Roger Wood and James Fraher,
Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues



Publisher: University of Texas Press
Released: 2003

(4½ out of 5)

When Lightnin' Hopkins died in 1982, Roger Wood realized that he new nothing of the rich blues tradition in his new hometown of Houston. So the longtime blues fan set out to explore the city's scene, eventually choosing the local blues culture as the focus for his doctoral studies. Wood compiled 150 hours of oral histories, and with photographer James Fraher he captured the elder bluesmen and -women who established Houston as an important blues center in the years after World War II. Down in Houston, from UT Press, is a lovingly written and sumptuously illustrated testament to Houston's past and present blues culture.

Houston may not figure in the public imagination as a blues hub like Memphis, New Orleans, or Chicago, but it has played a central role in the development of modern blues performance and recording. Legends like Hopkins, Albert Collins, and Johnny Copeland have been among those proud to call Houston home. And the city's influential—if short-lived—Duke-Peacock label proved instrumental in the careers of artists like Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Yet Wood finds the true heart of Houston's blues culture deep in the city's Third and Fifth Wards. Here "the music has little to do with contemporary show business realities and everything to do with a deeply rooted way of life." Unmarked clubs, impromptu jam sessions, and improvisational traditions like Blue Monday keep the blues alive, far away from any spotlight. In these inner-city areas the blues function as a "galvanizing community ritual" where young and old, middle- and lower-class, predominantly African-American groups gather to share in the rich Delta blues tradition, Houston-style.

Down in Houston captures the vibrancy of Houston's rich blues culture. Fraher's magnificent black-and-white photos accentuate Wood's enlightening historio-biographical narrative. The book is beautifully bound and presented, making Down in Houston a must-have for blues fans and followers of the Houston music scene.

September 11, 2005