Word: austine
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Austin sound-redneck rock or progressive country-began crossing over from country to pop charts and racking up sales once scarcely dreamed of in the country field. In the past two years, three such albums have gone platinum, in trade parlance (i.e., sold 1 million copies): an anthology of progressive stars titled The Outlaws, the duo album Waylon & Willie and Willie's own Red Headed Stranger. Willie's latest, Stardust, is currently one of the nation's hottest-selling country LPs, even though it consists entirely of Tin Pan Alley standards...
When Willie moved on from Nashville, his decision to settle in Austin was no accident. Texas to him meant his native heritage, his own people, his starting place. To paraphrase a classic country hymn that Willie favors, the circle was unbroken...
Among other things, Willie saw a chance to "create my own market" by bringing together Austin's country audience with the rock devotees and college crowd on its fringes. While his post-Nashville LPs began building a national following, he consolidated his local reputation by promoting a series of July 4th outdoor concerts featuring friends like Leon Russell and Kris Kristofferson-and, not incidentally, himself. "When I was in the encyclopedia business," Willie explains, "I learned that whatever you want to sell, first you've got to sell yourself...
Despite the underlying unity of the progressive country style that burgeoned beneath Willie's-and Austin's-banner, its exponents were diverse and farflung. Some were identified with the city's rowdy club scene, like the hard-drinking Jerry Jeff Walker, whose life-style could qualify for federal disaster relief. Others, like Michael Murphey, started in Austin but moved on to other locales. Now living in Evergreen, Colo., Murphey has a cooler sound than many of the progressives and writes lyrics about themes like urban sprawl and the advent of fast-food chains where the Cavalry once...
Today Willie has become not only an Austin but a Texas institution. He has performed with the Dallas Symphony and golfed with the then Texas Longhorns Coach Darrell Royal. Around the state he sees T shirts reading MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE AND WILLIE. He hears his name lightly mentioned for Governor. His father and stepmother-universally known as Mom and Pop Nelson-bask in the legend. Together they run Willie's Pool Hall in Austin, and Pop fronts a country band. Nowadays Mom and Pop also occupy Willie's $300,000 ranch house outside town. Willie's third...