Everything You Hate

Cole Barnhill has always written like a guy who’s paying attention — to the cracks in the sidewalk, the tone in a room, the things most folks scroll past. Long before this EP, Cole was already building a reputation for songs that don’t posture or polish themselves up for radio. His earlier work leaned into reflection and restraint, letting the weight sit where it falls instead of forcing a chorus to save it.

Now he drops Everything You Hate, a six-song collection that feels less like a release and more like a carefully stacked pile of truths. Each track feeds the next — no filler, no wasted space — just a tight compilation that understands exactly what it is and refuses to be anything else. That’s the genius of it. It’s curated, not cranked out. Thoughtful without being soft.

The older I get, the list of things I hate keeps getting longer. Haters never seem to run out of breath. But finding the beauty inside those irritations — that’s where the heart and soul come alive. Ray Wylie Hubbard said it best: the days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations are really good days. This EP feels like a reminder of that truth.

This ain’t rock, and it damn sure ain’t country. It’s something better — honest. The world as I know it, right here, right now. And Cole Barnhill captures it without flinching.

My Favorite Music of 2025

Pancho’s Picks: My Favorite Music of 2025

Looking back on the records, the roads, and the nights that stayed with me.

2025 was one hell of a year for music — the kind that doesn’t just play through your speakers, but moves into your bloodstream and starts living there. And when I look back, a few records rise above the rest like campfires burning bright on a long West Texas night.

Albums that will live in the canon.

Matt Moran’s The Ba’ar led the charge for me. A record rough as cedar bark and tender in the right places, the kind that feels like a man telling you the truth he didn’t want to say out loud.

Then came Colter Wall’s 1800 Miles — all dust, distance, and heartbreak stitched together with that ancient-sounding voice he carries around like an heirloom.

And Turnpike’s The Price of Admission may be their most lived-in record yet… full of scars, wisdom, and the kind of writing you only earn the hard way.

Vandoliers Life behind bars Took me back into the sunlight knowing damn well not everybody’s rooting for ’us But here’s the trick: We quit living for other people. Every song carries a tone of we survived you, and we’re still here.

Jason Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow capped off the list — quiet, cold, honest, and heavy in the way only Isbell can pull off. A winter album that finds the warm places in a man’s heart and sits there awhile.

Singles That Stopped Me in My Tracks

This year had its share of one-off punches too:

Gedda’s “Thick as Thieves” — a song so sharp it practically demanded an album around it, which he delivered with South of Mars.

Turnpike’s cover of Todd Snider’s “Just Like Old Times” — the kind of cover that wakes up every demon you thought you’d already sent packin’.

James McMurtry’s “South Texas Lawman”— dry as mesquite smoke and smart as a whip.

Best Concerts of the Year

I caught some unforgettable shows this year:

Ryan Bingham, burning hot as ever, Robert Earl Keen, returning like a long-lost uncle who still knows how to hold a crowd in his hands, Red Shahan, wild-eyed and wonderful.

But the night that will stay with me long after 2025 is gone was standing beside my wife and two of our grandkids, listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard howl, joke, stomp, and testify like only he can.

That wasn’t just a concert — it was a memory carved in oak.

If the music we love says anything about the year we lived, then 2025 was full of grit, grace, and damn good stories.

Here’s to more of all three in the new one.

— Pancho’s Picks

Ridin’ for the real ones, year after year.

Wife Thinks Ray Wylie Hubbard & Robert Earl Keen Are the Same Dude (And I’m Losing the Argument Badly)

Somewhere between the checkout line and the queso aisle, my wife decided — boldly, confidently, and without a lick of hesitation — that Ray Wylie Hubbard and Robert Earl Keen are the exact same man.

Same beard.

Same hat.

Same vibe.

“Same energy,” as she calls it.

I tried to gently correct her, like a husband who knows this road leads straight into a domestic buzzsaw.

“Baby… Ray Wylie wrote ‘Snake Farm.’ Robert Earl Keen wrote ‘Feeling Good Again.’ One leans into blues and mystic grit. The other leans into bluegrass and front-porch storytelling. Whole different universe.”

She didn’t even flinch.

Not a twitch.

Instead she hit me with this masterpiece:

“Pancho… they’re the same guy. You just like arguing.”

I almost dropped the salsa jar.

Meanwhile, tonight I’m spinning one of Ray Wylie’s finest albums — the one with the big title and the bigger attitude:

A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C).

A record so Ray Wylie it feels like a campfire sermon preached by a coyote in a denim jacket.

It’s tight.

It’s gritty.

It’s blues with a philosopher’s smirk.

Ain’t nothing “loose” about it.

And Robert Earl Keen?

That man is bluegrass charm and beer-sipping back-porch brilliance.

Completely different lane.

But try explaining genres to a woman who has already decided the trial is over and the jury has gone home.

She just shrugs and says,

“Well, I like ’em both — so what’s the problem?”

Lord.

Take the wheel.

Still, I love her.

Every stubborn, wonderful, hard-headed bit of her.

And tomorrow she’ll still argue that Ray Wylie and REK share the same “aura,” whatever that means.

So once again, for posterity and for my peace:

No matter how many times I try to ’splain it to her… Blues is NOT Bluegrass.

Have a breakfast taco and jam some Texas Country- Rich O’Toole

Pancho

Hayes and the Heathens

I have such respect for his writing and the way he carries himself – Ray Wylie Hubbard

Singer songwriter Hayes Carll has teamed up with the Band of Heathens and plans to release an album in the upcoming months.

One of Texas Biggest stars Ray Wylie Hubbard recently had this to say of Hayes, “I had done a bunch of shows with hayes opening and then song swaps and I mostly dropped him in the grease with snarly remarks but he knows I have such respect for his writing and the way that he carries himself.”

Carll’s writing style coupled with his dynamic performances has definitely put him on the top of the scale of my favorite acts. The Band of Heathens blues and rock rifts coupled with the perfect lyrics of Hayes is going to make majestic noise.

Here’s a remix of a Hayes Carll song , Any other Way , previously released on his You Get it All album, performed by Hayes and the Heathens.

Any Other Way composed by Hayes Carll and Aaron Raitiere is a perfect example of the greatness of Hayes and when the Band Of Heathens leads in the song just better.

Be on the lookout for Hayes and The Heathens releasing this coming October.

Pancho. H

Roses on your Grave

In my opinion two of the greatest songwriters to have blessed the Texas dirt in my lifetime are Hayes Carll and Vincent Neil Emerson. I got to see both of them perform their brands of not so main stream music tonight at the historic Ector Theater in Odessa, Tx.

I first heard Vincent Neil Emerson a couple of years ago after coming across his song, Willie Nelson’s Wall. From then on I was hooked.If I remember correctly, it was the South Texas Tweek who first shared Emersons music by posting him on his own Twitter account. Emerson and Tweek have written songs together, and also with Charley Crockett.

Not long after I first heard him and began watching some of his you tube videos, Vincent cut his first record. The self titled album, that was produced by Rodney Crowell is one of my very favorite records to date. On several occasions I have tried to see a live show by Emerson, but something always got in the way.

I had plans for a birthday trip a few years ago to a concert where VNE and the Tweek were to open for Charley Crockett in Austin. Due to my commitment to live life on life’s terms I ended up canceling those plans. I was going through a divorce, had started a new job, I had to move back in with Mom and Dad and well to put it quite frankly, I just wasn’t very spiritually fit for all of that. Don’t get me wrong these guys and their music got me through some pretty dark times. Another time, VNE was to open for Crockett and I got tickets to the show, well the show was postponed. I can’t really blame them, I mean they got to play Willie’s 4th of July picnic instead of dirty old Odessa. Anyway, enough of my rambling.

Tonight was the night that i finally got to see him play. Tonight Vincent Neil Emerson opened the show for Hayes Carll. Emerson played many new songs during his set, in preparation he said for another album later on this year.

Vincent Neil Emerson Ector Theater 3/9/23

Hayes Carll as a songwriter is one of the best in the business. His ways of turning real life situations into song is amazing. Hayes has co written songs with some of the best in the business. The whole audience tonight sang along to Drunken Poet’s dream. A song he wrote with Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Hayes newest album, You Get It All, has become a collection of some of my all time favorite songs. Many of these songs he played tonight as well as his old fan favorites.

He also did several cover songs including Dead Flowers by Townes Van Zandt or if you would rather The Rolling Stones. When Hayes played Dead Flowers he invited Vincent Neil Emerson back up on the stage. The two of them together nailed that classic tune.

The entire night was more than I ever could have imagined. The music, the venue, and my company was just what the doctor ordered.

My girlfriend and her daughter and son in law got to attend the show as well. I told them that I wanted Dead Flowers to be played at my funeral. I meant it.

Play Dead Flowers at my funeral and I won’t forget to put roses on your grave.

Pancho.

A Mother Who has Raised A Son so Well

Redneck Mother by the great Ray Wylie Hubbard kicks off every Mother’s Day for me. My mom is cooler than your mom as she actually got to meet Ray Wylie Hubbard when they just called him “Ray.” He played a little gig up in Red River New Mexico back when the band was known as Three Faces West.

I owe a lot of my musical taste to my mother. When I was a kid she was a member of one of those companies where if you paid .99 cents you got to pick like ten albums, the catch was that they just kept sending albums after that and then charged you full price. I don’t know how many millions my mother spent on music but my brother and I were raised on anything from MoTown to Southern Rock and everyone in between. My musical tastes today can still go from Ice Ice baby to Frank Sinatra plays Juarez in the quick push of a button.

Was Redneck Mother Ray Wylie Hubbards starting point? The song was inspired by a bumper sticker and a gun rack in the parking lot of a honky tonk in the mountains of New Mexico a short time before I was born. Jerry Jeff Walker recorded it and gave me my first intro to the song writing ability of Ray Wylie. On the tally sheet I keep in my mind, I list Ray Wylie Hubbard in the top 5 greatest Texas Songwriters.

Happy Mother’s Day You Redneck Mothers wherever you may be. Happy Mothers Day happy to my mother, who is still the coolest there is.

Just to give you an example of the simple greatness of Ray Wylie Hubbard, check out the bridge of Redneck Mother- sing it in the style of Jerry Jeff if you must but remember Ray wrote it and he is a songwriter who still gets paid for writing songs:
M is for the mudflaps you gave me for my pickup truck
O is for the oil I put on my hair
T is for T-bird
H is for Haggard
E is for eggs
And R is for red neck

Pancho.