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| Rock "n" Roll Music |
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Texas musicians have profoundly influenced the
development and evolution of rock-and-roll and the
various branches of its musical tree—rockabilly, blues
rock, Tex-Mex, psychedelia, and redneck rock. Some of
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's most high-profile
inductees, including Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and Janis
Joplin, pioneered the direction of the musical idiom.
The Hall has also honored other musicians, both native
Texans and those who made a name in the Lone Star State,
as early influences critical to the genre's development.
These musicians include T-Bone Walker, Lead Belly,
Robert Johnson, Charlie Christian, and Bob Wills and His
Texas Playboys. |
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Rock-and-roll's historic roots lie in a fusion of
several musical genres that came into prominence in the
early decades of the twentieth century. Texans played
major roles in pioneering these varied styles, including
blues, jazz, and western swing. Blues guitarist Blind
Lemon Jefferson from Freestone County, Texas, is
credited as the first blues star. His recordings from
1926 to 1929 were the first blues records to be
commercially successful and thus introduce what had been
an African-American music form to a national audience. |
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| In the 1930s, "race labels" recorded
many black blues musicians in Texas. Two landmark
sessions in San Antonio (1936) and Dallas (1937)
captured the only recorded legacy of guitarist Robert
Johnson, the itinerant Delta bluesman from Mississippi.
Many music historians and guitar aficionados credit
these songs, which include his legendary "Cross Road
Blues," for laying the fundamental groundwork for
rock-and-roll. Another historic blues great, Huddie
Ledbetter ("Lead Belly"), traveled to Texas where he
played his twelve-string guitar with the likes of
Jefferson in Deep Ellum. Field-recording pioneers John
and Alan Lomax discovered his guitar prowess while he
was incarcerated in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and
thus brought his blues to the world. These early players
inspired later guitarists like Sam "Lightnin" Hopkins,
Freddie King, and Albert Collins and their Texas blues
sound, a highly improvisational style that encouraged a
variety of personal playing techniques. The early
bluesmen played an important role in the evolution of
rock guitar. Legendary groups and players from the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Jefferson Airplane, to
Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, all credit
these blues players as major musical influences. |
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Texas jazz players also contributed significantly to
the development of rock. In 1935 guitarist Eddie Durham
of San Marcos was one of the first performers on the
electric guitar, and he made the first jazz recording of
the amplified instrument. Fellow jazzman Charlie
Christian of Dallas further elevated the electric guitar
as a lead instrument. Guitarist Aaron "T-Bone" Walker,
born in Linden, forged the link to the modern electric
guitar in the 1940s and established the instrument as
the foremost soloing tool for rhythm-and-blues. |
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In Texas in the 1930s another musical sound, the
interesting mix of jazz, hillbilly, boogie, blues, and
country that became known as western swing, also
influenced the beginnings of rock. Three bands were very
representative of the catchy sound that caught on: the
Light Crust Doughboys, Milton Brown and His Musical
Brownies, and Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Both
Brown and Wills had originally played in the Light Crust
Doughboys before forming their own groups, and radio
presented a popular medium to reach a wide listening
audience. |
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| Rockabilly singer Johnny Carroll
exudes young rock-and-roll bravado on this promotion for
Rock, Baby, Rock It! Filmed with local music talent in
Dallas in 1956 and released in 1957, the movie, though
panned by critics for its flimsy plot and low-budget
production, has achieved cult status among fans of early
Texas rock-and-roll. Other acts included Don Coats & the
Bon-Aires, Cell Block 7, Preacher Smith & the Deacons,
the 5 Stars, and Kay Wheeler who headlined the movie as
the “Queen of Rock & Roll.” Copyright 1957 National
Screen Service Corp., Courtesy of Dragon Street Records,
Inc.. |
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In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s the Big D
Jamboree barn dance and radio program in Dallas
cultivated local talent and recruited national acts.
In additional to country performers, the show also
explored new trends and presented a bluesy sound
mixed with country and bluegrass (or hillbilly)
music called rockabilly. Big D Jamboree and its
larger Louisiana counterpart, the Louisiana Hayride,
often featured one of the most visible rockabilly
stars—a young Elvis Presley. Several native Texans,
however, are recognized as groundbreaking rockabilly
performers, including Charline Arthur, Dean Beard,
and Johnny Carroll. In the mid-1950s Charline
Arthur, born in Henrietta, Texas, headlined the Big
D Jamboree. Her bold stage presence earned praise
from Elvis, and music historians have credited her
as a major precursor to rockabilly, but her
aggressive manner and rowdy stage shows did not fit
in with the times. Other rockabilly pioneers were
Dean Beard of Coleman County and his West Texas band
the Crew Cats, who recorded "Rakin' and Scrapin'" in
1956. That same year Johnny Carroll from Cleburne, a
Big D Jamboree and Louisiana Hayride favorite,
recorded his "Crazy, Crazy Lovin'" for Decca in
Nashville. Carroll was the featured star in the cult
movie Rock, Baby, Rock It! filmed with other local
music talent in Dallas. |
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During the 1950s Houston record executive Don Robey
gathered an impressive lineup of blues performers for
his Duke and Peacock Records labels. One artist, Willie
Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, recorded "Hound Dog" in 1953,
and the song became a major rock-and-roll hit for Elvis
in 1956. |
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| The emergence of rockabilly as a new
musical style and the steady output of blues recordings
set the stage for the development of a new
genre—rock-and-roll. The windblown plains of West Texas
furnished a wealth of musical talent. In 1956 Happy,
Texas, native Buddy Knox and his band, the Rhythm
Orchids, which included Knox's classmate Jimmy Bowen,
learned of Norm Petty's recording studio in Clovis, New
Mexico, from another up-and-coming West Texas musician,
Roy Orbison. The group recorded "Party Doll," and Knox
subsequently became the first artist in rock to write
and perform his own Number 1 hit with that song. Bowen's
"I'm Stickin' With You," originally the flip side of
"Party Doll," also got into the Top 20. |
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In early 1957 another West Texas rocker, Buddy Holly
of Lubbock, ventured to Petty's studio. The tracks
recorded by Holly and the Crickets resulted in the
release of their first single, "That'll Be the Day," on
May 27, 1957. The song soared to Number 3 on the pop
charts, and subsequent releases "Peggy Sue," "Oh Boy!,"
and "Not Fade Away" also met great success. The
pioneering influence of Holly, an inaugural inductee
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), on the
development of rock-and-roll cannot be overstated. Holly
wrote much of his own material, and his band, the
Crickets, brought to the forefront the combination of
guitars, bass, and drums as a viable self-contained
musical combo. These two precedents set the standard for
rock groups. Young fans, John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
and other future British rockers saw Holly perform in
England and were inspired to emulate him. His star shone
brightly for less than two years, until he lost his life
in a plane crash in Iowa on February 3, 1959. The Big
Bopper, J. P. Richardson of the Beaumont area, also
perished. His fun-loving single "Chantilly Lace" had
been a hit in 1958. Another rising Texas musician and
Holly's guitarist at the time, Waylon Jennings, was not
on the plane. The crash, which killed the pilot, Holly,
Richardson, and teenage star Ritchie Valens, marked the
end of the first chapter of rock-and-roll, an event that
songwriter Don McLean later so aptly proclaimed "the day
the music died," in his anthem "American Pie" in 1971. |
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Texas rock-and-roll progressed, however, as the 1960s
dawned. Singer–songwriter Roy Orbison carried the banner
of the West Texas rockers throughout the early 1960s
and, in fact, was one of the few American stars to hold
his own on the charts against the rising Beatles. Born
in Vernon, Texas, Orbison (in the band the Teen Kings)
had made his own pilgrimage to Norm Petty's Clovis
studio in the 1950s. His recording of "Ooby Dooby"
caught the attention of Sun Records in Memphis, and in
1956 Orbison joined the ranks of a group of emerging
rockabilly stars. He gained the reputation of a
successful songwriter, but when he could not attract the
interest of either Elvis or the Everly Brothers to
record his "Only the Lonely," Orbison recorded it
himself in 1960 and introduced to the world his soaring
voice and a string of aching rock ballads that became
his signature style. Rock-and-roll singers from Elvis to
the Beatles to Bruce Springsteen heralded the dramatic
voice of Orbison. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1987, Orbison, like Holly, has shown
incredible staying power, as evidenced by his popular
comeback in the 1980s with Bob Dylan, George Harrison,
Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne as the Traveling Wilburys and
his best-selling album Mystery Girl (1989) after his
death in 1988. |
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| Mexican-American rockers entered the
national rock-and-roll scene in the early 1960s. In 1960
Baldemar Huerta, better known as Freddy Fender, had a
hit with "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights." In 1963 a band
from San Antonio called Sunny and the Sunglows (later
known as Sunny and the Sunliners) became the first all-Tejano
group to play on American Bandstand. Dallas's Trini
Lopez had a hit in 1963 with an upbeat version of the
folk song "If I Had a Hammer." This emergence of such
Mexican-American performers hinted of musical influences
adopted from the rich Mexican heritage of Texas. |
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| Also in the early 1960s Major Bill Smith of
Fort Worth produced a number of artists who had national hits.
Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson, known as Paul and Paula and
formed in Brownwood, had a Number 1 song, "Hey Paula." Bruce
Channel of Grapevine recorded "Hey! Baby." Denton's Ray Peterson
scored a 1960 hit with "Tell Laura I Love Her," while Lufkin's
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, a band formed in San Angelo,
had a Number 1 smash with "Last Kiss" in 1964. Both songs were
symbolic of the "teenage tragedy" subgenre of rock in the early
1960s. Another young Lubbock group, Delbert McClinton and the
Ron-Dels, recorded "If You Really Want Me To I'll Go." McClinton,
who had cut his musical teeth on the Jacksboro Highway blues
scene of Fort Worth, had established himself as a rising
rockabilly–blues player and went on to sustain a lengthy musical
career encompassing various styles. McClinton played harmonica
on Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby." A longstanding legend tells that
it was McClinton who, while on tour with Channel in England,
advised John Lennon on his distinctive harmonica
technique—information that the Beatle subsequently immortalized
in the harmonica solo of "Love Me Do." |
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When the Beatles burst upon the American music scene in 1964,
their performances had an impact on the growing stable of Texas
musicians. Savvy music producer Huey Meaux of Houston decided to
jump on the "British Invasion" bandwagon but with a
distinctively Texas flavor. The result produced one of the
enduring bands in Texas rock history—the Sir Douglas Quintet.
Meaux approached San Antonio musician Doug Sahm, whose musical
legacy established him as a quintessential rock-and-roller.
Formed in San Antonio in 1964, the Sir Douglas Quintet consisted
of frontman Sahm, Augie Meyers on organ, Frank Morin on horns,
Jack Barber on bass, and John Perez on drums. Their stylish
suits and Beatle haircuts, mandated by Meaux, were designed to
give the band an English flavor and thereby to capitalize on the
British Invasion. Meaux had to "break" the band in England
before it played in the U.S., but the group scored a major
international hit in 1965 with "She's About a Mover." The song's
infectious hook was the thin "con queso" line of Meyers's Vox
organ. Reminiscent of an accordion fill, this reflected the
Tex-Mex influence on the group. The band eventually moved to the
budding rock scene of San Francisco and released other notable
tracks, including "Mendocino" in 1969. |
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Other noteworthy bands of the mid-1960s hailed from Texas and
also echoed their Tex-Mex musical traditions. Domingo Samudio
(Sam Samudio) of Dallas led Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, whose
hit "Wooly Bully" topped the U.S. charts in 1965. Billboard, in
fact, selected "Wooly Bully" as Record of the Year. They also
enjoyed success with "Lil' Red Riding Hood." Question Mark and
the Mysterians likewise tapped into their own queso organ hook,
played by Frank Rodriguez of Crystal City, in their hit "96
Tears" in 1965. |
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| Meaux also produced the early material of
versatile vocalist Roy Head from Three Rivers, who later, as Roy
Head and the Traits, scored a Number 2 pop single in 1965 with
his soulful "Treat Her Right." Houston native B. J. Thomas was
also in the Meaux stable before moving on to pop and country
stardom with such hits as "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Raindrops
Keep Fallin' on My Head." |
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As Beatlemania swept the nation, Hollywood sought to
capitalize on the British Invasion in the mid-1960s and
introduced the Monkees. Bandmember Michael Nesmith was born in
Houston and grew up in Dallas. Nesmith, considered the best
musician in the quartet, also achieved other musical success.
His song "Different Drum" was a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the
Stone Poneys in 1967. He later went on to front his own country
rock band in the 1970s and became a music video pioneer, winning
the first Grammy given for a video in 1981. |
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| West Texas gave forth another popular group,
the Bobby Fuller Four from El Paso. The band had a national hit
in 1966 with "I Fought the Law," a tune written by Sonny Curtis
of the Crickets. Fuller's success was cut short by his
suspicious "suicide" on July 18, 1966. |
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Psychedelic and its heavier variation, acid rock, emerged
from both folk-rock and electric roots during the mid-to-late
1960s. Texas spawned its share of garage bands, known for their
original compositions and free-form improvisation, and these
psychedelic groups had both regional and national impact. Red
Krayola emerged from Houston. The punky blues of Zakary Thaks
came from Corpus Christi. Mouse and the Traps was born in Tyler.
The band Bubble Puppy, which formed in San Antonio, recorded in
Houston at Gold Star Studios for International Artists in 1968
and scored a national hit, "Hot Smoke & Sasafrass."
International Artists also signed another band—the 13th Floor
Elevators. Formed in Austin in 1965, the 13th Floor Elevators
commanded a devoted local following and created a potent
combination when they added vocalist Roky Erickson to the
lineup. His song "You're Gonna Miss Me" became a hit; it was
from their 1966 album, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor
Elevators. A second LP, Easter Everywhere (1967), also had a
strong showing. Musicologists have heralded Roky Erickson and
the 13th Floor Elevators as pioneers of acid rock, but their
overt drug use, also a trademark of the psychedelic culture,
took its toll on the band and especially Erickson. Convicted
twice for drug possession, Erickson opted for a sentence to the
Rusk State Hospital over state prison in 1969. During his
incarceration he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and
treated with various drug therapies and electroshock. He was
never the same after his release in 1972, and took years to
return to some semblance of musical coherence. But in the 2000s,
on medication for his schizophrenia, Erickson made a comeback.
In 2005 he played his first full-length concert in two decades
at the Austin City Limits Festival. Many performances have
followed, including debuts in New York and London. |
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Janis Joplin, another innovator and ultimately victim of the
psychedelic counterculture, burst on the rock-and-roll scene in
the mid-1960s. Born and raised in Port Arthur, Texas, she moved
to San Francisco and joined the band Big Brother and the Holding
Company. Her electrifying rendition of the song "Ball and
Chain," which had also been recorded by one of Joplin's musical
mentors, Big Mama Thornton, at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967
immediately earned her and the band national acclaim. Rock
critics praised Joplin as the greatest white blues singer, but
an accidental heroine overdose ended her life on October 4,
1970. Her posthumous single "Me and Bobby McGee," penned by
Texan Kris Kristofferson, reached Number 1 on the charts. |
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The 1960s and early 1970s saw many Texas-born musicians
earning musical names for themselves outside of the state. The
impressive list includes Billy Preston, who was born in Houston,
Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart of Dallas, who performed in Sly
and the Family Stone, and Houston native Johnny Nash, whose
catchy "I Can See Clearly Now" reached Number 1 in 1972. Mason
Williams of Abilene won a Grammy for his pop instrumental guitar
hit "Classical Gas" in 1968. Houston's Kenny Rogers and his pop
group First Edition had a hit with "Just Dropped In To See What
Condition My Condition Was In." Dallas-born Stephen Stills found
fame in the late 1960s in California as a member of Crosby
Stills Nash and Young. |
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| The 1970s ushered in the radio-popular genre
of soft rock, with smoothly crafted, tight songs that inspired
the term "California Sound." Notable Texans helped influence the
California Sound. Seals and Crofts was one of the most popular
mellow rock acts of the 1970s. Jim Seals, born in Sidney, Texas,
and Dash Crofts of Cisco, played as teenagers with rockabilly
star Dean Beard and the Crew Cats in the late 1950s. The two,
along with Beard, moved to Los Angeles and joined the Champs,
who had the instrumental hit "Tequila" in 1958. Eventually
playing together as an acoustic duo, they hit it big with their
song "Summer Breeze" in 1972. Seals's brother Dan, who performed
with John Colley in the Dallas psychedelic group Southwest
F.O.B., achieved his own fame with Colley in the duo England Dan
and John Ford Coley. Dan Seals died on March 25, 2009. |
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| The Eagles, a hugely successful group of the
1970s, owe a lot of their success to two Texans.
Drummer–vocalist Don Henley was born in Gilmer and played in a
hometown band called Shiloh, before the group moved to
California in 1969. Henley was one of the founding members of
the Eagles in 1971, and his songwriting and distinctive voice
helped propel the group to fame. Henley, as a member of the
Eagles, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1998. Eagle associate J. D. Souther of Amarillo played in the
Cinders, a Panhandle band of the early 1960s, before heading
West. Souther wrote some of the Eagles' most memorable songs,
such as "New Kid in Town" and "Best of My Love," and later
recorded a hit of his own, "You're Only Lonely." |
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| In the early 1970s the hard-edged sounds of
rock and blues were still alive and well with Texas musicians.
Brothers Johnny and Edgar Winter grew up in the Beaumont area
and listened to the records of blues masters like Blind Lemon
Jefferson and T-Bone Walker. Johnny attracted a massive audience
with the release of Johnny Winter (1969), which showcased
blues–rock guitar prowess, including a considerable penchant for
slide guitar. Winter has established himself among aspiring
guitarists as one of the modern blues greats. Brother Edgar
achieved success as a keyboardist. Edgar's part jazzy, part
rhythm-and-blues tunes earned him respect as an amazing
multi-instrumentalist (he also played saxophone) and vocalist. |
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| The early 1970s saw prolific output from a
band formed in Fort Worth, Bloodrock, which issued six albums
from 1970 to 1973. Their second LP, Bloodrock 2, earned a Gold
Record Award and included a popular single, the morbid "D.O.A."
Fort Worth guitarist and vocalist John Nitzinger, though not a
formal member of the group, contributed some of Bloodrock's
songs. |
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| The band ZZ Top became the Lone Star State's
most successful rock act of the 1970s. This threesome emerged
from the ashes of the Texas psychedelic scene. Drummer Frank
Beard and bassist Dusty Hill had played in the American Blues in
Dallas, and guitarist Billy Gibbons performed in the noteworthy
Moving Sidewalks in Houston. Evidently he had turned heads,
because Jimi Hendrix, while appearing on the Tonight Show, had
praised Gibbons as the next hot young guitarist. Gibbons, Beard,
and Hill came together in Houston in 1970 (after Gibbons had
replaced two previous band members). They built a strong
following with their touring and Southern-influenced,
guitar-driven rock. Their third album, Tres Hombres (1973), went
platinum on the strength of the hit "La Grange." Throughout the
following decades, ZZ Top's continued popularity with releases
such as their best-selling Eliminator (1983) attested to the
band's popular appeal and staying power. The group was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. |
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| In the early 1970s Texas gave birth to a
distinctive and unusual blending of country music and urban
blues and rock that resulted in a hybrid style known variously
as redneck rock or progressive country. The redneck rock
movement began in Austin as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and
a group of country and rocker songwriters congregated to create
a burgeoning music scene. Nelson had rejected the slick
commercial environment of Nashville and returned to his native
Texas. The redneck rock movement inspired enthusiasm from both
native Texans and Northern transplants in search of its
laid-back, open-minded attitude. Rock and country musicians Joe
Ely, Butch Hancock, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore formed the
Flatlanders in rock's root town of Lubbock before each
eventually moved to the Central Texas area. |
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| Jerry Jeff Walker, B. W. Stevenson, and
Michael Martin Murphey were three singer–songwriters who
symbolized the redneck rock movement and garnered acclaim with
big crossover hits. Walker, a transplanted Texan, penned "Mr.
Bojangles," and the tune became a major radio hit for the Nitty
Gritty Dirt Band in 1971. The big voice of Dallas native B. W.
Stevenson belted out "My Maria," which went to Number 9 in 1973.
Michael Martin Murphey's "Wild Fire" was a huge hit that went to
Number 3 on the charts in 1975. The outgrowth of this
flourishing Austin redneck rock scene also led to the creation
of the syndicated public television program Austin City Limits,
which brought numerous Texas country, blues, and rock musicians
to a national audience. |
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| The mid-to-late 1970s continued the
tradition of Texan musicians gaining national and international
fame. Players who had headed west in the 1960s included Steve
Miller and Boz Scaggs, high school classmates in Dallas. During
the 1970s each went on to success. Dallas native Marvin Lee Aday,
better known as Meat Loaf, scored national hits with his musical
theatrical flair, and his Bat Out of Hell (1977) became one of
rock's biggest-selling albums. |
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| The 1980s ushered in the national fame of
Christopher Cross. Formed by San Antonio native Chris Geppert
and consisting of some notable Austin-based musicians,
Christopher Cross swept the Grammys with five awards, which
included Best New Artist, Album of the Year—Christopher Cross
(1980)—and three awards for the hit single "Sailing." The crisp
recording and production of the songs earned Christopher Cross a
place as one of pop music's biggest acts in the early 1980s. He
also won an Oscar for Best Original Song, "Arthur's Theme" for
the movie Arthur (1981). |
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| The emergence of punk music and its mellower
cousin new wave claimed its roots in the psychedelic bands of
the 1960s, most notably Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor
Elevators. Other musicians also adopted styles tinged with
Tex-Mex nuances that harkened back to the influences of the Sir
Douglas Quintet and Question Mark and the Mysterians. By the
early 1980s punk bands performed throughout the state. The
Judy's of Houston achieved moderate success. Dallas contributed
acts like the Nervebreakers, and Austin spawned the Big Boys and
the Next. Austin-based musicians such as Joe Ely toured as the
opener for the Clash, and Joe "King" Carrasco's high energy,
Tex-Mex–flavored "nuevo wavo" was a perennial draw on the club
circuit. One of the early punk Texas bands that has shown
staying power is the Butthole Surfers. Trinity University
students Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary formed the group in San
Antonio in the early 1980s. Their screeching sounds and societal
satire have evoked shock and loathing in some, but have also
inspired a devoted cult following for three decades. |
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| Pop bands such as Timbuk 3 and Edie Brickell
and the New Bohemians had their day in the sun in the
mid-to-late 1980s. Timbuk 3's husband and wife duo, Pat and
Barbara MacDonald, who had moved to Austin, wrote the very
catchy "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" in 1986. The
New Bohemians were an established band playing in Deep Ellum
when they added art student and singer Edie Brickell in 1985. A
revamped lineup signed with Geffen Records and released their
debut, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1989), which included
the hit "What I Am." Brickell's airy vocal style and the band's
hippie harkening image caught the public eye for a time. Both
Timbuk 3 and Edie Brickell and New Bohemians were destined to be
relegated to one-hit wonder status. |
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| The 1980s saw the increasing recognition of
the skill and versatility of a new generation of Texas
guitarists. Numerous awards and polls in guitar magazines have
heralded Austinite Eric Johnson as one of the technically best
guitarists. He first turned heads as a member of the Austin jazz
fusion group the Electromagnets, which featured founder Bill
Maddox, Stephen Barber, and Kyle Brock, in the mid-1970s. Word
of Johnson's virtuosity continued to build as he worked as a
session player for the likes of Carole King, Cat Stevens, and
Christopher Cross. His first solo album, Tones, came out in
1986, followed by Ah Via Musicom in 1990. |
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| Van Wilks is another formidable guitar
player in the Central Texas area. Listeners have often compared
the blues rock master to ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, and he has
toured with ZZ Top. Wilks released the album Bombay Tears in
1980 to critical acclaim. He and his band have also been the
winners of many newspaper polls in recognition of their popular
hard-rock style. Van Wilks and Eric Johnson teamed up in a
memorable guitar duo performance of "What Child Is This" for the
Texas Christmas Collection (1982). |
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| The Vaughan brothers, Jimmie and Stevie,
finally earned their long-sought national attention in the
1980s. Born in the Dallas area, the brothers had moved to Austin
by the 1970s. Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan hit it big in the
Austin-based blues group the Fabulous Thunderbirds, whose songs
"Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up" became national hits and featured
videos on MTV in 1986. Jimmie's younger brother Stevie and his
band, Double Trouble, stormed the blues rock scene with their
release of Texas Flood (1983) and Couldn't Stand the Weather
(1984). Both brothers had performed and collaborated at various
times with songwriter/drummer Doyle Bramhall, who co-wrote
several songs for Stevie and played drums on the Vaughan
brothers’ Family Style (1990). Musicians recognized Stevie Ray
Vaughan as one of the great new guitarists. Vaughan, standing on
the shoulders of the old Deep Ellum blues greats, influenced
countless young players, and many guitar magazines and
instructional books have analyzed his use of heavy-gauge strings
and tuning to achieve his distinctively fat sound. His tragic
death in a helicopter crash in 1990 cut short a remarkable music
career. |
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| Two years later the rhythm section of Double
Trouble, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, teamed
with Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall II in Austin to form the
Arc Angels. Arc was taken from the initials of the Austin
Rehearsal Center. What began as a musical outlet for the members
soon erupted into media labels of "supergroup." Their debut
album on Geffen Records and live shows quickly attracted
national exposure, but the group fell apart in 1994. At South by
Southwest in 2009, the Arc Angels reunited to record and perform
once more. That year they opened for Eric Clapton on his
European tour. |
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| One of the biggest Texas acts of the 1990s
consisted of legendary veteran rockers Doug Sahm, Augie
Meyers, Freddy Fender, and conjunto accordionist Flaco Jiménez.
The supergroup the Texas Tornados released its eponymous debut
album with Warner Brothers in 1990. Once again the musicians
relied heavily on their Texan-influenced roots, combining
Tex-Mex conjunto rhythms with catchy lyric and melody hooks that
had crossover appeal in the rock world. Throughout much of the
1990s the group toured nationally and internationally and was
ready to embark on a new journey when Doug Sahm died on November
18, 1999. Sahm's career epitomizes Texas rock-and-roll, a
meeting of cultures that borrows from the black blues greats,
border-flavored Tex-Mex, and Texas cowboy and folk music, with
some doo-wop thrown in. Freddy Fender, who had started his
career as a young rocker in the late 1950s, died on November 17,
2007. The Texas Tornados found new life in the 2000s, however,
as Sahm’s son Shawn joined forces with Meyers, Jiménez, and
several original sidemen (including Louie Ortega on guitar,
Speedy Sparks on bass, and Ernie Durawa on drums) to form a new
incarnation of the band. They released ¡Está Bueno! in 2010. |
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| The significant influence shown by notable
rock pioneer Roky Erickson was honored in the 1990 Warner
Brothers release of Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute
to Roky Erickson, on which various rockers recorded his songs.
Another noteworthy tribute album resulted in an unlikely, but
compelling combination. Twisted Willie (1996) was a compilation
of Willie Nelson's songs as performed by some of the nation's
top grunge bands. The alternative rock scene of Seattle in the
early 1990s nodded to the legacy of the Texas Outlaw, redneck
rocker Willie Nelson. |
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| Fort Worth provided its own alternative
grunge offering in the Toadies. Formed in 1989, the band gained
considerable exposure with its extensive touring in the 1990s,
opening for White Zombie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bush, and other
well-known acts. They broke up in 2001 but reunited for shows in
2006 and 2007 and released their album No Deliverance in 2008
and Feeler in 2010. |
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| The rise of female singer–songwriters in the
rock industry in the mid-1990s also featured a Texas-born artist
whose unlikely commercial path led to stardom. Dallas native
Lisa Loeb secured a place in music history for achieving the
first-ever Number 1 hit single without having a record deal. In
1994 her song "Stay," which was featured on the soundtrack of
the film Reality Bites, bulleted up the charts. Subsequently,
Loeb signed with Geffen and later participated as a featured
artist on the Lilith Fair tour promoting female musicians in
1997. |
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| The Central Texas band Sixpence None the
Richer entered the music scene in the 1990s. After several years
of obscurity, they finally got national recognition with their
hit "Kiss Me" in 1999. After the release of their second album
Divine Discontent in 2002, the group disbanded in 2004 but
reunited in 2007. |
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| Throughout the 1990s and into the new
millennium, heavy metal bands (and their various subgenres such
as death metal or thrash metal) have flourished in the Lone Star
State. Arlington's group Pantera actually formed in the early
1980s but, after building an impressive following through
several album releases and tours, came into their own in the
1990s. Their formidable album Far Beyond Driven entered the U.S.
and U.K. charts at number one in 1994, and releases and tours
throughout the 1990s cemented the Texas group as a worldwide
force. Other listeners, perhaps not familiar with thrash metal's
blazing tempo and heavy atonal guitar riffs, got a taste of
Pantera's style when the group wrote a brief metal theme song
for the NHL team the Dallas Stars during their Stanley Cup
season in 1999. The band broke up in 2003. Tragically, founding
member and lead guitarist "Dimebag Darrell" (Darrell Lance
Abbott) was shot and killed while playing onstage with his band
Damageplan on December 8, 2004. |
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| King's X, a band based in Houston, garnered
critical acclaim for its interesting and intricate blend of
vocal harmonies, progressive rock elements, and metal
tendencies. Their often spiritual and introspective lyrics for
their early releases led some to classify them in the genre of
Christian rock, as evidenced in their successful LP Faith, Hope
and Love (1990), a label that the band itself has opposed. They
continued to tour and release works through 2009. |
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| The hard-hitting rock band The Union
Underground formed in San Antonio in 1996. By 1999 they signed
with a subsidiary of Columbia Records, and their debut, An
Education in Rebellion (2000), earned praise from critics as
some of the best heavy metal of the day. Their recording and
performance of "Across the Nation," the theme song for World
Wrestling Entertainment's RAW show from 2002 through 2006,
brought the group to an even larger worldwide audience, though
they broke up not long after its release. |
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| Another metal splash occurred for the Dallas
quartet Drowning Pool in 2001. The group formed in the late
1990s and toured with alternative metal bands Sevendust and
Kittie while peddling their demos. Eventually they signed to a
major label, and the group's debut album, Sinner (2001), went
platinum on the strength of the breakout single "Bodies." The
band rode the wave of stardom as a major stage act on the
Ozzfest tour, but suffered a great setback with the sudden death
of singer Dave Williams in August 2002. The band continued to
tour and record, however, and had issued three albums, each with
different lead vocalists, through 2007. They released a live
album, Loudest Common Denominator, in 2009. |
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| In the 2000s Texas rock remained a powerful
force in the music industry. The late King Curtis (born Curtis
Ousley) of Fort Worth was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame as one of rock's most talented and influential sidemen.
He played tenor sax on recordings by the Coasters, Aretha
Franklin, Sam and Dave, John Lennon, and countless others. |
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| Texas musical groups and solo artists that
emerged in the 2000s covered a broad spectrum of genres as well
as cultural influences. Los Lonely Boys consists of brothers
Henry, Jojo, and Ringo Garza of San Angelo. Their music, named "Texican
Rock and Roll," draws from an amalgamation of rock-and-roll,
blues, country, and conjunto. Their debut single "Heaven" in
2004 was a Top 40 hit and reached the top of the Billboard adult
contemporary chart. It won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Pop
Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. |
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| Black Angels, a heavy psych group from
Austin, originated in 2004 and represented a new generation of
rockers influenced by early Texas psychedelic bands such as Red
Krayola and the 13th Floor Elevators. The proverbial students
teamed with the master, so to speak, when the Black Angels
performed with Roky Erickson in 2008. |
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| The Wichita Falls band Bowling for Soup,
considered pop punk, produced a Billboard Top 40 hit with their
song "1985" in 2004. |
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| The television sensation American Idol
discovered a dynamic performer from Fort Worth in its
first-season winner, Kelly Clarkson, in 2002. Lauded for her
powerful voice, Clarkson won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance in 2005. The singer had released five albums by
2012. Her fourth album, All I Ever Wanted, debuted at Number 1,
and her single, "My Life Would Suck Without You" quickly reached
Number 1 both in the United States and United Kingdom. |
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| The Simpson sisters, Jessica and Ashlee,
both achieved considerable recognition in the pop world. Jessica
Simpson of Abilene was a pop star and actress in the early
2000s, though in 2008 she delved into country music. Her younger
sister Ashlee, born in Waco, won the Billboard Award for New
Female Artist of the Year in 2004. |
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| Annie Clark, a singer-songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist who grew up in Dallas, received critical
acclaim after the release of her debut album Marry Me in 2007.
The musician, who performs under the name St. Vincent, won the
PLUG Independent Music Female Artist of the Year award in 2008
and released her second album, Actor, worldwide in 2009. Her
third album, Strange Mercy, hit Number 19 on the Billboard 200
in 2011. |
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| Mars Volta was formed in 2001 in El Paso by
Omar Rodríguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The group's
fusion of progressive rock, jazz, punk, and Salsa attracted
attention in the rock world. They won an ASCAP Vanguard Award in
2004 and have toured with System of a Down and the Red Hot Chili
Peppers. Rolling Stone proclaimed them 2008's Best Prog-Rock
Band, and that same year their fourth album The Bedlam of
Goliath debuted at Number 3 on the Billboard 200. Mars Volta won
a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2009 for their song
"Wax Simulacra." |
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| Texas rock-and-roll at the dawn of the new
millennium continued to bring both veteran favorites and fresh
faces, all classified under the broad umbrella of rock music.
Veteran musician Delbert McClinton still toured heavily.
Guitarists Eric Johnson, Jimmie Vaughan, and Van Wilks, as well
their inspired protégés such as brothers Charlie and Will
Sexton, participated in a vibrant scene. The Flatlanders, Ely,
Hancock, and Gilmore, performed together again in 2002 and still
occasionally toured in 2011, and ZZ Top still appeared before
packed audiences worldwide. The strength of Texas rock-and-roll
also lies in the many regional and road bands playing at venues
across the state. With the proliferation of home recording
studios and the marketing exposure of the Internet, Texas
rock-and-roll bands have increasing opportunities to present
their music to new audiences. |
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