JTMH Volume 20 | Letter from the Director

Welcome to the twentieth volume of the Journal of Texas Music History. This has been a challenging year on many fronts, and also one that underscores music’s significance as an art form that provides comfort, diversion, and meaning through trying times. We have been reminded how enjoying music together in physical spaces builds community, as well as the importance of our state’s diverse cultural heritage and the need to amplify the Black and Latinx voices that have been foundational in our musical history. We urge our readers and patrons to continue to support artists and venues where and when they can to sustain the vibrant music scenes and traditions all across Texas.

Since the last issue of the journal, we have continued to celebrate the communities Texas music has built. The Center hosted campus events with author Donna Marie Miller and James and Annetta White of Austin’s Broken Spoke and with writers Lance Scott Walker and DaLyah Jones on Houston hip-hop in advance of Walker’s upcoming biography of DJ Screw. In the wake of Ken Burns’s PBS series on country music, we brought one of its stars, historian Bill Malone, for an evening of conversation at The Wittliff Collections followed by a performance at Cheatham Street Warehouse. This was a homecoming of sorts, as Malone taught in our history department while writing his seminal work Country Music U.S.A. in the 1960s, a volume that is now the cornerstone of country music scholarship. We also took the Center’s mission off campus, presenting panels of our colleagues’ and students’ research at the Texas State Historical Association in Austin and the Central Texas History Association in New Braunfels. 

One of those Central Texas presentations developed into the lead article here, as Center alum Evaliza Fuentes shares research from her graduate work on Austin guitar maestro Manuel “Cowboy” Donley, who played a pivotal role in the electrical amplification of música tejana. The publication of this article is particularly poignant, as Donley sadly passed away in late June, and we dedicate this issue of the journal to his memory. Donley’s midcentury experimentation with rock ‘n’ roll finds an interesting counterpoint in Tara Lopez’s article on the vibrant El Paso punk scene of the 1990s, providing important insight into a city often left out of our dominant cultural narratives. Jennifer Ruch then takes us outside the state entirely to reflect on how Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is reflecting on the Texas-Tennessee connections of the 1970s with its grand exhibition Outlaws & Armadillos. 

The Center looks forward to exploring the world of streaming and virtual events in the remainder of 2020 and into 2021 on the subjects of borderlands music, blues, and Austin jazz history. Our John and Robin Dickson Series at A & M Press is also going strong, with Tracy Anne Hart’s striking book of photography Seeing Stevie Ray as the most recent addition. As this journal comes to print, we will be nearing publication of two more Dickson titles, Kathleen Hudson’s Corazón Abierto: Mexican American Voices in Texas Music and Brian Atkinson’s Looks Like Rain: The Songwriting Legacy of Mickey Newbury as well as a paperback edition of Diana Finlay Hendricks’s popular Delbert McClinton: One of the Fortunate Few. The Center also supported the publication of Michael Corcoran’s important new study Ghost Notes: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Music with TCU Press. 

To learn more about the Center, please contact us or visit our website. As a reminder, the journal is also available online. There’s no charge to receive the journal. Simply contact us at jasonmellard@txstate.edu, or krb121@txstate.edu and we’ll be happy to put you on our mailing list. You can connect via our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts as well.

Of course, we couldn’t have done any of this without the hard work, advice, and financial contributions from all of our friends and supporters. My sincerest thanks to Gary Hartman, Alan Schaefer, Kristi Madden, César Limón Delgado, Callie Lewis, Adam Clark, Tammy Gonzales, John McKiernan-González, Angie Murphy, Jeff Helgeson, Mary Brennan, Gregg Andrews, Madelyn Patlan, Roberta Ruiz, Twister Marquiss, Hector Saldaña, Lyda Guz, and the Center’s Advisory Board. And thanks to all of you who remain invested in the study, preservation, and celebration of Texas music history.

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
txstate.edu/ctmh