Local non-profit brings music education to low-income schools. His heart pounding out of his chest, his breath heavy as the audience awaits those first few notes, José, a trumpet player, sits on the infamous stage at Stubb’s in front of a few hundred people. As he begins to play, his nerves subside. As he completes the last note of a stirring solo, the audience explodes into applause. And he hadn’t even graduated high school yet.
Guitar gods come in all shapes and sizes, just like the rest of us. Some go to great pains to dress and act the part. Some don’t. Redd Volkaert, who looks more like a salt-of-the-earth character in a shoot ‘em up western or the produce manager at Randall’s than one of Austin’s most gifted shredders, belongs to the latter category. But when he plugs in and begins to spray notes from the stage like he’s manning a Gatling gun, or takes it way down with the finesse that belies a man with fingers the size of Elgin sausages, you know you’re witnessing a player who belongs in Guitar Town’s top-tier—the elite of Austin’s vaunted guitar army.
The resurgence of the ‘60s psychedelic rock scene has been in full swing in Texas since the turn of the millennium. The phoenix perhaps rising for good with Roky Erickson’s return to public life in 2005 after his long battle with mental illness.
The following article will appear in parts and is written by one of Austin's finest musicians, Fred Mitchim. Fred, who has been playing around Austin since the 60's, is currently singing and playing guitar with the Tommy Hall Schedule among other music projects.
"Thank you Fred !" - Austin.com Administration
For those of you who were not around in the late sixties I am going to relate my memories, and the memories of a few others, in an attempt to give a clearer picture of some of the events that occurred here in Austin and Houston. I will do this in installments and I will try to give a reasonable time line. These articles will include stories about Houston since thats where I lived during this period. Also thats where the 13th Floor Elevators spent a lot of time recording and performing. The Elevators single handedly did more for the psychedelic scene in Texas than all the other events combined.
Okay folks I'm back with part two! In the interim between my first installment and this one, Powell St. John has offered up a much deeper look at what happened with Folk music through American history. So we're backing up to way before where I started my article so as to examine the political strife in the working class and how it translated into inspiring lyrics in their songs. Inspiring lyrics in songs is really the crux of the matter; what happened here is that our very own AUSTIN TEXAS produced the band that wrote the most meaningful of all the songs written by anyone in the psychedelic era i. e. SLIP INSIDE? THIS HOUSE...POSTURES...THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS WITHIN YOU...MAY THE CIRCLE REMAIN UNBROKEN. So THANK YOU Powell ST. John for you contribution and I'll return with installment number three directly.
The following article will appear in parts and is written by one of Austin's finest musicians, Fred Mitchim. Fred, who has been playing around Austin since the 60's, is currently singing and playing guitar with the Tommy Hall Schedule among other music projects.