Bullet the Blue Sky
Allen Damron, performer and co-founder of the Kerrville Folk Festival, passed away from pneumonia complications Aug. 13 at his home in Terlingua. Damron, 66, also performed regularly at the Texas Folklife Festival, appeared in 11 movies, and was featured in Jim Gramon‘s recent book Famous Texas Folklorists and Their Stories. In the late 1960s, the Raymondville native managed the Chequered Flag on Lavaca Street, a club pivotal in the development of the so-called “Austin sound” of singer-songwriters like Jerry Jeff Walker, Gary P. Nunn, and countless others. An Eagle Scout and lifelong NRA member, Damron was named a “Goodwill Ambassador to the World” by the Texas Legislature in 1986, and is survived by wife Marie and numerous family members. Memorial services are planned for Saturday at Miss Tracy’s in Terlingua and Sept. 4 on Chapel Hill in Kerrville.
Austinite and sometime Meat Puppet Curt Kirkwood will release his first-ever solo album, SNOW, Sept. 27 on Little Dog Records. Little Dog is owned by former Dwight Yoakam guitarist/producer Pete Anderson, who produced SNOW and the Puppets’ 1991 LP, Forbidden Places.
Blind item of the week: Last week at Threadgill’s World Headquarters, an inebriated patron decided to tickle the ivories of the piano in the lobby, and, before an entire dining room of onlookers, was promptly Tasered by an off-duty police officer who happened to be eating dinner. Nice to see the zap-happy APD is expanding its electrifying activities beyond the city’s minority neighborhoods.
This article appears in August 26 • 2005.