Texas blues
Subtitle: the rise of a contemporary sound
By: Alan Govenar.
Series: The John and Robin Dickson series in Texas music
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: College Station
Language: eng
Number of pages: 599
ISBN-13: 9781585446056
Subjects: Blues musicians -- Texas -- Interviews; Blues (Music) -- Texas -- History and criticism
Genres: Interviews.
Description: "Beginning in East Texas and journeying to the hot, dusty streets of Dakar, Senegal, Govenar traces the earliest roots of the music that became known as blues in the 1890s. Through a critical examination of the work of 19th and 20th century folklorists, historians, and popular writers, Govenar documents the transition from African-styled banjos and fiddles to the rudiments of blues guitar and the emergence of a distinctly Texas sound."

"As "race music" began to capture the interest of 1920s America, Blind Lemon Jefferson, a Dallas street musician from East Texas, emerged as the biggest selling blues singer in the country. Jefferson's guitar style and musical innovations spread quickly among his peers and were seminal in the growth of modern blues. Jefferson's profound impact. on the development of blues is probably most apparent in the music of Aaron ''T-Bone" Walker, who introduced the electric guitar as a lead instrument in blues in the 1940s, and over the years, influenced virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed him."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [555]-556), discography (p. [549]-554), and index.
Table of contents: title: East Texas; title: Electrifying the blues; title: Dallas; title: Fort Worth; title: The saxophone in Texas blues; title: Houston; title: Houston zydeco; title: Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange; title: The move to California; title: San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and the Rio Grande Valley; title: Austin.