Bob Wills

Waltz Around Our 100 Best Texas Songs

Tonight: The 75th Anniversary of Robert Johnson's 508 Park Sessions

If you've been following the saga of 508 Park Avenue, the building where famed bluesman Robert Johnson recorded between June 19 and 20 in 1937, you'll remember it was pulled back from the edge of demolition, a few ideas for its renovation were tossed around, and its future finally sits in the hands ... More >>

Your First Look at 508 Park Ave.'s Deck (and Band Shell), And a Rare Photo Taken in '46

Click to enlarge these first looks at the new-look 508 Park Avenue. You'll find more, many more, below.​Amongst all the maybes, could-bes and one-days downtown, one development's as close as it gets to a Sure Thing: 508 Park Avenue, which First Presbyterian is in the process of turning into The Mu ... More >>

The View From Atop 508 Park Avenue, Where, Very Soon, the Past Will Meet the Present

On top of 508 Park Avenue, from left: Alan Govenar, Carol J. Adams, Pat Bywaters and Buddy Jordan​Thursday afternoon I met historian Alan Govenar at 508 Park Avenue, future site of the Museum of Street Culture. He was not alone: Joining him were developer Buddy Jordan, chair of the 508 Park Commit ... More >>

Say Farewell to Cafe Noir's Gale Hess, Who Made Some Extraordinarily Beautiful Music

Word began to spread late last night: Gale Hess, said friends, died two days ago. Cancer is to blame, say those who've been close in recent years. Gale was young -- young enough to have been first violinist in the W.T. White Symphony Orchestra in 1973, at least. And she was among the most talented m ... More >>

Alan Govenar to Oversee, Curate "Museum of Street Culture" Planned for 508 Park Avenue

​We were reminded just last week: First Presbyterian Church plans not only to install a recording studio inside 508 Park Avenue, a nod to the building's storied history as one of only two spots where bluesman and myth Robert Johnson recorded the music that serves as rock-and-roll's backbone, but t ... More >>

Forgotten, But Not Lost, The Kavemen, One of Dallas's Many Great Garage Rockers of the '60s

​Longtime friends of the show know of my obsession with the local garage-rock scene of the mid-1960s; if and when I ever write a book ... Ah. Anyway. To the estimable list that includes, oh, The Chessmen, Kit and the Outlaws, Mouse and the Traps, Floyd Dakil, The Esquires, The Briks, Kenny & t ... More >>

Grant Jones Names His All-Time Top Five Non-Texan Country Artists

Grant Jones​Regular readers of DC9 and regular drinkers at just about any North Texas honky-tonk are likely familiar with Grant Jones & The Pistol Grip Lassos by now. Between celebrating a great victory in the 2009 Shiner Rising Star Contest (where they won a recording contract) and suffering ... More >>

And Whatever Became of First Presby's Plans to Buy and Restore 508 Park Avenue, Anyway?

The latest look at plans to redo the block that includes 508 Park Avenue, complete with amphitheater​It's been, what, four whole months since last we visited 508 Park Avenue and the surrounding properties, which remain in limbo at this late date. (Though better that than a heap of bricks.) First P ... More >>

Q&A: In Advance Of His Saturday Night Benefit Show, Jack Ingram Talks Texas Country, Writing Hits and The Importance of Arts in Schools

Jack Ingram​Dallas-raised and SMU-educated country star Jack Ingram is still a relatively new name on the national stage for fans that live outside of the Lone Star State. But, for those of us who have lived around these parts for years and have scribbled all sorts of illegible items on the walls ... More >>

First Presby Moves Closer to Buying 508 Park. But Not Before City Gives a "Courtesy Review."

Justin Terveen​Back in August we discovered that at long last, 508 Park Avenue -- the building in which Robert Johnson, Bob Wills and perhaps even Charlie Parker recorded -- had a savior: next-door neighbor First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. But almost four months later, the church has yet to se ... More >>

There Are a Number of Familiar Places on Preservation Dallas's Most Endangered List

Justin Terveen508 Park Avenue, currently the subject of litigation as its owners try to tear down the building​At this very moment Preservation Dallas executive director Katherine Seale is at the Women's Museum in Fair Park formally presenting its annual list of properties, neighborhoods and "hist ... More >>

The Sammons Center Wants 508 Park Ave., Masonic Temple. All They Need is Money.

The Masonic Temple on S. Harwood, which is being sold in a package of properties that also includes 508 Park Avenue, 1900 Young Street and a block on Harwood and Canton​As I wrote Friday, the owners of 508 Park Avenue will ask the City Plan Commission tomorrow for permission to demolish the buildi ... More >>

Owners of 508 Park Ave. to Landmark Commission: The Bridge "Virtually Doomed Redevelopment of the Entire Area"

Justin TerveenThe former Warner Bros. Pictures storage facility in which Robert Johnson, Bob Wills, the Texas Playboys and, possibly, Charlie Parker once recorded lives -- for now.The city's Landmark Commission on Tuesday afternoon upheld an August 12 decision by its Central Business District Task ... More >>

Way Back in 1946, Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers Had Themselves a "Palace in Dallas"

A recent late-spring clean-up resulted in the discovery of a stash of Dallas-related 78s I'd collected back when I was music editor, which was some time between the switchover from cylinder recordings to reel-to-reel. Most are the scratchy leftovers of forgotten footnotes; one or two sound like sand ... More >>

Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel

Willie and the Wheel (Bismeaux Productions)

Dallas Homeless Network Says Stewpot's Not to Blame for Failure to Sell 508 Park Avenue

View Larger MapIt comes up every single time the subject of 508 Park Avenue is mentioned (which, right, has been plenty in recent weeks both on Unfair Park and in the paper version of Unfair Park): The building in which Robert Johnson, Bob Wills and perhaps even Charlie Parker recorded has not sold ... More >>

Echoes And Reverberations: The Ghosts Of The Longhorn Ballroom

Waylon Away

"Dallas Rag" and Other Stomps

They Wanna Be Them

Get ready to gob, because the Sex Pistols Experience is ready for your spit

Soul Food

: At Rafain Brazilian Churrascaria, all you can eat is less than you think

Wayne Hancock

May 20

Good Times

The Hag brings his songs to Fort Worth this week

Momma's boy

Mighty humorous tall tales

Letters

Leavin' on a jet plane; Crummy teachers; Learning experience

Wide open spaces

With his debut record, Ed Burleson may be too country for Nashville, but not for Texas

Blowing his Cover-up

We don't want to tell One Ton how to run its business, but...

Out There

Homewardsounds

Picking the best locally made records of 1998 was easy. Who knew?

Swing this

Out Here

Stompin' at the Sons

Buzz

Roadshows

Roadshows

Events for the week

Roadshows

Roadshows

Roadshows

Grading on a curve

This was the year local music broke, but was it fixed?

Strait to hell

George Strait saved country music. Then he killed it

Swingin' the blues

Big Al Dupree makes his recording debut after 72 years

Dust and wind

Joe Ely sends a sad, beautiful Letter to Laredo

Events for the week

Two-drink minimum

The Enablers take Nino Rota and Dick Dale out for cocktails

Events for the week

Good rockin' last night

Dallas' forgotten Star Talent Records label got there before Sun's rise

Chestnuts and lumps of coal

Bennett, Buttholes, and John Tesh--these are a few of our favorite, and least favorite, things

Survivor, alive

Two decades after stardom, John Nitzinger tries to prove he ain't "D.O.A."