“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 →
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 →
Townes Van Zandt
Perhaps the purest poet of all Texas songwriters, Townes Van Zandt wrote essential love songs and portrayed the shattered lives of lonely... Read more →
Guy and Susanna, the Look in their Eyes
This photo or Guy and Susanna Clark means something more to folks of a certain vintage. It's the semi-hippie attire, for sure, and the old school VW,... Read more →
“Up To The Mountain” by Patty Griffin
The incomparable Patty Griffin with her ode to the struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King. Do something beautiful... Read more →
Eliza Gilkyson with her meditation on love, “Coast”
... Read more →
Jon Dee Graham
Jon Dee Graham was raised on a Texas ranch down near the Mexican border and moved to Austin to attend school. By 1979 he was playing guitar for... Read more →
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell entered the world at Crosby (formerly known as "Lick Skillet"), Texas, and was raised in a musical family in Houston. He started... Read more →
Darden Smith with “The Levee Song”
It's hot out on the levee, even at night. Darden takes us... Read more →
Walt Wilkins Interview (November 23, 2016)
“Journeyman” usually refers to a seasoned and reliable guitarist or drummer, but what does it mean for a songwriter? In the case of Walt Wilkins,... Read more →
Bruce Robison
Bruce Robison hales from the storied Texas town of Bandera, way out on the western edge of the paradise they call the Hill Country. One of the... Read more →
Max Gomez
Max Gomez was raised in the starkly beautiful terrain that surrounds Taos, New Mexico. Nothing that the average American would recognize. Tall,... Read more →
“Rambling’, Gamblin’ Willie” by Ray, Plank and Walt
In a blast from past, three of Austin Songwriter's favorites, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jeff Plankenhorn and Walt Wilkins, tackle an old Dylan... Read more →
“John Doe No. 24” by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter with an almost impossibly beautiful story about an impossibly beautiful... Read more →
Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry”, by Ruthie Foster and Blues Traveler
Everything's gonna be... Read more →
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was born Ingram Cecil Connor III, in 1946 in Winter Haven, Florida, to Coon Dog and Avis Connor. By his death at the age of... Read more →
Lyle Lovett’s “Flyswatter/Ice Water Blues”
Lyle... Read more →
The Ginger Man
Offering a great pub feel and an inviting outside beer garden, The Ginger Man has been serving suds to Austin locals since 1994. Stop by to... Read more →
Shinyribs’ “All About That Bass”
The genius of Kevin Russell. See his Austin Songwriter profile... Read more →
Jack Ingram
Houston native Jack Ingram is one of those worthy songwriters who have flown a little under the radar. Maybe he's just too pretty, or maybe his... Read more →
Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
While their significant individual accomplishments are also profiled here, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez also collaborated for several... Read more →
“Killing the Blues” by Chris Smither
The magnificent Chris Smither does Rowland Salley's "Killing the... Read more →
Alejandro Escovedo’s haunting “Rosalie”
I guess we've all had our "Rosalie". Or wish we... Read more →
“Monahans” by Kevin Higgins
Kevin's ode to the perils of young love. Barbara Maltese helps... Read more →
South Plains Jamboree
Let's take a ride out west, where the trees bend with the wind. Strong people, big sky, great... Read more →
“Me and the Eagle” by Steve Earle
Take a trip to the mountaintop and turn your world from silver to... Read more →
Amanda Shires – Where is Home?
Amanda Shires discusses her home in this piece by The Box. The Meaning of... Read more →
Willie Nelson
What can be said about this man that hasn't already been debated, cussed and discussed? Not much, given his iconic status in country music and... Read more →
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin is a musical renaissance woman. An important songwriter, but also a dazzling guitarist and singer of extraordinary power with... Read more →
“Dean Moriarty” by Eric Taylor
Eric Taylor performs his pensive "Dean Moriarty", with wife Susan, in The... Read more →
“On My Own” by B.W. Stevenson
Pretty memories from the very beginning of the Texas scene. We miss you,... Read more →
“Alabama Pines” by Jason Isbell
Jason and The 400 Unit with a gorgeous call to... Read more →
Janis Joplin
>Janis Joplin's short life illuminated many hard truths. The isolation of a social outsider, the perils that lay in wait for a willful and hard... Read more →
James McMurtry
Nobody writes lyrics like James McMurtry. Brilliant, piercing and wry. Sweeping vistas of ordinary lives, set mostly in small towns and dark... Read more →
The Continental Club
The Continental Club is a South Congress cornerstone that presents a diverse lineup of quality music - country to blues to rock 'n' roll- seven... Read more →
Carrie Rodriguez sings “Lola”
In a beautiful call to the past, Carrie dreams of Lola Beltran and Javier... Read more →
Austin Beer Garden Brewing (the ABGB)
From Amos Lowe's garage brewery to a premier beer joint with consistently great music, Austin Beer Garden Brewing (better known as "ABGB") has forged... Read more →
Vince Bell
Vince Bell was born in Dallas in 1951 and the road has since taken him to homes in Venezuela, Houston, Austin, California, Fredericksburg, Nashville... Read more →
Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin lays herself bare in achingly beautiful meditations on love and all the things that bear on love. Work that is completely fresh... Read more →
Emmylou Harris with Gram Parsons’ “Hickory Wind”
Emmylou Harris with a wistful version of her old compadre's song. Buddy Miller on lead... Read more →
BettySoo with the classic “You Don’t Know Me”
BettySoo's gorgeous take on the eternal classic by the legendary Cindy... Read more →
Lucinda Williams
It is impossible to exaggerate Lucinda Williams’ significance to the evolution of alternative country music. An early voice of independence and... Read more →
Guy Clark’s “Old Friends”, with Nanci Griffith and James McMurtry
Old friends sing Mr. Clark's lovely... Read more →
Jimmie Vaughan
Jimmie Vaughan learned to play the guitar while growing up in Dallas, and headed south in the late sixties to help create the emerging Austin rhythm... Read more →
“John Doe No. 24” by Mary Chapin Carpenter
... Read more →
“North Side Gal” by JD McPherson
Another great voice from... 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 →
Doug Sahm
Doug Sahm’s influence on Texas music is not well enough known, but impossible to overstate. With his original stew of rock and roll, country, soul,... Read more →
“100 Miles to Mexico” by Vince Bell
Feed the dog and grab the keys. Vince is taking us to... Read more →
Billy Joe Shaver
Stories abound about Billy Joe Shaver, the tragedies endured, the stands taken, the paths chosen. Suffice to say that there is not an insincere bone... Read more →
“Without Love” by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Ray Wylie’s simplest ode to love. Enough said. See his austinsongwriter profile... Read more →
Mahi Mahi Deluxe
Fish Tacos Downtown. Best fish tacos I ever had at Turf ‘n Surf at the Lavaca Street Bar in downtown Austin. Pretty nice dive bar,... Read more →