Home with the Armadillo: Public Memory and Performance in the 1970s Austin Music Scene

Date

2010-01

Authors

Mellard, Jason Dean

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Publisher

The Center for Texas Music History

Abstract

"I wanna go home with the Armadillo Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene The friendliest people and the prettiest women You've ever seen." These lyrics from Gary P. Nunn’s “London Homesick Blues” adorn the wall above the exit from the Austin Bergstrom International Airport baggage claim. For years, they also played as the theme to the award-winning PBS series Austin City Limits. In short, they have served in more than one instance as an advertisement for the city’s sense of self, the face that Austin, Texas, presents to visitors and national audiences. The quoted words refer, if obliquely, to a moment in the 1970s when the city first began fashioning itself as a key American site of musical production, one invested with a combination of talent and tradition and tolerance that would make of it the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World.”

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Keywords

Armadillo, Austin music scene, Public memory, Austin City Limits, Armadillo World Headquarters

Citation

Mellard, J. D. (2010). Home with the Armadillo: Public Memory and Performance in the 1970s Austin Music Scene. <i>Journal of Texas Music History, 10</i>(1), pp. 8-21.

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