| Author | : Joe Carr |
| Publisher | : Texas Tech University Press |
| Total Pages | : 262 |
| Release | : 1997 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 9780896723658 |
From the regional bands of the 1930s and 1940s to the impact of Elvis Presley on the musicians and singers of the 1950s, Prairie Nights to Neon Lights takes us inside the heart of West Texas music.
| Author | : Gary Hartman |
| Publisher | : Texas A&M University Press |
| Total Pages | : 324 |
| Release | : 2008-03-08 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 9781603440028 |
The richly diverse ethnic heritage of the Lone Star State has brought to the Southwest a remarkable array of rhythms, instruments, and musical styles that have blended here in unique ways and, in turn, have helped shape the music of the nation and the world. Historian Gary Hartman writes knowingly and lovingly of the Lone Star State’s musical traditions. In the first thorough survey of the vast and complex cultural mosaic that has produced what we know today as “Texas music,” he paints a broad, panoramic view, offers analysis of the origins of and influences on specific genres, profiles key musicians, and provides guidance to additional sources for further information. A musician himself, Hartman draws on both academic and non-academic sources to give a more complete understanding of the state’s remarkable musical history and ethnic community studies with his first-hand knowledge of how important music is as a cultural medium through which human beings communicate information, ideas, emotions, values, and beliefs, and bond together as friends, families, and communities. The History of Texas Music incorporates a selection of well-chosen photographs of both prominent and less-well-known artists and describes not only the ethnic origins of much of Texas music but also the cross-pollination among various genres. Today, the music of Texas—which includes Native American music, gospel, blues, ragtime, swing, jazz, rhythm and blues, conjunto, Tejano, Cajun, zydeco, western swing, honky tonk, polkas, schottsches, rock & roll, rap, hip hop and more—reflects the unique cultural dynamics of the Southwest.
| Author | : Sheena B. Stief |
| Publisher | : University of Oklahoma Press |
| Total Pages | : 221 |
| Release | : 2021-04-01 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0806169982 |
A vast number of studies have documented the economic and geological effects of oil production, but the impact of boom-and-bust cycles on individuals and communities has received less attention. Boom or Bust remedies this gap by highlighting the personal experiences of those directly affected in an economy dominated by oil and natural gas production. The Permian Basin is one of the largest oil-producing regions in the United States. People who live there have benefited from explosive growth, only to see opportunities vanish with sudden industry downturns. In 2016, the National Endowment for the Humanities funded a grant for the study and collection of energy narratives in this economically volatile region. Boom or Bust derives from that community initiative and offers a unique contribution to the developing field of energy humanities. The oil-field industry may seem to be all about numbers, but as Boom or Bust demonstrates, residents of oil-and-gas country, whether they work in the oil field or not, are at the mercy of an ever-shifting economy. When the price of oil rises, companies move in and newcomers flood the area, expanding the employment force. And as the population booms, so does the infrastructure of cities. When prices drop, though, families must make difficult choices: whether to stay put or follow the oil to another location. With the ensuing declines in population, small businesses close their doors and unemployment levels rise. Despite the inevitable declines and despite the increase in alternative energy resources, many West Texans feel a sense of pride that borders on patriotism. Boom or Bust reveals the full complexity of boomtown culture.
| Author | : Kitty Ledbetter |
| Publisher | : University of Arkansas Press |
| Total Pages | : 243 |
| Release | : 2024 |
| Genre | : Biography & Autobiography |
| ISBN | : 1682262510 |
"Broadcasting the Ozarks explores the vibrant music scene in Springfield, Missouri, that reached its apex during the 1950s and '60s. Central to this history is the Ozark Jubilee (1955-61), the first weekly country music show on network television. Performers, promoters, talent managers, booking agents, and tourists from every corner of the United States followed the music trail to the Jubilee. Dubbed the 'king of the televised barn dances,' the show introduced the Ozarks region to viewers across America and put Springfield in the running with Nashville for dominance of the country music industry-with the Jubilee's producer, Si Siman, at the helm"
| Author | : Jeffrey J. Lange |
| Publisher | : University of Georgia Press |
| Total Pages | : 340 |
| Release | : 2004 |
| Genre | : Music |
| ISBN | : 9780820326238 |
Today, country music enjoys a national fan base that transcends both economic and social boundaries. Sixty years ago, however, it was primarily the music of rural, working-class whites living in the South and was perceived by many Americans as “hillbilly music.” In Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly, Jeffrey J. Lange examines the 1940s and early 1950s as the most crucial period in country music’s transformation from a rural, southern folk art form to a national phenomenon. In his meticulous analysis of changing performance styles and alterations in the lifestyles of listeners, Lange illuminates the acculturation of country music and its audience into the American mainstream. Dividing country music into six subgenres (progressive country, western swing, postwar traditional, honky-tonk, country pop, and country blues), Lange discusses the music’s expanding appeal. As he analyzes the recordings and comments of each of the subgenre’s most significant artists, including Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, and Red Foley, he traces the many paths the musical form took on its road to respectability. Lange shows how along the way the music and its audience became more sophisticated, how the subgenres blended with one another and with American popular music, and how Nashville emerged as the country music hub. By 1954, the transformation from “hillbilly” music to country music was complete, precipitated by the modernizing forces of World War II and realized by the efforts of promoters, producers, and performers.
| Author | : Alan Burton |
| Publisher | : Texas Tech University Press |
| Total Pages | : 194 |
| Release | : 1996 |
| Genre | : Humor |
| ISBN | : 9780896723702 |
Texans—never shy when singing the praises of the Lone Star State—sound an especially loud, approving chorus for their rich musical heritage. Small wonder! Bob Wills, Buddy Holly, Van Cliburn, Roy Orbison, Janis Joplin, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson . . . the list goes on.More than four hundred quotes in Rave On, volume three of the Classic Texas Quotes Series, bring you a fresh view of the lively, diverse, boisterous world of the Texas musical scene.
| Author | : Jeff Campbell |
| Publisher | : Arcadia Publishing |
| Total Pages | : 147 |
| Release | : 2021-09-20 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1439673691 |
Texas has nurtured a thriving bluegrass scene since the early 1950s. The Lone Star State boasts the country's first bluegrass college degree and even hosts a Beatles bluegrass cover band. Meet the Pickin' Singin' Professor, the Fiddle Engineer and Blanco's Bluegrass Boy. Hit the trail with cowboys like the Mayfield brothers and go backstage with Grammy-nominated acts like Wood & Wire. Jeff Campbell and Braeden Paul celebrate the musicians who contributed to the harmonious heritage of Texas bluegrass.
| Author | : Tracey E. W. Laird |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 221 |
| Release | : 2005 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0195167511 |
On a Saturday night in 1948, Hank Williams stepped onto the stage of the Louisiana Hayride and sang "Lovesick Blues." Up to that point, Williams's yodeling style had been pigeon-holed as hillbilly music, cutting him off from the mainstream of popular music. Taking a chance on this untried artist, the Hayride--a radio "barn dance" or country music variety show like the Grand Ole Opry--not only launched Williams's career, but went on to launch the careers of well-known performers such as Jim Reeves, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash, and Slim Whitman.Broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana, the local station KWKH's 50,000-watt signal reached listeners in over 28 states and lured them to packed performances of the Hayride's road show. By tracing the dynamic history of the Hayride and its sponsoring station, ethnomusicologist Tracey Laird reveals the critical role that this part of northwestern Louisiana played in the development of both country music and rock and roll. Delving into the past of this Red River city, she probes the vibrant historical, cultural, and social backdrop for its dynamic musical scene. Sitting between the Old South and the West, this one-time frontier town provided an ideal setting for the cross-fertilization of musical styles. The scene was shaped by the region's easy mobility, the presence of a legal "red-light" district from 1903-17, and musical interchanges between blacks and whites, who lived in close proximity and in nearly equal numbers. The region nurtured such varied talents as Huddie Ledbetter, the "king of the twelve-string guitar," and Jimmie Davis, the two term "singing governor" of Louisiana who penned "You Are My Sunshine."Against the backdrop of the colorful history of Shreveport, the unique contribution of this radio barn dance is revealed. Radio shaped musical tastes, and the Hayride's frontier-spirit producers took risks with artists whose reputations may have been shaky or whose styles did not neatly fit musical categories (both Hank Williams and Elvis Presley were rejected by the Opry before they came to Shreveport). The Hayride also served as a training ground for a generation of studio sidemen and producers who steered popular music for decades after the Hayride's final broadcast. While only a few years separated the Hayride appearances of Hank Williams and Elvis Presley--who made his national radio debut on the show in 1954--those years encompassed seismic shifts in the tastes, perceptions, and self-consciousness of American youth. Though the Hayride is often overshadowed by the Grand Ole Opry in country music scholarship, Laird balances the record and reveals how this remarkable show both documented and contributed to a powerful transformation in American popular music.
| Author | : Brendan Greaves |
| Publisher | : Hachette Books |
| Total Pages | : 463 |
| Release | : 2024-03-19 |
| Genre | : Biography & Autobiography |
| ISBN | : 0306924528 |
The definitive, authorized, and first-ever biography of Terry Allen, the internationally acclaimed visual artist and iconoclastic songwriter who occupies an utterly unique position straddling the disparate, and usually distant, worlds of conceptual art and country music. “People tell me it’s country music,” Terry Allen has joked, “and I ask, ‘Which country?’” For nearly sixty years, Allen’s inimitable art has explored the borderlands of memory, crossing boundaries between disciplines and audiences by conjuring indelible stories out of the howling West Texas wind. In Truckload of Art, author Brendan Greaves exhaustively traces the influences that shaped Allen’s extraordinary life, from his childhood in Lubbock, Texas, spent ringside and sidestage at the wrestling matches and concerts his father promoted, to his formative art-school years in incendiary 1960s Los Angeles, and through subsequent decades doggedly pursuing his uncompromising artistic vision. With humor and critical acumen, Greaves deftly recounts how Allen built a career and cult following with pioneering independent records like Lubbock (on everything) (1979)—widely considered an archetype of alternative country—and multiyear, multimedia bodies of richly narrative, interconnected art and theatrical works, including JUAREZ (ongoing since 1968), hailed as among the most significant statements in the history of American vernacular music and conceptual art. Drawing on hundreds of revealing interviews with Allen himself, his family members, and his many notable friends, colleagues, and collaborators—from musicians like David Byrne and Kurt Vile to artists such as Bruce Nauman and Kiki Smith—and informed by unprecedented access to the artist’s home, studio, journals, and archives, Greaves offers a poetic, deeply personal portrait of arguably the most singularly multivalent storyteller of the American West.
