Austin music history books have been submitted!

That was fun. Now comes the hard work.

Friday was a big day for the 144,000-word history project I started in 2014. It’s now in the hands of publishers. I decided to split the material into two books, as 70,000 words is a standard length. Book I is a history of the first 100 years (1880s to 1980’s) of the Austin music scene. Book II picks up with my 1984 Austin arrival, so it’s also part memoir.

There’s still a lot of work to do, much of it not fun. I’ll keep polishing until they tell me not to anymore. Then there’s the editing/layout process, plus gathering photos and getting permissions. It’s like turning off Bee Cave Road at the Soap Creek sign: now the real stressful adventure begins, going up the hill.

If you have any old photos of Austin club facades or signs please email to michaelcorcoran55@gmail.com.

But now that my two manuscripts are in the hands of publishers who’ve shown interest, its a nice feeling to know the books will eventually come out. Even if I die? Especially if I die (though they’ll probably cut 40,000 words and make it into one book).

And now we wait. Both publishers tell me 2024 is the earliest we’ll see printed books. That’s the 40th anniversary of my arrival to Clubland Paradise, timing that seems about right for an ode to a music scene that gave me a career, even though I wasn’t always nice in what I wrote. I’ll continue to write more about Austin music on Substack.

In the meantime, you can read more about Austin musicians in two of my previous history books:

All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music (UNT Press 2017)

Chapters on Austinites Blaze Foley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Gimble, Alejandro Escovedo, Nick Curran, Don Walser, Doug Sahm and Butthole Surfers, plus Janis Joplin, T-Bone Walker, Cindy Walker and the Geto Boys.

Ghost Notes: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Music (TCU Press 2020)

Features the stunning art of Tim Kerr, with chapters on Arizona Dranes, Camilo Cantu, the Gant Family, Bobby Doyle, Johnny Degollado, Henry and Virginia Leberman, B.L. Joyce and Roky Erickson.