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Concert at Clark Field - Sept 1970?

Bands | UT

Several years ago, I corresponded briefly with Robert Burns, after seeing that he had copies of old Austin posters, and I mentioned that I remembered one very well.

Robert was the art director, I think it was, for the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" movie, back in 1973 or so. I need to do another posting about the house for that on its own!

Anyway, the poster that Robert had was of a concert held on the baseball field just as UT was starting up again for the year. I say Sept 1970, but could have been 1971?

Anyway, the lineup for the day was:

The Allman Brothers
Leon Russell
It's A Beautiful Day
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (I don't remember them, but that was common for the time...)

It was a *fantastic* day of music, for sure.

While I was writing this up, I came across the following quote from Willis Alan Ramsey that relates to that concert (from http://www.willisalanramsey.com/content/Riverfront-times-review-2000-11-09.htm)

"Willis Alan Ramsey, his one and only album, at once captures that intimate milieu of folk songs and stories, then leaps well ahead of its time, owing in part to Ramsey's idiosyncratic tastes and a fortuitous encounter with Leon Russell. "I was booked into a motel called the Villa Capri in Texas, and staying at that hotel were the Allman Brothers, Leon Russell, It's a Beautiful Day and Pacific Gas & Electric. I saw their show and made it a point to knock on their doors. Leon was nice and receptive, and I was kind of cocky at that point. I thought I was writing some tunes that he should hear. Leon told me to break out my guitar. He and his road manager listened and gave me their numbers in California.

"They said I should come see them. Greg Allman and Dickey Betts were really nice as well. They invited me to come down and see them in Macon. This was right before the Allman Brothers took off. So I went to see all of them. Greg recorded a demo on me, and then I went out to see Leon, and he made a demo on me. Leon said, "I'm getting ready to tour. If you like, you can stay in my house and record in my studio at night.' That pretty much sold me! It all happened quickly. I was pretty confident in what I was doing, and suddenly I was over my head. I went from playing college coffeehouses and then I'm in Leon Russell's home studio and people like George Harrison are coming over. It was a completely different environment."