our musical mt. rushmore

Ken Hoffman chisels Beyoncé into Houston's musical Mt. Rushmore after her historic Grammy wins — and predicts who's next

By winning her 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 5, Beyoncé became the all-time Grammy champion and cemented her position as Houston’s greatest homegrown treasure.

Beyoncé stands alone for her entertainment and cultural impact. She isn’t just on our Mount Rushmore, she’s an entire mountain range by herself.

Ah, but who’s second on Houston’s musical landscape? (Though it’s a far distant second now — and Beyoncé is far from finished creating new art and performing for millions of fans.)

There are many performers who started here and spread their talents beyond Houston to Texas, the U.S., and the world. The nominees are … and who gets your vote for Vice-Superstar?

Bun B

The rap icon, guest lecturer at Rice University, and Unofficial Mayor of Houston has released five albums, with his debut Trill reaching Top 5 in the U.S. He made history as the first Black male Houstonian to headline the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. His tastiest production? Trill Burgers, coming soon to the old James Coney Island location on South Shepherd and Richmond.

Megan Thee Stallion

The TSU grad has exploded on the scene and burned up the Billboard Hot 100 singles and Hot 200 albums charts in the past two years. Time Magazine included her on its list of 100 Most Influential People in the World. Recorded "Savage" with Beyoncé and "WAP" with Cardi B.

Last year hosted and was musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Won the Grammy for Best New Artist and four American Music Awards.

Lyle Lovett

Recorded 13 albums and 25 singles. “Cowboy Man” reached No. 10 on the country singles chart. Once married to Pretty Woman Julia Roberts. Similar hairstyle to Cosmo Kramer.

ZZ Top

The “Little Ol’ Band from Texas” recorded 15 albums and sold 50 million copies worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Their videos for “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs” were instrumental to MTV’s success in the 1980s. This is amazing, in 1991 the Texas House of Representatives named ZZ Top as “Official Heroes for the State of Texas.”

Kenny Rogers

The Gambler boasts credits like Country music Hall of Fame, 120 singles on various hit charts around the world, more than 100 million records sold, starred in a series of TV movies based on his The Gambler character, co-founded Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants that got the entire cast of Seinfeld hooked on chicken. “It’s the wood that makes it good.” In 1986 a national poll ranked Rogers as the “Greatest Singer of All-Time.”

Johnny Nash

The Houston native wrote, produced and performed “I Can See Clearly Now” in 1972, the first reggae song to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s singles chart.

Michael Nesmith

Original member of The Monkees, one of the biggest acts of the 1960s, wrote “A Different Drum” for the Stone Poneys with lead singer Linda Ronstadt in 1967. Oh, and NBD but, his mother invented Liquid Paper. For real.

Billy Preston

He had solo hit records like “That’s the Way God Planned It,” “Nothing From Nothing,” and “Will It Go Round In Circles.” He co-wrote “You Are So Beautiful” for Joe Cocker. Perhaps best known for being the only person to get credit on a Beatles recording at the Fab Four’s request. The label reads “Get Back by The Beatles with Billy Preston.”

Archie Bell and the Drells

They had a Top 10 single with Tighten Up in 1968. The song opens with, “Hi everybody, I’m Archie Bell of the Drells, from Houston, Texas and we don’t only sing, but we dance just as good as we walk. In Houston we just started a new dance called the Tighten Up.” That’s called representing.

Also receiving consideration:

$Beyonc\u00e9 Grammy Awards 2023$

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Houston's Queen Bey is clearly No. 1 after making Grammy history.

You can make a case for Slim Thug, La Mafia, Machine Gun Kelly, The Geto Boys, Barbara Mandrell, Paul Wall, Destiny’s Child, Travis Scott, and B.J. Thomas.

ask the cm three

Introducing CultureMap Houston's new advice column for navigating life

Photo by A server at 1111

Eric Sandler, Emily Cotton, and Brianna McClane want to give you advice.

Introducing CultureMap Houston’s latest initiative in reader engagement and better living. “Ask the CM Three” is a new advice column from CultureMap city editor Eric Sandler (aka me), home and design contributor Emily Cotton, and jack-of-all-trades writer Brianna McClane.

The premise is simple. Over the last year or so, the three of us have become good friends. We like helping each other think through our problems and feel like readers might appreciate our perspective on how to confront the challenges of life in Houston.

Also, if we’re being honest, advice columns are incredibly fun to read. Being exposed to other people’s problems makes our own difficulties seem a little less onerous. It’s the same sort of schadenfreude that makes articles about restaurant closures so reliably popular.

Sure, readers could submit the obvious stuff (via this Google Form). Ask Sandler for a new restaurant for date night, Cotton for tips on scoping out estate sales, or McClane for how she’s balancing working from home with school being out for the summer. But we’re hoping to be challenged with questions where we disagree — what happens when Sandler’s Gen X indifference runs into McClane and Cotton’s Millennial enthusiasm?

To explain the idea in more detail, the three of us sat down for drinks at Bar Madonna. If the overall tone seems loose, well, we were into at least our second round of cocktails before we turned the recorder on.

Eric Sandler: This was your idea, Brianna — why do you want to start writing an advice column?

Brianna McClane: I've read Dear Abby since I was a child. Since then, I've devoured advice columns from The Washington Post, The New York Times, and plenty of others. My parents are pastors, so I grew up hearing everyone's problems and listening to the advice they gave. Looking back, I think that's one reason I love advice columns.

Even if the advice isn't for you, you can still learn something from it. And if you don't, you're at least getting to enjoy someone else's drama. One of my favorite parts is when advice columns get shared on social media. I'll always scroll through the comments to see what everyone else thinks.

Emily Cotton: I religiously read The Ethicist in The New York Times. It's written by an NYU philosophy professor, and I don't always agree with him, which is part of the fun.

Our parents used to have people over for poker night — or Rook, in my house. We'd be watching "TGIF" or the NBA Finals while our parents played cards with neighbors and coworkers, and we'd overhear who was feuding with whom or which neighbor had a new scandal.

I feel like this current younger generation didn’t get to live like that — they're more apt to be “blue-light-glasses voyeurs.” They're reading it on their phones, whether it's an advice column, Instagram, or Reddit. Maybe this bridges that generational gap. Older people lived it, younger people still want it.

BM: That's a good point. It seems to me that just a few years ago, people were much more likely to ask for opinions and advice on social media. Now it's easy to ask ChatGPT instead. But advice isn't always about finding an answer — sometimes it's about connecting with another person who's been through something similar.

EC: There’s a difference between exchanging knowledge and exchanging opinions. Let's be real specific here. I don't listen to just any knowledge anyone wants to share with me. I want it to be cited. I want it to be somewhat peer reviewed.

ES: I am with you on the New York Times columns, Emily. I'll read Ask a Manager, Work Friend, and Social Q’s pretty regularly.

Houston's a big, complicated city. If you read CultureMap, we'll tell you what's going on, but we don't offer a lot of opinions and we don't really rank things. People know us — or at least feel like they know us — from reading our work. I think there's some curiosity about what we think.

ES: All right, so what kind of questions are we looking for? Do we want relationships? Parenting?

EC: I would say all of the above. At the end of the day, this is about people reaching out to other people. Think of us as your unbiased friends who'll tell you what you need to hear.

----

Got a relationship dilemma? Workplace conflict? Parenting question? Family drama? We want to hear it. Submit your questions anonymously through this Google Form, and Eric, Emily, and Brianna may answer them in an upcoming installment of Ask The CM Three.

q&a media interview advice