Side of “Mexico Standard” brick
While we don’t know the story of these bricks, we know they came off buildings during renovations. If you have any more information, feel free to comment.
We have three examples of brickused on campus: the “Mexico standard,” the Ferris Brick Company, and the Sherman Brady Brick Company.
Yesterday, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research announced the release of the 36th Houston Area Survey. To see how much Houston has changed, you can compare it to the first survey. On September 28, 1982, Dr. Stephen Klineberg discussed the results of the first Houston survey with Scott Hochberg.
Image from: “Dr. Stephen Klineberg with student researchers Lisa Maier, Mark Brumback, Robert Putzke.” (1982) Rice University: http://hdl.handle.net/1911/75935.
Over the past few months, we’ve been busy.
The Banded Geckos collection features the work of the band, which called Houston home from 1979 to 1993, before relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The collection has a great array of posters, photographs, promotional materials, and audio.
Frank Davis, Sand Mountain Coffee House, ca. 1965
The Boys From Houston research files includes photographs, digital images, news clippings, and memorabilia that Vicki Welch Ayo and William C. DeLaVergne used to write the book series.
Shake Russell, Dana Cooper, and Jimmy Raycraft at Rockefeller’s, ca. 1981
The Danny McVey collection features photographs, news clippings, and audio saved by McVey, a sound engineer for The Michael Marcoulier Band, The Dishes, and Beans Barton and the Bi-Peds. Within the next few days, his oral history will also be online.
Since November, we’ve been doing oral histories with members of the folk community. We’re so happy to announce that some of those are now online.
Judy Clements of the folk duo Ken and Judy talks about being a Jester Lounge regular, an early folk club in Houston.
Vince Bell discusses his time starting out in Houston up to his current work. He even performs a couple of songs and explains his unique playing style.
Richard Dobson talks about working in Houston and Nashville, and his current adventure of being a Texas singer-songwriter in Switzerland. He also discusses his songwriting process and performs two songs.
To keep up with new collections and oral histories, please follow the Houston Folk Music Archive Facebook page, as well as check out our research guide.
Looking around this morning for a holiday-themed post, I could only find a reference to Tom Kelley’s St. Patrick’s Day tie. Since the box wasn’t onsite, I made the assumption that inside the box there would be a necktie; thus, fulfilling the theme of this post.
Rather than seeing the object, we get a couple of views of Tom Kelley, an employee for Texas Eastern in March 1958 showing off his tie. Does it look homemade to you?
ca. 1976
As part of the Houston Folk Music Archive, we’re happy to announce that the Vince Bell collection is ready for research. His collection contains lyrics, journals, photographs, fliers, audio and video, and business records related to album creation, promotion, and touring. Bell also donated quite a few books where he is featured, mostly books on Texas singer-songwriters.
Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant, 1974
While the physical collection is available, the digital side will take a bit longer. Over the next few months, we’ll be adding digital files, mostly music, to this collection, as well as post his oral history online.
Calendar drawn by Jean King from 1976 journal
For those not familiar with Bell, starting in 1970, he began playing folk music in clubs across Houston, including Sand Mountain Coffee House, the Old Quarter, Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant, as well as larger venues like Liberty Hall and local universities. He also went on to play the U.S. coffee house circuit.
Rockefeller’s, 1979
In the mid-1970s, he spent his time living in both Austin and Houston forming bands and playing solo. In 1980, he worked on the rock ballet Bermuda Triangle with James Clouser for the Space/Dance/Theater. The ballet premiered in Houston at the Miller Outdoor Theater in May 1980.
On European tour with Eric Taylor and Iain Matthews, 1990s
After recording in an Austin studio, on December 21, 1982, he was hit by a drunk driver. The accident damaged his right arm, caused a severe brain injury, and he had a partially paralyzed vocal chord. After the accident, he worked over the next decade to rebuild his life and play the guitar again. This led him to develop a unique picking style and to write new music for his singing voice.
Austin City Limits: Step Inside This House, 2000. L to R: Guy Clark, Matt Rollings, Steven Fromholz, Sam Bush, James Gilmer, Viktor Krauss, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Michael Martin Murphy, Dan Tomlinson, Vince Bell, Eric Taylor, Gene Elders [?], and Pat Bergerson, photo taken by David Roth
2000
He later chronicled his life in two independently published autobiographies, which were later re-published as one book entitled One Man’s Music: The Life and Times of Texas Songwriter Vince Bell by University of North Texas Press.
If you are interested in learning more about the Houston Folk Music Archive, please check out John Nova Lomax’s article.
The Houston Folk Music Archive recently received a collection from folk band The Banded Geckos. One fun piece of memorabilia is this T-shirt used to promote their 1990 CD Art Gecko.
This is a cocktail fork from the Lamar Hotel. The once-popular hotel closed in June 1983. While we do not have a collection pertaining to the hotel, we do have collections connected to some of the men who frequented it, more specifically Suite 8-F. Those men include Jesse H. Jones, George and Herman Brown, Gus Wortham, James Abercrombie, and James A. Elkins, Sr.
Our amazing student archivist, Chad Fisher, put together a new exhibit that showcases our Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning collections, including those from Pimp C, SwishaHouse, and Havikoro.
The exhibit will be up until mid-March.
On News Master 3 from 1974, there is an interview with an unnamed man talking about the upcoming Super Bowl. He lays out the logistics concerning the big game at Rice Stadium and even how much the NFL paid to use the space.
If you can identify the mystery voice, please let us know.
Image from: “Super Bowl 1974 football game at Rice University, aerial view.” (1974) Rice University: http://hdl.handle.net/1911/75401.
