This Typewriter Rodeo poem harkens back to a time when putting together a collection of songs took a lot of work — and was really something special.
music
Texas Standard: May 25, 2021
Redistricting: it’s a complicated process that doesn’t seem all that exciting to most folks. But its ramifications are huge. We’ll take a look at the details. Also, it’s been exactly a year since the murder of George Floyd. What it revealed about the country. And what Texas lawmakers have just done in the wake of huge protests and calls to “defund” the police. We’ll break it down. Plus what an analysis shows about who a Texas voting bill would affect the most. And music venues are among the businesses opening up as the risks of the pandemic lesson. But are all musicians ready to play? That and more on today’s Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: April 28, 2021
A Texas Capitol shaken to its core following allegations of a lobbyist using a date rate drug on a staffer. Representative Donna Howard of Austin on what’s being described as a culture of silence and cover-up at the Texas Capitol. Also, tho so much still unknown about covid 19, this much is certain: the impact of the pandemic has been severe for mothers and moms to be. Our own Alexandra Hart reports. And Dr. Fred Campbell takes on more of your COVID-19 questions. Plus new research showing major racial disparities for younger Texans fighting cancer. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: April 1, 2021
The Texas Senate passes what supporters call election reforms and what many democrats say amounts to institutionalized voter suppression. Limits to early voting hours, a ban on drive through voting, and more part of Senate Bill 7. Against this backdrop, the Texas court of criminal appeals set to reconsider a high profile vote fraud case, we’ll explore both coming up. Also in South Texas, a county once one of the world Coronavirus hotspots, a remarkable success story on vaccinations. We’ll talk with the health authority of Hidalgo County. Plus not one but two Newberry Honors for a Texas writer of children’s books. All of that and more today on the Texas Standard:
Who Is Herman the Singing Plumber?
A plumber. Who sings?
As part of our Hi, Who Are You? spinoff, we get introduced to Herman Bennett.
Music and Activism with Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone
Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone from the Austin hip-hop duo Riders Against the Storm talks about how his experience as a Black musician in the Austin music community led him to create the DAWA Fund and the Black Live Music Fund. He also explains why his music is the reason he is able to continue to serve the community he loves.
Links:
To Support the Black Live Music Fund
Black Live Music Fund – “Thankful” Live Stream Event February 19th
Texas Standard: December 24, 2020
No matter where you are, you can’t escape Texas music. But as 2020 draws to a close, what is the state of the musical arts in the Lone Star State? We’ll take a look. Made here and played here, that is perhaps the simplest definition of Texas music but one that only hints at the wide range of cultures and backgrounds represented by what has sometimes been stereotyped as a genre unto itself. In a year full of extraordinary challenges for singers songwriters and musical performers, how has Texas music changed over the past year and what comes next? It’s a musical coda for 2020 on this special edition of the Texas Standard:
A Letter from Texas
If you had walked into the Neiman-Marcus store during the Christmas season in Dallas in 1939, you would have found a beautiful little book for sale titled A Letter from Texas. The 20-page book, by the Texas poet, Townsend Miller, was commissioned by Stanley Marcus himself. He had the gifted printer Carl Hertzog publish an exquisite limited edition of the poem with the Neiman-Marcus imprint on the title page. Mr. Stanley, as Marcus came to be called, loved the Texcentric poem. He wanted to make it available in the store at Christmastime so that out-of-staters would have a unique gift to take back home or send to friends and family..
I happen to have a copy of Miller’s book. The poem is a letter to his friend, John. In it, Miller shares his passionate love for Texas with a kind of contagious exuberance:
John, it is a strange land. John it is hard to describe.
But perhaps try this. Hold up your right hand, palm outward,
And break the last three fingers down from the joint.
And there you have it. The westering thumb.
The silent bleak land, the silent mesas
Big Bend and the great canyons at its end
El Paso, the Northern Pass, and they came down through it.
Southward and east, the slow hot river moving
River of Palms, Grande del Norte, and over the wrist,
To Brownsville, and it empties into the vast blue waters
Miller describes each part of the state using the geography of his hand as a model of the Texas. He says “the tongue staggers” to describe the state’s size.
Miller was best known for the country music column he wrote for the Austin American-Statesman from 1972-to-1984. He was less of a critic and more of a promoter of the then-nascent music scene in and around Austin – his hometown for most of his life.
In his letter-poem to his friend John, Miller also writes:
Austin, the central city, and she is crowned with the sun
And twice-crowned westward with violet hills,
John, the thick roses swarming over the wall.
The moon in the white courts, the quivering mornings.
Of the Llano Estacado Miller writes:
And here I think is the heart of it;
Here you begin to sense it, the size, the silence;
This is the land, empty under enormous sky,
In wide enormous air, nothing of man.
Miller’s poem is the sort of letter we write when we want to convince a friend to move here.
He concludes this way.
So now tonight in the central city Texas lies around me.
All silent to the stars; so I write of it.
Remembering the slow dusk of the Rio Grande
Remembering the high hawks of the violet hills
Remembering the dark eyes in the Calle de Flores,
And the breeze comes up from the Gulf and in the court
Pink oleanders brush on the white wall
And the moon at flood over the westering hills
And my heart is full of it and I send it to you.
Mr. Stanley always had fine aesthetic tastes, especially for Christmas gifts. His offering of this book long ago still holds up nicely as a gift idea today, if you can find a copy, which you can with some ambitious searching. Might make a perfect gift for Tesla’s Elon Musk. Welcome to Texas, Elon.
Texas Standard: September 22, 2020
A Beta test for southeast Texas as rains pummel the region, roads are closed, schools shift plans and officials warn to stay put, we’ll have the latest. Also, COVID-19 has hit retail hard, but what about retail politics? The pandemic’s impact on a political season like few others in recent memory. Plus, Latino political power in Texas: under lockdown or primed to make major waves on election day? We’ll explore. And the U.S. Department of Transportation gives the green light to the Texas bullet train connecting Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes. All aboard? Not quite. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Not Today Kanye
This week on The Breaks
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- Confucius and Fresh talk about Kanye’s quest to regain control of his masters, and explain why they’re skeptical about his appeals to other artists for support.
- Both hosts talk about how surprised they were to hear that Outkast had considered making a mixtape for DJ Drama’s mixtape series Gangsta Grillz and discuss why they think it might not have happened.
- Confucius and Fresh discuss how and why music tastes change.
- In his Unpopular Opinion, Fresh states that Austin radio is in a very, very good place.
- In his Confucius Says segment, Confucius encourages people to keep those they don’t like from living rent-free in their heads.
Listen to this episode of The Breaks
Trailer: Pause/Play on the Austin music scene
“Pause/Play” will tell the pandemic stories of artists, venues, venue staff, festivals, sound technicians, music non-profits and more. What has the shutdown been like for them so far? What help have they received in order to survive? What adaptations have they been making, and what do they see as the future for Austin Music?
Armadillo Bonus: Springsteen, Zappa, & More
Join KUTX as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Armadillo World Headquarters, the music venue that helped put Austin on the musical map. In this bonus episode, hear first-hand stories of some of the most memorable Armadillo shows: An unknown kid from Jersey named Bruce Springsteen plays for hours–and the show cost one dollar. Jerry Lee Lewis destroys the Armadillo’s piano. Joan Armatrading shows the power of musical discovery. And Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart bring the “weird” to Austin.
Texas Standard: August 7, 2020
With under three months until election day, the Biden campaign getting pressure to pull out the stops in Texas to seize an historic moment, we’ll have the latest. Also, face to face with an interface: in an era of zoom meetings, Child Protective Services takes family visits online. And presidential rhetoric reconsidered. The Texan author of Demagogue for President makes the case that some of it is genius. Plus listeners have more questions about COVID-19. Dr. Fred Campbell of UT Health San Antonio has answers. Plus the week in politics from the Texas Tribune and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: July 31, 2020
Ready for the new school year? School administrators across the Lone Star State say wait a minute. We’ll explore. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton offers guidance but, it’s not enough. What school administrators are asking for. Could local police academies be scrapped? Are they a natural place to trim city budgets? We check in with one of Texas’ top police academy experts. What Title 42 Expulsions mean, our report from Mexico City. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
Trailer: Back Home To The Armadillo
Join KUTX as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Armadillo World Headquarters music venue. Starting August 17th, you can hear an hour-long oral history covering the Armadillo’s musical legacy, from blues and the birth of cosmic country to the punk rock explosion. You’ll learn why 50 years later, the Armadillo World Headquarters is still a beacon for Austin’s past, present, and future.
Texas Standard: July 10, 2020
As COVID-19 hospitalization rates hit new levels, an alarming trend spotted in Texas’ largest city: a rising number of at home deaths. We’ll have more on the new report from ProPublica and NBC news on at home deaths and Dr.Fred Campbell of UT Health San Antonio is back to take up more lister questions on the Coronavirus. And he was, for years, typecast as inmate number one. Now he’s embraced by kids and critics alike as a bonafide star. A new documentary on the rise of Danny Trejo. Our conversation with the actor, the week in Texas politics and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: July 6, 2020
As officials confirm the killing of a soldier missing for months from Fort Hood, demands for the military to do more about sexual harassment, we’ll have details. Also, health officials in Texas concerned that finding a vaccine for COVID-19 may not be the final obstacle to a return to normal. Now some are speaking out about misinformation on vaccines. And many Texans are getting tested for the Coronavirus, but not all are getting their results. A firsthand account and what it says about the coordination of efforts in Texas to curb the spread of the virus. Those stories and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: June 23, 2020
Return to closing businesses is a last resort in Texas, so declares Governor Abbott even as he expresses concern about what he calls an unacceptable increase in COVID-19 cases, we’ll have the latest. Also some rapidly spreading face masks myths debunked, and the latest in the mystery disappearance of a Fort Hood soldier who’d complained about sexual harassment. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: June 12, 2020
In Dallas, President Trump calls for force with compassion in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests in Texas and around the nation. We’ll hear from Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas morning news who was there. Also as COVID-19 hospitalization numbers rise to new records in Texas, concerns that hospitals may not be able to meet even relaxed guidelines for personal protective equipment. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: May 15, 2020
Record spikes in Coronavirus cases as Governor Abbott sets plans to further relax state rules on reopening. We’ll take a look at what’s behind the numbers and more. Also, remember when oil prices went into negative territory? All signs point to that happening again. We’ll hear why and what it really signals. And the future of higher education is what, exactly? Colleges and universities scramble to figure out the best way forward for the fall. Also high school graduation at the local drive in, your best best for live music this weekend and much more today on the Texas Standard: