10 for 30: Saxon Pub 1990-present
Fifth entry in our salute to 10 Austin music clubs at least three decades old
The building at 1320 S. Lamar Blvd. had been the site of several clubs previously, but when Joe Ables and Craig Hillis opened the Saxon Pub in June 1990, they created something altogether different than the earlier barfly incarnations as the Boss' Office, the Living Room and Madison's. They brought quality live music and lots of it, booking as many as six acts a night, from happy hour to last call.
The club's sound man, Richard Vannoy, has been behind the board for almost all of those sets, except Monday night’s Bob Schneider residency. They butted heads in 2003, so Vannoy played softball on Mondays, his only day off before the Pandemic. The walls of rough cedar provide great acoustics for loud rock, as well as folkies. The 150-capacity club’s intimacy is a big draw for fans and musicians alike.
The original home of Schneider's acoustic singer-songwriter format was Stubb's inside, and then it moved to Steamboat. But it wasn't until Bob and his band sat down at the Saxon, with the crowd packed around the stage, that Lonelyland caught on. Schneider has not hated Mondays for 25 years.
Ables found the place when Madison’s was going out of business and hired the Angleton native, who had a small accounting practice, to audit their finances. “I knew Craig Hillis from Steamboat,” Ables said in 2010, “so I called him up and told him I’d found a club with some potential. He asked me ‘what do you see it as?’ and I said it could be a really good room for singer-songwriters. And he said ‘you mean like the old Saxon Pub?’ and the name just stuck.” Ables and Hillis were partners in the very beginning.
The original Saxon Pub was in an old Canary Hut location (currently Cafe Hornitos) on the I-35 access road near 38th from ‘71-’74. An A-frame restaurant taken over by “nightly folk entertainment,” as acts were originally advertised, the Saxon rose to local prominence when it was the best listening room in town in the months between the ‘71 closing of the Chequered Flag and the Jan. ‘72 opening of Castle Creek in the same Lavaca St. location. (In-between, it was short-lived rock/soul club Muther’s.) Regulars included Michael Murphey, Ray Hubbard and Alan Ramsey, when they had just two names, Bobby Bridger, Bill and Bonnie Hearne, Townes, and acoustic bluesmen like Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. The Saxon was where Steve Fromholz got over the breakup of Frummox (“Texas Trilogy”) and established himself solo. After playing guitar with the Stephen Stills Band in 1971, Fromholz came off the cocaine highway and put together the comedic Captain Duck and the Farmer’s Electric Co-op Boys with Hillis on guitar, Travis Holland on bass and drummer David Fore (Bubble Puppy). In the spirit of continuation, Hillis tapped Fromholz to be the first act to play new Saxon.
The Bad Livers put the club on the live music map in 1991, with their Monday night bluegrass massacres, then veterans Rusty Wier and W.C. Clark came aboard with more credibility. But it was the late Stephen Bruton’s endorsement that helped establish the Saxon as a place where world-class musicians could cut loose.
“Stephen came by one day, in ’96 I think, and he said ‘I can’t get a gig in town. Can I play here?’ And I said ‘I’ll not only book you, I’ll give you a key to the place,” said Ables, who had just bought out Hillis. Not only did Bruton pack the club every Sunday with the Resentments, originally a band of recovering alcoholics, but his headlining sets sometimes turned into superstar jam sessions. "One night, on the stage at the same time, there was Bonnie Raitt, Eric Johnson, Stephen Bruton, Michael McDonald and Mickey Raphael," said Ables. Bruton also brought up his old boss Kris Kristofferson one night. "As soon as he started singing 'Busted flat in Baton Rouge' I thought my head was going to explode," Ables recalled of the time one of his all-time favorite musicians played his little club.
Surviving the early lean years, the Saxon steadily found its niche - older live music lovers who have to work in the morning and don't want to deal with Sixth Street or the Warehouse District. "We were one of the first clubs to put the headliner on at the middle of the night and not at the end," said Ables. "There was some resistance from the acts at first, but they found out that a lot more folks will come out to see them if they can be home in bed by midnight."
Because of such scheduling, the Saxon Pub is able to "turn the house" each night, with the crowd at midnight, different from the one there at 6 p.m.
Some of the acts who've come up through the Saxon include Monte Montgomery, Hayes Carll, Guy Forsyth, James Hand, Los Lonely Boys, Carolyn Wonderland, Patrice Pike, and the list goes on.
The year 2009 was a sad one for Ables and the Saxon family, as its two beloved older brothers, Stephen Bruton and Rusty Wier, succumbed to cancer, at ages 60 and 65, respectively, just months apart. They were also connected through Bonnie Raitt. Bruton toured in the slide-playing redhead’s band for a few years, and she gave Wier some serious mailbox money when she recorded his “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance” on the double platinum Urban Cowboy soundtrack.
The Saxon gave Wier, active on the local scene since the early ‘60s, when he played drums and sang soul covers for the Wig, a musical home in the ‘90s when he needed one. And he gave them 15 years of great Thursday nights. There’s a statue in his honor at the Saxon, where his residency sold more booze than anyone else. "Bartenders loved Rusty," musician Bob Livingston said. "He had this thing during his show where he'd hold up a shot of tequila and everybody would go to the bar to buy their shots.”
There was one last toast in March 2009, when Wier was so sick Ables had to carry him up to his wheelchair onstage. “People had come from all over to see him,” said Ables. “He truly got to find out that he was loved."
It looked for awhile that we’d be toasting the Saxon Pub for one last night at the charmed 1320 S. Lamar location. Ables had tried to buy the building for years and was rebuffed. A huge rent increase was on the horizon, but before Ables’ lease came to an end, real estate mogul Gary Keller of Keller Williams purchased the building in Nov. 2016 for an estimated $1.5 million, with every intention to keep the good knight shining.
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Here’s a really good documentary by Jeff Sandman called Nothing Stays the Same: The Story of the Saxon Pub, which is as much about the changing Austin music scene as the club that keeps the old spirit live. Not sure if this free stream is sanctioned, but you can rent the doc for just $1.99.
Watch the Bad Livers at the Saxon Pub in 1991 via DaveTV.
Previous “10 for 30” Clubs
#2 Broken Spoke
#3 Cactus Cafe
Another great history Michael! Thanks again, as always, and keep up the good work. Dig these walks down memory lane, they reinfoce the feeling of having been blessed to know those times and places.
Denny's & Co. (Speedy, Rodney, John) was one of my favorite residence's at the Saxon before I relocated. There was a collective sigh of relief across ATX when KW bought the building & the Pub didnt have to "relocate". Some relocations, like the Horseshoe, sadly never materialized. Plus, they remodeled the bathrooms! It was much needed after all those years.