{"id":35215,"date":"2025-11-04T20:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/35215\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T20:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T20:03:11","slug":"between-houston-and-waco-is-the-blues-capital-of-texas-with-a-walkable-downtown-and-small-town-charm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/35215\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Houston And Waco Is The ‘Blues Capital Of Texas’ With A Walkable Downtown And Small-Town Charm"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may associate blues music with Memphis, or perhaps Clarksdale (the “Home of the Blues”\u00a0in Mississippi)<\/a>, but Texas also played a key role in the genre’s\u00a0history. Navasota was officially named the blues capital of Texas in 2005 because of the town’s on-going celebration of the genre through its festivals, street art, music-themed venues, and melodious events. When visiting Navasota, you can stroll past historic\u00a019th century buildings and take photos of large murals created by local artists as you head on to listen to free live music\u00a0at numerous locations around town.<\/p>\n

Navasota is located 70 miles north of\u00a0Houston\u00a0(which, unexpectedly, ranks as America’s second place “Sin City” behind Las Vegas)<\/a> and\u00a0110 miles south of Waco (an artsy, historic gem often\u00a0called the “Heart of Texas<\/a>“), and sits roughly in the middle of the two.\u00a0There is an unattended municipal airport\u00a0on the outskirts\u00a0if you happen to have your own plane, or there are regional flights at Easterwood Airport (25 miles) and\u00a0George Bush Intercontinental Airport (65 miles).\u00a0If you’re not driving, Navasota has a\u00a0Greyhound bus station\u00a0with daily services running from Houston. There are a range of accommodation options in Navasota, including the historic P.A. Smith Hotel, which holds a five-star rating on TripAdvisor<\/a>. If you’d prefer a rustic cabin in the woods, drive 16 miles to the forest and stay at Brazos Valley\u00a0Postcard Cabins.<\/p>\n

Read more: The Most Common Scams Tourists Should Know About Before Visiting Paris<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrating blues music in Navasota\"Welcome<\/p>\n

Welcome to Navasota sign on a red brick wall – joshlmcdonald \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

Navasota is the blues capital of Texas largely because of Mance\u00a0Lipscomb, a farmer,\u00a0songster,\u00a0and hugely influential blues musician who\u00a0lived in town\u00a0all his life.\u00a0According to historian Russell Cushman,\u00a0he was admired by the illustrious likes of\u00a0Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin.\u00a0Other big names associated with Navasota include the “King of Texan Blues” Lightnin’ Hopkins\u00a0and\u00a0singer King Cotton \u2014 who formed a band called Navasota in\u00a01969.<\/p>\n

To promote and celebrate blues music today, Navasota hosts a free one-day festival in late November\u00a0on the grounds of City Hall.\u00a0Navasota Blues Fest begins with football, vendors, and kids’ activities during the day, before\u00a0the music kicks off on the\u00a0City Hall lawn.\u00a0Navasota’s legacy also lives on through the town’s music venues, which includes\u00a0the Prohibition-era vibes and tunes at\u00a0Hamer’s speakeasy, country music and shenanigans in the Western Steakhouse and Dancehall, and live piano music with your food at the Red Board Tavern.<\/p>\n

Walking tours and community events in Navasota\"Mural<\/p>\n

Mural on the side of the Classic Rock Coffee Co – joshlmcdonald \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

You can easily\u00a0explore this town’s\u00a0historic architecture and public art on foot. Places to visit on your\u00a0walking tour of Navasota include the\u00a0“Welcome to Navasota” mural on South LaSalle street,\u00a0Mance Lipscomb’s statue at\u00a0Mance Lipscomb Park, and the nearby\u00a0Navasota music mural.\u00a0Displayed on the east wall of Classic Rock Coffee Co. & Kitchen, an eclectic music-themed cafe with guitars hanging on the walls, the music mural is a large piece of street art featuring portraits of the many\u00a0iconic blues musicians who lived and played here. There are also\u00a0information plaques\u00a0around town to provide further insight into Navasota’s history, and\u00a012 parks\u00a0to choose from when you need to rest your legs.<\/p>\n

Despite a population of roughly\u00a09,800, Navasota maintains a sweet, small-town vibe by running multiple community events throughout the year. These include a\u00a0Texas Birthday Bash celebrating\u00a0Texan independence in early March, a monthly local farmers market running between\u00a0March and December, free live music at\u00a0Sounds of Navasota during the summer,\u00a0and a super cute ‘Home for the Holidays’ celebration in December \u2014 which involves live music, hot chocolate, Santa, a polar express train, a parade, and the community coming together to light a Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

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Read the original article on Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You may associate blues music with Memphis, or perhaps Clarksdale (the “Home of the Blues”\u00a0in Mississippi), but Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22154,5860,22157,22156,22155,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-35215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-blues-music","tag-capital-of-texas","tag-easterwood-airport","tag-free-live-music","tag-navasota","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}