Today is the birthday of Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He would be 92 today. Johnny "Guitar" Watson grew up in Houston, Texas, playing piano in his father's church. But a neighbor named Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown changed everything. Watson traded the piano bench for a guitar, and he never looked back. He played it behind his head. […]
Today is the birthday of King Curtis. He would be 93 today. King Curtis grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, blowing saxophone in local church bands. He moved to New York as a teenager, chasing bigger stages and bigger paychecks. But his Texas honk never left his playing, not for one second. That raw, gritty […]
Today is the birthday of Ernest Tubb. He would be 113 today. Crisp, Texas sits in Ellis County, about thirty miles south of Dallas. It barely registers on a map. But Ernest Dale Tubb was born there on February 9, 1914, and that matters. He grew up listening to Jimmie Rodgers records and was devoted […]
Today is the birthday of Joe Ely. He is 80 today. Joe Ely was born in Amarillo, Texas on February 9, 1947. The Panhandle stamped itself on him permanently — the flat horizons, the wind, the sense that you're always standing on the edge of something too big to name. He moved to Lubbock as […]
Today is the birthday of Gary Clark Jr. He is 43 today. Gary Clark Jr. was born in Austin, Texas on February 15, 1984. He grew up playing guitar around East Austin, getting noticed at Antone's while still in his teens. Clifford Antone himself started booking Clark when he was seventeen. That kind of early […]
Today is the birthday of Megan Thee Stallion. She would be 32 today. Megan Thee Stallion entered the world in San Antonio, but Houston, Texas made her a star. Her family moved to Houston's South Park neighborhood when she was young. She freestyled over Houston's slow, syrupy beats before major labels ever knew her name. […]
Today is the birthday of Lou Ann Barton. She is 73 today. Lou Ann Barton was born in Fort Worth, Texas on February 17, 1954. She moved to Austin in her early twenties and immediately became one of the most in-demand voices on the Sixth Street blues circuit. Her voice could do things other singers […]
Today is the birthday of Johnny Bush. He would be 92 today. Johnny Bush grew up in Kashmere Gardens, a working-class Houston, Texas neighborhood. He wrote "Whiskey River" in 1972, then watched someone else turn it into an anthem. Willie Nelson adopted the song as his concert opener for over fifty years. Bush recorded it […]
Today is the birthday of Buddy Tate. He would be 114 today. Buddy Tate's tenor saxophone sounded like a Sunday sermon shouted over a rowdy dance floor. He grew up in Sherman, Texas, soaking up gospel and blues from an early age. Buddy Tate's Sherman, Texas roots gave his tone a warmth that never turned […]
Today is the birthday of Johnny Winter. He would be 83 today. Beaumont, Texas sits in the Golden Triangle — the industrial coastal zone where the refineries run day and night and blues music grew up in the roadhouses between the shift changes. John Dawson Winter III was born there on February 23, 1944. He […]
Today is the birthday of Steve Jordan. He would be 88 today. Steve Jordan of Elsa, Texas, played the accordion like it owed him money. He lost sight in one eye as a child, then turned that limit into legend. Fans nicknamed him "El Parche," Spanish for "the patch," after his eyepatch. Critics later called […]
Today is the birthday of Erykah Badu. She would be 56 today. Erykah Badu grew up in South Dallas, Texas, surrounded by gospel, jazz, and incense smoke. She started performing as a teenager at Dallas's famed Black Forest Theatre. Badu released her debut album Baduizm in 1997, and it went triple platinum. Fans still call […]
