Category Archives: Austin

by | February 25, 2015 · 8:00 am

Two Steppin’

This past weekend I had the chance to visit Austin’s very own Midnight Rodeo. Not sticking to only traditional country music, Midnight Rodeo would switch up their two stepping to the wobble. While it was predominately country music so that I could practice my two stepping skills, I was able to take a break and get out on the dance floor with my gals and drop it like its hot because boy was it hot in there.

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I got the privilege to go with a large group of my gal pals, which supported the old saying “the more the merrier.” While as a group we had the most fun at the breaks when songs like “Uptown Funk” came on, individually we enjoyed the country songs better because, honestly, where else can you find that kind of entertainment? Either grabbing a free guy or one of our friends we danced in circles around the dance floor to every country song that played. Being such a social event, country dancing is hard not to enjoy even if you are sitting that song out and just watching.

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Now please don’t think that because we all own a pair of cowboy boots and live in Texas we are automatically great country dancers. My group and the dance floor ranged from first time dancers that had never laid a foot in a dance hall to pros who incorporated flips into their two-step. It truly was amazing to watch the expert dancers who made it look effortless. I fell right in the middle of those two being able to do the steps and a couple simple turns. I think we all enjoyed ourselves just the same no matter the skill level we were at. You could feel the energy and heat coming off of the dance floor from the people that were there to have a good time.

Now I challenge you to go and try it! This tutorial, excuse the woman’s outfit, shows you the very simple basics of two stepping. However, I believe getting out there and doing it is the best way to learn! Starting with a slower paced song will help you get your footing and eventually you will be able to keep up with a faster paced beat!

Tim McGraw’s “Just to See You Smile” is one of my favorite two stepping songs that you can try out at home with your cat, dog, cow or what ever else you have running around the house. I hope you try out you closest country dance hall and enjoy the experience as much as I did!

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Filed under Austin, Dancing, Texas

by | February 12, 2015 · 10:48 am

Waltzing with the Debutante

Honky Tonk Debutante by Christine WarrenLast week, the Rhetoric of Country Music class had the pleasure of welcoming the author (and country music expert) Christine J. Warren to class. She spoke about some of country’s early subgenres, shared great stories about the development of Austin’s live music scene, and read a couple of passages from her book Honky Tonk Debutante: The History of Honky-Tonk Music as I Care to Tell It (2014).

With this post, I wanted to share links to a couple of projects that developed from Christine’s visit. First, she mentions the class on her own blog (“Reality on the Half Shell”), and she even includes photos of the card we signed for her.

Second, I included an interview I did with Christine in the new episode of the Zeugma podcast series. Zeugma is sponsored by UT’s Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and it generally addresses topics related to rhetoric, technology, and popular culture. I am contributing to all of the podcast’s Season 3 episodes, but the new one on “Honky Tonkin'” has the clearest relevance to our class. Anyway, if you have about 20 minutes to spare, I’d love for you to check it out.

Do you have any lingering questions from Christine’s presentation? What do think of her blog post about us and the “Honky Tonkin'” podcast?

Let us know in the comments!

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Filed under Austin, Class work, Honky Tonk

by | November 7, 2014 · 8:00 am

Country Dance Halls

I hardly think anyone refers to country dance clubs as “dance halls”anymore, but in case anyone was wondering where some of the fun places are, I thought I would give a list of some of my favorite places to go two-stepping.

  1. Midnight Rodeo – Okay, okay I know I mentioned this in my last post, but this place is my absolute favorite place to go country dancing. Thursdays here are college night and those are the nights that I usually go. To be more accurate I pretty much go to Midnight Rodeo 3 out of 4 Thursdays of the month. I also abbreviate the name of the place to just “Midnight” when I talk to people about it. I will usually ask someone “Hey, are you going to Midnight tonight?” and they usually know 381496_318099158210573_137971699556654_1172474_441156811_nwhat I am referring to. If you get there before 10 there is way more room to dance, but there is less people to dance with. It all depends on what you would rather enjoy. The entire night consists of some slow songs, a waltz song thrown in, then faster tempo songs, then 3 or 4 top 40 hits and then the cycle continues until 2 am. There are also pool tables for those who are dragged along and do not really want to dance. The live bands that play on Thursdays sometimes ruin the fun, but the bands on Friday are pretty awesome.
  2. Dallas Nightclub – Betcha did not think to throw that in there. I have only been on Wednesdays, but there is so much room to dance. This is considering that not a lot of people go to Dallas Nightclub as much as Midnight Rodeo. People usually have classes on Thursday so that may be a reason. They also play a lot more older hits and classic country than the newer country. They hardly play any waltz songs which disappoints me. However, they also throw in some top 40 hits like they do at Midnight. I also abbreviate the name of this place to just “Dallas”. I do not go as often as Midnight, but if there is a large group of friends that go then sure why not. One of my friends actually teaches country dance lessons on Saturdays in case anyone wanted to brush up on their skills.
  3. Rebels Honky Tonk (Rowdy’s) – So this place I have only been to a few times, but I enjoy it when I go with a group of friends. Yes, the floor is smaller than Midnight Rodeo, but there is a mechanical bull. I have not ridden it, but some of my guy friends have. The music they play is almost the same variety as Dallas Nightclub. There is something interesting about the “Footloose” line dance. They dance it different at Rebels than Midnight Rodeo. The song came and I got on the dance floor, but it looked as if I was doing it wrong. Technically there are no right or wrong versions of “Footloose”, some people just prefer to do it different ways than others. One of the downsides about Rebels is that most nights it is only 21 and over.
  4. Cowboys – The best thing about this country dance spot is that the dance floor is huge. College night is on Wednesdays because I mean no one would want it to conflict with Midnight Rodeo’s college night (especially me). I have only been a couple times, but from my experiences there are a few reasons why it is not my first or second choice. Yes, there is a huge dance floor. When the top 40 songs start to play, you either stay on the dance floor the whole time, or you watch from afar. That floor fills up super quickly. No way in, no way out. And you are actually allowed to take your drink on the dance floor (Midnight Rodeo strictly prohibits such a thing) for a good reason. Towards the end of the night there are so many bottles on the floor along with the substance that came from the bottles. I would suggest going on a Friday when they have live bands play because there are some pretty good ones that play there. 10361038_677764722260371_1040815024595110074_n

Of course there are others such as the Broken Spoke (more of an older crowd), Wild West (in cedar park), and Gruene Hall (in Gruene, TX). Those are a few places that I have not been to yet, but I do plan on going to very soon. I have been to Billy Bob’s in Arlington which was pretty cool. Country dance halls are some of my favorite places to go. I just love country music and dancing. I usually go dancing once a week because if not, my heart becomes sad.

Have any places you think I missed? Comment about them!

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Filed under Austin, Dancing, Lists, Texas

by | October 24, 2014 · 8:00 am

Rebel’s Honky Tonk!

703918A few weekends ago, I ventured out with a few of my girlfriends to Rebel’s Honky Tonk, which is a country dancing bar on 5th street. (It apparently now changed its name to Rowdy’s Saloon and made a few changes, but I went there when it was called Rebel’s Honky Tonk, so that’s how I refer to the place now.)

I have been to Midnight Rodeo a few years back, which is pretty much a similar concept as Rebel’s, so this was my official second time to get my two-stepping on. As someone who grew up overseas and mostly in the north, Country music has never really been my thing until I moved to Austin for school. My first time to a country dancing bar, Midnight Rodeo, was definitely an experience; I was a little freshman that did not really know much, and this huge dance floor in the middle filled with everyone who already knew how to two-step was too overwhelming.

Since this was my second time to a country dancing place, I already knew what to expect. I remembered to put on my cowboy boots, and started listening to some country songs a few hours before heading out as my “pre-game.”

When my friends and I got there, it was about 10 p.m. and it was not crowded at all. There were a few people on the dance floor, and others scattered throughout the bar, just drinking beer and chatting. The first thing I noticed was that the dance floor was not as big as Midnight Rodeo’s, and there was a huge mechanical bull! My friends and I first got a few drinks and started chatting up, and shortly after, the bar started to get pretty crowded. I could tell a lot of the people there were much older than us, and I spotted some serious cowboys, with their fancy shirts, Wrangler’s jeans, boots and even the cowboy hats.

I think Rebel’s tried to play mostly country songs, with a few modern dancey songs here and there, to please both younger and older people. Since I already made it clear that I don’t know much of the older country songs, there were only a few songs I recognized that night. I can’t remember all names, but I remember singing along to Eli Young Band’s “Drunk Last Night,” and Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel.”

At one point my friends tricked me into going on the dance floor with them, and I attempted to two-step to some country song that I’ve never heard of, and this old-ish gentleman who looked like serious two-stepper helped me out, which was very nice of him. As the bar got more and more crowded, I could see more people two-stepping on the dance floor, and more people using the mechanical bull, overall just enjoying themselves with some good ole’ country music with friends.

I had much fun that night at Rebel’s. I think it’s really awesome that you can see find a spot to get your country dance on in downtown Austin. Being inside and hanging out with people there made me feel like I was in some small town Texas, fully experiencing “the South” – the music, the mechanical bull, friendly people, and the whole atmosphere.

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Filed under Austin, Dancing, Live Music

by | October 21, 2014 · 8:00 am

Still a Fujiyama Mama

Wanda Jackson

This past August I caught the legendary Wanda Jackson performing at Austin’s Continental Club. It was a memorable show, but it left me with mixed feelings about her legacy and popular culture’s general lack of interest in female musicians once they reach “a certain age.” This is probably why it has taken me well over two months to write about the experience. Conveniently, yesterday was Jackson’s birthday. She turned 77.

Known as the “Queen of Rockabilly,” Jackson rose to fame in the late 1950s as a kind of female version of Elvis Presley. In fact, she and Elvis toured together and even dated for a time. She gives him credit for convincing her to leave the honky-tonk music she grew up singing in California and Oklahoma for the rockabilly songs that would eventually land her a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (she was inducted in 2009).

Wanda Jackson & Elvis Presley

Wanda & Elvis (c. 1956)

The most successful rockabilly performers tended to be men (Elvis, Cash, etc.). Jackson did not ever top them in radio play or record sales, but in her songs she found the room to put their masculinist worldview in its place. “I Gotta Know” (1956), for example, pokes fun at Elvis’s dancing, with the narrator complaining that “[w]hen you’re on that floor you’re cool man cool, but when it comes to loving you need to go to school.”

Furthermore, in songs like “Fujiyama Mama” (1957) and “Riot in Cell Block #9” (1960), she brings into plain view the topic of female sexuality, which the male rockabillies avoided. In these songs, sexual desire is a dangerous and unsettling force–powerful as an atomic bomb or a prisoners’ revolt. In “Riot,” she describes female inmates overpowering their guards and cat-calling the male militia members who are sent in to calm them down. The song had been a hit for the Robins–an all-male R&B band–in 1954, but when Jackson performed it,  it became a kind of transgressive, feminist response to Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock” (1957).

In the 1960s, rockabilly began losing its commercial appeal and Jackson moved back into country (and later, gospel) music. In songs like “The Box It Came In” (1966) and “My Big Iron Skillet” (1969), she continued criticizing philandering men, even threatening them with violence. But her bigger hits from this period were more often about heartbreak and standing by your man whether he’s right or wrong, which makes it hard to argue that there is any kind of feminist message unifying her many, many records. Colin Escot, in the book accompanying Bear Family’s 8-CD collection of her country recordings, chalks this up to Jackson’s never having the kind of major hit that would bring her the power to choose the best new songs. In a sense, she made a career making the best she could of the leftovers.

Dusty's Wanda Jackson ShowOn one hand, the Continental Club is a perfect place for Jackson to perform. Open since 1957, it has hosted some of the United States’s greatest musicians, from Tommy Dorsey to Stevie Ray Vaughan. The owner, Steve Wertheimer, has honored Jackson with tribute shows, and she clearly feels at home there. The performance I attended lasted a little over an hour, which was understandable given her age and that there were 2-3 other acts also playing that night. She was surprisingly energetic, shrieking into the mic like a crazed inmate at one point and later yodeling her way through “I Betcha My Heart I Love You.”

But on the other hand, I couldn’t help but think that after rocking for six decades the Queen of Rockabilly should be playing someplace a little nicer–someplace where the audience has sense enough to shut up when she talks about grabbing sodas on her dates with Elvis Presley. For all its history, the Continental Club is a little shabby around the edges and is exactly the sort of place Jackson must have had in mind when she admitted to Escot that she wished she didn’t have to play honky tonks anymore. I would think that Wanda fucking Jackson wouldn’t have to play anywhere she didn’t want to anymore.

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Filed under Austin, Bakersfield Sound, Classic Country, Live Music, Reflection, Rockabilly

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