These Texas artists—singer Barbara Lynn, top, singer/songwriter Randy Rogers, middle, and accordionist Joel Guzmán—have made Texas music history and may be the subjects of future radio programs.

Center for Texas Music History
Launches New Show on NPR

March 2008—The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University has launched a new radio program entitled "This Week in Texas Music History."

The 90-second show began March 31. It will air each Monday morning on Austin's KUT 90.5 FM during NPR’s Morning Edition at 6:33 a.m. and 8:33 a.m., immediately after the bottom-of-the-hour NPR newscast. It is also  available on KUT's web site, www.TexasMusicMatters.kut.org.

Click here to hear the first show, about gospel singer "Blind" Arizona Dranes.

Each episode will look at a different person, place, or thing from that particular week in Texas music history. Every show will include interesting information about different aspects of Texas music history that most people, even Texas music fans, don't usually know.

Shows are written and narrated by Dr. Gary Hartman, Director of the Center for Texas Music History. Hartman is the author of The History of Texas Music, co-editor of The Handbook of Texas Music, and editor of The Journal of Texas Music History among other publications. Hartman received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, and is considered one of the nation’s pre-eminent scholars on the subject of Texas music, with an emphasis on historic and ethnographic perspectives. Hartman is also an accomplished musician, having performed throughout the United States and Europe as guitarist and vocalist with The Texas Swing Kings.

The shows are written to keep the listener "in suspense" until the end of the segment, when the narrator reveals some final information about musicians, musical events, and other things from music history.

The Center for Texas Music History, in the Department of History, focuses on the preservation and study of Texas and Southwestern music history. The Center offers graduate and undergraduate courses along with a variety of research and publishing projects aimed at helping Americans better understand Texas' unique culture through music. The Center also sponsors musical programs such as the annual Texas Music History Unplugged series, now in its eighth year, and museum exhibits, cd collections, and other projects aimed at the study and preservation of the state's vast musical resource.

For further information, please contact Dr. Gary Hartman, Director, Center for Texas Music History, http://www.txstate.edu/ctmh.