About John T. Davis
JOHN T. DAVIS has lived in Austin for over four decades, writing about the music, personalities and culture of Texas and the Southwest for a variety of regional, state and national publications. His byline has appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, the Austin Chronicle, Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, San Antonio magazine, Men’s Journal, No Depression, Billboard and Newsday and the website Culturemap.com. He is also a frequent contributor to Austin Monthly, Austin Woman and other regional publications and websites. He has been interviewed by VH-1, CMT and NPR and has appeared in the documentary film Lubbock Lights.
He is the author of the book Austin City Limits: 25 Years of American Music and has assisted in the preparation and editing of several other volumes, including biographies of musicians Jerry Jeff Walker and Johnny Bush, and a travel guide to Texas.
As of 2010, his work (including notes, drafts, manuscripts and more) is featured in the permanent archives of the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University.
In 2011, he co-authored Thin Slice of Life, a mystery novel published in 2012 by Stephen F. Austin University Press. He and his co-authors (writing as “Miles Arceneaux”) published a sequel, La Salle’s Ghost, in October 2013, followed by a third volume, Ransom Island, in 2014, North Beach, in 2015, and the latest addition to the series, Hidden Sea, in 2017.
In 2014, his biography of the musical group The Flatlanders was published by University of Texas Press. In 2016, he contributed a chapter to the Texas A&M Press anthology, Pickers & Poets: The Ruthlessly Poetic Singer-Songwriters of Texas. During 2017-2018, he served as the editor of the online newsletter for the Texas Dance Hall Preservation non-profit.