The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock

by Jan Reid, Scott Newton (Photographs)

Musical magic hit Austin, Texas, in the early 1970s. At now-legendary venues such as Threadgill's, Vulcan Gas Company, and the Armadillo World Headquarters, a host of country, rock-and-roll, blues, and folk musicians came together and created a sound and a scene that Jan Reid vividly detailed in his 1974 book, The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock. The breadth of talent still astounds—Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doug Sahm, Delbert McClinton, Michael Martin Murphey, Willis Alan Ramsey, Kinky Friedman, Steve Fromholz, Bobby Bridger, Billy Joe Shaver, Marcia Ball, and Townes Van Zandt. Reid's book even inspired the nationally popular and long-running PBS series Austin City Limits, which focused attention on the trends that fed the music scene—progressive country, country rock, western swing, blues, and bluegrass among them. In this new edition, Jan Reid revitalizes his classic look at the Austin music scene. He has substantially reworked the early chapters to include musicians and musical currents from other parts of Texas that significantly contributed to the delightful convergence of popular cultures in Austin. Four new chapters and an epilogue show how the creative burst of the seventies directly spawned a new generation of talents who carry on the tradition—Lyle Lovett, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Earl Keen, Steve Earle, Jimmy LaFave, Kelly Willis, Joe Ely, Bruce and Charlie Robison, and The Dixie Chicks.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Jan Reid has written for Texas Monthly, Esquire, GQ, Slate, Men’s Journal, Garden & Gun, and the New York Times. Reid received the Lon Tinkle career achievement award from the Texas Institute of Letters in 2014. His twelve books include The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, The Bullet Meant for Me, Rio Grande, Comanche Sundown, and Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards. The biography of the late Texas governor won praise from Bill Clinton to the Washington Post to the Economist, and the Houston Chronicle cited it as one of the ten best nonfiction books of 2012. Let the People In won two awards from the Texas State Historical Association, for 2012 book of the year and co-winner of the award for best book on women in Texas history. It also received a nonfiction book of the year award from the Philosophical Society of Texas. His prior book, the novel Comanche Sundown, was awarded best fiction 2011 by the Texas Institute of Letters, an award that has previously gone to Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. Reid's Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm, was an Oxford Magazine Music Book of the Year in 2010. Reid’s fiction and non-fiction have also won awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN Southwest, and the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship; his short fiction has appeared in Northern Liberties Review and the anthologies On the Brink and Texas Short Stories, his nonfiction in The Best of Texas Monthly, The Slate Diaries, twice in Best American Sportswriting, and most recently in Curiosity's Cats: Writers and Research. He is at work on a new novel titled Sins of the Younger Sons and a novella, The Song Leader, that is related in one of its settings to his first novel, Deerinwater. Reid grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, and has lived in or near Austin since 1970.

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, since I grew up in this era and I knew so many of the people involved in the music, but it was a very slow read for me. Of course, it did cover so many years and so many people, I don't know how it could have been condensed. I learned a few new facts about several musicians, read many stories I already knew and wished so much I hadn't lived away from Texas for 13 long years. Jan Reid is a very good storyteller and I've been lucky enough to meet him. I loved his writings for Texas Monthly years ago. If you like music, give this a read.

[Garrett Cash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revealing look into the world of the Austin Texas music scene in the 1970's, and the expanded edition takes you through Austin's contributions to music since then and continues following the bigger players from before.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The manager of a video store in Massachusetts gave this book to me, because though he'd never lived in Texas, he loved Texas music. You have to read this book to fully understand the Austin music scene. I learned so much about cosmic cowboys and how Texas music became what it is now. Great book about Texas history.

[Courtney Morse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incrediable history of the underappreciated Texas music scene. A must read for all music lovers!

[Herzog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was well written, even if it did cover, for me, familiar ground. He covers all of the usual suspects including Willie, Waylon, Kris Kristofferson and so forth. He did interviews with the book's subjects, which I found interesting even if they didn't reveal a lot that I didn't already know.