Music

From Texas Standard:

"South Texas ... that's where I stay." Those words from the late rapper Pimp C – edited, fans will note – exemplify the fierce regional pride artists and fans alike have in the Houston-area rap scene.

From Texas Standard:

Buddy Holly. Joe Ely. Butch Hancock. Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. Terry Allen. And the list of musicians from Lubbock goes on. Over the years, music journalists have wondered what it is about this city that makes it produce so many musicians.

Amanda Shires, the current queen of Americana music, says that the answer is actually quite simple: there’s nothing else to do there except make music.

From Texas Standard: Terry Allen is a mixed-media southwestern storyteller. David Byrne is a fan of his and a former collaborator. Ryan Bingham and Lucinda Williams are among the dozens of famous musicians who've covered his songs. His artwork is in the collections of the Met, MoMA, the Hirschorn, and various art museums around Texas. He’s written award-winning plays and cemented a reputation as a creative renaissance man.

The holidays are a time of coming together, but they’re also a time when we think of those who are absent. Thoughts turn to loved ones distant or departed,  to the spirits of jolly old elves and to melting frosty snowmen. On Sunday at the Cheatham Street Warehouse, they will turn to a narcissistic country singer who never shows up. 

From Texas Standard:

New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nashville – all pride themselves as cities with rich musical scenes. And in Texas, those bragging rights tend to go to Houston and Austin. But a new documentary turns the spotlight on another side of the business, staking a claim for another Texas city: the beat makers of the Big D.

From Texas Standard:

Houston has hip-hop, New Orleans has jazz, the Delta has the blues. What about San Antonio?

The South Texas Museum of Popular Culture is celebrating its role in the national songbook this weekend, launching an exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the San Antonio recordings of blues legend Robert Johnson.

From Texas Standard:

Growing up in San Antonio, Nina Diaz was one of those kids who spent a lot of time in her bedroom, singing along to the Smiths and imagining the world beyond. Then she got swept up into the music when her sister and a long-time friend asked her to form a rock band, Girl in a Coma.

From Texas Standard:

Austin bills itself as the “Live Music Capital” of the world. But a flood of newcomers to the city has produced some dire consequences for the very people who've earned the city that title – the musicians who can no longer afford to live there.

Mayor Steve Adler says the city has reached a tipping point. 

From Texas Standard:

It's been smooth sailing for Leon Bridges this summer. The 27-year-old neo-soul singer from Fort Worth has gotten lots of critical acclaim as well as a mighty big hat tip from President Obama, who included Bridges on his second-annual summer Spotify playlist.

The playlist runs the gamut from indie rockers like Courtney Barnett and Edward Sharpe to Brazil's Caetano Veloso. Dan Solomon, who writes for Texas Monthly, thinks the president may have overlooked some Texas flavor. 

From Texas Standard:

The Texas Capital claims to be the "live music capital of the world" but another Texas city might be able to lay claim to the "stolen music gear capital of the world."

Kyle "Trigger" Coroneos,  editor of the website Saving Country Music, says over the past few years he'd heard a lot of stories from artists and bands saying their gear was stolen, seeming like an "epidemic" of thefts.

"It became so rampant, it was like, What's going on here?" he says. "There must be some underlying issue to it."

From Texas Standard:

Despite his well-known song saying he’s an Okie from Muskogee, Merle Haggard never claimed it as autobiographical. The country music legend was born in Oildale, California. Although he wasn’t a native Texan, he got here as fast as he could.

From Texas Standard:

When I think about the 1990s, here's what comes to mind: roller blades, crimped hair, Beanie Babies and Walkmen. But there was more to the decade than tacky products and oversized flannel.

From Texas Standard:

There’s a lot we don’t understand about the human brain. We’re still learning more about what happens when people start to experience dementia or other memory loss. There’s no cure for something like Alzheimer’s right now, so when there’s a chance to improve the lives of people with dementia, caregivers like Debra Maddox are eager to give it a shot.

From Texas Standard:

Look up Golden, Texas, and you’ll see it's 35 miles north of Tyler. Wikipedia says it's best known for its sweet potatoes. But that’s probably because most folks don’t realize that Kacey Musgraves, who some say is saving country music from itself, just so happens to be from sweet potato country.

From Texas Standard:

As you made your way up Austin’s West 5th Street in the past few days you may have noticed a little ch-ch-change in street signage. Woe be to the vandals of such an affront to city property.

I stopped a few passers-by to gauge their reaction:

“I wouldn’t consider it as vandalism. It’s a tribute.”

“Austin is known as the music capital of the world. If we’re going to call it the music capital of the world, when someone as prominent in music as David Bowie passes away, I don’t see anything wrong with doing something like this .”

“I was born and raised here and love David Bowie and I think it’s a perfect city for it. And it’s a tiny street, too. Why not? It’s only a couple blocks long. Why not?”

From Texas Standard:

What do three Atlanta-based rappers, a professor from the University of Richmond and a 50-year-old lawyer in Dallas have in common?

No, this isn't the beginning of a bad joke – these men have all stepped up to protect the speech rights of Taylor Bell, a young man that was suspended from his high school for recording a song that alleged sexual misconduct toward female students by two of the school's coaches.

From Texas Standard: In West Texas, it’s not just the landscape that's long and lonely – the days and nights are too.

The late musician Roy Orbison once described his youth in Wink, Texas, as football, oil fields, grease and sand. At night, when the sky would light up like Christmas, Roy would grab his guitar, sit in in the family car, and sing. It was a way to fill all that empty space, he once said. The car wasn't big enough to contain the voice of a man who would one day become known the world over as the “Caruso of rock.”

From Texas Standard:

Music is undergoing a transformation – chances are you've not only heard of Spotify and Pandora, you're a subscriber too. The vinyl of old is long gone.

At clubs and bars, the DJs – most of them are men – typically work fake turntables controlling mp3 files. That's just the way its done today.

From Texas Standard:

Lady Gaga is just as well known for her fashion as she is for her music.

From Texas Standard:

Today, the Houston hip-hop sound is known around the world: hypnotic, narcotic slow-motion beats, pioneered by DJ Screw, which have found their way from the bayous of Syrup City to the Billboard Top 10.

Fans of the Texan pop star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez got a treat this week. 

Twenty years after her shooting death, and after years of requests from fans, the singer's family released an early demo of the previously unheard song, "Oh No (I'll Never Fall in Love Again)."

From Texas Standard:

Tuesday it was the iconic song from Rocky – “Eye of the Tiger” – used at the Kim Davis and Mike Huckabee rally.

Demetrius Hardison and Israel Uballe are warming up for their guitar lesson.

This summer, Hardison and Uballe are the only two students taking guitar here. But during the school year, there are two sections of guitar lessons with four to six students each. Students can earn academic credit for taking the lessons, which take place twice a week during the school year. 

Jeremy Osborn, a teacher from the Austin Classical Guitar Society, leads the boys through their warm-ups. 

From Texas Standard:

Texas has inspired a lot of great music.

To pay tribute, the Texas Standard talked to KUTX’s Laurie Gallardo last week and had her pick her top five Texas songs. But of course, that left out many favorites and classics.

The Standard heard back from listeners, compiled the comments, and brought Gallardo back into the studio to react to some of them.

From Texas Standard:

Last year, music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify generated more revenue than CD sales. Musicians say they aren’t happy with how much they’re getting in return, especially now that streaming companies like Amazon, Google, and even NPR, have formed a lobbying group to try to lower the amount they pay to musicians.