Texas Blues allows artists to speak in their own words, revealing the
dynamics of blues, from its beginnings in cotton fields and shotgun
shacks to its migration across boundaries of age and race to seize
the musical imagination of the entire world.
Fully illustrated with 495 dramatic, high-quality color and black-
and-white photographs—many never before published—Texas Blues
provides comprehensive and authoritative documentation of a musical
tradition that has changed contemporary music. Award-winning
documentary filmmaker and author Alan Govenar here builds on his
previous groundbreaking work documenting these musicians and their
style with the stories of 110 of the most influential artists and their
times.
From Blind Lemon Jefferson and Aaron "T-Bone" Walker of Dallas,
to Delbert McClinton in Fort Worth, Sam "Ligntnin'" Hopkins in East
Texas, Baldemar (Freddie Fender) Huerta in South Texas, and Stevie
Ray Vaughan in Austin, Texas Blues shows the who, what, where,
and how of blues in the Lone Star State.
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ALAN GOVENAR is a writer, photographer, folklorist, and filmmaker
who lives in Dallas. Through his nonprofit organization, Documentary
Arts, Inc., he has worked in association with NOVA, La Sept/ARTE,
and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on a number of projects.
The off-Broadway premier of his musical, Blind Lemon Blues,
co-created with Akin Babatunde and based on the life of Blind Lemon
Jefferson, received rave reviews in The New York Times and Variety.
The John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, sponsored by
the Center for Texas Music History, Texas State University-San
Marcos
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