HWY 261

The Rev is hosting solo in the booth this week as Sterling heads to Port A to play a gig with Dallas Burrow tonight at The Gaff. Guest artists today are a couple of the participants in this year's Young Songwriters Workshop, an annual program put on by Cheatham Street Music Foundation and held at The Redbird Listening Room in New Braunfels, TX (a venue owned by Dallas Burrow and family). Students...

On this July 4th episode, The Rev and Sterling play songs about social issues and songs of protest, but because of an overnight deluge in the hill country, the first quarter hour is dedicated to sending our best to our neighbors who are dealing with flooding issues. The show begins with SRV playing Texas Flood and Couldn't Stand the Weather. After the first promo, the focus shifts to songs about s...

This week The Reverend and Sterling welcome Lynn Crossett back into the KZSM booth for his 3rd time as our guest. His new album, Autumn to August has just been released; produced by the great Lloyd Maines, the album is fantastic, and Lynn plays a couple of the songs (the title track & Coulda Been the Wine) live in the studio during this week's episode. The Rev and Sterling also plug the upcomi...

Sterling is traveling to a gig today, so The Reverend has his youngest daughter, Layla, in the booth to co-host a salute to funk and soul musicians from Texas. Sly Stone (born in Denton in 1943) passed away in L.A. this week at the age of 82, so The Rev has curated a playlist to shine a bright, colorful light on some of the great funk/soul artists to have come from our great state. Artists played...

Last week, The Rev's daughter curated a playlist of up-and-coming artists that the young generation is listening to a lot. This week Sterling and The Rev go the other direction, spinning tracks that we heard in the house or in the car growing up with our dads. Artists played include Simon & Garfunkel, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson & Johnny Cash, James McMurtry, Hal Ketchum,...

Sterling is on the way to play a gig at The Old Quarter in Galveston with Dallas Burrow, so The Reverend has his oldest daughter, Alice, in the co-host's chair. Alice has curated a playlist of up-and-coming Texas artists the she and her young peers are really into, several of whom have not yet come to the attention of The Rev and Sterling. After kicking off with tunes from The Dixie Chicks and Har...

Local high schools are having graduation ceremonies this weekend, and local universities held ceremonies a couple of weeks ago, so The Reverend and Sterling salute the accomplishments of all local graduates with songs from artists who were educated--high school, college, or both--in Texas. Artists played included Alice Cooper, William Clark Green, John Denver, Bill Whitbeck, Michael Martin Murphey...

The Reverend is flying solo in the booth today while Sterling retrieves a '61 Ford Falcon he bought in Austin. The Rev spends part of the show on a shoutout to moms, during which he played track from Sons of Fathers, Okkervil River, Big John Mills, and Randy Travis. The rest of the show was a musical mixed bag, with tracks from The Trips, Dustin Welch, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Johnny & Edgar Wi...

The Reverend and Sterling celebrate Willie Nelson, who turned 92 this week, by deep-diving his catalog for songs not generally heard on the radio. Tracks played included Matador, She is Gone, Mr. Shuck & Jive (Willie & Waylon), Alice in Hulaland (Willie & Haggard), Whiter Shade of Pale, Always on My Mind (David Beck's Tejano Weekend), Hands on the Wheel, Bach's Minuet in G, Stuff the W...

The Reverend and Sterling welcome local artists Tracy Weinberg & Gretchen McMahon into the KZSM studio to talk music, discuss their latest release Tracy Weinberg & Friends: Another Saturday Night, and the duo plays a pair of great live tracks off of the record (Side Effects of Love and Blindspot). Prerecorded tracks included songs from Dustin Welch, Lynn Crossett, The Texas Sapphires, Jeff...

No guest artist in the KZSM studio today (The Rev's 46th B-Day), so the fellas spin tracks from Austin artists Bad Livers and James McMurtry. James and Danny Barnes of bad Livers both work professionally with Sterling's older sister, Jenni Finlay, so there are a few stories shared between prerecorded tracks. The show closes out with a Tom Waits cover of Kinky Friedman's song Highway Cafe. Kinky (R...

No guest artist in the KZSM studio today (The Rev's 46th B-Day), so the fellas spin tracks from Austin artists Bad Livers and James McMurtry. James and Danny Barnes of bad Livers both work professionally with Sterling's older sister, Jenni Finlay, so there are a few stories shared between prerecorded tracks. The show closes out with a Tom Waits cover of Kinky Friedman's song Highway Cafe. Kinky (R...

Sterling is taking care of personal business today, and there was no guest artist scheduled, so The Reverend flies solo and spins tracks from a number of artists who are playing locally in the near future. The Reverend also takes a few minutes to pay tribute to Arley Blankenship of Wimberley's Volunteer Fire Ants, who passed away last week. Artists played on this episode of HWY 261 included The Do...

Rob Dark Smith joins The Reverend and Sterling in the KZSM studio to talk about the release of his new EP, Anvil. Produced by Keith Davis (who joins Rob in the studio and accompanies him on the live songs) and featuring a cast of talented local musicians, Anvil is a solid EP, perfect for fans of Americana, Red Dirt, and singer-songwriter music. Rob, Keith, Sterling, and The Reverend swap stories,...

The Reverend and Sterling spin some heavier rock and roll tracks with Texas connections to send off Spring Break 2025 for students at Texas State University and in San Marcos CISD, and to ring in Spring Break 2025 for students in Hays CISD. Artists played on today's episode include 13th Floor Elevators, Roky Erickson & the Aliens, Ministry, Pantera, Dustin Welch, Dangerous Toys, Janis Joplin,...

Sterling is out to play a gig in Luckenbach with Dallas Burrow, so The Reverend welcomes Lynn Crossett back into the KZSM studio for his second appearance on HWY 261. Lynn is releasing a new album, Autumn to August, in June of 2025. Produced by Lloyd Maines, this is Lynn's second record with the venerated Texas producer, and in the lead-up to the album's release he'll be dropping a single per mont...

The Reverend and Sterling are joined in the KZSM studio by singer-songwriter Melissa Engleman. Melissa just released the EP "Love" on Feb. 1, and plays two tracks from it live in studio. The EP is the first of a planned trilogy, "Love, Death, Mexico." Pre-recorded tracks that are thematically linked to Valentine's Day (love songs, breakup songs, etc) from artists including Dixie Chicks, George Jon...

The Reverend and Sterling, along with new KZSM Intern Matt, spin some longer blues tracks from SRV, Los Spark Notes, and Lightnin Hopkins, along with a few songs by artists nominated in various categories for the 2nd Annual San Marcos Music Awards, being held at The Price Center in SMTX on 01-31-25.

The Reverend and Sterling welcome Texas State Geography professor, urban planning researcher, and local singer-songwriter Eric Sarmiento into the KZSM studios. Eric talks about his current research project that involves early East Texas blues, and he plays two great songs live, both of which were released in 2024 as part of Eric's personal goal of releasing a song a month for the full year (a goal...

Sterling is out this week, so The Rev is hosting solo from KZSM studios in beautiful downtown San Marcos, TX. He's joined by Muchacho Sanchez and Andrew Banton, who play together as a duo and perform two phenomenal songs by Muchacho, "Again" and "Marie Laveau." The Rev's youngest daughter, Layla, also makes a guest appearance in Sterling's chair in the opening quarter hour of the episode.

The Reverend and Sterling are joined in the KZSM studio in San Marcos, TX by Dennis Jay, who is a singer-songwriter in the "Western and Country" style. He's got a brand new album out he's plugging, Cowboy Rhythm, which was produced by the great Lloyd Maines. Dennis plays Adios Moonlight and The Last Great Necessity off the new record, as well as reminiscing about Kent Finlay's Songwriters Circle,...

For the first episode of 2025, The Reverend and Sterling spin songs on CD and vinyl from various soundtracks that have some musical connection to Texas. Soundtrack albums represented were: Crazy Heart; Maverick; The Sting; Pure Country; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; Forrest Gump; Song Writer.

Sterling is back in the KZSM broadcast booth after a couple weeks out, and we spend most of the episode listening through and talking about his holiday album A Very Sterling Christmas vol. 2 All I Want for Christmas is Uke. You can listen to the album on Lone Star Music at this link: https://lonestarmusicmagazine.com/sterling-finlays-a-very-sterling-christmas-volume-2/

This week we delve into the sports media side of broadcasting as The Reverend welcomes TxSt Volleyball's two graduating Seniors, Alyssa Ortega (Libero, #21) & Ryann Torres (Setter, #14), into the KZSM studio. The 'Cats are fresh off a historic run in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, during which TxSt became the first program since 2014 to sweep their way through a conference tournament as p...

The Rev is solo in the booth this week with no scheduled guest, so he sets the "Way Back Machine" for ca. 2009 in San Marcos, TX, when Sons of Fathers and a bunch of talented other singer-songwriters were burning things up in San Marcos, Austin, and the surrounding Texas Hill Country. The Rev spins prerecorded tracks from Kent Finlay, Sons of Fathers, Paul Cauthen, David Beck's Tejano Weekend, Mar...