Joe Nick Patoski
Joe Nick Patoski has been writing about Texas and Texans for four decades. A former cab driver and staff writer for Texas Monthly magazine and one-time reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, he has authored and co-authored biographies of Selena and Stevie Ray Vaughan, collaborated with photographer Laurence Parent on books about the Texas Mountains, the Texas Coast, and Big Bend National Park, all published by University of Texas Press.
His 2008 book Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, published by Little, Brown, was recognized by The Friends of the TCU Library in 2009 with the Texas Book Award for the best book about Texas written in 2007-8. His most recent book for Little, Brown is The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America. The expansive eight hundred page book explains how and why a 1960 expansion franchise in the National Football League became America's Team and the most valuable franchise in sports.
Kirkus Review cited the Cowboys book as one of the ten best football books of the millennium.
Other recent titles include Generations on the Land, published by Texas A&M Press in January 2011, which profiles nine families across the western United States who have been recognized for outstanding stewardship in practicing sustainable farming, ranching, logging, and wine-grape growing; and Texas High School Football: More Than The Game, a catalog of the exhibit he curated for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in 2011, published by the Texas Historical Commission.
Patoski's byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Time Out New York, Garden and Gun, and No Depression magazine, for whom he was a contributing editor. He also recorded the oral histories of B.B. King, Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys of Alabama, Memphis musician and producer Jim Dickinson, Tejano superstar Little Joe Hernandez, and 15 other subjects for the Voice of Civil Rights oral history project sponsored by AARP and the Library of Congress, some of which appeared in the book My Soul Looks Back in Wonder by Juan Williams, published by Sterling in 2004.
Patoski writes about water, land, nature and parks for a number of publications including Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, the Texas Observer, and National Geographic magazine, where his story about the Transboundary Megacorridor of southwest Texas and northern Coahuila and Chihuahua was published in February 2007. He also wrote a four-part series about water fights throughout the Guadalupe River basin for the San Antonio Current.
He is the host of The Texas Music Hour of Power, which airs Saturday nights from 6 to 8 pm on KRTS 93.5 in Marfa, and three other frequencies in Far West Texas, and around the world on MarfaPublicRadio.org
He lives near the village of Wimberley in the Texas Hill Country where he swims and paddles in the Blanco River.
photo: Joe Nick (centre) with Doug Sahm (right) and Augie Myers (left) © Tracy Anne Hart
43 articles
List of articles in the library
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 26 February 1976
Carter Benefit at Astrodome ...
Obituary by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
HOUSTON — DON D. Robey, a leading figure in rhythm & blues and gospel recordings in the Fifties and Sixties, died early Monday, June 16th, ...
Johnny Ace, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Parker: Obituary: Don D. Robey, R&B Pioneer, Dead at 71
Obituary by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
HOUSTON — Don D. Robey, a leading figure in rhythm & blues and gospel recordings in the Fifties and Sixties, died early Monday, June 16th, ...
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978
IF ANYTHING was learned from the 105,000 fans who piled into the Cotton Bowl over the Fourth of July weekend for the two-day Texxas World ...
Butthole Surfers: Feeding the Fish: An Oral History of the Butthole Surfers
Retrospective and Interview by John Morthland, Joe Nick Patoski, Spin, November 1996
CAST OF CHARACTERS Jim Berry Road sound engineer for the Butthole Surfers, 1985-92. Jello Biafra Lead singer of the Dead Kennedys and self-described "absentee thoughtlord" of Alternative Tentacles, ...
The Cate Brothers: Playing the New Southern Sensibility
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1976
DALLAS — While a Memphis band's Beatles mimicry penetrated the thin walls of the clammy locker room in the Electric Ballroom, keyboard player Ernie Cate ...
Ry Cooder, Flaco Jimenez: Flaco Jimenez: In Search Of The Polka-Rock Fusion
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1977
IF THE ACCORDION ever manages to rise from the underground of ethnic music as rock's undiscovered lead instrument, Flaco Jimenez will at long last be ...
Charlie Daniels' Rowdy, Southern, Swinging Music
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 7 October 1976
The 'Uneasy Rider' is no dumb rebel... and he doesn't wear panty hose, either ...
Jim Dickinson: James Luther Dickinson: Free Beer Tomorrow (Artemis)
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Austin Chronicle, 18 October 2002
YOU MAY KNOW Jim Dickinson as the daddy of those North Mississippi All-Stars, producer of the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me, or the guy who ...
Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson: Dylan meets Willie Nelson: Thunder Deep in the Heart of Texas
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 17 June 1976
HOUSTON — It was the Rolling Thunder Revue's second stop here this year, just five months after the less-than-successful Rubin Carter Astrodome benefit, and Bob ...
Joe Ely: Joe Ely (MCA 2242 $6 98; MCA T-2242, tape $7.98)
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Country Music, May 1977
IT MUST be a bit disheartening for an earnest band knocking around Austin for the past two years hoping for a ride on one of ...
Joe Ely, The Flatlanders: Heart Of Texas: Ely's Honky-Tonk Heroics
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Crawdaddy!, April 1979
LUBBOCK, TEXAS — To understand why Joe Ely is the most promising singer/songwriter to come out of Texas since Willie Nelson, one must understand his ...
Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Buddy Holly, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy: The Sons of Buddy Holly
Essay by Joe Nick Patoski, Texas Monthly, November 1978
Lubbock was the birthplace of rock'n'roll. And Texas rock'n'roll hasn't left home. ...
Overview by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, May 1977
THANKS TO the migration of musicians who actually believed Austin's blind boast that it was the new country music capital of the world, the central ...
Freddy Fender: Behind the Scenes: Huey Meaux's bathtub sound
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
HOUSTON — "Y'SEE, the Big Bopper needed a flip side to 'The Witch Doctor Meets the Flying Purple People Eater', so he wrote this tune ...
Freddy Fender's Tex-Mex 'Teardrop'
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
AUSTIN — "RIGHT ON, Cacheton," an orange-suited Freddy Fender drawled to a Western-attired onlooker at the El Paso Cattle Co., a steel building that was ...
Freddy Fender, Tommy McLain, Doug Sahm: Freddy Fender's Easter: Vaya Con Dios Y'All
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 3 June 1976
SAN BENITO, Texas — With all the baby kissing, long-winded speechmaking and high school cheerleading, not to mention the Jimmy Carter Spanish-language leaflets flapping in ...
Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm: Viva Tex Mex... Viva MD 20/20... Viva Freddy Fender!
Report and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Zoo World, 6 June 1974
"...and Freddy Fender is probably still down in Nuevo Laredo waiting to turn the world on — wonder if Sir Doug's found him yet?" ...
Blaze Foley: The Fall and Rise of Blaze Foley
Retrospective by Joe Nick Patoski, No Depression, September 2006
THE BLACK GRANITE headstone is lost among the other markers in the Live Oak Cemetery in deep South Austin. Several small objects including a small ...
Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, December 1976
NEW ORLEANS — Maintaining two separate personalities and record labels for his band Parliament/Funkadelic has been an act of schizophrenic genius on the part of ...
Mickey Gilley: Mickey Gilley (Crazy Cajun CCLP-1006 $5.98 — no tape available)
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Country Music, February 1976
TOO OFTEN, reissues are nothing but inferior products hitching a ride on the current success of a performer. Only on rare occasions do reissues reveal ...
Buddy Holly: Various Artists: Stay All Night – Buddy Holly's Country Roots
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, West Texas Roots, July 2004
BUDDY HOLLY took the world by storm when he broke out of Lubbock, Texas in 1957. His singing and playing was the freshest version of ...
James Luther Dickinson: Free Beer Tomorrow (Artemis)
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Austin Chronicle, 18 October 2002
YOU MAY KNOW Jim Dickinson as the daddy of those North Mississippi All-Stars, producer of the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me, or the guy who ...
George Jones: Keeping Up With Jones
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, AARP The Magazine, July 2006
FLUFFY, HOT BISCUITS, fresh out of the oven and smothered with redeye gravy, with a thick slab of smoked ham on the side, are a ...
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Harp, September 2004
WHEN IT COMES to defining American music over the past quarter century, no band comes close to Los Lobos. ...
Willie Nelson: Paul English: Watching Willie's Back
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Oxford American, 13 Winter 2014
PAUL ENGLISH was talking about breaking someone's legs, cheerily using the threat as a means to get to the punch line of a story. The ...
Book Excerpt by Joe Nick Patoski, Austin Chronicle, 25 April 2008
This is an excerpt from Joe Nick's biography Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, published by Little, Brown and Co. ...
Willie Nelson: The Emperor of Austin
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Zoo World, 18 July 1974
"I WAS LIVING in Nashville," Willie Nelson recalls. "I had just written a song called 'What Can You Do To Me Now?' and the next ...
Willis Alan Ramsey: The Follow-Up
Retrospective and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, NPR, 9 April 2018
The price of perfection is cheap, if that's all you spend your money on. ...
Jimmy Reed, Emancipator of the South: An Oral History
Retrospective and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Blues Access, Summer 2000
IT BEGINS WITH the discovery of a black-and-white photograph dated 1961. The setting is Walker's Auditorium, a chitlin' circuit showcase for touring black musicians in ...
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Creem, February 1979
Ride, Mush You Rushkies ...
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Harp, May 2005
"I'M A FRUSTRATED writer," Tom Russell confessed to me a couple of years ago. ...
Doug Sahm: Tornado Warnings From Texas
Report and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Zoo World, 12 September 1974
"We... can play all the music" Doug Sahm says flatly of the veteran Southwestern aggregation he is taking on the road ...
Special Feature by Joe Nick Patoski, Texas Music, May 1995
Selena Quintanilla Perez, tejano's first superstar, was about to become an international pop sensation. Instead, she's another victim of gun violence in Texas. ...
Toots & The Maytals: Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas
Live Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, January 1976
DESPITE THIS city's reputation as a comfy little haven for country and progressive-country backwoods folksiness, its music audiences — at least in relation to the ...
Allen Toussaint Listens to New Orleans
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977
NEW ORLEANS — Allen Toussaint is the Crescent City's premier composer/producer, and his success behind the scenes is obvious: he's written ten gold records and produced ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: SRV
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Texas Monthly, November 2000
SRV BREAKS OUT of the gate with Little Stevie Vaughan before he was Stevie Ray. A member of Paul Ray and the Cobras, the kid's ...
The West Side Horns: West Side Horns: San Quilmas (Dialtone)
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Austin Chronicle, 13 September 2002
WITHIN THE FIRST few bars of 'Rainbow Riot', the opening track of the West Side Horns' San Quilmas, three great revelations came to me while ...
Barry White: Limitless Love — The Maestro's Message
Report and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Zoo World, 2 January 1975
"ISAAC HAYES? I defend him now," Barry White smiles confidently in his dressing room, Chivas in hand, dragging on his Benson-Hedges menthol. "People started to ...
ZZ Top: Deguello (Warner Bros.)
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Creem, April 1980
FIRST TIME I heard "that lil' ole band from Texas" ZZ Top in the flesh was some five years ago in a football stadium where ...
List of genre pieces
Armadillo World Headquarters: Uptown At The "Dillo"
Report and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Zoo World, 26 September 1974
JIM FRANKLIN stood on the stage of the Armadillo World Headquarters wearing his Armadillo helmet, holding a female mannikin's leg and doing a little history ...
Report by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1978
YOU CAN BUY six-packs of beer at the gas station, find a good poker game most any night and, some say, even play slot machines ...
Margaret Moser: Queen Of Austin, Is Dancing In The Light
Report and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, NPR, 22 June 2017
JUNE 18 WAS the beginning of a week-long Open House at Tex Pop, the South Texas Museum of Popular Culture — a storefront wedged between ...
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