Music of Austin

Music of Austin, Texas: Austin's official motto is the "Live Music Capital of the World" because on any given night, one can find over one hundred venues showcasing a wide variety of affordable - or free - live music performances. Austin is also famed for the SXSW and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which showcase an eclectic array of live musical talent from across the globe. The greatest concentration of music venues in Austin are located around 6th Street, the Warehouse District, Downtown, Central East Austin, South Congress, the Red River District, the University of Texas, South Lamar, and South Austin.

The modern definition of "Austin music" emerged in 1972 when "a new form of country music exploded on the scene that turned its back on Nashville and embraced the counterculture.".Eddie Wilson had opened the Armadillo World Headquarters music venue in 1970, which drew large crowds to alternating country and rock music shows. But it was 1972 when a minimally successful Willie Nelson left Nashville once and for all and moved to Austin, joining several other talented nonconformists and recent transplants including Michael (Martin) Murphy, Marcia Ball, Steve Earle, Gary P. Nunn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Waylon Jennings and others. Willie grew his hair long and "figured out how to bring the hippies and the rednecks together." His audiences at the Armadillo began to cross-pollinate and "what resulted was a scene that no one had ever seen before....On New Year’s Eve, Austin’s local KOKE.FM radio station switched to a new format geared to the mixed crowds first called “country rock,” and later “progressive country.” By November of that year, the first pilot for the iconic Austin City Limits was being filmed with Willie....Billboard Magazine named KOKE “the most innovative radio station in the country;" and Austin had a national reputation thanks largely to the reporting of Rolling Stone stringer Chet Flippo, who seemed to get a dispatch from the Armadillo into every issue."

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Wikipedia