by Noe Pena, KANM DJ

This past Friday September 2nd, 2022 Texas A&M had the opportunity to host a few artists including Robert Earl Keen ‘78, Max Stalling ‘89, Julianna Rankin ‘18, and The Barn Dogs. The show was planned for the opening weekend of the new Aggie Park and was the first show to be played on the new outdoor stage. Before the show I had the opportunity to interview Max Stalling ‘89 and learn more about him and his career in the country music industry.

    Max Stalling comes from a small town off Highway 83 called Crystal City. Max, however, attended school in the neighboring town of Carrizo Springs until he graduated and left for Texas A&M. When Max arrived at A&M he joined the Corp of Cadets. Max later became the first sergeant of his outfit and led Jodies which are now known as cadences or a chant-like song. Leading these cadences Max thought to himself one day that he could really sing and “Wasn’t that bad at it”. Max spoke that being able to lead the Jodies in a public setting was a direct thumbprint on his musical career. Max then graduated in ‘89 and learned to play guitar from his roommate, Todd Smith, while he was in graduate school. Using an Eagles song book Max spoke on how he never learned a full Eagles song but it allowed him to get comfortable playing. Max then graduated with his masters in Food science in ‘91 and left Aggieland. 

    I asked Max about his music style and what influenced how he wrote songs. When Max left Texas A&M he began to get homesick and started to write songs reflecting where he was from. Since his home was in South Texas he wrote a lot of songs that were about the area or reflected his time there. As we spoke more about how Max wrote songs he explained to me that he felt there were two types of songs. One being a song that takes years to write while the other type of song is one that writes itself in minutes. The Pila song was one of the songs that took years to write. Max spoke on how it took him just about five years to write it to perfection. Blue eyes, another song of Max’s, was written very fast.

    Lastly I talked to Max about his songwriting career. He spoke about some men that he liked to write with by the names of Mark David Manders who Max met at a bar. He also talked about another man by the name of Matt Hilliard who Max has written music with. Max has also started to write songs with his wife Heather and how he loves doing so. Max talked about how he likes to see how others' minds get to work whenever he spends time writing with others. Recently Max was a co-writer on William Clark Green's newest album the Baker Hotel for the title track “The Baker Hotel” a song about an abandoned hotel located in Mineral Wells, Texas.

    Max Stalling is an influential part of South Texas country music and shows the rest of the world what the spinach capital of the world has to offer. I strongly urge those who haven’t given him a listen to do so and be able to experience South Texas through Max’s music.

Listen to Noe Pena on Front Porch Fridays, 6 pm Fridays on KANM.org