Morton Critical Editions
Mirror Maps, vol. 1
Every song lyric I'd written through 2019, plus articles and general hoo haw.
Get the bookan artist book with Ben Sklar, pre-order
Everything You're Waiting For Is Gone
A photo book made with Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer Ben Sklar. Portraits of insanity and recklessness, howling at the moon and singing to the stars.
Pre-order the bookJournal of Texas Music History, vol. 22, cover story
San Antonio's Garage Rock Scene, The Children, and Texas's Great Lost Psych Album
The city's 1960s garage scene, and the band whose great record got lost.
Read it (PDF)D Magazine, April 2025
Tales from the Rubaiyat Club, the birthplace of the Texas songwriter movement
The Dallas coffeehouse that opened in 1959 and became the center of Texas folk music, whatever Austin says. Owner Ronald Shipman's archive is now at the Wittliff Collections.
Read itD Magazine, May 2025
Michael Martin Murphey's “Wildfire” rides on
Fifty years after Oak Cliff's own Michael Martin Murphey recorded the biggest cowboy song ever to come out of Dallas.
Read itSan Antonio Current
History of San Antonio country music
From Red River Dave to the Lonesome Rose.
Read itSan Antonio Current
The Butthole Surfers' San Antonio years
An oral history, from before “Pepper” and MTV.
Read itSan Antonio Current
Bongo Joe
The street musician who played downtown for two decades, and whether he'll be forgotten.
Read itSan Antonio Current
Dig this: San Antonio's '60s garage rock
Digging up a forgotten scene.
Read itSan Antonio Current
Remembering Chulas Fronteras
The film shot here that introduced the world to conjunto.
Read itSan Antonio Current
The White Shaman
A cosmic road trip to the rock art west of town.
Read itSan Antonio Current
Walking all the way around San Antonio
The whole perimeter on foot, and what the greenways still need.
Read itWeek in Pop, July 2018
Onward! Through the Many Fogs
An illustrated essay written alongside my album Nightly Never Ending: the fog of L.A.'s music business and San Francisco's tech boom, life as an outsider, and why collaboration matters.
Read itImpose
Bill Baird's brief history of major label blah
How I ended up telling Megadeth's manager they sucked: Sound Team's years on Capitol Records, and piles of money that vanished like vapor.
Read itImpose
20 awkward places to wake up: Bill Baird on touring
Waking up between two overflowing litter boxes, then washing the dishes and leaving a nice note for a host whose name you can't recall. Life on the road, one morning at a time.
Read itImpose
The demo is the record: Bill Baird on recording
I went looking for Oasis at Capitol Studios and found two engineers programming a clinical drum beat. Why the rough first take at home usually beats the big studio.
Read itRough Trade magazine, issue / year?
The homes and haunts of East Bay icons (title?)
My friend Jasper and I toured the Berkeley and Oakland homes and haunts of people who changed the world, for better or worse: LSD, the atomic bomb, American Primitive guitar, beat poetry, the environmental movement.
KQED Perspectives, NPR, April 2016
From Lake Merritt to the Bay
When I heard Lake Merritt empties into the Bay, I got in my kayak and set off to see for myself. An essay, read on air.
Listen and readKQED Perspectives, NPR, May 2018
193 postcards
A postcard to every UN ambassador, plus the president, saying music is the way forward. A futile gesture, and I knew it. The cards are in the Archive.
Listen and readSilica, the Lake Issue, March 2016
In Resurrection Bay
Music of Alaska's melting glaciers, made from field recordings: glaciers calving, waves, whales and sea lions, gathered in fjords, bays and glacial lakes.
Listenzine, year?
I've Got This Problem
one line on what it is: poems, tour diary, comics, an album companion
zine, year?
How Songwriting Ruined My Life
one line on what it is: poems, tour diary, comics, an album companion
zine, year?
Scores
one line on what it is: poems, tour diary, comics, an album companion
zine, year?
Stora Borgin
one line on what it is: poems, tour diary, comics, an album companion
zine, year?
Loveshines
one line on what it is: poems, tour diary, comics, an album companion
zine, year?
Pretty Odd Zone
one line on what it is: poems, tour diary, comics, an album companion
