There’s something about that room in Midland — clean acoustics, velvet seats, West Texas oil money hush — and then here comes that deep prairie rumble of a voice that sounds like it’s been aged in mesquite smoke and barbed wire.
Perfect pitch.
Perfect timing.
No flash. No hurry. No need to prove a damn thing.
Just like a good cowboy hat.
You don’t think about it when it fits right. It just settles in.
Same with a pair of ostrich boots — once they’re broke in, they ain’t showin’ off. They’re just carryin’ you steady.
That’s how Colter fills a room.
Not loud.
Not desperate.
Just right.
And maybe that’s the bigger thought that I’m circlin’ tonight…
When life fits — my sobriety, my marriage, my routine, my place in the world — it don’t feel flashy. It feels settled. Like I’m standin’ in my own boots instead of somebody else’s.
Midland, Texas — Every once in a while a show rolls through West Texas that doesn’t just entertain — it downright shifts your internal tectonic plates.
Joe Bonamassa did exactly that at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center, stepping onstage with the confidence of a man who knew he was about to dust the whole Basin clean.
The 10,000 Dollar Laundry Incident
Before the music even got rolling, Bonamassa stands there, half-grinning, half-defeated, and apologizes for his outfit.
Then he tells the story……….
Apparently somebody — God bless their soul — took the entire band’s suits out to be “cleaned.”Except instead of dry-cleaning these custom, several-thousand-dollar outfits…
………….they washed them.
In a regular washer…………
Shrunk ’em. Faded ’em. Ruined ’em. Turned high-dollar stage gear into something you’d mow the yard in. Bonamassa looked down at his mismatched, last-minute clothes like:
“Well… this is what survived.”
Midland laughed with him, not at him — because that’s a man who can turn tragedy into punchline and still shred like a damn lightning bolt.
A Guitar Army With Its Own Weather System
Bonamassa didn’t bring a guitar or two — he brought a full arsenal.
Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, Firebirds… each one tuned to its own attitude, its own pressure front.
Watching him switch guitars was like watching a West Texas sky change:
One for the long, slow heartbreak drizzle One for the hot, fast Texas shuffle One for pure wildfire solos And one he seemed to carry just to remind the rest of us he could
Every time he changed gear, the room shifted climates.
Joe Bonamassa performing live at the Wagner Noël in Midland Texas
Reese Wynans: A Hall of Famer in Full Flight
There was a whole different electricity when Reese Wynans took command of the Hammond B-3.
This is a man who helped define the sound of an era with Stevie Ray Vaughan — and he still plays like he’s got lightning bottled up behind every key.
Every swirl, every swell, every chord felt like a blessing and a warning rolled into one.
Wynans doesn’t just play the blues — he breathes it.
Anton Fig: Rhythm With a West Coast Swagger
Behind the kit sat the legendary Anton Fig, and good grief — the man came in swinging.
Sharp, powerful, effortless.
He didn’t just keep the beat; he pushed the entire show forward like he had a V8 under both arms.
Every groove was tight. Every fill was tasteful. Every hit shook loose a little more of the drywall.
If California made more things like Anton Fig, the rest of us might actually brag about that state.
The full band Joe Bonamassa Wagner Noel Midland
Two Voices That Lifted the Roof
Bonamassa’s two backup singers didn’t need names to make a statement.
Their harmonies alone told the whole story.
Soul, gospel, heat, heart — the kind of voices that don’t just back a song… they elevate it straight into the rafters.
When they opened up, the room warmed like someone cracked open the sun.
Joe Bonamassa with yet another guitar
By the time the last note floated off into the Texas night, the whole Wagner Noël was on its feet — hats off, hands high, hearts full.
The blues hits everybody different.
But when it’s honest — when it’s bone-deep and from the gut — it hits everybody.
And in Midland that night?
It hit like a meteor…
or maybe even a comet — the kind that wrinkles your soul a whole lot better than Comet Cleaners ever could.
Due to a previous engagement, I was unable to attend the Panhandlers show the other night. I was grateful that I have a daughter and son in law who enjoy my musical tastes, and was in a position to be able to gift these tickets to them.. this is what my daughter’s take was on the show and the pictures she took while there at the Wagnernoel the other night.
West Texas is the best Texas….
1/16/25 the panhandlers on stage in Midland Texas put on a great show. It felt very much like a performance from the different scenes, types of songs and the dance moves. Each member of the band had a different type of excitement to them, from their different styles of music, their attitude or where they come from. I could definitely feel some personality and each individuals hearts singing from their music and songs. They got the west Texas is the best Texas right today after the dust and wind is blowing all around.
“Wonder why we settled here,” sings William Clark Green, “ with the rattlesnakes and the prickly pear and a water table two hundred feet down…”
The Panhandlers were ecstatic to be back in West Texas last night as they graced the stage at the Wagner Noel in Midland.
This band’s music centers around the land they all adopted as home.. a sentiment that rings in as West Texas the Best Texas.
Cleto Cordero Flatland Cavalry/ Panhandlers
Band member Cleto Cordero grew up in Midland and the hometown advantage was felt by all.. as his mother sat in the front row he sang the songs he’d written along the way from places like Lubbock and Marfa and Eastland. Songs about the oil and the cattle and the cotton,
I love the people here most of all and there is a culture that is a mixture of a cowboy and a farmer and a roughneck and everyone in between..
This was the second time I’ve seen this act live although I’ve seen each individually.
The singers of the band consist of Cleto, who heads up his band Flatland Cavalry, William Clark Green, Texas Country turned Rock Show, Josh Abbott of the JAB who holds the whole project together, and songwriter and performer John Baumann. Each brings talented musicians from their own groups together on one stage as they sing songs together in a style that is not usually heard in their own shows.. Each of them are accomplished songwriters and together they are unstoppable.
The ties they share stem from their college days as alumni of Texas Tech university and their love of songwriting.. specifically songs about Texas..
The band plays mainly original songs they’ve written although they can and will throw in covers by other notable Texas Musicians, including Guy Clark , and Terry Allen. They also recorded a song called “West Texas in My Eyes,” written by a personal friend of theirs and mine, Charlie Stout. And last night they covered the Highwaymen… Willie Nelson , Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.
It was somewhere between Portales and Pampa that I introduced my gal to Lyle Lovett’s version of ‘This Old Porch.’ In my opinion a more superior version to the same ol’ song that Robert Keen calls ‘The Front Porch Song.’
From the Wagner Noel stage in Midland, Texas tonight, Lyle Lovett remembered the story, about how the song came to be, when they were Aggies in College Station Texas and how Robert Earl Keen had written such a perfect song.
There was only one thing missing, Lyle Lovett explained, that when Keen wrote that song he forgot about one thing. That one thing was Robert Keen himself. Lovett said he took the song home and learned it from start to finish, just the way Keen wrote it, and then he started adding verses, He began inserting Robert Keen into the song. In the beginning He was afraid Keen would be mad at him for changing such a perfect tune, but when he got enough courage to play his version to his friend, Robert Keen never sang the song his way again.
I have been a fan of Lovett for as long as I can recall, from the early stuff like ‘This Ol’ Porch’ to his most recent works.
Lyle Lovett is back on tour this year with a new album, 12th of June. It is his first album in over 10 years.
Many of the songs he and his talented acoustic band played this evening were from the new album, but he also played many of his fan favorites and he chose a few unique cover songs by other artists, just because he thought they were fun to play.
Lyle Lovett is pushing quickly towards 70 years of age, still appeared to be doing exactly what he wanted to do, make music and make people smile. He looked pretty comfortable and having the best of times playing his brand of country mixed with jazz and blue grass. His folky style of finger picked sounds echoed throughout the symphonic hall of the Wagner Noel a modern music venue in Midland, Texas.
Tonight’s show was definitely one for the books. I thoroughly enjoyed his stories and his song and most of all I enjoyed seeing the love of playing music that he shared with his talented acoustic tour group.
If you ever have a chance to catch Lyle Lovett at a live set don’t miss it. It is worth every bit.
