News and Events

Bill Malone: Country Music U.S.A.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 | 2:00 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

In 1968, Bill Malone published Country Music U.S.A. – the first definitive academic history of country music. Since then, the book has become a cornerstone of American music history. Malone is now widely recognized as the senior authority in country music scholarship. He was granted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Music in 2008, and consulted with Ken Burns on his 2019 miniseries, Country Music.

Join the Center for Texas Music History as we welcome Bill Malone to discuss his career as a country music scholar, including his formative time teaching at Texas State in the 1960s.

To register, visit our event page.

Joe Boyd at Texas State: in conversation with Joe Nick Patoski
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 | 11:00 AM | The Wittliff Collections

Please join the Center for Texas Music History on October 8th, 2024 as we welcome Joe Boyd to the TXST campus to discuss his newest book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, and another aspects of this multifaceted musical career – from managing Muddy Waters, founding London's UFO Club, producing Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, and more. And the Roots of Rhythm Remain explores the long histories that informed the elaboration of the “world music” genre in the late twentieth century. In this sweeping narrative, Boyd shows how the musical history in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as momentous as the more familiar U.S. or English stories of musical New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool.

Visit the event page to register and learn more!

From Connecticut to Cash: Why I Wrote About The Man In Black | Jonathan Silverman
Wednesday, October 2, 2024 | 2:00 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

In this presentation, Dr. Jonathan Silverman discussed how a New Wave and punk fan from New England ended up writing and co-writing two books about Johnny Cash. An intense curiosity about the United States as well as the need to put its culture in context drives a lot of his scholarship and writing. Silverman's training combines an American Studies PhD with a journalist’s background. Silverman narrated his intellectual journey and how it seemingly inevitably intersected with the Man and Black, and then went international.

Learn more on our event page!

Book Talk: Welcome 2 Houston | Langston Collin Wilkins
Monday, March 25, 2024 | 12:30 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

In Welcome 2 Houston, folklorist Langston Collin Wilkins returns to the city where he grew up to illuminate the complex relationship between place, identity, and music in Houston’s hip hop culture. Interviews with local rap artists, producers, and managers inform an exploration of how artists, audiences, music, and place interact to create a heritage that musicians negotiate in a variety of ways. Street-based musicians, avant-garde underground rappers, and Christian artists offer candid views of the scene while Wilkins delves into related aspects like slab, the area’s hip hop-related car culture. What emerges is a portrait of a dynamic reciprocal process where an artist, having identified with and embodied a social space, reproduces that space in a performance even as the performance reconstructs the social space.

We were honored to host Wilkins at the Center for Texas Music History to hear about his important work on Houston hip hop.

Texas State Historical Association Conference 2024
February 28 - March 1, 2024 | College Station, TX

In February of 2024, the Center for Texas Music History sponsored our annual panel at the Texas State Historical Association's Conference – this year, in College Station.

Our three panelists were:
- Evaliza Fuentes, Texas Christian University. “Growing Up on Selena: Historicizing Thirty Years of Amor Prohibido”
- Rich Kelly, Austin Community College. “Robert Earl Keen and the Death and Rebirth of Texas Country Music”
- Avery Armstrong, Texas State University. “The Lost Gonzo Band and the Creation of the Live Music Capital of the World”

A great conversation was had with audience members after the presentations about historical memory, oral history, and music as a cultural connector between generations.

Bevis M. Griffin: Texas Black Rock Maverick
February 24, 2024 | 2:00 PM | Texas Music Museum

This was an exciting conversation with Bevis M. Griffin about his career in Texas Music. Griffin entered the Austin music scene in the 1970s as a charismatic frontman during the glam rock era that preceded punk. With his band Banzai Kik, Griffin then took the 1980s New York scene by storm, both musically and as an advocate in the Black Rock Coalition alongside members of Living Colour and writer Greg Tate. He has remained a fixture of the music and creative scenes in Austin.

Bevis was joined in conversation by Texas writer Gene Fowler.

The West Side Sound Oral History Project | Sylvia Mendoza & Gloria Gonzalez
Monday, February 19, 2024 | 12:30 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

The West Side Sound Oral History Project is a collaboration between two Mexican American Studies professors from UTSA, two music historians and DJs, and the local community. By focusing on the West Side Sound, a genre of music that draws from conjunto music, R&B, doo wop and other Black musical genres, and by inviting the community to share their stories, this project showcases the contributions made to music and U.S. history by Black and Chicana/o/x communities.

We welcomed Sylvia Mendoza and Gloria Gonzales, along with Rambo Salinas and Chuco Garcia, to the Center for Texas Music History to discuss their work in preserving the cultural history of San Antonio's west side.

For more information, visit our West Side Sound event page.

Pursuing a Public History of Entertainment at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History | John Troutman
Thursday, November 9, 2023 | 12:30 PM | Wittliff Collections

Today the Smithsonian Institution recognizes popular music as an important arena for research, collections, and exhibitions. But that was not always the case, and its methods for engaging audiences in the interpretation of music and entertainment’s complicated past in the U.S. remain unfinished and in flux.

We welcomed music curator John Troutman to speak about his work as a public historian and lead curator of the National Museum of American History’s new permanent exhibition, Entertainment Nation.

Book Talk: Texas Jazz Singer: Louise Tobin in the Golden Age of Swing and Beyond | Kevin Mooney
Wednesday, October 18, 2023 | 3:30 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

Based on extensive oral history interviews and archival research, Texas Jazz Singer recalls both the glamour and the challenges of life on the road and onstage during the golden age of swing and beyond. Through the lens of examining the life of singer Louise Tobin, the book traces American music through the twentieth century. Tobin's story provides insight into the challenges musicians faced to sustain their careers during the cultural revolution and ever-changing styles and tastes in music.

During this presentation, author Kevin Mooney, a professor in the School of Music at Texas State University, offered a new perspective on Louise Tobin and her impact on jazz music.

To learn more, visit our Texas Jazz Singer event page.

Architects of Sound: Women of El Paso Punk | Tara Martin López
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 | 2:00 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

Dr. Tara Martin López led a riveting discussion about how women in El Paso, Texas led and sustained the city's punk music scene during the borderlands movement in West Texas. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, El Paso provided unique opportunities for fierce sonic expression and innovation, especially for the Chicanas who dominated the city's musical culture. These women, who are often unheralded in public memory, actively challenged the nativist politics and economic shifts of the decade through their music.

To learn more and watch the recording of the event, visit our Architects of Sound event page.

Texas Black Rock Maverick | Bevis M. Griffin
 Tuesday, November 29, 2022 | 5:00 PM | Taylor Murphy Hall 201

Musician Bevis M. Griffin was joined in conversation with journalist Kahron Spearman about his career in Texas Music. From Los Angeles by way of Wichita Falls, Griffin entered the Austin music scene in the 1970s as a charismatic frontman during the glam rock era that preceded punk. With his band Banzai Kik, Griffin then took the New York scene of the 80s by storm, both musically and as an advocate in the Black Rock Coalition alongside members of Living Colour and writer Greg Tate. He then returned to Austin, where he has remained a fixture of the music and creative scenes. Conversant Kahron Spearman is a chronicler of the East Austin scene whose work has appeared in the Austin Chronicle and Texas Highways. He is also the host of Discovery with Kahron Spearman on KAZI.

Preserving East Austin's Blues and Jazz History | Harold McMillan
Tuesday, November 15, 2022 | 5:00 PM | Taylor Murphy Hall 101

Musician, advocate, and archivist Harold McMillan discussed his decades-long work in preserving the blues and jazz history of East Austin. Through DiverseArts, the East Austin Creative Coalition, and the venue Kenny Dorham's Backyard, McMillan engages in what he calls "active cultural preservation"—celebrating traditional African American expressive culture by strategically developing programmatic and organizational structures intent on keeping these forms alive in contemporary practice.

For questions or more information contact Dr. Jason Mellard.

Putting Freddy Fender in the Country Music Hall of Fame | Veronique Medrano
Thursday, November 3, 2022 | 3:30 PM | Brazos Hall Lobby

Recording artist and archivist Veronique Medrano spoke on her campaign to get Freddy Fender in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Fender, born Baldemar Huerta in San Benito, Texas, was among the first Tejano artists to reach the top of the country charts in the 1970s. Medrano's campaign is about much more than just getting him his due, however, as it also promotes an overdue conversation on the long and significant Mexican-American presence in and influence on the genre of country music.

Oral Histories, Community Storytelling, and the Legacy of DJ Screw | Lance Scott Walker and DaLyah Jones
 Thursday, October 6, 2022 | 3:30 PM | Flowers Hall 341

Writers Lance Scott Walker and DaLyah Jones joined in conversation about amplifying voices of local history in Houston and East Texas, including Walker's new biography of DJ Screw.

Voice Lessons | Alice Embree
Monday, March 28, 2022 | 6:30 PM | Taylor Murphy Hall 101

Alice Embree, a lifelong activist and leading Texan in the student, antiwar, and feminist movements of the 60s and 70s, discussed her new memoir, Voice Lessons.