Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture, No. 8) (Hardcover)

~ Roger Wood (Author), James Fraher (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the clubs, ballrooms, and barbecue joints of neighborhoods such as Third Ward, Frenchtown, Sunnyside, and Double Bayou, Houston's African American community birthed a vibrant and unique slice of the blues. Ranging from the down-home sounds of Lightnin' Hopkins to the more refined orchestrations of the Duke-Peacock recording empire and beyond, Houston blues was and is the voice of a working-class community, an ongoing conversation about good times and hard times, smokin' Saturday nights and Blue Mondays. Since 1995, Roger Wood and James Fraher have been gathering the story of the blues in Houston. In this book, they draw on dozens of interviews with blues musicians, club owners, audience members, and music producers, as well as dramatic black-and-white photographs of performers and venues, to present a lovingly detailed portrait of the Houston blues scene, past and present. Going back to the early days with Lightnin' Hopkins, they follow the blues from the streets of Houston's Third and Fifth Wards to its impact on the wider American blues scene. Along the way, they remember the vigorous blues community that sprang up after World War II, mourn its decline in the Civil Rights era, and celebrate the lively, if sometimes overlooked, blues culture that still calls Houston home. Wood and Fraher conclude the book with an unforgettable reunion of Houston blues legends that they held on January 3, 1998.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1St Edition edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292791593
• ISBN-13: 978-0292791596
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #197,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent history of Houston blues scene, March 16, 2003

By	Kevin Ladd "Kevin Ladd" (Hardin, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fans of the blues will thoroughly enjoy this outstanding book by Roger Wood and James Fraher, who spent seven years researching and interviewing folks involved with the largely "invisible" blues music scene in Houston and the surrounding area. Fraher's photographs are outstanding, and they help drive the lively text. The authors interviewed musicians, club owners, producers and many others associated with the music scene in Houston's Third Ward and the Fifth Ward. The book moves easily from clubs to ballrooms to barbecue joints, where the music first took root and is still played today. Many legendary blues musicians such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Clifton Chenier, Gatemouth Brown and others of similar rank make appearances in the text. This is a high-quality book from a production standpoint and is an incredible bargain at full price or the Amazon.com sale price.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weathered chunk of history, January 27, 2005

By	Jeremy Ulrey "Bangyrmfhead" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

Roger Wood begins this labor of love with a tacit admission that, on moving to H-town in 1981 for job related purposes, he was unaware of the blues history lining the cracks of the nearby Third Ward sidewalks until the February 1, 1982 obituary in the Houston Chronicle of lifelong native Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins. With this tome under his belt it appears he's made up for lost time since then.

In addition to covering the wealth of blues greats who were either born in Houston or called the area home for any length of time, Wood also documents the underbelly of the lower class club scene, those low rent juke joints and converted shotgun houses that kept the I-IV-V alive all those decades, and still continues to do so. Wood rightfully laments the city's growing distance from it's blues heritage as well as the disappearance of it's historic venues, but "Down in Houston" is a verbal and pictorial testament to the bedrock that no one can strip away.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive (exhaustive--in a good way) guide to houston blues, August 14, 2009

By	M. Allen (iowa city, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

finally! a book on houston blues--there are plenty of missives about chicago and mississippi river/delta cities and their blues traditions, but none that have been written so comprehensively on the bayou city until now. houston blues are a unique subgenre of "the blues;" thankfully they have been respectfully cataloged here. i had the privilege of hearing joe "guitar" hughes play in one of the small joints in the third ward just weeks before he died and was moved by the intensity and depth (for lack of better descriptors) of the performance. the musicians described here were the blues--they didn't just play at it. also, this is a side of houston that most houstonians aren't even aware of--it was fascinating to read about this parallel world going on, at the same time, just a few miles from where i grew up. an excellent book for anyone with an interest in music or even just houston's history.