Texas Jukebox Project Preserves the State’s Musical Legacy, One Record at a Time

Jonathon Kimbrell believes that music finds you when it is supposed to.

It’s this mentality that has helped him build the Texas Jukebox Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to archiving, preserving, and promoting Texas music on phonograph records.

“There is a tremendous amount of music from Texas artists and Texas-based record labels that are not available commercially in any other format than vinyl or shellac and are endangered of being lost and/or forgotten,” Kimbrell says. He shares his finds, alongside contemporary Texas music, on his radio show, hosted by Electromagnetic Radio on Tuesdays from 6-8pm.

Collecting vinyl has long been a hobby for Kimbrell. As a teenager in Abilene, time spent in the record store sparked his interest in old blues and country recordings, especially those that came out of Texas. His growing record collection served as a source of inspiration again in graduate school. Kimbrell turned his love of historic recordings into a dissertation project, collecting and preserving recordings by Texas artists and labels from the early 1920s through the modern day. Thus, the Texas Jukebox Project (TJP) was born.

To add to the archive, Kimbrell began driving across the state and its neighbors to track down Texan vinyl. Soon, he had roped in fellow music lovers and music historians – who he has lovingly deemed the Record Rangers – to help locate Texan music of all genres and formats. Records found as far away as London and Tokoyo have made their way into the TJP’s shelves.

Vinyl records, Kimbrell points out, are particularly valuable for archiving due to their durability and fidelity.

“The great thing about vinyl is I have some records that are over [100] years old, and if they continue to be well cared-for, they’ll be around for another 100 years. You don’t have that longevity with digital recordings: hard drives crash, CDs deteriorate,” Kimbrell says.

Records, faithfully holding their pressing, have thus stacked up in personal and library collections across the country, often becoming removed from the collectors who understood their value. This is where TJP hopes to step in, giving Texas art and music a home and a context among diverse creations.

“Right now, the collection consists of country, blues, rock & roll, Tejano, and jazz music from the early 20th century to the early 2000s on 45 RPM, 78 RPM, LPs, CDs, cassettes, [and] master recordings, along with photos, vintage film posters, and other ephemera,” Kimbrell says.

A visual artist as well, Kimbrell sees design and visual ephemera as essential to preserving musical recordings. He has ensured TJP collects these elements as well to help tell the story of Texas music for generations to come.

“The visual impact of country, blues, and rock & roll in the 1950s and 1960s continues to influence artists and musicians today,” he points out.

Kimbrell is working to launch an online public library of his archives so folks can peruse his collection outside of his radio broadcast (and Instagram). He also hopes to one day nab a brick-and-mortar building to house the archive and display the visual story of Texas music, giving academic researchers an opportunity to explore TJP’s growing collection.

“It'll be a project we tend to for at least the next forty years, until we can hand it off to the next generation of Texas music caretakers,” he says. Given the recent resurgence of vinyl, Kimbrell hopes its growing popularity will foster an admiration for the attention physical media commands and create connections between music and place, the way it has for him.

More than an act of conservation, the archivist says getting to know Texas music – its diversity and historical depth – has helped him root himself in Texas culture.

“I definitely have a new appreciation for where I grew up. I’m still discovering things about Abilene that I never knew. You get further and further down that rabbit hole and you meet more and more people and there’s just always so much to learn,” Kimbrell says.

His personal favorite item in the collection? It’s hard for him to say. “I have a few Bob Wills [78s] that are still factory-sealed and there’s a part of me that really wants to open them and be the first person to listen to those recordings,” Kimbrell offers.

All he asks is that record collectors contact him before discarding their unwanted pieces.

“Please do not throw away those records,” he pleads. “No matter how much you think no one wants them, someone wants them, and they’ll put them to good use.”