05/13/2026
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KPFK Film Club Review: TEXAS MUSIC REVOLUTION
There’s a joke that’s said to be told backstage in Texas music venues, and on the airwaves of Texas radio…
“A slick corporate record executive from Nashville travels to a dusty Texas honky-tonk to scout an old-school outlaw country singer. After the set, the executive walks up to the musician and says, ‘Your sound is too rough around the edges, your lyrics are too stubborn, and you aren't following any of our mainstream radio rules. If you want to make it big, you need to let us polish your image.’
The Texan takes a sip of his beer, points to the crowded, rowdy dance floor, and says, ‘Son, those folks aren't here to look at a polished image. They're here to dance on sawdust. If I wanted to follow rules, I'd have gotten a real job.’"
This is by way of saying that Troy Paff’s 2023 documentary, TEXAS MUSIC REVOLUTION (TMR), prefers raw and scruffy music and musicians over anything that’s overproduced, slick and smooth.
TMR’s subject is Texas roots music, a blended concoction of Waylon Jennings’ and Willie Nelson’s traditional outlaw country, with folk, blues, and rock. There’s also a bit of folk and Americana (à la Townes Van Zandt & Guy Clark), Cosmic Cowboy (Jerry Jeff Walker & Michael Martin Murphey), and “Red Dirt Music” (Bob Childers.) Throw in doses of honkytonk, southern rock, and western swing, and you’re kind of in the ballpark.
Paff uses the lens of indie radio station KHYI FM’s (95.3 The Range) dedication to this sound, and its struggles to revive live performances of country music in the wake of the COVID pandemic. Though the film documents the 2021 Silver Anniversary of the TMR Festival, the current release of the film also serves to promote the upcoming 30th edition of the festival that’s slated to occur in June 2026. A nine-city tour of the film, starting April 2026, serves as a festival prelude. This features live guest appearances, and, in some instances, other thematic perks.
The film showcases the storytelling, grit, swagger, and drive of the music that was performed in 2021. Artists included Charley Crockett, Joshua Ray Walker, Kiefer Sutherland, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Tony Villanueva & The Derailers, and Zane Williams & Ottoman Turks. Other acts that have stormed TMR stages in the past have included Kacey Musgraves, Ryan Bingham, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Asleep at the Wheel, Robert Earl Keen, Turnpike Troubadours, Shane Smith & The Saints, Whiskey Myers, Pat Green, Jack Ingram, and hundreds more.
The film’s main “storyteller” is the Range’s GM, and the TMR Festival founder and executive producer, Joshua Jones (he’s also one of the film’s producers). Jones was instrumental in turning KHYI into the first 24-hour commercial Americana radio station in the U.S. in 1997. The station became famous for forswearing slicker “Nashville” country formats for raw, unpolished, indie roots Texas music.
The challenges and hardships of putting on the 2021 25th Anniversary TMR provide the film with its “show must go on” drive. Putting on a huge public festival (“90 bands, 20 stages”) in 2021 was a bold, risky venture given the public’s fear of getting COVID, artist availability, and skyrocketing infrastructure costs. The Texas skies proved to be another hurdle—sudden, severe thunderstorms caused potentially lethal lightning strikes and flooding downpours which threatened the artists, stages, and concertgoers in downtown McKinney. Damage, injury, and financial ruin crouched in the wings. This venture, which reputedly had no “Plan B”, had to suddenly come up with one, and that plan had to involve both the festival’s crew, the city itself, and the cooperation of dedicated Texas fans. What they all finally came up with was legendary, and a powerful example of Texan resilience.
One might ask, “Is the true Texas country sound” music that’s worth risking your life for?” Some, certainly, are likely to say yes. You, however, can decide for yourself, after enjoying the rousing TEXAS MUSIC REVOLUTION. Although the film convincingly sings the praises of the unique experience of live music, you can also tune in to The Range to get an idea of the genre before catching the film (The Range streams online 24/7 at https://khyi.com/ ). Then afterwards, there’s also the upcoming 30th annual TMR festival scheduled for June 5-6, 2026, across multiple stages and local venues in Historic Downtown McKinney, Texas. As with the festival in the film, it may be a chance to boogie with a beer in one hand, with the other fist raised in defiance to the vast, sweltering, tumultuous Texas skies.
The TEXAS MUSIC REVOLUTION takes over the Laemmle NoHo May 18; enjoy a special event screening introduced by first-time feature filmmaker and Emmy-nom Troy Paff!
Get more info: https://tmrfest.com/documentary
Enjoy the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdGMSkryjYM&t=5s
