Country music exhibit features state's greats

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

December 26, 2002 -- If you like country music and are one of the Texans who proclaim "Bob Wills is still the King!," there's an exhibit in Austin that makes a great family outing.

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum is temporarily featuring "Country Music from the Lone Star State" through Jan. 5.

While most know there is lots of country music in Texas, not all of us know why and how it happened. This is the story presented at the museum through exhibits of photographs, instruments, and costumes, plus live and recorded music.

There was a time, many years ago, when the competition for the "Country Music Capitol" title was raging between Nashville and Dallas.

According to Heather Brand, head of public relations at the museum, after Nashville seemed to win the title, Texas began to lure settlers and pioneers with cheap land. Without television, and even before radio became popular, many of these settlers played fiddles to pass away the evenings and entertain peers.

Part of the exhibit discusses the fact that some cowboys played their instruments and sang to the cattle to sooth them in the evenings during cattle drives across Texas.

Those various instruments are just one attraction at the exhibit that is filled with costumes and artifacts that belong(ed) to some of Texas' biggest country stars. Perhaps at the top of that list is Bob Wills. There is even a live, one-man show presenting the life of Wills, complete with the early days of radio when he performed with the Light Crust Doughboys and the Texas Playboys.

Other stars featured include Roy Orbison, Townes Van Zandt, Flaco Jimenez, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Tex Ritter, Dale Evans, all the way to the present day Dixie Chicks and Ray Benson, and the list goes on.

The history of how Texas music progressed is presented through the sound of original soundtracks and hand-written music, as well as numerous black-and-white photographs from the early days of Texas country music. Visitors can read, hear, and feel the progress from the Nashville sound through other

influences, including German/Czech polkas, African-American blues, Mexican beats and the singing cowboys.

Brand said the first radio station to carry country music in Texas was KDAV out of Dallas. Back in the early days, the frequencies were cut in the evenings, so stations moved right across the border into Mexico to build stations with fewer restrictions and regulations so they could broadcast to larger areas. "They" say many truckers became hooked on country music due

to the "Border Blasters."

When Bob Wills introduced the sound of Western Swing, country/western music and dancing really took off, with some ranch dances going all night long.

Honkey-Tonk music took country music to another level when Texas oil brought workers into bars. In order to be heard over the roar of the rowdy crowds, musicians had to change to electrical instruments to be heard.

Finally, the music has progressed to what is called the "Austin sound," featuring many performers who still hold on to lessons learned from the forefathers of country music. When the "Austin City Limits," a locally-produced PBS TV program, entered the picture around 20 years ago,

there was a renewed interest in country music and a new generation of followers.

With all the changes over the years; with all the different and new artists; one thing remains the same ... Bob Wills is still the King!

(The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum is located at 1800 N. Congress Ave., and is open every day during the holidays except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Tickets are $8 for adults, $3.50 for kids up to age 18, and $6.50 for senior citizens. Prices include the exhibits and the "one-man" Bob Wills show. For more information, call 512-936-8746.)