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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270203
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270204
DTSTAMP:20260812T192340Z
CREATED:20260812T192340Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192340Z
UID:9423-1801612800-1801699199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Johnny "Guitar" Watson: Houston's Flashiest Showman
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Johnny “Guitar” Watson. He would be 92 today. \nJohnny “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. He played it with his teeth. Decades before Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire\, Watson set the template. He moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and cut “Space Guitar” in 1954. That record still sounds like it fell from another planet\, all reverb and static. Nothing else on the radio sounded remotely like it. \nHouston’s Flashiest Export Rewired the Guitar Itself\nWatson’s showmanship masked serious musical innovation. He bent notes with a violence nobody had tried before him. Johnny “Guitar” Watson influenced Frank Zappa\, and Stevie Ray Vaughan borrowed his fire years later. Because Watson kept reinventing himself\, he never stayed frozen in one era. In 1977\, he scored a massive funk hit\, “A Real Mother for Ya.” Suddenly a whole new generation discovered him. He wore mink coats and diamond rings on stage\, and he backed up the swagger with real chops. Watson’s playing linked Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown‘s Texas blues to psychedelic rock and funk. He died on stage in Japan in 1996\, doing exactly what he loved. Few guitarists ever built a bridge that wide\, spanning three decades of style. Fewer still walked across it so casually\, grinning the whole way. Houston shaped him first\, but the whole world eventually caught up.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/johnny-guitar-watson-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/johnny-guitar-watson-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270207
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270208
DTSTAMP:20260812T192431Z
CREATED:20260812T192431Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192431Z
UID:9440-1801958400-1802044799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:King Curtis: Fort Worth's Soul Sax Legend
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of King Curtis. He would be 93 today. \nKing 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 tone made him the most in-demand session player in R&B. He played the searing sax break on Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in 1967. Listen closely\, and that solo still sounds like pure joy set loose. It bursts out of the speakers like sunlight through a cracked door. \nThe Sax Solo Everyone Knows and Almost Nobody Names\nCurtis backed the Coasters\, then he backed Buddy Holly\, then he backed the Beatles at Shea Stadium. Because he could adapt to any style instantly\, producers called him constantly. His own instrumental hit\, “Soul Twist\,” topped the R&B charts in 1962. He later led Aretha Franklin’s touring band and arranged her landmark live album “Live at Fillmore West.” That record captured him at his absolute peak. Meanwhile\, he mentored young musicians like Cornell Dupree and Jerry Jemmott. Curtis built a sound that shaped soul music’s entire rhythm section\, horns included. Every band he touched played tighter afterward. \nTragically\, a stranger stabbed him outside his own Manhattan apartment in August 1971. He was only 37 years old\, still working\, still in demand. Like T-Bone Walker\, Curtis carried Fort Worth’s grit into national spotlight. The King Curtis sound still powers oldies radio every single day. Fort Worth rarely gets credit\, but it deserves plenty here.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/king-curtis-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/king-curtis-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270209
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270210
DTSTAMP:20260717T191916Z
CREATED:20260701T144244Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191916Z
UID:8420-1802131200-1802217599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Ernest Tubb: Texas Troubadour from Crisp
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Ernest Tubb. He would be 113 today. \nCrisp\, 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 to the idea that country music could carry real working-class weight. When Rodgers died in 1933\, Tubb wrote his widow Carrie for advice. She sent him one of Jimmie’s guitars. He played it until it wore out. \nThe Sound That Built Honky-Tonk\nTubb joined Decca Records in 1940. “Walking the Floor Over You” hit big in 1941. It was a new sound — amplified electric guitar running under a plain-spoken story about heartbreak. That was the beginning of honky-tonk music as a genre. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1943 and held his spot for four decades. He opened his famous record store on Broadway in Nashville in 1947 — the Ernest Tubb Record Shop — and broadcast live from it every Saturday night. He died September 6\, 1984. But the Texas Troubadour’s sound is still in every country bar playing tonight. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/ernest-tubb-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/ernest-tubb-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270209
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270210
DTSTAMP:20260717T191922Z
CREATED:20260701T144248Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191922Z
UID:8422-1802131200-1802217599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Joe Ely: Amarillo's Restless Heart
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Joe Ely. He is 80 today. \nJoe 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 a teenager and fell in with a group that would come to be called the Lubbock Mafia: Butch Hancock\, Jimmie Dale Gilmore\, Terry Allen. They were writing songs nobody in Nashville would touch yet. \nThe Wildest of the West Texas Poets\nEly released his first album on MCA in 1977. It was raw\, smart\, and unlike anything country radio was playing. The Clash heard it and invited him to tour England with them in 1980. That partnership made headlines — a West Texas cowboy and the kings of British punk sharing a stage. It made perfect sense to anyone who actually listened. Ely’s music was always built on the same tension: restlessness against rootedness\, the road against the homeland. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/joe-ely-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/joe-ely-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270215
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270216
DTSTAMP:20260717T193254Z
CREATED:20260701T144251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T193254Z
UID:8424-1802649600-1802735999@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Gary Clark Jr.: Austin's Guitar Truth
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Gary Clark Jr. He is 43 today. \nGary 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 mentorship in Austin’s blues tradition gave Clark a foundation nobody could take away — and a sense of responsibility to carry it forward. \nThe Next Link in the Chain\nClark signed with Warner Bros. in 2011. His debut album Blak and Blu came out in 2012 and earned him two Grammy Awards. But the studio records barely capture what Clark does live — he plays guitar with the abandon of someone who knows exactly where the music came from and exactly where he wants to take it. He’s performed with the Rolling Stones and the Foo Fighters. He’s played the White House. And he still shows up at Austin clubs on a Tuesday night when he feels like it. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/gary-clark-jr-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Gary-Clark-Jr-portrait.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270215
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270216
DTSTAMP:20260812T194033Z
CREATED:20260812T194033Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T194033Z
UID:9572-1802649600-1802735999@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Megan Thee Stallion: Houston's Hot Girl Icon
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Megan Thee Stallion. She would be 32 today. \nMegan 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. Local radio stations played her freestyles long before any label signed her. Then her 2019 single Hot Girl Summer became a cultural phenomenon overnight. Megan turned a catchphrase into an entire attitude for women everywhere. Houston never stopped being the center of her sound. \nSouth Park’s Hot Girl Took Over the World\nMegan won Best New Artist at the 2021 Grammy Awards. She also holds a degree in health administration from Texas Southern University. That combination surprises people who only know her viral hits. Rolling Stone named her one of the era’s most influential rappers. Then she teamed up with Beyoncé on the smash remix of Savage. That collaboration united two of Houston’s biggest musical exports. \nAccording to Megan Thee Stallion‘s biography\, she started rapping to process her mother’s death. Music became therapy before it became a career. She raps about confidence\, but she built that confidence through real grief. Fans call her Hot Girl Meg\, yet she remains fiercely private about her pain. Houston taught her resilience long before the world learned her name. \nMegan Thee Stallion turned grief and grit into an entire movement. She never let San Antonio roots or Houston struggles define her limits. Instead\, she defined the decade on her own unapologetic terms. She refuses to let anyone box her in\, and that stubbornness remains her signature.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/megan-thee-stallion-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/megan-thee-stallion-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270217
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270218
DTSTAMP:20260717T193257Z
CREATED:20260701T144254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T193257Z
UID:8426-1802822400-1802908799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Lou Ann Barton: Fort Worth's Soul Siren
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Lou Ann Barton. She is 73 today. \nLou 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 couldn’t explain — it had Fort Worth grit and Houston soul at the same time\, wrapped around a delivery so confident it left no room for doubt. \nThe Voice Antone’s Was Built For\nBarton was an original member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds before going solo. She recorded Old Enough in 1982\, produced by Jerry Wexler and Glenn Frey — two people who knew exactly what a great voice could do. The album didn’t produce chart hits. But it produced something more durable: a reputation among musicians as one of the real things. She shared stages with Stevie Ray Vaughan\, Angela Strehli\, and Jimmie Vaughan during the years when Austin blues was still building its legend. Find her place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/lou-ann-barton-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Lou-Ann-Barton-promo-shot.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270217
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270218
DTSTAMP:20260812T193356Z
CREATED:20260812T193356Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193356Z
UID:9515-1802822400-1802908799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Johnny Bush: Houston's Whiskey River Songwriter
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Johnny Bush. He would be 92 today. \nJohnny 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 first\, but history mostly remembers the second version. Still\, insiders always knew who actually wrote that famous opening riff. Bush and Nelson had played together in the same Texas honky-tonk bands years earlier. \nThe Voice That Nashville Called ‘Country Caruso’ — Then Lost\nCritics nicknamed Bush the Country Caruso for his powerful\, operatic vocal range. He belted out honky-tonk hits with a control few singers ever matched. He trained his voice like an athlete conditioning for a marathon. Then\, in the 1970s\, a rare condition called spasmodic dysphonia attacked his throat. His voice tightened like a rope pulled too hard around a post. Doctors offered no clear cure\, so Bush relearned how to sing around the damage. \nBush spent decades fighting to reclaim the voice that once filled Texas dance halls. He never fully recovered his old power\, yet he kept performing anyway. Fans respected that persistence as much as they respected his early hits. He toured small Texas venues long after many bigger stars had stopped touring entirely. Few singers face that kind of loss and keep walking onto a stage. \nJohnny Bush died in 2020\, but “Whiskey River” still opens shows nightly. The Johnny Bush story proves a song can outlive its own singer. A damaged voice from Houston still echoes through every Willie Nelson concert.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/johnny-bush-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/johnny-bush-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270222
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270223
DTSTAMP:20260812T192651Z
CREATED:20260812T192651Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192651Z
UID:9461-1803254400-1803340799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Buddy Tate: Sherman's Blues-Soaked Tenor Man
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Buddy Tate. He would be 114 today. \nBuddy 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 soft. He joined territory bands early\, learning his craft on rough Southwest bandstands. He toured relentlessly through Texas and Oklahoma dance halls before anyone knew his name. Then\, in 1939\, Count Basie called\, and Tate answered without hesitation. \nHe Anchored a Legendary Band’s Toughest Chair\nTate filled the tenor chair once held by the great Herschel Evans\, a daunting task. But he made it his own\, adding grit where Evans had offered warmth. For nearly a decade\, Tate powered the Basie orchestra’s reed section through countless recordings. His solos growled and swaggered\, yet always stayed rooted in the blues. Because of that grounding\, dancers trusted his band to keep them moving all night. He later left Basie and formed his own group at Harlem’s famous Celebrity Club. There\, Tate led one of the longest-running house bands in jazz history. His tenor became the sound of a neighborhood\, night after night\, for years. His blues-soaked lineage runs parallel to the territory-band world that shaped Bob Wills further west. \nTate kept performing into his eighties\, his tone never losing its Texas grit. He recorded well into the 1990s\, still full of gospel fire. Younger musicians sought him out for lessons in phrasing and feel. Read more about his remarkable run via Buddy Tate. Sherman raised a saxophonist who never once stopped swinging.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/buddy-tate-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/buddy-tate-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270223
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270224
DTSTAMP:20260717T191937Z
CREATED:20260701T144257Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191937Z
UID:8428-1803340800-1803427199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Johnny Winter: Beaumont's White Lightning
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Johnny Winter. He would be 83 today. \nBeaumont\, 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 started playing guitar at eleven. By his teens\, he and his brother Edgar were already working the Southeast Texas club circuit. The blues came naturally. Beaumont had always known how to make it. \nThe Slide That Stopped New York Cold\nA 1968 story in Rolling Stone described Winter as an albino blues guitarist from Texas nobody had heard yet. Within weeks\, every record label in New York was calling. He signed with Columbia for a reported $600\,000 — a staggering advance for 1969. His debut album hit the top twenty. Then he revived Muddy Waters’s career by producing four albums for him in the 1970s\, earning Waters three Grammy Awards. Winter died on July 16\, 2014\, in Zurich. But his slide guitar still burns through the room when you put on a record. Learn more on Wikipedia.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/johnny-winter-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/johnny-winter-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270223
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270224
DTSTAMP:20260812T193157Z
CREATED:20260812T193157Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193157Z
UID:9498-1803340800-1803427199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Steve Jordan: Elsa's Accordion Revolutionary
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Steve Jordan. He would be 88 today. \nSteve 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 him the Jimi Hendrix of the accordion\, and the comparison fit. He recorded for small Valley labels long before major labels ever noticed him. His accordion runs crackled like a live wire sparking in a rainstorm. \nHow One Eye Sharpened the Sharpest Ear in Conjunto\nJordan grew up in Elsa\, a small farming town deep in the Rio Grande Valley. He started playing accordion as a boy\, soaking up conjunto at local dances. Nighttime radio also carried jazz and rock signals across the border into his room. But he refused to stay inside conjunto’s traditional two-step boundaries. Instead\, he pulled in jazz chords\, rock riffs\, and even salsa rhythms. Traditionalists sometimes bristled\, yet younger musicians followed him anyway. \nJordan recorded prolifically\, releasing albums that still baffle genre-obsessed record store clerks. He toured with rock and blues acts far outside the usual conjunto circuit. Those promoters booked him precisely because he refused easy categories. Fellow accordion giant Flaco Jiménez often cited him as a direct influence. Few players before or since have pushed the instrument that far. \nSteve Jordan died in 2010\, but his restless spirit still haunts conjunto stages today. The Steve Jordan catalog rewards anyone brave enough to actually listen closely. One eye\, one accordion\, and an entire genre reshaped forever.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/steve-jordan-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/steve-jordan-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270226
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270227
DTSTAMP:20260812T194018Z
CREATED:20260812T194018Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T194018Z
UID:9567-1803600000-1803686399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Erykah Badu: Dallas's Queen of Neo Soul
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Erykah Badu. She would be 56 today. \nErykah 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 it one of the greatest debut albums in R&B history. Critics crowned her the Queen of Neo Soul almost overnight. She never chased trends; she simply set her own. So Dallas gave her the grit\, and Badu gave Dallas a crown. \nThe Headwrap Heard Around Dallas and Beyond\nBaduizm topped Billboard’s R&B chart and helped her win two Grammy Awards. Her voice bends jazz phrasing into something entirely her own. Her collaborations span hip-hop\, jazz\, and gospel choirs alike. Badu also mentors young Dallas musicians\, including drum prodigy JD Beck. Like Beyoncé\, she proved Texas produces R&B royalty on a global scale. Then she kept reinventing herself across five studio albums. \nAccording to Erykah Badu‘s AllMusic biography\, she studied theater and dance at Grambling State University. That background shows in her hypnotic\, theatrical stage shows. She raises her children with the same unapologetic independence she shows on stage. That independence has kept her sound fresh for three decades. Badu still lives near Dallas\, teaching workshops for young artists. Fame never pulled her away from home. \nErykah Badu never needed a spotlight to feel like herself. She built her own light instead\, incense and all. Dallas raised a queen\, and neo soul has never been the same since. That’s the mark of a true original.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/erykah-badu-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/erykah-badu-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270306
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270307
DTSTAMP:20260717T191941Z
CREATED:20260701T144344Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191941Z
UID:8430-1804291200-1804377599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Bob Wills: The King of Western Swing
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Bob Wills. He would be 122 today. \nJames Robert Wills was born on March 6\, 1905\, on a farm near Kosse in Limestone County\, Texas. His father played fiddle. His grandfather played fiddle. The fiddle was already in the blood. He grew up dancing to it at breakdown dances across Central Texas\, where the music blended whatever was available — cowboy songs\, blues from the cotton fields\, Mexican ranchera drifting up from the south. Wills heard all of it and kept it. \nThe Music Nobody Had a Name For Yet\nBy the 1930s\, Wills had formed the Texas Playboys and was broadcasting on KVOO radio out of Tulsa. Then came “San Antonio Rose” in 1940 — a million-selling record that crossed every genre line. Western Swing\, people called it. It was country and jazz and blues and pop all playing at once\, with a horn section and a full rhythm band behind the fiddle. Dance floors across Texas and the Southwest filled every weekend. Wills moved back to Texas after the war and kept recording until a stroke stopped him in 1973. He died May 13\, 1975. The Texas Playboys played on. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/bob-wills-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/bob-wills-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270307
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270308
DTSTAMP:20260717T191945Z
CREATED:20260701T144348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191945Z
UID:8432-1804377600-1804463999@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Townes Van Zandt: Fort Worth's Lonesome Poet
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Townes Van Zandt. He would be 83 today. \nJohn Townes Van Zandt was born in Fort Worth\, Texas on March 7\, 1944\, into a family that had given the city its name — the Van Zandts were Texas founders. He grew up wealthy and restless\, studying law briefly\, then falling into music with the seriousness of someone who knew he’d never do anything else. He settled in Houston in the early 1960s and started playing the folk circuit. His songs arrived fully formed\, as if they’d been there all along waiting to be uncovered. \nThe Songwriter Other Songwriters Measure Against\n“Pancho and Lefty” is one of the great American songs. Emmylou Harris recorded it. Then Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard took it to No. 1 in 1983 — the only No. 1 hit of Merle Haggard’s career. “If I Needed You\,” “To Live Is to Fly\,” “Waitin’ Around to Die” — each one a small\, perfect storm. Steve Earle said Van Zandt was “the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.” Van Zandt died January 1\, 1997\, in Smyrna\, Tennessee. The songs are still accumulating weight. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/townes-van-zandt-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/townes-van-zandt-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270309
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270310
DTSTAMP:20260717T191948Z
CREATED:20260701T144351Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191948Z
UID:8434-1804550400-1804636799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Ornette Coleman: Fort Worth's Free Spirit
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Ornette Coleman. He would be 97 today. \nRandolph Denard Ornette Coleman was born in Fort Worth\, Texas on March 9\, 1930. Fort Worth’s Southside was a thriving Black neighborhood with its own clubs\, its own music economy\, its own culture. Coleman grew up inside it. He taught himself to play alto saxophone in a fundamentally wrong way — or rather\, a way that was entirely his own. He heard music differently from the start. That difference would eventually change jazz forever. \nThe Record That Broke the Lock\nColeman moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s\, then to New York\, where he released The Shape of Jazz to Come on Atlantic Records in 1959. It remains one of the most consequential albums in American music history. It discarded the chord changes that had governed jazz improvisation for a generation. Ornette called it “free jazz” — a term he made literal with a 1960 double-quartet album of that exact name. Musicians either heard it as liberation or catastrophe. He kept playing regardless. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2007 for his album Sound Grammar. He died June 11\, 2015\, in New York. Fort Worth gave music its first free spirit. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/ornette-coleman-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/ornette-coleman-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270309
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270310
DTSTAMP:20260812T192818Z
CREATED:20260812T192818Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192818Z
UID:9464-1804550400-1804636799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Herschel Evans: Denton's Warm-Toned Rival
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Herschel Evans. He would be 118 today. \nHerschel Evans played tenor saxophone like warm syrup poured over cold biscuits\, thick and comforting. He grew up in Denton\, Texas\, where church music shaped his earliest sense of tone. Herschel Evans’s Denton\, Texas upbringing gave him a sound rooted in feeling\, not flash. He absorbed Coleman Hawkins’s records and chased that same rich\, breathy warmth. By his twenties\, Evans had already built a reputation across Southwest bandstands. Territory bands in Texas and Oklahoma passed his name around like a secret. \nA Legendary Rivalry Split One Saxophone Section\nEvans joined Count Basie’s orchestra and sat beside a very different player\, Lester Young. Young favored a light\, dry tone\, while Evans preferred something heavier and rounder. Fans and bandmates debated nightly which tenor man truly ruled the stage. That friendly rivalry pushed both saxophonists toward their finest recorded work. Evans delivered one of his greatest statements on “Blue and Sentimental\,” a ballad. His solo there still moves listeners nearly ninety years later. Then\, tragedy struck: a heart condition ended his life in 1939\, at just 29. Basie reportedly kept Evans’s chair empty for a night\, unable to fill it immediately. His warm\, blues-drenched style still echoes through Texas tenor players today. Buddy Tate later took his old chair and honored his memory nightly. That lineage connects naturally to the Southwest jazz world explored on Kenny Dorham‘s page. \nEvans never got the decades of fame his talent deserved. Still\, his brief run reshaped how tenor saxophone could sound. Read more about his short\, brilliant career via Herschel Evans. Denton lost him early\, but jazz never forgot his tone.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/herschel-evans-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/herschel-evans-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270311
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270312
DTSTAMP:20260717T191953Z
CREATED:20260701T144354Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191953Z
UID:8436-1804723200-1804809599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Flaco Jiménez: San Antonio's Accordion King
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Flaco Jiménez. He is 88 today. \nLeonardo Jiménez Jr. was born in San Antonio\, Texas on March 11\, 1939. His father\, Don Santiago Jiménez Sr.\, was one of the founding figures of conjunto music. The accordion was already in the family kitchen. Flaco started playing it as a boy and never stopped. San Antonio’s West Side barrio was the center of a musical world most of America hadn’t discovered yet — and Flaco was being raised right in the middle of it. \nThe Accordion That Crossed Every Border\nFlaco mastered the bajo sexto and the accordion together\, pushing conjunto music forward without abandoning what made it essential. His 1979 collaborations with Doug Sahm put his sound in front of a rock and roll audience. Then Ry Cooder brought him into the studio for Chicken Skin Music in 1976. He recorded with the Texas Tornados alongside Freddy Fender\, Augie Meyers\, and Sahm himself — that group won a Grammy in 1991. Flaco won five Grammys of his own across his career. He took the accordion from the barrio to the world stage and back again\, and the music was richer for every mile. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/flaco-jimenez-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/flaco-jimenez-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270311
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270312
DTSTAMP:20260812T193605Z
CREATED:20260812T193605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193605Z
UID:9536-1804723200-1804809599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Vinnie Paul: Arlington's Groove Metal Powerhouse
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Vinnie Paul. He would be 63 today. \nVinnie Paul hit drums like he was trying to crack the earth open. Abilene\, Texas\, claims his birth\, but Arlington shaped his youth. His father\, Jerry Abbott\, owned Pantego Sound Studio nearby. Music filled that house long before Vinnie ever picked up sticks. He and his brother Dimebag Darrell formed a band as teenagers. They named an early lineup Pantera\, meaning panther in Spanish. That band later reshaped heavy metal for an entire generation. Vinnie Paul’s double-bass attack powered every song they wrote. \nThe Arlington Powerhouse Who Drove Pantera’s Groove\nVinnie Paul pounded his kit like a jackhammer breaking concrete on command. That force defined Pantera’s groove metal sound across four Grammy-nominated albums. Albums like “Cowboys from Hell” and “Vulgar Display of Power” shook arenas. His timing locked perfectly with his brother’s razor-sharp guitar riffs. Because the brothers understood each other instinctively\, the band never lost its edge. Fans often called their chemistry telepathic\, and few disagreed. Critics eventually ranked Pantera among metal’s most influential bands. Vinnie Paul later co-founded Hellyeah after Pantera disbanded. \nVinnie Paul lost his brother Dimebag Darrell to violence in 2004. That loss devastated him\, but he kept making music anyway. He died in 2018\, and fans mourned a true Texas original. Friends remembered him as loud\, generous\, and fiercely loyal. He built his career on family\, friendship\, and relentless power. His drumming style still influences metal players worldwide. Arlington shaped a kid who helped define an entire genre. Pantera’s groove still shakes speakers across Texas and beyond.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/vinnie-paul-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/vinnie-paul-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270311
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270312
DTSTAMP:20260812T193810Z
CREATED:20260812T193810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193810Z
UID:9553-1804723200-1804809599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Paul Wall: Houston's People's Champ of Grillz
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Paul Wall. He would be 46 today. \nPaul Wall turned dental hardware into a genuine art form. He grew up in Houston\, Texas\, deep inside its rap scene. He absorbed DJ Screw’s chopped and screwed sound as a teenager. That slow\, syrupy influence shaped his laid-back vocal delivery. His name itself became slang for something genuinely impressive. In 2005 he appeared on Nelly’s single “Grillz\,” and everything changed. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. \nThe Houston Kid Who Made Grillz a National Craze\nPaul Wall built his career like a jeweler polishing rough stones. His 2005 album “The People’s Champ” debuted at number one nationwide. Fans loved his easy charisma and unmistakable gold-toothed smile. That smile became as recognizable as any Houston skyline landmark. Grammy voters even nominated “Grillz” for Best Rap Song that year. Paul Wall never abandoned his Houston roots despite national fame. Later he opened his own jewelry store selling custom grillz locally. Few artists sustain that level of hometown loyalty for decades. That business let him control the culture he helped popularize. \nPaul Wall still records music and runs his Houston-based business today. He represents a specific era when Houston rap conquered mainstream radio. Fellow Houston icons like Beyoncé emerged from that same fertile music scene. Paul Wall never chased trends outside his authentic Houston identity. He turned local slang and local style into a global trend. Grillz became a fashion statement far beyond Southern rap circles. Celebrities nationwide eventually copied a trend Houston started first. Houston shaped him\, and he shaped Houston’s hip-hop reputation forever.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/paul-wall-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/paul-wall-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270315
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270316
DTSTAMP:20260717T192030Z
CREATED:20260701T144357Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T192030Z
UID:8438-1805068800-1805155199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Lightnin' Hopkins: Centerville's Blues Truth
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Lightnin’ Hopkins. He would be 115 today. \nSam John Hopkins was born in Centerville\, Texas on March 15\, 1912. Leon County is in the heart of Central Texas — rolling piney-woods country that sits between the old plantation belt to the east and the blackland prairie to the west. Hopkins met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic when he was eight years old. He was already gone then. The blues had its hooks in him and never let go. \nA Conversation\, Not a Performance\nHopkins settled in Houston’s Third Ward and built a reputation on the local club circuit across the 1940s. His recordings for Aladdin Records gave him the name “Lightnin'” — a producer paired him with a pianist billed as “Thunder” Washington. The recordings were spare and honest\, and they traveled. But Hopkins almost disappeared entirely. A researcher found him in Houston in 1959\, virtually unknown outside the neighborhood. The folk revival rediscovered him\, and he recorded prolifically through the 1960s and 1970s — solo guitar\, voice raw and specific as the Texas soil beneath him. He died January 30\, 1982\, in Houston. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/lightnin-hopkins-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/lightnin-hopkins-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270318
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270319
DTSTAMP:20260717T192035Z
CREATED:20260701T144441Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T192035Z
UID:8440-1805328000-1805414399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Charley Pride: The Voice That Changed Country Radio
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Charley Pride. He would be 92 today. \nCharley Frank Pride was born on March 18\, 1934\, in Sledge\, Mississippi. But Texas was where he became Charley Pride. He moved to Dallas in the early 1960s after a career in the Negro American League. He was playing semi-pro baseball and singing wherever someone would listen. RCA Records signed him in 1965. They didn’t put his photo on the first singles. Country radio was not yet ready for what Pride was about to do to it. \nTwenty-Nine No. 1 Singles\nWhen listeners finally saw Pride on television\, some radio stations returned the records. Most didn’t. The music was undeniable. “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'” hit No. 1 in 1971 and crossed to the pop charts. Pride became the first Black member of the Grand Ole Opry since DeFord Bailey. He won the CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year in 1971. Then he won it again in 1972. By the end of his career\, he had twenty-nine No. 1 singles. He died December 18\, 2020\, in Dallas — the city that gave him his start. Find his place items on Texas Music Map and learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/charley-pride-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/charley-pride-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270319
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270320
DTSTAMP:20260812T193624Z
CREATED:20260812T193624Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193624Z
UID:9542-1805414400-1805500799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Bun B: Port Arthur's Underground King
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Bun B. He would be 54 today. \nBun B built rhymes like a refinery builds pressure\, slow and relentless. Port Arthur\, Texas\, raised him under a skyline of oil refineries. Smoke stacks lit the skyline every night of his childhood. In 1987 he teamed with Pimp C to form UGK. UGK stood for Underground Kingz\, a bold declaration of intent. That partnership became one of Southern rap’s defining forces. Their sound carried the grit of their hometown into every verse. \nPort Arthur’s Refinery Kid Who Built Southern Rap\nBun B raps with a voice like gravel rolling down a steel ramp. His flow stayed steady\, deliberate\, and impossible to rush. In 1996 UGK released “Ridin’ Dirty\,” a Southern rap masterpiece. Critics initially overlooked it\, but fans in Texas never did. The album later earned classic status among hip-hop historians nationwide. Songs like “One Day” showed his reflective\, soulful side too. In 2000 Jay-Z featured Bun B on “Big Pimpin’\,” and mainstream audiences finally noticed. Because Bun B never left Texas\, Texas never forgot him. \nBun B later became a visiting lecturer at Rice University in Houston. He taught religion and hip-hop culture to college students. That move surprised fans who only knew him from Port Arthur streets. His influence now stretches far beyond UGK’s original catalog. Texas hip-hop giants like Beyoncé grew up hearing that same Southern sound. Bun B still champions Houston and Port Arthur every chance he gets. That legacy makes Port Arthur proud every single day. Refinery smoke shaped his voice\, and Texas pride shaped his career.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/bun-b-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/bun-b-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270320
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270321
DTSTAMP:20260717T193256Z
CREATED:20260701T144443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T193256Z
UID:8442-1805500800-1805587199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Jimmie Vaughan: Dallas Guitar Blueprint
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Jimmie Vaughan. He is 76 today. \nJimmie Vaughan was born in Dallas\, Texas on March 20\, 1951\, and grew up in Oak Cliff on the city’s south side. He was playing guitar in Oak Cliff clubs by his mid-teens\, absorbing T-Bone Walker\, Freddie King\, and the West Side Chicago sound with the concentration of someone who knew exactly what he was after. He moved to Austin at seventeen. The city was about to build something\, and Vaughan was going to help build it. \nThe Foundation of Austin Blues\nVaughan co-founded the Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1974 with singer Kim Wilson. They played Antone’s relentlessly through the late 1970s\, helping establish Sixth Street as a serious blues destination. His brother Stevie Ray Vaughan was watching and learning. Jimmie’s tone — warm\, economical\, never a wasted note — became a local touchstone. The Fabulous Thunderbirds had their biggest commercial moment with “Tuff Enuff” in 1986. But Jimmie’s real influence runs deeper than any single chart position. He is the architect of the Austin blues sound that produced the next generation. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/jimmie-vaughan-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Jimmie-Vaughan.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270320
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270321
DTSTAMP:20260702T154521Z
CREATED:20260701T144447Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260702T154521Z
UID:8444-1805500800-1805587199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Marcia Ball: Orange's Piano-Pounding Hurricane
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Marcia Ball. She is 77 today. \nMarcia Ball was born in Orange\, Texas\, on March 20\, 1949. Orange sits right on the Louisiana border\, and Ball grew up hearing both sides of that cultural line — Gulf Coast Texas rhythm and blues mixing with Louisiana swamp blues and zydeco. Her piano style absorbed all of it. She moved to Austin in the early 1970s and joined the blues scene that was just beginning to gather around Antone’s and the Armadillo World Headquarters. \nA Left Hand Like a Rhythm Section\nBall recorded her debut album Circuit Queen in 1978. She has been releasing records ever since\, earning six Grammy nominations along the way. Her live show is what people talk about — the left hand churning out rolling boogies while the voice cuts through whatever is happening in the room. She has collaborated with Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson on albums dedicated to Gulf Coast music\, and with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton on a celebrated trio album in 1990. She keeps playing\, keeps touring\, and keeps proving that the blues between Texas and Louisiana is its own particular force of nature. Learn more on Wikipedia.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/marcia-ball-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Marcia-Ball.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270324
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270325
DTSTAMP:20260710T185522Z
CREATED:20260710T184439Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260710T185522Z
UID:8613-1805846400-1805932799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Charley Crockett Birthday
DESCRIPTION:Charley Crockett was born on March 24\, 1984\, in San Benito\, Texas — the same Rio Grande Valley town that produced Freddy Fender fifty years before. His mother raised him nearby in Los Fresnos on a tight budget\, but music was everywhere: Tejano from the south\, country from the north\, and whatever she put on. He taught himself guitar at seventeen on a pawn-shop instrument she bought him after losing her job. He went on to become one of the most distinctive independent voices in American country and blues. \n\n\n\nCrockett busked his way through Deep Ellum\, New Orleans\, New York\, Paris\, and rural Morocco before returning to Texas to build his recording career. He calls his sound “Gulf and Western.” By 2022 his albums were charting on the Billboard 200. He won a Grammy for Best Regional Roots Music Album and San Benito proclaimed September 7th Charley Crockett Day. He plays C-Boy’s Heart & Soul in Austin when he wants to feel at home.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/charley-crockett-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Charley-Crockett-in-Charles-Town-WV.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270329
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270330
DTSTAMP:20260812T192913Z
CREATED:20260812T192913Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192913Z
UID:9482-1806278400-1806364799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Moon Mullican: Corrigan's King of Hillbilly Piano
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Moon Mullican. He would be 118 today. \nMoon Mullican pounded a piano like he owed it money and was settling the debt. He grew up in Corrigan\, Texas\, in the deep piney woods near the Louisiana line. Moon Mullican’s Corrigan\, Texas upbringing mixed Black blues\, gospel\, and Cajun sounds together early. He absorbed all of it\, then hammered it into a rolling boogie-woogie style. Nobody in country music played piano quite that hard before him. His hands moved like pistons\, relentless and precise across the keys. \nHis Left Hand Basically Invented Rockabilly’s Pulse\nMullican earned the nickname “King of Hillbilly Piano” through relentless\, driving performances. His boogie bass lines thundered under honky-tonk vocals like a runaway locomotive. Jerry Lee Lewis later cited him directly as a formative influence on his own playing. That connection helped bridge hillbilly boogie straight into early rockabilly’s wild energy. Mullican also wrote or co-wrote hits like “New Pretty Blonde” and “Cherokee Boogie.” He blended Cajun accordion phrasing into piano runs nobody else attempted then. Because of that fusion\, his sound predicted rock and roll years before it arrived. He toured relentlessly through East Texas dance halls\, building a devoted regional following. Fellow musicians nicknamed him “Moon” for his round\, moon-shaped face. His boogie-driven style parallels the piano innovations found throughout Scott Joplin‘s Texas legacy. \nMullican died in Beaumont in 1967\, still performing almost until the end. His piano style outlived him\, echoing through rock’s earliest recordings. Read more about his boogie-woogie legacy via Moon Mullican. Corrigan raised a piano man who helped invent rock and roll’s driving pulse.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/moon-mullican-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270330
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270331
DTSTAMP:20260702T153143Z
CREATED:20260701T144449Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260702T153143Z
UID:8446-1806364800-1806451199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Norah Jones: Texas-Raised Grammy Legend
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Norah Jones. She is 48 today. \nNorah Jones was born on March 30\, 1979. She grew up in Grapevine\, Texas\, outside Dallas\, where she sang in the school choir and started playing piano seriously in her teens. Texas shaped her musical instincts in ways that still show: the unhurried tempo\, the deep roots in jazz and country at the same time\, the sense that a song doesn’t need to rush anywhere. She studied jazz piano at the University of North Texas before moving to New York. \nEight Grammys on One Night\nHer debut album Come Away with Me came out on Blue Note Records in 2002. Nobody quite knew what to call it — jazz\, country\, pop\, soul. It didn’t matter. It sold eighteen million copies worldwide. At the 2003 Grammy Awards\, Jones won eight Grammys in a single night\, including Album of the Year\, Record of the Year\, and Song of the Year. It was one of the most complete Grammy sweeps in the ceremony’s history. She has continued recording across multiple genres\, always on her own terms. The Texas patience she grew up with never left her. Find her place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/norah-jones-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Norah-Jones.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270331
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270401
DTSTAMP:20260702T152849Z
CREATED:20260701T144452Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260702T152849Z
UID:8448-1806451200-1806537599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Lefty Frizzell: Corsicana's Country Architect
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Lefty Frizzell. He would be 99 today. \nWilliam Orville Frizzell was born in Corsicana\, Texas on March 31\, 1928. He grew up in oil-boom towns across Navarro and Upshur counties\, moving with his father’s drilling work. He taught himself to play guitar and sing in the style of Jimmie Rodgers\, then added something Rodgers hadn’t done — he stretched syllables\, bent words\, held a note long past where anyone expected him to land. It was a new way of phrasing country music. Nobody had quite done it before. \nThe Phrasing That Passed Into the DNA\nFrizzell signed with Columbia Records in 1950 and immediately had four singles in the country Top 10 simultaneously — a record that stood for decades. “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time” was the breakthrough. But listen to “I Want to Be with You Always” or “I Love You a Thousand Ways” and you’ll hear the phrasing that changed everything. Merle Haggard copied it note for note as a teenager. Willie Nelson absorbed it. Keith Whitley studied it obsessively. Frizzell died July 19\, 1975\, in Nashville. But every syllable he bent is still bending somewhere. Find his place items on Texas Music Map and learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/lefty-frizzell-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Lefty_Frizzell_Columbia_publicity_-_cropped-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270401
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270402
DTSTAMP:20260812T192349Z
CREATED:20260812T192349Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192349Z
UID:9426-1806537600-1806623999@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Amos Milburn: Houston's Boogie-Woogie King
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Amos Milburn. He would be 100 today. \nAmos Milburn hammered piano keys in Houston\, Texas\, like he owed them money. He served in the Navy during World War II\, then came home ready to party. His right hand rolled boogie-woogie triplets so fast they blurred together. His songs celebrated whiskey\, gin\, and Saturday night freedom. Because Jim Crow Texas offered Black musicians few open doors\, Milburn built his own through pure rhythm. He signed with Aladdin Records in Los Angeles and never slowed down. “Chicken Shack Boogie” hit number one on the R&B charts in 1948. Meanwhile\, Lightnin’ Hopkins prowled the same Houston clubs\, playing rawer\, rougher blues. \nThe Man Who Turned Drinking Songs Into an Art Form\nMilburn built an entire catalog around liquor: “Bad\, Bad Whiskey\,” “One Scotch\, One Bourbon\, One Beer\,” and more. Radio programmers loved the novelty. But the piano work underneath showed serious craft. His thundering left hand shook barroom floors like a small earthquake. Fats Domino openly borrowed his rolling boogie style. He built an entire New Orleans sound around it. So did countless rock and roll pianists who came after both of them. Milburn’s hits practically invented the jump-blues formula that fed straight into early rock and roll. However\, changing tastes and personal struggles slowed his career by the 1960s. He died in Houston in 1980\, largely uncelebrated outside blues circles. Still\, every honky-tonk piano riff since owes him a debt. Later generations rarely said his name\, yet they played his licks anyway. Crank up “Chicken Shack Boogie\,” and the whole party starts again.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/amos-milburn-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/amos-milburn-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270407
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270408
DTSTAMP:20260812T193821Z
CREATED:20260812T193821Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193821Z
UID:9556-1807056000-1807142399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Ally Venable: Kilgore's Blues-Rock Prodigy
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Ally Venable. She would be 28 today. \nAlly Venable grew up in Kilgore\, Texas\, a Piney Woods town famous for oil\, not guitar heroes. She picked up a six-string at nine years old and never let go. By fourteen\, she had already released her first EP. That kind of nerve turns heads in the blues world. Buddy Guy heard her play and asked her on the road. Her tone hits like a sledgehammer wrapped in velvet\, blunt force with a soft edge. So her albums climbed Billboard’s Blues chart\, no surprise to anyone who had heard her play. \nA Sledgehammer Tone Out of the Piney Woods\nHer sound draws equally from Stevie Ray Vaughan‘s fire and Etta James’s grit. Ally toured with Buddy Guy across theaters most guitarists only dream about. Then she opened for ZZ Top\, a rite of passage for any Texas rocker. Her album Fire It Up hit the Billboard Blues Albums chart within its first week. Critics reached for words like prodigy\, but Ally never acted like one. \nOff stage\, Ally still calls Kilgore home and returns often. As Ally Venable once explained\, the blues chose her\, not the reverse. That humility sets her apart from guitar-slinger cliches. Now\, still in her twenties\, she headlines rooms that once intimidated her. Texas blues has a long memory\, and it already reveres her name. \nAlly Venable never asked permission to play loud. She just plugged in and let Kilgore’s quiet fields shake a little. That’s the whole story of Texas blues\, really: someone plugs in\, and the ground moves.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/ally-venable-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/ally-venable-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR