07/30/2025
Hard Miles, High Heat, and a Heart That Won’t Quit: Week 29 on the Texas Music Chart
📊 https://texchart.com
Some weeks feel like a slow roll through familiar towns. But not this one.
Week 29 hit like a backfire on a lonely highway—sudden, sharp, and impossible to ignore.
Up front, still holding the wheel with white knuckles and steel nerves, is Josh Weathers. “Who’s Hangin’ the Moon” doesn’t just sit at #1—it owns the spot like it was carved there. There’s a gravity to this track that doesn’t fade with replay. It’s not the kind of song that dances around the edges. It moves straight through your chest like a memory you’re not ready to let go of. You don’t sing it—you carry it.
Just behind him, creeping like smoke under a door, is the Randy Rogers Band. “Break Itself” slides into #2 with that familiar ache—the kind that only comes when something beautiful fractures in slow motion. It doesn't shout. It lingers. It reminds you of the moment you almost said something and didn’t.
But then, at #3, there’s a different kind of heartbreak. Jake Worthington's “It Ain’t the Whiskey” is a bait-and-switch of the best kind. At first listen, you brace for the bottle—another song of regret soaked in rye. But that’s not this story. This is the kind of love that stops a man in his tracks. The kind that makes a seasoned officer second-guess what he’s seeing when a man’s hands shake on the wheel—not from liquor, but from the weight of having the most beautiful woman he’s ever known in the passenger seat. It’s not the whiskey making his head spin. It’s her. And if that ain’t country, nothing is.
At #4, Billie Jo Jones still burns with “Flame,” but it’s changed. The fire’s not wild now—it’s focused. Purposeful. Like someone who’s done crying and just wants to watch it all burn clean. Kylie Frey rises to #5 with “My John Wayne,” not as a nostalgia trip, but as a challenge. This track rides like someone who learned the hard way to stop waiting for a cowboy and start being their own kind of strong.
Aaron Loy comes storming in at #6 with “God Made a Cowboy.” It’s less a statement and more a mission. Every line feels like boot leather and bent steel, like the gospel according to grit. James Lann holds steady at #7 with “I Don’t Apologize,” a song that doesn't need to ask permission. It walks into the room with its chin up and shoulders squared. No regret. No re-write.
David Adam Byrnes stays in the fight at #8 with “Last Cowboy Standing”—still stubborn, still swinging. You can feel the dust in this one. Feel the weight of everything he's carrying but refusing to set down. And just behind him, a new kind of mischief steps into the saloon. Randall King and Braxton Keith tear the doors off at #9 with “Cheatin’ on My H***y Tonk”—a h***y tonk confession that’ll stick to your boots and your conscience. Tristan Roberson rounds out the ten with “One Night in Dallas”—a midnight moment, half memory, half regret. You can almost hear the tires on wet pavement and the silence in the cab when no one knows what to say.
But some of the real stories are hiding further down the page—still climbing, still hungry.
Charley Crockett, this week’s Master Hatters of Texas Featured Artist, plants his flag at #104 with “Crucified Son.” It doesn’t whisper. It testifies. Charley doesn’t perform—he confesses. And this song? It’s a long, slow walk to the gallows with a guitar and a grin. There’s pain here. But there’s also peace. The kind you only earn after you’ve bled a little.
And then comes the week’s boldest first impression—Tanner Usrey’s “If You Call Me Again.” It shows up at #144 with the quiet rage of a man who’s been called too many times, believed too many lies, and finally found his no. This week’s TMC High Debut doesn’t scream. It cuts. Sharp. Clean. Final.
But if you're looking for the old soul in the room, meet Dallas Burrow. At #85, alongside the legendary Ray Wylie Hubbard, he delivers “Read ’Em and Weep”—our Powerhouse Artist of the Week. This one feels like a poker game played with stories instead of chips. It’s outlaw poetry—dusty, scarred, but never cynical. A voice like gravel soaked in gospel, telling you exactly how it went down, no embellishment needed.
And James Cook? He’s still here. Still swinging. “Is That All You’ve Got” sits at #94 and wears its bruises like armor. Our Grand Ink Studio Single of the Week doesn’t flinch. It dares. There’s a challenge in every word, and a promise behind every chord: he’s not finished. Not even close.
Out west, you can feel the signal catching fire—KRBL 107.7 The Red Dirt Rebel in Lubbock, Texas. This week’s Jenerayte Radio Station of the Week. They’re not just playing Texas music. They are Texas music. Loud. Loyal. Unapologetically real. The kind of station that plays your song before anyone else even knows your name.
Week 29 isn’t a playlist. It’s a landscape.
A stretch of two-lane truth painted in melody and muscle.
It’s the sound of artists who’ve been knocked down, got up, tuned their guitars, and wrote about it. It’s stations taking chances, fans keeping faith, and stories finding their way through static.
We keep tracking every mile—not because charts matter more than music, but because music matters enough to map its trail.
Be sure to follow our other great sponsors like Texas Select Beverage Company, Molly's Custom Silver, and Southern Music Scene and be sure to join the great music group Southern Music Scene
And before we go—tip your hat to the cities that aren’t just nodding along, but turning it all the way up. From the stockyards of Visit Fort Worth to the soul of Visit Austin, Texas, from the streets of Visit Dallas to the heartbeat of Visit Houston and the rhythm of Visit San Antonio—these places aren’t just calling themselves Music Friendly Communities. They’re proving it. One stage, one artist, one late-night encore at a time. be sure to check out the full list of Music Friendly Communities by helping support the mission of the Texas Music Office
📻 Full chart: https://texchart.com
—Brian Sprague, Editor-in-Chief, Texas Music Chart
