BOOKS The Flatlanders, John T. Davis (UT Press, October 20)Given the profound influence Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock have had on Texas country music—and therefore country music, period—it’s a surprise to realize that until now they haven’t been the subject of a book. Forty-two (!) years after the trio first formed in Lubbock, veteran Austin music journalist Davis finally gets their story down, in all its strange contours. Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America, Richard Parker (Pegasus, November 4)This book spends too much time in Austin and devotes too many pages to politicians-of-the-moment to nail its subtitle’s premise. But if you like your social and economic analysis chatty and anecdotal, this is where you’ll learn how a centrist-oriented Texas could help turn the U.S. into…
The post The Checklist appeared first on Texas Monthly.