Actually Sixth Street is kind of a dump now.

Many people in America have heard of Sixth Street in Austin Texas. Some have compared it to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Others have said it reminds them of Times Square. I think it would be correct to say that it really does not resemble either of those. The current version of Sixth Street is quite different from what it was originally. Currently Sixth Street is full of those cheap shot bars and cheap disco type places that play loud bad music. Much of the live music scene has left Sixth Street for Red River, just over a little bit or Austin's Warehouse District. The businesses on Sixth Street went after the money, not the culture. (I remember being on Sixth Street on January 5th at 1:30 in the morning right after Texas had beaten USC in the Rose Bowl. Of course I was celebrating along with thousands of others. While standing in front of one of the newer clubs on Sixth I was told to move along by the bar's bouncer because my attire didn't fit, I was in shorts and a Longhorn T-shirt. Weird, huh?)

Through most of the 1970s Sixth Street was just a place in downtown Austin, where most of the businesses had moved away and after dark there was not much going on down there. Indeed it had become kind of a bohemian area with many artists hanging out and even painting in the street. At that time cheap places to live or stay were plentiful. One could have a nice apartment or loft on Sixth Street then for about $200. There were a few places to hear live music, but these were mostly the true 'blues' music places that had been there for some time. Steamboat, one of the better known live houses in Austin, opened up in 1979 along Sixth Street as the first modern live house in that area. Stevie Ray Vaughan and others were definitely influenced by those old blues places on Sixth Street. Armadillo World Headquarters was still around until about 1981 also. Sixth Street was fun but not the big tourist spot like it is today. But in the 1970s there were some more expensive restaurants and coffee house type places but typically it was quieter at night. Now 6th Street is open until the wee hours of the morning.

I think that Sixth Street really started to ramp up the live music scene with the 1980s. Stevie Ray Vaughan and his brother's band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, played down there often. There were any number of live houses on Sixth Street where one could get in very cheap, hang out and hear some awesome music. One place called the Black Cat Lounge, it burned down in the 90s, was one of those places that so many of the later famous Indie type bands played while they were trying to make it. Another place on Sixth Street that featured original blues, Joe's Generic Bar - burned down in 2005, was really cool and free of cover charge. Joe's was in business on Sixth Street from the 1970s. But Sixth Street was the hopping place in Austin for a long time probably up until the late 90s when those businesses decided to make a run for the easy money. Most of Sixth Street now is full of shot bars and those cheap discos with the loud worthless music. The customers in those places probably don't even know about Stevie Ray Vaughan.



Stevie Ray Vaughan first played in Austin in his teens. He and his older brother, Jimmy the blues guitar player, moved to Austin from Dallas to get into music. Stevie first played in Paul Ray's band, The Cobras, and often slept under tables at nights in the bars where he played. SRV really did suffer financially for a long time until David Bowie offered him a job in his band. He left David's band in Dallas though and returned suddenly to Austin. I actually saw him jam with his brother and the Fabulous Thunderbirds on Town Lake in the middle of Austin the very night he returned after leaving David Bowie. That was one hell of a show.

So a lot of the live music has left Sixth but it is still in Austin. Right next to Sixth is Red River, famous in the 1950s for hookers plying their trade, it is now full of places with live music. There must be 20 places to hear live music on Red River any night of the week. Other venues are around downtown Austin and one other area, the Warehouse District, is also full of live music. Recently I was talking with a much older woman about the music scene in Austin. She wasn't aware of it but remembered her good old days at the Holiday Inn in one area of Houston and the band they had there. I pictured the band from the "The Blues Brothers" before Jake and Elwood pulled them away from the empty hotel ballroom. Anyway, the music in Austin is there and waiting. I just saw the Austin band from the 90s, The ArcAngels on Friday night at Antone's.