Author Description

Local histories are of far more than regional significance, particularly when the data relate to larger scenes, as is true in this study of Dallas's early-20th-century Jewish and Black ghettos--Deep Ellum and Central Track. The two groups had migrated to Dallas, individually expecting the traditions of segregation, a situation that brought about some degree of alliance. Sociological concerns do play a part in Govenar's coverage (including politics, economics, and crime), but his real subject is blues--an idiom that began to come into focus late in the 19th century and blossomed with Texan Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929) and those who came under his influence. Although Govenar provides a very respectable bibliography, the majority of the footnoted sources are interviews, suggesting much of the information has not previously appeared in print. Included in the four appendixes are discographies of Dallas-related jazz, blues, gospel, and country and of the Light Crust Doughboys, a popular music ensemble active in the late 1930s (in fact, these two appendixes occupy more than a third of the book). Numerous photographs are also included. This will be a welcome addition to collections supporting study of the blues and of the US Southwest. Choice Magazine, May 1999. Review by D. R. de Lerma, Lawrence University. "Through a mixture of contemporary interviews and historical research, Govenar and Brakefield provide us with a compelling portrait of Deep Ellum, a complex and often misunderstood section of Dallas. The nexus for many East Texas musicians during the 1920s and 1930s, Deep Ellum was a helter skelter mixture of clubs, pawnshops, and other small businesses that attracted the entire spectrum of vernacular musicians. This book is important not only for what it reveals about local blues, gospel, jazz, and western swing performers but for what it tells us about race relations and other poorly researched aspects of the city's social history." --Kip Lornell, George Wash