Austin, 1970
The population had been growing at an alarming rate for the last fifty years and just peaked at 267,000. There was serious concern that the city could not welcome any new citizens without losing the local charm that made it special. The University of Texas was the top employer in town. The football team was one year removed from defeating Arkansas in the “game of the century” to claim the national championship with an 11-0 record. In four years, Earl Campbell would start his legendary career.
Nashville had a stranglehold on the Country Music industry. If you wanted to release a hit album you had to go through their unimaginative producers and studios. The music coming out of Nashville wasn’t always bad, just generic. For a faction of musicians that was the unforgivable sin and they were searching for a territory to claim as their own.
These cosmic cowboys followed Willie Nelson through the wilderness and found a home in Austin. In this place, music had different rules and you were not forced to conform to a standard sound. Bands pulled influences from Tejano, Jazz, Blues, and Rock & Roll. This was a place where you could have long hair and wear boots. It was Haight-Ashbury with a southern accent and artists flowed freely between the hippie rock scene in San Francisco and the grittier Texas music scene in Austin.
The Armadillo World Headquarters
At the center of this movement was the Armadillo World Headquarters, a club that was only open for ten years but is the reason Austin is called “the live music capital of the world.” It was at the ‘Dillo that the hippies and the cowboys found common ground. As Willie says, “turns out they both like smoke.” The venue was home base for Austin based bands like Asleep at the Wheel, the Sir Douglas Quintet, and Alvin Crow as well as the venue of choice for traveling acts including Count Basie, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Zappa, and Ray Charles. For the ten years it operated, this was hallowed ground.
Austin, Today
The population has been growing at an alarming rate for the last fifty years and just peaked at 2.2 million. There is serious concern the city can not welcome any new citizens without losing the local charm that makes it special. The University of Texas is a significant employer, but has been supplanted by the likes of Dell and Tesla. The football team is fresh off a loss in the College Football playoffs that derailed a run at the championship.
At the heart of the community lie two formidable institutions: academia and governance. Both supply an endless collection of young, naive, idealistic dreamers that descend in waves during their respective seasons bringing a pleasantly aggressive liberal culture with them and creating an environment that is conducive for artists, musicians, and performers of all types.
A relatively recent rise in the tech sector has introduced a different type of free thinker into the mix. A highly ambitious and highly intelligent type of person that is busy changing the world. You can see their footprint in the geometric glass skyscrapers that now dominate the skyline, dwarfing the dome of the capitol and the UT Tower that held prominence for decades. Unlike the hippies and cowboys, this crowd brings an obscene amount of money with them, and never forget what Ray Wylie taught us: “it’s the night people’s job to get the day people’s money.”
The State of the Live Music Capital
It takes a lot of audacity to claim the title “Live Music Capital of the World” – and some serious chops to back that claim up. Austin has never been short on audacity, but let’s examine the chops:
From a quantity standpoint, Austin is in elite territory. The downtown zip code, containing the Dirty Sixth and Rainey Street entertainment districts, has the highest concentration of bars in the United States. That area is for tourists and college students but, at a minimum, most of the bars have cover bands. The plethora of clubs in the surrounding zip codes are more ‘locals friendly’ and host touring acts six nights a week. The new state of the art Moody Center has proven to be irresistible to rock-n-roll hall of famers while SXSW transforms Austin into the world’s playground for a week every year. The ACL Festival brings two more wild weekends and the biggest names in music.
What distinguishes the Austin music scene is the legacy established in the 1970’s. This is best exemplified by the Austin City Limits TV show which is recorded live at the Moody Theatre. The show launched in 1974 with Willie Nelson (obviously) playing the first episode. Fifty years later the show is going strong and brings an eclectic mix of artists to its 2,750 seat theatre. The theatre hosts around one hundred shows a year and is one of the best venues in the country.
Many of the old guard are still around. Alvin Crow plays regular gigs at the Broken Spoke. Ray Benson has evolved into a cultural icon. Willie is the king of the city. The young(er) generation grew up with this music in their backyard and are finding innovative ways to continue the legacy. Austin is still weird.
