MUSICTownes Van ZandtA Far Cry From DeadAristaA Townes joke: what has a front cover, a back cover, and “Pancho and Lefty”? The new Townes Van Zandt album! That song, and others like “To Live’s to Fly,” “For the Sake of the Song,” and “Waitin’ ‘Round to Die” filled the various
Texans (natives or onetime residents) have quite an impressive record when it comes to the Grammy awards. Most years we’ve practically dominated—big surprise—the country music category, but we chalked up our share of wins in other classes too. Here’s the score:• Total number of Grammys awarded to Texans from 1958
Hot CDsComing Home, the debut release from Paula Nelson (Luck Records), one of Willie’s daughters, proves that the 29-year-old shares at least one thing with her father: the ability to say so much with so few words. This contemporary singer-songwriter’s CD, which deftly weaves a “chamber pop” ensemble around torchy,
Twenty years ago, he was inspired by the redneck rock of Steve Fromholz and Guy Clark. On his new album, he says thanks.
Hot CDsYou could plunk Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers down on a stage anywhere in the world, with any sidemen, and they could deliver the irresistible dit-dit-dit they’ve plied for more than thirty years without missing a beat. On The Sir Douglas Quintet/Live Texas Tornado (Takoma), a reissue of a
Singing Willie Nelson's praises; neddling a former drug user.
Ain’t it funny how time slips away? Before you know it, you’ve made two hundred albums, thirty movies, and had one amazing career. What follows is the Compleat Willie: a discography—including every U.S. album release as well as his early 45 rpm singles (before he signed with RCA in
The Red Headed Stranger is about to be eligible for Medicare? Ain’t it funny how time slips away.
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.
Willie Nelson and I have been friends for years, so why did I decide only now to make him a character in one of my mystery novels? The plot thickens.
THE MAIN EVENTWillie Powerby Erin Gromen This July 4 in Luckenbach, you can get Kinky, start Waylon, and fall Asleep at Willie Nelson’s annual picnic—.When he first sang “Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas, with Waylon and Willie and the boys” almost twenty years ago, Waylon Jennings forever linked himself and
Austin singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin is at Cedar Creek studios this month completing a new album, to be released by Columbia Records as early as this summer. Some songs will be produced by John Leventhal, who did Colvin’s Steady On, and others by Malcolm Burn, who has worked with the Neville
If you can’t get enough of creepy character actor Christopher Walken, boot up The Darkening, one of this year’s CD-ROM releases from Austin’s Origin Systems. Walken, like John Hurt and Amanda Pays, plays one of the fifty characters who meet up with the game’s hero, an amnesiac who roams the
Willie Nelson may not be a radio staple anymore, but a new tribute album recorded by some of rock’s coolest stars shows that his music is still moving to them.
Carnality, Castration Anxiety, and Jouissance in Willie Nelson’s Taco Bell Commercial.
Is being himself good enough?
When the IRS seized all that Willie Nelson had, it was a case of the man who can’t say no meeting the men who won’t take no for an answer.
Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic at Carl’s Corner was the picnic to end all picnics. It did just that.
Willie Nelson’s true love may have a body that’s worse for the wear, but woe to the man who tries to pick it up.
His friends say the king of country rock is getting mellow. The question is, mellow compared to what?
Love beads are out at rock concerts these days.
PEOPLEThe red-hot rumor, blazing from mouth to mouth in Dallas recently, had longtime radio programming genius Gordon McLendon raising $2 million for a group of Dallas investors to buy WRR-AM, the city-owned, all-news station that’s up for sale. Not so, says son Bart McLendon, manager of McLendonowned KNUZ-FM in Dallas.
Nashville inspired Willie Nelson—to leave.
That’s what country music is, and that’s why it plays in Peoria.
Waylon Jennings in the dark corners of stardom’s light.
What is it like to miss the sexual revolution (and some others) by a mere handful of years?
