In Lubbock, while working at the college paper many years ago, I heard that “nuevo wavo” musician Joe King Carrasco was coming to town. I had seen the Dumas, Texas native on “Saturday Night Live” (where he tore it up for a national audience), and I had a Carrasco record or two in my […]

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 … So this is one for only my most hardcore music nerd friends. See if I have lost it on this comparison … or could I be on to something? Since I have down time today, I broke out a famous album that I have never played, although it has been in my collection for […]

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  Night-and-day … the different scene at the the 2019 Fortress Festival, Day 2 with headliner Leon Bridges.  I walked away from the show thinking of one word — LOVE. That man is an entertainer!  And seldom have I seen a guy who so loves being on stage and loves the audience and loves performing […]

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  I am prepared to be called a “racist” and “just old” for my strong opinions on a portion of what I saw and heard on day one of the 2019 Fortress Festival … but you’d be wrong.  Race has little to do with it and I guarantee you I sample/buy lots of current music.  […]

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YES! Thanks to fellow music head J-Ferg for pointing out that today is National Eight-Track Tape Day! 8-Track Holiday My first 8-track player was a used tape player-only unit  — no AM/FM, no turntable — with two eight-inch-square speakers — purchased from my neighbor Barry for 10 bucks. And so it begun …  The last […]

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Although cold/wet weather stifled the parade today, it is Stock Show in Fort Worth.  Interesting, the Martin Luther King Jr. parade is still on for Monday and the Right To Life parade went as planned yesterday. I digress … Yesterday was day one of the 123rd edition —the oldest continuously running livestock show and rodeo […]

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All roads leading to the historic Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas seemed to be clear for a timely arrival, even through some rough neighborhoods, west of Fair Park.  I had remembered to bring my media pass and my parking pass, no easy feat for me.  The grayish blue clouds parted for a few moments, as […]

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    When I was a young kid and then continuing on through the teen years, I was led to believe — particularly from the coaches who were so crucial in our development, body and soul — that my hometown Vega, Texas was much more special than all the other special, tiny, farm towns throughout […]

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  In Jim Stafford’s old novelty tune, “The Wildwood Weed,” the storyteller speaks of finding his brother Bill “naked, singing on the windmill,”  after a night of home-grown revelry.  (Ha … When my brother was a young boy, he once tried to fly off the windmill wearing a cape, but I think he was fully […]

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  I had not been awake for long the morning that a text came in telling me that my friend’s new PingWi-Fi t-shirt had been delivered, way way up north in the top of the Texas Panhandle. In my groggy state, it seemed appropriate that I should give him some BS line to make it […]

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