Music
March 1, 1998
The Great, Late Townes Van Zandt
More than a year after his death, he’s still being remembered as the best Texas songwriter of his time. This month’s star-studded Austin City Limits tribute shows why.
Music
Storytelling and reviews about the artists and trends that define the sounds of the Lone Star State
Latest
1601-1650 of 1832 Articles
Music
March 1, 1998
Around the State
Around the State Gary P. Nunn and other singer-songwriters tour the state in celebration of Texas history. Plus: A collection of powerful photos are on display in Corpus Christi; a top Russian ballerina tiptoes into Houston; Golden Gloves boxers are a hit in Fort Worth; and guitar buffs come together
Guides
February 1, 1998
Around the State
A three-museum Robert Rauschenberg retrospective in Houston. Plus: Garth Brooks plays Dallas and Fort Worth; mountain bikers converge on Big Bend; Goya’s prints on display in Dallas; and Ellen Burstyn onstage in Houston. Edited by Quita McMath, Erin Gromen, and Katy Vine THE MAIN EVENT The Rauschenbergs Are Coming! The
Guides
January 1, 1998
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsTalk about a “solo artist”: On You Coulda Walked Around the World (rainlight records), Butch Hancock is record label boss, co-producer, photographer, singer, songwriter, and lone musician. The Lubbock-born Hancock left Austin for Big Bend about a year ago, and the result is a casually haunted album that’s suffused
Guides
January 1, 1998
Around the State
A Western photographer’s retrospective in Fort Worth will leave you thinking, Holy Cowboy! Plus: Lounging around in Houston; listening to the tenor of the times in Corpus Christi; staging something Wilde in Dallas; and grooving to the joy of sax in Houston.THE MAIN EVENTRange InterludeErwin E. Smith’s artistic vision had
Guides
December 1, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsSure, you can waltz across Texas to the Cornell Hurd Band’s Texas Fruit Shack (Behemoth), but you can also shuffle, two-step, boogie, and maybe even jitterbug. Joined by guest stars like Johnny Bush, Austinite Hurd fronts a versatile group that puts an authoritative stamp on the full run of
Music
November 1, 1997
Horn Free
After years in New York’s jazz trenches, trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe has come home to Smithville in search of the simple life.
Guides
November 1, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsThe 33 selections on My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology (1969— 1997) (Columbia/Legacy) are as sleek and as shiny as a Highland Park Mercedes. Despite the ex-Dallasite’s irresistible sense of flow-as-melody, several tracks on the two-CD set are also vapid enough to reconfirm that all that glitters is not
Guides
September 30, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsFew voices evoke the pathos of country and western tragedy as genuinely as the rich, honeyed timbre of George Jones. By 1962, the year Jones signed with the United Artists label, the East Texan had been divorced, jailed, and was already as legendary for his hard drinking as his
Music
September 30, 1997
Rare Byrd
Beaumont’s Tracy Byrd may be a hunky, hitmaking hat act, but if it’s all the same, he’d rather be singing an old Bob Wills tune.
Music
August 31, 1997
Heavenly
The heavenly hits of God’s Property.
Texas History
August 31, 1997
Jimmie Rodgers
What respiratory ailment afflicted Jimmie Rodgers, prompting fans to shout “Spit ’er up and sing some more”?
Music
August 31, 1997
Yule Love It
The holiday season comes early for Asleep at the Wheel, who’ve just wrapped Merry Texas Christmas, Y’all (High Street/Windham Hill Records) at Austin’s Bismeaux studios. Highlights include Tish Hinojosa singing “Feliz Navidad” and Willie Nelson and Don Walser on “Silent Night.” Too homey for you? Wheel front man Ray Benson’s
Guides
August 31, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsRunning on equal parts inspiration and gumption, Austin’s Damnations are the alternative to alternative country, going way back for tunes like “Copper Kettle,” forward for a romp through Lucinda Williams’ “Happy Woman Blues,” and their own way with impressively traditional-progressive originals. The mostly acoustic Live Set (Damnations), pressed in
Music
August 31, 1997
Music • LeAnn Rimes
Little miss hits.
Music
July 31, 1997
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.
Guides
July 31, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsWest Texas bluesman Long John Hunter plays even more guitar than usual on Swinging From the Rafters (Alligator), and that’s a lot of guitar. Hunter represents the party-down end of the blues spectrum; he’s gotta poke fun at himself even when he’s ostensibly down-and-out, as on “I’m Broke.” With
Guides
June 30, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsThe real pleasure in Toni Price’s Sol Power (Antone’s/Discovery/Sire) is trying to peg her as country, blues, or folk. Whether she’s singing something silly and simple, such as “Cats and Dogs,” or taking the sultry and sublime route, as when she covers Allen Toussaint’s “Funky,” the Austinite offers an
Music
May 31, 1997
Punkytonk
The state prison name game; Dallas alternative-country band the Old 97’s is feeling no depression.
Music
May 31, 1997
Satisfaction
That’s what Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall got on their recent trip to West Texas. West Texas retailers got it too.
Music
May 31, 1997
Triumph of the Williams
After five years ex-Austinite Lucinda Williams’ follow-up to her 1992 CD Sweet Old World is finally kicking up dust. The album’s title, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (American Recordings), refers not to the sound of the Grammy award winner’s voice but to the cross-country travels that inspired such
Guides
May 31, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsThe Horsies are an extremely unusual outfit, so it figures that the perverse, polymorphously percussive Austin combo’s second record, Touch Me Columbus, is only available on the relatively obscure Japanese label Benten (though some Texas record stores will be carrying it). A giddy three-man, three-woman band with five often
Guides
April 30, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsAbra Moore’s wispy, quivering voice works hard to be heard among the loud, rude guitars of Strangest Places (Arista/Austin). It’s a far cry from her earlier, softer work with Poi Dog Pondering and as a solo artist. Even when she falters, the Austinite’s transformation into a rocker adds resonance
Music
April 30, 1997
Jaci Velasquez
“Sure, I miss having a locker and going to the prom,” says gospel-singing sensation Jaci Velasquez. True enough, the seventeen-year-old Houston native has not had what you would call a normal adolescence. At age ten she began traveling around the U.S. and Latin America with her family’s music ministry. Four
Music
April 1, 1997
Milligan’s Island
With his resounding voice and striking appearance, Austin’s Malford Milligan stands out in a sea of Texas soul singers.
Music
April 1, 1997
Roy Orbison
What did Roy Orbison drink compulsively, and who called him the world’s greatest singer?
Guides
April 1, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsSing, Cowboy, Sing: The Gene Autry Collection (Rhino) is a three-CD set featuring 84 favorites by the singing cowboy from Tioga. But these aren’t always the best-known versions; many are previously unreleased transcriptions from his Melody Ranch radio show that measure up well and thus add to the Autry
Music
March 1, 1997
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.
Guides
March 1, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsThanks to her auspicious debut, Baduizm (Universal), 25-year-old Erykah Badu is being billed as the hip-hop Billie Holliday, which may be a bit—how do you say?—premature. But working with jazz and hip-hop all-stars and singing originals that are definitely more intimate than gritty, the silky-voiced South Dallas native does
Film & TV
March 1, 1997
A Star Is Reborn
A year after Kris Kristofferson’s standout role in Lone Star, Hollywood is still marveling over his comeback. He is too. by Gary Cartwright
Music
February 1, 1997
True Believer
Few Austin musicians have been as close to stardom, and unable to reach it, as Alejandro Escovedo. But for him, fame has never really been the point.
Guides
February 1, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsMiss Lavelle White’s It Haven’t Been Easy (Antone’s/Discovery) is essentially a primer on modern blues. Houston-bred and currently Austin-based, White is equally comfortable with a soul ballad like the title song, an up-tempo scorcher like “Can’t Take It (I Don’t Give a Damn),” the self-explanatory “Wootie Boogie,” or a
Music
January 1, 1997
What a Hall!
Rock, don’t run, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where Texas greats from T-Bone Walker to Sly Stone get their due.
Music
January 1, 1997
Saintly Bernard
Spring’s Crystal Bernard is already a top dog in the sitcom world. Will her new country CD separate her from the pack?
Music
January 1, 1997
War Stories
Mexico’s recent political unrest is the subject of a new CD-ROM from the University of Texas at Austin’s Advanced Communications Technology Laboratory, or ACTlab. The Revolution Will Be Digitized uses video, animation, art, and music to dress up an academic analysis of the Zapatista rebel movement. Due out this spring,
Guides
January 1, 1997
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsIn the sixties, Mayo Thompson’s The Red Krayola was a Houston psychedelic band with a writer—Frederick Barthelme—for a drummer. Thirty years later, the amorphous experimental outfit has a new lineup that makes music with the help of such guests as Minutemen alumnus George Hurley, but time has not tarnished
Music
December 1, 1996
He Writes the Songs
Though Jerry Lynn Williams is practically unheard of outside the industry, stars like Eric Clapton know him as one of the best tunesmiths anywhere.
Guides
December 1, 1996
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsAlong with Nat “King” Cole, Texas City native Charles Brown became the father of late-night “cocktail blues” in Los Angeles in the forties. Half a century later, Honey Dripper (Verve/Gitanes) vividly conjures up Brown’s suave, stylish world. His voice is sweet and smoky like a rich cigar and as
Music
December 1, 1996
Around the State
Around the State Edited by Quita McMath, Josh Daniel, Erin Gromen, and Cheri Ballew summary: The Smithsonian Institution takes its show on the road (Houston). Plus: Yuletide celebrations that hold a candle (San Antonio); the Tokyo String Quartet gets caught in the fiddle (Fort Worth and Houston); where to meet
Music
November 1, 1996
Shocking
The gospel according to Michelle Shocked.
Music
November 1, 1996
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.
Art
November 1, 1996
Stella Houston
The University of Houston thinks Frank Stella is frankly stellar.
Music
November 1, 1996
Antsy Griffith
Antsy Griffith Austin’s Nanci Griffith is holed up in Nashville recording Blue Roses From the Moon(s) (Elektra), which should be in stores this spring. The album’s release coincides with the tenth anniversary of Griffith’s first collaboration with her band, the Blue Moon Orchestra, and features guest appearances by Buddy Holly’s
Guides
November 1, 1996
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsTwo years after their wildly successful debut, Elida y Avante bounce back from label troubles with Algo Entero (Tejas). For my money, Mercedes-born Elida Reyna is tejano’s next female superstar. Her husky, throbbing voice is mature well beyond her 24 years—she has the archetypal blend of innocence and experience—and
Guides
November 1, 1996
Around the State
Around the State subheading: A selective guide to amusements and events. Edited by Quita McMath, Josh Daniel, Erin Gromen, and Cheri Ballew summary: Members of Bob Wills’s Texas Playboys and Playgirls stage a swinging comeback (Austin and Bandera). Plus: The Day of the Dead lives (Austin, El Paso, Houston, and
Music
September 30, 1996
Jennifer Peña
ON MAY 29, 1995, TWO MONTHS AFTER THE TRAGIC death of tejano star Selena, a tribute was staged in her honor at Houston’s Astrodome. Although many well-known acts performed that day, including hometown superstars La Mafia and Selena’s former bandmate Pete Astudillo, it was an unknown eleven-year-old dynamo named Jennifer
Music
September 30, 1996
Quindon
TEN DAYS AFTER HE CELEBRATED HIS FOURTEENTH birthday by downing a seafood dinner and playing a concert in Milwaukee, Quindon Tarver is on top of the world. Actually, he’s on top of Reunion Tower in Dallas, sucking down a virgin piña colada at the Antares restaurant and talking about his
Music
September 30, 1996
Radish
BEN KWELLER WON’T BE SEEING THE INSIDE of a high school classroom this year, though he could have penned a pretty nifty “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay. The fifteen-year-old is the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist for Radish, an astonishingly tuneful alternative-rock trio that has spent the
Guides
September 30, 1996
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDsSalt? Fat? Excess? You’ll get none of that from the women of Pork. On their second album, Slop (Emperor Jones/Trance Syndicate), the Austin trio gets maximum results from a minimalist approach. Like a modern-day Modern Lovers, the band has a simple, timeless garage-rock sound that thrives on a patchwork
Music
September 30, 1996
Quick-Change Artist
So what if consistency is the hallmark of the record business? As the chameleonlike career of Darden Smith suggests, you can go your own way.