My KUTX: Bruce Robison Celebrates ‘Willie Weekend’
Last year, Willie Nelson celebrated his 89th birthday at his Luck, Texas ranch with–what else?–a live show. But this one was extra special: Austin singer-songwriter Bruce Robison–who’s written songs for the Chicks, George Strait, Faith Hill, and Tim McGraw–assembled a night of Willie disciples to fete the man in style with his own songs. Featuring Willie collaborators like Sheryl Crow and Margo Price alongside luminaries like Robert Earl Keen, Nathaniel Rateliff, Shinyribs, and more, the night was recorded and is now getting a release. One Night In Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute To The Red Headed Stranger is out via the Next Waltz, Robison’s own label and recording venture.
This week on My KUTX, Robison joins us again as our guest DJ. He plays songs from the One Night In Texas concert, talks about how it all came together, and includes some of his favorite lesser-known Willie favorites. This Willie Weekend, hear Bruce Robison’s Willie-themed My KUTX on Saturday, April 29 at 6 p.m. or listen anytime here.
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In the Deep End With … Bruce Robison and The Next Waltz’s Willie Nelson Tribute
When Willie Nelson has a birthday, it’s always cause for celebration.
As the revered singer-songwriter marks his 90th birthday this week, homegrown Texas record label and recording studio The Next Waltz has released One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to the Red Headed Stranger, a collection of songs recorded by Nelson’s friends and admirers at a Luck Ranch Celebration concert last year celebrating his 89th.
During the one night in question — May 1, 2022 — Nelson was the guest of honor (as well as a performer) as artists like Robert Earl Keen, Margo Price, Steve Earle, Nathaniel Rateliff, and many more covered songs from his vast catalog.
It was all headed up by Texas singer-songwriter Bruce Robison, who also happens to be The Next Waltz founder and head honcho.
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Q&A: Bruce Robison
Bruce Robison has spent the last seven years in a bunker. Well, not just any old bunker — the Bunker, his analog-centric recording studio in Lockhart, Texas, just south of Austin. That’s where Robison conceived and continues to perfect the Next Waltz, a project equal parts record label, think tank and musical playhouse.
The artist behind songs like “Travelin’ Solder” (taken to No. 1 by the Chicks), “Angry All The Time” (a No. 1 for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill), and “Wrapped” (No. 2 for George Strait), Robison knows his way around a song. After all, he recorded the single best song ever written about Willie Nelson — “What Would Willie Do?” from his Country Sunshine album. So it only made sense that the Next Waltz dedicated its purpose to capturing the most organic elements of the most well-crafted songs.
At its core, the Next Waltz is about artists collaborating on, recording and releasing great music. Now with four LPs of songs from some of country and Americana’s best under its belt, the Next Waltz moves on to a truly special task: honoring the music of Nelson.
Recorded live on an outdoor strange in front of 5,000 people, One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to The Red Headed Stranger (available April 28) is a sprawling tribute to a global icon and one of Robison’s personal heroes. Featuring artists like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen, Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow, Margo Price and more, One Night In Texas is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of album. Which makes the story of how it came together even more unbelievable.
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Song Premiere: Willie and Paula Nelson Duet in “Slow Down Old World”
While plenty of musicians grew up singing Willie Nelson’s songs, only a few can claim they grew up singing them alongside Willie himself. His daughter Paula Nelson is one of them. The Texas-born singer and radio DJ has been harmonizing with her father for as long as she can remember, but each time still feels like magic. So when she and producer Bruce Robison began discussing re-recording a couple of Willie’s most beloved songs—with her father opting to join her—she was all in.
Today, G&G is proud to premiere their version of “Slow Down Old World,” from Willie’s 1973 album, Shotgun Willie. “‘Slow Down Old World’ has always been one of my favorite songs for so many reasons,” Paula says. “The melody is incredibly moving, the lyrics bring out a variety of emotions, and together, they create a song you just can’t get enough of.”
The founder of the label the Next Waltz, which has worked with the likes of the Turnpike Troubadours, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Shakey Graves, Robison recorded the track at his fully analog Bunker studio on the outskirts of Lockhart, Texas. Behind Paula and Willie’s vocals, Willie’s longtime harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, plus a wistful piano and full strings section work together to broaden the song’s emotional range.
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SONG PREMIERE: Vincent Neil Emerson Offers Spirited and Twangy Live Take on Willie Nelson’s “Bloody Mary Morning”
Now, with 2022 coming to a close and the new year just around the corner, Emerson is releasing his spirited rendition of Willie Nelson’s classic drinking tune “Bloody Mary Morning.” Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the tune. Coming just in time for New Year’s Eve celebrations and the hangovers that many of us will be nursing over a bloody mary the next day, Emerson gives keeps his his version of the tune similar but adds a little more Texas twang to it with lively pedal steel. There is also a smoking barroom energy to the tune that may come from the fact that it was recorded live at Luck, TX on May 1, 2022 with an all-star lineup in honor of Willie Nelson’s 89th Birthday. The song is a single from One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to The Red Headed Stranger (The Next Waltz, April 28, 2023), a compilation from the all-star lineup of Texas talent known as The Next Waltz that was produced by Bruce Robison.
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The Next Waltz Releases New Video for Pat Byrne’s “Until It Isn’t”
The Next Waltz has released a new music video for “Until It Isn’t”, the latest single from singer-songwriter Pat Byrne.
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Tony Kamel, Bruce Robison And The ‘Next’ Big Thing From Texas
“I think the best way to describe the Next Waltz (is that) Bruce wants to reinvigorate this thing that old records had,” Kamel says. “He built a studio in Lockhart. It's all analog. There's no computers. He's got some really nice vintage gear and some great sound engineers that know how to run it. I think the whole idea is really to create records the way they used to be created, in that you’re mostly playing live and playing together and capturing full performances, being more open to leaving little idiosyncrasies within the takes, if they feel really good.”
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Daily Discovery: Tony Kamel Conjures Up Coastal Moments In “Slow On The Gulf” From New LP ‘Back Down Home’
Austin-based musician Tony Kamel steps out from behind his Grammy-nominated string band Wood & Wire to present his debut solo album, Back Down Home. Released on September 24 via his producer Bruce Robison’s label The Next Waltz, the 10-track collection captures the serene spirit of life on Texas’ Gulf Coast.
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Premiere: Check Out Tony Kamels New Single, “Heat”
Today we’re delighted to bring you the premiere of the second single from Austin-base singer Tony Kamel for his song “Heat”. The track is off Kamel’s debut solo album, ‘Back Down Home’, which is set to release on September 24 on The Next Waltz, which is the label of Texas legend Bruce Robison.
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Video Premiere: Tony Kamel Steps Out Solo With An “Amen”
For the album, Kamel assembled a remarkable cast of talent in Bruce Robison’s analog Lockhart studio, The Bunker.
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The Next Waltz Is an Analog Record Label for the Digital Age
From Bruce Robison’s studio in Lockhart, the company has worked with some of the biggest stars in Texas country music.
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RS Country Music Picks for the Week of November 30th
Austin eccentric Kevin Russell — d.b.a. Shinyribs — puts a rootsy spin on Rihanna’s groundbreaking 2015 hit “Bitch Better Have My Money” in this live video recorded for Bruce Robison’s analog series The Next Waltz. It’s goofy fun, but has the musical chops — including a left-turn interlude of the Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Runnin'” — to warrant a loud listen. (Bonus points to those who remember Russell’s old band the Gourds’ equally goofy cover of “Gin and Juice.”)
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Wherever We Have To Go: Bruce Robison on The Next Waltz & Finding Great Songs
The Next Waltz is a song-focused, artist-driven music label melding 21st Century innovation with tried-and-true recording methods. Based out of songwriting icon Bruce Robison’s wonderfully analog studio, The Bunker, in Lockhart, TX, the label’s goal is to record the best songs with the greatest musicians while preserving the integrity of both.
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Mike & The Moonpies Release Cover Of Gary Stewart’s “An Empty Glass”
If you’re not on the Mike and the Moonpies bandwagon, get on it.
Between Steak Night at the Prairie Rose, Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold, and the more recently released Gary Stewart tribute album, they’ve continued prove why they’re one of the best bands in all of country music over the past few years.
The fellas were recently down in The Bunker with Bruce Robison, recording some videos for his stellar The Next Waltz project, and although this one didn’t make the record, it’s a Gary Stewart classic.
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Video Premiere: Jack Ingram Celebrates the Little Things on 'Times Like These'
Jack Ingram finds light in dark times on the uplifting "Times Like These," the latest release from Bruce Robison's The Next Waltz series, a web series and multiplatform music delivery concept operated out of Robison's analog studio in Lockhart, Texas.
The song is a reminder of what's really important: family, friends and "big love and simple dreams."
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Video Premiere: Flatland Cavalry Find Hope in Days Ahead on 'War With My Mind'
Among the countless people impacted by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are musicians who've found themselves with months of postponed or canceled tour dates. With that comes anxiety, restlessness and the task of transitioning from life on the road to quiet days at home alone with plenty of time to ponder the uncertain days ahead.
Although Texas band Flatland Cavalry recorded "War With My Mind" for Bruce Robison's The Next Waltz music label long before "self isolation" was a part of our daily vocabulary, the song was born out of feelings that are all too familiar to life in quarantine.
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The Panhandlers Bring West Texas to the World
There’s a record label situated about 30 miles outside Austin, Texas, that has been curating a specific experience for fans for the last few years. Though no one word can capture the mission of The Next Waltz, the experience this label is curating may be best described as, simply, rural. While that word may conjure images of tumbleweeds and cornstalks for some, for Bruce Robison, it’s something much more transcendent.
“The first thing I did was build a fence, then pour a slab, then start hammering nails,” Robison says of how he started The Next Waltz. That sort of work ethic — an ethic that is inherent to rural life — is not only part of the physical foundation of the label and its recording studio, but it’s also part of the fabric of who Robison is and the kind of music he’s drawn to.
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Album Review – “The Panhandlers” (Self-Titled)
It all came together as a proposed tribute to the Flatlanders group from back in the early 70’s (Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock), inspired after watching a Dixie Chicks tribute perform at The Music Fest in Steamboat Springs, CO in early 2019. This escalated into a songwriting session with the respective members in Marfa, TX, and next thing you knew they were recording an album for Bruce Robison’s The Next Waltz outfit.
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The Panhandlers' John Baumann on the Group's Tribute Act Origins [Interview]
Once it became clear that The Panhandlers' debut album would consist of original material and not Flatlanders covers, four songwriters with distinct voices began writing for an album, out March 6 on Bruce Robison's label, The Next Waltz.
"Josh and I wrote the first song at my house one afternoon last summer," Baumann says. "A few weeks later, we took a trip to Marfa, Texas and stayed out there for three nights. We wrote songs, drank beer and had a good time. That's where a bulk of it happened."
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