MikeHallTexas

"America"! Right between America and Waylon Jennings--thanks Mark!

The R&B Singer Who Recorded the Greatest Country Album You’ve Never Heard The First Lady of Black country is from Houston, but her name isn’t Beyoncé. It’s Esther Phillips.

Happy 90th birthday to Esther Phillips: R&B shouter, disco queen, the first teen idol, favorite of the Beatles and Leonard Feather, the Sister from Texas, and singer of one of the best country albums of the 60s. www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

thanks, John!

Joe Ely: country rocker, avant garde artist, AI pioneer. When he couldn’t play music anymore-when his illness slowed him down & quieted his voice-his wife Sharon made sure he could still listen to it-& remember-& make more. Here’s the story of his last months. www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

The R&B Singer Who Recorded the Greatest Country Album You’ve Never Heard The First Lady of Black country is from Houston, but her name isn’t Beyoncé. It’s Esther Phillips.

Esther Phillips was singing and recording country music long before Beyonce or Mickey Guyton were even born. Here’s the story of the greatest country album you’ve never heard. www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta... @texasmonthly.bsky.social

He Was a Beloved Dog Trainer and an Asylum Seeker. Why Was He Detained? The humans love him, and so do the canines. What happened when ICE took Seyre Mussa Traore away.

Here's a story about Mussa Traore, a dog trainer who for two years has been working at a south Austin dog park. Nobody was a bigger part of the community or was as beloved as Traore was--by both humans and their canines. That didn’t stop ICE from taking him away.
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

I Wrote About an Innocent Man Who Spent 28 Years in Prison. A Stranger Wanted to Help. When the Texas criminal justice system wouldn’t compensate Carlos Jaile for the time he spent behind bars, a retired insurance agent stepped in.

“My new mantra is: I don’t want to die wishing I had done something. I want to die knowing I did do something for someone.” @texasmonthly.bsky.social
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

They Thought DACA Kept Them Safe From Arrest. They Were Wrong. For over a decade, “Dreamers” have lived and worked in the U.S. without fear of detention. More than a dozen have been swept up in this year’s immigration crackdowns.

Trump is trying to deport DACA kids, who have mostly been left alone by the gov't for the simple reason that they are fundamentally innocent-brought to the US as children. Still he’s trying to kick them out. And a couple of El Paso Dreamers just beat him.
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Singing, dancing, celebrating: Home Is Here!

How These Blind Students Formed Texas's Hottest Young Synthesizer Band Inspired by a dedicated teacher, they come together to make inventive music at the state's school for the visually impaired.

What happens when you put six blind kids and one enthusiastic teacher in a room full of synthesizers? The Semi-Modulars, that’s what. @texasmonthly.bsky.social
www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

Meet the Not-So-Mad Genius Behind ‘Alien: Earth’ ‘Fargo’ writer-director Noah Hawley has taken on ‘Alien: Earth,’ the biggest challenge of his career. Can he pull it off while learning to be a Texan?

If you grew up in the 70s in the West Village with a writer mother & a businessman father & moved to SF & met a 7th gen Tx artist & married & moved to Austin, you too might have written 6 novels & made Fargo & Alien: Earth. But I doubt it. How did Noah Hawley? www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

To Texans Like Me, Ozzy Osbourne Was More Than Just a Rock Star The Black Sabbath front man, who died Tuesday, was an unlikely Texas icon.

"People, after all, are just people. We laugh. We cry. We order lunch meat at HEB. Most of all, we rock out to Ozzy Osbourne, & when his imperfect voice combines w mighty riffs & thumping drums, we feel something innately human." www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta... @texasmonthly.bsky.social

“The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River.” The July 4 Texas flooding ripped our Kerr County home from its pillars, pulling us into the water and into the night. Then morning came.

The most haunting story you will read about the flood. "If I or anyone else had been closer to them, we would have helped her. We would have grabbed one of the kids. But we didn’t know that we were about to be plunged into the water. We simply didn’t know." www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Prayer Is “All We Have”: Sunday Morning in Kerrville After the Flood A grieving community looks to their pastor, and their God, for solace.

“Pastor, I just need to be reminded: Is God good?” @allegrahobbs.bsky.social goes to church in Kerrville after the flood. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic... @texasmonthly.bsky.social

11 years ago, Rev. Charles Moore set himself on fire in the parking lot of a Dollar General in Grand Saline, Tx. Why? “He wanted his death to count for something,” said a friend. “He wanted his life to count for something.” www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/m... @texasmonthly.bsky.social

The Ghosts of Comanche Crossing In 1981 three Black teenagers drowned while in law enforcement custody during a Juneteenth gathering at Lake Mexia. Four decades later, Texas’s proudest Emancipation Day celebration still hasn’t recov...

Happy Juneteenth! For generations, Lake Mexia hosted the finest Juneteenth celebration in the US, w African Americans flocking there from all over. In 1981 3 Black teens were arrested-& drowned. The celebration has never been the same. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic... @texasmonthly.bsky.social

Oh yeah, Margaret had great stories about that night. She appreciated the spectacle.

A crazed undertaking! A beautiful list! Of course it’s @dansolomon.com ranking all the songs named “Texas”-separating the garbage from the gold, including Chris Rea, BigXthaPlug, Stevie Ray, Trae tha Truth, Tanya Tucker, Merle, Willie-and of course Big Black. www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

The Austin-Area Teen Trump Disappeared to El Salvador Eighteen-year-old Daniel Terán was taken from his home and shipped to a notorious prison on the charge that he is a gang member. The government hasn't produced evidence supporting the claim, says his ...

Here’s a story about a kid-a legal immigrant to the US-who Trump deported to the worst prison in the world. The kid wasn’t in a gang & didn’t have tattoos. Your federal government in action: no due process, no common sense, no decency. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic... @texasmonthly.bsky.social

Wanna see the human cost of DOGE’s reckless cuts of people who work for the federal govt? @sashavonawesome.bsky.social interviewed 2 of the 5 employees slashed from Big Bend Nat’l Park—people who made the park a safe place to visit. @texasmonthly.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

great story, Scott, thanks for finding it and putting it out there!

"For better or for worse, the meat-packing industry relies on immigrants; changing that would likely require fundamentally changing how America feeds itself." Great story by @jherrerx.bsky.social revisiting the site of a 2006 mass deportation in Cactus, Tx.
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Gloria Smith Goes Down Home After stumbling upon her rich family history, the Fort Worth woman made it her mission to save a historic freedom colony in Texas.

Gloria Smith, who lives in Fort Worth, didn’t expect to find her roots in rural Burleson County. Then she started looking. Now she’s saving the Dabney Hill freedom colony, one building at a time. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

The Night the Music Died Fifty years ago, a plane carrying Buddy Holly crashed in a remote Iowa cornfield. This month, hundreds of fans will gather at the ballroom where he played his final show to sing, dance, and mourn the ...

66 years ago tonight Buddy Holly played his last song, “Brown Eyed Handsome Man," an anagram of which is “rhyme man be dead on snow” www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the...

Whatever happened to "The Gulf of Smelly Brown Water"?

‘I Am Ready, Warden’ Is a Gripping Examination of Vengeance and Redemption on—and Off—Texas’s Death Row The new documentary is the best film about the death penalty since ‘The Thin Blue Line.’

Director Smriti Mundhra made the best death-penalty doc since The Thin Blue Line. Now “I Am Ready, Warden,” which she worked on with @keribla.bsky.social, just got nominated for an Oscar. Here’s my review: texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
@texasmonthly.bsky.social

For all who celebrate Brentmas:

Texas Legislators Kept Robert Roberson—and Bipartisanship—Alive (for Now) State legislators from both parties put aside their differences to halt the death row inmate’s execution.

Some good things happened this year: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

My Never-Ending War on the Weed From Hell Spiky, tenacious, and hard to spot, goathead burs have burrowed into my shoes, my dog’s paws, and my West Texas home.

Can plants be evil? @mikehalltexas.bsky.social convinced me.

www.texasmonthly.com/travel/my-ne...

My Never-Ending War on the Weed From Hell Spiky, tenacious, and hard to spot, goathead burs have burrowed into my shoes, my dog’s paws, and my West Texas home.

If you want to fight the devil, you'd better bring a shovel and a good pair of gloves. www.texasmonthly.com/travel/my-ne... @texasmonthly.bsky.social