Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air: Legends of West Texas Music (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series)

By Christopher J. Oglesby

Book Overview

From Buddy Holly and the Crickets to the Flatlanders, Terry Allen, and Natalie Maines, Lubbock, Texas, has produced songwriters, musicians, and artists as prolifically as cotton, conservatives, and windstorms. While nobody questions where the conservatives come from in a city that a recent nonpartisan study ranked as America's second most conservative, many people wonder why Lubbock is such fertile ground for creative spirits who want to expand the boundaries of thought in music and art. Is it just that "there's nothing else to do," as some have suggested, or is there something in the character of Lubbock that encourages creativity as much as conservatism?

In this book, Christopher Oglesby interviews twenty-five musicians and artists with ties to Lubbock to discover what it is about this community and West Texas in general that feeds the creative spirit. Their answers are revealing. Some speak of the need to rebel against conventional attitudes that threaten to limit their horizons. Others, such as Joe Ely, praise the freedom of mind they find on the wide open plains. "There is this empty desolation that I could fill if I picked up a pen and wrote, or picked up a guitar and played," he says. Still others express skepticism about how much Lubbock as a place contributes to the success of its musicians. Jimmie Dale Gilmore says, "I think there is a large measure of this Lubbock phenomenon that is just luck, and that is the part that you cannot explain."

As a whole, the interviews create a portrait not only of Lubbock's musicians and artists, but also of the musical community that has sustained them, including venues such as the legendary Cotton Club and the original Stubb's Barbecue. This kaleidoscopic portrait of the West Texas music scene gets to the heart of what it takes to create art in an isolated, often inhospitable environment. As Oglesby says, "Necessity is the mother of creation. Lubbock needed beauty, poetry, humor, and it needed to get up and shake its communal ass a bit or go mad from loneliness and boredom; so Lubbock created the amazing likes of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, and Joe Ely."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292714343
• ISBN13: 9780292714342
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

WOW!

If you're curious about how it all started, wonder why this little area of Texas produced some of the greatest artists of our time, you NEED to read this book. Some of the artists covered are geniuses only slightly this side of mad; they are all amazing and one could come to believe, as some do, that aliens may have landed in Lubbock and be among them. Or maybe it's just Buddy Holly's ghost. How else do you explain the wild whimsy of a Bruce Hancock, the incredible breadth of a Terry Allen, the ability of Jo Harvey to shake us by our socks? You'll love every page.

Vortex

If you subscribe to the idea that certain areas of the world are natural conduits to creativity (and they're often the most UNLIKELY places on Earth), this book will definitely reinforce that notion. As a life-long Texan, I had no idea of the breadth of artistry that's emerged from the vast, desolate, seemingly limitless landscape that is Lubbock, Texas. Sure, I'd heard of Buddy Holly, Joe Ely, and the Flatlanders--what serious music lover in Texas or around the world hadn't? But to learn about this fountain of artists who may not be as well known yet have been just as prolific and, more importantly, just as influential--that was an eye-opener. It'll be one for you, too. If you love Texas music, buy this book. If you love music in general, or if you want an insight into the how the creative process is molded by a landscape, an environment, an ideal--buy this book. You'll come away informed, sated, but more importantly, curious. And it will open up a whole new avenue of inquiry for you. It did for me.