Chronicling Texas music always also means opening our ears to the sounds and stories from around the globe, even beyond the rivers Red, Sabine, and Rio Grande. We had the chance to celebrate that wider expanse this fall when Joe Nick Patoski connected the Center to Joe Boyd, a London-based producer who, among other things, coined the term “world music.” Boyd was touring the United States with his new, epic book And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, and we were fortunate enough to host Joe Nick and Joe Boyd at the Wittliff for a public conversation on all things musical. And, to show that “world music” and “Texas music” are, of course, overlapping terms, he concluded with the history of Roma music in France and the artistry of Django Reinhart that so informs the guitar work of our very own Willie Nelson. Words from the conclusion of Boyd’s book are a fitting marker for our times and the Center’s project, too: “Music will always remain an indefinable mystery: why do humans need it and does it transform us? The stories in this book show how unstoppable it is, how heedless of oceans and borders. They remind us that no culture has evolved in isolation, and of how very diverse yet inseparably linked we are. In times of division and fragmentation, the connections music can provide are needed now more than ever.”
At the Center, we dedicate ourselves to promoting research and scholarship that explore these ideas, and we are proud to announce a new chapter in one of the channels we use to do so. Our award-winning book series with Texas A & M University Press has been renamed the Gary Hartman Series in Texas Music in honor of the Center’s founder and Professor Emeritus, an honor possible due to the generosity of longtime Center friend and Texas music authority Joe Specht. The first book in the new phase of the series is one we’ve been excited about for some time, Tamara Saviano’s Poets and Dreamers: My Life in Americana Music. Tamara joins us, along with Gary and Joe, for an event at the Wittliff Collections in November. This book series proceeds apace with other volumes such as Shane Ford’s The Ballad of “Blind” Willie Johnson and upcoming works on San Antonio in the 1960s and an array of our treasured singer-songwriters.
We have had an exciting stretch of Center programs in the past year for students, faculty, and community members. In Brazos Hall, we hosted speakers ranging from Houston historian and artist Jason Woods aka DJ Flash Gordon Parks to the dean of country music studies Bill Malone, from Johnny Cash chronicler Jonathan Silverman to the curators from the Austin Museum of Popular Culture. Our work on the Texas Music History Trails project with the Texas Historical Commission and Texas Music Office is entering a new phase with a pilot program in the Panhandle, and be sure to check out our continuing episodes of This Week in Texas Music History on radio stations KUTX, KUT, and public radio stations across the state.
This year’s journal explores some fascinating topics. The Center’s program administrator Avery Armstrong leads off with her extensive research on the history of the Lost Gonzo Band and their key role in the Austin music scene, rooted in rich oral histories that began with her graduate work at Texas State. Jaclyn Zapata follows with a profile of R. T. Ashford, the Deep Ellum entrepreneur responsible for Blind Lemon Jefferson first getting on record in the 1920s. The article concludes with the placement of a new Texas historical marker to Ashford in Deep Ellum, but what Jaclyn is too modest to mention is that she was responsible for researching, writing, and placing that marker in her then-role with the Texas Historical Commission. The journal closes with the work of the venerable Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., an advisory board member, writing on the history of Chicano Soul in Texas. Book reviews cover recent works on Terry Allen and Willie Nelson.
To learn more about the Center, please contact us or visit our website. As a reminder, the journal is also available online at www.txstate.edu/ctmh/publications/journal.html. There is no charge to receive the journal by mail. Simply contact us at txmusichistory@txstate.edu with your address, and we’ll be happy to put you on our list. You can connect via our Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts as well.
Of course, we could not have done any of this without the hard work, advice, and financial contributions from our friends and supporters. This journal is a group effort of Savannah Menchaca-Trujillo, Avery Armstrong, and myself. We also offer our sincerest thanks to Gary Hartman, Alan Schaefer, Adam Clark, Tammy Gonzales, John McKiernan-Gonzalez, Jeff Helgeson, Mary Brennan, Thom Lemmons, Madelyn Patlan, Roberta Ruiz, Hector Saldaña, Katie Salzmann, Peter Babb, Clay Shorkey, Steve Ray, Randy Rogers, Kelly Damphousse, John Michael Whitby, and the Center’s Advisory Board. And thanks to all of you who remain invested in the study and preservation of Texas music history. We can only do this work together.
Dr. Jason Mellard, Director
Center for Texas Music History
Department of History
Texas State University
601 University Drive
San Marcos, TX 78666
(512) 245-1101
jasonmellard@txstate.edu
txst.edu/ctmh