ALL ATX, Low Down Violet Crown
Enthusiastic about the future of a sprightful city draped in bluebonnets, the Austin Daily Statesman appropriately dubbed Austin “The City of the Violet Crown” in 1890. The title would eventually lose its luster over time, but by way of fate or coincidence, the city’s future reputation as The Live Music Capital of the World® would also find its roots buried in blue soil.
In the 1950s, before the days of Willie or Roky, blues royalty made local venues on 11th Street a regular stop on the Chitlin' Circuit, a network of venues that supported the development of black musicians like B.B. King, Etta James and Sam Cooke. Moving crowds to eight and twelve bar tunes, they set up a stack of kindling that local talents like T.D. Bell, Blues Boy Hubbard, and Sonny Rhodes would light into a fire, sparking the city’s desire for live, off-beat, raspy, soul-inspired music.
The genre continued to grow in the following decades through legends like Janis Joplin, Jimmie Vaughan, his brother Stevie Ray, W.C. Clark and Lou Ann Barton, who fused the blues with red-hot tempos and riffs that filled clubs with violet sound waves. Hooked on the energetic, live performances that genres like blues-rock promised, hungry audiences attracted musicians looking for reliable gigs. Alongside the efforts of people like Clifford Antone, the city gave those musicians a national spotlight, solidifying its position as a live music haven.
Providing their own unique spin on the genre that gave Austin its name, ALL ATX and the Austin CVB have brought together a collection of unique tracks from some of our city’s most beloved musicians that span the entire blues-rock catalog from that defining era.
Available in our online store, at our Visitor Center, 602 E. Fourth St., and Waterloo Records.
Tracklist:
- Nakia And The Blues Grifters* | Whippin' Post
- Walker Lukens | Right Place, Wrong Time
- Jimmy LaFave | Long As I Can See The Light
- James McMurtry | Tight Rope
- Grupo Fantasma | Waitin' For The Bus
- Bob Schneider with Doyle Bramhall II | Black Betty
- Marcia Ball, Carolyn Wonderland & Shelley King | Woodstock
- David Ramirez | I've Been Loving You Too Long
- Sweet Spirit | Stay With Me
- Danny Malone with Bob Schneider | Breakdown
- Black Pistol Fire | Oh Well
- Van Wilks | The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys
- Jackie Venson | I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)
- Guy Forsyth | You Keep Me Hanging On
- Moving Panoramas | American Girl
- The South Austin Moonlighters | Witchy Woman
- Water & Rust | Seven Bridges Road