Jeff Plankenhorn
Jeff Plankenhorn is a larger than life presence on stage. A big man with a kind smile and generous demeanor, he is often the bedrock that binds a... Read more →
Songwriter Profiles
Our favorite songwriters who have paid their dues and earned their stripes. Many have Texas roots and many more have been impacted by the Austin music scene. It’s a pretty long list, and it just keeps growing.
Will T. Massey
Will T. Massey’s boyish voice bears little trace of his San Angelo, Texas roots, and his fragile lyrics hint at hidden fears and turbulent waters.... Read more →
Kevin Higgins
Kevin Higgins has been around awhile, fronting Austin’s "Cosmic Dust Devils" and now touring and recording as “Ghosts of the American... Read more →
K Phillips
K Phillips leads mostly from the keyboard, singing and occasionally grabbing a guitar in the course of his barn-burning live performances. Sort of... Read more →
Mary Gauthier
Having been mentioned, with other visionaries, in Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Name Droppin’”, Mary Gauthier has plenty of Texas cred and the life... Read more →
Chip Taylor
Some artists channel a calm wisdom that is as comforting as a father’s voice. We listen because their words feel right and true, gifts that might... Read more →
Shinyribs
It’s like you finally started listening to your old drunk uncle from Shreveport and realized he was channeling an enlightened hillbilly cocktail of... Read more →
Walt Wilkins
“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 →
Eliza Gilkyson
Few songwriters have achieved Eliza Gilkyson’s poetic soup of inventiveness, gravitas and sheer emotion. Her songs are a flowing literature of joy,... Read more →
Ryan Bingham
Ryan Bingham is the real thing. A real Texan, a real rodeo cowboy, a real songwriter. An old friend once remarked, after listening to a young Bingham... Read more →
Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson is a living testament to the ethic of the singer-songwriter. Introspective and gregarious, astute observer of the ebb and flow of... Read more →
Guy Clark
Guy Clark, who left this world on May 16, 2016, was one of the Texas songwriters who made the path and led the way. His work embodies all that is... Read more →
Mickey Newbury
The songs of Mickey Newbury came from a place of serenity and sadness, beautiful recollections of the ones we left behind, pretty portraits of... Read more →
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Someone, can’t remember who, once said that Van Morrison was the only musician to have invented a personal emotional equivalent of the... 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 →
Steve Earle
Following the 1986 release of Guitar Town, Steve Earle was hailed as the savior of country music. Three decades later, and despite personal detours... Read more →
David Halley
Born in Oklahoma City and reared in Lubbock, David Halley blew into Austin in 1983 and commenced blowing minds with 1990’s Stray Dog Talk, a stone... 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 →
Ana Egge
Ana Egge’s voice pulls from some deep well, somber and strong, calming but bracing. With roots in North Dakota, New Mexico, Austin, and now... Read more →
Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen married careless soul with country smart-ass and came up smiling. He has captured the coarse irony of good people tumbling across... Read more →
Eric Taylor
Eric Taylor’s voice sounds a little like God’s might, starting off low and considered and ending up booming and insistent, as though he were... 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 →
Jason Isbell
Jason Isbell’s music is raw in substance but perfectly polished in execution, sort of like Neil Young sitting in with Crosby, Stills & Nash... Read more →
Drew Kennedy
Drew Kennedy bases out of New Braunfels, a lovely Texas Hill Country town nestled along the banks of the Comal and Guadalupe rivers between Austin... Read more →
