Category Archives: Blog Post 5

Note: This is an example of Blog Post 5.

My friends and I occasionally go to The Little Longhorn Saloon on Sundays for Chicken Shit Bingo, and while that’s a lot of fun, it sometimes becomes hard to watch the band and get your drink order because of the massive amount of tourists that flock there. Nevertheless, when a group of  friends I met at UT from New York and L.A. had friends in town and wanted to do something “Texan,” I had to bring them to The Little Longhorn for “Tecate and Taco Tuesday.” This event is perfect for any college student: $2 Tecate, Free Tacos, $1 Lonestar during happy hour, and free music. While the bar didn’t feature one of their usual old school country bands, they had a blues band, Kevin & the Krawlers, who ended up being a lot of fun to listen to. When we were leaving, the girls from New York told me that they felt like Texas was like an entirely different country. I had done my job.

Another “country” experience I had this semester was watching The Last Waltz (1978) about a week ago. This is one of my Top 10 favorite movies of all time; I’ve probably seen it 50 times and for some reason I own two or three copies of it. It’s a concert documentary about a band named “The Band” and their last concert before they broke up. The Band’s music is a mix of American roots rock: bits of blues, rock and roll, and country all mixed together. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and features many musical guests such as Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Emmylou Harris, and Eric Clapton among others. This movie was huge for me because it changed my sense of genre in music and I began to appreciate what blues, country, jazz, and rock and roll all have in common.

Lastly, I went to a festival at Cedar Park a couple weeks ago. The setup was a little strange: There was a large amphitheater which hosted some of the artists, while outside there was a dozen food trucks and an outdoor stage for the rest of the artists. I was there with my friends to see three of the artists: Dr. John, Leon Russell, and Asleep at the Wheel. Dr. John’s music is a weird mix of New Orleans voodoo culture with rock and roll and R&B (he is featured in The Last Waltz as a guest). Leon Russell started out as a studio musician and worked alongside Glen Campbell before going solo and making his own rock and roll mixed with a gospel style performance.

Asleep at the Wheel is probably the most country band that was at this show. They’ve been active in various lineups since the 1970’s and have won 9 Grammys. They mainly play Western Swing and Texas Country and commonly feature electric guitar, drums, bass, piano, multiple fiddles, horns, and mandolin. I think they’re a great band to go see live because its great dance music, they’re all incredibly good musicians, and it’s a good look into the past at what Texas country music used to be. They have nostalgic value to me because my parents always played their records when I was growing up. I’ve been able to see them quite a few times while living in Austin and they were nice enough to talk to my friends and I after the last few shows of theirs that we’ve gone to. They’ll be playing April 23^rd for Austin’s Earth Day Festival as well as a couple shows at Gruene Hall in mid-May.

Editor’s note: This is an example of Blog Post 5.

Before I started Rhetoric of Country music, the only experience I had with country music was  me actively seeking it through listening to it either on the radio or during a show. After going some of the assignments, I realized that country music is all around us!

To start, I went to the Texas Music Museum. Unfortunately, when I went the country music exhibit was not in display at this moment, but I did learn about Tejano music in Texas. I wish the country music display would have been available though, because I’m sure there would have been lists of the different artists and their backgrounds. I then went and had lunch at Threadgills on a typical Friday afternoon, and although it wasn’t brunch it was still great walking around the restaurant and seeing the pictures of the different artists (there was a section with a lot of Willie Nelson pictures there) and the southern vibe that the whole restaurant had.

Since those experiences kind of failed, I made sure I had other experiences and encounters with country music. Some of the ones I had throughout the semester are:

Watching ‘Cars’

I remember going to see Cars in theatres when I was young. The only thing I ever remember from the movie was the long scene when Lightning McQueen is driving and “Life is a Highway” was playing in the background. I decided to rewatch the movie, and I realized that there were country songs in the movie. I think at the time when I was little, I was taken back by the story line more than the actual music, even though I did love Rascal Flatt’s version of “Life is a Highway”. I think country music being involved in mainstream movies like this is good for the genre because it gives people the opportunity to listen to the songs without really realizing it’s country and judging it solely for it being country and quickly turn it off. And for kids, songs like “Find Yourself” and “Life is a Highway” are catchy tunes to introduce them to the genre and hopefully grow up to really like it!

Reading Texas Music Magazine 

I read February 2015’s edition of Texas Music  Extra. I had never heard of this magazine, let alone read it, but I did enjoy it. Even though it was informative, the information was clear and easy to read. I enjoyed that they had a good blend of well known artists like Miranda Lambert and Willie Nelson, but then they also mentioned local artists like Kasey Lansdale. Even though the magazine discussed different genres of Texas music, there was some about different country artists.

Visiting the Willie Nelson statue 

I also decided to pay a little visit to the bronze version of Willie Nelson. I also may or may not have attempted to face swap with Willie and got in trouble with the APD… I think it makes sense  that Austin decided to  rename it’s street to Willie Nelson Boulevard considering he has made a huge contribution to the city and has lived in Austin for a long time. I think the statue is in the perfect location because it sits outside of the Moody Theatre (which some people like to say he ‘christened’ the theatre because he performed on opening day) where ACL Live tends to tape!

After all of these different experiences, I noticed that country music is around us. It’s either in movies we watch, in our streets, at the restaurants we eat, or even aspiring or established artists among us, country music is there and makes a presence in every day life!