Journal of Texas Music History
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10877/66
The Journal of Texas Music History is the first academic journal to focus on all aspects of southwestern music history, first published in 2001 and now with subscribers from around the world. The journal is published by the Texas State University Center for Texas Music History
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Item The Journal of Texas Music History [2001 : Issue 2](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-01)The Journal of Texas Music History is the first academic journal to focus on all aspects of southwestern music history.
Table of Contents
- Letter from the Director (2)
- Donors (5)
- That's Right, You're Not from Texas: Exploring Some Outside Influences on Texas Music (6)
- The Blue Yodeler is Coming to Town: A Week with Jimmie Rodgers in West Texas (17)
- Southeast Texas: Hothouse of Zydeco (23)
- Marvin "Smokey" Montgomery: A Life in Texas Music (45)
- The Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican Music [Review] (58)
- Telling Stories, Writing Songs: An Album of Texas Songwriters [Review] (59)
Item The Journal of Texas Music History [2001 : Issue 1](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-01)The Journal of Texas Music History is the first academic journal to focus on all aspects of southwestern music history.
Table of Contents
- Letter from the Director (2)
- Contributors (4)
- Texas Myth/Texas Music (5)
- "Uno, Dos, One, Two, Tres, Quatro..." (13)
- Texas Bebop Messengers to the World: Kenny Dorham and Leo Wright (16)
- Musica Tejana: Nuestra Musica (25)
- Texas Centennial 1936: African-American Texans and the Third National Folk Festival (36)
- West Texas Fiddlers and The Buddy Holly Center (44)
- Ridin' Old Paint: Documenting the Canadian River Breaks Fiddle Tradition (50)
Item Texas Myth/Texas Music(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Malone, Bill C.Over twenty years ago I interviewed Harold "Pappy" Daily in Houston. Daily had been a successful music promoter for many years, especially instrumental in the early success of George Jones, the legendary country honky tonk singer from Beaumont. When asked why Jones and some of his contemporaries such as Ray Price were such good singers, Daily looked at me incredulously and said, “Because they’re from Texas!” Although probably said in jest, his statement embodied elements of both truth and fiction. While Texas has produced many of America’s greatest musicians (with mere residence in the state undoubtedly contributing to the shaping of their art), Daily’s response also reveals the prevalent mythology that has surrounded the popularization of all forms of Texas music.Item Texas Centennial 1936: African-American Texans and the Third National Folk Festival(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Mooney, KevinAfrican-American Texans expressed ethnic as well as regional pride by their efforts to participate in the 1936 celebration of the state’s centennial. Business and educational leaders, primarily from the African-American community in the Dallas area, lobbied the state legislature and Centennial officials to ensure proper representation of their race. Their efforts were manifest in the erection of the Hall of Negro Life Building— an exhibit displaying the progress of African-Americans in Texas and throughout the nation1—and the unprecedented participation of African-American performers at the third National Folk Festival held from the 14th through the 21st of June 1936 at the Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. The significance of their actions went beyond the Centennial era. Indeed, Texas Civil Rights leader A. Maceo Smith recalled that, for many African–American Texans, the Centennial "was the kickoff of the real Civil Rights thrust in Texas."Item Janis Joplin: The Hippie Blues Singer as Feminist Heroine(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Rodnitzky, JerryThe women’s liberation era was treacherous for all heroes and heroines. The 1960s and 1970s shook up culture more than politics, and the cultural terrain moved even more quickly than social foundations. Amidst this rapid change, young people had difficulty finding heroes and models in the traditional fields of politics, business, and sports. The new 1960s heroes were increasingly activists or entertainers, especially musicians and singers. Because American women had seldom found heroines in politics and business, and precious few in sports, the change seemed less revolutionary for the new aggressive feminist heroines. Most feminist heroines were activists, yet some were just actors or singers. Women entertainers had always been viewed frivolously, and women activists had usually been ladylike. Thus the new female heroines were more revolutionary in their way than Abbie Hoffman or Bob Dylan. Whether activist or artist, they were all cultural models. How they lived and what they did often was more important than what they said. They were models of life and not exponents of ideology. In short, they were countercultural heroines.Item Donors [2001 : Issue 1](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03)The Center for Texas Music History is a nonprofit educational program designed to help students, scholars, and the general public better understand how Texas music reflects the richly diverse ethnic and cultural heritage of the American Southwest. The efforts of the donors help continue to increase awareness of how Texas music represents the unique history and culture of our state.Item Letter from the Director [2002 : Issue 1](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Hartman, Gary A.Letter from the Director of the Center for Texas History at Texas State University, Dr. Gary Hartman.Item Musica Tejana: Nuestra Musica(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Guadalupe, San Miguel, Jr.Música Tejana, or Texas–Mexican music, is contagious and makes you want to dance. Its diverse beat can be a polka, a cumbia, a bolero, or a ranchera. It can also have influences from other musical styles such as disco, pop, rap, country, and reggae. Música Tejana sounds come from a variety of instruments, including accordions, synthesizers, electric guitars, congas, or "pitos" (horns). This type of music, known as "Tejano" in the contemporary period, is extremely popular in Texas and other parts of the United States and Mexico.Item Ridin' Old Paint: Documenting the Canadian River Breaks Fiddle Tradition(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Wilkinson, AndyI did the best part of my growing up and got the best part of my education around the cowboys in the Canadian River Breaks of Texas. We lived on a relatively small outfit, but we were surrounded by the big outfits-the Bivins Coldwater Cattle Company, the Killgores, the upper Matadors down the road. When we went to Channing to get supplies cowboys still tethered their horses and walked the short main street, and the air was filled with the sound of spurs jingling in unison with the clop of bootheels on the old boardwalk where the cowboys strolled in full regalia. When I was very young I thought of these cowboys as gods and wanted to walk and talk like them, be like them, know and live by their ways. The Breaks were full of music. My four sisters sang like angels in the shape-note harmonies of the old gospel music. I would discover that there were many fine musicians, poets and even laymen scholars steeped in the classics among the cowboys. We were Primitive Baptists and I was in my teens before I could devise my itinerary in such a way that I could go to the cowboy dances. I had already learned from them some of the old songs, but when I heard their string band ensembles playing the old fiddle music, I knew I would always be a better listener than performer. There are still cowboys in the Breaks who perform the old string music wonderfully... Buck Ramsey, 1997.Item Letter from the Director [2001 : Issue 1](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Hartman, Gary A.Letter from the Director of the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University, Dr. Gary Hartman.Item Kenny Dorham and Leo Wright: Texas Bebop Messengers to the World(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Oliphant, DaveComing as I do to the study of history as a student of literature, I have found that a little known short story by Edgar Allan Poe aptly presents the "revisionist" attitude that I took toward my historical survey, Texan Jazz, soon after it was published by the University of Texas Press in 1996. Having traced the contributions of Texas musicians to jazz history over a period of almost one hundred years, from Scott Joplin’s "Maple Leaf Rag" of 1899 through Blind Lemon Jefferson’s 1920s country blues and on to Marchel Ivery and Cedar Walton’s 1994 recording of "Every Time We Say Goodbye," I came, after the publication of my book, to appreciate greatly the views on revising a work of history as expressed by the Egyptian character in Poe’s short story entitled “ Some Words With a Mummy.”Item "Hardy Pioneers" and Amarillo's Panhandle Fiddle Contests(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Carr, JoeIn the period from 1928 to 1931, at least six fiddle contests were held in Amarillo, Texas, most under the auspices of the Tri-State Fair Association. Contemporary newspaper reports offer interesting insights into the workings of the contests and the activities of the contestants, giving us a fascinating glimpse into the lives and fortunes of numerous early Panhandle fiddlers, including noted musicians Eck Robertson, J. T. Wills - father of Western Swing legend Bob Wills, Jess Morris, and others.1 Census statistics indicate just over 15,000 Amarillo residents in 1920, and the town had grown to a city of 43,000 by 1930.2 Amarillo’s older citizens who noticed the changing landscape may have had fond memories of the old days, and the Old Fiddler contests gave them an opportunity to enjoy what was perceived as a fast dying art.Item Uno, Dos, One, Two, Tres, Cuatro(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-03) Patoski, Joe NickThat count-off introduction to "Wooly Bully," the song that forever etched Sam Samudio into the institutional memory of pop as Sam the Sham, the turbaned hepcat who led his Pharoahs out of the east Dallas barrio to the big time, holds the key to understanding Tex-Mex and where it fits in the cosmos of all things rock and roll. The rest of the modern world may have perceived the bilingual enumeration as some kind of exotic confection, an unconventional beginning to a giddy rhythm ride of insane craziness. For Samudio, though, screaming "uno, dos, one, two, tres, cuatro" was just doing what comes naturally to a teenager growing up in two cultures in a place not far from the Rio Grande where the First World meets the Third World, and where the Tex meets the Mex.Item Letter from the Director [2001 : Issue 2](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09) Hartman, Gary A.Letter from the Director of the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University, Dr. Gary Hartman.Item Reviews [2001 : Issue 2](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09) Andrews, Gregg; Hartman, Gary A.Review of "The Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican Music," by Ramiro Burr, and "Telling Stories, Writing Songs: An Album of Texas Songwriters," by Kathleen Hudson with a foreward by Sam Phillips and introduction by B.B. King.Item That's Right, You're Not from Texas: Exploring Some Outside Influences on Texas Music(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09) Miller, Karl HagstromBefore he began his successful recording career in 1927, Jimmie Rodgers held down gigs at resorts near Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi, and Asheville, North Carolina. His groups performed a wide variety of tunes at the resorts, including many of the songs emanating from New York’s Tin Pan Alley. They played "I’ll See You in My Dreams," "Doo Wacka Doo," "Who’s Sorry Now?," and other hits of the day. Group member Claude Grant recalled, "We would play just about everything, square dancing music and other dance numbers. When we played for dinner it would be popular music, some country music also." One of the tunes Rodgers played was "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?," written in 1924 by the popular vaudeville team of Gene Austin and Roy Bergere.Item The Blue Yodeler is Coming to Town: A Week with Jimmie Rodgers in West Texas(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09) Specht, Joe W.Jimmie Rodgers, often called the Father of Country Music, was born, raised, and buried in the state of Mississippi. But in the minds of many, he has long been associated with Texas, and well he should be. For the last four years of his life, 1929-1933, Rodgers resided in Kerrville and then in San Antonio. He recorded three times in Dallas and once in the Alamo City, and several of his songs make direct reference to the Lone Star State. During this period, he also traveled around the state on numerous occasions performing and making personal appearances in towns both large and small. As country music historian Bill Malone has pointed out, Rodgers’s link with Texas was such that noted folklorist Alan Lomax, almost thirty years after the singer’s death, still identified him as "a San Antonio railroad brakeman" and "this Texas brakeman." Rodgers’s biographer, Nolan Porterfield, has done an excellent job of documenting dozens of Rodgers comings and goings within the state, but as he acknowledges, the full extent of Jimmie’s outings in Texas remains incomplete. The following essay attempts to fill in a few of the gaps.Item Marvin "Smokey" Montgomery: A Life in Texas Music(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09) Dempsey, John MarkThe Light Crust Doughboys launched the careers of Bob Wills, who went on to legendary status as the "King of Western Swing," and W. Lee "Pappy" O’Daniel, who became a popular, but lightly regarded, governor of Texas and U.S. senator. Another original Doughboy, vocalist Milton Brown, was perhaps the most popular musical performer in Texas when he was killed in a car accident in 1936. The Doughboys’ popular noontime radio program became an integral part of daily life in Texas from the 1930s to the 1950s. The lives of Wills, O’Daniel, and Brown have been chronicled in full-scale biographies. But the man who became the Doughboys’ foundation, over an era lasting more than 65 years, was Marvin "Smokey" Montgomery, a four-string banjo virtuoso whose boundless energy led him into other venues as Las Vegas entertainer, television performer, hit-record producer, and musical impresario.Item Donors [2001 : Issue 2](The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09)The Center for Texas Music History is a nonprofit educational program designed to help students, scholars, and the general public better understand how Texas music reflects the richly diverse ethnic and cultural heritage of the American Southwest. The efforts of the donors help continue to increase awareness of how Texas music represents the unique history and culture of our state.Item Southeast Texas: Hothouse of Zydeco(The Center for Texas Music History, 2001-09) Wood, RogerThe neighboring states of Texas and Louisiana share much history and culture, yet in popular consciousness they often seem to be drastically different places. Media-perpetuated stereotypes—such as the Lone Star cowboy riding the open prairie or the savvy Creole paddling through the swamp—are obviously not entirely representative, past or present. Yet they persist, and such public images surely do affect perceptions, the ways others see us and the ways we see ourselves. In truth, however, there are prairies and cowboys in Louisiana as well as swamps and Creoles in southeast Texas. Indeed, the landscape and the people along one side of the Sabine River often have much in common with those along the other. And interchange across that waterway has occurred since the days of the earliest settlements. But the Texas heritage of one of its most fascinating musical results remains largely unrecognized today.