AUSTIN, Texas — Fifty-three years ago this week – Aug. 7, 1970 – an old armory on Barton Springs Road opened its doors for the first time as the Armadillo World Headquarters, a music venue where country met rock music and created what was known at the time as the “Austin Sound.”
It was one of the places in 1970s Austin where rednecks, hippies and University of Texas students all got together under one roof to drink cheap Lone Star Beer and hear some of the best musical acts – local and national – of the era.
Its spiritual and artistic leader was Willie Nelson, who had fled the traditional Nashville music scene in search of something new and fresh. Austin seemed like his best choice.
In a filmed interview with KVUE's Dallas sister station WFAA in June of 1974, Nelson praised the uniqueness of the Capital City.
“I think the university has a lot to do with it. The young people are here. They're liberal-minded. The whole town is liberal-minded. In fact, this whole part of the country is liberal-minded where people can be themselves and not have to worry or be uptight about anything. It’s beautiful country, beautiful people and good weather,” Nelson said.
The music Nelson and the others created was known as “progressive country.” Its fans listened to the original KOKE-FM at 95.5 on the FM dial, the first progressive country radio station in America.
Other live music venues kept busy, but at the time, the most popular place was The Armadillo, under the leadership of Eddie Wilson. Wilson was concerned in a 1974 interview about big record labels and producers coming to town and ruining the live and local music scene.
But Austin has always been about change, and so, too, did the times and tastes in music change. The Armadillo closed in 1980 and was demolished and replaced by an office building. For many who were young and lived here, Austin was pretty much a college town: a simpler time that for many of us who were here still seems near, yet so very far away.