Texas | Columns

Music

• Bobo and Blair by Bob Bowman 12-30-08
  Two Shelby County, Texas, communities might have passed into history without as much as a footnote if a singing cowboy had not popularized a marching and dice playing chant by East Texas soldiers.
  
• The first Elvis impersonator by Bob Bowman 3-10-08
  Former radio personality Norman Johnson of Nacogdoches holds a unique place in East Texas history: He was the first known Elvis impersonator.
  
• "Always Late" by Archie P. McDonald 2-3-08
  "Just on the southside of the crossings sat a beer joint named "Neva's," and there, my father said, was where Lefty Frizzell sang about a girl who was "always late" with her kisses."
  
• Gospel music by Bob Bowman 1-2-08
  Few things have left as much impact on East Texas history as gospel music...
  
• Good Night Irene by Archie P. McDonald 10-1-07
  Since Shreveport and Caddo Parish were once members of the old East Texas Chamber of Commerce, it is appropriate for the East Texas Historical Association to consider Huddie Leadbetter, better known as Leadbelly, as part of our past—especially since at least one of his prison sentences was served in this region.
  
• Comeback of a cotton gin by Bob Bowman 8-13-07
  Dozens of old cotton gins dot the landscape of East Texas, the last relics from the days when cotton was a major cash crop for farmers. And most of them are slowly rotting away without historical markers to remind people of how important they were to communities decades ago. But that isn’t the case at Point...
  
• Palestine’s Texas Theater by Bob Bowman 2-4-07
  While visiting Palestine a few months back, I learned that the Texas Theater, one of the grand old movie houses of East Texas, has been restored and is now a setting for community stage productions. The Texas is not only a landmark for Palestine, but for me.
  
• Honky Tonk Man by Archie P. McDonald 3-27-06
  Johnny Horton
• The Boll Weevil by Archie P. McDonald 1-1-06
  "Tex Ritter sang this lament decades ago.."
  
• How Boogie Woogie Began by Bob Bowman 12-5-05
  In 1939, African American historian E. Simms Campbell wrote, “Boogie Woogie piano playing originated in the lumber and turpentine camps of Texas and in the sporting houses of that state.”
  
• The Quebe Sisters by Bob Bowman 11-27-05
  "If Bob Wills were around today, the chances are good that he would be delighted with three teenage sisters from Burleson. Listening to the Quebe Sisters play the western swing music pioneered by Wills in the 1930s and l940s, you realize they are special musicians who love what they’re doing..."
  
• The Light Crust Doughboys are on the air! by Archie P. McDonald 10-24-05
• Pickin’ at Sacul by Bob Bowman 10-4-05
  "...On the fourth Saturday night of each month, amateur pickers and singers travel to Sacul -- a Nacogdoches County town that almost became a ghost town -- in search of appreciative audiences..."
• Casablanca’s East Texan by Bob Bowman 7-24-05
  Dooley Wilson, the piano player who sang As Time Goes By in Casablanca
  
• Pass the Biscuits, Pappy by Bob Bowman 6-1-05
  His Texas homilies, radio broadcasts, hillbilly music and affinity for rural Texas propelled him into the governor’s office for two terms.
• The Old Fiddler by Bob Bowman 11/1/04
  Way back in the l930s, Henderson County storekeeper John Hatton leaped from obscurity into statewide prominence when Athens started its annual Old Fiddlers Reunion.
• "The Light Crust Doughboys are on the air!" by Archie P. McDonald, 1/29/04
  The most famous, and most successful, western swing group in Texas in the 1930s 1/29/04
• Crockett' s Cafe and Music Hall by Bob Bowman 8/03
• The Big Bopper by Archie P. McDonald 6/29/02
• East Texas Song Writer Ted Daffan by Bob Bowman 2/16/02
• A Statue for Lightnin' by Bob Bowman 1/18/02
• Our Celebrities by Bob Bowman, 10/7/01
• Creating a Gospel Classic by Bob Bowman, 9/9/01
• Blind Lemon by Bob Bowman, 3/25/01
• Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair by Archie P. McDonald, 1/21/01

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