Articles tagged: Music
What Does “Build Back Better” Look Like for Live Music?
Black musicians were already struggling for resources and recognition before the pandemic. Now, they’re organizing and championing lasting reform in the live music industry.
In March 2020, after South by Southwest was canceled for the first time in its 35-year history, musicians in Texas began a challenging time. But none more so th...Read More
In ‘All I Ever Wanted,’ Kathy Valentine Reclaims Her Narrative
In her new memoir, Valentine strives to show that the Go-Go’s weren’t bubbly ingenues on MTV, but women who helped define a decade of pop and punk.
The Go-Go’s were used to having their story written for them. It’s happened to any band that has weathered a press junket: the same handful of anecdotes, or...Read More
A Houston Art Exhibit Redefines ‘Chopped and Screwed’ Music
DJ Screw’s life and work act as a springboard for 15 mixed-media artists, reflecting ideas of identity and agency outside the mainstream.
The late, great DJ Screw, born Robert Earl Davis Jr., sold mixtapes in high school for lunch money. He went on to open his own record store—the legendary Scre...Read More
Rahim AlHaj, Iraqi Oud Virtuoso, on How Music Crosses Cultures
AlHaj, who performs in Austin on Friday, is a former political prisoner whose music fuses Eastern and Western influences.
Rahim AlHaj’s music can seem bleak at first. His 2017 album, Letters From Iraq, is a mournful meditation on the violence wrought by the U.S. military invasion...Read More
Janis Joplin’s Inimitable Voice
An authoritative new biography explores what drove the iconic Texan singer.
Texas-born rock icon Janis Joplin has been one of American culture’s most compelling figures for more than 50 years, in large part because of the intrigue she...Read More
The Symphony Comes to South Dallas
Music education and enrichment opportunities are scarce in my neighborhood, but the Dallas Symphony aims to bridge the gap.
She is growing a cosmic garden, she is one of the fates stretching a string of life before her, she is Moses parting the sea before turning to bring the waves d...Read More
‘Texas Flood’ is a Soulful Portrait of Stevie Ray Vaughan
A new biography captures Vaughan’s journey from record-obsessed Dallas kid to all-time guitar god, taking care to convey what made his music transcendent.
Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Ray Vaughan succeeds in just the way it must to reach both Vaughan’s fans and those first learning why he’s a sh...Read More
Professor Trill
Rapper Bun B on Port Arthur, resilience and the meaning of trill.
The Bayou City loves Bernard “Bun B” Freeman so much that he’s been given the title “Houston’s unofficial mayor.” But the Grammy-nominated renaissan...Read More
‘I Can’t Date Jesus’ Chronicles Growing up Black, Queer and Catholic in Houston
Michael Arceneaux’s first book is a logical extension of the polemic, confessional style he’s perfected online.
The book begins, “Before that day, I hadn’t been to church in five Beyoncé albums.” Some people measure time in years; others, like Houston-born, Harlem-...Read More