Texas Blues: The Rise of Contemporary Sound is the finest, most comprehensive roundup yet, at more than a whopping 600 pages and with nearly 500 photos in color and black and white...Yet what drives this massive chronicle more than the images is the rich language of the witnesses. Produced as an oral history, Texas Blues approaches its subject by blues region of the Lone Star State, with additional chapters on electric blues and the saxophone, the California migration, and zydeco. It's an effective medium that allows Govenar to record many aspects of blues, from musical and sociological to political, in the music's own voice.
-Margaret Moser, The Austin Chronicle

The featured artists all live in the United States but come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The art forms they practice include singing with the Bejing Opera, boat building, wax-flower making, weaving, and performing at Mardi Gras...The photographs, coupled with the engaging narrative, give readers the impression that they are actually visiting the homes and workshops of these artists. This extraordinarily handsome title is an outstanding addition to cultural-arts collections.
–Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT

In the early 1950s, when Houston was the home this country’s most vital rhythm and blues scene, Benny Joseph was hired to photograph the rising stars of his two record labels, Duke and Peacock...The Early Years of Rhythm and Blues: Focus on Houston is a guide to their universe. As the text by Alan Govenar, a writer and film maker, explains, Mr. Joseph’s black-and-white photographs also documented the beginnings of the civil rights movement in Houston’s black community...Haunting, heartbreaking and always life-affirming, “The Early Years of Rhythm and Blues is a triumph of the spirit and a celebration of the soul.

This extraordinary two-volume edition, twenty years in the making, is an impressive, well-crafted documentation of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. It gives a brief but comprehensive look at the interesting lives and outstanding achievements of its award-winning Fellows. More than two hundred and fifty folk artists are profiled – men and women superbly skilled in a particular art or craft whose natural talent, deep love for their work, and passionate dedication have made them all true masters in their fields.

This autobiography of a Lindy Hopper from the Harlem Renaissance era sizzles with spirit and swings with vitality...Dancing on the street with friends when she was 12, she caught the attention of the ballrooms top dancer, Twist Mouth George, and soon found herself in contests and shows, eventually traveling throughout the U.S. and South America and appearing in movies. Miller tells her story with humor and candor, describing her mothers disapproval and the tensions of life in show business under a manager, as well as the sheer joy she found in swing dancing.

Stoney (Leonard L. St. Clair) was a tattoo artist of the “Old School,” as he says. The sign above Stoney’s Columbus, Ohio shop proclaimed: “Stoney Knows How: Tattooing by the Teacher of the Art.” Folklorist Alan B. Govenar transcribed and edited Stoney’s oral autobiography, and it is clear from the narrative that Stoney was indeed a “Teacher of the Art." Much of the value of this book is in the obvious expressions of personal and cultural values….it is a very good book, very readable, one that can easily serve as a source for scholars whether their interest is in folk art, American folk values, folk expressions, or life histories and personal narratives.