The Handbook of Texas Music

"The Handbook of Texas Music tells a compelling story of music that deeply reflects the many distinctive groups that have created Texas music and used it as a means of entertainment, expression, solace, and identity. The recorded country blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson were so popular and influential in the 1920s that his name has come to represent all down-home bluesmen. Gene Autry's singing cowboy music on record and radio and his image on the silver screen and early television had a profound impact on the development of country music and the image of the cowboy in American life. Van Cliburn on stage in Moscow, where he won the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition during the depths of the Cold War, was an important moment in classical musical history and artistic diplomacy.