Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. Mike graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979 with a degree in government. He wrote for various publications, including Trouser Press, Third Coast Magazine, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Austin Chronicle. In 1997 he joined Texas Monthly, where he has won two Texas Gavel Awards from the State Bar of Texas and four Stephen Philbin Awards from the Dallas Bar Association. He was named Writer of the Year at the City and Regional Magazine Awards in 2015. His stories have appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing, The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Da Capo Best Music Writing, the New York Times, and Men’s Journal. Mike is also a musician and has played in Austin bands the Wild Seeds, the Setters, the Lollygaggers, and the Savage Trip. He pitches for the Burkas, the Texas Monthly softball team.
Barry Corbin got a funny look in his eye. “All the world’s a stage,” he intoned, leaning forward and peering at me, “and all the men and women merely players.” His deep, familiar drawl followed the cadence of Shakespeare’s words. “They have their exits and their entrances, / And each man…
In a nondescript space outside Austin, the team behind these world-renowned guitars carry on the exacting legacy of their founder.
The New York–born singer-songwriter got to Texas as soon as he could—and spent the next five decades changing the lives of seemingly everyone he met.
The king of the Parrotheads remembers the ups and downs of his half-century friendship with the late cosmic cowboy.
After contracting COVID-19 earlier this year, the musician had spent most of this past summer in isolation—where he was still writing songs.
DNA evidence proved Lydell Grant's innocence. So why won't the state’s highest criminal court exonerate him?
Jim McCloskey, the godfather of the innocence movement, changed the way we think about crime and punishment.
At 16, Ayala was just beginning to learn about social movements when police shot him in the head with a ”less-lethal” weapon.
Friends remember Floyd, who grew up in the Third Ward, as a gentle soul, a father, and a talented collaborator of DJ Screw’s.
First came the sound of someone running hard on the breezeway outside, then a banging on the apartment door. Irene Vera opened it to see her neighbor, twenty-year-old Rosa Jimenez, holding a little boy who lay limp in her arms. “Help me! Help me!” Jimenez cried hysterically in Spanish. The…
The recording career of country music’s greatest artist, surveyed, sized up, and sorted on the occasion of his 87th birthday.
The author and journalist has mobilized fans to chip in and help struggling strangers online.
The Houston icon, who passed away yesterday, sang a lot of other music too.
But we're hard at work creating another way for you to experience this incredible storytelling event.
On March 17, we're taking over the Moody Theater for a night of storytelling from some of your favorite Texas artists.
The incredible true story of two brothers raised on the hardscrabble country music of rural West Texas who dropped out, tuned in, found God, and helped launch the seventies soft-rock revolution.
Pedro Villalobos handles felony cases in Travis County, but his own legal status could be in jeopardy.
The stories, the traditions, and the deeper meanings of the boots in their lives.
Galveston’s Johnny Romano, the youngest professional skateboarder in history, passed away from leukemia.
Mezghebe fled East Africa, landed at Texas’s Casa Marianella, and performed with Maggie Rogers in Austin.
Both before and after Lee Hazlewood wrote hits for Nancy Sinatra and Duane Eddy, he was a Texas musician.
James Fulton reunites with his family, as victim Haile Beasley’s parents decry justice undone.
The obscure indie ’Taking Tiger Mountain’ offers a glimpse at the late Hollywood star as a teenager.
How does a man wrongly convicted of murder get released twenty years later? It helps to have a wife who loves you, a podcaster who believes in you, and an army of amateur sleuths who won’t stop digging for the truth.
Justices grant James Fulton a new sentencing hearing: “Tragic consequences do not elevate ordinary negligence to criminal negligence.”
Bob Ruff is working on his fifth Texas case in fewer than four years, this time hoping to prove the innocence of Sandra Melgar in the killing of her husband, Jaime Melgar.
Carly Mayo, eighteen, is now back in Tyler and living with her mom as she reckons with her past.
Driving through a dangerous curve in Tyler, James Fulton crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a young woman. He wasn’t drunk, and the cops said the crash was an accident. But the Smith County DA saw it differently.
Appreciations by current and former staffers who know them all too well.
Found guilty in 1987, the freed man will be paid $2.5 million by the state of Texas, which he'll use to support his prison ministry.
The documentary, premiering on PBS December 17, looks to the elderly minister's hometown of Grand Saline to uncover why he set himself alight.
A controversial Dallas civil rights lawyer is holding police accountable—and being held accountable, too.
Brandley died last week, 31 years after the state of Texas tried and failed to kill him.
How a motley crew of young Texas lawyers, a burly Michigan podcaster, and his army of amateur sleuths—including actor Jon Cryer—helped free a man convicted of a murder he swears he didn’t commit.
He worked 80-hour weeks to send money home to his family. The driver who ran him over had been in and out of trouble for years.
The case of a man who slaughtered his family, then gouged out his eyes, will be reviewed Tuesday by an appellate court panel in New Orleans.
We need a museum worthy of our music. And we need Mark Cuban's help to get us there.
The music icon talks to us about how he’s able to continue writing—and touring—well into his eighties.
The future Hall of Famer hangs with his buddy, Jason Pena, at their joint venture, BlackJack Speed Shop.
He was a highlight of Austin’s creative community and, in death, a spotlight on the city’s problems with race.
A decade ago, Gabby Sones accused her parents and five others of running the most depraved child sex ring in Texas history. Now she’s ready to clear their names.
Pedro Villalobos is a star prosecutor. Gerardo De Loera is a musician. Joseph Ramirez is a tech entrepreneur. They’re young, they’re smart, they make America great. They’re also undocumented. And now, they face being sent back to a place they’ve never called home.
DJ El Dusty, the unofficial mayor of the Corpus Christi music scene, is ushering in a modernized version of cumbia.
Our executive editor's book, 'The Midnight Assassin,' won the nonfiction book of the year from the Writers' League of Texas.
The greatest Texas songwriter you’ve never heard of is a 72-year-old grandmother from Lubbock. This is her story.
Kerry Max Cook, who spent almost twenty years on death row for a murder he maintains he didn't commit, sues the people who sent him there.
Louise Rowe was the only female musician to play with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Now she's taking her own band to San Marcos.
