On the Porch : : Life and Music in Terlingua, Texas / / W. Chase Peeler.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package 2021
• VerfasserIn: Peeler, W. Chase,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.) :; 19 b&w photos

In sunbaked Terlingua, Texas (pop., a few hundred), residents joke that there is a musician under every rock. Located ten miles from Mexico in one of the remotest corners of the United States, the town had a recording studio before it had a school, a well-stocked grocery store, or even a water utility. Open jam sessions are a daily ritual, and some songwriters make a living from their craft despite being thousands of miles from New York or Nashville. Why does such a tiny and isolated place ring with singing and guitars? Based on more than two years of on-the-ground research, On the Porch tells the story of this small but remarkable community. Chase Peeler invites us into the music, introducing us to a cast of characters as unique as the town itself. He reveals how novices and experts perform together—a rarity in contemporary America. He recounts the devastation brought on by a border closure and describes how music is once again uniting people across the Rio Grande. He considers the impact of gentrification in an off-the-grid paradise, and how this threatens to transform a precarious musical ecosystem. On the Porch is a celebration of human musicality, of the role that music plays and can play in our lives, both in Terlingua and beyond.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue: On the Porch -- Introduction: Hundred Miles from nowhere -- Chapter 1 Starlight and stage lights -- Chapter 2 In the incubator -- Chapter 3 The Austin effect -- Chapter 4 Voices from Both sides -- Chapter 5 Getting fatter -- Epilogue: Green chile stew -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index