Drove down from Dallas to Austin today. Most of the scenery was very flat on the journey. Upon reaching Austin I got lost trying to find the hotel, and one or two of the drivers behind me got very impatient. Found the place in the end, and I am here for three nights. I'm about four miles away from the downtown area - will probably get a cab in tomorrow, and maybe drive around a bit the following day. Austin has a legendary reputation - if you like music, you're in for a treat here.
Musically the day started with a collection of Carl Perkins' Sun singles, before I then put on Stephen Stills' Manassas, the MC5, and then the Kooper-Bloomfield-Stills "Supersession" album. The MP3 player ran on into Miles Davis as I was approaching Austin, but I was too preoccupied with trying to find my way round to listen too much.
I am finding Texas to be a very polite and friendly place, although I must say that I'm laying off wearing my more obviously hippie-ish clothes such as the Jerry Garcia t-shirts. Very much God's Lightning territory for the most part - plenty of billboards on the Interstate asking me where I'm going to be spending eternity. As long as it's not that hotel in Memphis I don't mind ! Austin, though, is an exception to that as it's a University town with a thriving artistic and musical community. It has many links with San Francisco going back to the sixties, when musicians like Doug Sahm ("She's About a Mover") and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators ("You're Gonna Miss Me") started out here and then moved West - not too mention Janis Joplin, who grew up in Port Arthur (along the coast by Louisiana) but made her initial name in Austin. I look forward to picking up some of this magic tomorrow,
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