Lubbock Lore
There'll be a hot time in the old town of Lubbock this week. The Buddy Holly Music Festival runs September 3-7 and includes induction of a West Texas musician into the Buddy Holly Walk of Fame, the premier performance of the musical "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," and five days and nights of similar events. Lubbock native sons Joe Ely, Terry Allen and the Maines Brothers are joined by Nashville interlopers the Mavericks for one featured concert, while a '50s show headlines Carl Perkins and Johnny Tillotson. Meahwhile, the 9th annual National Cowboy Symposium is in town September 4-7. This one includes six stages offering about 75 musical acts, 100 cowboy poets, 40 storytellers and the like. Symposium organizers don't like to announce names in advance, but most of the top cowboy singers have dropped in at one time or another to play for crowds that can reach 20,000.

All for Jimmie
Jimmie Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman, is generally considered the father of commercial country music, and while he hails from Mississippi, he spent most of his last years in Kerrville, where he moved in 1929 to be close to the tuberculosis sanitariums and treatment programs. The disease finally claimed him in 1933 at age 35. This year's 16th annual Texas Heritage Music Festival, held mostly in Kerrville September 4-8, recognizes the centennial of Rodger's birth. The big day appears to be Sunday, when Willie Nelson, Little Joe y la Familia and others will play a benefit at the Knights of Columbus hall in Kerrville -- but there's no telling who might show up at Saturday's 3 p.m. tribute to Jimmie Rodgers in Louis Hayes Park, or at some of the other events.

Records Galore
That's what you'll find at the Austin Record Convention, September 13-14 at Palmer Auditorium. About 250 record collectors from around the world -- dealing mostly in vinyl -- set up booths. High rollers buy and sell obscure singles and rare albums for thousands of dollars, but you don't have to be a collector -- everyday fans like you and me can also take advantage of benign prices on many impossible-to-find-elsewhere vinyl records.

Blues Across America:The Dallas Scene (Cannonball)
This compilation makes a convincing case for Big D as one of the nation's last great, indigenous blues centers. The eclecticism among these three acts is pure Texas. Henry Qualls (who actually hails from Elmo) provides bristling, downhome slide and some lead lines that approach white noise, while former saxaphonist Big Al Dupree swings on piano with uptown elegance and ease. And when not too busy trying to clone B.B. King, the team of Charles Young (vocals) and Andrew "Jr. Boy" Jones (guitar) can shake juke-joint walls with their full-throttle soul-blues.

Lowell Fulson: My First Recordings (Arhoolie)
Fulson, still one of the most underrated bluesmen, was born in Oklahoma but came of age musically in Texas, and he's known for an urbane, postwar, Southwestern combo sound. But these sides, cut between 1946 and 1951, include the only ones of Fulson as a country bluesman. Here he sings of cottonfields and rural shacks while accompanied only by his lead guitar and brother Martin's rhythm. (Though he is backed by small combos on more than half the tracks, they are primal and countryish compared to later work). And truth to tell, Fulson is very derivative here both as a guitarist and writer; while little sounds original, though, most of this is state-of-the-art for its time and style. It's the foundation on which Fulson launched a career that came to be marked by inventiveness, diversity and longevity.

Los Leoncitos: I Wanna Dance with You (Hacienda)
There's no denying that the bilingual title song is cumbia at its catchiest. And Leo Correa can get pretty showoffy on accordion whithout taking away from the rest of the group; his lines seem unusual, but they always fit. Still, this is kiddy conjunto, and it's hard to picture it having proof. However, the fact that these four kids intend to keep once-endangered accordian music alive in Tejano culture.

Little Jack Melody & His Young Turks: My Charmed Life (Carpe Diem)
Here's one of those culty groups (from Denton) you either get and like, or you don't. I don't. The Euro-carnival sound, with its accordians and tubas and violins and especially its saks solos, would conjure up Brecht-Weill even if they didn't actually include "Alabama Song" here. There's a little more loungey irony than before (especially on the title song). If you're a fan, you'll become more of one. If you're not, you'll...well, I guess you'll become more of not one.

South Texas Polka Party (Arhoolie)
This compilation reissues 16 Tex-Mex polkas from the 1950s and '60s. Some of the names (Tony de la Rosa, Valerio Longoria, Conjunto Bernal) are quite familiar, but obscurities like Agapito Zuniga are also represented. All of these artists were well known in South Texas in the '50s, when the practice of adapting polka power to Tex-Mex accordian styles was at its peak. This is a great introduction to that time and place, with the music being invested with an energy, elan and humor that doesn't show nearly as clearly in most other polka-embracing cultures.

Too Much TV: Too Much Is Not Enough (Carpe Diem)
This Dallas band plays straightahead rock, with just enough of an edginess to keep things interesting. Their material is atmospheric, hooky and melodic, albeit with a tendency towards saminess (unless you're paying attention to the words). They could use a good soloist to go with the ensemble sound. But there's plenty of promise here.

You can email me atjmorth@flash.net. Send promo records and press releases to me at 1813-B Drake Ave., Austin, TX 78704.