Today is the birthday of Kenny Rogers. He would be 88 today. Kenneth Donald Rogers was born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938, in the Third Ward. His family was large and poor. He grew up singing in school choirs and started playing local clubs as a teenager. He joined the New Christy Minstrels […]
Today is the birthday of Kacey Musgraves. She is 38 today. Kacey Musgraves grew up in Golden, Texas, a Wood County hamlet with more cows than people. Sulphur Springs, the nearest real town, still isn't exactly a metropolis. She learned yodeling and songwriting before she learned to drive. That small-town start shaped her sharp, plainspoken […]
Today is the birthday of Buster Smith. He would be 122 today. Buster Smith taught bebop's future star before bebop even had a name. He grew up in Ellis County, Texas, then later settled in Dallas as a young man. Buster Smith's Dallas, Texas career built the sound that Kansas City jazz would later claim […]
Today is the birthday of Chelo Silva. She would be 104 today. Chelo Silva of Brownsville, Texas, sang heartbreak like she had personally invented it. Her voice carried the ache of bolero, Mexico's slow-burning love-song tradition, into Texas radio. Critics later crowned her "La Reina de los Boleros," the queen of boleros. Before Chelo Silva, […]
Kenny Dorham was born in 1924 in Fairfield — the bebop trumpet giant who co-founded the Jazz Messengers and wrote the standard "Blue Bossa."
Today is the birthday of Freddie King. He would be 92 today. If you've spent any time in a Texas blues club, you've heard Freddie King — whether you knew it or not. Fred Christian King was born in Gilmer, Texas on September 3, 1934, in Upshur County, the same pine country that produced Don […]
Today is the birthday of Hank Thompson. He would be 101 today. Hank Thompson turned honky-tonk into a business empire, and he ran it like a general. He grew up in Waco, Texas, tinkering with radios before he ever sang. Hank Thompson's Waco, Texas beginnings gave him both showmanship and a sharp business mind. He […]
Today is the birthday of Beyoncé. She is 45 today. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles was born in Houston, Texas on September 4, 1981. She grew up in the Third Ward and enrolled at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the same school that produced Donald Harrison, Robert Glasper, and Jazmine Sullivan. She was […]
Today is the birthday of Buddy Holly. He would be 90 today. Charles Hardin Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936. The South Plains city was dry and flat and about as far from rock and roll as geography could arrange. But Holly heard Elvis Presley at the Lubbock Fair Grounds in […]
Today is the birthday of Milton Brown. He would be 123 today. Milton Brown mixed string-band country with jazz and blues before anyone had a name for it. He grew up in Stephenville, Texas, then moved with his family to Fort Worth. Milton Brown's Fort Worth, Texas dance halls became the laboratory for a brand-new […]
Today is the birthday of George Jones. He would be 95 today. George Glenn Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas on September 12, 1931 — in Hardin County, deep in the Big Thicket country of Southeast Texas. His father played guitar and fiddle. George was already singing on the streets of Beaumont for coins at […]
Today is the birthday of George Jones. He would be 95 today. George Glenn Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas on September 12, 1931 — in Hardin County, deep in the Big Thicket country of Southeast Texas. His father played guitar and fiddle. George was already singing on the streets of Beaumont for coins at […]
