James Edward Burton is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001, Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. He was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2024. Critic Mark Deming writes that "Burton has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest guitar pickers in either country or rock ... Burton is one of the best guitar players to ever touch a fretboard." He is ranked number 24 in Rolling Stone list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time.
Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s. More recently, he has worked as a defense consultant and advised U.S. members of Congress on missile defense. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers in 2020.
Lloyd Wayne Maines is an American country music record producer, musician and songwriter. He was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame as one of the first three members, the other two being Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He is the father of Natalie Maines who is best known as the lead singer of The Chicks.
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.
Larry Eugene Carlton is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. One of the most sought after guitarists of his era, Carlton has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, including more than 100 gold records, as well as for television and movies. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders and the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career.
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.
Victor Stanley Feldman was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as an adult. Feldman emigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s, where he continued working in jazz and also as a session musician with a variety of pop and rock performers.
Fredrick O. Tackett is an American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Originally a session player on guitar, mandolin, and trumpet, he is best known as a member of the band Little Feat.
Gary P. Nunn is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is best known for writing "London Homesick Blues", which was the theme song for Austin City Limits from 1977 to 2004. Nunn is also considered the father of the progressive country scene that started in Austin in the early 1970s.
Bob Livingston is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass player, and a founding member of The Lost Gonzo Band. Livingston was a key figure in the Cosmic Cowboy, progressive country and outlaw country movements that distinguished the Austin, Texas music scene in the 1970s. Over the years, Bob Livingston has gained a reputation as a band leader, solo artist, session musician and sideman in folk, Americana and country music. He has toured without stop for 47 years, and is one of the most experienced and world traveled musicians in all of Texas music. Livingston's CD, Gypsy Alibi, released by New Wilderness Records in 2011, won the "Album of the Year" at the Texas Music Awards. In January 2016, Livingston was inducted into the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the West Texas Music Walk of Fame in 2018. Howlin' Dog Records released Livingston's latest CD, Up The Flatland Stairs, January 10, 2018.
Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas is an album by American rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. It was recorded live at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas in November 1973, and released in 1974. Unlike many live albums, it contains mostly new material and features only two previously released songs. It reached #105 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart.
¡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.
A Ballad of the West is a three-part story by Bobby Bridger told in Homeric verse and song about the Mountain Men, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and the Lakota Sioux people inspired by John G. Neihardt's A Cycle of the West.
Barry Edward Beckett was an American keyboardist, session musician, record producer, and studio founder. He is best known for his work with David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, and Roger Hawkins, his bandmates in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which performed with numerous notable artists on their studio albums and helped define the "Muscle Shoals sound".
Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir is the second album by American singer-songwriter Michael Martin Murphey. According to AllMusic, this album established Murphey as a progressive country musician. Murphey's impact on the genre was as such that one of the many names for the genre, "Cosmic Cowboy music", was taken from Murphy's "Cosmic Cowboy, Pt. 1", a song that appears on this album. The album peaked at number 196 on the Billboard 200.
Blue Sky – Night Thunder is the fourth album by American singer-songwriter Michael Murphey and is considered one of the seminal albums of his career. Released in 1975, it produced two major hit singles—the platinum-certified "Wildfire" and "Carolina in the Pines"—and established him as a major force in popular music. Members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band provided backing on some of the tracks.
Jim Ed Norman is an American musician, multi-platinum record producer, arranger and label-head. As an arranger and producer, he was one of the principal architects of the distinctive sound of West Coast 1970s pop and country rock. He was President of Warner Bros Records Nashville from 1984 to 2004.
Michael Rhodes was an American bass player, known for his session work and touring in support of other artists, and his collaborations in bands and ensembles.
Harry Stinson is an American multi-instrumentalist, noted as a session drummer and vocalist in the Nashville music community. He is also a songwriter and producer.
