Nashville, Via Arlington
Is Maren Morris the next Kacey Musgraves?
Writer-at-large Andy Langer has written about music for Texas Monthly since 1997. He also hosted the magazine’s National Podcast of Texas, an interview-based podcast spotlighting Texas news-makers, entertainers, authors, legends, and rising stars, from Nolan Ryan to Brooklyn Decker, Tanya Tucker to Senator Ted Cruz, Admiral William McRaven to Dan Rather. By way of Texas Monthly’s partnership with the New York Times, Langer was the music columnist for the paper’s “Texas pages.”
Langer can be heard weekday afternoons on Austin City Limits Radio (97.1 KGSR), a station he helped transition from the legendary KGSR to its current brand-sharing agreement with the longest-running music television show in history, PBS’s Austin City Limits. From 2002 to 2016, he was a contributing editor and the music columnist at Esquire—a run that included anchoring eight special music issues, four music/fashion packages, and a rare Q&A with Apple’s Steve Jobs (later documented in Walter Isaacson’s Jobs biography). For six years, Langer also hosted the magazine’s Esquire Minute for SiriusXM. Langer’s print work has appeared in the pages of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Bon Appétit, Southern Living, and Billboard. He also hosted the XM music variety show The Armadillo Radio Hour and served as a weekly contributor to NPR’s Bryant Park Project. In March of 2021, his interview with American icon Willie Nelson served as South by Southwest’s keynote address. He lives in Austin.
Is Maren Morris the next Kacey Musgraves?
By Andy Langer
Hayes Carll returns—minus all the boozing, stomping, and hollering.
By Andy Langer
How the Houston R&B band the Suffers overcame the odds.
By Andy Langer
And Billy Gibbons loves it.
By Andy Langer
At Dallas’s Kessler Theater, Jeffrey Liles is drawing an audience the music industry often ignores.
By Andy Langer
ZZ Top front man Billy Gibbons talks about playing with Willie, going solo, going Latin, and going beardless (not).
By Andy Langer
Ten years after his last album, Clint Black has a new record—and the same old attitude.
By Andy Langer
Mike Flanigin begins again.
By Andy Langer
How Shakey Graves made the leap from cult figure to major festival draw.
By Andy Langer
How did Leon Bridges go from washing dishes to “winning” SXSW in just a few months?
By Andy Langer
Roll over, Jake Owen, and tell Brett Eldredge the news: Maddie & Tae are fed up with Nashville’s “bro country” formula.
By Andy Langer
No shortage of Texans have been popping up on year-end lists — from veterans like Spoon and Miranda Lambert to relative newcomers like Austin’s Shakey Graves and Denton’s Sarah Jaffe. And while it is clearly too early to guess who might wind up making
By Andy Langer
Willie Nelson and Dan Rather, two longtime friends, talk about music, politics, and longevity in their businesses.
By Andy Langer
Ryan Bingham bares his crazy heart.
By Andy Langer
Seventeen years after breaking up, Mineral's Austin members have reunited for a series of shows, culminating in a performance at Fun Fun Fun Fest on Friday.
By Andy Langer
Alejandro Rose-Garcia—formerly best known as the character, the Swede, on NBC's "Friday Night Lights"—wants to yank fans around with his second album, “And the War Came," an unpredictable mix of solo ballads and louder, multi-instrumental music.
By Andy Langer
Houstonian Kat Edmonson shaped her airy and elastic sound in Austin coffee shops before moving to New York. Her first major label record, “The Big Picture,” comes out September 30.
By Andy Langer
Lee Ann Womack became a star the old-fashioned Nashville way. Now she’s ready to be an artist on her own terms.
By Andy Langer
How producers of "The Bridge" make entertainment out of grim news.
By Andy Langer
Remembering Johnny Winter.
By Andy Langer
Some overdue recognition for Manuel Donley, Tejano’s first rock star.
By Andy Langer
Spoon gets ready to take its new album to the top of the charts.
By Andy Langer
Though advertised as a Honeysuckle Rose, the bus that recently sold in Whitehouse, Texas for $100,000, belonged to drummer Paul English.
By Andy Langer
The Grammy Award-winner reflects on the blues musician that still inspires him today.
By Andy Langer
What will it take for Stevie Ray Vaughan to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
By Andy Langer
Of the 2,200 acts playing 110 stages over six days, nearly 450 are from Texas. Here's who to watch.
By Andy Langer
East Texas native Kacey Musgraves’s best-selling debut has made some Nashville establishment types pretty nervous. But she’s not sure what all the fuss is about.
By Andy Langer
Johnny Winter, who turns 70 this month, recalls the stories behind some of the songs that built his career after he was discovered in Austin in 1968.
By Andy Langer
Robert Ellis is the next big thing. Trust me.
By Andy Langer
Don't miss these new releases by Texas recording artists.
By Andy Langer
How the Eli Young Band cracked the code of the country music business and became one of Texas’s most successful exports.
By Andy Langer
The founder of the Grammy-winning Grupo Fantasma is striking out on his own. For his next act, will he remake Latin music again?
By Andy Langer
The Houston rapper and racing aficionado gives his advice on getting the most out of the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix.
By Andy Langer
The micro-festival in Austin, which is about to celebrate its eighth year, positioned itself as the irreverent, politically incorrect alternative to huge events like ACL and Lollapalooza.
By Andy Langer
Kenny Rogers, who has a new album, ‘You Can’t Make Old Friends,' talks about country versus pop, choosing duet partners, and never letting the audience down.
By Andy Langer
Seventeen years ago, Old 97's recorded with their idol, Waylon Jennings. To mark the first release of these songs, Old 97's recounted the time they spent with the father of the Outlaw Country movement.
By Andy Langer
Blue October’s CD Sway is the group’s first album since Justin Furstenfeld, second from right, spent 75 days in rehab.
By Andy Langer
Now that she’s left the conservatory, mandolin player Sarah Jarosz plans her next move.
By Andy Langer
Bob Schneider, the Austin singer and songwriter, created a weekly songwriting game with a strict deadline that has helped him fill five albums.
By Andy Langer
Ministry’s Al Jourgensen almost died, repeatedly, before he decided that life was worth living. In El Paso.
By Andy Langer
The two singer-songwriters talk about their friendship, their profession, and their tour.
By Andy Langer
Six albums to pick up before the summer touring season begins.
By Andy Langer
The ZZ Top guitarist talks about the reboot of the Moving Sidewalks, playing Austin's Psych Fest, and his love for Jimi Hendrix.
By Andy Langer
He repurposed his upcoming show at the Backyard, in Austin, to be a fundraiser for the town recently devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion.
By Andy Langer
Her new boyfriend is a legend. But her new album is even more exciting than her personal life.
By Andy Langer
At the Moving Sidewalks' first show in 44 years, the ZZ Top guitarist unveiled a custom-made guitar with a built-in iPad mini.
By Andy Langer
"I'd never marry a guy I didn't like," says the man who once covered “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other."
By Andy Langer
What happened when a wild and crazy guy teamed up with a New Bohemian.
By Andy Langer
After last year’s South by Southwest, post-festival talk focused largely on a pair of superstars. It’s not every day that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Jay-Z drop into Texas to play relatively intimate venues. Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 other acts were showcased, including fun., Ed Sheeran and the
By Andy Langer
The sometime Butthole Surfer teams up with the former White Stripes frontman for a new single.
By Jeff Salamon and Andy Langer