Music
Musician Anjimile on Leaving Texas, Getting Sober, and Blowing Up
The Richardson-born singer-songwriter released his debut album in September.
Anjimile Chithambo knows what it takes to heal. Over the last few years, the 27-year-old Richardson-raised musician has reckoned with addiction, spirituality, a...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
Rapper TTBBY on How Growing Up in East Texas Shaped His Music
Tobias Traylor has overcome poverty, hurricanes, displacement, and mental health challenges, experiences reflected in his music.
Hailing from the north side of Beaumont—known to locals as Big Money Texas—26-year-old Tobias Traylor wants to make sure the world knows him as someone “r...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
Mr. Reynolds’ Opus
How Graham Reynolds became Texas’ top composer.
How Graham Reynolds became Texas’ top composer. by Rose Cahalan October 14, 2019 Walk into composer Graham Reynolds’ East Austin studio, and the first thing...Read More
Ken Burns’ New Documentary Builds a Bigger Tent for Country Music
Co-opted by whites, country music was largely shaped by black and immigrant musicians.
As a filmmaker, Ken Burns sees himself as a uniter and not a divider—an admirable endeavor in these polarized times, but not always a successful one. His 2017...Read More
The Highwomen Are the Superbly Talented, Feminist Supergroup Country Music Needs
On a stunning self-titled album released this week, the four musicians—two of whom are Texans—explore domesticity, motherhood, love, and loss.
In 1973, fresh from recording her raw, woman-to-woman plea to spare her relationship, Dolly Parton mixed “Jolene” in Nashville’s RCA Studio A. She wouldn...Read More