CMT Music Awards announce nominees for first-ever Austin show

country moves south

Photo courtesy of Charley Crockett

Austin’s pride for local musicians runs deep, and festivals bring the really big names the city can’t claim; One thing the city is fairly new at is hosting national award shows, and the fan-voted CMT Music Awards give Austin a chance to participate in the shmaltz while leaning into its country side. The ceremony is scheduled for April 2 at Moody Center, hosted by 2023 nominees Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini and airing live on CBS.

This is the first year in the award ceremony’s 56-year history that it will be held in Austin, rather than Nashville where Country Music Television (CMT) is based. Ballerini announced the change at Moody Center while one of country music’s top talents, Carrie Underwood, was performing a sold-out show.

Underwood is the most awarded artist in the history of the awards, carrying a total of 25 wins, and will perform at the ceremony. She is nominated for two awards in 2023, for Video of the Year (“Hate My Heart”) and Female Video of the Year (“Ghost Story”).

In the same two categories, 2022 Breakout Artist of the Year Lainey Wilson holds nominations (“wait in the truck” and “Heart Like A Truck,” respectively), plus two more in Collaborative Video of the Year and CMT Performance of the Year. This collection of four nominations puts Wilson in the spotlight as the most-nominated performer of 2023, followed by former small-town Texan Cody Johnson, first-time nominee Jelly Roll, and co-host Kane Brown, with three each.

New in 2023 is the distinction between Male and Female Breakthrough Video of the Year, expanding the categories to 12 acts total. This means seven out of the nine categories are music video-based, with the remaining two representing performances on the network or its social media channels.

One Austin-based performer stands out among the 21 first-time nominees: Charley Crockett has been making a name locally, beyond the usual confines for country music, appearing both at Austin City Limits Festival and debuting on Austin City Limits Live in 2022. He also won Musician of the Year and Best Country at the Austin Music Awards the same year.

Another Austin breakout of the past few years, Black Pumas, receives a nomination along with other non-Country acts (including Katy Perry, with her first nomination since 2015).

See all the nominees and vote at vote.cmt.com. Tickets are on sale now at moodycenteratx.com. Tune in live at 7 pm on CBS, or stream on demand on Paramount+.

Photo by Tessa Kolodny

Hill Country town puts a Texas twist on Carnival season for 18th annual Cowboy Mardi Gras

Cowboy Mardi Gras

New Orleans may be top of mind for Mardi Gras, but Texas has its fair share of Fat Tuesday festivities. While Galveston's may be the state's oldest celebration and San Antonio wins points for actual floats (courtesy of the River Walk), one little Hill Country town has put its own spin on the annual event for almost twenty years.

Known as the "Cowboy Capital of the World," Bandera hosts a three-day Cowboy Mardi Gras that attracts over 15 thousand people from all over the world to the town of 839 residents. Featuring traditional cajun bands, country music, a Cowboy Mardi Gras parade, costume contests, gumbo cook-off, and more, the 2023 iteration takes place from February 9 to 11.

Bandera is located a little over two hours from Austin, a pleasant trek for those looking for a colorful start to Carnival season. This year's event honors James and Stella McGroarty, former owners of Bandera's 11th Cowboy Bar, who will act as the 2023 Cowboy Mardi Gras Parade Grand Marshals.

With a 20,000 square foot bar and 70-foot stage, the bar is one of the largest music venues in the Texas Hill Country, housed in a historic wood-framed building with a porch out front and expansive outdoor venue area out back. James McGroarty acquired the bar in 2006, transforming it into the destination it is today and elevating the town's annual Cowboy Mardi Gras Parade to the party it is today.

In July 2022, D. Foster, Melinie Ivey, and Richard and Sasha Sutton purchased the bar from McGroarty, planning to carry on McGroarty's legacy.

"We are so honored to take on the tradition of the 18th Annual Cowboy Mardi Gras Parade," says Richard Sutton in a release. "Bandera is a remarkable town that knows how to throw one hell of a party and we're looking to carry on that tradition."

“James McGroarty has said that 11th Street Cowboy Bar is all about providing the best Country Western music experience in Texas and sharing drinks with good friends," adds D. Foster. "He wanted to make all things in Bandera bigger than life. This is why we bought the bar and we want to carry on James McGroarty's legacy."

This year's lineup of live music will feature a variety of artists including Deanna Carter, Gary P. Nunn, Dale Watson, Jake Worthington, and many more. Find a full lineup of music and daily activities at cowboymardigrasbandera.com, as well as ticketing information. Tickets for the festivities start at $75 in advance or $85 at the door.

Photo by Tessa Kolodny

The three day celebration brings over 15 thousand people from all over the world to Bandera.

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Rodney Terry named Longhorn basketball head coach after successful March Madness run

Interim no more

Rodney Terry’s wait has finally ended. And on his birthday, no less.

The erstwhile “interim” head coach of the Texas Longhorns’ men’s basketball team has officially been tabbed to run the program just one day after his club was eliminated from the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament. He’s set to sign a five-year contract worth $3 million per season and will be formally introduced at a press conference on Tuesday, March 28.

Terry began the season as an assistant under then head coach Chris Beard before the latter was suspended by the university after being arrested for assault of his fiancée back in December 2022. Once the Angleton native ascended to the helm, he provided a steadying presence in guiding a talented team to a 16-7 record over the remainder of the regular season en route to a second-place finish in the Big 12, with all but two of the losses coming against top-25 opponents.

During that stretch, many began to wonder when he would be officially promoted to head coach, and the outcry only grew as The Sporting News named Terry its “Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year” on March 8 before the Longhorns proceeded to run the table in the conference tournament. The Horns’ deepest March Madness run in 15 years only solidified the Terry’s hold on the job. While Texas’ athletic director Chris Del Conte has a policy of not negotiating coaching contracts during the season, he wasted no time in removing the “interim” tag from Terry’s title once the season concluded.

The 55-year-old has spent much of his life in Austin. He played his college ball at St. Edward’s University before beginning his coaching career as an assistant there in 1990. He would serve as the head coach at James Bowie High School for the following three years. The coaching carousel would land him at several other stops before bringing him back to UT Austin as an assistant to Rick Barnes from 2002 to 2011. Terry departed to head up the Fresno State and UTEP programs over the next decade before returning to UT Austin as an assistant in 2021.

This time, he’s looking to stay a while.

4 new library branches could be in the books after Austin City Council adopts new plan

EXPANDING AUSTIN LITERACY

This is a dream come true for Austin bookworms. The Austin Public Library system could be seeing a huge expansion with the recent adoption of a plan by Austin City Council.

The Austin Public Library Comprehensive Library Strategic and Facilities Plan creates new goals for the library system that includes expanding current branches and constructing new ones. With the ever-growing population in the city, the “library square foot per capita” has fallen behind neighboring cities. The facilities plan addresses this growth disparity by proposing four new library branches in addition to expanding, replacing, or relocating over half of the pre-existing branches.

Austin Public Library Director Roosevelt Weeks said in a press release that this new plan will allow the library system to continue providing necessary creative and learning resources to all community members.

“Five and a half years ago, Austin opened a new world-class Central Library in downtown, and that building remains the crown jewel of the city,” he said. “However, our neighborhoods deserve world-class library facilities too. The plan adopted by the City Council today lays out a vision for growing and updating our entire library system to meet the needs of the rapidly changing, dynamic city we serve.”

The Strategic and Facilities Plan was a year in the making, thanks to plenty of community outreach tactics. Successful methods included a survey that received over 5,400 responses, several pop-up events throughout Austin, and “listening sessions” with library staff and stakeholders.

The plan also introduces new mission and vision statements for the library, as well as five community-based strategic goals. The new library mission statement is: “Inspiring all to discover, learn, and create” and the new vision is to be “a model of equity, inclusion, access, and diversity.”

The five strategic goals include:

Provide community-centric programs and services
Design and develop spaces for community connections
Foster stakeholder relationships
Expand library access
Engage staff

“On behalf of everyone at the Austin Public Library, I am excited that the Council has adopted this vision for the future of our community’s libraries,” said Weeks.

More information about the Strategic and Facilities Plan can be found on the Austin Public Library’s website.

Texas rises through the ranks of most innovative states, says new report

MOVING ON UP

The Lone Star State has again taken a step up on an annual report that ranks the most and least innovative states in the country — this time cracking the top 15.

Texas ranked No. 15 in personal finance site WalletHub's 2023’s Most and Least Innovative States ranking. It's a steady improvement for the state, which ranked No. 16 in 2022 and No. 17 in 2021.

The report analyzed the 50 states and the District of Columbia and how each performed across 22 key metrics, including population of STEM professionals, venture capital investment activity, number of technology companies, patents per capita, and more. The data was pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Science Foundation, National Center for Education Statistics, United States Patent and Trademark Office, and other records.

Here's how Texas performed at a glance:

No. 18 – for share of STEM professionals
No. 16 – for projected STEM job demand by 2030
No. 25 – for eighth grade math and science performance
No. 21 – for share of science and engineering graduates aged 25 or older
No. 13 – for share of technology companies
No. 31 – for R&D spending per capita
No. 18 – venture capital funding per capita

For the 11th year, Texas won Site Selection Magazine's Governor's Cup, the governor's office announced earlier this year. The award, which Texas has won 19 times since its inception in 1978, recognizes the nation’s top-performing state for job-creating business relocations and expansions.

"Texas truly is America’s economic engine, and we stand apart as a model for the nation. When choosing where to relocate or expand their businesses, more and more innovative industry leaders find themselves at home in our state," Governor Greg Abbott says in a news release about the award.

"I congratulate the exceptional economic development teams at the local, regional, and state level who have worked so diligently to attract and retain these growing businesses and the jobs they create in diverse communities across this great state," he continues.

The most innovative states included the District of Columbia, which ranked at No. 1, followed by Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, and California, respectively. The least innovative state was identified as Mississippi, followed by Louisiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Arkansas, respectively.

Source: WalletHub

Access to quality education is a significant contributor to each state's innovation economy, the experts say in the report.

"Investing in education, particularly K-12 but also at the University level, it is no accident that innovative ecosystems develop in states with strong education systems and research universities," says David L. Deeds, professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. "These institutions build strong capable modern workforces that attract capital, and jobs and create innovations. The benefits do not happen overnight, in fact, they take years if not decades, but consider what The UC’s or the University of Texas at Austin have meant for the development of premier innovative ecosystems."

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