Word: austin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Going back to the basics in Austin...
...stage. Walker finishes his two-hour performance, then returns for an encore number, Pissin' in the Wind. By now the audience is standing on chairs, whooping, waving Stetsons and screaming for more. The scene is good-time Texas honky-tonk anarchy. It is Saturday night at the Austin Opry House...
With one stage for every ten musicians in town, Austin has blossomed into a performer's paradise. Hangar-size halls like the Armadillo World Headquarters and slant-floored beer emporiums like the Split Rail give steady work to such country-rock artists as Marsha Ball, Joe Ely and 400 of their fellow singers, songwriters and pickers. Because of Austin's relatively low cost of living, musicians can work cheaply. "And if they're down on their luck," says a local writer, "they can score a dope deal to hold them over...
...song's two writers had never been to Luckenbach. The tune captured the essence of Texas' country music-a return to the basics. "It's a symbol, really, of something that people are retreatin' to," says Nelson, easily the most visible member of Austin's musical colony...
...recordings went nowhere, stuck in Nashville's syrupy strings-and-choir arrangements. Though he was living well on sizable composing royalties, Nelson left Nashville in 1972 when his house burned down and he retreated to a ranch on the edge of Austin. Says he: "The University of Texas was there, and I had an idea that the young people was really goin' to like country music. They were havin' a rough time findin' it sometimes; they were afraid to go to some of the places where hippies might not be welcome...