All he needs is the glasses.
A petit basset griffon Vendéen named Buddy Holly won best in show at this year’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York City, a first for this rare rabbit-hunting breed.
Hailing from Palm Springs, California, Buddy Holly beat out 402 other dogs and 34 other breeds en route to the purple ribbon and capturing the most prestigious dog show award in the United States. The 6-year-old bested six other finalists, including Rummie the Pekingese, Winston the French bulldog, Ribbon the Australian shepherd, Cider the English setter, Monty the giant schnauzer and Trouble the American Staffordshire terrier.
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“I never thought a PBGV would do this,” handler and co-owner Janice Hayes said, referring to the acronym for the dog breed. “They’re a very independent breed but charming and just silly. Their goal is to make you laugh every day. Buddy Holly is the epitome of a show dog.”
Westminster, also known as “America’s Dog Show,” is the second-longest-running sporting event in American history behind the Kentucky Derby, and this year’s event, which returned for the 147th time, spanned four days.
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Megan Thee Stallion is taking a break from the music industry. The rapper, whose real name is Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, said she’s shifting her focus after enduring a tough legal battle against fellow rapper Tory Lanez.
“Fans can expect new music when I’m in a better place,” the Houston native told InStyle. “Right now, I’m focused on healing. The music and entertainment industry can be a grind, so it’s important to take time off and avoid burning out. Life is all about balance.”
In December, a jury found Lanez guilty on all charges for shooting Megan in July 2020. The three-time Grammy winner, whose last album, Traumazine, was released in August 2022, told the outlet that a typical day in her life consists of “spending time with her dogs, working out, binge-ing TV shows and simply finding new ways to protect her peace.”
The “Savage” hitmaker wrote an op-ed for Elle in April in which she detailed the “trauma” she was forced to face following her legal troubles with Lanez.
“The truth is I started falling into a depression,” she wrote. “I didn’t feel like making music. I was in such a low place that I didn’t even know what I wanted to rap about. There would be times that I’d literally be backstage or in my hotel, crying my eyes out, and then I’d have to pull Megan Pete together and be Megan Thee Stallion.”
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Spoon has announced a new EP, Memory Dust, which will be released June 13. It features three songs that began during the same sessions that produced the band’s 2022 album, Lucifer on the Sofa, which appeared on a host of best-album lists for the year.
The EP features “Sugar Babies,” the new single, along with “Silver Girl” and a cover of Bo Diddley’s “She’s Fine, She’s Mine.”
Following the release of Lucifer on the Sofa, the group released a full-length dub record called Lucifer on the Moon.
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Gary Clark Jr. and Kelly Clarkson have been named Texas State Musicians for 2023 and 2024, respectively, by the Texas Commission for the Arts.
Clark and Clarkson were selected out of a list of no more than 10 finalists provided to the TCA. Committee members are appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House of Representatives. State artists are widely recognized for their contributions to the state and the advancement of their art form.
Clark has emerged as a blues virtuoso who blends reggae, punk, R&B, hip-hop and soul into his music. He’s won four Grammys, has appeared on Saturday Night Live and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and is working on a follow-up to his acclaimed 2019 album This Land.
Clarkson is one of the most popular artists of this era, with worldwide sales of more than 25 million albums and 40 million singles. The Fort Worth-born, Burleson-raised performer first came to fame in 2002 as the winner of the inaugural season of American Idol. Since then, she’s won three Grammys, four American Music Awards and three MTV Video Music Awards, among other honors. The author of two children’s books, she’s also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the recipient of three consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for her popular talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show.
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The only thing that could possibly top seeing Beyoncé on her Renaissance World Tour is coming away with a free pair of designer sunglasses in the process — worn by none other than the Queen herself.
Which is pretty much exactly what happened to a fan during Bey’s London tour stop. TikToker Global Valentino showed up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium June 3 and ended up with seats in the front row right in front of Beyoncé herself—who tossed over her sunglasses (but not before checking the brand).
However, things took a turn when security tried to take the sunglasses back, but fear not: Beyoncé wasn’t having it, and threw the sunglasses over once again. The whole thing is chronicled on TikTok, and, as Valentino put it in the video’s comments, “I fully lost control of my body in that moment.”
The 20-year-old film director also said the concert was the “best night of my life” and that “The sunglasses have my birthday inscribed in them. I was told they’re worth more than $53,000.”
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Miranda Lambert and Leon Bridges are joining voices for a new duet, “If You Were Mine.”
Ahead of its June 6 release, Lambert shared a preview of the track she co-wrote with Pistol Annies bandmate Ashley Monroe and Jesse Frasure. The romantic tune finds the singers duetting on such lyrics as, “I’d make sure your stars were shining / I’d follow you up like lightning / I’d rope the moon for you a million times / It’s what I’d do if you were mine.”
According to a press release, Lambert wrote the song with Bridges in mind.
“I’ve been a big fan of Leon for a while, because he’s authentic as an artist — I love his music,” Lambert says. “Since we’re both from Texas, we threw in a few Texas references like the Frio River. When we finished the song, we sent it to Leon in hopes that he’d want to collaborate. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him, and I’m happy to have him as a new friend.”
Bridges was equally as impressed. “I was humbled to have Miranda ask if I’d join her on this beautiful duet,” he says. “Getting in the studio with her to sing this song together was magic. There’s nothing better than two Texans on one mic!”
Lambert is in the process of recording new music. She’s been actively writing with her Marfa Tapes collaborators, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, among others. “We already have a pile for whatever’s next,” she says. She also released her cookbook, Y’all Eat Yet?: Welcome to The Pretty B*tchin’ Kitchen, in April.
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ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons recalls being exposed to music at a young age. When he was 5, in fact, his mother took him to see Elvis. “She took me an my little sister,” Gibbons recalls. “I thought, ‘Man, that’s what I want to do!’”
It didn’t hurt that Gibbons’ dad was an entertainer. “When I was 7, he said, ‘Listen, hop in the car. I wanna take you with me. I’ve got business to take care of at the recording studio,’” Gibbons remembers. “So between seeing Elvis Presley and BB King, I thought, ‘Man, this is it. This is for me!’”
It’s no surprise, then, that Elvis makes the top ten songs Gibbons says are his favorites. He names the 1957 track “You’re So Square, Baby I Don’t Care” from the film Jailhouse Rock (and EP of the same name) in his top 10.
Gibbons’ top 10 reflect the genres and influences blended by ZZ Top throughout their discography, from blues to rock to synth-pop. It’s a playlist of guitar classics and artists who were pushing the boundaries of genre.
√ “Start Me Up,” the Rolling Stones
√ “The Grand Tour,” George Jones
√ “You’re So Square, Baby I Don’t Care,” Elvis Presley
√ “Walk Don’t Run,” the Ventures
√ “Not Fade Away,” Buddy Holly
√ “Personal Jesus,” Depeche Mode
√ “When I Was Young,” the Animals
√ “Candy Man,” Roy Orbison
√ “Crackin’ Up,” Bo Diddley
√ “Stroll On (Live Version),” the Yardbirds
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Not too long ago, Amanda Shires and the late, great pianist and singer Bobbie Nelson shined bright on their haunting rendition of Willie Nelson’s classic, “Always On My Mind.” The song, a smash for Elvis Presley in 1972 and a Grammy-winning No. 1 hit for Willie a decade later, feels especially poignant as interpreted by Shires and Nelson, with Nelson’s graceful, wistful piano melodies blending perfectly with Amanda’s soaring vocals and stirring fiddle lines.
“Always On My Mind” is the second single to be released from the forthcoming collaborative album Loving You, available June 23. Recorded prior to Nelson’s passing, Loving You is “a reflection on the life and music of Bobbie Nelson,” according to Shires.
The recording of “Always on My Mind” was the starting point for Loving You. In April 2021, Shires was working on her album, Take It Like a Man — one of Texas Music’s top albums of the year — and considered including “Always on My Mind” on the album. She booked studio time with Nelson, because, she said, “the only piano that fits that song is Bobbie’s.” Once together in the studio, their deep musical connection was undeniable. The two decided they should start their own band, and saved the track.
To celebrate the release of Loving You, Shires has announced two special shows in Texas honoring Nelson’s legacy and the rich history of Texas music. She’ll be performing at two legendary dance halls, with accompaniment by Asleep At The Wheel, on July 8 at he Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas and July 9 at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels. Texas indie record stores will carry an exclusive, limited-edition blue vinyl version of Loving You.
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Lizzo has her very own BBC documentary. And, as she might say, it’s about damn time.
Her name — just two syllables long — is synonymous with musical greatness and fierce independence. Before she was Lizzo, though, she was the kid who sang with her mother in church, played flute like nobody’s business and was bullied relentlessly by her peers.
Now, the BBC has brought Melissa Viviane Jefferson’s inspiring story to life for the first time. The initial airing of Love, Lizzo was June 4.
The documentary details “the journey of a trailblazing superstar who’s become the movement the world desperately needed just by being herself,” the BBC synopsis notes. Promising an “intimate look into the moments that shaped her,” the documentary shows us how Lizzo penned songs in her childhood bedroom, never dreaming anyone would ever listen to them.
“Nobody was trying to sign a fat, Black girl that rapped, sang and played the flute,” she says matter-of-factly. “Y’all have no idea how close I was to this not being a thing.”
Today, she has four studio albums, two mixtapes, two extended plays, 23 singles and three promotional singles to her name — as well as a few Hollywood performances under her belt. And she shows no signs of slowing down, either.
“No matter what part of my story you come in at, I’m always chasing the music,” the rapper and singer says at the beginning of the trailer, adding, “Finally telling my story, MY WAY.”
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St. Vincent and David Byrne are longtime friends and collaborators who’ve played together on some of the world’s biggest stages but rarely have combined forces in such an intimate setting as the Brooklyn Academy of Music Gala, as they did May 10 in Brooklyn, New York.
In celebration of Byrne and fellow Gala honorees Spike Lee and Claire Wood, St. Vincent performed “New York,” “Los Ageless” and “Dancing With a Ghost” on solo electric guitar before welcoming Byrne to the stage. “I’m here to say a big thank you and ‘You’re the best’ to the one and only David Byrne,” she said. “David is one of the absolute greatest, most ebullient performers in the world.”
Rather than performing a song from their collaborative 2012 album Love This Giant, the pair kept things rooted in Brooklyn. “We kind of wanted to tie Spike into this somehow, so this is a song from Jungle Fever,” Byrne said before launching into Stevie Wonder’s “Chemical Love” from the film’s 1991 soundtrack. “It takes a little bit of nerve for us to do it,” he added with a laugh.
With St. Vincent on a drum machine and a dapper Byrne on electric guitar, the duo were amusingly out of sync for a few seconds before latching onto the song’s bouncy groove. “Yes, it’s true, the best things in life are free,” they sang. “Not material / Chemical or physically.”
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A decade ago, Norah Jones defied expectations with her fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts, a striking collaboration with the producer Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) that arrived 10 years after her decorated debut, Come Away With Me, prompting SPIN to call it “the second essential record of Norah Jones’ career.”
On June 2, Blue Note Records released the expanded 31-track Little Broken Hearts (Deluxe Edition) curated by Jones and Eli Wolf, which includes rare bonus tracks, alternate versions and remixes, as well as a previously unreleased live version of the album that was recorded for Austin City Limits in 2012. The deluxe edition is available now as a three-LP set, two-CD set and digitally.
Released in 2012, Little Broken Hearts was a fascinating and unexpected step in Jones’ artistic evolution. Together she and Burton married their highly personal styles to create an entirely new sound. Created in the aftermath of a breakup, the album was a tour of stunningly nuanced environments. Twelve darkly luminous songs. Twelve little broken hearts — each an exploration of wounded emotions from various perspectives that invariably led to a place of beauty and uplift.
“Ten years later, these are still some of my favorite songs in my catalogue to play live, no matter the instrumentation or arrangement … they just feel special,” Jones says. “And the way this album sounds makes my ears so happy. I’m incredibly thankful to Danger Mouse for letting me explore with him and opening up my world to a new way of doing things that continues to inspire and influence me.”
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The empress of soul, Tina Turner, who died May 24 at age 83, had a career that spanned decades with an astonishing and distinctive voice that produced record-breaking hits like “Proud Mary” and “What’s Love Got To Do with It.”
Tyler music producer and engineer Robin Hood Brians, owner of Robin Hood Studios, remembers well. “I’d built a reputation of being able to do hit records, so Ike [Turner] just picked up the phone and called me,” Brians recalls. “They were in the area, and he wanted to record the following night. It was a late-night session, but recording Tina was fantastic.”
Ike and Tina, along with the Ikettes, stopped by Brians’ studio after Tina’s first major hit, “Proud Mary,” was released in 1970. Brians recalls Turner being one of the strongest vocalists he’s ever worked with.
“When she was ready to do a take, she threw the switch,” Brians says. “At that point, we got everything needed in one, maybe two takes. Her talent lit up the room. I think we recorded four songs, and she sang every take like it was a performance in front of 50,000 people.”
It was a session Brians clearly holds dear to his heart. “When the band was packing up and getting ready to leave, Tina came over, put her arms around me and gave me a long hug,” Brians remembers. “She whispered in my ear, ‘Thank you for putting up with Ike. I appreciate all you did for us.’”
Brians has also worked with other major acts since the opening of his studio in 1963 — such as ZZ Top and the Five Americans. “I didn’t know you shouldn’t build a recording studio in Tyler, Texas,” Brians says. “It should be in Nashville, New York, L.A. or Dallas. But I’ve been blessed.”
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Music journalist John Nova Lomax died May 22 in Houston. He was 53.
For more than two decades, he chronicled the music and lifestyles of the Lone Star State. He authored two books and was a senior editor at Texas Monthly from 2015-2019. He was at the Houston Press for a dozen years, 2000-2012, as both the music editor and staff writer. During this period, he became a mentor to aspiring music journalists. He also wrote for Texas Highways, Houstonia, Spin, the New York Times, the Village Voice and L.A. Weekly.
In Texas Music’s fall 2017 issue, he contributed to a feature, “Lomax Legacy,” in which he traced, along with his father, John Lomax III, the influences of four generations of Lomaxes across more than a century of American music.
Lomax was an authority on Houston culture especially. One of his books was Houston’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Bayou City; another was Murder & Mayhem in Houston (co-written with Mike Vance). He authored a blog called Sole of Houston, about seeing his hometown on foot, mile by mile. He was a regular contributor to the Texas Monthly radio program Talk Like a Texan.
He wrote vividly about everything from the downfall of country singer Doug Supernaw to profiles of Johnny Nash, Bobby “Blue” Bland, blues guitarist Goree Carter and other Houstonians. His 2007 story about Supernaw won ASCAP’s prestigious Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing.
In remembering Lomax, writer Mimi Swartz noted, “Lomax — and that’s what those who knew him best called him — was one of those writers who, if he was interested in something, could make you interested in it, too. Some writers have good ideas but can’t execute; some writers are good enough with words but lack the singularity of vision that makes readers want to follow them anywhere. Lomax had both.”
Cover photo courtesy Westminster Kennel Club
