![\"Texas_Hill_Country_187N-2\"](\"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2014\/10\/Texas_Hill_Country_187N-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhile originally built 40 years earlier as a gathering place for ranch hands, the Bull Creek Party Barn started to get rented out for weddings, concerts, fraternity parties, and dances in the 1970s.\u00a0 Former owner Judy Johnson recalls that \u201cWe had all kinds of parties out there.\u00a0 Everybody wanted their party there.\u00a0 We paid Jerry Jeff Walker $5,000 to play, but Willie played for free”.\u00a0 The fact that Willie played for free showed that the artists were enjoying the shows as much as the fans.\u00a0 Many country music artists found Austin’s live music culture and enthusiastic crowds to be a breath of fresh air compared to Nashville’s conservative image and formulaic recording process.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson playing at the Bull Creek Party Barn in 1975<\/p><\/div>\n
While most concerts nowadays would be located downtown at a crowded venue, stories of the Bull Creek Party Barn in its heyday evoke images of both hippies and bikers sprawled across blankets and in front of camp fires, all drinking beer and smoking and enjoying good music.\u00a0 For me, a big part of music is about bringing people together in a positive way.\u00a0 I think it is really cool that country music could bring together two groups of people who would probably not hang out under normal circumstances.\u00a0 Here, country music provided a place where all sorts of people could have a shared interest.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Bull Creek Party Barn ca. 2014<\/p><\/div>\n
The Bull Creek Party Barn is one of those things that seemed to happen at the right place at the right time.\u00a0 It seems like the combination of people, nature, partying, and country music came together in just the right way.\u00a0 Although I take pride in knowing that famous musicians such as Willie Nelson and Janis Joplin had at one point played shows in my small neighborhood, I also feel slight regret in knowing that I was born about 20 years after these shows were performed.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the Bull Creek Party Barn is an\u00a0important part of Austin’s country music culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a small neighborhood nestled within the green Austin hill country.\u00a0 Just a ways down the creek from my childhood home is the Bull Creek Party Barn, a music venue that featured artists … Continue reading