46. LITTLE JOE Y LA FAMILIA

“Little” Joe Hernandez was raised in Temple and would accompany his farmworker father on trips to West Texas. “I’m a cotton picker,” he told the Houston Chronicle in 2007. “I just do music on the side.” He turns 78 in October, and his music, which he dubs “ChicanoMexican-American,” is an elegant combination of traditional rancheras, polka, jazz, country and classic pop. It’s made him a Tejano pioneer and a pillar in the genre’s endurance.

Most Texas musical moment: The blend of horns, harmonies and Chicano pride on his classic “Las Nubes (The Clouds).”