What’s better than digging into a fresh edition of Texas Music? Why, digging into a fresh edition of Texas Music while jamming along to its very own meticulously curated Spotify soundtrack, obviously!
We open our Spring 2022 sampler with a rock-solid, 35-min run through some of the latest and greatest by the legendary Ray Wylie Hubbard, who 19 long years after his first appearance on the cover of Texas Music (as the “Wylie Lama”) is arguably more revered than ever by fans and peers across the Americana music world. We focus heavily on his new Co-Starring Too album, with songs featuring guest appearances by Willie Nelson, Hayes Carll, James McMurtry, Dalton Domino, and the Bluebonnets, along with “Bad Trick,” the opening cut from Too’s 2020 predecessor, Co-Starring, featuring (as Ray Wylie himself likes to introduce it) “a Beatle, an Eagle, a Black Crowe and a Was (Not Was).” We also throw in a handful of his other certified bangers (from this century), including, of course, the insurmountable “Snake Farm.”
Following that Hubbard block, we keep things in the classic progressive Texas Americana groove with a wicked batch of Terry Allen (whose new multi-media MemWars exhibit is on display at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art through July 10), and also pay our respects to the late, great Michael Nesmith, who passed away on Dec. 10. After that, we take a deep dive into the respective catalogs of Austin-based singer-songwriters Darden Smith and Matt the Electrician, and finish with a refreshing dessert course of tracks from happening upstarts A-Wall (the El Paso-raised viral sensation who gave the world “Loverboy”) and the Dallas-formed Latinx synth pop ensemble Luna Luna. Happy listening!
