Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Beside Angel Perez’s plate of congealing cheese fries sit what look like four disembodied wombs—rubber cross sections depicting the progression of a woman’s pregnancy. The seventeen-year-old plucks one fetus from its uterus and cradles it in her palm, petting it with her finger. It’s the size of a baby mouse, typical of human development ten weeks after fertilization. Across the table, nurse Lauri Mannon gestures at the next-biggest womb, the week-sixteen model. “You’re somewhere between these two,” she tells Perez, who is fourteen weeks pregnant, before hoisting a fifth womb, the forty-week version, up from the floor. Perez’s big brown eyes widen at the sight of the fully formed fetus, with its discernible features and tiny fingers and toes. It’s early November and only the second…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

To many Willie fans, both the casual and hardcore, his 1978 album Stardust is the best he ever made, and the reverence is well-earned. It’s the biggest-selling record of his career, spending a full ten years on Billboard’s country albums chart. It’s also an undeniably beautiful collection of songs and performances, quiet and contemplative and marked by Willie’s unmistakable affection for the music and his band. Simply put, it’s a perfect record. For all those reasons, it’s easy to forget that Stardust was the most radical move he ever made.Think back to the year it came out. On the strength of such albums as Red Headed Stranger, Wanted! The Outlaws, and Waylon and Willie, Willie was at the forefront of the outlaw country revolution, and…

The post Booker T. Jones on Why He Recorded Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ in Emmylou Harris’s Living Room appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Palo Duro Canyon is a breathtaking surprise for anyone who stumbles upon its dramatic vistas in the plains of the Texas Panhandle. Many histories have intersected here, including Texas cast member Benny Tahmahkera’s personal history—his great-great-grandfather was Comanche chief Quanah Parker, the role he plays in the show. The musical was commissioned in the 1960s and designed specifically for the canyon. In the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, members of the cast and crew reflect on the meaning of this production and this place.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

State senator Drew Springer has had a change of heart. In September, the North Texas legislator heard extensive testimony about Ken Paxton’s alleged criminality, much of it related to the accusations from whistleblowers that the attorney general had used his office to benefit a campaign donor and had accepted a bribe. Springer says he believed evidence presented during the impeachment trial that showed Paxton had conducted an extramarital affair and used a burner Uber account, but he was unconvinced by charges that the AG had done anything to violate his oath of office. The senator, who represents a solidly red district that stretches from north of Dallas to the Oklahoma border and toes the party line on issues important to the right, voted with all…

The post “The Senate Got Played”: Drew Springer Explains His Call to Reopen Ken Paxton’s Impeachment appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Kelvin Sampson is among the greatest college basketball coaches of his generation, but at one point it seemed he might never coach college hoops again. In 2008, while working at Indiana University, he was caught violating recruitment rules and slapped with a five-year coaching ban. He spent his exile as an assistant coach in the NBA. Sampson got a shot at redemption in 2014, when the University of Houston named him head coach. It was hardly a dream job. The Cougars hadn’t been relevant since the early eighties, when the team—nicknamed Phi Slama Jama for the high-flying play of stars Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler—made it to two NCAA championship games. But by the time Sampson took the helm, the program belonged to a minor…

The post Under Kelvin Sampson the Glory Days of Phi Slama Jama Are Back appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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