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John Spong

Austin

Senior Editor at Texas Monthly

Longtime staff writer/unofficial Willie Nelson editor at Texas Monthly, host of "One By Willie" podcast. It lives here: https://t.co/OrIu8dx0PK

Articles

  • 1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | John Spong

    When Larry Gatlin first moved to Nashville, in 1971, he was fresh off a job waiting tables at a Steak and Ale outside Houston, a young unknown songwriter thrilled just be in the presence of heroes like Roger Miller, Mickey Newbury, and Willie Nelson. But as big as his dreams were, his clear, rich tenor voice was even bigger.

  • 1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | John Spong

    Adrian Quesada is one of those people who doesn’t much like to sit still, at least not artistically. When he encounters something he digs, be it a song or a musical style, he likes to take it apart, to find out how its pieces fit, to learn about its influences and antecedents. When he was growing up in Laredo, traditional Mexican music was everywhere, and when he started playing guitar in his early teens, he initially studied flamenco.

  • 1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | John Spong

    Last November, New Yorker pop-music critic Amanda Petrusich posted a photo of her dog-eared vinyl copy of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s 1983 album, Pancho & Lefty, on her religiously followed Instagram account. In the accompanying text, she tipped her hat to the flea market where she bought it, for a buck, and the black leather jacket she likes to wear when she plays it—plus to Townes Van Zandt, San Quentin prison, freight trains, and potato trucks.

  • 2 months ago | texasmonthly.com | John Spong

    Charlie Sexton’s been a fixture of the Austin music scene for almost as long as Willie.

  • 2 months ago | flipboard.com | John Spong

    2 hours agoI Went Without Internet for a Day. Here’s What HappenedCommentary: No text messages. No Google Maps. No security cam alerts. It was both delightful and intimidating.

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John Spong
John Spong @sponglr
3 Apr 25

RT @OvisRedding: Pausing 'one by Willie' Miranda Lambert episode right after @sponglr laid out that Willie's 'somewhere over the rainbow'…

John Spong
John Spong @sponglr
2 Apr 25

RT @TexasMonthly: On episode 2 of "One by Willie". . . One of the hottest guitarists alive (we're looking at you @BillyStrings) describes…

John Spong
John Spong @sponglr
1 Apr 25

RT @TexasMonthly: On the season finale of "One by Willie". . . Indie rock, pop, and folk icon @conoroberst on the craft of songwriting, f…