The Music Collection At The Austin History Center
June 14, 2009
Filed under Music
I visited the Austin History Center on Friday, and since I was using a vacation day, I thought I would take a moment to check out their music collection. The Austin History Center is located at 810 Guadalupe and was built in 1933; it has an Italian Renaissance style, and was designed by an Austin architect, Hugo Kuehne. The Austin History Center performs many functions, but generally speaking, has a mission to preserve the history of Austin and Travis County. It so happens that they have a respectable collection of materials on Austin`s rich musical past as well. This aspect was the focus of my visit on Friday *(some time I will need to take the Bremond Block tour and the Texas State Cemetery walking tour).
I was given a friendly greeting when I entered the reading room Friday afternoon, and one of the librarians showed me around, and how their collection was organized. The primary categories of records are: bands, halls/venues, instruction and study, sheet music, societies, festivals, and trade (this would include record stores). After sampling the catalog, I requisitioned three different files of interest; one was Antones, the historic blues club, another was the famous Liberty Lunch open-air venue, and the last was the Vulcan Gas Company, purported to be the first psychedelic music venue in Texas (1967-1970).
The Antones file had many old newspaper clippings, and brought back personal memories of mine, such as when it first opened at 6th and Brazos, in July of 1975. I saw Muddy Waters there and the upright bass player, Willie Dixon, who may well be the most important artist associated with Chess Records. The photographs are in separate files, and a print can be ordered for $15; also newspaper clippings can be copied for 15 cents per page. One great example that I saw was a photograph of Shiva`s Head Band; this was in the Vulcan Gas Company file.
Most of us do not keep very good records, and that would certainly include myself. It made me feel very secure in knowing that archival professionals were preserving our past properly, and furthermore, that I could go visit the center anytime that I had a spare moment, and research bands, clubs, or record stores that have seemingly vanished into thin air. I had forgotten what the Liberty Lunch looked like, forgotten Dan Del Santo (almost), and Bad Mutha Goose was but a remote memory to me. Many of the images are coming back to me now, so I hope that I`ll see you soon over at the reading room of the Austin History Center; nostalgia is better when shared!
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