Antone's Records to Release 30 Volume Set
Tary Owens has made innumerable contributions to Texas music and the Austin scene as a record producer, folklorist, musician.

In a lifetime devoted to Texas music and folklore, Owens boasts a wealth of musical accomplishments and associations. A close friend of Janis Joplin from their teen years and high school classmate of Johnny Winter, Owens was a key player in the birth of the modern Austin music scene.

He honed his guitar skills under the tutelage of such Texas blues greats as Mance Lipscomb and Bill Neely, backed up Kenneth Threadgill -- known as the father of Austin country music -- and played every week in the "Hootenanny Hoots" house band for the legendary Wednesday night picking parties at Threadgill's in the 1960s. He was also the catalyst for the formation of the famed 13th Floor Elevators when he introduced singer Roky Erickson to psychedelic visionary Tommy Hall.

Studying folklore at the University of Texas, Owens was mentored by the late Dr. Americo Paredes, and won a prestigious Lomax Grant in 1964.

His field recordings of blues, hillbilly music, old-time fiddlers, work songs, toasts and prison songs from across Texas are an invaluable part of the state's musical heritage, and are included in the permanent collection at UT's Center for American History.

The Antone's Records release of The Tary Owens Collection will bring these recordings to the public.

The entire collection will be 30 volumes strong. Here is a list of the soon-to-be-released first three:

• Mance Lipscomb Mance's Boogie
• Leadbelly Leadbelly's Last Concert
• Various Negro Toasts The Roots of RAP