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State House Press author featured on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Into the Music"

State House Press author Joe W. Specht was recently featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Into the Music," a weekly program devoted to enhancing an "understanding, appreciation and love of music as well as looking at its cultural and social context." To that end, "Into the Music" offered the listener a toe-tapping sampling of the tunes from The Women There Don't Treat You Mean: Abilene in Song on its July 15, 2006, show entitled "Abilene Jukebox." Specht is heard in conversation with ABC National Radio producer Sherre DeLys as he explains just what makes Abilene--the one in Texas--the focal point of so many songs. "Abilene Jukebox" aired throughout Australia and New Zealand and may possibly reach the United Kingdom through the auspices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Information about the entire show can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic/stories/2006/1667270.htm. Specht says of the unique experience, "The appeal of Abilene in song knows no bounds as proven once again by the interest of the folks in the land down under."

If your radio station is interested in airing "Abilene Jukebox," please contact Carly Kahl at (325) 793-4697 or ckahl@mcm.edu. (Run time of program: 51:29)

Joe W. Specht is director of the Jay-Rollins Library at McMurry University. In addition to co-editing The Roots of Texas Music (Texas A&M University Press, 2003) with the late Lawrence Clayton, he has published articles in The Journal of Texas Music History and Old Time Music and contributed entries to The Encyclopedia of Country Music and The Handbook of Texas Music. Specht's appreciation for the melodies of the Lone Star State is as abiding as his affection for Abilene, a town he has called home for more than thirty years. He can be reached for interview at (325) 793-4690 or jspecht@mcm.edu

State House Press is a member of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium and is operated by the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation in Abilene, Texas. For further information on The Women There Don't Treat You Mean: Abilene in Song or other State House Press titles, please contact Carly Kahl at (325) 793-4697, by e-mail at ckahl@mcm.edu or visit the web, www.tamu.edu/upress/MCWHINEY/mcgen.html