Music
May 21, 2014
This Man Has Written More Than Fifty of George Strait’s Songs
“Unwound,” “The Chair,” and “Easy Come, Easy Go” have all sprung from the powerful pen of Dean Dillon.
Country Music
Latest
101-150 of 162 Articles
Music
May 16, 2014
Strait, No Chaser?
Why there will probably never be another George Strait.
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.
Music
December 10, 2013
Sweethearts of the Radio
How the Eli Young Band cracked the code of the country music business and became one of Texas’s most successful exports.
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
January 21, 2013
Santa Claus Busted at Sierra Blanca
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."
The Culture
January 21, 2013
VIDEO: David Letterman Asks Willie, “Do You Have Any Weed?”
Texas Monthly's Christmas cover boy was also David Letterman's before-Thanksgiving guest, talking “Crazy,” Patsy Cline, and, of course, pot.
Music
January 21, 2013
The Red Hooded Stranger
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.
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.
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.
Music
January 21, 2013
The Girl Who Played With Firearms
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?
Music
January 21, 2013
A Q&A With Skip Hollandsworth
The executive editor on Miranda Lambert hitting it big, her marriage to Blake Shelton, and one of the country star’s most unappreciated assets.
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.
Music
January 20, 2013
Pitch Perfect
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.
Music
January 20, 2013
Kinky Friedman’s First Roundup
Wring your hands, cut your wrists, do anything, but just listen to how Kinky can sing.
Music
January 20, 2013
The Coming of Redneck Hip
Rock and Country music met in Austin. That friendship may make the state.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
O Sister, Where Art Thou?
History makes no mention of what was one of the most popular all-female country acts ever. Yet the story of the Goree Girls—inmates who banded together in the forties at Texas’ sole penitentiary for women—is worth a listen.
Music
January 20, 2013
The Cult of Keen
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.
Music
August 31, 2012
Ryan Bingham Strikes Out on His Own
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.
Music
July 31, 2012
Years Later, Old 97’s Still Embrace One Special Record
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 Culture
January 23, 2012
Lyle Lovett Wishes the Aggies Hadn’t Joined the SEC
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 Culture
December 15, 2011
RIP Billie Jo Spears
The Beaumont-raised country crooner, known for the number-one hit "Blanket on the Ground," died of lung cancer at her home in Vidor.
Music
July 31, 2011
Crossing State Lines
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.
Music
June 30, 2011
A Little Bit Country
Robert Ellis's new album, Photographs, is influenced by both his folk and country roots.
Music
December 1, 2009
Step Right Up
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.
Music
May 31, 2008
Jeff McCord with Frankie Miller
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
Music
January 1, 2008
Jesse Dayton
An extended interview with Jesse Dayton.
Music
January 1, 2008
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,
Music
September 30, 2007
Number One With a Bullet
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.
True Crime
January 1, 2001
Outlaw Country
Rick Sikes and the Rhythm Rebels could have been bigger than Willie Nelson—if only bank robbery hadn't been on the playlist.
Music
November 1, 2000
Almost Famous
For brothers Charlie and Bruce Robison, making country music safe for men again is an intriguing proposition—and a risky one because of their wives.
Music
March 1, 1999
What She Deserves
Ten years ago she was the Next Big Thing. She still is. Meet Kelly Willis all over again.
Music
December 1, 1998
Johnny on the Spot
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.
Music
September 30, 1998
Lee Ann Climbs
Is country-chart-topping Jacksonville native Lee Ann Womack the real thing? Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn are among those who think so.
Music
September 30, 1998
The Improbable Rise of Lyle Lovett
Twenty years ago, he was inspired by the redneck rock of Steve Fromholz and Guy Clark. On his new album, he says thanks.
Music
March 1, 1998
The Entertainer
How has Jacksonville native Neal McCoy, a self-described “easy-listenin’ kinda guy,” managed to sell five million country CDs and cassettes? It has little to do with his singing.
Music
September 30, 1997
Rare Byrd
Beaumont’s Tracy Byrd may be a hunky, hitmaking hat act, but if it’s all the same, he’d rather be singing an old Bob Wills tune.
Texas History
August 31, 1997
Jimmie Rodgers
What respiratory ailment afflicted Jimmie Rodgers, prompting fans to shout “Spit ’er up and sing some more”?
Books
August 31, 1997
My Willie
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.
Music
August 31, 1997
Music • LeAnn Rimes
Little miss hits.
Music
May 31, 1997
Punkytonk
The state prison name game; Dallas alternative-country band the Old 97’s is feeling no depression.
Music
April 1, 1997
Roy Orbison
What did Roy Orbison drink compulsively, and who called him the world’s greatest singer?
Music
January 1, 1997
Saintly Bernard
Spring’s Crystal Bernard is already a top dog in the sitcom world. Will her new country CD separate her from the pack?
Music
November 1, 1996
Golden Oldie
After playing for years in relative obscurity, 57-year-old Ronnie Dawson is the latest cult hero in the cultish world of rockabilly.
Music
May 31, 1996
Junior Achievement
Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker—and now Junior Brown? The former community college teacher is the latest outlaw to hijack Texas country music, and he may be the greatest.
Music
March 1, 1996
Mr. Clean
Steve Earle feels alright.
Music
March 1, 1996
Walser Across Texas
Beloved by bubbas and the Butthole Surfers alike, 350-pound yodeler Don Walser is country’s current cross-generational king of cool.
Music
January 1, 1996
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s Willie Nelson
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.
Music
March 1, 1995
Come Dancing
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
Music
February 1, 1995
No Limits
For twenty seasons Austin City Limits has been the elite soundstage of American popular music. And it keeps getting better.