There’s a new book on the Permian Basin, and its creators are taking the tome to the people.
Specht at the Train Car LLC checking his notes while Waylon Seals’ “Oil Patch Blues” plays on trusty boombox.
Joe Specht, emeritus library director at McMurry University, Abilene, is among the contributors to the recently published Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and Culture from the West Texas Oil Patch (Oklahoma University Press). The collection of essays is a unique blend of scholarly articles and personal narratives offering fascinating insights into the challenges of living with oil.
Longtime readers will remember Specht as author of the seven-part series carried in this magazine some years ago on “Music of the Permian Oil Patch.”
“The book hit the streets back in March, and we’ve been on the road with several of the other contributing authors promoting the book with readings/signings,” Specht said recently. “There was a nice turnout last month [May] at the Petroleum Museum in Midland. And we had approximately 15 folks [including bar patrons] on Tuesday evening [June 29] in Big Spring at the Train Car LCC, a cigar bar with outdoor seating. Right next to the T&P tracks [although the train car seen in the photo is vintage Union Pacific caboose], a block down from Oscar Glickman’s The Record Shop.”
If you’re not familiar with the Train Car, find it online, at Facebook.com/TheTrainCar.
Specht said that next up on the Boom or Bust tour are possible events in San Angelo and Odessa. The book’s promoters are hoping to “book” similar engagements in towns like Rankin, McCamey, or Monahans. “You know… the places in the Permian Basin that could really go for this kind of storytelling!,” he offered with a mischievous grin.
To learn more about the book, visit this page: OUPress.com.
Copies of the new book were on sale, next to (of course) a cigar. And a craft beer.