“THE ROOTS OF TEXAS COUNTRY MUSIC”

Like other folk music, the cowboy’s music was personal, existing as far back as cowboys have ridden night herd.  It wasn’t written down, just learned from other cowboys yet it was an important part of their lives, sang to spooky cattle and to each other when their lonely lives around a cow camp or on a trail drive needed some diversion.  That piece of Texas Music is alive today, still celebrating the way of the American cowboy. 

Today Texas Music is a quilt of many colors, sharing a common origin; the folk music the English, Irish and German immigrants brought to America where they and immigrants of other origins gave it a slightly different sound and moved west then further west until it was taken across the Mississippi by those "lost souls goin to Texas".  The heritage of Texas Country Music begins there, then is defined and shaped by the work of the cowboys; cowboys of African, Hispanic, English, Irish and German decent who were also fiddlers and guitarists playing ranch and small town dances in the vast western space known as “cow country”.  It was the music of the night herder and the cow camp and the country dances that would evolve into other forms of Texas Music.  The music changed, some becoming known as traditional cowboy music but the roots remained. 

The traditional cowboy music is the name we use today for the music played into the late 1920s by cowboys unknown outside their small communities until Hollywood’s singing cowboys began to give the music wide exposure.  That music became the basis for other styles, the first perhaps being the music known as Texas Swing.  The “tag” Texas Swing was first given to the sound of the music played in dance halls across west Texas and western Oklahoma in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s.  Two Ft. Worth band leaders whose bands played their version of Texas Swing, Milton Brown and Bob Wills, began a historic musical association (‘30s) and added a jazz influence to their dance music that created a more upbeat sound of Texas Swing. 

The evolution continued and with early help from groups like the Sons of the Pioneers and later voices such as Red Steagall, Don Edwards and Michael Martin Murphy, a new style of music was created.  That new style of music is known today as Western Music, music that tells the story of the cowboy and the story of the west itself.   

With the depression era migration west, the Texas Swing sound spread west too.  In California a unique mix of migrant and local musicians began blending swing with blues, jazz and other sounds to form what became known as, because of its west coast influence, Western Swing.  Wills, his roots in fiddle playing but with a interest in more upbeat sounds took up Western Swing.  Later he took an unusual step and introduced brass to his music, changing the dance hall sound even more.  The Western Swing name stuck and the music migrated with the people to the bigger Texas cities and their bigger dance halls where “city folk” became part of its following.   

Not everyone playing the dance music in the ‘30s took up Texas Swing.  Across Texas there were many who continued to play at dances with the fiddle, guitar and stand up bass.

In the post war 1940s, a sound first heard in the late 30’s from Al Dexter and Ted Daffin was being heard again from the countless small dance halls across the Texas Hill Country from Schulenburg to London (Texas).  Starting with Dexter’s 1937 “Honky Tonk Blues”, moved forward by Daffin’s 1944 classic “Born to Lose” and Tilman’s 1949 “Slippin’ Around” (the first cheatin’ song) the sound was now being taken in a new direction and the songs and voices of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Hank Thompson, Lefty Frizzell and others continued that evolution.  It was an evolution now fueled by the enthusiasm of the dance hall public and that brought about a revised blend of pure dance music.  The sound called “Honky Tonk” was being given life and finding its place in Texas music.  Honky Tonk, by many considered the heart of country music in Texas, had arrived. 

By the late 1950's the music of Texas cowboys; music about bad horses, bad luck and bad men had evolved into music about women, heartbreak and life’s other side and in the process evolving into the music of Texas.  

The Texas Music evolution continued.  Some 20 years later (1981-82)., with western swing and honky-tonk dominating every performance, new comer George Strait blew out of Texas and onto the national music scene.  Their music propelled Strait and his band to “super star” status, proving that in the face of music evolution the roots has never died.  Today the music style is played by artist like Jake Hooker, Bobby Flores and others in old places like London Hall and not so old ones like The Broken Spoke.  Even the songs written down by John Lamax during his early years has come full circle with a just released CD "Lomax" by Gary S. Pratt containing eleven songs from Lomax's books.  

The Lomax Gathering believes the popularity of the roots music is still there with the seasoned Texas music masses today.  The Lomax Gathering celebrates these roots of Texas Country Music.

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