Blues Society of Western PA - Newsletter

Austin is a town of 680,000 with a metropolitan population of 1,500,000. On any given night, a minimum of 150 live music venues are available to fans within the city. Pittsburgh, however, has a metro population of 2,300,000. I personally doubt if 150 bands play in a whole week in the ‘burg. It must be noted that the University of Texas is located in downtown Austin. The University has 50,00 students and 20,000 faculty.

I considered Antone’s to be a MUST stop. I was very disappointed. There is almost no blues shows left at Antone’s. It is now geared to a young college crowd. The little blues that were found at Antone’s were on the t-shirts and posters that they sell. I learned that there was only one club, Nuno’s, that played the blues exclusively. I had missed Wes Jeans by only one day. Most clubs have three or four bands each day and will throw in a blues band occasionally. The Continental Club was only about fifty percent blues. Until recently it had hosted Tony Price every Tuesday. The show was free and packed the place. Tony Price has since moved to California. The bands play for free in about half of the clubs. The tip jar was passed around on a regular basis.

The BEST SHOW that I saw was at the Saxon Pub. Omar and the Howlers opened for Bugs Henderson. The show went out live on a local blues radio program. It was a packed, enthusiastic house. Yours truly was front row center. In conclusion, the blues is there in Austin. I just had to look for it a little harder than I thought.

-- Jim Weber