Austin Music Is a Slideshow

Rock out to the Tailgators and take a little trip through Austin music history

My upcoming music history book Austin Music Is a Scene Not a Sound (Spring 2024 TCU Press) opens with the story of yodeling tavern owner Kenneth Threadgill, the granddaddy of them all, whose performance and encouragement of Austin music dates to the 1933 repeal of Prohibition. Then we step back even further to the German singing societies, which preceded the Volstead Act by several decades. Beer has always played a big part in the history of Austin music.

We end with the launch of South by Southwest, whose registration line would become Ellis Island of the New Austin. SXSW was born in March 1987, the month Threadgill died at age 77 of a pulmonary embolism.

You’d think the end of one era in Austin and the beginning of another couldn’t be more succinctly defined, but six years earlier- April 1, 1981- Austin’s first punk club Raul’s closed for good on the night hip hop made its live concert debut here. As Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and other acts drew 3,000 to Municipal Auditorium on a Wednesday, rap was perched to replace punk as the sound of rebellion, in Austin, and around the world.

Austin music is not defined by genres, however. Sammy Allred of the Geezinslaw Brothers, the first local act to sign with a major label (Columbia) in 1962, used to say, “Austin music is not a sound. It’s a scene.” Thank you, Sammy!

The only Austin we get is the one we got, so let’s make the best of it. Let’s ditch that once-accurate “Live Music Capital of the World” motto like an itchy scarf. A better city slogan: “Austin: It’s the People!”

Clubs come and go, but what’s always made this music community special are the folks who understand how lucky they are, and work hard and party harder to keep it that way. We’ve all gotta die sometime, but it’s sad to think that the vast majority of names in the book are no longer with us. Death is especially cruel when you’ve got somewhere to go.

Enjoy this four and a half minute break, put together by Tom Kessler, my former boss at the Dallas Morning News. Most of these photos are not in the book- I collected 230 for about 125 slots- but they’re pretty great. See anybody you know?