“For more information about the Bright Light Social Hour, visit your local library.”
It was a throwaway line, intended more for laughs than as a directive, but it stuck in my head: for more information about a band, visit the library! Why not?
I’ll spare you purple prose about my lifelong love of books and libraries, about how they were my private universe, my safe haven, etc. About countless afternoons as a child in New Orleans at the Milton Latter Library on St. Charles Ave., my imagination fired about everything from the Russian Revolution to Jenny Lind … but not the Beatles.
That was in the 1960s, you see, barely enough time for rock & roll to have made the impact that warranted a book. By the late 1960s, you could find Carl Belz’ The Story of Rock and Richard Goldstein’s The Poetry of Rock on library shelves, but that was about it. Sometimes, the closest thing you could find to rock & roll in school was Pat Boone’s Twixt Twelve and Twenty.
But libraries aren’t what they used to be. Ancient, bun-headed librarians with their index fingers permanently affixed to their lips gave way to the computer age with desktops and dress codes. Today’s libraries still loan books, of course, as well as provide computers, compete with Kindle by embracing ebooks, and are a source for music and film. And if you’re a band from Austin, they want your CD.
That’s right, Bright Light Social Hour. That’s right, Sarah Jarosz. That’s right, Bob Schneider. That’s right, Black Joe Lewis, Carrie Rodriguez, Willie Nelson, Grupo Fantasma, Sahara Smith, the Jolly Garogers, Toni Price, Quiet Company, Texas Tornados, Speak, Hayes Carll, Trail of Dead, the Wagoneers, Del Castillo, Mother Falcon, Iron & Wine, Alejandro Escovedo, the Black Angels, and anyone else who wants to keep Austin weird, or at least the unique place we love and cherish. Cough up a few CDs for the local libraries.
To make it easy, drop two copies of any recent title at the Chronicle, 4000 N. I-35. There’s a bin in the reception area for this. All library locations will accept donations of books, DVDs, CDs, and other items circulated by the library in new or used condition. All donations are accepted with the understanding that the library selectively adds donations to its collection. For further information about donating, go here.
And for more information about music in Austin, Texas, visit your local library.
This article appears in April 22 • 2011.