One Artist’s Mission to Make Rankin the Most Painted Town in Texas
Artist Matt Tumlinson has made it his mission to quite literally “paint the town” of Rankin, a West Texas community with a population of around 800. The once-barren walls of Rankin, which lies in Upton County an hour south of Midland, are now decorated with Tumlinson’s quirky murals that often portray a Texan sense of humor. One of his murals is of Willie Nelson painted in the style of Greek religious iconography. Another that’s “turned some heads,” as Tumlinson puts it, features two cowboys on horseback looking at a selfie stick. In another, John Wayne dressed a professor depicts his famous quote, “Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid,” as a graph on a chalkboard. Read More »
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Faces Financial Struggles
The Texas Observer reports a sharp decline in visitors and slashed funding at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Read More »
How a Bunch of “Hippies, Pickers, Slackers, and Geeks” Transformed Austin
In Austin, the funky slacker paradise turned buzzy big city, nothing is quite as certain as cedar fever, the line at Franklin Barbecue, a daily arrival of newbies—and relative old-timers who stand ready to reminisce about the city’s good old days. Joe Nick Patoski calls it the “You should have been here two years ago” effect. Read More »
New Bullock Museum Exhibit Explores Early Texas History
Photo Courtesy of Bullock Texas State History Museum With the completion of a ground-floor renovation, the ... Read More »
How Beaumont Photographer Keith Carter Redefined the Artform
He’s one of the world’s great photographers, with a legendary sense for the mystery in the mundane. But right now he’s at home in Beaumont, and his longtime assistant, Cathy Spence, is calling for help from a side door. Read More »
The Presnall-Watson Homestead in San Antonio Welcomes Hikers, Bikers, and Equestrians
Aseemingly incongruous site greets Saturday afternoon visitors at the Presnall-Watson Homestead, a rambling 19th-century farmhouse along the Medina River in south San Antonio. Kids on bicycles kick out tricks as horseback riders in cowboy regalia round the corner, creating a surprising mash-up of three centuries crammed into one. Read More »
Empress of Gulf Coast Soul Barbara Lynn Reflects on Her Decades-Long Career
Barbara Lynn was a left-handed young girl in Beaumont when she started sounding out notes and chords on a guitar made for right-handed musicians. She’s always done things her own way. The pioneering sound that grew out of those childhood guitar rhythms—fiery and percussive, complemented by her soulful singing voice and a poet’s command of songwriting—took Lynn around the world, from Beaumont to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and to the top of the charts in 1962. Read More »
A Cancer Survivor on the Healing Nature of Birds
The first time I encountered whooping cranes, my wife and I were stationed on an observation tower on the dry ... Read More »
A Music-Industry Veteran Breathes New Life Into a Classic Small-Town Venue
From the outside looking in, the Texas dance hall appears to be a pretty basic proposition: live music in a big building with a stage at one end and a dance floor in the middle. It’s the other, smaller details that separate the classic dance halls from the rest. Read More »
My Hometown: ‘Unofficial Ambassador’ Faye Landham Dishes on Granbury’s Charms
During karaoke night at D’Vine Wine on the Granbury Square, Faye Landham works the crowd. Amid off-key singing and wine-fueled laughter, Landham, a regular at this lively gathering, greets friends and strangers alike with the latest town news and happenings. It quickly becomes clear why Landham is known around Granbury as an “unofficial ambassador.” Read More »
Remembering Texas Highways Founding Editor Frank Lively
We lost a true Texas treasure on Nov. 18 with the passing of travel industry titan and Texas Highways founder Frank Lively at age 90. In May 1974, Frank repurposed an internal highway department publication into a travel magazine—in his words, a “showpiece for Texas.” Within a year, the Texas Legislature had named the 33-page monthly “The Official Travel Magazine of Texas,” declaring that “every effort be made to enlarge its growing family of readers.” Read More »
Michael Martin Murphey Saddles Up for Cowboy Christmas Tour
Michael Martin Murphey’s singing rings with the sincerity and authenticity that many find lacking in pop country these days. Nowhere is that more apparent than during Murphey’s annual Cowboy Christmas tour, a series of holiday shows throughout the Southwest that feature a mix of traditional Christmas songs, a few Murphey classics, and cowboy poetry and storytelling. Read More »