Sunday, January 18, 2009

Texas Country Singers -- Phil Fry and Jim Lee

I've known both Phil Fry and Jim Lee a loooooong time. Phil was a grad student with me at both UT and UNT. Jim was a professor at UNT and occasionally came down to Austin to take part in the grad student football games on Sundays in the fall.

I also like country music, especially when it's sung by Texans. So you know I'm going to give Texas Country Singers a good review. It's short (87 pages) and compact. It has biographies of 25 Texans who should be in everybody's country music collection. Some of them probably are (George Jones, Jim Reeves, Bob Wills, etc.); some of them might not be (Milton Brown, Adolph Hofner). Reading about those folks is always fun, and you get the impression that Fry and Lee love the music as well as the people they're writing about.

One of the singers they discuss is Moon Mullican. The band my son, Allen, works with, the Cornell Hurd Band ("Country Music's Worst Nightmare"), had just released a CD of Mullican's turns, and you can buy it right here. As well you should. It's great. Trust me.

3 comments:

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

I'm not familiar with Milton Brown or Adolph Hofner but I am, of course, on a first name basis with the others.

I'm also enough of a fan to remember Moon Mullican, though his fifteen minutes occurred long before I was born, with hits like Sweeter Than the Flowers, I'll Sail My Ship Alone and Cherokee Boogie.

Unknown said...

I'm old enough to remember even those from the radio.

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

You win!