Tracing the history of the Dunbar Theatre, one of downtown Austin’s African American movie/vaudeville houses from the interwar period, through Bessie Smith’s only known performance in Austin.
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The Wild Side of Life documents the ascent of the Western Swing scene in Austin during and after World War Two.
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The University of Texas was already making Austin a major destination for national popular music acts all the way back in the 1920s.
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Please join us on Sunday, September 29th, at 3 pm for a Local Memory research update and live interview!
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Today we’ve posted a new piece to our exhibit on music in Austin in the 1930s.
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Today we have a few updates to our exhibit Athens on the Colorado
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In this interview with jazz pioneer Alvin Fielder, we discussed the historical connection of Rhythm and Blues with jazz and Fielder's experience in the Houston music scene in the 1950s.
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Today we have a few new essays and a few updates to our exhibit Athens on the Colorado
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Clarence Nemir’s was one of the first, if not the first, Austin pop music bands to go global—to tour beyond the United States and to bring a Texas sound to international audiences.
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Johnny Simmons was one of the quintessential bandleaders in Austin at the midcentury, although he is little remembered or celebrated today
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This blog will offer readers an opportunity to get a sense of future narratives and content, while also showing how our ideas may change over time
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