History

Austin’s history of blues and soul music is vast and revered. The city’s blues scene can be traced back to the early 1900s. There are many important figures in Austin blues including “Pee Wee” Crayton, Hosea Hargrove, T.D. Bell, Erbie Bowser, Ernie Mae Miller, and the Eastside Kings of which the annual blues and jazz event Eastside Kings Festival is named after.

One of the most standout influential figures, however, was pianist Roosevelt Thomas “the Grey Ghost” Williams who was responsible for pioneering the blues sound of Austin in the 1920s. While several jazz venues began to open in Austin, Williams was part of the Chitlin’ Circuit that thrived with Eastside music halls including the historic premier blues club known as Victory Grill, now a cultural artifact of East Austin. Johnny Holmes, a booking agent and band manager, opened the venue in 1945 as a cafe that welcomed black soldiers and musicians during the time of legal segregation in the south. With the burgeoning jazz and blues scenes, the restaurant evolved into a club known for its music in addition to its food and drink. Of the touring acts that made stops at the Victory Grill and other venues in East Austin were greats like B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, local heavyweight Janis Joplin, and even a young Elvis Presley.

In the 1950’s, Charlie Gilden, an African-American businessman, purchased a block of businesses on the East Side including a swanky jazz and blues venue called Charlie’s Playhouse and an after-hours club called Ernie’s Chicken Shack at the height of the segregation era. One of the mainstays of blues music in Austin, Henry “Blues Boy” Hubbard, played with his band The Jets which was the house band for both venues.

In the 1960s, W.C. Clark emerged as the “Father of Austin Blues” because of his influence on the local blues scene. For decades, Clark was a prolific blues musician whose band W.C. Clark Blues Revue played venues with international greats such as B.B. King and James Brown. He shared the stage as part of the Triple Threat Revue with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lou Ann Barton. In the late ‘80s, Clark taught the young rock prodigy brothers Charlie and Will Sexton how to play the guitar.

In the late 1970s, the beloved TC’s Lounge opened where the Sahara Lounge now sits. It remained a fixture of Austin music for 33 years. Regulars of the former venue remember Monday nights with the Little Elmore Reed Band and Wednesdays with Soul Track Mind. Baby Girl, its much loved bartender, cooked and served free food and cold beer.

Joe Ely at Crest Hotel. Courtesy of Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Another essential part of the story of Austin blues is the legendary music promoter Clifford Antone, a man who is credited as the ultimate music patron. Antone was absolutely possessed by his love for the blues. At age 25, he opened the original Antone’s Nightclub which served to be one of Austin’s first music venues on the once-nefarious Sixth Street, founded on the premise that it would be a local institution for blues music for decades to follow. Throughout several location changes, the club saw live performances by national icons such as Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Fats Domino, James Brown, Ray Charles and dozens of others.

Uncoincidentally, around the same period of time as the opening of Antone’s inaugural location, Texas blues music flourished in Austin. A young Stevie Ray Vaughan, who made regular appearances at Antone’s, made Austin his home after dropping out of high school and saw immediate success with the release of his band’s debut album Texas Flood in the fall of 1982. After his tragic death, Vaughan was memorialized at the foot of Lady Bird Lake where a statue of him still stands today at Auditorium Shores.