The Blues Come to Texas, Paul Oliver & Mack McCormick’s Unfinished Book

Description

The Blues Come to Texas
Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick’s Unfinished Book
Compiled by Alan B. Govenar
Contributions by Kip Lornell

From the publisher Texas A & M University

From October 1959 until the mid-1970s, Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick collaborated on what they hoped to be a definitive history and analysis of the blues in Texas. Both were prominent scholars and researchers—Oliver had already established an impressive record of publications, and McCormick was building a sprawling collection of primary materials that included field recordings and interviews with blues musicians from all over Texas and the greater South.

Despite being eagerly awaited by blues fans, folklorists, historians, and ethnomusicologists who knew about the Oliver-McCormick collaboration, the intended manuscript was never completed.

In 1996, Alan Govenar, a respected writer, folklorist, photographer, and filmmaker, began a conversation with Oliver about the unfinished book on Texas blues. Subsequently, Oliver invited Govenar to assist him, and when Oliver became ill, Govenar enlisted folklorist and ethnomusicologist Kip Lornell to help him contextualize and document the existing manuscript for publication.

The Blues Come to Texas: Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick’s Unfinished Book presents an unparalleled view into the minds and methods of two pioneering blues scholars.

John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, sponsored by the Center for Texas Music History, Texas State University
About the Author
PAUL OLIVER (1927–2017) was professor at Oxford Brookes University, a leading authority on blues history, and author of a score of books on blues and vernacular architecture. ROBERT “MACK” McCORMICK (1930–2015) was a folklorist and blues researcher widely acclaimed for his field interviews, liner notes, and recordings with Texas blues musicians. ALAN B. GOVENAR is the author of Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound, Everyday Music, and other titles. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and currently resides in Dallas, Texas. KIP LORNELL teaches courses in American music and ethnomusicology at George Washington University. His most recent book (with Anne Rasmusen) is Musics of Multicultural America. He resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.