Texas
Country Music

Texas country music is its own genre, and it has been since at least the 1970s. George Strait from Pearsall is the best-selling country artist in history with over 100 million records sold. Willie Nelson from Abbott invented the outlaw country movement. Waylon Jennings from Littlefield defined its attitude. Miranda Lambert from Longview, Lyle Lovett from Klein, Robert Earl Keen from Houston, Lee Ann Womack from Jacksonville, Don Williams from Floydada: the state's list of major country artists is long enough to stock a genre by itself.

The venue infrastructure is the best in the country outside of Nashville. Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth is the world's largest honky-tonk, with 127,000 square feet and an indoor rodeo arena. Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, built in 1878, is the oldest continually operating dance hall in Texas and one of the most storied music rooms in America. Continental Club in Austin has been a roots music institution since 1957. Luckenbach Texas in Fredericksburg, population 3, has a dance hall and outdoor stage that draws thousands for weekend shows. Austin City Limits Music Festival is one of the country's major festivals. The Texas dancehall circuit, hundreds of old wooden buildings across the Hill Country and Central Texas, is a living folk institution.

Moving to Texas for country music is not a metaphor. The music is embedded in the physical landscape. Texas country, the regional genre that includes Strait, Keen, Gary P. Nunn, and their descendants, sounds different from Nashville country and sounds like the state it came from. Red Dirt music from Oklahoma bleeds across the border. Western swing, which Bob Wills invented in the 1930s, still has living practitioners in the state. The genre here is not an entertainment option; it's part of the air.

Texas country is its own genre with its own stars, venues, and traditions that exist partly independent of Nashville. George Strait (Pearsall) is the best-selling country artist in history. Willie Nelson (Abbott) and Waylon Jennings (Littlefield) defined outlaw country. Gruene Hall, built in 1878, is the oldest dance hall in Texas still operating. Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth is the world's largest honky-tonk.

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