The most unracist white people in America grew up on military bases, where blacks and whites have lived next door to each other, gone to school together, and swam in the same pools since Harry Truman desegregated the military in 1948. There’s no unemployment in the military, so the street corners are empty. Everyone has […]
By Michael Corcoran An authentic dive bar doesn’t call itself that; it just is. So, when you see a new watering hole advertised as a lowdown “dive,” it’s most likely targeting young adults who read Charles Bukowski on Kindle. But where are the regulars who claim their barstools daily with territorial zeal? A real dive […]
By Michael Corcoran Was this really happening? Being marched, handcuffed behind my back, through the crowd of about 5,000 at Waterloo Park, sobered me up and gave me time to think practically. Busted for hitting on a joint a friend passed me, I would certainly be fired from my job as music critic for the […]
I was married for a little while in the ‘90s. Future ex-wife was in the art business, but her previous boyfriend was MC 900-FT Jesus so she knew a little about electronica, jazz and hip hop lite. Didn’t know- or seem to care- anything about the roots and country music I covered for the Dallas […]
I told y’all a couple months ago about the time an on-the-clock dancer from the Yellow Rose babysat my three-year-old son. Well, on the 7-hour drive from Marfa, I remembered quite a few more details of that night in ’97 or ’98. To refresh: Don King, who managed the Yellow Rose, invited me to cover […]
This song is about the soul of Austin, Texas being priced out of the market. It doesn’t matter anymore that the music was here first.
Suzanna Choffel got pregnant and broke my heart. I got over it.
By Michael Corcoran They couldn’t make “Blazing Saddles” today. Not in this vitriolic racial climate, where a Super Bowl quarterback can’t even get a backup job because he wouldn’t stand for the anthem, and owners are afraid of offending fans. This culture would be less without “Blazing Saddles,” my vote for funniest movie ever made. […]
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 may have been lost forever if not for the efforts of a trio of Austinites: song hunter John A. Lomax, musician Henry Lebermann, who […]
This column is from Feb. 2014 Sunday is March 1. MARCH FIRST! People in Austin start freaking out- a mix of horror and excitement- when they flip the calendar and see it’s March. The chest pounds like being in the tunnel before a big football game. The third month means South by Southwest and, godammit, […]
