Jerry Jeff Walker died on October 23rd, 2020, but not before becoming a folk hero from the song “Mr. Bojangles,” and helping to set up the conditions in Austin, TX that would ultimately make it the Live Music Capital of the World, and an alternative to Nashville.
Though we’ll never forget, it will be impossible to not remember all those good times Jerry Jeff afforded us, and feel a rush of incredible sadness proportionate to the impact Jerry Jeff Walker had on music, and people, and places, which was infinite.
If not for author Jan Reid, there would be no Austin City Limits. And without Austin City Limits, there may not have been any national awareness of what was happening in the Texas Capital back in the early and mid 70’s and beyond,which became the catalyst for country’s Outlaw movement.
Not as a rebuke of the work of the documentary, but as an addendum for those who watched and might want to dig deeper into the history of country through some of its more important personalities not represented well in the film, here are some of the Country Music film’s biggest oversights.
Hubbard was as important as anybody in the formation of the Austin music scene, but he was unfortunate enough to record his marquee release in Nashville. In a classic story involving Music Row, once MCA was done adding their over-produced elements to Ray Wylie Hubbard & The Cowboy Twinkies, Ray and The Twinkies wanted nothing to do with it.
I had no idea what to expect when driving down into Dallas to see Willis Alan Ramsey perform. Information on the legendary, but somewhat reclusive songwriter is scant at best. No website, calendar or social network sites to help. If you’re not religiously scanning the fine print of your local alternative newsweekly, and you don’t live in or near Texas, you’re likely to miss him.
Before Willie Nelson moved down to Austin, TX to ignite the Outlaw country movement in earnest, there were two guys in the early 70’s, each with three names, that had made the Austin music scene something worth moving to: Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphey. Sure there were a lot of other great acts […]
If you don’t know who Kinky Friedman is, then holy shit. Aside from being a writer, columnist, humorist, governor of Texas candidate, this dude was one of the ORIGINAL country artists down in Austin, TX with Ray Wylie Hubbard, Michael Murphy, Jerry Jeff Walker, and the others, when Austin music and The Outlaws took country […]
If you have found your way to this dark corner of the internet, then you probably hate how homogenized radio has become. And if you were asked what you would like to hear on the radio, you would probably say you wanted to hear the great old stuff from Hank Sr. and Johnny Cash, as […]