Sometimes you have to listen to husband-wife art rock duos and review Jimmy Buffett concerts, but other times this rock critic stuff can be pretty cool. Just the other day, for instance, I called a number in Chicago and Mavis Staples picked up the phone. You have to understand that Freedom Highway, the gospel/folk album […]
When Nathan Mackey saw the police lights behind him on Cameron Road the night of June 27, 1999, he knew his number was up. His head swirled with thoughts of leading police on a chase or jumping out of the car and taking off on foot. The former Elgin High School football and track star […]
There was no spark of recognition in Frank Sinatra Jr.’s eyes. As he made his way down the row of well-wishers, he was unaware that he had just been talking to one of the strangers in the night who kidnapped him at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe motel on Dec. 8, 1963.
I TRY PRINCE’S 5X HOT CHICKEN AND… DOWN GOES FRAYZHUH! DOWN GOES FRAYZHUH! You ever wake up in Kentucky and wish you were home? Then, outside is not a taxi to take you to the airport, but a Nissan Altima with three weeks of funk and a shriveled wardrobe in the trunk. Yesterday was supposed […]
“If you’re a fan of popular music and you want to know more about it, you should know the name ‘Michael Corcoran’– Marshall Crenshaw WFUV’s “Bottomless Pit.” “Corcoran has few rivals for following a story to its logical conclusion, then refining it into a seamless narrative. Even the means of reporting become part of the […]
We’ve glimpsed our share of movie and TV stars at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and it’s usually easy to piece together why they’re there. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was on hand in 2005 with baby Apple because husband Chris Martin’s band Coldplay headlined. Actor Bill Murray’s omnipresence two years ago was explained by his […]
The first time I’d ever had Cajun-fried turkey- at Bill Davis’s wedding in New Orleans circa ’90- I moaned. Oh my god, it was the best thing I’d ever put in my mouth. It wasn’t a fad back then like it is now, where you can buy a kit with a fryer and spices and […]
When you’re known as “the birthplace of Texas freedom” you have a lot to live up to and Gonzales doesn’t disappoint, celebrating its past like Austin does its live music scene. This township of 7,237 has the only state-designated Texas History Museum District, plus there’s a Pioneer Village of cabins, barns, churches and blacksmith […]
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam/ And the deer and the antelope play. Thus opens one of the most beloved tunes of Western American folklore, a song that survived changing times due to the efforts of famed “ballad hunter” John A. Lomax and blind musician Henry Lebermann. Lomax first heard “Home […]
Ages 18- 22 were the best years and the worst years of my life. My mother got cancer and died. I dropped out of college after a year. I squatted for a few months at an aircraft hangar in Pearl Harbor. But I also started getting recognition – and a little bit of money – […]
