A short documentary by Rolling Stone, narrated by Woody Harrelson, affirms how essential the Martin classical guitar is to Willie Nelson’s sound and persona.
The Port Arthur natives take their outlaw country stomp back to their roots.
The outlaw country all-star is finally embracing the genre of his dreams—and bluegrass seems to be embracing him back.
Now living in Fisher, the Grand Ole Opry member goes back to his Texas music roots.
Lee Ann Womack became a star the old-fashioned Nashville way. Now she’s ready to be an artist on her own terms.
During a 1984 tour through Texas.
Listen to all of King George's greatest hits.
“Unwound,” “The Chair,” and “Easy Come, Easy Go” have all sprung from the powerful pen of Dean Dillon.
Why there will probably never be another George Strait.
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.
How the Eli Young Band cracked the code of the country music business and became one of Texas’s most successful exports.
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.
Or so says the new Christmas song by singer-songwriter Kevin Fowler, who talks about his new holiday track, "Santa Got Busted by the Border Patrol."
Texas Monthly's Christmas cover boy was also David Letterman's before-Thanksgiving guest, talking “Crazy,” Patsy Cline, and, of course, pot.
Is Willie Nelson Santa Claus? We asked him that, and a few other things—like what it's like to get busted and get along with Pat Robertson and Snoop Dogg.
Most guitars don’t have names. This one has a voice and a personality, and bears a striking resemblance to his owner.
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.
Miranda Lambert has a lot to be happy about—she’s recently married, with a brand-new album and a string of hits that has made her the toast of Nashville. So why is she so twangry?
The executive editor on Miranda Lambert hitting it big, her marriage to Blake Shelton, and one of the country star’s most unappreciated assets.
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.
What’s the secret to writing a great country song? Which comes first, music or lyrics? Looking to answer these and other questions, we gathered a group of singer-songwriters—Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Sonny Throckmorton, Patty Griffin, and Jack Ingram—set out a couple guitars, and let the tape roll.
Wring your hands, cut your wrists, do anything, but just listen to how Kinky can sing.
Rock and Country music met in Austin. That friendship may make the state.
It took two decades of shows at honky-tonks filled with frat-boy fans and Aggie admirers, but singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen has his first major-label record deal.
Starting a new label is a dicey proposition, but the country star who co-wrote the Oscar-winning song "The Weary Kind" thinks the time is right.
It might have been recorded fifteen years ago, but the Dallas-based band will mark an important anniversary with the album that began their alternative-country journey.
The singer-songwriter talks college football, Willie, and Mexican food with Garden and Gun, which also has a lot of love for Texas in its latest issue.
The Beaumont-raised country crooner, known for the number-one hit "Blanket on the Ground," died of lung cancer at her home in Vidor.
With a new album, a wildly popular single, and sold-out shows all over America, the Eli Young Band is one of the state's few homegrown acts to transcend the Texas Country Scene.
Robert Ellis's new album, Photographs, is influenced by both his folk and country roots.
Press your jeans, pull on your boots, shine up your buckle, and come along on this two-stepping tour of classic country dance halls, from Tom Sefcik Hall, in Seaton, to Club Westerner, in Victoria.
The Victoria-born country star, now 77, had a stellar career in the fifties and sixties that is all but forgotten—but his emergence from retirement, along with a deluxe box set, Blackland Farmer: The Complete Starday Recordings, and More (Bear Family) may just change that.Jeff McCord: You were born in
An extended interview with Jesse Dayton.
The talented Beaumont-born singer has just released Holdin’ Our Own and Other Country Gold Duets (Stag), a joint album with Austin’s Brennen Leigh. Though it recalls a Nashville of yesteryear, it comprises mostly new material. He also recently scored big as the creative force behind a fictional country band,
Miranda Lambert likes guns, but there’s more to her than that, just as the sultry pouts on her album covers don’t tell the whole story of an East Texas girl who always wanted to be Merle Haggard.
Ten years ago she was the Next Big Thing. She still is. Meet Kelly Willis all over again.
Country singer Johnny Rodriguez has had a career full of highs and lows, but with a murder trial looming, his lowest day may be yet to come.
Is country-chart-topping Jacksonville native Lee Ann Womack the real thing? Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn are among those who think so.
Twenty years ago, he was inspired by the redneck rock of Steve Fromholz and Guy Clark. On his new album, he says thanks.
What respiratory ailment afflicted Jimmie Rodgers, prompting fans to shout “Spit ’er up and sing some more”?
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.
Little miss hits.
What did Roy Orbison drink compulsively, and who called him the world’s greatest singer?
Spring’s Crystal Bernard is already a top dog in the sitcom world. Will her new country CD separate her from the pack?
After playing for years in relative obscurity, 57-year-old Ronnie Dawson is the latest cult hero in the cultish world of rockabilly.
Steve Earle feels alright.
Beloved by bubbas and the Butthole Surfers alike, 350-pound yodeler Don Walser is country’s current cross-generational king of cool.
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.
When country hunk Billy Ray Cyrus his megahit “Achy Breaky Heart” in 1992, country dancing—or at least a modern version of it—returned to vogue. Cyrus’ novelty song was released with a video that showed a line dance specifically created for the song, and—in a flashback to the Urban Cowboy craze of
Dorsett 221 near Buda is the place where a driver is always king of the castle.
