“You Can’t Break My Heart” by Miles Zuniga
Miles performs "You Can't Break My Heart" for Austin Songwriter. If only that were... Read more →
Sam Baker
Heralded as among America’s finest songwriters since his debut in 2004, Sam Baker is a stone cold original with no discernible influences other... Read more →
Kelly Willis
Kelly Willis was born in the red dirt of Lawton, Oklahoma and lived the displaced life of an army child, unable to put down roots in any one place... Read more →
Gene Clark
Gene Clark helped facilitate the inevitable union between American folk and American country. Known primarily for his work with the Byrds,... Read more →
Eliza Gilkyson Interview (November 23, 2016)
Few songwriters have achieved Eliza Gilkyson’s poetic soup of inventiveness, gravitas and sheer emotion. Her songs are a flowing... Read more →
Ponty Bone and the Squeezetones
The squeezebox has a special place in Texas musical history. A mainstay of polka, conjunto and zydeco, the "button accordion", as it is more properly... Read more →
Jesse Winchester
It is absolutely worth your while to rediscover the recently passed Jesse Winchester, a writer of uncommon heart, wit and grace. Born in 1944 in... Read more →
“Scrappy” Jud Newcomb
Lucky for us, natural musicians are drawn to Austin like honeybees to a sunflower. For every writer with a dream and a beat up Martin guitar, there... Read more →
Carolyn Wonderland
Resurrecting Texans from Freddie King to Janis Joplin, Carolyn Wonderland burns the blues with her rolling originals, piercing voice and blistering... Read more →
Ryan Bingham with “The Weary Kind”
Mr. Bingham with "The Weary Kind", the song he wrote with T Bone Burnett for the film Crazy Heart. You can hear a little Stephen Bruton in there... Read more →
John Hiatt
John Hiatt was born in Indianapolis, but you'd swear from his lyrics that he was a southern son of Memphis or New Orleans, maybe even Muscle Shoals.... Read more →
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith was born to musical parents in Seguin, Texas, and was playing clubs down the road in Austin by the age of fourteen. She continued to... Read more →
Mary Gauthier Podcast (September 14, 2016)
Having been mentioned, with other visionaries, in Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Name Droppin’”, Mary Gauthier has plenty of Texas... Read more →
“God Help America” by Jeff Plankenhorn
Jeff wishes America a happy and thoughtful birthday. Onward and upward,... Read more →
Scrappy Jud Newcomb performs his “Damaged Goods”
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Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison's voice might have been enough, as strong and versatile as ever to grace American roots music. But stack that voice next to the... Read more →
Darden Smith
Since moving to Austin in the early eighties to attend the University of Texas, Darden Smith has grown into a renowned songwriter and performer, as... Read more →
“I Shall Be Released” by Jimmy LaFave and friends
Thinking a lot lately about our friend, Jimmy LaFave. Always gives more than he takes. A lot... Read more →
Butch Hancock
Another musical luminary from the Lubbock area, Butch Hancock is best known for his on and off collaboration with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale... Read more →
Joe Ely
In 1977, Joe Ely came blowing out of Lubbock with his first record, Joe Ely, after sowing the early seeds of the High Plains scene with other hardy... Read more →
Michael Fracasso
Michael Fracasso’s voice is high, pure and lonesome, but full of hope and strength, and his delicate songs beg us to feel a little deeper. On-stage... Read more →
James McMurtry’s “12 O’Clock Whistle”
If you grew up in small town Texas, or loved your grandmother, or ever chased the DDT truck down the street, you need to hear this one. McMurtry at... Read more →
Walt Wilkins describes all of life in a single song
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“Lipstick Sunset” by John Hiatt
John Hiatt paints lost love in pastel regret. Ry Cooder soars on slide... Read more →
Terry Allen
It is no secret that West Texas produces musicians of uncommon creativity and grit, likely the result of too much flat land and steady wind.... Read more →
Mary Gauthier and her stunning “I Drink”
A brutally beautiful portrait of intergenerational alcoholism. Recognition, confession and resignation. Isolation and loneliness. Mary Gauthier... Read more →
Freddie King
Hailing from Gilmer, Texas, Freddie King held his own with B. B. King, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, and other masters of the electric blues. In the... Read more →
BettySoo
BettySoo writes profound pop/folk with just enough country to makes things comfortable. At once powerful and vulnerable, she handles us like a... Read more →
Steve Earle with “The Mountain”
Mr. Earle's tribute to a home in a very tough world.... Read more →
“Box Cars” by Butch Hancock
The legendary Butch Hancock sings his "Box Cars". This man has surely earned these... Read more →
“Vanlose Stairway” by Van Morrison
Van the Man yodels through 0ne of his many classics, with help from the fabulous Georgie... Read more →
“Too Many Memories” by Stephen Bruton, with the Tosca Strings
The great Stephen Bruton tugs at the heart strings. Gorgeous... Read more →
“Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin
Patty brings you a little inspiration for your Saturday... Read more →
Miles Zuniga
Miles Zuniga left Laredo for Austin in 1984, determined to make a life out of music. In 1994, he teamed up with Tony Scalzo and Joe Shuffield and... Read more →
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter is a songwriter of uncommon depth and sensitivity who came of age in the seventies as a folksinger in the clubs of... Read more →
Ben Balmer
Ben Balmer has the pedigree of a true troubadour. A son of Detroit, he has lugged his guitar, harmonica and imagination around the world, from... Read more →
Max Gomez with his lovely “What It Means”
... Read more →
John Fullbright
Oklahoma is sort of the Bermuda Triangle of the Great Plains. We know there's some magical stuff going on within those dusty borders, but we're... Read more →
John Prine
John Prine began his artistic journey in 1971 with the release of John Prine, a stunning collection of poems set to melody that revealed middle... Read more →
The Resentments residency an Austin must
The late Stephen Bruton started the tradition years ago, friends and fellow musicians gathering at the Saxon Pub every Sunday for an intimate evening... Read more →
Denny Freeman and Bob Dylan
I recently ran into an old acquaintance at, of all places, the Saxon Pub urinal. In the seventies Denny Freeman handled guitar duties for Paul Ray... Read more →
Willis Alan Ramsey
Confounding and eccentric, Willis Alan Ramsey thundered onto the scene in 1972 with the release of Willis Alan Ramsey, a rollicking, joyful,... Read more →
Austin Songwriter speaks with Whitney Rose
Austin Songwriter recently had the opportunity to talk with Whitney Rose, the young singer-songwriter and recent transplant from Canada who is making... Read more →
“Find the Light” by David Ramirez
Keep on... Read more →
Seela Misra
Seela Misra's singing is powerful but vulnerable, yearning but confident, pulled from some deep place in a beautiful soul. Marry that voice with her... Read more →
Lyle Lovett
Lyle Lovett is an artistic renaissance man with an impeccable Texas pedigree and a life that testifies to Lone Star independence and... Read more →
Ruthie Foster
Many fine artists had their beginnings in gospel. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Al Greene, even Elvis and Jerry Lee. A surprising progression,... Read more →
Joe Ely and his stunning “Slow You Down”, with Joel Guzman
A lotta love, a little lust. Joe Ely slow dances his truck stop girl into highway... Read more →
“Secret Heart” by Ron Sexsmith
The sensitive boy from Canada with some sage and impossibly gorgeous... Read more →
BettySoo Interview (July 6, 2016)
BettySoo writes profound pop/folk with just enough country to makes things comfortable. At once powerful and vulnerable, she handles us like a... Read more →
Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave, who passed away on May 21, 2017, was another Austin artist who took the building blocks of folk and country, strength, soul and an... Read more →
Jim Lauderdale
Jim Lauderdale's baritone twang is booming and earnest and sketches a roadmap of the roots and pedigree of real American country music. The... Read more →
Jo Carol Pierce
The empty spaces of West Texas have proven a petri dish for the fashioning of powerful but unorthodox art. Music, of course, but also literature,... Read more →
Austin Vintage Guitars
If you're in need of an impeccable vintage guitar, acoustic or electric, this is the place. Collings, Martin, Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, PRS, National,... Read more →
“House of Songs”
Troy Campbell's House of Songs was recently profiled in Arts in Context on PBS. The "songwriter exchange program" founded by Campbell in 2009,... Read more →