Willie Hugh Nelson is an American musician, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.
Austin City Limits is an American live music television program recorded produced by Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", and is the only television show to receive the National Medal of Arts, which it was awarded in 2003. It also won a rare institutional Peabody Award in 2011 "for its more than three decades of presenting and preserving eclectic American musical genres". Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS under the Capital of Texas Public Telecommunications Council. The show was created in 1974 by Bill Arhos, Bruce Scafe, and Paul Bosner.
Emily Burns Strayer is an American songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and a founding member of the country band The Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. Strayer plays banjo, dobro, guitar, lap steel, bass, mandolin, accordion, and sitar. Initially in her career with The Chicks, she limited her singing to harmony with backing vocals, but within her role in the Court Yard Hounds, she has taken on the role of lead vocalist.
Natalie Louise Maines is an American singer. She is the lead vocalist for the all-female country band The Chicks.
The U.S. state of Texas has long been a center for musical innovation and is the birthplace of many notable musicians. Texans have pioneered developments in Tejano and Conjunto music, Rock 'n Roll, Western swing, jazz, punk rock, country, hip-hop, electronic music, gothic industrial music, religious music, mariachi, psychedelic rock, zydeco and the blues.
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
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 venues hosting live music performances in the city, sometimes over 100 on the same night. Austin is known internationally for the South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which feature eclectic international line-ups. The greatest concentrations of music venues in Austin are around 6th Street, the Warehouse District, Downtown, Central East Austin, South Congress, the Red River District, the University of Texas, South Lamar, and South Austin.
Asleep at the Wheel is an American Western swing group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception, released over twenty albums, and has charted more than 21 singles on the Billboard country charts. Their highest-charting single, "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read", peaked at No. 10 in 1975.
Billy Joe Shaver was an American outlaw country singer and songwriter.
Grady is a Southern rock band based in Austin, Texas.
Billy Bob's Texas is a country music nightclub located in the Fort Worth Stockyards, Texas, United States. It promotes itself as "The World's Largest Honky Tonk," at 100,000 square feet of interior space and nearly 20 acres of parking space.
Ray Benson is the front man of the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel as well as an actor and voice actor.
"Travelin' Soldier" is a song written and originally recorded by American country music artist Bruce Robison in 1996 and again, in rewritten form, in 1999. It was later recorded by Ty England on his 1999 album, Highways & Dance Halls. The first rendition to be issued as a single was by Dixie Chicks in December 2002, from their album Home. It became the group's sixth and final single to reach No. 1 on Billboard "Hot Country Singles & Tracks". A version of the song featuring Natalie Maines, Bruce Robison and Robison's wife, Kelly Willis, appears on KGSR's Broadcasts Vol. 13 album.
Bruce Ben Robison is an American, Austin-based Texas country music singer-songwriter. Bruce and his brother, fellow singer-songwriter Charlie Robison, grew up in Bandera, Texas, near San Antonio, and he currently resides in Austin, Texas. His self-titled debut album was released in 1995.
Gary Nicholson is an American singer-songwriter and record producer, known mainly for his work in country music and blues. He is a two-time Grammy winning producer and was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriter's Association Hall of Fame. Nicholson has more than 500 recordings and is best known for his work with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Ringo Starr, BB King, Fleetwood Mac and Billy Joe Shaver.
Kimmie Rhodes is an American singer-songwriter. She has recorded and released a total of sixteen solo CDs, written and produced three musicals and published a novella/cookbook, served as an associate producer for a documentary, They Called Us Outlaws presented by the Country Music Hall of Fame and produced radio documentary/music programming for her show Radio Dreams, which focused on the history of American roots music and artists. She has also appeared in multiple films and a theatre production, Is There Life After Lubbock? Her songs have appeared on multiple television and film soundtracks. She has established and released her own records on her label, Sunbird Music for over 25 years. Kimmie's promotional tours created a solid fan base in the U.K., Ireland and Europe. She has headlined with her band at festivals throughout the world and has appeared on many European and American TV and radio broadcasts and at Willie Nelson's Farm Aid concerts and July 4 Picnics. Together with Willie Nelson she recorded two of her originals for his album Just One Love and a duet CD, "Picture in a Frame". She lives and records in Austin and tours internationally with her son and producer/multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Rhodes.
Robby Turner is an American pedal steel guitarist, best known for his work with Waylon Jennings and his contributions to recordings by many other artists.
Michael Rhodes is an American bass player, known for his session work and touring in support of other artists, and his collaborations in bands and ensembles.
The Willie Nelson statue is a bronze sculpture of singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, located in Downtown Austin, Texas. The statue was commissioned to artist Clete Shields by the nonprofit organization Capital Area Statues.
