Along with Luckenbach, TX and Gruene Hall, The Coupland Dancehall in Coupland, TX about 25 miles east of Austin is one of the legendary spots where so much Texas music history has been made.
Everything was bigger at the 2024 Ameripolitan Awards. The crowd was bigger, the production was bigger, the entire everything for a grassroots organization trying to offer an alternative to other awards was bigger.
What happens in Key West doesn’t stay in Key West during the annual five-day Mile 0 Fest. As one of the first country music events on the calendar each year, it helps set the table for everything else that will transpire.
As we look back on 2023 and before we look forward to 2024, it’s important we take the time to pay tribute to the important individuals in country and roots music who left us over the last year.
Along with recalling the great songs and the fond memories, it seems fitting for remember that Charlie Robison was also a fierce titan for independent country music and artists controlling their own destiny.
One of the members of the First Family of Texas Music, and a landmark musician and songwriter for nearly 30 years in Texas and beyond has died at the age of 59. According to a family representative, Charlie Robison passed away.
He wasn’t destined to have the big superstar career that he initially set out for, or that his talent deserved. But over his 40 years in the trenches as a songwriter, player, and producer, Keith Gattis became a superstar to those who knew him in the business, from Texas, to Nashville, to Los Angeles.
What Two Step Inn got right was that you can mix today’s independent country with country legends from the 80s and 90s, and even some of the cool up-and-comers in the mainstream, and have an event that breaks down barriers and cross-pollinates fans bases because it’s all great country music.
There is plenty to be sour about in the world here in 2022. But damn if it is hard to not be thankful for this year if your center of gravity is music from Texas and Oklahoma. Now Uncle Lucius is also giving us good news. We thought they’d played their final show in 2018 at Gruene Hall.
With Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers headlining Saturday and Sunday, and other names from the independent country world like Charles Wesley Godwin, Kaitlin Butts, Paul Cauthen, and Austin’s Kathryn Legendre playing, it speaks to the independent aspect the festival organizers want the festival to take on.
When Charlie Robison made his retirement announcement in 2018, it felt a little fatalistic that no solution could eventually be found to fix his vocal woes, but he also left no wiggle room in his declaration. Now there is hope that Charlie Robison could be on the comeback trail, or is at least probing that possibility.
It very well could have just been a one-off engagement, and no more. But as a fan, you hold out hope. It’s never over until it’s over. The fact that Charlie is still around, and we know he has at least some capacity still to play and sing, perhaps there may be a little more of it in the future.
Texas music couple Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis announced the end of their marriage late last week, and with everything else going on, it may have been easy to miss the news, or to maybe gloss over just how significant this news is, and regard it simply as gossip.
Eschewing the hipness of east Nashville and Austin to instead walk the culture hungry streets of Dallas, Texas, Joshua Ray Walker is a big man with a high lonesome voice and heartfelt songs who is quickly rising up the independent country music depth charts. A songwriter and honky-tonker with a head full of words and […]
Waylon Payne is the name you turn to when you need a ringer of a song to really anchor a record, and that is what names like Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack, Wade Bowen, Charlie Robison, Pam Tillis, and many more have been doing for a while. But those who know Waylon Payne know he’s just as fit to be a performer.
It will never be the easiest festival to get to for anyone. It’s certainly not the cheapest when it comes to ticket prices, accommodations, or incidentals. But what’s for certain after the second year of Mile 0 Fest in Key West, Florida, is that this is Texas and Red Dirt’s premier musical event each year.
30 minutes before Texas music legend Charlie Robison was scheduled to be paid tribute by his fellow Texas and Red Dirt artists, a line 400 deep snaked around the block of the 200-capacity Key West Theater as part of the 2019 Mile 0 Fest. Some folks had shown up hours before.
Texas music legend Charlie Robison will be making a rare public appearance since retiring from music in September of 2018 as part of a special tribute being put together at this week’s Mile 0 Fest in Key West, Florida. Mile 0 Fest also addresses the Turnpike Troubadours cancellation.
It isn’t just the words or the music itself. It’s the commitment your mind makes when you listen to a Charlie Robison song. It’s the awakening of the imagination, and the suspension of disbelief, yet the true-as-dirt stories told with glossy-eyed despondency that make you deeply cognizant of every damn word being conveyed.
One of the members of the First Family of Texas Music—and a landmark musician and songwriter for a quarter century—shocked and saddened fans on Monday (9/24) evening when he announced that he’s calling it quits. In a short note to fans, Charlie Robison let it be known that he will no longer be pursuing music.
Strap yourself in, buckle up, and mentally prepare yourself as best you can, because there isn’t anywhere Robyn Ludwick won’t go on ‘This Tall To Ride.’ Unabashedly exploring the dark underbelly of life where cocaine and sex are the ruling currency, and creatures of the night cuddle up with each other for comfort…
Some may recognize the name south of the Canadian border, especially if they understand the intricacies of hockey’s offsides and icing rules. But in the great frozen north, he’s considered a national treasure. Theo Fleury, a 1,000-goal scorer in the NHL, Stanley Cup winner in 1989 with the Calgary Flames, Gold Medal winner in 2002 representing Canada, and a World Junior Champion, has decided he’s going country.
Many of your favorite Austin, TX musicians who list their hometown as Austin actually live in a small community south and west of the city in the panoramic Texas Hill Country called Wimberley. About a 45-minute drive from Austin, the small town of less than 3,000 sits on the banks of the Blanco River, and is a favorite day trip for many central Texas residents.
‘Tis the season in Texas to get out and enjoy the outdoors before the swelter of summer starts in earnest, and to support many of the charitable events that mix music with sports. For seven years, Reckless Kelly has been throwing celebrity softball tournaments to help raise funds to support youth sports programs in Central Texas, and all told the Reckless Kelly Softball Jam has raised over $300,000 since its inception.