Texas Monthly August 2021

THE NIGHT I WENT TWO-STEPPING WITH THE GILLEYRATS Katy Vine had never been able to master the Texas two-step, feeling clumsy as her dance partners tried to lead the way. But when a reporting assignment led her to a gathering of “Gilleyrats”—a.k.a. regulars of Pasadena’s legendary honky-tonk Gilley’s—dancing with the pros provided “unexpected moments of synchronous bliss on the dance floor.” A NEW COLLECTION FROM PIANO PRODIGY “BLUE” GENE TYRANNY The San Antonio–born pianist and composer may not be familiar to most Texans. But Tyranny, who died last December, was a vital collaborator for a generation of artists, from jazz musicians to modern dance troupes to Iggy Pop. A recent six-CD retrospective of the late composer and accompanist’s work, Degrees of Freedom Found, puts the spotlight on Tyranny and reveals, as Andy Beta…

“I WOULD NOT BE SHOCKED IF [PHIL] COLLINS GOES THROUGH WITH RETRIEVING HIS COLLECTION OF ALAMO ARTIFACTS. SHOULD THIS HAPPEN, THE LOSS TO THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS WILL BE ENORMOUS, AND THE BLAME CAN REST SQUARELY ON THE SHOULDERS S OF SQUABBLING POLITICIANS.” Collectors’ Additions I was very disappointed in the Texas Monthly excerpt of the book Forget the Alamo [“The Next Battle of the Alamo!,” June 2021]. The Alamo has long been revered as a monument to the courage of mankind. Not a week goes by without someone giving a speech—somewhere in the world—that refers to that fateful day of March 6, 1836. Your book excerpt does not glorify that event. It took a courageous foreigner, Phil Collins, to put together an incredible collection of Alamo artifacts. He should be applauded by…

Executive editor Michael Hall dropped out of law school at the University of Texas more than three decades ago, but he’s a familiar figure to leaders of the State Bar. They just granted Mike his third Texas Gavel Award, which each year honors journalism that “deepens public understanding of the legal system.” The bar recognized a pair of Mike’s stories from 2020 that exposed the challenges faced by two Texans who were convicted of murder, then were shown to be innocent by new evidence, yet struggled to be exonerated and allowed to resume their lives. Rosa Jimenez and Lydell Grant spent a combined 26 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Jimenez, imprisoned for the 2003 killing of an Austin toddler, heard two different judges rule that her conviction was…

When you think of fly-fishing in Texas, what comes to mind? Perhaps it’s a hand-tied streamer teasing a Guadalupe bass in a clear, swift Hill Country stream. Or maybe it’s sight-casting toward the flash of a redfish tail on a tidal flat along the coast. Or perhaps it’s the memory of an adventure on the remote and rugged Devils River in pursuit of hard-fighting smallmouth bass. You probably don’t picture the tree-choked creeks and bayous in muddy East Texas. This rainy, woodsy part of the state is best known to anglers for the monster gar, catfish, and bass lurking in vast man-made reservoirs. But one Houstonian is hoping to change the region’s reputation. ¶ Rob McConnell, an oil-field geologist by day, is the author of Fly Fishing the Sam: A…

If you have time to dine at only one adorable new restaurant overlooking the lovely gardens of a meticulously restored Mediterranean Revival villa built in 1928 by a wealthy Texas cotton magnate and his socialite wife, let it be Lutie’s. The jewel box of a dining room, boasting a chic black-and-white tile floor and a veritable rain forest of plants, is the centerpiece of a historic Austin property known as the Commodore Perry Estate. Because it is finally open after a year’s delay (thanks, of course, to COVID-19) and because its prestigious chefs have Michelin-starred kitchens on their résumés, Lutie’s has been getting the kind of fanatical attention that Texans normally devote to our best barbecue joints. Reservations are so scarce that the truly desperate are making them online at…

The landscape of the Lone Star State is awash in botanical inspiration, from lavender, rosemary, and yaupon holly to grapefruits, pecans, and juniper berries. And if in contemplating those raw materials (particularly the last one) you all of a sudden find yourself hankering for a gin and tonic, you’re not alone. That must have been what Daniel Barnes, the founder and CEO of Dripping Springs’ Treaty Oak Distilling, was thinking when, in 2012, he added Waterloo No. 9 to his company’s repertoire of rum and sweet-tea vodka, thus introducing one of the first Texas-made gins to the market. Predictably, he encountered some skeptics, but he stayed the course. “From the beginning, we wanted to highlight our specific corner of the world,” Barnes says. “Gin was important to us because it…