JTMH V23 | Letter from the Director

This issue marks a moment of transition for The Journal of Texas Music History, as you will note from some of the new names on the masthead. To begin with, we wish a fond farewell to our founding art director and designer César Limón Delgado, who has done so much over the journal’s two-decade run to determine its classic look and feel. We welcome our new art director Savannah Menchaca-Trujillo to continue to bring you the visual focus that César has so long imprinted on our publications. As noted in the last issue, too, we have a change in the Center’s administrative assistant position. Avery Armstrong will be stepping into Kristi Madden’s former role to coordinate the journal’s distribution and the Center’s programs and events.  

In the past academic year, the Center has offered a range of programs that have included visits by Veronique Medrano to talk about Freddy Fender, Harold McMillan on Austin blues and jazz history, Lance Scott Walker and DaLyah Jones on DJ Screw, Tara Lopez on El Paso punk, and glam rocker Bevis Griffin with Kahron Spearman. We have had class visits, too, with author Michael Corcoran, Armadillo World Headquarters and Threadgill’s proprietor Eddie Wilson, and officials from the Texas Historical Commission. We were also able to take Texas State music history students on our study abroad program in Chester, England, again to explore the transatlantic ties of folk, rock, and blues music.  

This year’s journal contains two compelling artist profiles. One of these artists is firmly in the pantheon of Texas music, and, after reading the profile of the second one, I think you can see why perhaps he should be, too. Rich Kelly brings us a new look at Robert Earl Keen’s early career with a focus on historicizing his songcraft. Jason Crouch offers an oral history of Bevis Griffin, an artist who deserves a higher profile in the ways we think about Texas music. From Southern California by way of Wichita Falls, Griffin was a drummer and singer-songwriter in Austin’s glam and hard rock scenes of the 1970s before moving on to New York in the 1980s as a significant voice in the Black Rock Coalition. Historian Michael Schmidt closes out the issue with an introduction to his digital humanities project Local Memory that explores Austin’s music and venue history in the middle decades of the twentieth century before the more recognizable narratives of the 1960s counterculture take root.  

The Center looks forward to upcoming events and collaborations on the subjects of Houston rhythm and blues, Robert Johnson, George Strait, big band jazz, music heritage tourism, and more. In our John and Robin Dickson Series at Texas A&M Press, we anticipate new volumes on Willie Nelson’s picnic, Terri Hendrix, and other subjects, as well as a new paperback edition of Craig Hillis and Craig Clifford’s edited collection Pickers & Poets: The Ruthlessly Poetic Singer-Songwriters of Texas.

To learn more about the Center, please contact us or visit our website. As a reminder, the journal is also available online at www.txstate.edu/ctmh/publications/journal.html.  There’s no charge to receive the journal by mail. Simply contact us at avery.armstrong@txstate.edu with your address, and we’ll be happy to put you on our list. You can connect via our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts as well.

Of course, we could not have done any of this without the hard work, advice, and financial contributions from all of our friends and supporters. This journal is a group effort of Alan Schaefer, Savannah Menchaca-Trujillo, Avery Armstrong, and myself. We also offer our sincerest thanks to Gary Hartman, Adam Clark, Tammy Gonzales, John McKiernan-Gonzalez, Jeff Helgeson, Mary Brennan, Gregg Andrews, Thom Lemmons, Madelyn Patlan, Roberta Ruiz, Twister Marquiss, Hector Saldaña, Katie Salzmann, Clay Shorkey, Molly Hults, 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