David Bray
Armadillo World HQ – long before my Mueller arrival –
In the Cosmic Cowboy and Seventies convivial,
Had before it closed opening Eighty-One an A-list great.
But its closing back then and many venues since Aught-Eight
Make boasts once-winking-true since Ninety-One indeed absurd:
“The Live Music Capital of the World.”
Austin. Where pot smokers and cow pokers
Once stood and listened in a truce
That Cosmic Cowboy music did produce,
And made Austin’s finest mere onlookers.
Back then, from the ‘dillo to One Knite Red River
To Soap Creek Bee Caves out yonder,
The Flatlanders and Steve Young played
As Jerry Jeff, Billy Joe, and Ray Wylie
Made cowboy country music that waylaid
Cosmic hippies into a groover’s paradise
Of Doug Sahm, Willis Alan and Marcia Ball, too.
Willie Nelson’s 3rd July 4 picnic truly had “Blue Eyes
Crying in the Rain” after shine at an Austin suburban venue.
Those stars and we owe muchas gracias
That working-class musicians would
Join them here for a gig, a payday
Large or small or Hole-in-the-Wall.
Those who played were those who made
The slogan before Austin city music limits
Imposed by sky-high condo building permits,
Erasing phases and stages of haunts once vaunted:
“The Live Music Capital of the World.”
That refrain globe-wide still taunted,
Boasted by the city’s boss hogs.
(Poem continues for another four pages in his book.)