
The Surprising Southern Dance Roots of Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’
The queen’s new album nails the sweet spot between nostalgia and new wave, paying tribute to past trendsetters while blazing a new path forward for pop music.
The queen’s new album nails the sweet spot between nostalgia and new wave, paying tribute to past trendsetters while blazing a new path forward for pop music.
In ‘12th of June,’ the Klein singer-songwriter shares the love and joys of home life.
‘A Beautiful Time’ picks up where his "mortality trilogy" of albums left off, with an especially off-the-wall cover and new songs reflecting on life and death.
Plus: swing by an Austin jazz festival, then listen to a record dedicated to a SpongeBob SquarePants character on your way home.
‘The Light Saw Me’ is maybe the weirdest, most unexpected post-pandemic album to come out of the Red Dirt country scene. Just in time for Omicron!
The Nelson clan’s new gospel album meets the grief and trauma of the pandemic with spirit and hope.
The multifaceted musician, former city-council candidate, and documentary star returns with an album of pristine guitar and gentle self-reflection.
The Texan singer-songwriter-guitarist’s second album of 2021 proves he still has something to say.
Six years after the Denton duo recorded its first and only release, the album is finally out—and worth the wait.
In ‘Star-crossed,’ Musgraves again defies labels, creating an epic requiem for lost love that spans disco, pop, and country.
The Fort Worth–based singer-songwriter’s attraction to a life she chose to reject fuels the artistry of her debut album ‘Bad Romantic.’
On ‘To the Passage of Time,’ the Fort Worth country singer, 46, meditates on the freedom that comes with age.
The singer sheds her painful past on ‘Dancing with the Devil . . . the Art of Starting Over.’
The Texas native infuses ‘Cool Dry Place’ with sharp turns and deceptions, all accompanied by her effortlessly beautiful vocals.
Singer Laura Colwell explains how the band’s ethos—and day jobs—led to an album uniquely suited for our pandemic times.
The Dallas native’s jazz statement ‘Love and Liberation’ is a call to action.
“The Lion King: The Gift” features fun collaborations with West and South African artists, but fails to include other African regions.
The album honors black culture in Houston, but also looks beyond it to the traditions of rural Texas.
For Austin’s White Denim, everything old is new again.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS’s music is evocative in a way others can’t touch. It’s not only the fragility and ache in her voice but also her economy of language, with its declarative simplicity that cuts to the heart. A perfect album is a rarity, yet Williams has made two, her 1988 self-titled
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The best books and CDs from Texas.
The best books and CDs from Texas.