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.

Today, there are pan handlers on every street corner. Back in the good old days, there were hippie flower sellers. Remember them? I think they were officially called "The Flower People". They each had a white plastic bucket of long stem carnations and each had their own style of marketing and actually put some effort into it. The main technique I recall was their ability to twirl a long-stem flower on their index finger for hours. Much like watching someone spin a basketball or ride a unicycle, it look effortless and easy.

Effortless and easy... that pretty much describes the culture of the times that allowed not only the omnipresence of these hippies of commerce but also allowed one of them to rise up to run the circus:

We used to follow the Lotions around wherever they played, mostly. They were a big part of the raggae movement in Austin. I can't believe no one has mentioned the Armadillo World Headquarters yet, gee whiz Wally, I spent way more time there than I did at my high School, the beer garden was always a place to score, eat, drink, socialize. I even saw Rush play there, Turk Pipkin performed, hundreds of bands did, usually admission was only 8 bucks! The only time I ever got to see Zappa was at the 'Dillo. All the way out cool artwork on the walls from Michael Priest and others. I remember being at the last dance at the 'Dillo, their last show, on New Years Eve, During Kenneth Threadgills set, our friend Rusty fell under the stage and passed out, the front of the stage had a curtain across it, so when he fell, the curtain sung back, and rusty disappeared behind the curtain, and we couldn't find him till he woke up at the end of the show when the hall cleared out.. yeah good times!!

Skating down the hill at auditorium shores on a cardboard box, during the free Sunday concerts, I remember taking our bong into those.
We even took our bong into city colosium, (the old army hanger by Palmer auditorium), we saw Styx there and Fleetwood Mac.

Used to have breakfast, or lunch with Clifford Antone at Trudy's pretty often, Cliff was good people, don't believe the horseshit, he gave lots of guys their break, and lots of people a job.

Miss the Stallions slightly green gravy on the CFS, a good meal, I cried when those places were torn down, I still have a t-shirt with an angry armadillo coming over the top of Texas Bank.

I worked on and off, (mostly spent the night on the couch), at Riverside Sound Studios, and worked or hung out with Herschel C, Eddie H, Bill J, Ricky M, Lloyd M, Jim Yanaway, Bob Livingston, I fondly remember very sweet Connie Hancock, and all the Hancock ladies, Tejana Dames, the jazzmanian devil himself, and lots of others, it was the place that made the Austin Christmas Album..... and Austin Records put a lot of bands on the Austin music map.... It closed in 1989... I was the guy that ripped out most of the electronics...I really missed that place.

Who remembers the old "Super Roper" station KOKE FM - 95 point something on the radio dial? Coming from Dallas to Austin in the early 70's we had nothing like this station. What a mix of music. You could here a set of Willie, Michael Murphey, Leon Russell, Bob Dylan then from nowhere a Frank Sinatra song?!?! I remember the 10 to 2 DJ "Joe Gracey" he was fantastic and always funny! I remember his sign off was bluegrass "Turkey in the Straw" while he pontificated old time sayings, "Don't take no wooden nickels", "Drink lots of water", and ended with "Stay off your feet and come when you can".
Then about 75, 76 the ominous cloud of "DISCO" rolled into Austin, KOKE's rating numbers went in the toilet and the greatest venue for the Austin Sound, Outlaw Country was gone overnight. I mourned for months. I saw Joe Gracey later about 78 or 79 at the Casita Gorges out on East Riverside across from the Back Door. He had a tube running down his nose and I heard he had been fighting cancer of the throat or tongue. How ironic for a man who made his living with his voice. I don't know what happened to Joe after that but he made great memories for me and others and was an Austin Icon of that era. Another day in paradise as he used to say.

I took pictures that night, but this is one I captured off of the web, from earlier in her career. Kindly and I were just swapping text about that concert on FaceBook last month. She had tickets, and we went together on a friend 'date'. JJ was with her Full Tilt Boogie band, and was cranked that night, on Southern Comfort and whatever she had left from the plane trip. She was best on stage, and was the 'in betweens' that took her from us later that same year... She never found the love she sang about, but left us all with blues in the night. Kindly and I stood on the folding chairs like a couple of teeny boppers. ;-) Farnham

Just moved back to Austin after 26 years in SF. We're loving it!

I remember an outdoor festival in '76 or '77 (believe it was somewhere off 183). They had the (then) heavyweights on the bill. Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton, and others. Anyone else remember? I couldn't make it - love to find out where exactly it was.

Also, I know a few have left us, but any updates, stories, on Balcones Fault. Must of seen them 50 times in my 3 years in the 70's.

When I first moved to Austin, one of my best friends was a vegetarian. Since I was new in town, I followed him around for awhile. That meant eating vegetarian meals, something very new to the Texas carnivore. There were a couple of places that I recall but mostly it was the "avocado and sprouts on whole wheat" that we would get at Salvation Sandwiches. That was the complete experience: the hippie food, the hippie food vendors, the hippie mentality. All in all, a very proper lesson in the culture of my new home.

Ray Henning's HoT Music... a more mystical place may not exist for the Austin music lover. Consider this. Ray has been central to the Austin music scene since well before anyone knew there was one. I know a member of an Austin 50's doo-wop group (The Slades, compadres of Ray Campi) that remembers Ray running HoT music even back then. Ray gave the starving, strugging, Stevie Vaughn a guitar from the "used" bin that SRV went on to make his career upon. HoT music directly supports road shows and all Austin music festivals with equipment rentals, loaners, whatever. Ray help define Austin as a Guitar Town well before the the marketing guys woke up to it.

Musicians have come and gone in this town but one of the men behind the scenes, who made the music possible more than most, was always Ray Henning.

(thanks Rusty!)

Note: Ray doesn't seem to have a website and a lot of folks end up here after searching for him. Here is his information from the phone book:

Heart Of Texas Music
1002 S Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 444-9750
(800) 856-1313

Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri 9:30am-6:30pm, Sat 9:30am-6pm
Payment Methods: AMEX, DISCOVER, MASTER CARD and VISA

Ray Henning & Family - A Texas Tradition Since 1961

Back in college, starting in 1979, I remember old Bicycle Annie. By that time, she had given up her (three wheeled) bike, and would move slowly around on crutches. She moves so slowly that, you'd see her at one end of The Drag on your way to class, and when you were returning from class, she had finally made her way about six blocks toward the other end of The Drag.

One time, I made the mistake of trying to open the door for her at the Whataburger on The Drag. She screamed at me that, in no uncertain terms, would she accept no help from anybody. I cringed and slunk away like a beat puppy.

Man, she was old. I wonder how much longer she lived or who she really was.

Probably the last time I got to see Willie Nelson live would have been at an event held somewhere out near Lake Travis (at least I think it was - time erodes memories...)

It was an all afternoon and evening event called "The Last Bash on the Hill", and featured all sorts of bands in an outdoor setting. it was an ampitheatre sort of hill, with the stage at the bottom so just about everyone (and their dog - there were lots of those, too) could see and hear easily.

Willie came on just about sunset, doing his ever polished set. And about that time, the full moon rose from behind him! It was fantastic.

I missed one chance to hear Willie here in New Zealand back in the 70s, but nothing since. I can't help but think I got one of the best performances ever that night back outside of Austin.

And then walked back afterward to find that my truck, like the vehicles of many, many other people - had been *towed* for parking something like 3" onto the pavement of the road. Bugger...