Happy 2010. Any known where abouts of the remaining memebers of Balcones Fault (any still playing music locally)? Have some great memories of seeing them numerous times around town in the mid 70's.

Ken Featherston was from my neighborhood near Oso Park in Corpus Christi. I knew his sister from school and the neighborhood, but just saw him around, cause he was older. We were all proud of him though. He was off in Austin working a staff artist (here's a cover he did for the Marshall Tucker band) and as a bouncer for the Armadillo. That lead to his death. In 1975 he was working security for a Pointer Sisters show at the Armadillo. Someone had been escorted out by another fellow, and unfortunately that person thought that they should come back and shoot and kill somebody. So we lost him. I just want him to be remembered. So, here's a link to some of his posters done for the Armadillo and for sale by wolfgangs vault. If you hunt around you can find more of the cover art he did for albums. Who knows how famous he would have gotten if he'd not been killed so young, but he was famous with me.

Here's a treasure trove for all of you with fuzzy memories of Austin in the 70's. A full scan of the Texas Sun newspaper from 1977. I'm sure that there's more to be found but wow... check out those club listings!

Update: Here is an archive of years of the Sun

I have already told you some about Hattie Valdez. She was the most well known madam in Austin. Waldo Harper had a wrecker service (it still exists) and was the perrinial champion race car driver at out little round and round track. He won the title almost every year.

He was trying to get Hattie to sponser on his car. Hattie said to him;"Hell Waldo, what would you put on the car".
Waldo said: "That's easy, Hattie's Hardware, The Best Screws in Town".

I have laughed about this story over and over. It was told to me by Curtis Martin, a wrecker driver that heard Waldo say it.

She was Austin's most famous madam in the 50's to the 70's.
She had many houses around town and most the the ladies were bored married women. Hattie's residence was on the southeast corner of I-35 and Riverside. It now houses Time Insurance Agency. There are two old homes on the property. Almost every room has a bathroom. Go figure. I have worked for Time and here's a short story.

I was in the kitchen getting some coffee one morning and one of the insurance ladies was taking an application from this older gentleman. She left and went to her desk to get something and left me there with this man. He looked up at me sheepshly and said, "I've been here before, but it wasn't to buy insurance." We both had a laugh.

It dawned on me the other day that we have a deep vein of cultural and artistic contribution that has not yet been explored: the Austin Comics!

Gilbert Shelton

Remember Wonder Warthog? I do for some strange reason... probably from hanging around head shops! Anyway, I never really got into WWH but lot's of Texas hippies did.

Gilbert went on to channel the Austin Hippie culture into his next set of characters. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now I did spend many an idle moment following the adventures of this stoned trio.

Gilbert spent time working at the Vulcan Gas Works and probably quite a bit of time with Jim Franklin and other poster artists.

Berke Breathed

Academia Waltz came relatively late in the groovy Austin scene but just as the city was changing with the Yuppie invasion, Berke was there to lampoon/harpoon with wit and style.

Breathed's work at UT got him national recognition and we went on to considerable success with a little thing he calls Bloom County. We cheered in Austin when he made national distribution.

Shannon Wheeler

Too Much Coffee Man took over during the wacky 80's and early 90's. Austin was changing into sort of emo, intellectual, grunge center and TMCM was right there.

What am I missing that you remember?

Rusty passed on yesterday. He was such a showman, working until the end. It's funny how you take the familiar for granted... Rusty worked so long in Austin, he seemed to be a part of the landscape. His music was simple and simply delivered but it was his personality that made folks pay attention. The days of "good old Austin beer drinking music" have passed and the haunts of the folks from those days are getting scarcer and scarcer. Unfortunately, the folks themselves are getting scarcer too.

Who was here that fateful day, Dec. 8, 1980? It was actually the day after that I remember. I was awakened, as always back then, to KLBJ-FM. Note, that was when KLBJ was good; before it changed into their current "Hey man, let's party!" blazing guitars and hair mode. Anyway, the DJ was very somber and announced that Lennon had been killed the night before. They played only Beatles and Lennon that day non-stop, no commercial breaks. I had to go to work but I was completely shocked into an altered sense of being. The Beatles meant so much to us all. Around 5:00pm or so, I was at my girlfriend's apartment and she told me of a gathering at Zilker under the Zilker Christmas tree... we had to go.

What we found there was a very large but quiet crowd of Austin under the tree. Some had brought candles to pass around and soon there was a large circle of folks, all holding candles, around the base of the tree, all facing in. We cried, we sang, we thought of the damage that Mark David Chapman had done. We all knew that things had fundamentally changed that night. Austin certainly never felt the same again. It seemed like from that day forward, the pace of change in Austin has done nothing but get faster, accelerating away from us.

Yea, I was lucky enough to move to austin in mid 60's. Threadgills was the only saloon out north, well besides Jade and Dodge City. But me Mom used to take me, as she knew Kenneth, Senor Cisco, and many politicos.
I remember I thought the gal sounded horrid and just screammed. You had to understand it was a small, small joint and she of course sang her heart out. But I never forget her. She sat with KT and mom and I. And indeed she became a legend, and I finally liked most her stuff. The last time I saw her was in Fillmore West with BB & Holding.
God bless me mom for enlightening me to the Austin music scenne before there was one.
BadBuzz
The road goes on forever...and the party never ends!

Last week we lost yet another one of those things that you just rely on being there: James Stanish passed on. If your had ever eaten there, "Mr. Top Notch" surely either took your order and/or cooked your meal. Everyone seems to mention the Dazed and Confused connection with Top Notch as if that is the defining attribute. It's not. Top Notch has always been a place where you walked in and felt like family. We don't know yet whether they will re-open and try to keep going without James. I hope so but in either case we will have lost a part of our Austin family.

Update: the family has decided to re-open the restaurant and keep going. Give them your support.