By Michael Corcoran “The registration line was insane. That’s 20 minutes of my life I won’t get back.” “Some band just handed me an album. Haven’t they heard of cassettes?” “Do you know where Saturday’s day party is?” “Austin learned its lesson from the Armadillo. No way they’re tearing down Liberty Lunch for an office […]
(Originally published in 2007) by Michael Corcoran New evidence shows that Arizona Dranes, the blind Pentecostal piano player who inspired everyone from Mahalia Jackson to Jerry Lee Lewis, attended the Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youths in Northwest Austin from 1896- 1912. Let that sink in for a sec: The first person to […]
by Robert Wilonsky and Michael Corcoran (circa 2000) 1. Before you sign a record deal, look up the word “recoupable” in the dictionary. 2. Your manager’s not helping you. Fire him or her. Same with your publicist. 3. Never start a trio with a married couple. 4. When you talk on stage, you are never […]
SAN ANTONIO – Although it’s best known for a Spanish mission downtown that looks like a facsimile, the Alamo City has also earned a reputation the past four decades as a hard rock hotbed – the Detroit of the Southwest. The words “Hello, San Antonio!” have launched a thousand nights of musical mayhem. And yet, […]
1987 Number of acts: 172 Number of registrants: 700 Keynote speaker: Record producer Huey P. Meaux Buzz bands: Dash Rip Rock, Reivers, True Believers, Buck Pets, Wagoneers, Reverend Horton Heat, Hundredth Monkey SXSW organizers can’t get the computers working at registration, so even though the turnout is moderate, waits are long. That’s something that the […]
Originally published in 2001 On this, the 100th birthday of the greatest musical genius America has ever produced, it’s appropriate to recall all that Louis Armstrong has given us. Besides presaging swing with his work in the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1924 and laying the foundation for bebop with his flights of improvisation, Armstrong was […]
HONOLULU — There’s the opening reggae strum of the ukulele and the “ooooh, ooooh” crooning as glassy as the wall of a 20-foot wave, as breezy as the tradewinds on a perfect day. Then the exotic becomes familiar. “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high,” sings the velvet-smooth voice, poised to flip into falsetto. “Who […]
Austin American Statesman 2011 To celebrate Stevie Wonder’s 50th birthday on May 13, 2000, Jody Denberg dedicated his two-hour Sunday night radio show on KGSR to the manchild whose records constantly strived for higher ground. Any worries that Denberg would have to pad the last half hour of the show with lesser tunes like “Isn’t […]
By Michael Corcoran When Sam Cooke heard “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1963, it was as if a whole new world of expression opened up. Cooke not only heard sweet poetry in the call for deliverance from struggle, he foresaw a shuffling of the status quo. The era of […]
Elvis Presley played Austin four times before his Jan. 28, 1956 TV debut on the “Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.” First was March 17, 1955 at Dessau Hall, then Aug. 25 at the Sportcenter on Barton Springs Rd. He played the Skyline Club on Oct. 6, 1955 (after a matinee show at SWTSU in San Marcos) […]
