Nashville country singer Maggie Rose has been playing and performing for more than 10 years, but Thursday night marks something new: her first show in Waco.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Last October, Jason Aldean was in a Las Vegas hospital visiting some of the victims injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival a week earlier. On that Sunday afternoon, the country star turned to his longtime manager, Clarence Spalding.

Gaetano Donizetti’s 1840 comic opera “The Daughter of the Regiment” returns to a Waco stage Friday and Saturday as McLennan Opera’s spring production.

The audience at the Waco Symphony Orchestra’s season-closing April 12 concert at Waco Hall likely will recognize the music, passages from more than a dozen movie themes and soundtracks.

David Rovics sings to educate, motivate and entertain, all during the same show or rally, but, then, that’s what an activist folksinger does.

Performer Johnny Lovett wants to save the sounds of country music’s greats and the vault is his voice.

Spring weather is bringing more than flowers and Waco music fans might want to stock up on insect repellent with regional and national acts scheduled for outdoor night concerts, many set along the Brazos River’s stretch through Waco.

Austin singer-songwriter and Waco native Jaimee Harris is quick to talk in a phone interview after arriving in Michigan hours earlier for a show that night.

Violinist Simone Porter has another musical instrument in mind when talking about the concerto she’ll perform with the Waco Symphony Orchestra on Saturday: the human voice.

Texas singer-songwriters Jack Ingram and Hayes Carll team up Tuesday night for a joint acoustic concert at the Waco Hippodrome and if the past is any predictor, it’ll be a show on their own terms and in their own voices. They come to Waco after a similar show at Hank’s Texas Grill in McKinney on Sunday.

Part of the beauty of jazz improvisation lies the serendipity of the unexpected. In the case of singer Tyrha Lindsey and the Waco Jazz Orchestra, the unexpected led to her appearance as guest vocalist for Saturday’s WJO concert at the Waco Hippodrome.

Americana singer-songwriter Dan Layus can measure the distance between his solo career and when he was frontman for the indie rock band Augustana in years, but in distance as well.

When Texas country singers Holly Tucker, Adrian Johnston and Jackie Darlene step out on stage at the Waco Hippodrome March 15, they’re also sticking their (collective) foot in the door.

Unlike many classical musicians, an organist can’t travel with his or her instrument, but has to perform on someone else’s. At the same time, it takes an organist’s individual talent and interpretation to bring that instrument to life, notes Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs.

Texas country musician Larry Joe Taylor and his four-piece band play Friday at the Waco Hippodrome and while many in his audience may not know the significance of the date, he does: It’s Texas Independence Day.

Precision. Style. Chanting. The thudding rhythm of a dozen or more boots hitting the stage at the same time. The slap of hands on chests, thighs and upper arms. Singing and storytelling through the body.

Veteran performers seek to find the intersection of two maxims: Give the audience what they want and leave them wanting more.

Waco's Standard Hat Works now home for online country music station Troubadour Country Radio.

This spring, Waco singer-songwriter Thomas Csorba will trade the coffeehouse that has acted as a sort of home base over the last few months, Pinewood Roasters, for other coffeehouses and clubs across the state.

Dallas musician Jeff Grossman and his band Saints Eleven make their Waco debut Saturday night as the second band of the annual Zack and Jim Anniversary Blowout, but he’s no stranger to the territory.

When Randy Rogers plays the open-air stage Friday night at The Backyard, he might find himself thinking of making music in another large, but closed room: Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A.

Texas music icon Gary P. Nunn is quick to turn to the wisdom of another songwriter when talk runs to his long career.

West Coast gospel singer and choir leader Brent Jones performs with the Waco Community Choir Saturday at Victorious Life Church, a concert that will be recorded as Jones' second live album. 

Miami University musicologist Tammy Kernodle will highlight the women who used songs and music to advance freedom and civil rights in her musical program “She Sang Freedom,” presented Thursday night at Baylor University’s Bennett Auditorium.

The names Aaron Barker, Allen Shamblin and J.T. Harding may not make heads nod among many country music fans.

Local musicians and regional acts often don’t connect outside of shared songs, but the two are linked in two shows taking place this week.

Those who follow the local jazz scene know pianist Dave Wild from his frequent appearances at Waco-area clubs and restaurants.

The line between opera and musical theater, if any hard line ever existed, gets bridged in the Baylor Opera Theater’s current production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”

When San Francisco-based men’s ensemble Chanticleer performs Tuesday at Baylor University’s Jones Concert Hall, audience members shouldn’t expect a traditional men’s choral sound of bass, baritone and tenor parts.

The name Buffalo Ruckus suggests a band that doesn’t fit musical genres neatly and that’s the case with the Denton band bearing that name.

Waco country singer Holly Tucker is adding a second verse to the song of Texas musicians helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, thanks to a donated guitar and the goodwill — and signatures — of more than two dozen musicians.

An etiquette guide in past Waco Symphony Orchestra concert programs cautions concert-goers against tapping their feet, but the symphony’s Jan. 18 program might allow a little forgiveness.

Country singer Gene Watson doesn’t beat around the bush when asked about what listeners can expect at Saturday’s concert at the Bosque Arts Center in Clifton: It’s traditional country music, he said.

Freezing temperatures this week make spring something to anticipate, even though nothing but summer heat has staying power when it comes to Waco weather.

The old year ends Monday with a fresh 2018 ahead and whether your reaction is to kick the past year out with a good riddance or an open-armed welcome to a new year continuing more of the same, there are plenty of places to celebrate.

A big hat and an American accent opened doors for Waco-born singer-songwriter Jarrod Dickenson when performing in the United Kingdom and his lyrics and performing talent made those curious audiences return again and again.

The Waco Symphony Orchestra’s biennial holiday show returns Friday night and this year’s “Holly Jolly Holiday Concert” sees a little more pop for the pops part of the lineup.

Country/Americana singer-songwriter Chris Knight is admiring the fall foliage at his farm near Slaughters, Kentucky, while talking about his Thursday night show at the Waco Hippodrome.

For local Texas country music fans, Christmas may have come a little early this year in the form of Winterfest, which tops three nights of country music with such performers as Roger Creager, Josh Abbott, William Clark Green, Waco’s Holly Tucker, Reckless Kelly and Micky and the Motorcars.

For Kingwood natives Blake and Taylor Powell, sibling rivalry is highly overrated. The alternative is putting them on the country and Americana charts.

Performers often speak of being in the groove when they perform, that moment when everything clicks between what’s on stage and what’s in the audience. Texas honky-tonker Josh Ward looks for “the big ol’ whirlpool.”

Singer-songwriter John Mark McMillan found himself stymied creatively when working on his last album toward the end of 2015. He had more questions than answers and for someone known in large part for Christian songs such as “How He Loves” and “Heart Won’t Stop,” that might be perceived as a problem.

For the Central Texas Choral Society’s fall concert, director David Guess opted to shift from performance of major choral works to a varied selection of songs drawn from the 5-year-old choir’s past performances.

When soprano Renee Fleming stands before a full Waco Hall on Tuesday night, she won’t be the only one singing, though the others in the audience will sing just in their hearts and minds.

Americana singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb looks forward to a return to Common Grounds on Saturday night, the Waco venue that he and his band the Neighbors have called home in recent visits, but it’s not as enticing as what follows later this fall: a two-week tour with Willie Nelson.