A farewell to the Live Music Capital, from a writer who came of age at the Statesman

Leaving Austin.

Again.

I typed those same words in this publication 31 years ago, after nine years of working at the Austin American-Statesman in a series of part-time, full-time and freelance roles. I was a senior at McCallum High School when I started; I left three years after graduating from the University of Texas. But my farewell column in August 1991 concluded with a hint that I might return someday.

That day arrived in January 2014. After two decades in Seattle and North Carolina working for daily and weekly newspapers, as well as launching No Depression magazine, I accepted the music-writing job at the Statesman that I’d coveted back in the early ’90s. I’ve spent the past nine years realizing that dream.

But life is a story, and it has a lot of chapters. This one is coming to an end. Last week, I accepted a voluntary severance offer from Gannett, the Statesman's parent company. My last day is November 11.

A lot of factors went into this decision. First and foremost were the deaths of my mother in 2019 and my father in 2021. I’m grateful that I could be in Austin, the city they called home together since 1969, for their final years. Losing your parents has a way of refocusing priorities: It’s a wake-up call that you don’t have much time left yourself and that it’s worth considering how you want to spend the time you have left.

For my wife and me, that means heading west. When we met 20 years ago, one of the things we bonded over was a desire to move back to the west coast, where we’d separately spent pivotal decades of our lives. We’ve ended up living mostly in North Carolina, helping her parents through their final years, and Austin, where we did the same with my parents.

The huge bonus of being here was my deep connection to the city's music community. That made it easier, in some ways, to take on the job of covering the local scene. But so much changed in the 20 years I was away that there was also a lot to discover. Thus I’ve spent the past nine years reconnecting with artists and clubs I loved back then, while simultaneously getting to know some of the rising stars and newer venues in 21st-century Austin.

Venues I'll miss: Continental Club, ACL Live, Far Out Lounge and more

I’ve often made the case to friends and visitors that the Continental Club is the best nightclub in the world. It’s basically three clubs now, with its Gallery room upstairs for more intimate shows, and C-Boy’s down the street as a sort of Continental Junior. South Congress has undergone radical changes over the past decade; if it survives as a cultural district, it will be first and foremost because of those three venues.

The Saxon Pub had just opened on South Lamar when I left in 1991, but across 30 years it became as important to the city’s musical lifeblood as any other venue. Antone’s was shockingly absent from Austin upon my return in 2014, but its return in a new location two years later was one of the happier developments of my tenure.

From the archives:Saxon Pub puts locals in the limelight on 25th anniversary

University of Texas campus-area joint Hole in the Wall keeps hanging on by a thread, but it’s lasted long enough to see a Bob Dylan painting of the venue appear in a gallery online. And a better-late-than-never epiphany for me was Donn’s Depot, which I’d somehow never visited in my younger Austin days; Chris Gage’s Monday residency there made me realize what a treasure the place is.

Other important venues disappeared over the past decade. Losing both locations of Threadgill’s was a tough blow, given its deep history with the community. Acoustic-music haven Cactus Cafe on the University of Texas campus shuttered during the pandemic; it recently reopened, though so far as a shadow of its former self. Less long-lived but significant rooms I still miss include Strange Brew, Holy Mountain, One-2-One Bar and the Townsend.

Larger venues have fared comparatively well in Austin during my years back here. ACL Live is, in my opinion, the best concert hall of its size to be found anywhere, with top-of-the-line acoustics and great sight lines from every seat in the house. The Paramount Theatre rolled past the century mark while I was here; I love being able to see concerts at a place where my father watched movies in the 1940s. And my sentimental attachments to the now-shuttered Erwin Center were tempered by the impressive new Moody Center; its top-level outdoor terrace is one of the best features I’ve ever seen in an arena venue.

More:Here's what Austin's new Moody Center is like

A few blocks away, Waterloo Park finally reopened last year, complete with a new amphitheater that gives the downtown area a high-quality outdoor concert option. And while there are upsides and downsides to the sprawling Circuit of the Americas campus on the southeast edge of town, its Germania Insurance Amphitheater has given Austin the kind of large outdoor concert venue it had long needed.

Speaking of outdoor venues: The pandemic underscored the upside of Austin’s viability for presenting music outside, where COVID-19 is more easily avoided. Since 2020, the venues I’ve patronized the most include Far Out Lounge, Meanwhile Brewing, Central Machine Works, Cedar Park’s’Haute Spot and the Long Center Lawn. That’s just a small sample of places where you can catch quality bands in a comparatively safe environment. (And yes, I’m still wearing a mask at all the indoor venues.)

The musicians: longtime favorites and new discoveries

Though Austin's music community is always evolving, it was a joy to return after two decades and still be able to write about many of the musicians who changed the direction of my life during my college years at UT. I followed Alejandro Escovedo as he left Austin for Dallas, and then returned. I revisited the career of Butch Hancock, who’d moved to Terlingua but returned frequently to collaborate with his Austin-based Flatlanders bandmates Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. I watched guitarist Rich Brotherton conclude a quarter-century on the road with Robert Earl Keen and once again become a ubiquitous presence in local clubs.

Many other favorites from my youth were still here and doing what they do best, including Jon Dee Graham, James McMurtry, Kelly Willis, Larry Seaman, Darden Smith, Ed Miller, Michael Fracasso and too many others to name. Every once in awhile, even favorite 1980s bands like the Wannabes, the Reivers, Doctors’ Mob, Glass Eye and the WayOuts got back together for a blast from the past. And I gained a much greater appreciation for several Austin institutions I probably took for granted in my youth: Asleep at the Wheel, Charlie Sexton, Marcia Ball, Christine Albert, Casper Rawls and Christopher Cross come to mind.

More:Christopher Cross is grateful to have sailed back into Austin

But what may carry me into the years ahead as a lifelong music fan are artists who arose either during my two decades away or since I came back. It’s not just well-known stars such as Gary Clark Jr., Spoon, Fastball, Dayglow and the Black Pumas. As a die-hard clubgoer, I often love the stuff I hear in the dive bars and listening rooms the most.

I’ll inevitably leave out some deserving names, but to list a few: Pat Byrne, Jaimee Harris, Andrew Nolte, Harvest Thieves, Little Mazarn, BettySoo, Belle Sounds, Ray Prim, Go Fever, Western Youth, Montopolis, Bonnie Whitmore, Jonathan Terrell, Beat Root Revival, Folk Uke and the Deer. My future looks brighter thanks to the music these and other Austin artists have made, and will continue to make in the years ahead.

The beats of a lifetime: Willie Nelson and 'Austin City Limits'

But the best part of this job? That’s easy: covering Willie Nelson and “Austin City Limits.” The latter’s namesake festival is now almost as deeply woven into the city’s cultural fabric as South by Southwest, but it’s the TV show that remains most special to me. The opportunity to attend and review dozens of tapings, including all of the fabulous ACL Hall of Fame shows since its 2014 inception, is something for which I’ll always be grateful.

From the archives:Willie Nelson, Double Trouble, Emmylou Harris and more celebrate inaugural Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductees

Sometimes covering “Austin City Limits” dovetailed with covering Willie, who was integral in getting the program on PBS nearly 50 years ago. For most of my Statesman tenure, I ended December with “The Year in Willie,” a recap of highlights from Nelson's previous 12 months. Any of us would struggle to accomplish half of what Willie did in his 80s. Indeed, a strong case can be made that Nelson has been the most productive octogenarian artist in history. I was here to witness and document it, in the process writing more words about Nelson since 2014 than anyone outside his official biographer, David Ritz.

Much like a cohort from the Austin Chronicle who recently moved on to other things, I leave the Statesman with an obituary for Willie that, if we’re lucky, will never run. (Nelson sings “Live Forever” on the new Billy Joe Shaver tribute album, and in Willie’s case, that might actually happen.) But I had to write my fair share of obits across nine years, starting with Steven Fromholz and Larry Monroe in my first month on the job.

So many more followed that I’ve lost count. They included Ian McLagan, Gil Askey, Rod Kennedy, Burton Wilson, Johnny Winter, Bill Arhos, Richard Finnell, Slim Richey, Paul Ray, John Morthland, Louis Meyers, Guy Clark, Alfonso Ramos, Evan Johns, Barry “Frosty” Smith, Jimmy LaFave, George Reiff, Margaret Moser, Joe Eddy Hines, Mike Carroll, Tony Kinman, Ponty Bone, Micael Priest, Roky Erickson, Bill Wittliff, Pat Whitefield, Theresa Jenkins, Daniel Johnston, Blues Boy Hubbard, Tommy Hancock, Rich Harney, Paul English, Joe Priesnitz, Chet Himes, Riley Osbourn, Johnny Bush, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, Hal Ketchum, Chencho Flores, Gene Taylor, Paul Oscher, Denny Freeman, Scott Laningham, Billy Wilson, Dusty Hill, Nanci Griffith and Bobbie Nelson.

More:Bobbie Nelson, Willie Nelson's sister and longtime pianist, dies at 91

Looking back at all those names now is overwhelming. Those assignments were the hardest, and also the most important. I hope my words comforted their loved ones and provided a respectful account of what they left behind.

Heading west, with Texas in my rearview mirror

So what’s next for me? My wife and I are bound for southern California in the next couple of months, eager for beautiful weather, glorious Pacific beaches and a state with a more empathetic political outlook. I expect I’ll continue to write, but your guess is as good as mine as to where those future words might appear. Folks keep telling me I have a book in me, and maybe I do. But first, a little time off will do me good.

As for Austin: No doubt I will visit from time to time. But unlike my 1991 departure that kept the door open for a return someday, most likely this one is for good. I will miss the music here, of course; it changed my life, and continues to bring me joy. I’ll miss the Austin American-Statesman, the newspaper I grew up reading; dozens of talented writers, editors and photographers inspired me and helped make my writing better.

I was 17 when I first arrived in the newsroom in September 1982. As I depart, sportswriter Kirk Bohls is the only staffer still at the Statesman who started before I did. (He might end up being the only one left to hit “publish” on that Willie obit. Or maybe Willie will have to write Kirk’s.)

My colleague Deborah Sengupta Stith, one of the best journalists I’ve ever worked with, will continue to cover music full-time for the Statesman, with others from the Austin360 department adding their voices from time to time. And all around town, the music will play on forever, never missing a beat.

In a few weeks, my wife and I will be on the road again, heading west down I-10 toward California. Willie Nelson will be playing on the radio, and we’ll sing along, insisting that the world keep turning our way.

A dozen of my favorite Statesman stories

As I ride off into the future, here's a sampling of archival artifacts from my 2014-2022 tenure at the Statesman. They’re not necessarily the best articles I wrote, or the ones that got viewed the most. But all of these, listed here in chronological order, stand out as reasons I was glad to be have this job for the past nine years.

January 2016:A new Antone’s brings the blues back home to downtown Austin

January 2016:Harvest Thieves revive classic alt-country on auspicious debut album

February 2018:For all the right reasons, Charlie Sexton is Austin music's MVP

March 2018:Jerry Jeff Walker’s still fightin’, and ‘It’s About Time’ for a new record

June 2018:Jaimee Harris has been waiting, and her moment is about to arrive

October 2018:Paul McCartney at ACL Fest was a marathon to remember forever

November 2018:Willie Nelson makes 'Austin City Limits' taping count

December 2018:Andrew Nolte's grand visions come to life in his orchestral pop music

April 2019:Texas eyes are smiling on Pat Byrne

August 2021:Remembering Nanci Griffith, the greatest Austin-raised singer-songwriter ever

April 2022:Touring UT's new Moody Center arena

August 2022:'Picking up Cheerios under the kitchen table' — a conversation with Lyle Lovett

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: A farewell to Austin: Statesman music writer Peter Blackstock departs