There
may be dozens of live music venues
in Austin, each distinctive in their own way, but perhaps none produce shows as
consistently classy as the one in the basement of the University of Texas’
non-descript Communications B building. For over 500 Sundays in a 12-year
stretch, KUT Live Set has been originating from Studio 1A and offering
perhaps the last bit of truth in advertising — a live music set on KUT. “It’s
a simple concept, but an unpredictable show,” says Live Set producer/engineer Walter Morgan. “Texas artists, with everybody playing
together at the same time, in the same room. They all see each other, and they
all play together, which isn’t how it works on today’s records. Add in the
extra little something — that nature of playing live on the air — and you’ve
got the concept and energy behind Live Set.”
Although Live Set has captured the energy of everybody from Stetford
and the True Believers to Kirk Whalum and Butch Hancock, Morgan nonetheless
admits that in the “Live Music Capital of the World,” the concept of a
plug-in-and-play live broadcast is a no-brainer. That’s what Morgan and several
other engineers and deejays told KUT General Manager Bill Giorda in 1983, when
they asked for approval to begin broadcasting from the large basement storeroom
in the communications building. Morgan says Giorda was quick to realize that
on-air staffers like Larry Monroe, Paul Ray, and Jay Trachtenberg had long been
presenting live music in the KUT control room, and that a new room and
centralized day and time could alleviate KUT’s concern about providing an
engineer every time a station deejay got the bug for live music. Almost
immediately, Giorda named the show and told Morgan to develop the concept.
“It was and still is such a basic show that there wasn’t much to develop,”
says Morgan, who’s been behind the board for each of Live Set‘s 517
shows. Initially, Live Set aired every two weeks, in a fixed Sunday
evening slot that seemed an attractive time for both listeners and in terms of
musician availability. And although Larry Monroe’s “Texas Radio” presented a
Jimmie Dale Gilmore show in studio 1A only a week before Live Set‘s
February 1984 launch, Paul Ray’s airing of Kazz Jazz is in the books as the
first official Live Set — unless you ask Monroe. “It’s a matter of some
debate,” says Morgan. “Larry wants to have done the first, and Paul doesn’t
really care. And I did both shows, so it doesn’t really matter to me.”
Either way, Morgan now admits the live-on-air concept and challenge of finding
a smooth sound in what was once an engineering storeroom had everyone,
including Morgan, initially nervous. As such, early Live Sets featured
small, semi-acoustic bands without drums. “We still weren’t sure we could get a
big enough sound out of the room,” explains Morgan. “Now, we’ll do any
combination, any set-up, but it took a long time for me to believe it sounded
good. People would always say it sounded good, but it probably took me five
years to start believing them.”
As anxious as Morgan was about the show’s initial sound, he says that both he
and the KUT powers that be were adamant that the show be aired in real-time,
rather than tape the shows and tinker with the audio quality in
post-production. “People might think that recording it could be easier, but
production-wise it’s infinitely harder,” Morgan says. “We knew bands wouldn’t
be satisfied with one take and would want to do it again and again. Then
someone has to decide which take is the best one. Who gets to decide? The band
wants input, everybody wants input. Then, all of a sudden, you’re making a
record once a week, just for a one-hour radio show. That’s my slogan; `We’re
not making a record, it’s just a radio show.’ I use that to try and chill guys
out because sometimes they come in and think they’re making a record.”
But sometimes musicians are indeed coming in to make a record. Since its
inception, local musicians without recorded product have used their Live
Set performances as deal-shopping demos. In fact, Jimmie Dale Gilmore
credits a Live Set tape as the launching pad for his first deal with
HighTone. Yet in recent years, as prices for CD and cassette pressing have come
down, more local acts like the Asylum Street Spankers and the Derailers have
used the sets as commercially released product. Add an influx of artists with
major label deals who view Live Set as an easy way to record
well-produced B-sides for singles or European pressings, and the show can be
seen as having taken on a whole new life beyond its original one-hour airing.
Although KUT itself has pressed three Live Set compilation CDs as
pledge drive premiums, the matter of post-show commercial releases may be the
program’s grayest area. KUT owns the master tapes to the shows, but
technically, says Morgan, nothing within the University bureaucracy stops the
re-release of tapes — mostly because the bureaucracy is too big to keep tabs
on 517 Austin artists. “There has never been a prohibition against using the
tapes, and there’s never specific permission to use the tapes,” says Morgan.
And while Morgan says he supports the use of Live Set as independent
cassette releases and as stage product, he’s more reserved about the threat of
large indies or major labels exploiting the show’s catalogue.
“Sometimes great live radio doesn’t make for a good recording down the line,”
says Morgan. “I would prefer to withhold the two-track masters unless there’s a
compelling reason [to release them], like Nanci Griffith or the True Believers
deciding `Oh boy, I really like my old performance on Live Set.‘ Okay,
cool. But generally, I’d like to hold the masters until we get new technology
like a couple of ADATs and tell the artist if they’re serious about releasing
it they can buy the blank tape, and pay a nominal charge to track it. Then they
would have the performance, generated by the live excitement and being on the
air, that they can take to any studio in town and remix it and make a better
product. We could generate a little income for the station, pass on business to
local studios, and give the artists better control over the product. But you’ve
got to buy the machines and nobody will do that for me yet, so I don’t see that
happening any time soon. In the meantime, I’m sure the bands will keep
releasing their product.” Whether or not there’s a tape for sale down the line, Morgan says most musicians come in realizing
straight away that Live Set‘s immediate value is the show’s first airing
— the promotional value of reaching a dedicated KUT audience. “For the
musician, it comes down to the intrinsic value of playing on a 100,000 watt
radio station,” Morgan says. “Any musician would be stupid to overlook that,
but there’s still two different types of musicians playing: the ones that do it
for the enjoyment and the others who may be more career-oriented and are trying
to get somewhere. Either way, they say time and time again that its a `fun’ gig
because playing in a controlled situation is not something you get to [do] a
lot.”
Morgan’s reign over Studio 1A is a controlled situation as well, mostly
because his game plan is so simple. KUT’s deejays bring Morgan ideas for bands,
firm up a date, and let the performers know when to appear for soundcheck.
Then, Morgan sets up the band, gives them a dinner break, and both parties meet
later for the broadcast itself. “I’m the coordinating producer in that I set up
the dates, set up the bands, and record them, but the hosts are co-producers in
that they find the bands and I trust them to know what will work,” says Morgan.
“Live Set is a reflection of the station philosophy. The station doesn’t
have a program director, we have 15 — one for each show. It’s an unprecedented
approach and the station’s real value. Live Set is where the 15 meet and
contribute, so that one week it could be the Hormones and the next Willie
Nelson.”
And while the show’s diverse roster of guests is its strength as a program,
it’s also what keeps Morgan on his toes as a producer. These days, Morgan says
musicians of any genre or configuration are fair game, although the show has
come full circle from its early days — to the point where acoustic shows
present the biggest challenges. “With just an acoustic guitar, there’s no place
to hide. It’s all open space,” Morgan says. But even with the unpredictable
factors of live sound, Morgan maintains that, like any studio session, the
psychology behind the session is Live Set‘s biggest uncertainty.
“I meet a whole group of people for the first time each week, and an hour
later I have to have them all organized in a fairly small room,” says Morgan,
who has both a music and radio-television-film college background. “Then, I’ve
got to sit down while they’re playing, without tracks to play back, and get a
sound that I’m happy with very fast. They’ve been together a long time, or
sometimes they haven’t and have their own internal conflicts going on and I’ve
got to step into the middle of it and find a sound we can all agree on.
Usually, it’s not a big deal because they realize the nature of the gig and
realize if it’s going to work they have to trust me. All they can really do is
play their best because there’s no second chance.”
And for all the headaches of the set-up, Morgan says the library of tapes that
sits near his desk more than makes up for it. So while Larry Monroe, Dan Del
Santo, and David Obberman have hosted the most Live Sets, Morgan’s seen
’em all form behind the console. And as such, for a guy that rarely, if ever,
goes out to the clubs to see live music, Morgan has seen 10 years of Austin
music come, go, and come back again. “I’ve never been a nightclub kind of
person,” says the engineer. “My joke is that I don’t have to go out to the
clubs, because the bands come to me. And this way, it’s all discovery for me.
“It’s kind of hard to relate it to a broader thing — Austin music as a whole
— because they come in, do the show, and leave. Nine times out of 10, I never
see them again. I’m like a doctor in that way. And of course, there are some
people over the years that you develop a relationship with and know, mostly the
guys that play in a lot of different bands.”
But isn’t Live Set‘s ultimate legacy that it’s captured hundreds of
those musicians Morgan’s met over and over, in hundreds of now-defunct bands?
“That’s for an archivist to answer in the future,” answers Morgan, adding that
one day he hopes to make the Live Set collection available as part of
UT’s library system. “I’ll tell you, if someone wanted to do a book, they could
probably listen to all these tapes and get a great one just from the
information of who’s playing, what clubs were open, and who was at what point
in their career. There’s a huge amount of historical information on these tapes
in the interview and plugs alone. And then there’s the music….”
Andy Langer does Sunday overnights on KUT and has hosted two Live Sets: The
Billy White Trio and Fastball.
This article appears in July 19 • 1996 and July 19 • 1996 (Cover).