Each month for 2025 we’re putting together top 10 lists celebrating a decade of Texas Standard and telling the stories of Texas. March is all about music on the Standard (see our annual Music Madness bracket!), and putting together this list has been a real fool’s errand.
That’s because our team is made up of music lovers from top to bottom – and even, I’d say, some of the best music journalists in the country. David Brown was the mastermind for years behind an award-winning program all about Texas music. Then there’s our golden-eared director, Leah Scarpelli, who is responsible for the sound of each day’s show and a true master with the mix of a great music story.
Ten is just too few to capture the sound-rich and diverse offerings featured on this program in the past decade – so we’ve got a hefty list of honorable mentions below as well.
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10. Orchestral arrangements give new emotive force in Bayonne’s ‘Temporary Time (Orchestrated)’
This is one of the finest examples of Leah Scarpelli’s handiwork: a simple interview to start but interwoven with music and with questions that get to the heart of the work.
This is an interview with Roger Sellers – known as Bayonne – and his 2024 collaboration with composer Nathaniel Earl.
9. Remembering Nanci Griffith: ‘She was just a good, good, good songwriter’
Producer Shelly Brisbin relied on her own love of Nanci Griffith to quickly turn around a feature about the singer-songwriter following her death in 2021.
This story was recognized as one of the best arts features on public radio that year.
Houston’s Khruangbin in the KUTX studios.
8. In 2021, Khruangbin took flight
Texas Standard staffers have varied musical tastes – as you can tell if you check out our curated list of personal favorites.
Only a few of the stories on that list overlap here – but this one does! To a T – we all love Khruangbin. It was so exciting to have them on the show in 2021.
7. Meet the man who takes care of Willie Nelson’s beloved guitar
This story reaches back to 2017, when David Brown was at a repair shop picking up his dad’s guitar. He recalls Mark Erlewine asking him – “you wanna see something cool?” He said yes!
6. Skinny-dippers, Tommy guns and undercover hippies: Remembering Texas’ Woodstock
In 1969, a once-in-a-generation music festival took place in Bethel, N.Y. We’ve all heard of Woodstock – but how about the fest just a few weeks later in Lewisville, the Texas International Pop Festival?
Michael Marks won two awards for profiling this fest in his hometown that also featured the likes of B.B. King, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Santana, and Sly and the Family Stone.
White Oak High School Marching Band
5. An East Texas marching band upholds a tradition – maybe for the last time
This is another award winner!
This story by Alexandra Hart won the National Edward R. Murrow for sports story, but it’s also about music – White Oak High School’s last year with a military marching band.
4. In the months since his death, South Texans reminisce on Johnny Canales
This story came out last year. It’s one part a remembrance of radio and television star Johnny Canales and another part reclamation of what it means to be from South Texas by our own South Texans Raul Alonzo and Kristen Cabrera.
3. Santiago Jiménez Jr. is a proud guardian of old-school Conjunto
In our 2020 interview with accordion player Santiago Jiménez Jr., he opened up about his legendary family – and even played live for us!
2. Remember the Alamo? Phil Collins sure does.
We reached way back in the archives for No. 2 … technically before Texas Standard was even a real thing, host David Brown interviewed musician and Alamo enthusiast Phil Collins – at the Alamo.
Mason “Bric” LaDue, a hip-hop music industry professional turned cattle rancher, takes the saddle off of his horse, Bolero, at his family’s ranch in Marquez, Texas. Michael Minasi/Texas Standard
1. Rap to the Ranch: The ballad of Mason ‘Bric’ LaDue
And our No. 1 story is also our most recent: our hour-long special exploring hip-hop in North Texas and beyond.
If you haven’t heard it yet, make time for “Rap to the Ranch: The Ballad of Mason ‘Bric’ LaDue.”
Honorable mentions
Boy, was narrowing down this list hard. We left out so many good ones. Here are a few!
– How Willie Nelson’s love for Texas led him to give up the Grand Ole Opry
– Musician Charley Crockett is no cookie-cutter cowboy
– Amanda Shires on going solo, songwriting and Texas
– Asleep at the Wheel celebrates 50 years of Western Swing
– Black Pumas’ psychedelic soul is the latest Austin sound that’s making a splash
– Adrian Quesada conjures new grooves from bygone Latin beats on ‘Boleros Psicodélicos’
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