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If you’re a reader, a writer, or merely someone like me who
is entranced and enthralled by Texas music, then the FREE Saturday
morning seminar sponsored by the Texas Heritage Music Foundation on
September 27th at the Cailloux Center on Schreiner Campus in Kerrville,
Texas, could be one of the best memories of 2003 you take through
the coming years.
Here we will have the chance to dip into a four-part discussion about
the founders of Texas music. Leaders of this discussion will be Nolan
Porterfield, Jean Boyd, Ramiro Burr, and Dr. Gary Hartman.
Nolan Porterfield authored the definitive 1979 tome, Jimmie Rodgers:
the Life and Times of America’s Blues Yodeler, for the Music
in American Life series from the University of Illinois. He has spent
much of his own life on the origins and influences of Texas music,
and Jimmie Rodgers in particular.
If you’re a music fan, then Nolan’s discourse on the Father
of Texas music is a necessary part of understanding how we arrived
where we are. His encyclopedic knowledge and engrossing delivery are
refreshing well-spring in a landscape of academic dry holes.
Then we will have the opportunity to contrast the hard-living but
shortened (by tuberculosis) life of Jimmie Rodgers to the longest-lived
band in music history – The Light Crust Doughboys – with
Jean Boyd. Jean, a professor of Music History at Baylor University,
has written extensively on Texas music, including a book on the Doughboys
of Burrus Mills and another on the Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral
History of Western Swing.
The Light Crust Doughboys formed in the early 1930’s and are
still going strong. Before his death in 2001, Jean had the opportunity
to talk extensively to Marvin ‘Smokey’ Montgomery, who
was with the band since 1935 (and the band’s unofficial historian).
His sound and creativity were central to the band’s music, and
he performed with them right up to a few days before he died. (Which
sets the scene for another contrast: Jimmie Rodgers recorded his last
song a mere thirty-six hours before he died.)
Weaving Montgomery’s story and that of other band members into
a comprehensive understanding of a main branch of Texas music, Jean’s
strong voice promises to deliver knowledge and insight into a sorely
neglected Texas treasure.
Until recently, the Mexican influence has been another long ignored
area of Texas music. The word influence doesn’t properly describe
the Mexican contribution – since a good case can be made that
Mexican border music actually provided the original underpinnings.
Gospel, blues, ragtime, and jazz all added to that supporting structure.
Express-News columnist and A&E reporter Ramiro Burr is probably
the single best source on the subject. He’s invested the last
two decades studying and writing about Spanish-language music. Having
written hundreds of articles, reviews, songs, and interviews for dozens
of publications, his newest book, The Billboard Guide to Tejano and
Regional Mexican Music is the first true source book in the genre.
A growing acceptance and understanding of the Tejano connection and
la lengua is necessary to a complete overview of Texas music. It helps
to remember that Mexicans were Texans before the Tennesseeans and
Virginians ventured west. We’re excited to have Ramiro provide
the profit of his prodigious investment for our enjoyment.
The unifying thread, of course, is the Texas heritage of music and
its foundations. Perhaps the unifying authority for this enormous
subject is our final guest, Gary Hartman, Ph.D., director of the Institute
for the History of Texas Music at Southwest Texas State University.
Enjoying the music in and of itself is enough for some – maybe
most. But our lifetimes are part of this field of wild flowers called
Texas music. This is our – your – history, too. We should
prosper from and appreciate the uniting scholarship Dr. Hartman brings
to the discussion.
If you’re
at all like me you’ll make time in your schedule to attend this
unique and enjoyable learning experience in the Cailloux Hall on Schreiner
University campus in Kerrville, Texas, from 10 am to Noon on Saturday,
27 September. Understanding the music of your life is a giant step
in comprehending man’s life in general – and your own
in particular. I’ll save you a seat. And, hey! It’s FREE. |
