Texas Music News — August 13, 2026
Houston declared August 11 “Don Toliver Day,” and hours later a security scare cut the rapper’s sold-out homecoming show short. Don Toliver packed Toyota Center for a stop on his Nitrous-Octane tour, so the hometown crowd showed up loud. Houston City Councilmember Edward Pollard walked out mid-set with a proclamation in hand. Then Houston rap legend Bun B joined him onstage to make it official. “This is our own right here,” Pollard told the cheering arena. For a few minutes, Don Toliver stood at the center of his own hometown parade. After all, it’s the same city that built Houston’s chopped-and-screwed sound decades earlier.
Then the mood flipped. Houston police say a 30-year-old man tried to carry a handgun through a metal detector. But he carried it in plain view, unholstered. So officers stopped Joshua Biosah of Richmond, Texas, and charged him with unlawfully carrying a weapon. Toliver had just finished “Kryptonite” and “Too Many Nights” when the house lights snapped on. Three songs never made the setlist. Still, fans chanted “Don! Don!” before an announcer cut through the confusion. “Sorry for the inconvenience,” the voice said. “The show is over. Please go to the nearest exit.”
The Lights Went Up, But Don Toliver Didn’t Blink
Nobody got hurt. Still, Live Nation called the early stop “an abundance of caution.” Biosah now faces a misdemeanor charge, and the Toyota Center hasn’t said much beyond that. Even so, the whiplash was real. One moment, Houston handed its own the key to the city in spirit. Then security cleared the building like a fire drill. Even so, Don Toliver didn’t let it slow him down. His Nitrous-Octane World Tour rolls into Dallas’s American Airlines Center on Thursday, the same night this story runs. So it’s proof that a Texas homecoming can survive more than one scare.
Details at KPRC Click2Houston.
More Texas Music News
Kaitlin Butts announced her fourth album, Hello, Honky Tonk, arriving October 30 via Republic Records. It’s her first major-label release, and the record doubles as a love letter to honky-tonks she’s played across Texas for years. She married Cleto Cordero of Lubbock’s Flatland Cavalry. Together, they’ve long bridged Texas red dirt and Texas Music. Now the album’s first single, “I Wanna Be Bad,” is out. Details at Whiskey Riff.
Miranda Lambert will celebrate her new album, Crisco, with a one-night-only release show October 6 at Billy Bob’s Texas. Crisco arrives October 2 via MCA, and tickets for the Fort Worth show go on sale Friday. “I kept picturing the rhinestone saddle at Billy Bob’s,” Lambert said of the record. So it leans into country music’s dance hall roots. Details at Pollstar.
Leon Bridges surprised the crowd at San Francisco’s Outside Lands with a preview of his upcoming album, Happiness Anytime. The Fort Worth-raised singer played songs from the record, due September 25, during a secret Sunday set. Happiness Anytime pairs him with Josh Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto of the British band Jungle. It also draws on Afrobeat, Brazilian rhythms, and soul. Details at SFist.
Charley Crockett publicly backed fellow Texans Willie Nelson and Tanya Tucker this week. He stood with their fight against data centers in rural Texas. “These are two of my biggest influences, and I’m proud to call them both friends,” Crockett wrote. “Real Texans look out for each other.” Meanwhile, the South Texas singer plays Billy Bob’s Texas August 28 and 29. Details at Taste of Country.