Art&Seek presents This Week in Texas Music History. Every week, we’ll spotlight a different moment and the musician who made it. This week, Texas music scholar Gary Hartman celebrates an R&B singer who appeared on the Grand Ole Opry.

You can also hear This Week in Texas Music History on Friday on KXT and Saturday on KERA radio. But subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss an episode. And our thanks to KUT public radio in Austin for helping us bring this segment to you. And if you’re a music lover, be sure to check out Track by Track, the bi-weekly podcast from Paul Slavens, host of KXT’s The Paul Slavens Show, heard Sunday night’s at 8.

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Ivory Joe Hunter was born Oct. 10, 1914, in Kirbyville, Texas. A gifted piano player, he was equally comfortable playing boogie woogie, R&B, or slow love ballads. He also incorporated country music into his songs and even moved to Nashville in the 1960s, where he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. Hunter had his greatest success with “Since I Met You, Baby,” a huge cross-over hit that sold well among black, white and Hispanic audiences. Ivory Joe Hunter’s songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Dean Martin and many others, and he has appeared on such nationally popular programs as The Ed Sullivan Show.