Politics & Policy
July 23, 2015
Return to Cotulla
My family and their hometown helped change LBJ’s views on equal rights. Did his later policies change the reality for those in South Texas?
Best of TM Archives
True Crime
June 16, 2015
The Talented Mr. Khater
In 2011 Callie Quinn moved from Austin to Chile to experience a new way of life. Then she met a charming fellow foreigner—and almost lost everything.
Film & TV
May 14, 2015
‘Urban Cowboy’ Turns 35
It was part musical, part dance movie, and part love story, and in June 1980 it unleashed an unprecedented fervor for country music, Western wear, and, yes, mechanical bulls. More than three decades later, the film’s stars (including John Travolta, Debra Winger, Mickey Gilley, and Johnny Lee) and many Gilley’s regulars recall the movie that made America fall in love with Texas.
Politics & Policy
March 23, 2015
What I’ve Learned
Paul Burka bids farewell to Texas Monthly—and wonders what happened to the Texas he once knew.
Energy
March 4, 2015
Learning to Roughneck
Growing up in the Permian Basin, I thought I had a sense of what it was like working the oilfields. Turns out I didn’t know a damn thing.
Politics & Policy
January 30, 2015
Breaking the Silence
Five Rio Grande Valley–based reporters talk about covering the drug war in Mexico over the past decade.
The Culture
January 20, 2015
Land Lords
A ranching photo essay.
Country Notes
January 20, 2015
For Love of Country
Why we will always worship the ground we walk on.
The Culture
December 9, 2014
The Greatest Lawyer Who Ever Lived
He’s the brashest, most generous, most foul-mouthed trial attorney in the country. And at 89, Joe Jamail can still command a courtroom, mother%*!$#@.
True Crime
December 9, 2014
A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit
When the 85-year-old matriarch of a prominent pecan-farming clan in San Saba was murdered, her death shook the town—and exposed how obsession and greed can fell a family from within.
The Culture
November 6, 2014
That’ll Be the Frames
Buddy Holly’s trademark black-rimmed glasses were a key part of his public persona. But he was too blind to see it that way at first.
Texas History
October 21, 2014
Bottle Rocket
Lone Star was just a brew for dads and cowboys, until Jerry Retzloff helped turn it into the coolest beer in the country.
The Culture
September 25, 2014
James H. Evans’s Ranch Project
The photographer from Big Bend known for stunning landscapes gets out of his comfort zone. Here, a first look at several images from his latest collection.
News & Politics
August 12, 2014
The Witness
For more than a decade, Michelle Lyons’s job required her to watch condemned criminals be put to death. After 278 executions, she won't ever be the same.
Food & Drink
July 15, 2014
And They Said, “Let There Be Cilantro”
Thirty years ago, Texans who equated fine dining with chicken cordon bleu and trout meunière suddenly found themselves eating barbecued Gulf shrimp and goat cheese quesadillas. An oral history of the Southwestern cuisine revolution.
Travel & Outdoors
June 12, 2014
Forty Years of the Cadillac Ranch
On June 21, 1974, on a strip of ranchland alongside Interstate 40, an American icon was born.
Music
June 6, 2014
The Strings of the Father
How Johnny Gimble became one of the greatest fiddlers of all time—and showed me and my son a thing or two about playing music.
Film & TV
June 5, 2014
A Double Date With Leatherface
Forty years later, I still can’t forget sitting in a darkened theater to watch “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” with the movie’s leading man.
Music
May 16, 2014
The Last Ride of King George
After a career that’s spanned more than thirty years, George Strait is wrapping up his 48-stop farewell tour this month. For those of us whose lives he has captured so inimitably in song, country music will never be the same.
Sports
May 9, 2014
Bloodless Sport
Every year, some of Mexico’s very best matadors travel to a remote South Texas bullring—one of the few in this country—for no-kill fights. Their pageantry draws spectators by the busload.
Texas History
April 11, 2014
Remember the Tejanos!
Tejanos at the Alamo.
Music
April 11, 2014
Man About Town
How did rapper Bun B become Houston’s unofficial mayor?
The Culture
March 4, 2014
Cowboys of the Gulf
Sure, you can catch an awesome wave on the Texas coast, you just have to be patient. And clever. And patient . . .
Music
December 6, 2013
He Ain’t Going Nowhere
How did Guy Clark become the most revered songwriter in Nashville? One hard-won tune at a time.
Critters
December 6, 2013
The Earth Is There to Catch Us When We Fall
My life with horses.
Travel & Outdoors
April 17, 2013
The Silver Kings
The wild and powerful tarpon once ruled the seas off Port Aransas. Why did the ancient fish disappear? And could they make a comeback?
Music
March 11, 2013
Chicks in the Wilderness
Ten years after their remarkable fall from grace, no one is quite sure why the onetime Nashville darlings tumbled so far—and never got back up.
Music
February 28, 2013
In Search of Van Cliburn
He was a world-renowned piano prodigy whose romanticism and technical virtuosity inspired thousands and famously helped thaw the Cold War. But as a visit to his hometown of Kilgore made clear to me, Van Cliburn was also a Texan, a Southerner, a Baptist, a patriot, and a man who loved
Sports
February 12, 2013
The Man Who Fell to Earth
After decades as one of the most admired athletes on the planet and one of the toughest competitors ever to ride a bike, Lance Armstrong is facing a new challenge: how to come back from a very public disgrace.
Music
January 21, 2013
Trigger: The Life of Willie Nelson’s Guitar
Most guitars don’t have names. This one has a voice and a personality, and bears a striking resemblance to his owner.
How to Raise a Texan
January 21, 2013
Confessions of a Seventh-Grade Texas History Teacher
Bobby Jackson has taught students in the Aransas County school district about the Plains Indians, the Battle of San Jacinto, and Spindletop since the state celebrated its sesquicentennial. How he does it bears no resemblance to the class I took when I was stuck in middle school.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
The Boys of the Dipper Ranch
On 50,000 acres that they have mostly to themselves (not including their hounds, mules, horses, cattle, chickens, piglets, and parents), Jasper, Trevor, and Tanner Klein live a life almost untouched by the modern world.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
The Exile’s Lament
Even after I moved to Los Angeles, there was no question that I’d always be a Texan at heart. But what about my daughter?
The Culture
January 21, 2013
The Education of Mi Hijita
My daughter is only two, but I’m already planning to teach her what it means to be a Texan—and a Tejana.
From the Archives: Photo Essay
January 21, 2013
Between Hell and Texas
Over the past year, state photographer Wyman Meinzer has roamed the Big Empty, documenting the drought’s toll. Will he ever take another pretty picture?
Texas History
January 21, 2013
When the Sky Ran Dry
Bad as the current drought is, it has yet to match the most arid spell in Texas history. Nearly two dozen survivors of the fifties drought remember the time it never rained.
Politics & Policy
January 21, 2013
Truth or Consequences
In 2004 Dan Rather tarnished his career forever with a much-criticized report on George W. Bush’s National Guard service. Eight years later, the story behind the story can finally be told: what CBS’s top-ranking newsman did, what the president of the United States didn’t do, and how some feuding Texas
Energy
January 21, 2013
Below the Surface
In 1996 a powerful South Texas ranching clan accused ExxonMobil of sabotaging wells on the family’s property. Thirteen years, millions of dollars in legal fees, and one state Supreme Court opinion later, the biggest oil field feud of its time is still raging.
Feature
January 21, 2013
Home on the Range?
Texas Parks and Wildlife has embarked on an ambitious plan to restore the desert bighorn sheep population in Big Bend Ranch State Park. To accomplish this goal, the department has had to make hard choices about which animals live, which animals die, and what truly belongs in the Trans-Pecos.
Music
January 21, 2013
That ’70s Show
Forty years ago, Willie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff, and a whole host of Texas misfits grew their hair long, snubbed Nashville, and brought the hippies and rednecks together. The birth of outlaw country changed country music forever.
Business
January 21, 2013
Luv and War at 30,000 Feet
Somehow, as every other major airline went bankrupt, slashed its workforce, or grounded planes, Southwest Airlines kept flying high. Today, Southwest is the country’s largest domestic carrier. So how does a feisty underdog vanquish its competitors and dominate a thoroughly beleaguered industry? One Kick Tail-a-Gram at a time.
BBQ
January 21, 2013
Of Meat and Men
John Mueller was the heir to one of the great Texas barbecue dynasties. Aaron Franklin was an unknown kid from College Station who worked his counter. John had it all and then threw it all away. Aaron came out of nowhere to create the state’s most coveted brisket. Then John
True Crime
January 21, 2013
“If the Serial Killer Gets Us, He Gets Us”
Police had all but given up looking into a pair of assaults against two prostitutes in the Houston neighborhood of Acres Homes. But when a third turned up dead, investigator Darcus Shorten embarked on a search that revealed a brutal reality.
Film & TV
January 21, 2013
The Spirit of ’76
How Matthew McConaughey got discovered, why Renée Zellweger’s part is so small, why some of the actresses can’t eat ketchup to this day, and everything else you didn’t know about the making of the classic high school flick Dazed and Confused.
Music
January 21, 2013
“Willie’s God! Willie’s God! We Love Willie!”
In this extraordinary oral history, Willie Nelson’s friends, kin, and collaborators (Jimmy Carter, Emmylou Harris, Robert Redford, Merle Haggard, and many more big names) tell their favorite stories about the Red Headed Stranger.
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
Genius
By now we've heard plenty about how smart senior presidential adviser Karl Rove is, and how he's the most powerful political consultant of all time, and how he delights Republicans and bedevils Democrats. But how did the man who made George W. Bush famous get to be famousand infamoushimself?
Music
January 20, 2013
The Real Buddy Holly
His life was as short and sweet as his songs, but who was the Lubbock rocker whose influence over popular music will not fade away?
Being Texan
January 20, 2013
The Last Empire
The King Ranch saga: how one family conquered, tamed, loved, toiled on, and fought over a great piece of Texas.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
“Oh, My God! It’s Our Children!”
On March 18, 1937, the residents of New London, southeast of Tyler, endured the worst small-town tragedy in U.S. history: an explosion at the combined junior-senior high school that killed some three hundred students and teachers.
Sports
January 20, 2013
Lance Armstrong Has Something to Get Off His Chest
As he readies himself for this summer's Tour de France, the two-time winner is battling allegations in Europe and elsewhere that he uses performance-enhancing drugs. He insists he is clean. But proving that is turning out to be one of his toughest challenges yet. He doesn't use performance-enhancing drugs, he