Texas Music News — July 31, 2026
A new mural at a Lubbock elementary school now carries the face of the late singer-songwriter Mike Pritchard. His family helped fund it, raising $15,000 in his name. Artist Elyse Arnold spent two months bringing the piece to life at the Betty M. Condra School for Dyslexia Success. The school cut the ribbon on it Thursday. The wall now holds flowers, cardinals, the school’s mascot, music notes, and Pritchard’s own likeness and logo.
Pritchard spent more than fifty years on Lubbock stages, glasses, shoulder-length white hair, and a motorcycle parked out front. He worked the same circuit as Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, the legendary backyard joint where Lubbock’s music scene cut its teeth. Friends called him a gentle giant. He kept playing gigs even as pulmonary fibrosis wore him down, telling his bandmate Mark Wallney, “Music defines me.” He died this spring, but the Condra School now gives his name a second life through its music program.
From Buckets to a Full Band
His widow, Tiffny Pritchard, started Mike Pritchard’s Friends Fest three years ago to keep raising money. She picked Condra first for a simple reason. “I found that they only had five-gallon buckets and drumsticks,” she said. That was the entire music program. Since then, her fundraiser has bought guitars, a full drum kit, three keyboards, and a stack of ukuleles. That’s the difference between banging on a bucket and actually learning an instrument.
Music teacher Josh Frye watched the shift firsthand. Before the donations, kids in his class had toy drums and a donated upright piano. Now he hands them real guitars and keyboards. “It just kind of unlocks some other parts of their brain,” Frye said. Music opens up learning for students who read differently, he added. School founder Merinda Condra agrees, noting how many artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs count themselves dyslexic. Music, she said, is a place where her students “absolutely…shine.”
The Pritchard family’s fund moves on to a new school next, but the mural stays put on 9th Street. It’s proof that a Lubbock troubadour still has something to teach. As Tiffny Pritchard put it, she isn’t about to let the West Texas wind carry him off.
Details at Fox 34.
More Texas Music News
Houston pop-rock trio Waterparks turned their sixth album into a guest-list reunion. JINX dropped July 24 on BMG and Rise Records. It opens with “Tell Me Why,” featuring Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, composer Danny Elfman, and producer Dillon Francis. Frontman Awsten Knight even brought his mother, Ginny Knight, onto the closing track “Girls Need Guns.” Details at ArtistDirect.
Still Austin Whiskey Co. is building a live-music room into its South Austin distillery. The 15,000-square-foot Still Austin Quarter opens in September. Acoustician Steven Durr, who has built rooms for Willie Nelson and Austin City Limits, designed its sound. Details at CultureMap Austin.
San Antonio’s historic Gunter Hotel is turning its recording-studio past into a summer concert series. The Studio Lounge Sessions kick off every Wednesday in August inside Gunter Studio. That’s the same room where Robert Johnson recorded “Dust My Broom” in 1936. Details at San Antonio Current.