Austin's Progressive Country Music Scene and the Negotiation
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Space, Place, and Protest: Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene and the Negotiation of Texan Identities, 1968-1978 Travis David Stimeling A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music. Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by: Jocelyn R. Neal, Chair Jon W. Finson David García Mark Katz Philip Vandermeer © 2007 Travis David Stimeling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT TRAVIS DAVID STIMELING: “Space, Place, and Protest: Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene and the Negotiation of Texan Identities, 1968-1978” (Under the direction of Jocelyn R. Neal) The progressive country music movement developed in Austin, Texas, during the early 1970s as a community of liberal young musicians and concertgoers with strong interests in Texan country music traditions and contemporary rock music converged on the city. Children of the Cold War and the post-World War II migration to the suburbs, these “cosmic cowboys” sought to get back in touch with their rural roots and to leave behind the socially conservative world their parents had created for them. As a hybrid of country music and rock, progressive country music both encapsulated the contradictions of the cosmic cowboys in song and helped to create a musical sanctuary in which these youths could articulate their difference from mainstream Texan culture. Examining the work of the movement’s singer-songwriters (Michael Murphey, Guy Clark, Gary P. Nunn), western swing revivalists (Asleep at the Wheel, Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys), and commercial country singers (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings), this dissertation explores the proliferation of stock imagery, landscape painting, and Texan stereotypes in progressive country music and their role in the construction of Austin’s difference. These traits reveal fundamental challenges confronted by the cosmic cowboy generation: rapid urban-industrial growth that could be countered by escaping to the rural countryside, a hippie counterculture thought to be either in its last throes or, in contradictory interpretations, on the verge of its zenith, and a iii mainstream culture whose ignorance or stubbornness stood in the way of a countercultural utopia. Through analysis of source recordings, this dissertation also investigates the influence of commercial songwriting and recording practices on Austin’s progressive country music and establishes the city’s musical community in a larger network of commercial musicians in Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York. As such, progressive country music in Austin embodied the contradictions felt by the cosmic cowboys as they attempted to forge a place and identity for themselves in Texas in the 1970s. iv For Lynn E. Westfall (1939-2003), who shared his thirst for knowledge and taught me the value of education and whose encouragement set me on this path. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although only one author receives credit on the title page of this dissertation, this project could not have come to fruition without the careful assistance, gentle advice, and insightful criticisms of a very large and supportive community of individuals who have been willing to work with me throughout the conception and gestation of this project. I would like first to thank the many people who have generously offered to share their personal recollections about their time in Austin during the 1970s and to open new pathways for my research. I am especially grateful to Ray Benson, Tommy Goldsmith, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jan Reid, and Marcia Ball for agreeing to formal interviews and for offering invaluable background about the daily musical activities of Austin’s musical community and for deconstructing their personal conceptions of progressive country music. I am also thankful for the many informal conversations and email communications I have had with Don Cusic, Chet Flippo, Joe Gracey, Martha Hume, Joe Kruppa, Archie Green, and Hazel Smith about their memories of Austin and Nashville during the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, I wish to thank James Akenson and Ronnie Pugh for organizing a panel on the 30th anniversary of Wanted!: The Outlaws for the International Country Music Conference in May 2006. Several people have been responsible for bringing new primary resources to my attention throughout this project. John Wheat of the Center for American History at the University of Texas made available several boxes of business papers and tapes of radio vi advertisements from the Armadillo World Headquarters as well as his memories of performances he witnessed at the legendary venue. Steve Weiss of the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also made available several taped interviews with Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Michael Murphey, and Kris Kristofferson from the Jack Bernhardt Papers and the copious newspaper clippings and fieldnotes housed in the Archie Green Papers. Aaron Smithers lent me copies of independent newspapers and out-of-print albums from his personal collection and offered insight that only a native Austinite can. Thanks to David Menconi, of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, for lending me a copy of his master’s thesis on the Armadillo World Headquarters and for introducing me to Tommy Goldsmith. I would also like to thank the librarians and staff of the Music Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for all of their assistance in obtaining books and recordings for this project. I have also been blessed with a supportive academic community that has been interested in this project from its earliest stages through its completion. Their observations, criticism, and support have been invaluable to my work. Jocelyn Neal, my advisor, guided me through the difficult processes of researching this dissertation, shaping its narrative structure, and developing my own authorial voice. Jon Finson, David García, Mark Katz, and Phil Vandermeer were generous with their time and their insight throughout this project, and much of what follows was developed in response to their questions and comments. Sarah Weiss and Tim Marr suggested numerous useful readings and offered valuable constructive criticism of this project during the early stages of this project. Annett Richter, my writing partner, has been unfailing in her encouragement throughout this project. Thanks also to my graduate colleagues at the vii University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—Kevin Bartig, Kimberly Francis, Andy Flory, Jason Gersh, Paul Harris, Ethan Lechner, Alicia Levin, Matt Meacham, and Carrie Stubblefield—for listening patiently as I rhapsodized about the beauties of country music and for sharing important insights from their own research. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife, Melanie, who has been not only a careful reader of my work but a steadfast champion of it. Her kindness and patience, especially during times when I exhibited neither, have made the writing of this dissertation much easier, and, for that, I am eternally grateful. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS............................................................................................. xi INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 Theories and Foundations: Understanding Music Scenes .......................................7 Austin as Music Scene...........................................................................................14 Outline and Goals..................................................................................................20 Chapter 1. CREATING A SPACE FOR PROGRESSIVE COUNTRY MUSIC .............24 Austin as Music Scene: People and Places................................................27 The Folksinging Community: 1960-1964............................................27 The Rock Scene: 1965-1971................................................................34 The Progressive Country Era: 1971-1975............................................44 Romantic Regionalism and the Articulation of Difference in Austin’s Music Scenes.............................................................................................58 Promoting Romantic Regionalism: The Rhetoric of Place..................67 Conclusions................................................................................................79 2. PROGRESSIVE COUNTRY SINGER-SONGWRITERS AND THE AMERICAN WEST................................................................................82 Constructing an Idealized American West ................................................84 Resistance to the Cosmic Cowboy: Realism and Progressive Country Songwriting..............................................................................................112 Conclusions..............................................................................................150 ix 3. “BOB WILLS IS STILL THE KING”: PROGRESSIVE COUNTRY MUSIC, WESTERN SWING, AND THE SEARCH FOR MUSICAL AUTHENTICITY..........................................................................................152 Defining Western Swing..........................................................................154 Understanding Western Swing Revivalism in the 1970s.........................167 Bridging the Gap: Collaboration and Covers.....................................175 Conclusions..............................................................................................192