On the Porch : life and music in Terlingua, Texas / W. Chase Peeler.

First edition.

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2021.

©2021

245 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

"In the desert of West Texas, ten miles from Mexico, lies the small town of Terlingua. On any given day, most of the people there are tourists visiting nearby Big Bend National Park. But a few hundred people call Terlingua home, and if there is one thing they love, it's music. Terlingua's music scene is the envy of cities many times larger. Local and touring musicians perform in commercial venues seven nights a week, and there is no end to informal porch-front jams. The town had a recording studio before it had a school, a well-stocked grocery store, or a water utility. Why does such an isolated, little-known place ring with singing and guitars? Based on more than two years of on-the-ground research, On the Porch tells the story of this remarkable community through careful documentation and the testimony of its members. Chase Peeler situates Terlingua in the broader worlds of the culture industry, amateur music, and US-Mexico border politics. He also explores the collision of gentrification and off-the-grid fantasy, as urbanites move in and transform a precarious human ecosystem. Today there are more than a hundred songs about Terlingua. On the Porch celebrates that musical spirit, showing how it sustains a place like no other"-- Provided by publisher.

Online version: Peeler, W. Chase. On the porch. First edition Austin : University of Texas Press, 2021

English

October 25, 2021

Includes bibliographical references and index.