“I guess I’ve just been a haunted bastard my whole life,” Hand said. He said he first knew he was different in the first grade. “They made us put our heads down on a towel and take a nap,” he said. “Then they’d play a lullabye and I’d just start sobbing. Nobody could tell me why.”
“Dear Dad, I have some startling news: Your eldest son is gay.” That was my lead in the first draft of a Celine Dion concert review from ten years ago. The show was a schmaltzy smorgasbord of bombastic ballads, over-the-top production numbers and more costume changes than Isaac Mizrahi getting dressed to meet Jude Law […]
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 […]
I’d been waiting 25 years to talk to Bette Midler, so when the chance came to interview the Divine Miss M on the release of her 1998 album “Bathhouse Betty,” I went for it. I told the publicist I loved the new record, then, having the phone time for her call reserved, went home, dug […]
An excerpt from “Ghost Notes: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Music” (TCU Press) by Michael Corcoran. Illustrated by Tim Kerr. Charles Brown and Amos Milburn became associates in 1946, when Charles was ridin’ high with “Drifting Blues” and Amos, just back from the war, was the new […]
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 – […]
#16 Austin Opera House When I moved to Austin in ’84, the Armadillo and Raul’s were closed, but there were great, intimate roadshows at the Austin Opera House, and serious punk rock action at Voltaire’s. I saw Elvis Costello at the Opera House soon after I got here- and they announced an impromptu second night, […]
From “All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music” (UNT Press) May 2002 When Billy Joe Shaver gives directions to his modest house on the outskirts of Waco, he says to disregard the handwritten sign on his front door. “Please do not disturb. I haven’t slept in two days,” it says. “That’s just so […]
#24 The Broken Spoke 1964- present Honky tonk Texas lives in a rustic red roadhouse that used to be on the outskirts of town, but now is surrounded by expensive condos. South Lamar has changed, but inside the Spoke it’s still 1964, the band is playing “Walking the Floor Over You” and the dancefloor is […]
