Michael Corcoran,
All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music



Publisher: University of Texas Press
Released: 2005

(3 out of 5)

Michael Corcoran has long been simultaneously loved and loathed around the state. From desks at the Austin Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and for the last 10 years the Austin American-Statesman, he has never shied away from voicing his opinions about Texas music. Sometimes caustic, sometimes cuddlesome, and always readable, Corcoran has collected some of his writings in a new collection from UT Press, All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music.

Corcoran forewarns that the book is anything but encyclopedic: "There's no way this book can be complete and still be portable." So instead he presents a compendium on the theme of "underappreciated artists, pioneers who haven't fully received their due." Rather than segmenting the profiles by alphabet, chronology, or genre, he chooses "a musical road trip, a waltz across Texas."

The profiles are generally entertaining and informative.

Corcoran discovers that legendarily elusive gospel singer Washington Phillips didn't really die in an Austin insane asylum in 1939, as believed by musical historians, but rather lived with his family in Simsboro until falling to cancer in 1954.

Detective work also figures into the profile of Blaze Foley, as Corcoran recites events leading up to Foley's death at the hands of an enraged man ultimately acquitted of any crime, yet still considered a murderer by Foley's associates.

Less revelatory yet still enlightening essays profile guitar pioneer Blind Willie Johnson, songwriter extraordinaire Cindy Walker, beleaguered blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, and enigmatic accordionist Steve Jordan.

Yet besides geography, nothing connects the essays. There is little connecting of dots to illustrate how these "heroes" have impacted each other, much less succeeding generations. And even the geographical organization provides little value, leading one to suspect the scheme is little more than a convenient out selected when any more reasoned partitioning proved problematic.

Even without a strong thread connecting the profiles, All Over the Map is a compelling volume. No matter how much one thinks one knows about Texas music, one is likely to find something new and enlightening. And if not, then surely Corcoran's "best of" rankings of influential Texas songs and must-have albums will get one's contentious thoughts flowing.

All Over the Map is an entertaining if imperfect look at some of Texas' most important musicians filtered through the eyes and ears of one of the state's most knowledgeable critics.

October 30, 2005