Austin's official motto is the "Live Music Capital of the World" due to the high volume of live music venues in the city. Austin is known internationally for the South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which feature eclectic international lineups. The greatest concentrations of music venues in Austin are around 6th Street, Central East Austin, the Red River Cultural District, the Warehouse District, the University of Texas, South Congress, and South Lamar.
Douglas Wayne Sahm was an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in San Antonio, Texas. Sahm is regarded as one of the main figures of Tex-Mex music, and as an important performer of Texan Music. He gained fame along with his band, the Sir Douglas Quintet, with a top-twenty hit in the United States and the United Kingdom with "She's About a Mover" (1965). Sahm was influenced by the San Antonio music scene that included conjunto and blues, and later by the hippie scene of San Francisco. With his blend of music, he found success performing in Austin, Texas, as the hippie counterculture soared in the 1970s.
Armadillo World Headquarters was an influential Texas music hall and beer garden in Austin at 5251⁄2 Barton Springs Road – at South First Street – just south of the Colorado River and downtown Austin. The 'Dillo flourished from 1970 to 1980. The structure that housed it, an old National Guard Armory, was demolished in 1981 and replaced by a 13-story office building.
Progressive country is a term used variously to describe a movement, radio format or subgenre of country music which developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a reaction against the slick, pop-oriented Nashville sound. Progressive country artists drew from Bakersfield and classic honky-tonk country and rock and roll, as well as folk, bluegrass, blues and Southern rock. Progressive country is sometimes conflated with outlaw country, which some country fans consider to be a harder-edged variant, and alternative country.
Shotgun Willie is the 16th studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, released on June 11, 1973. The recording marks a change of style for Nelson, who later stated that the album "cleared his throat". When Nelson refused to sign an early extension of his contract with RCA Records in 1972, the label decided not to release any further recordings. Nelson hired Neil Reshen as his manager, and while Reshen negotiated with RCA, Nelson moved to Austin, Texas, where the ongoing hippie music scene at the Armadillo World Headquarters renewed his musical style. In Nashville, Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler, vice president of Atlantic Records, who was interested in his music. Reshen solved the problems with RCA and signed Nelson with Atlantic as their first country music artist.
Shiva's Headband, was an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Austin, Texas, United States, in 1967. Original members included fiddler Spencer Perskin and his wife Susan, keyboardist Shawn Siegel, guitarists Kenny Parker and Bob Tom Reed and drummer Jerry Barnett. The group was the house band at the Vulcan Gas Company, a late 1960s Austin nightclub. The band is credited with a significant role in the founding of the Armadillo World Headquarters. The band's first royalty check opened the club and hired Eddie Wilson as manager. Shiva's Headband was also the first band to perform there. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the band played with touring acts such as Spirit, Steppenwolf, ZZ Top, Janis Joplin, Canned Heat and Steve Miller. Austin psychedelic bands contemporary to Shiva's Headband included The 13th Floor Elevators and The Conqueroo.
Doak Snead was an American singer and songwriter. Born in Bronte, Texas, he lived in Nashville, Tennessee until his death. In 1968 he was in a duo with Gosney Thornton called Tom and Billy. The Doak Snead Band appeared on the Austin music scene in 1973 as part of the Progressive Country Music movement. Snead has appeared in concert around the U.S. most notably the Kerrville Folk Festival and in a concert with the Houston Pops Orchestra in 1975.
The Lost Gonzo Band was an American country rock band which was founded in 1972 and toured and recorded with some of the most iconic and colorful musicians in Texas including Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. They were the musicians on such quintessential albums as Murphey's Geronimo's Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir and Jerry Jeff's Viva Terlingua. The original members of the band were Bob Livingston, Gary P. Nunn, John Inmon, Kelly Dunn, Tomas Ramirez and Donny Dolan. Over the years, the band has also included Paul Pearcy, Craig D. Hillis, Herbert Steiner, Mike Holleman, Michael McGeary, Bobby Smith, Lloyd Maines, Radoslav Lorković and Riley Osbourn.
¡Viva Terlingua! is a progressive country album by Jerry Jeff Walker and The Lost Gonzo Band. It was recorded in August 1973 at the Luckenbach Dancehall in Luckenbach, Texas, and released three months later, in November 1973, on MCA Nashville Records. The album captures Walker's strived-for "gonzo country" sound, a laid-back country base with notes of "outlaw" rock, blues, and traditional Mexican norteño and Tejano styles. The album was mostly recorded live in the dancehall without an audience over several days, but two songs were recorded live with an audience.
Reckless Kelly is an American country rock band. Formed in Stanley, Idaho, the band moved to Austin, Texas in October 1996 and is now based there.
The Troublemaker is the 20th studio album by country singer and songwriter Willie Nelson. When Nelson refused to sign an early extension of his contract with RCA in 1972, the label decided not to release any further recordings. Nelson hired Neil Reshen as his manager, and while Reshen negotiated with RCA, Nelson moved to Austin, Texas, where the ongoing hippie music scene at the Armadillo World Headquarters renewed his musical style. In Nashville, Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler, vice president of Atlantic Records, who was interested in his music. Reshen solved the problems with RCA and signed Nelson with Atlantic Records as their first country music artist.
Ace in the Hole Band is the backup band for American country music performer George Strait, who was the band's lead singer before beginning his solo career in the early 1980s. The band formed at San Marcos, Texas in the 1970s, and recorded several singles for "D Records" including the Strait-penned "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" and "I Don't Want To Talk It Over Anymore". After Strait attained status as the "King of Country", the group released an album of its own in 1995 featuring vocals from Darrell McCall and Mel Tillis.
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX, 6/13/75 is an album by the country rock band the New Riders of the Purple Sage. It was recorded live on June 13, 1975, at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, and released on November 1, 2005. It was the fourth complete New Riders concert that was recorded in the 1970s and released in the 2000s as an album on the Kufala Recordings label.
Live on Stage is an album by the country rock band the New Riders of the Purple Sage. It was recorded live in 1975 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City and at the Keystone in Berkeley, California. It was released by Relix Records in 1993.
Edwin Osbourne Wilson is a former concert promoter and co-founder and owner of the Armadillo World Headquarters (1973–1980). The music venue led a music movement in Austin to national prominence from 1973 to 1980 as the birthplace of Texas progressive country, aka "redneck rock" – a fusion of country music and rock – later, more blues than rock. It was a popular venue for Willie Nelson. Wilson is the owner of two Threadgill's restaurants in Austin. The original, which he purchased in the mid–1970s from John Kenneth Threadgill (1909–1987), was where Janis Joplin got her start.
The Family is the lead singer Willie Nelson's touring and recording group. Nelson, who did not manage through the 1960s to succeed as a singer, retired after the failure of his 1971 album Yesterday's Wine. The following year, he returned from retirement rejuvenated by the burgeoning music movement of Austin, Texas.
Carroll DesChamps "Champ" Hood was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist. He was inducted into the Austin Music Memorial in 2011, the Austin Chronicle’s Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a five-time recipient of the Austin Best String Player Award.
Micael Priest was an American artist and raconteur. Due to Priest's color-blindness, his primary medium was pen and ink, which he put to great use in inexpensively printed, highly graphic, rock posters. Often printed in single color or split-fountain reliefs, the posters were done mostly for Armadillo World Headquarters, a music hall in Austin, Texas that operated from August 7, 1970 to December 31, 1980.
Pasture Prime is the eighth studio album by American western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Produced by Ray Benson at Austin Recording and Bee Creek Studios in Austin, Texas, and by Benson and Willie Nelson at Pedernales Recording Studio in Briarcliff, Texas, it was released in April 1985 by Demon Music Group in the UK and Stony Plain Records in Canada. The album was later repackaged in the US with three fewer tracks and released under the title Asleep at the Wheel.
Groover's Paradise is an album by Doug Sahm, produced by musician Doug Clifford and released on Warner Records in 1974. Following his return to Texas after his success with the Sir Douglas Quintet in California, Sahm settled in Austin, Texas. As the local music scene thrived, he was featured as the main attraction in local clubs and he recorded his debut album for Atlantic Records.
