The Texas Observer has a thumbs-up review of Gary Hartman’s The History of Texas Music. Because Hartman, founding director of the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University, does not feel there actually is any single, so-called  “Texas sound,” he approaches the field geographically and historically. In other words, his book goes beyond the expected names — Leadbelly, Bob Wills, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson — to include lots of artists and their works that many people, at first listen, would not normally associate with the state, artists such as ragtime master Scott Joplin (from Texarkana), jazz guitar pioneer Charlie Christian (of Bonham), Michael Nesmith (of Houston and the Monkees) and Beyonce Knowles (of Houston). Just those four names give some idea of the complex diversity under discussion.

Hartman’s book certainly isn’t the most provocative, insightful, or exhaustive title on the subject—try Rick Koster’s Texas Music for a more colorful take and The Handbook of Texas Music, compiled by multiple editors, for a more extensive one. Hartman’s approach attempts to provide a holistic overview without bogging casual readers down in minutiae and editorials. If you’re left hankering for more than that, there’s the nearly 65 pages of notes and bibliography to pore through.

The only legitimate beef with the book is that it treats indie rock as a black sheep. If Hartman’s thesis is that Texas music is all-inclusive, then he ought to have touched on Texas-based bands like Spoon and the Polyphonic Spree…