(From June 2009) Michael Jackson dead at 50. Michael Jackson dead. The words didn’t look right. When I first heard the news Thursday afternoon, my reaction surprised me. The first word in my mind: finally. At last the boy who never wanted to grow up doesn’t have to anymore. There would be no more charges […]
(Rich Minus passed away in 2016 at age 75. This was written for a tribute/benefit while he was alive). First time I met Rich Minus was on Will Sexton’s 17th birthday. An RV had been parked in the back of the Continental Club that night in 1987 and after MCA recording artists Will and the […]
1987 Number of acts: 172 Number of registrants: 700 Keynote speaker: Record producer Huey P. Meaux Buzz bands: Dash Rip Rock, Reivers, True Believers, Buck Pets, Wagoneers, Reverend Horton Heat SXSW organizers can’t get the computers working at registration, so even though the turnout is moderate, waits are long. That’s something that the first year […]
They came for the music, Kelly Willis from Washington, D.C., in 1987 and Bruce Robison from Bandera a couple years later. The “rockabilly filly” and the Hill Country songsmith started dating in 1991, married in 1996 and had four kids in a span of five years. With Willis signed to MCA in the ’90s and Robison […]
In September 1979, the Big Apple sounded like outer space.
Originally published Nov. 2009 By Michael Corcoran Ryan Bingham isn’t the first cowboy to dig rap, but what’s unique to the Johnny Depp-ish Americana singer-songwriter is that he developed an appreciation for hardcore Houston hip-hop at the rodeo. Though calf-roping and barrel-racing — and Bingham’s music — don’t seem to have much in common with […]
The Austin music community woke up on Aug. 27, 1990. with a chunk of its soul gone. At close to 1 a.m., blues guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan perished in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wis., after a concert.
Singer-songwriter Calvin Russell’s story was one for the movies, an ex-con toiling in obscurity in Austin dives before a homemade cassette made him a star in Europe. The Townes Van Zandt protege with the rugged features and signature hobo hat passed away Sunday (April 2011) at his home in Garfield after a lengthy battle with […]
Taking responsibility for your life is something you hear a lot about these days, but I have to pretty much blame the Rolling Stones for how mine turned out. If Mick Jagger and Keith Richards hadn’t run into each other at that train station in Dartford in 1961, I’d probably be making a ton of […]
In the early-to-mid-1980s, Austin was lousy with punk bands, but the most intense of the lot was unquestionably the Offenders. With J.J. on vocals, Tony on guitar, Mikey on bass and Pat on drums, they were such a whirling menace of aggro-brotherhood that everybody gave them the last name of their band. They were dangerous […]
