I Was a Fugitive
Pogues LP review in Spin 1988
Los Lobos: How Have the Wolves Survived?
HOUSTON 2012. Thunder and lightning and buckets of rain. In the hotel lobby bar of the Doubletree Hotel, members of Los Lobos are hanging out, waiting the word on whether or not their headlining set at the Houston International Festival is cancelled. Outside the window is a strobe-lit storm from a B movie. These men […]
History of Hip Hop at SXSW From Keith to Khalifa
South by Southwest has become a Hip Hop Mecca in recent years, with seemingly everyone from big names to rising artists coming to Austin every year for the pub and the party. But that wasn’t always the case. “We’d hear the same thing every time we called New York,” says former SXSW booker Matt Sonzala. […]
Biggest SXSW “get”? SXSW stories #2
Who’s been the biggest “get” of SXSW thus far? Johnny Cash in ’94 and Tom Waits in ’99 really helped put the Austin conference on the map. Norah Jones had the No. 1 album in the country when she played SXSW in 2002, Metallica at Stubb’s in ’09 was huge, as was Bruce Springsteen in […]
SXSW Stories #1: The Russians Ain’t Goin,’ the Russians Ain’t Goin’
International housing: Marriage, MTV, half-hearted defections and Taco Bell! Was that Russian band serious about wanting to defect after a SXSW showcase? Or did they just want to stay in Austin for free as long as they could? It was in the early ‘90s, soon after implementation of SXSW’s international housing program, where bands from […]
Bobby Ramirez: Everybody’s Brother
Drummer Bobby Ramirez was the golden boy of the Golden Triangle in the ’60s, the 11-year-old who played with teenagers, the 14-year old who played with men. He didn’t just keep the beat, he BECAME the beat, with a natural rhythm that was not above further education. When Edgar Winter and singer Jerry LaCroix set […]
Blind Willie Johnson: Revelations In the Dark
By Michael Corcoran From “Ghost Notes: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Music” (TCU Press) When Jack White of the White Stripes announced at Stubb’s Austin in June 2003, “It’s good to be in Texas, the home of Blind Willie Johnson,” you can be sure that few on hand had ever heard of the gospel blues singer/guitarist […]
Mississippi 1963: Waking up to racism
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the soul of a man.