Live Music Venues Keep the Beat for East Texas

The Upper East Side of Texas has tremendous deep roots in music and has given birth to an incredible number of successful musicians to the point it is sometimes asked inquisitively, “What’s in the water there?”

Some music genres born or practiced in the region still have very clear lanes, while others are a blend. Most music styles evolved from combinations of sounds including boogie woogie, jazz, blues, ragtime, rock and roll, Celtic ballads, Appalachian folk, cowboy campfire tunes, country, and gospel. Genres and styles continued to evolve, brought by waves of immigration and neighboring traditions from Mexico. Over the last 20 years or so, the term Americana came into mainstream media and in jam sessions across the country as singer-songwriters tired of trying to fit their styles into any one genre.

Leading the way in cultural heritage through music in the Upper East Side of Texas are ragtime composer and pianist Scott Joplin; folk singer Huddle “Leadbelly” Ledbetter; gospel musician Stuart Hamblen; blues legends Aaron T-Bone Walker, Omar Sharif, Floyd Dixon; followed by pop crooner Johnny Mathis; country stars Ray Price, Tex Ritter, Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton, Johnny Gimble, Lefty Frizzell, Bob Luman, and Al Dexter; and classical music’s Van Cliburn.

Music City Texas Theater opened in 2003 in Linden, hometown of Don Henley.

Marshall, Texas, became officially designated as the Birthplace of Boogie Woogie in 2010.

In more recent years, popular musicians from the region include ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Billy Joe Shaver, Michael Martin Murphey, Lee Ann Womack, Linda Davis, Neal McCoy, and newer superstars Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Sunny Sweeney, and Chris Tomlin.

Other music-related talent sprang from the Upper East Side of Texas as well with lyricists, composers, and famous venue hosts including Kenneth Threadgill, Will Jennings, Susanna Clark, and Blake Neely.

Besides some of these incredible musically inclined humans becoming national and international stars, the region has seen the emersion of hundreds of local talented musicians and singer-songwriters. Previously mostly heard only by other musicians, family and friends in garage and pasture jam sessions, over the years more and more music venues, open mic stages, and restaurants featuring music nights emerged, giving them a place now to showcase their talents for residents and visitors alike.

The growing number of music venues — both small and large enough to seat up to 2,000 people — bring in national talent as well.

Many Upper East Side of Texas communities are being welcomed into the Music Friendly Texas Certified Community Program that began in 2016 including Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Marshall, Linden, Lindale, Corsicana, Dallas, McKinney, Denison, Rockwall, and Waxahachie. Several others are working through the certification process now including Carthage, Texarkana, Sherman, Crockett, and Kilgore.

Jamborees, fiddle fests, seasonal weekly music series, street jams, concerts, and music festivals are happening now in the region on a regular basis.