Austin’s Crazy Beautiful $5 Music Festival (Mushrooms extra)
So many memories of anarchy tamed by nature, when punks turned into hippies if only for the longest day.
Music
How to make a year-end list 1998
As a critic gets older, certain tasks become more difficult– like trying to show any interest whatsoever in the latest R.E.M. release. But other activities become a breeze, such as making a year-end list of the 10 best records. In the old days I used to spend weeks compiling the list that best defined my […]
Randy Travis Maui 1993
Randy Travis was, easily, my favorite singer when I was country music critic of the Dallas Morning News – he still is. So when I went to Oahu in 1993 for my sister’s wedding, I arranged a sidetrip to Maui. Randy was a great interview that day, didn’t flinch or hold back at all, and […]
No Impression: How I Didn’t Discover Uncle Tupelo
It was at the Chicago nightclub Lounge Ax in late ’88 — or maybe it was early ’89 — and I was waiting for headliner Evan Johns and the H-Bombs to come on. But first was a set from a loud, frisky trio from the St. Louis suburbs that sounded like yet another band in […]
“The first guy that women just wanted to fuck”
He was found around 2:15 p.m. Aug. 16, 1977, face down on the red shag carpet in the bathroom adjacent to his bedroom on the second floor of Graceland. Cause of death was a heart attack, brought on by an addiction to prescription drugs. The coroner reported that the 260-pound man had died about five […]
Live and De-mystified: Dylan in Dallas 1995
Vanity and greed, the cufflinks of rock, are what set Dylan apart from his idol Woody Guthrie–that and a childhood ripped open like a feather pillow by the music of Elvis, Little Richard, and B.B. King.
Report from the Rock Hall Opening 1995
CLEVELAND. Susan and Harvey Justmann had an hour or so to kill before the Indians game; so, they went for a walk to the I.M. Pei-designed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which will open to the public on Saturday. “I’m in shock,” Harvey said as he gazed upon the structure, which is said to […]
Why I love the team I useta hate/ Nashville’s Team
DMN 1992 Maybe it was the way their offensive linemen settled into their stance by heaving upwards in unison, like a Fascist chorus line. Then there was their humorless coach in his trilby hat. And, then, let’s face it: They were from Dallas, which nobody would have heard of if not for a building that […]
Country Music’s Year of the One-liner
I got the gig of country music critic for the Dallas Morning News in 1992 with some thoughtful pieces on artists like Roseanne Cash, Lyle Lovett and k.d. lang, but since Dallas was the #1 market for country music during that Garth Boom, I had to cover all the mainstream acts. I was not always a […]
Random Statesman music columns
You might as well pay for that hand stamp since it’s gonna last three days.