Author: James Ellis
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It’s 1989, and Doug Sahm is playing at Antone’s
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Juke Box Music is a late-night joy ride with Doug Sahm while he weaves his way through the…
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A mostly true narrative of the first ACL Festival (Part 2)
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I’d been calling the cab company all morning but only getting busy signals, so I was surprised when…
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The Grateful Dead and the musical bond between Austin and Haight-Ashbury
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This album is one of the tangible links between the psychedelic rock music that came out of San…
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Austin super group delivers highly acclaimed blues album for the Antone’s label
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Dreams Come True was a highly anticipated album from an Austin supergroup featuring Lou Ann Barton, Marcia Ball,…
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Waylon records classic live album at the Texas Opry House
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Waylon Live was recorded at the dawn of Waylon’s golden era, and released during the height of it.…
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It’s 2018, and Kacey Musgraves is having a golden hour
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Kacey Musgraves is an authentic songwriter whose albums are imbued with personal experiences. Her first two albums depict…

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Featured albums from the Listening Lounge

Read My Lips might be the purest example of Austin blues music available, and a statement album from one of the city’s biggest stars. Lou Ann Barton dominated the Austin Music Awards in the eighties. She won female vocalist of the year three times in five years before they gave up and put her in the hall of fame. Her voracious style was something legendary music journalist Margaret Moser liked to describe as “a voice that can peel chrome from a trailer hitch.”

Under the Double Ego was Kinky Friedman’s melancholic goodbye note to the music industry. It would be thirty-two eventful years before he recorded another studio album. When he recorded this one he was disillusioned and chose to work with the Austin based Sunrise label, despite their limited distribution network, rather than deal with corporate record executives. The album was produced locally by Sammy Allred (member of the Geezinslaws and long time radio personality who would eventually be included in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.) The Texas Jewboys disbanded before the album was recorded leaving Kinky to assemble studio musicians from the crowded local talent pool, which included recruiting Chris O’Connell from Asleep at the Wheel fame.

On a cold February night in 1978 The Skunks played what is widely regarded as the first punk rock show in Austin, and for the next six years they continued to be a definitive presence. The three piece lineup evolved over the years, with bassist Jesse Sublett serving as the anchor. They pioneered a new sound leading acclaimed journalist Margaret Moser to declare, “In Austin’s punk rock history book, the Skunks are the first page.”
