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Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous Photos, Superfluous Text
Review: 'Elvis in Texas' is worth it for the pictures alone, most of which, to my knowledge, have never been published anywhere. Many of these are just backstage fan shots, not great, but there are plenty of on-stage pics too. This includes pics from such long-vanished venues as the Sportatorium in Dallas, the Skyline Club in Austin, and the (original) Reo Palm Isle in Longview. Regrettably, the publishers thought text was necessary to supplement the photos -- not a bad idea, if the right people had been recruited. Unfortunately, Ms. Torrence writes in an embarrassing, cutesy, fannish style replete with dumb, sarcastic captions to photos ("E. going for that starved supermodel look," says one of him looking slightly skinnier than other pics -- ha ha). Where is Peter Guralnick when you need him? This giddiness is incredibly annoying and contrasts badly with the book's photos and newspaper articles. It's sadly obvious Ms. Torrence's knowledge of '50s music is nil. Relevant commentary or research on the musicians who worked with Elvis during this time is also completely lacking. This is a serious flaw, as the book would have been infintely better with informed commentary on not just the clubs, but the milieu in which Elvis worked in 1955. Alas, all of this is beyond the author's extremely limited grasp. Mistakes and misleading statements abound. Dean Beard is "Dean Baird;" Floyd Cramer is "Floyd Kramer," and so on. The author refers to Capitol Records, a company founded in 1942, as a "young upstart" in 1955. Conversely, we learn that TNT Records shut down "a few months" after their Elvis bookings in April 1955, when actually the label was active into the mid-sixties. When Ms. Torrence occasionally ventures into the broader area of music history, she missteps, such as when she informs us that in 1956 "the presence of a drummer was a sure sign of a crossover group. The country music world considered it 'the devil's instrument.'" (A patent myth and falsehood -- dozens of string bands in Texas alone had drummers prior to Elvis.) What a waste. Five stars for the photos, no stars for the text.
Rating: 
Summary: a brilliant read!
Review: An extremely fascinating and witty gathering of Elvis history unknown (at least to myself!) until now. The authors style of writing keeps the reader both enthralled and highly amused. I found it immensely enjoyable, and highly recommend it to everyone who knows who the 'real' King is!
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: Elvis in Texas is a fresh new look at the King starting out on a shoestring. It is well written in a light but informative style that makes reading it very enjoyable and hard to put down. I highly recommend this book to any Rock and Roll or Elvis fan.
Rating:
Summary: Great photos! Frustrating read & sometimes inaccurate text.
Review: Great Book... The chapter on "Devil In A Pink Dress" was really good.. A 'must have' for any true Elvis fan..
Rating: 
Summary: Sarcastic author sounds unprofessional
Review: I bought this book because I'm writing Faron Young's biography and needed information on dates Faron and Elvis worked together. Lori Torrance lost my respect in the very first paragraph of the book, with her statement, "Country music twanged on the radio, Hank Williams crying in his cornflakes again." A few pages later, she says, "At that time, easy listening and my-dog-has-fleas country music monopolized the mass music market." The research was useful but the flippant writing was a turn-off.
Rating: 
Summary: What a great book!
Review: I picked up a copy of Elvis in Texas in November 2001, at the Annual Literacy Book Festival, where I had the pleasure of meeting author, Lori Torrance, as well as researcher, Stanley Oberst. Upon meeting Ms. Torrance, I found her charming demeanor to be an asset to the book's personality, and ultimately, it's readability. I'm certain many readers, as well as I, were unaware of Elvis' extensive road trip through Texas in gaining stardom and can admire the lengthy inquiry into the past. Together with the chronicle of information on Elvis and Texas, the pages are bursting with tons of pictures and aside-shots of trivia, which literally draws the reader right back in the '50s, as if they were reliving the past. And if you didn't live in the day, the book provides a rich portal through the generation gap in time, so younger audiences can relate to and appreciate the ambience. My children and I found the book to be a real treat! I welcome the "Happy Days" nostalgia, and am absolutely delighted with this book!
Rating:
Summary: Now, wait just a minute...
Review: I picked up a copy of Elvis in Texas in November 2001, at the Annual Literacy Book Festival, where I had the pleasure of meeting author, Lori Torrance, as well as researcher, Stanley Oberst. Upon meeting Ms. Torrance, I found her charming demeanor to be an asset to the book's personality, and ultimately, it's readability. I'm certain many readers, as well as I, were unaware of Elvis' extensive road trip through Texas in gaining stardom and can admire the lengthy inquiry into the past. Together with the chronicle of information on Elvis and Texas, the pages are bursting with tons of pictures and aside-shots of trivia, which literally draws the reader right back in the '50s, as if they were reliving the past. And if you didn't live in the day, the book provides a rich portal through the generation gap in time, so younger audiences can relate to and appreciate the ambience. My children and I found the book to be a real treat! I welcome the "Happy Days" nostalgia, and am absolutely delighted with this book!
Rating:
Summary: Worth a look
Review: This a very nice book. There are some great pictures in here. I own a lot of Elvis books and there are some pictures in here I haven't seen before. The text is a bit gossipy but okay. It's not an in depth study of the King but good coffee table fodder. According to this, he really did sow his wild oats in Texas - I wonder how many little Elvi are going about? It's interesting to see Elvis the boy at the beginning, looking full of life and looking to the future and then look at pictures of him toward the end. Was all the success worth it? Perhaps not.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a look
Review: This a very nice book. There are some great pictures in here. I own a lot of Elvis books and there are some pictures in here I haven't seen before. The text is a bit gossipy but okay. It's not an in depth study of the King but good coffee table fodder. According to this, he really did sow his wild oats in Texas - I wonder how many little Elvi are going about? It's interesting to see Elvis the boy at the beginning, looking full of life and looking to the future and then look at pictures of him toward the end. Was all the success worth it? Perhaps not.
Rating:
Summary: A real treat, if only for the pictures!
Review: This is a great new piece of research by Dallas high school teacher Stanley Oberst, who traveled all over Texas for many years collecting stories and photos from fans who actually attended Elvis' many Texas gigs before he was finally drafted into the U.S. Army in 1958. Starting from the earliest shows as a total unknown, this book chronicles Elvis' hard-fought rise to stardom by tracing every single gig the King played in Texas, starting in 1954, and ending with his stay at Ft. Hood. Loaded with hundreds of never-before-published snapshots, newspaper photos, ticket stubs, concert ads, and more, this book is a great revelation to anyone interested in the early career of the century's most important cultural phenomenon as seen "up close and personal". My only quarrel with the book is the way co-writer Lori Torrance turned what started out as a serious research effort into a cutesy "Happy Days"-type fan book, complete with corny photo captions, not-so-clever attempts at hip humor, and even ridiculous anachronisms, such as suggesting that Elvis was so busy in '54 that he needed "a pager" (huh??)! Those inane distractions aside, it still warrants purchase by anyone who digs Elvis when he was still young, vital, and the most gorgeous human being on planet earth! Dave sez: Check it out!
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