Robert Johnson

The Search for the Perfect Guitar, Part III

"Vintage Silvertone Acoustic guitar," "1977 Dobro Duolian," "Martin 00X1 Auditorium Acoustic Guitar (14 Fret)" are just some of the headlines advertising guitars on Craigslist, but how are you supposed to play them, hear them, feel them? When you order a guitar online, you're missing an important p ... More >>

Bucks Burnett: "The Dallas Music Scene Needs To Be More Like a Monarchy. It Needs More Pageantry."

You can't really write a column about behind-the-scenes people in the Dallas music scene and not include Bucks Burnett. We are big fans of Bucks, and he's been featured in the Observer numerous times. Hell, one of the last times we tried to interview him, we kept getting interrupted by calls from th ... More >>

James Hinkle, Crossing Over

Fort Worth's James Hinkle On Jazz, Blues and the Ocean Between

Don't tar James Hinkle with that "bluesman" brush. Sure, the guitarist and singer is one of the last active links to Fort Worth blues godfather Robert Ealey. Hinkle was just 18 when his mentor, guitarist Freddie Cisneros, pushed him onstage with Ealey at the singer's legendary New Bluebird Nite Club ... 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 >>

Hidden Away: Uncovering Dallas' Faded Blues

Blues veteran Jim Suhler takes us on a tour of the city's musical past.

Deep Ellum Blues: How Come These Influential Dallas Acts Don't Have Deep Ellum Murals?

​Deep Ellum is in many ways the music capital of Dallas. Yes, the area has had its ups and downs. No, it hasn't always been the center of the music scene, especially with Denton consistently pumping out artists at a rapid rate. But, fact is, without a doubt, Deep Ellum has for over a century now b ... More >>

Quaker City Night Hawks

Torquila Torquila! "Self-released"

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Bob Wills, Who Died 36 Years Ago Today

This photo of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys was taken at the Ranch House and comes from the MySpace page of former Playboys vocalist Ramona Reed, who joined the band in 1951​Kosse, down in Limestone County, is known as the "Little Town With a Big Heart" -- and as the birthplace of Bob Wills, wh ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Cream at the Crossroads (OK, Memorial Auditorium)

Via​Last month we listened in as Leslie West, Jack Bruce and Corky Laing played Memorial Auditorium in downtown Dallas on November 29, 1972. This morning, we go back four years earlier -- to when Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton came through town on Cream's farewell tour, hitting Memorial on O ... 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 >>

From "Hellhound" to Heavenly, a Next-Door Neighbor Looks to Buy 508 Park Avenue

Justin Terveen​At this very moment, the City Attorney's Office is awaiting a verdict in the 4-year-old case of City of Dallas v. TCI West End, involving the demolition of the MKT Freight Station in the West End in '06. The trial lasted two weeks, and word is both sides put on a good show -- now it ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Rolling Stones' Long Day's Journey Into Night at Sumet-Burnet Studios in June 1972

​Back in May I directed your attention to what remains my favorite Stones live comp, much of which comes from two Tarrant County Convention Center shows on June 24, 1972. Here's its exiled companion, which, till recently, I'd only heard in bits and pieces, and maybe with good reason -- it's six ho ... 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 >>

It's A Grind Coffee House Still Grinding Away, Banking On The Green Line

Photos By Daniel Rodrigue​Yes, It's A Grind Coffee House is a real coffee franchise and not just a fake coffee shop where the drones on Weeds grab their morning cup to go. But, until this morning, Roasted had yet to visit the It's A Grind in Deep Ellum. Despite having heard from friends and co-wor ... More >>

The Gourds Keep On Keeping On

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 >>

A Photo Tour: 508 Park Ave and Its Downtown Dallas Neighbors

Justin Terveen​In the fight over the fate of 508 Park Ave., this week saw the opening salvos at City Hall between the Glazers, who own the old Warner Bros. Pictures storage building where Robert Johnson and Bob Wills once recorded, and preservationists who want to keep it standing.Along with worri ... More >>

The Downtown Site Where Robert Johnson, Bob Wills Recorded Takes Its First Significant Step Down Path to Destruction

Paula Bosse​Here we go again -- though, perhaps, for the final time.Unfair Park has learned that this week, Glazer's Distributors and Colby Properties, the owners of 508 Park Avenue downtown, filed with the city a certificate of demolition that would allow for the razing of the former Warner Bros. ... More >>

More Blues For The Building Where Robert Johnson Recorded.

​Over on Unfair Park this morning, Robert has the details on what looks to be the final nail in the coffin for the building 508 Park Ave.Which would be no big deal, except that some dude named Robert Johnson apparently recorded some music there or something? Or so Robert's told us--on more than a ... More >>

Big D Production

Statler Hilton Has Cleaned Up Its Act, Says City, Which Will Sue Owners of 508 Park Ave.

View Larger MapChris Heinbaugh, Mayor Tom Leppert's chief of staff, told us a few weeks back that the city was close to working out deals with a few of those vacant buildings the mayor was none too happy about last October, when he gathered city officials -- including City Attorney Tom Perkins, Assi ... More >>

Lowest of the Low

Of Dead Flowers, Midnight Ramblers, Honky Tonk Women and Street Fighting Men

Fort Worth-born horn player Jim Price is usually a footnote in most Rolling Stones histories; his contributions to the canon -- he appears on Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St. and Goats Head Soup -- seldom merit mention, save as a sideman to sideman Bobby Keys, the Slaton, Texas, native oft consider ... More >>

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 >>

The Last Of The Great Mississippi Delta Blues Men Took To Dallas

Bonus MP3: Blackbird Harmony -- "Caution & Dispatch"

What Will Become of Robert Johnson's Historic Recording Site Downtown?

At Least Deep Ellum'll Look Pretty

Re*Cov*Ering Deep Ellum

Dax Riggs

We Sing of Only Blood or Love (Fat Possum Records)

Khaki Blues

Clapton plays in white at the AAC

The Living '60s

Austin's Black Angels fly high with a gust of drone 'n' roll

Up, Out And Down

Metro Grill surpasses first impressions

This Week's Day-By-Day Picks

Them Demolition Ball Blues

Robert Mugge looks for Last of the Mississippi Jukes

The White Stripes

White Blood Cells (Sympathy for the Record Industry)

Out & About

Richard Buckner

Soundtracks

O Brother, Where Art Thou?(Mercury) & The Gift(Will/Lakeshore)

Bona Fide

Joel and Ethan Coen's Brother hits a Homer

Out & About

R.L. Burnside

With friends like that...

Protesters dog UT Southwestern over canine vivisection

Naked eye

Turn on and tune in to the Dallas Video Festival

Hometown heroes

Out There

The 28th Annual USA Film Festival Film Clips

Blues bothers

It ain't necessarily all good

Out There

Fire and fury

Blues hero Sam Myers is the Rocket in the pocket