Pickers and Poets
The Ruthlessly Poetic Singer-Songwriters of Texas
Peter Cooper author Tamara Saviano author Robert Earl Hardy author Joe Nick Patoski author Joe Holley author Bob Livingston author Craig E Clifford editor Craig Hillis editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Texas A & M University Press
Published:31st Dec '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Many books and essays have addressed the broad sweep of Texas music—its multicultural aspects, its wide array and blending of musical genres, its historical transformations, and its love/hate relationship with Nashville and other established music business centers. This book, however, focuses on an essential thread in this tapestry: the Texas singer-songwriters to whom the contributors refer as “ruthlessly poetic.” All songs require good lyrics, but for these songwriters, the poetic quality and substance of the lyrics are front and center.
Obvious candidates for this category would include Townes Van Zandt, Michael Martin Murphey, Guy Clark, Steve Fromholz, Terry Allen, Kris Kristofferson, Vince Bell, and David Rodriguez. In a sense, what these songwriters were doing in small, intimate live-music venues like the Jester Lounge in Houston, the Chequered Flag in Austin, and the Rubaiyat in Dallas was similar to what Bob Dylan was doing in Greenwich Village. In the language of the times, these were “folksingers.” Unlike Dylan, however, these were folksingers writing songs about their own people and their own origins and singing in their own vernacular. This music, like most great poetry, is profoundly rooted.
That rootedness, in fact, is reflected in the book’s emphasis on place and the powerful ways it shaped and continues to shape the poetry and music of Texas singer-songwriters. From the coffeehouses and folk clubs where many of the “founders” got their start to the Texas-flavored festivals and concerts that nurtured both their fame and the rise of a new generation, the indelible stamp of origins is inseparable from the work of these troubadour-poets.
filled with thought-provoking insights" - The Midwest Book Review
"This book promises a tantalizing feast to satisfy avid readers of nonfiction musical history." - Elmore Magazine
"Clifford and Hillis have chosen dynamic musical artists as representative of ‘ruthlessly poetic’ singer-songwriters. The essays are written in a manner that is accessible to abroad audience of readers and fosters further examination of Texas singer-songwriters." - Great Plains Quarterly
ISBN: 9781648432118
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 272g
280 pages