Lubbock, Texas

Everything Lubbock is known for

64 songs mention this city 83 artists from here

Lubbock, Texas, a city etched into the West Texas plains, resonates with a rich and diverse musical heritage. The city's sonic story began in the mid-20th century, and while many genres have found a home here, it is most notably known as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll icon Buddy Holly. Holly's meteoric rise in the late 1950s cemented Lubbock's place in rock history. The genres of country and western also began to flourish in the honky-tonks and dance halls of the era.

The Americana music scene has grown steadily over the years with artists like Ray Wylie Hubbard and Amanda Shires finding their voice here. More recently, Lubbock has become a vital hub for Texas country and Red Dirt music. Bands like Flatland Cavalry, Pecos & The Rooftops, and the Josh Abbott Band have risen to prominence, drawing inspiration from the landscape and culture of the region. While Lubbock’s sonic landscape is vast, it is clear that country and rock have been the most influential genres in the city’s musical evolution.

Music in Lubbock

Songs About Lubbock

Happiness Is Lubbock Texas in My Rearview Mirror
Mac Davis
95%
"Happiness is Lubbock Texas in my rearview mirror"
Victory Bells
Josh Abbott Band
85%
"Fight Raiders, fight For the school we love so dearly Long live the Matador"
Lubbock
Flatland Cavalry
83%
"Nothing like a little bit of Lubbock to get me high"
Lubbock Woman
Terry Allen
82%
"She's a Lubbock woman, she's a Lubbock woman"
Lonely Lubbock Lights
Aaron Watson
81%
"Just those lonely Lubbock lights"
Lubbock or Leave It
The Chicks
81%
"Lubbock or Leave It"
Don’t Stop in Lubbock
Conner Stephens
80%
"Don't stop in Lubbock"
Lubbock
Zach Aaron
80%
"Song about Lubbock"
Lubbock (Commentary)
Flatland Cavalry
80%
"Song about Lubbock"
Lubbock
Anna Butterss
80%
"Song about Lubbock"
downey to lubbock
dave alvin & jimmie dale gilmore
79%
Whole Lotta Lubbock
William Clark Green
78%
"Still gotta whole lotta Lubbock left in me"
Oh, Boy!
Buddy Holly
70%
"Buddy Holly"
Oh Boy!
Buddy Holly
65%
Texas In My Rear View Mirror
Mac Davis
55%
"And when I die you can bury me In Lubbock, Texas, in my jeans"
Traveler’s Song
Flatland Cavalry
55%
"Found myself stuck in Lubbock playin' my songs for free"
Bullet in My .45
casper allen
55%
"A cousin out in Lubbock"
7 Letters
Austin Meade
54%
"She's the queen of the Lubbock bar scene"
Two Way Drive
Hudson Westbrook
54%
"I've been in Lubbock for a little bit of time"
If Dirt Were Dollars
Don Henley
54%
"I was flyin' back from Lubbock"

Showing top 20 of 64 songs

Artists From Lubbock

B
Buddy Holly
rock Pop: 85
F
Flatland Cavalry
country Pop: 64
J
Joe Ely
country Pop: 62
P
Pecos & The Rooftops
country Pop: 57
A
Andy Hedges
country Pop: 55
J
Jake Brooks & The Techsans Roadhouse Band
country Pop: 55
J
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
country Pop: 55
M
Mason & the Gin Line
country Pop: 55
R
Ross Cooper
country Pop: 55
T
Terry Allen
country Pop: 55
T
The Crickets
rock Pop: 52
A
Amanda Shires
americana Pop: 50
B
Butch Hancock
country Pop: 50
J
Josh Abbott Band
country Pop: 50
T
The Panhandlers
country Pop: 44
R
Rod Taylor
country Pop: 43
D
Delbert McClinton
blues Pop: 42
N
Natalie Maines
country Pop: 41
M
Mac Davis
country Pop: 38
A
Angela Strehli
blues Pop: 37

Showing top 20 of 83 artists

History of Lubbock

Grading Cotton by Machine RoadyGoat

Not all cotton is equal, so before it is sold it gets classed, which means graded for quality. Classers look at a handful of key traits. Staple length is how long the fibers are; longer fibers spin into finer, stronger thread. Strength is how much pull a bundle can take before it breaks. Color matters too, since buyers want clean, bright fiber. And then there is micronaire, a wonderful word that measures two things at once: how fine the fiber is and how mature it is, all in a single reading. Doing this by hand would take forever, so today a machine called an HVI, short for High Volume Instrument, measures all of these traits in seconds. It is fast enough that the USDA classes well over ten million bales' worth of samples in a typical year. Lubbock sits at the center of this science, and Texas Tech's Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute, the FBRI, is a major hub for studying cotton quality and pushing the testing forward.

The Biggest Cotton Patch in the World RoadyGoat

Look out at the flat land around Lubbock and you are looking at what is often called the largest contiguous cotton patch in the world. Contiguous is the key word: it means one huge, unbroken stretch, mile after mile of cotton country with no big gap in the middle. Plenty of places grow cotton, but few grow it shoulder to shoulder across the High Plains the way this region does. And it adds up. Texas is the top cotton-producing state in the entire United States, growing roughly a third of the national crop in a typical year, and more in some years. That is an astonishing share for one state. The reasons are the wide open land, the sunny climate, and a long history of farmers who learned to coax fiber out of a tough, semi-dry plateau. So when you see those rows running clear to the horizon, that is not just a pretty view. That is one of the great agricultural engines of the country, and it starts right here under the West Texas sky.

Every Cotton Fiber Is a Single Cell RoadyGoat

Here is something wild about the cotton growing all around you. A single cotton fiber, the kind that gets spun into your shirt, is actually one single plant cell. Just one. It grows straight out of the coat of the cotton seed and stretches into an incredibly long, thin strand, one of the longest single cells found anywhere in nature. And it is almost pure cellulose, the same tough material that makes up the walls of plants. But the real magic is what happens when it dries. As the fiber loses water it collapses and twists, curling into tiny natural spirals, like a microscopic phone cord. Those twists are everything. When you gather thousands of fibers and pull them together, the spirals catch and grip one another, so the fibers cling and lock instead of sliding apart. That grip is exactly what lets them be spun into strong, continuous thread, and thread is what becomes cloth. So a soft cotton t-shirt really begins as billions of single cells, each one twisted just right to hold on tight.

Holley, Charles Hardin [Buddy Holly]

1957

Buddy Holly, rock-and-roll pioneer, was born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas. He was the youngest of four children of Lawrence and Ella (Drake) Holley. His father worked as a tailor and salesman in a Lubbock clothing store, and though Lawrence Holley did not play an instrument himself, he and his wife encouraged the musical talents of their children. Buddy made his debut at the age of five, when he appeared with his brothers in a talent show in nearby County Line and won five dollars for his rendition of "Down the River of Memories." At eleven he took piano lessons and proved to be an apt pupil, but quit after only nine months. After briefly studying the steel guitar, he picked up the acoustic guitar and taught himself to play. At Hutchinson Junior High School he befriended Bob Montgomery; the two formed a duo that performed country and what eventually was called rock-and-roll music. In fall 1953 Holly, Montgomery, and bass player Larry Welborn earned a regular spot on Lubbock radio station KDAV's Sunday Party program. While attending Lubbock High School, Holly studied printing and drafting and worked part-time at Panhandle Steel Products. He apparently never doubted, however, that he would become a professional musician. In 1954 and 1955 he, Montgomery, and Welborn made a few demonstration recordings in Wichita Falls and hoped to land a recording contract, but in 1956 Decca offered Holly a solo contract. Decca was well-known as a country-and-western label and tried unsuccessfully to fit Holly into the country mold. After releasing two unsuccessful singles the company terminated Holly's contract. Buddy returned to Lubbock and was still determined to make it big in the music business. In February 1957 he, Welborn (who was soon replaced by Joe B. Mauldin), drummer Jerry Allison, and guitarist Niki Sullivan went to independent producer Norman Petty 's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, and adopted the name the Crickets . From this point Holly's career took off. Brunswick Records signed the Crickets, while Holly signed a solo contract with Brunswick's Coral subsidiary. The records put out under the Crickets' name had backing vocals, while those put out under Holly's name, with the exception of "Rave On," did not. The arrangement made no difference in their recording technique. All of the records included Holly's unmistakable vocal style, which incorporated hiccups, nonsense syllables, a wide range, and abrupt changes of pitch, and was described by one critic as playfully ironic and childlike. The first Crickets single, "That'll Be the Day," backed with "I'm Looking for Someone to Love," was released on Brunswick Records on May 27, 1957. The record eventually reached Number 3 on the pop charts and Number 2 on the rhythm-and-blues charts. At first many listeners assumed that Holly and his band were black. In July 1957, when the Crickets flew east, they discovered that they had been booked on various package tours with black artists at such theaters as the Apollo in New York and the Howard in Washington, D.C. Their reception at the Apollo was chilly, until they launched the third day's show with a wild version of "Bo Diddley." The next few months were busy ones for Holly and his band. They appeared on television on American Bandstand , The Arthur Murray Dance Party , and The Ed Sullivan Show and on a number of package tours and concert bills with some of the most famous rock-and-rollers of the day. In late December, Holly's second solo single, "Peggy Sue," backed with "Everyday," reached Number 3 on the pop and R&B charts. The Crickets' second single, "Oh Boy!," backed with "Not Fade Away," was released in October 1957 and sold close to a million copies. Niki Sullivan quit the band, and over the next few months the Crickets toured Australia, Florida, and Great Britain as a trio before Holly asked Tommy Allsup to join as lead guitarist of the group. Their third single, "Maybe Baby," backed with "Tell Me How,"

Tsha Handbook →

Buddy Holly Center

1936

Lubbock native Charles Hardin Holley (Buddy Holly) pioneered rock and roll before dying in a plane crash at age 22.

Historical Marker →

Cotton Club

1938

The Cotton Club was a ballroom, concert arena, and dance hall in Lubbock, Texas. It was a venue for big bands, country and western performers, rock-and-roll artists, and all musicians who fell in between. Beyond being the venue for the popular artists of the time, the club interacted with the local community in various ways—from hosting the Junior Welfare League’s Charity Ball in 1946 to being Lubbock’s first, and for many years only, integrated dance hall. With such a diverse level of community involvement, the Cotton Club engaged and influenced both the Lubbock community and the larger South Plains region. The Lubbock Cotton Club, which had no connection to a more famous Harlem version in New York City, took its name from the region’s chief agricultural output. The original club, located on 50th Street and Railroad Avenue (present-day Southeast Drive) in a renovated Army Quonset hut, opened on November, 11, 1938. The first performers were Adelle Kastle and Frank “Deacon” Murino and his Men about Town. The club, established to appeal to Lubbock’s “high society” by hosting well-known orchestras and big bands, flourished. By the mid-1940s the club owners began booking country and western acts. According to former Cotton Club owner, Tommy Hancock, the change in musicians was due to the lack of enough “classy” people in Lubbock to support a 1,400-capacity club. Thus the owners began booking other artists. Owners knew they could bring in more cowboys to see Hank Williams rather than Jack Teagarden or Al Donahue. Ray Terry and his Pioneer Playboys, Tex Ritter , and the Maddox Brothers with Rose were some of the other headlining performers. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were Friday night regulars at the club from 1953 through 1955. In the mid-1950s the Cotton Club became a hub for rock-and-roll music . Elvis Presley performed at the Cotton Club on numerous occasions in 1955. In attendance at Presley’s performances was a local Lubbock musician, Buddy Holly , who met with Presley and was influenced by his style of music. Other rock-and-roll musicians played through the 1950s, including Little Richard, Fats Domino and Roy Orbison . In 1962 the club burned. Owner Ralph Lowe chose not to rebuild. Tommy Hancock and wife, Charlene Condray Hancock, both well-known musicians in the Lubbock area, asked Ralph Lowe for the club’s sign and for permission to start a new Cotton Club. The Hancocks built a new Cotton Club along the Slaton Highway (U.S. Highway 84), about fourteen miles from downtown Lubbock. The Hancocks reopened the Cotton Club in 1965, but like its predecessor, it became victim in 1966 to fire. In 1967, after the new building was complete, the Hancocks reopened the famous dance hall. The new Cotton Club was located on the site of the second incarnation. The late 1960s started a new trend at the Cotton Club. The “hippie generation” emerged in Lubbock and frequented the club. The cowboys, however, also continued to go to the club because Hancock and his band continued to play classic country and western dance music. Surprisingly the cowboys and the alternative crowd got along well, and few fights broke out between the two groups which was very unusual for the usually rough club. Johnny Hughes, along with many others, credits the peaceful union to Tommy Hancock and the atmosphere he created at the club. “The hippies and bikers and the Unitarians and the college students could coexist and there was no fighting. It was all because of Tommy Hancock. He was doing the thing Willie got known for in Austin—peaceful coexistence.” The 1970s saw a continual trend away from country and western music to a more alternative sound. Artists such as Waylon Jennings and the Maines Brothers replaced Bob Wills and Hank Thompson . By 1978 the Hancocks had grown tired of the club business and chose to sell the club to Joe Ely and C.B. Stubblefield . Ely and Stubblefield did not own the club for long, but they were able to book rising artists of the era

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Stubblefield, Christopher B., Sr.

1968

Christopher B. Stubblefield, Sr., Lubbock restaurateur and music patron, was born in Navasota, Texas, on March 7, 1931. He was the son of Christopher Columbus and Mary Stubblefield. Stubblefield, known as "C.B.," "Stubb," or "Stubbs," loved music and people. He also loved to cook. "I want to feed the world" was one of his favorite lines. When he opened Stubb's Bar-B-Q in Lubbock in 1968, his special blend of barbecue, music, and charisma attracted local and major musicians, and his rickety barbecue shack became the center of Lubbock's live music scene. Stubb's father was a Baptist preacher. After the family moved to Lubbock in the 1930s, Stubb spent his youth picking cotton and working in local hotels and restaurants. In 1947 he married Cleola Ruth Harris; the couple had three children. Stubb spent several years in the United States Army. As a gunner in the all-black Ninety-sixth Field Artillery during the Korean War (1950-53), he was wounded twice. His army career also foreshadowed his later life: he cooked, played music over the field radio to entertain his buddies in the trenches, and supervised food preparation for thousands of soldiers. After being discharged, Stubb returned to Lubbock and bought a small, dilapidated building at 108 East Broadway. He hung signs reading "There Will Be No Bad Talk or Loud Talk in this Place" and loaded the corner jukebox with his favorite music, the blues . He made his own special sauce and, clad in overalls and a cowboy hat, tied a white apron around his 6½-foot frame and smoked chicken, ribs, beef brisket, and sausage in a hickory pit outside the back door. When guitarist Jesse Taylor recognized the potential for a music venue in Stubb's quaint establishment, he talked Stubb into letting him build a stage. To the stage the young West Texas talent came: Taylor, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Terry Allen, Butch Hancock, and others. Many played their first gigs at Stubb's. Although Stubb couldn't pay them (they played for tips), he nurtured them with kindness and encouragement, along with heaping plates of barbecue and sides and sometimes a bed for the night. Stubb's Bar-B-Q became a musicians' hangout where Sunday night jam sessions became a tradition. The well-known to the unknown, performers of blues, rock , country or folk -all were welcome on Stubb's tiny stage, and all were touched by the generous barbecue chef who espoused love and happiness. Soon, pictures of Stubb and his friends in the music industry decorated the walls. Legend has it that Stevie Ray Vaughan drew inspiration from Stubb's jukebox and later recorded many of the songs he heard there. A pool game in Stubb's back room, in which Tom T. Hall and Joe Ely used a white onion for a cue ball, stimulated Hall to write his song "The Great East Broadway Onion Championship of 1978." Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, George Thorogood, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris were among myriad others who performed at Stubb's. Stubb himself took the microphone occasionally to volunteer his rendition of "Summertime." Stubb's Bar-B-Q drew a diverse crowd until the mid-1980s, when the restaurateur ran into financial problems, shut down his East Broadway location, and followed his West Texas friends to Austin. There he served barbecue at the blues club, Antone 's before opening his own barbecue and live music place at 4001 Interstate 35 North in 1986. In 1989 Stubb closed the Austin location. Later, with business partners, he started to market his sauce and other products, which are now sold nationwide through Stubb's Legendary Kitchen in Austin. On May 27, 1995, the day of his death, Stubb's partners bought the historic building at 801 Red River Street in Austin to continue his barbecue and live music tradition. Stubb died of congestive heart failure and related problems. In 1996 Stubb, who always described himself as "just a cook," became one of the first two inductees into Lubbock's Buddy Holly Terrace, which

Tsha Handbook →

General Ranald Slidell Mackenzie

1871

Born in New York City on July 24, 1840, Mackenzie attained the rank of major general during the Civil War. On February 25, 1871, at Fort Concho, Texas, he assumed command as colonel of the 4th Cavalry, which soon became the finest regiment in the army. He commanded three expeditions into this region against the Indians. The first, in 1871 against the Comanches, was unsuccessful; but in 1872 he found two feasible routes across the vast, hitherto unexplored, Llano Estacado; and on September 29, he defeated the Comanches on the North Fork of the Red River. After a successful raid into Mexico in 1873, he commanded three of five columns of army troops in a final campaign against the Comanches, Kiowas, and Southern Cheyennes; and on September 28, 1874, he surprised and destroyed three of their villages in the depths of Palo Duro Canyon, also capturing 1,424 horses and mules in the engagement. Left without food, shelter, supplies, and horses, the Southern Plains tribes then submitted to life on the reservation, thereby opening western Texas to white settlement. Later promoted to brigadier general, Mackenzie died in New York, January 19, 1889, and was buried in West Point Cemetery. This park is named in his honor. (1968)

Historical Marker →

Mary & Mac Private School

1954

In 1954, Lucille Graves established Mary & Mac Private School as a preschool for African-American students. Named for a version of the hand-clapping song “Mary Mack,” emphasizing aspirations for the students to become contributing members of society, the institution offered an alternative to local public schools in a time when private schools for African Americans were rare. Teachers received permission from the Rev. A.L. Dunn to hold their first classes in the auditorium of New Hope Baptist Church, before soon moving to two small frame houses on the 1300 block of East 24th Street. Lucille Graves taught classes along with her husband, Caesar; other family members later joined as faculty, as Graves expanded school services. To meet the needs of the growing school, Caesar Graves and the Mary & Mac Parent-Teacher Association began to raise funds for a new building, and in 1961, the school moved to a newly constructed structure at 902 East 28th Street. Here, Mary & Mac began offering junior high and high school courses. The faculty often worked multiple positions to meet the expanding activities offered at the school. At its peak, Mary & Mac Private School served a student population of approximately 120 students. Mary & Mac closed in 1993, shortly after Lucille Graves passed away. Besides her work with the school, Graves was noted for being the first African American accepted into Texas Tech; she later earned a doctorate from the Inter-Baptist Theological Center of Houston. Today, Dr. Graves is remembered for her activism and for Mary & Mac Private School, whose graduates have made significant contributions locally, regionally and throughout the nation. (2010)

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Lubbock

historical 0.5 mi away
Buddy Holly Center

Lubbock was a dusty cotton town when a skinny kid named Charles Hardin Holley picked up a guitar in the nineteen fifties and figured out how to make rock and…
historical 0.7 mi away
Buddy Holly Center

Museum dedicated to Lubbock's most famous son. The day the music died.
quirky 6.0 mi away
Ozymandias On The Plains

A pair of giant legs — and nothing else — standing in a Lubbock field. Shelley's poem made real.

Sports in Lubbock

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 5A · Girls Basketball · 2025

Monterey — 2025 UIL 5A Division 2 Girls Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2025 5A Division 2

Lubbock, Texas, is a city known for its vibrant community and strong high school athletics. Among its respected institutions, Monterey High School stands out for its achievements in girls' basketball. The Lady Plainsmen, competing in Class 5A, have brought significant recognition to their school with a state championship title.

The 2025 5A Division 2 State Championship represents a pinnacle of success for Monterey High School's girls' basketball program. This achievement underscores the dedication and hard work fostered within the team and across the Lubbock sports scene.

State titles
2025
Most recent
2025
Class
5A
The moment

The Monterey High School Lady Plainsmen secured the 2025 5A Division 2 state championship, marking a significant moment in their basketball history.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Lubbock

134 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Lubbock on the Map
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