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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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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: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:20270125
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270126
DTSTAMP:20260812T192421Z
CREATED:20260812T192421Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T192421Z
UID:9437-1800835200-1800921599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Blind Willie Johnson: Temple's Voice Sent to Space
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Blind Willie Johnson. He would be 130 today. \nBlind Willie Johnson grew up near Temple\, Texas\, and violence took his sight as a child. He never let that darkness silence him\, though. Instead\, he picked up a guitar and played it with a pocketknife slide. His voice rasped like gravel poured over broken glass. He sang low and rough\, then growled the next line entirely. He sang gospel\, not blues\, but the two sounds blurred completely in his hands. Johnson recorded just 30 songs between 1927 and 1930 for Columbia Records in makeshift studios. Somehow\, those few recordings changed American music forever. \nA Blind Texas Preacher Reached All the Way to Space\nJohnson busked on street corners across Central Texas\, preaching through his guitar. Because record labels marketed him as “race records\,” few white listeners heard him at the time. Still\, his haunting instrumental “Dark Was the Night\, Cold Was the Ground” stunned everyone who heard it. It contains no words\, only moans\, hums\, and slide guitar. NASA later selected that very recording for the 1977 Voyager Golden Record. It now drifts beyond our solar system\, representing all of humanity. Johnson never knew that honor. He died in 1945 from an infection\, and a local hospital turned him away because of his race. Like Mance Lipscomb\, he turned Central Texas hardship into something eternal. Musicians from Eric Clapton to Ry Cooder still study his recordings closely\, note by note. A blind preacher from Temple now sings somewhere past Jupiter\, farther than any Texan before him.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/blind-willie-johnson-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/blind-willie-johnson-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270122
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270123
DTSTAMP:20260717T193253Z
CREATED:20260701T143926Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T193253Z
UID:8418-1800576000-1800662399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Angela Strehli: Lubbock's Blues Architect
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Angela Strehli. She is 81 today. \nAngela Strehli was born in Lubbock\, Texas on January 22\, 1945. She could have stayed in West Texas. Instead\, she moved to Austin in the late 1960s and helped build something from the ground up. Strehli co-founded Antone’s Records and became a central figure in the Austin blues revival of the 1970s and 1980s. She understood something the record labels hadn’t figured out yet: Austin had a blues scene worth taking seriously. \nThe Woman Behind the Scene\nStrehli sang with a deep\, authoritative voice that had absorbed Chicago\, Delta\, and Texas blues without sounding like any one of them. She recorded Soul Shake in 1987 and toured alongside Stevie Ray Vaughan\, Lou Ann Barton\, and Jimmie Vaughan. Her influence on the Austin sound runs deeper than most people realize. Antone’s wouldn’t have been Antone’s without her. Explore her place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/angela-strehli-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Angela-Strehli-cr.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270121
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270122
DTSTAMP:20260717T191912Z
CREATED:20260701T143923Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191912Z
UID:8416-1800489600-1800575999@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Mac Davis: Lubbock's Songwriter for the Stars
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Mac Davis. He would be 85 today. \nScott Davis was born in Lubbock\, Texas on January 21\, 1942\, in the same flat\, sun-hammered West Texas world that produced Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings. Unlike them\, Davis didn’t stay in music’s underground. He went straight for the mainstream and hit it with surgical precision. He moved to Atlanta\, then Los Angeles\, working as a promotion man for Vee-Jay Records before anyone heard his songs. Then Elvis did. \nWriting for the King\nElvis Presley recorded Davis’s “A Little Less Conversation” in 1968. Then “In the Ghetto” — a song about Chicago poverty that a Lubbock boy wrote — hit No. 3 on the pop charts in 1969. Then “Memories.” Davis became a television star with The Mac Davis Show through the 1970s and returned to country radio with his own hits for years after. He died on September 29\, 2020. Explore his place items on Texas Music Map and more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/mac-davis-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/mac-davis-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270119
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270120
DTSTAMP:20260717T191907Z
CREATED:20260701T143920Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191907Z
UID:8414-1800316800-1800403199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Janis Joplin: Port Arthur Gave the World a Voice
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Janis Joplin. She would be 84 today. \nPort Arthur is a refinery town on the Texas Gulf Coast — the kind of place that smells like industry and feels like the edge of something. Janis Lyn Joplin was born there on January 19\, 1943. She was odd from the start: smart\, loud\, interested in the blues at a time when Port Arthur girls were supposed to be interested in something else entirely. She left for Austin\, then San Francisco\, then the world. And the world wasn’t ready. \nThe Rawest Voice in Rock and Roll\nWith Big Brother and the Holding Company at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival\, Joplin stopped a generation cold. Her version of “Piece of My Heart” remains one of the great rock and roll performances. “Me and Bobby McGee\,” recorded days before her death\, hit No. 1 after she was gone. She died on October 4\, 1970\, at 27. Port Arthur eventually put up a statue. It took them a while. The Texas State Historical Association tells the fuller story.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/janis-joplin-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/janis-joplin-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270112
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270113
DTSTAMP:20260812T193031Z
CREATED:20260812T193031Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193031Z
UID:9484-1799712000-1799798399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Ray Price: Wood County's Shuffle-Beat Innovator
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Ray Price. He would be 101 today. \nRay Price built a shuffle beat so sturdy that honky-tonk still leans on it today. He grew up near Perryville in Wood County\, Texas\, deep in East Texas farmland. Ray Price’s Wood County\, Texas roots gave him a plainspoken\, working-class sense of rhythm. He moved to Dallas\, then Nashville\, chasing a career that would reshape country music. He first studied to become a veterinarian before music pulled him away. His voice carried a warm\, confident weight\, like a hand on your shoulder. \nHe Built a Beat That Still Runs Honky-Tonks Today\nPrice developed a driving 4/4 shuffle rhythm that fans nicknamed the “Ray Price beat.” That rhythm powered hits like “Crazy Arms” and “City Lights” through jukeboxes everywhere. Bandleaders across Texas copied his walking-bass\, shuffling-drum formula almost immediately. Because of that beat\, honky-tonk dance floors found a new\, irresistible pulse. Price also ran one of country music’s great finishing schools for talent. He hired a young Willie Nelson to play bass in his touring band. Roger Miller and Johnny Paycheck also passed through Price’s famous Cherokee Cowboys lineup. That band became a proving ground for country music’s next generation. Price later embraced lush strings\, pulling honky-tonk toward smoother\, string-laden productions. His restless reinvention echoes the same Texas dance-hall spirit found in Bob Wills‘s music. \nPrice kept performing and recording until shortly before his death in 2013. He never stopped chasing a better arrangement\, a tighter beat. Read more about his influential career via Ray Price. Wood County gave country music a rhythm it still proudly dances to.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/ray-price-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/ray-price-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270112
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270113
DTSTAMP:20260717T191904Z
CREATED:20260701T143917Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191904Z
UID:8412-1799712000-1799798399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Tex Ritter: Murvaul's First Singing Cowboy
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Tex Ritter. He would be 122 today. \nWoodward Maurice Ritter came out of Murvaul — a Deep East Texas hamlet in Panola County — on January 12\, 1905. He studied law at the University of Texas and sang cowboy songs on the side. The songs won. He moved to New York\, then Hollywood\, and became one of the first great singing cowboys of the silver screen. Between 1936 and 1945\, Ritter made over 70 Western films. He was genuine Texas in a genre full of pretenders from New Jersey. \nThe Voice That Opened High Noon\nHis voice opens one of the greatest Westerns ever made. “Do Not Forsake Me” played over the credits of High Noon in 1952 and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Ritter joined the Grand Ole Opry and recorded for Capitol Records for decades. His son John Ritter became one of television’s most beloved actors. Tex died on January 2\, 1974 — his son’s first day of the new year. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/tex-ritter-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/tex-ritter-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270102
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270103
DTSTAMP:20260717T191850Z
CREATED:20260701T143914Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191850Z
UID:8410-1798848000-1798934399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Roger Miller: Fort Worth's King of the Road
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Roger Miller. He would be 91 today. \nFort Worth handed Roger Miller his birth certificate on January 2\, 1936\, and then he was gone. His father died early. The family split. He was raised by an uncle in Erick\, Oklahoma — a Panhandle town with more tumbleweeds than ambitions. But the wit was already forming. Miller had a peculiar genius: he could make a pun ache like a bruise. He arrived in Nashville in the 1950s and spent years writing for others before anyone gave him a shot of his own. \nEleven Grammys in Two Years\nThen came 1964 and 1965. Miller won eleven Grammy Awards across those two years — still a country record. “King of the Road” hit No. 1 in 1965 and crossed every genre line in sight. “Dang Me\,” “Chug-A-Lug\,” “Engine Engine #9” — each one a different calibration of American funny. But “Husbands and Wives” showed he could lay you flat when he wanted to. He later wrote the Broadway musical Big River\, which won seven Tony Awards in 1985. He died October 25\, 1992. The wit never wore out before he did. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/roger-miller-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/roger-miller-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261230
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261231
DTSTAMP:20260717T191846Z
CREATED:20260701T145300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191846Z
UID:8528-1798588800-1798675199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Michael Nesmith: Houston's Monkee
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Michael Nesmith. He would be 84 today. \nRobert Michael Nesmith was born in Houston\, Texas on December 30\, 1942. His mother Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper correction fluid and became a millionaire. Michael grew up in Dallas and San Antonio\, wrote his first songs as a teenager\, and moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties. He auditioned for a new television show in 1965 called The Monkees. He wore a wool hat. He got the part. \nThe Monkee Who Built Country Rock\nNesmith was the serious musician in a group designed as a pop product. He fought for the Monkees’ right to play their own instruments and write their own songs. He left the group in 1970 and formed the First National Band\, recording three albums of country rock before critics had a name for that genre. He is widely credited as a founding influence on what became the country rock movement — Don Henley\, Glenn Frey\, and the Eagles came after. He also produced the first music video to air on MTV at its launch in 1981\, and co-founded the music video format. He died December 10\, 2021. Houston made a pioneer who never got quite enough credit. Learn more on Wikipedia.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/michael-nesmith-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/michael-nesmith-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261229
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261230
DTSTAMP:20260812T193734Z
CREATED:20260812T193734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193734Z
UID:9545-1798502400-1798588799@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Pimp C: Port Arthur's Southern Rap Architect
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Pimp C. He would be 53 today. \nPimp C came into the world in Crowley\, Louisiana\, then Texas claimed him. His family settled in Port Arthur\, Texas\, while he was still a child. Refinery smoke and gospel music both shaped his early ears. His mother sang in a Port Arthur church choir weekly. He started producing beats before most kids learned multiplication tables. In 1987 he partnered with Bun B to form UGK. Pimp C brought the production genius; Bun B brought relentless bars. \nThe Producer Who Gave Port Arthur Its Sound\nPimp C built beats like a chemist mixing dangerous\, perfect compounds. He layered funk basslines under gospel organs and syrupy Southern drawls. In 1996 UGK released “Ridin’ Dirty\,” a defining Southern rap album. That record captured Port Arthur’s grit better than any postcard could. His voice growled with authority\, even when the lyrics turned playful. Fellow producers studied his mixing techniques for years afterward. Because he refused to soften his sound\, purists respected him deeply. He died suddenly in 2007\, silencing one of rap’s sharpest producers. \nPimp C never lived to see hip-hop fully embrace his influence. Today’s Southern rap sound still carries his fingerprints everywhere. Artists like Post Malone draw from that same syrupy\, laid-back Texas style. Pimp C stayed loyal to Port Arthur even after fame arrived. He championed his hometown in interviews\, lyrics\, and everyday conversation. His memory still shapes how Houston-area artists build a track. Bun B has kept that legacy alive since his partner’s death. Port Arthur lost a legend\, but his sound refuses to fade.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/pimp-c-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/pimp-c-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261228
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261229
DTSTAMP:20260717T193252Z
CREATED:20260701T145257Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T193252Z
UID:8526-1798416000-1798502399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Edgar Winter: Beaumont's Multi-Instrument Maverick
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Edgar Winter. He is 80 today. \nEdgar Winter was born in Beaumont\, Texas on December 28\, 1946 — younger brother of Johnny Winter\, also born in Beaumont. The Winter brothers were the most musically gifted siblings the Texas Gulf Coast ever produced. Edgar played keyboards\, saxophone\, guitar\, and drums with professional fluency on all of them. He moved to New York and formed the Edgar Winter Group in 1972. The band played a ferocious mix of rock\, blues\, jazz\, and funk that didn’t quite fit any single radio format and didn’t care. \nFrankenstein’s Monster Hit\n“Frankenstein” hit No. 1 in 1973 and became one of the defining rock instrumentals of the era. Winter played a synthesizer strapped around his neck and ran it through the same rig as his saxophone — nobody had quite done that before. “Free Ride” became a radio staple the same year. His 1975 album Jasmine Nightdreams showed how far beyond the hits his musical interests ran. He has worked in film scoring\, classical composition\, and gospel throughout his career. Beaumont made two of Texas rock’s most important figures and barely got credit for either. Learn more on Wikipedia.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/edgar-winter-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Edgar-Winter.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261218
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261219
DTSTAMP:20260717T191843Z
CREATED:20260701T145254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T191843Z
UID:8524-1797552000-1797638399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Bobby Keys: Slaton's Rolling Stone
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Bobby Keys. He would be 83 today. \nBobby Keys was born in Slaton\, Texas on December 18\, 1943 — a small railroad and cotton town on the South Plains\, just southeast of Lubbock. He started playing saxophone as a teenager and was already touring with Buddy Holly’s backing musicians by sixteen. He shared a birthday with Keith Richards — a coincidence that became one of the more unlikely relationships in rock history. Keys met the Rolling Stones while both were on tour in 1965. He started sitting in. Mick Jagger noticed the saxophone. \nThe Sound of Every Great Stones Record\n“Brown Sugar” opens with Bobby Keys’s baritone saxophone. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” features his extended solo. “Rip This Joint\,” “Happy\,” “Tumbling Dice” — Keys is the texture underneath the most celebrated run of Rolling Stones albums\, from Sticky Fingers through Exile on Main St. in 1972. He was a full touring member of the Stones for five decades. He also recorded and toured with John Lennon\, Harry Nilsson\, and dozens of others. He died December 2\, 2014\, in Franklin\, Tennessee. Slaton\, Texas produced one of rock and roll’s essential sidemen. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/bobby-keys-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/bobby-keys-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261216
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261217
DTSTAMP:20260717T193248Z
CREATED:20260701T145250Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260717T193248Z
UID:8522-1797379200-1797465599@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Billy Gibbons: Houston's Riff Master
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Billy Gibbons. He is 77 today. \nWilliam Frederick Gibbons was born in Houston\, Texas on December 16\, 1949. His father was a professional musician and orchestra conductor. Billy grew up in a house full of music and discovered the blues through Muddy Waters and B.B. King records as a teenager. He formed a series of bands in Houston before co-founding ZZ Top in 1969 with bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard. All three were born in Texas. The band has never changed its lineup. That alone is a kind of miracle in rock and roll. \nThe Tone That Defined Texas Rock\n“La Grange” in 1973 built its entire architecture on a John Lee Hooker boogie and Gibbons’s Les Paul tone — a specific\, fat\, slightly distorted sound that became one of the most imitated sounds in rock history. ZZ Top had their commercial peak with Eliminator in 1983\, producing “Sharp Dressed Man\,” “Legs\,” and “Gimme All Your Lovin'” simultaneously. Gibbons is also an obsessive car customizer — the “Eliminator” coupe in the videos was his. He is a serious art collector. He has never stopped playing\, never stopped exploring the blues beneath the stadium rock. Houston gave him the start. He gave Houston the beard. Learn more on Wikipedia.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/billy-gibbons-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/Billy-Gibbons.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261211T220000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261211T220000
DTSTAMP:20260901T231727Z
CREATED:20260901T142323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260901T231727Z
UID:9892-1797026400-1797026400@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Fort Worth: Stoney LaRue at Billy Bob's Texas
DESCRIPTION:Stoney LaRue closes out the year at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth on Friday\, December 11\, 2026\, bringing one of Red Dirt music’s defining voices to the Stockyards for a night built for hardcore fans. \nShowtime is 10:00 PM inside the World’s Largest Honky Tonk\, where LaRue’s gravelly voice and road-tested band typically turn the floor into one long singalong from the first song to the last encore. \nLaRue was born in Taft\, Texas\, before his family relocated across the Red River to Yanush\, Oklahoma\, where he grew up and started playing music young. He landed in Stillwater\, Oklahoma\, home of Oklahoma State University\, and became a central figure in the college-town bar scene that grew into the modern Red Dirt movement\, sharing stages early on with acts like Cross Canadian Ragweed and Jason Boland. \nGet Stoney LaRue tickets on StubHub \nBuy Tickets \nThough he’s closely associated with Oklahoma’s Red Dirt scene\, LaRue’s Texas roots and relentless touring schedule across Lone Star dancehalls have made him a fixture on the Texas circuit for two decades\, with albums like Velvet and The Red Dirt Album cementing his reputation as one of the genre’s most soulful performers. \nExpect a rowdy\, well-worn crowd that treats LaRue’s shows more like a reunion than a concert. Get to the Stockyards early for the 10:00 PM start\, since Billy Bob’s tends to fill up fast for shows like this one.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/fort-worth-stoney-larue-at-billy-bobs-texas/
LOCATION:Billy Bob’s Texas\, 2520 Rodeo Plaza\, Fort Worth\, 76164\, United States
CATEGORIES:Concerts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/13507974-prladD.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261210
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261211
DTSTAMP:20260812T193057Z
CREATED:20260812T193057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193057Z
UID:9490-1796860800-1796947199@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Johnny Rodriguez: Sabinal's Country Trailblazer
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Johnny Rodriguez. He would be 75 today. \nJohnny Rodriguez of Sabinal\, Texas\, once sang his way out of a jail cell. As a teenager\, he landed in trouble for taking a goat\, then found himself behind bars. A local sheriff heard him singing there and couldn’t stop talking about it. Word reached Alamo Village\, and soon visiting Nashville stars discovered a border-town kid with a golden voice. His rise felt like a flash flood in the Hill Country\, sudden and impossible to stop. Within a few years\, he racked up six country chart-toppers. \nFrom a Sabinal Jail Cell to the Grand Ole Opry\nRodriguez became the first Mexican-American singer to headline mainstream country radio at that scale. His smooth baritone carried hits like “Pass Me By” and “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico.” Before him\, few executives thought a Spanish surname belonged on the Opry stage. Rodriguez shattered that assumption night after night. He toured alongside Willie Nelson\, another Texan who refused to play by Nashville’s rules. Both men proved a Texas accent could still top the national charts. \nRodriguez battled personal struggles for decades\, yet his voice never lost its warmth. He kept performing well into his sixties\, still packing small Texas dance halls. Fans across the Rio Grande Valley never stopped claiming him as their own son. So did fans in Nashville\, and that dual loyalty defined his whole career. \nJohnny Rodriguez died in 2025\, but his six chart-toppers still spin on country radio. The Johnny Rodriguez story still inspires singers along the border today. A goat theft in Sabinal somehow launched a country music career.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/johnny-rodriguez-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/johnny-rodriguez-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261208
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261209
DTSTAMP:20260812T193338Z
CREATED:20260812T193338Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T193338Z
UID:9510-1796688000-1796774399@texasmusicmap.com
SUMMARY:Floyd Tillman: Post's Honky-Tonk Scandal Writer
DESCRIPTION:Today is the birthday of Floyd Tillman. He would be 112 today. \nFloyd Tillman grew up chasing cotton wagons through Post\, Texas\, on the South Plains. Oklahoma claims his birthplace\, but West Texas dance halls raised his songwriting ear. By the 1930s\, he helped invent honky-tonk before the genre even had that name. His song “It Makes No Difference Now” became one of the most recorded tunes of its era. Then “Slippin’ Around” scandalized 1949 radio with its open talk of cheating. Bing Crosby soon covered it too\, spreading Tillman’s writing far beyond Texas. \nThe Cotton-Field Kid Who Wrote Honky-Tonk’s First Scandal\nTillman’s family moved often\, chasing farm work across the West Texas plains. Still\, music followed him into every new town they landed in. He played guitar\, banjo\, and eventually a primitive electric steel guitar live on stage. That amplified twang cut through noisy dance halls like a hot knife through lard. He also wrote lyrics that sounded like overheard barroom confessions\, blunt and unguarded. Other songwriters took notice\, and honky-tonk’s electric sound started spreading statewide. \nTillman toured Texas alongside fellow honky-tonk pioneer Ernest Tubb during those formative years. Both men proved a jukebox hit could come from a small Texas dance hall. Their friendship also helped honky-tonk spread from West Texas toward Nashville. The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Tillman in 1984\, decades after his biggest hits. By then\, his songs had already outlived several passing musical trends. \nFloyd Tillman died in 2003\, but his lyrics about cheating hearts never went out of style. The Floyd Tillman songbook still shapes how country singers write about heartbreak. A cotton-picking kid from Post taught Nashville how to sin set to music.
URL:https://texasmusicmap.com/event/floyd-tillman-birthday/
LOCATION:TX
CATEGORIES:Birthdays
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://texasmusicmap.com/wp-content/uploads/floyd-tillman-birthday.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR