Music
June 9, 2018
Kacey Musgraves Takes Her Place as a Proudly Subversive Texan
At her Austin City Limits performance, Musgraves paid homage to female country icons.
Country
Music
March 20, 2017
High Times at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion
Generations of Willie devotees came together to revel in music and good times with the Red Headed Stranger in his own backyard.
Music
February 8, 2017
Scott H. Biram Sets Aside the Whiskey for ‘Red Wine’
The Austin-based one-man band channels George Jones to create a honky-tonk ballad that’s the perfect soundtrack for drowning your woes in the company of your demons.
Music
September 19, 2016
Jim Lauderdale Set to Release His Love Letter to Texas
Veteran Nashville songwriter Jim Lauderdale debuts a fresh take on the song he wrote that George Strait made a classic.
Ameripolitan
May 8, 2014
One Man’s Mission to Save “Real Country”
Or “Ameripolitan,” the term Dale Watson coined to distinguish his music from the pop country of today.
Music
October 14, 2013
Getting to Know Mr. Rogers
Kenny Rogers, who has a new album, ‘You Can’t Make Old Friends,' talks about country versus pop, choosing duet partners, and never letting the audience down.
Music
January 21, 2013
VIDEO: Lyle Lovett Goes Deep Into Back Catalog for NPR “Tiny Desk Concert”
Watch Lyle and fiddler/back-up singer Luke Bulla break out "Cowboy Man," "If You Were to Wake Up," and "Good Intentions." …
Music
January 20, 2013
The Coming of Redneck Hip
Rock and Country music met in Austin. That friendship may make the state.
Music
April 30, 2000
Y’all in the Family
How did Lloyd Maines get to be a revered guitarist and record producer? How did his daughter Natalie find fame as a Dixie Chick? Chalk it up to musicianship—and kinship.
Music
April 30, 2000
Gotta Lubbock
Buddy Holly. Waylon Jennings. Carolyn Hester. The Hancocks. The Flatlanders. An oral history of the state's most storied music scene.
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.
Television
July 31, 1997
Heeeeeere’s Gary!
After years of laboring in virtual anonymity as Mr. Amy Grant, Texan Gary Chapman has his own talk show on The Nashville Network and is known by a vastly more flattering moniker: the David Letterman of country.
Books
May 31, 1996
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDs Grammy award aside, Flaco Jiménez’s last solo album was a big disappointment, for it showed how far Texas’ greatest accordionist had strayed. After all those studio sit-ins with the likes of the Rolling Stones and Dwight Yoakam and those trips around the globe as the ambassador of Tex-Mex,…
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
April 1, 1996
CD and Book Reviews
Hot CDs Yes, it’s that Tiny Tim—albeit with a gruffer voice than you probably remember—singing with Denton polkaholics Brave Combo on Girl (Rounder). Together, the onetime tulip tiptoer and the 1995 Grammy nominees bip and bop through a set of standards (“Stardust”) and pop-rock faves (“Hey Jude”). The collaboration may…
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
September 30, 1975
The World‘s Best Basic Record Collection
Building a classical, rock, country, and jazz library on a budget.