UGS 302: Austin Music Scene / Fickling

An examination of Austin's rapid economic and creative growth and local attitudes toward the Texas capitol's transformation as an urban center.    Austin, Texas, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is experiencing one of the most dynamic periods in its history. Wedged between homogenizing growth and a long tradition of rebellious nonconformity, many Austinites feel that they are amid a battle for the city's soul. From this struggle, a movement has emerged as a form of resistance to the rapid urban transformation brought about in recent years: "Keep Austin Weird" originated in 2000 as a grassroots expression of place attachment and anti-commercialization. Its popularity has led to its use as a rallying cry for local business, as a rhetorical tool by city governance, and now as the unofficial civic motto for a city experiencing rapid growth and transformation. By using "Keep Austin Weird" as a central focus, Joshua Long explores the links between sense of place, consumption patterns, sustainable development, and urban politics in Austin. Research on this phenomenon considers the strong influence of the "Creative Class" thesis on Smart Growth strategies, gentrification, income inequality, and social polarization made popular by the works of Richard Florida. This study is highly applicable to several emerging "Creative Cities," but holds special significance for the city considered the greatest creative success story, Austin.

"Music saturates the city of Austin, always has, and likely always will," observes Louis Black, the founding editor of the renowned alternative newspaper, The Austin Chronicle. Music is more than simply the sound track of Austin, however; it's a force inseparable from the city's culture, economics, politics, and daily life. The very history of Austin can be drafted upon the frequencies that flood its streets, from legendary clubs--Antone's, Emo's, and the Broken Spoke--to internationally renowned events such as South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Since publishing its first issue in 1981, The Austin Chronicle has evolved alongside the city's sound to define and give voice to "The Live Music Capital of the World."In honor of the Chronicle's thirtieth anniversary, this anthology gathers the weekly's best music writing and photography, with introductions to each decade by the paper's principal voices, Margaret Moser, Raoul Hernandez, and Christopher Gray. Through album and live show reviews, stunning portraits, and in-depth articles, the collection traces the roots of Austin's unique sound, featuring seminal artists ranging from Doug Sahm and Stevie Ray Vaughan to the Butthole Surfers and Spoon. With historical pieces that look back at Twelfth Street's blues beginnings, the Sixties' psychedelic origins, and the definitive progressive country scene of the Seventies, the anthology provides an unparalleled sweep of Austin music history, while also shining light on the integral but often overlooked figures of the music scene with a thoroughness and honesty that's hallmark to the Chronicle's style. Framing the work from such esteemed music writers as Chet Flippo, Ed Ward, Dave Marsh, Joe Nick Patoski, John T. Davis, Michael Corcoran, and Peter Blackstock, are now-iconic images from photographers Burton Wilson, Scott Newton, John Carrico, and Todd Wolfson, among others.

Country music of late 1960s and early 1970s was a powerful symbol of staunch conservative resistance to the flowering hippie counterculture. But in 1972, the city of Austin, Texas became host to a growing community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and fans who saw country music as a part of their collective heritage and sought to reclaim it for their own progressive scene. These children of the Cold War, post-World War II suburban migration, and the Baby Boom escaped the socially conservative world their parents had created, to instead create for themselves an idyllic rural Texan utopia. Progressive country music--a hybrid of country music and rock--played out the contradictions at work among the residents of the growing Austin community: at once firmly grounded in the conservative Texan culture in which they had been raised and profoundly affected by the current hippie counterculture.In Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin's Progressive Country Music Scene, Travis Stimeling connects the local Austin culture and the progressive music that became its trademark. He presents a colorful range of evidence, from behavior and dress, to newspaper articles, to personal interviews of musicians as diverse as Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Doug Sahm. Along the way, Stimeling uncovers parodies of the cosmic cowboy image that reinforce the longing for a more peaceful way of life, but that also recognize an awareness of the muddled, conflicted nature of this counterculture identity. Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks brings new insight into the inner workings of Austin's progressive country music scene -- by bringing the music and musicians brilliantly to life.This book will appeal to students and scholars of popular music studies, musicology and ethnomusicology, sociology, cultural studies, folklore, American studies, and cultural geography; the lucid prose and interviews will also make the book attractive to fans of the genre and artists discussed within. Austin residents past and present, as well as anyone with an interest in the development of progressive music or today's 'alt.country' movement will find Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks an informative, engaging resource.