Music and Music History

In 2007, Ruben Molina published the first-ever history of Mexican-American soul and R&B music in his book, Chicano Soul: Recordings and History of an American Culture. Ten years later, Chicano Soul...

Glenn Ohrlin (1926-2015) was a cowboy singer, working cowboy, rodeo rider, storyteller, and illustrator. In The Hell-Bound Train he has gathered dozens of his favorite songs, which chronicle the range and rodeo life he lived. Ohrlin was known for singing in an unornamented Western style, accompanying himself on the guitar and harmonica. Most of his repertoire comes from the period of 1875 to 1925. The book includes music and lyrics for songs such as "My Home's in Montana," "The Texas Rangers," and "Bull Riders in the Sky," along with Ohrlin's commentary on each work's provenance and meaning. This collection is a must-have for any fan of cowboy and folk music.

Its strains may be haunting, but western swing is alive and on the upswing, enjoying a renaissance among musicians too young to recall or even comprehend its heyday. For them, the term may evoke the nationally known country music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and the Spade Cooley Band. Yet on the local level, western swing bands dominated the airways and dance halls in every town and rural setting throughout the Southwest in the 1930s and by the 1940s had spread their influence and music to California. Jean A. Boyd presents the history and music of those bands that did not garner national fame, but were local sensations to thousands of southwesterners hungry for diversion and good dancing during the Depression and World War II. Devoted fans who travel the festival circuit will surely appreciate the histories and recollections Boyd has carefully compiled, while musicologists will welcome her...

Texas shows its best moves in dance halls that dot its landscape. Wherever they’ve found fiddlers and dance floors, Texans have been tickled into motion. And for a century and a half, they’ve been kicking up dust in dance halls across the state. Writing about the eighteen she knows best, Gail Folkins celebrates how these halls still bring people together and foster joy. Folkins etches portraits of proprietors who give space for music and dancing, of musicians who furnish the soundtrack for dramas and comedies that play out across hardwood or concrete floors, and of people who come to dance, listen, or simply share the experience with friends and neighbors. Paired with Marcus Weekley’s photographs, some whirling and some dreamy, they capture beat and motion, even the scent of sawdust on the floor. Drawn in, we witness daytime preparations for evenings to come, and the quiet that returns after the...

Belmont University Prize for Best Book on Country Music 1995 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. Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison, Edd Mayfield and Tex Logan, the Carter Family and Bob Wills, Tommy Hancock and Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock—these are just a few of the legends profiled in this exciting volume.