Hank Ewert grew up in Kingsville and Riviera, Texas. His older brother Bill introduced him to rock and roll before he learned to read – which evidently had an impact! Ewert worked in education for 47 years; however, his passion has always been music — reading about it, listening to it, collecting it, and talking it. His fascination with blues (especially Antone’s Blues Club in Austin, Texas) earned him a role as correspondent for Living Blues magazine in the late eighties and early nineties.

Schedule

10:00 am to 10:45 am
State Library, Fourth Floor
Let the Music Speak: Tracking the Sounds That Changed Everything
Hank Ewert with moderator Charles D. Chamberlain

11:00 am to 11:45 am
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Let the Music Speak: Tracking the Sounds that Changed Everything, 1945-1950

Let the Music Speak: Tracking the Sounds That Changed Everything, 1945-1950 offers a unique perspective on postwar American popular music and its roots. The book’s author, Hank Ewert, has created a different take on how the music itself developed and eschews the traditional narrative approach of music histories: the book literally takes the reader into the specifics of what happened and why – letting the experience of the period provide a different story than most histories of rock and roll or jazz or country. The book’s lens on music-making and its cultural context shows rather than tells the interested reader what happened and how musical genres developed in six crucial years.

The main body of the book literally tracks, month-by-month and year-by-year, the transition in musical genres at the end of and after World War II. It also provides key context, providing examples of change in technology, politics, and the other arts. The bulk of the examples come from within the United States, but many reflect dynamics outside the country as well. Ewert is neither a music scholar nor a career music writer; instead, he sees music’s past and present through the eyes of a voracious fan, a music lover and collector who has simply sought to know more, experience more, and understand more about the way that songs and records work and where they come from. Instead of seeking to explain music, he immerses the reader, his kindred spirit, in music’s flow.

“Let the Music Speak is a lively, rigorously researched chronicle of how the recording sessions, live performances, and record releases of the late forties converged to create the soundscape of today. There is no book that better captures the cross-pollination of the post-war period and its enduring effect on modern music.”--Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content, HBO Max 

“Enlightening, informative and entertaining. Hank Ewert brings to life how American music jumped, boogied and swung its way East/West/South/North and all the way around the world.”--Floyd Domino, Musician (Keyboards); Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard, Floyd Domino's All-Stars

"Music fans and musicologists alike should enjoy this excursion through the music explosion that occurred in the post-WWII years in America, from big band and culturally diverse roots, that led the way to Elvis and The Beatles. A fascinating read!"--Tish Hinojosa, Singer-Songwriter/Recording Artist

“Let the Music Speak offers us an exciting new take on the wonderful period of US music development, 1945-1950. While other authors follow a more traditional “cause and effect” format, Hank focuses instead on the actual music (recording sessions, specific record releases, and other events and developments that give context to the music). After a thoughtful, pithy introduction, Hank opens a new window into this explosive musical period, filled with detailed, often hilarious, information about the artists and their pivotal work. Reading this book while listening to the music, you would have to fall in love with the great diversity of music presented here.”--“Kaz” Kazanoff, Musician (Saxophones, Vocals, Harmonica); The Texas Horns, Jimmie Vaughan

“Let the Music Speak is a passionate, beautiful deep dive into music history! Congratulations, Hank, on surfacing with a hard-won gem!”--Kimmie Rhodes, author of Radio Dreams; The Story of an Outlaw Dj and a Cosmic Cowgirl and West Texas Heaven Revisited