Darrell Royal and Willie Nelson, shaped Austin music

djbfootball · #1 06-27-2011, 09:40 AM

Could not decide where to put this one so I put it here

Interesting article on these two friendship;

Quote:

Royal's "pickin' parties," where such artists as Willie Nelson, Charley Pride, Mickey Newbury, Red Lane, Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge would pass around guitars and play to enrapt audiences until the sun came up, helped establish Austin as a town where music was respected as more than pleasing background noise.

"We used to call them 'red light parties,' " said Gatlin, who met Royal in 1973. "Darrell would have a red light in the room where we'd play and if you were in the audience talking or making any noise, the light would go on." The message was simple and unyielding: Listen or leave. Even whispering was not tolerated.

http://www.austin360.com/music/the-f...inglePage=true

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editionshield · #2 06-27-2011, 02:08 PM

Wish I'd talked to Newbury about this when I had the chance. (He passed away 9 years ago.)

Did get a nice bit from Mickey Raphael, Willie's longtime harmonica player, about this awhile back. He basically credited DKR with introducing him to Willie, thus providing him a lifelong gig.

TENHORN · #3 06-28-2011, 02:57 PM

I went to 8 of their tournaments and sure have some great memories of the picking parties that lasted all night.

TexasFan · #4 09-24-2011, 07:36 AM

Good post. The Austin music scene is a shell of what it once was. Since 1992, it has not been the same.

editionshield · #5 09-24-2011, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexasFan

Good post. The Austin music scene is a shell of what it once was. Since 1992, it has not been the same.

Wondering what specifically about '92 you're viewing as a turning point.

Generally speaking, I kind of agree, though it's sort of apples-and-oranges. Lots of significant things surfaced over the past 20 years, just different from what had been the city's big-time stuff previously. So instead of the likes of Willie and Stevie Ray, there's been bands such as Los Lonely Boys and Spoon who have risen to the national spotlight.

TexasFan · #6 10-05-2011, 09:00 AM

I am 41 and have been in Austin for 39 years. I remember better times on sixth street from 84-90 than now. Or should say after 90'ish. I moved away to college in 1991 and came back home in 95. Boy was I surprised at the lack of quality music that had descended on Austin. IMO, Austin was saturated with piss poor music. 84-90 was special, it was The Music Scene.

editionshield · #7 10-05-2011, 09:58 AM

Ironically, that almost exactly overlaps with my primary years going out to see music in Austin. Between 85-91 I was at one music venue or another pretty much four nights a week on average.

Somehow I suspect we still ended up seeing waaaay different things, though. But that in itself is part of what was good about Austin as a music town -- great stuff to see for lots of different types of music fans.

Still sort of is, I think, but I have somewhat less of a handle on the nature of the clubs there these days. There's probably actually more of them than there used to be, but more isn't necessarily better, of course....

SAhornfan · #8 10-05-2011, 10:26 AM

Funny how your age and when you lived in Austin determines what was good. Personally, the late 70s-early 80s were the best. The Armadillo was still open, Liberty Lunch was humming. The Punk/New Wave scene was booming at Raul's and the Continental Club and, of course, Antone's for Blues.