Here in Feb. 23-March 6, 2021, we are again in the midst of the Alamo's “13 Days to Glory.” I've "livetweeted" the Alamo siege twice, in 2011 and 2020. This year, I thought I would collect the text of my 2020 tweets in case I ever decide to revise them again! So here they are... Continue Reading →
Here's Robert Earl Keen as Antonio Vivaldi opening his eighth annual benefit in Kerrville for an organization he said "it's my passion to tell people about": the Hill Country Youth Orchestra. Keen told the crowd at the Feb. 21 show that on his travels around the country, he'll get to talking with people about the... Continue Reading →
A year kicked off with loved ones in Fort Worth is a year that's gonna go well. I grew up near here, love the city and was tickled to hear the Metroplex referred to on the radio as "FW-D." Sundance Square decked out for the holidays. It was barely above freezing, so nobody's loitering in... Continue Reading →
Heard on the radio yesterday: An old norteño version of the old, old Hank Thompson hit "Wild Side of Life." "Mi Nueva Casa," I learn from musica.com, was a 1982 hit for Los Invasores de Nuevo León, boosting them to their first gold record. That is totally fitting in a number of ways, one being... Continue Reading →
Painted buntings are so colorful that when people spot them, they think somebody's parrot has escaped. But these birds range across most of Texas. They just like to hide in brush, so they're rarely seen. To make them pop out like magic, here's all you need: white millet seed. I made this poster a few... Continue Reading →
Marfa's Hotel Paisano famously housed the stars of "Giant" during filming in 1955, and you can, if you like, throw rooftop terrace parties in the Rock Hudson Suite; the Elizabeth Taylor Suite has a kitchen and sitting room. Up-and-coming actor James Dean got a single room with its own bath, not a given in hotels... Continue Reading →
I saw this beautiful thing played at a concert by La Follia Baroque; its player, James, told me about its history. Designed and built by luthier Timothy Johnson of Hewitt, it is a division viol (which the VdGSA says is an English type of bass viola da gamba). Johnson says the inlaid pattern is acanthus... Continue Reading →
Piano scholar and player James Goodwin has a number of videos up on YouTube. This, he says, "is an improvisation in the piano blues style that developed in the barrelhouses and whorehouses of Texas in the 1920s and 1930s. Characteristic is the use of slurred notes in the right hand and pumping chords or stride... Continue Reading →
If it is good enough for the Bird, it is good enough for me. This is also kind of a classic example of the mid-20th-century "open four cans of Campbell's" school of cooking. (Bonus: Queen Elizabeth II's recipe for scones.)
Ran across this piece of history by Western swing man Adolph Hofner. To quote a Texas Monthly story from 2000 about him: Here's the true sound of the South and Central Texas dance hall. Adolph Hofner, born in 1916 in the predominantly Czech community of Moulton and based mainly in San Antonio since the thirties,... Continue Reading →
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