is Dead.” That was the working title for this issue, but, well, in the immortal
paraphrase of Mark Twain, reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Not that that doesn’t make a good, catchy title, but the fact is, Austin blues
is alive and well, as you can read in Margaret Moser’s story, beginning on
p.44. And praise be, Antone’s is alive and well, too — still the Home of the
Blues, in a House of Blues era. Still, there’s an unmistakable air of… well,
change.
To a large degree, Austin is still known as Stevie Ray Vaughan’s hometown. He,
and the
T-Birds, and Paul Ray, W.C. Clark, Lou Ann, Angela, and the
Antone’s house band — they were the Austin blues scene for so long,
that maybe it’s been hard to see — in a forest-for-the-trees kind of way —
just how pervasive their cultural influence has been: in music, certainly, but
also, in a broader sense, in fostering a sense of community, in nurturing a
fierce pride for this idiosyncratic city of ours.
Moser covers about a quarter-century of our city’s blues tradition in her
article. There have been at least a couple of major generational breaks in
there, and the passing of the torch has been going on for so long that it
doesn’t really matter any more who lit it. But the Antone’s spirit lives on,
and not only down on Guadalupe but throughout the city. It’s a reminder that,
while “scenes” come and go — almost by definition — the music and the spirit
that they engender can live on for generations.
And speaking of scenes,
this week’s “Screens” section features a couple of looks behind the curtain at
the very active Austin film scene, occasioned by the ongoing Quentin Tarantino
personal film fest/benefit for the Austin Film Society and the Texas
Filmmakers’ Production Fund. Elizabeth Peters and Andy Langer provide
behind-the-scenes accounts of the filming of Richard Linklater’s upcoming film
subUrbia, while an interview with Quentin Tarantino by Marjorie Baumgarten
rounds out the section. Wonder if Tarantino has been to Antone’s yet…. n
This article appears in August 9 • 1996 and August 9 • 1996 (Cover).