.
Music
January 20, 2013
Some Things Never Change: Doug Deep
He’s a little bit country, rock and roll, and everything in between. That’s why Doug Sahm is still going strong.
Feature
January 20, 2013
The Power Couple—Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan
A match made in heaven and blessed by Hollywood.
Food & Drink
January 20, 2013
Underground Round
On the first Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in August for the past 61 years, thousands have converged on a park on the outskirts of Dalhart for the XIT Rodeo and Reunion, celebrating the history of the XIT Ranch, once the biggest ranch in Texas. (This year’s dates: August 7—9.) In
Sports
January 20, 2013
Just Say Snow
Breathtaking scenery, tons of runs, and pillowy, powdery white stuff: If you need a lift this winter, New Mexico skiing won’t leave you cold.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Habeas Corpus
The rap on Corpus Christi is that there’s no there there—but a case can be made that it’s a great weekend destination.
The Culture
January 20, 2013
Alive and Kicking
Nothing advertises your Texas bona fides more these days than a pair of handmade cowboy boots. Here's everything you need to know about them - how to tell a vamp from a pull, which toe style is right with a suit - and where to buy the best.
The Culture
January 20, 2013
Boot Anatomy
TopThe top, also known as the shaft, is the artist’s canvas: Here is where the most detail work is done (although, ironically, if you’re a man, the top stays hidden under your pants legs unless you’re riding or at a cowboy ball). Standard tops are twelve inches high, though custom
The Culture
January 20, 2013
25 Top Custom Bootmakers
ABILENEJames Leddy Boots 1602 N. Treadaway Boulevard 915-677-7811The nephew of boot king M. L. Leddy is now royalty himself, and he runs a real family business: He does the cutting, his wife and daughter do the stitching, his son-in-law does bottoms, and his former daughter-in-law creates the prettiest inlays anywhere.
Food & Drink
January 20, 2013
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
Style & Design
January 20, 2013
True Fit
Comfort, style, and identity are a few of the reasons why Texans will be forever in blue jeans.
Music
January 20, 2013
The Widow’s Pique
In Lubbock they call her the "Spanish Yoko Ono," and María Elena Holly, Buddy Holly’s widow, has always had a troubled relationship with his conservative hometown. Some folks rave on that it’s her greed that has killed the city’s Buddy Holly Music Festival. But it’s more complicated than that.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Radio
Play-by-play coverage of high school baseball in Alpine, polka and Pan-American music in El Campo: More than a dozen reasons not to touch that dial.
Sports
July 31, 2011
The Rookie
Two and a half years ago, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum asked me to organize an exhibit about high school football. Did I mention I'm not a curator?
Food & Drink
April 30, 2003
Top Fifty
Unless otherwise noted, all places take credit cards.ABILENE: Harold’s Pit Bar-B-Q We didn’t catch pitmaster Harold Christian singing gospel songs to his customers, but we’re told that isn’t an unusual occurrence. This cozy little room, packed with nine picnic tables, seven booths, and a congregation of athletic trophies, is where
Food & Drink
April 30, 2003
The Best of the Best
Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q MasonThe name “Cooper’s” has long been synonymous with Llano, but now the Mason operation of the same name has overtaken its distant cousin. Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q was opened in Mason in 1953 by the late George Cooper, whose son Tommy (also deceased) cloned it a decade later
Reporter
April 30, 2003
Git Along . . .
How Lubbock--epicenter of the prairie dog universe--learned to stop worrying and love the little beasts.
Sports
February 1, 2003
Pom-pom and Circumstance
Why you can't spell "cheerleader" without "leader."
Environment
November 1, 2002
Water Hazard
The mayor of San Antonio says a 2,600-acre golf resort on top of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone won't ruin the city's sole source of drinking water. Who wants to tee off on that one?
Feature
September 30, 2002
Water Foul
When the City of Marshall wanted to pump millions of gallons of water out of Caddo Lake and sell them to the highest bidder, the state said, "Sure." Residents of Karnack, Uncertain, and other tiny northeast Texas towns said, "Hell, no." Guess who prevailed (for now)?
Travel & Outdoors
September 30, 2002
Yelapa
Beach palapas, blue water, angelfish, Gauguin sunsets, mahimahi al mojo de ajoand a frog in the shower.
Environment
August 31, 2002
Prairie Dogma
Birders and their allies want to preserve the vanishing grassland of the farm and ranch country west of Houston, but time is running out.
Music
July 31, 2002
Get Your Groove Back
A new book on dance halls explains why Texans are itching to go boot-scootin'.
Media
April 30, 2002
Tune In, Turn On
Why Grand Prarie's Bobby Patterson of KKDA-AM is my favorite deejay in Texas.
Feature
April 30, 2002
Driving Music
Sailor, the Steve Miller Band (Capitol) Return to the Wide Open Spaces, Live at the Caravan of Dreams featuring, among others, David “Fathead” Newman, Ellis Marsalis, and Cornell Dupree (Amazing) Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams (Mercury) La Musica de
Feature
April 30, 2002
Alternate Routes
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