Day 3: Austin

Feb 14. - Austin, TX

My colleague lost his debit card last night, likely at the beer garden we visited on 6th Street. We decided to leave a day early, hitting up a couple of coffee shops with open mics on the Facebook group's list on our way out in order to get photos of the spaces.

The first coffee shop we visited was Irie Bean Coffee House. I learned from the barista that due to renovations being made to the back of the strip mall where the shop was located, the open mic was no longer happening. Having come up against a few dead ends at this point, I decided to call ahead to another coffee house we were going to visit, Austin Java, where the barista I spoke with confirmed they did, in fact, still regularly hold one. I asked for the organizers name so I could interview him on the phone at a later point in time.

Finishing our coffee, my colleague and I headed to the next coffee house. The building is located at 1206 Parkway in downtown Austin and had a very interesting layout. The shop has a large patio, a full-service bar in the front of the shop with a kitchen, feeling more like a bistro than a traditional coffee house. However, in the back of the shop is a large room with a full stage setup on the far wall from the door and the rest of the room housing tables and chairs. for patrons to use. I took several photos, which bothered one of the patrons who requested I not include him in any of them.

Front cashier

Bar area

Entrance to the back lounge area

Bulletin board in the hall to the back 

Seating area of the back

Stage

Ramp down into the lounge

View of the stage from the entryway

After a long weekend of lost items and wandering, we then agreed it was time to head home. Though I did not get to see everything or meet everyone I was hoping to see before I came down here, I feel confident that I have gathered enough preliminary information on my topic area to warrant another trip back at a time when I can see and meet the communities where these events happen.

Day 2: Austin

Following up on the lead we got at the kava bar last night, my colleague and I started the day with a trip to Strange Brews Coffee Shop. My hope was to find someone who would know anything about the open mic and talk to them about it. upon arriving, it was fairly clear that the building was designed around hosting both coffee patrons and concert-goers. Immediately on the left wall as customers came in, there was a large bulletin board for flyers and business cards, many of which were advertising concerts.

And lost animals

The space was divided into two areas, one for the coffee shop divided by a wall from a room with a full concert stage set up with an area for the audience, stacked chairs, and a bar area.

Door to the concert space

Front counter

Seating area for the coffee shop

Definitely in Austin

Concert space

Bulletin board and bar area in the concert space

Seating area outside 

Rest of seating area outside

Front sign 

Interestingly, the concert listing for the shop was not on the bulletin board, but rather posted next to the cash register. 

According to both the sign and the baristas, the Open Mic at Strange Brew occurs every Sunday, much to my chagrin having planned on leaving that day. Not to be discouraged, I asked the baristas if the knew of any other open mics, to which they replied "Check the [Austin] Chronicle," a local bulletin and classifieds magazine. I had looked through it the previous night, but hadn't found anything of real interest. 

While at the shop, I did find a Facebook group dedicated to the Open Mic Community in Austin with a running list of open mics, almost all of which were on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, though my colleague and I did not spend a enough time at the shop to really do some serious digging on the site. Seeing a sticker on the door to the concert space at SB for South Austin Music, a local music shop, we decided to check it out in the hopes of getting more information on the open mic scene. 

A surprisingly short drive later, we found ourselves in a rather cozy music shop, mostly selling guitars, but with a selection of mandolins, amplifiers, and banjos.

Keep Austin weird, I guess.

I spoke with both clerks at the front counter who referred me to The Chronicle and the Facebook page for information on Open Mics. However, I also learned that the Saxon Pub, a bar I remembered hearing about from my days working in the music archive at Texas Tech in oral history interviews, was just next door. 

Having gotten two referrals that day to the Chronicle and having gotten the impression that there was a fairly low likelihood I would be able to actually see an event during our trip, we decided to grab lunch and spend some time downtown. After several hours of wandering, we ended up at a coffee house I had visited on a previous trip, where I decided to call some of the venues on the Facebook list. I learned that many of the open mics listed were no longer being hosted. Being a Friday and physically and mentally exhausted at this point, my colleague and I decided to spend the evening on 6th street, an strip in downtown Austin known for bars and live music. 

It was certainly a little unsettling how little some of the people I spoke to today knew about the open mic scene here, even in venues I knew hosted the events. Perhaps I am asking the wrong people? It could also be possible, especially from the several references I got to the Chronicle and online, that with the area as active in live music as Austin, many people assume any information on music is to be found in these places. 

Another thing that I found striking about Austin so far is how outgoing and friendly people are here, especially for an urban area. It seems that very few people have reservations giving input in conversations they overhear, such as in line at the coffee shop or asking directions on the street. In fact, when my colleague had gone into the convenience store the previous night, a patron in the store insisted that he try some of the chocolate the patron had just bought. Unsure as to whether or not this can be said for all of Austin or just the relatively restricted geography of our visit today. 

Am planning on doing another search of the Chronicle for open mics and visiting some of the venues that I have confirmed open mics tomorrow. Though it seems almost all of these events are on weekdays (possibly due to weekends being reserved for bands?), I am hoping I can glean some useful data on the spaces in which they take place. 

Day 1: Austin

Finally made the drive down to Austin. There's an interesting feeling you get when you are within a few miles of some places where it seems like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders and a sense of calm and belonging comes over you. That could also be the delirium from sitting in a car for 7 hours, but I like to think I got the former yesterday.

I was extremely fortunate to have a couple of close friends of mine from undergrad living currently living in Austin who offered to let me house sit for them while I am down here. My travel buddy, Bryce, and I met her last night and learned that she would be spending the weekend with family in Dallas. After getting settled in, we all went to dinner and then Bryce and I decided to try and find a coffee shop where we could complete some homework we brought with us.

However after a look through the "coffee" section of the urbanspoon app on my phone, we unwittingly ended up at a kava bar named Squarerüt. For those of us who are not from metropolitan areas or the Polynesia, kava is a plant whose roots can be brewed into a drink that looks and tastes like dirt and whose consumption results in high mental focus and body sedation.

While at the bar, I decided I would ask the barista, Garrett, if he knew of any open mics in the area or where I should go for information on them. I had already looked through The Austin Chronicle, a local events and classifieds bulletin, and found nothing. He replied that he did not, then shouted to the rest of the bar asking if anyone knew of any, which proved to be an unorthodox, yet effective means of getting information. One person said that Strange Brews coffee had one and another replied that Stompin' Gronds did too. He then wrote down the names on a receipt and told me that Strange Brews was not too far from the kava bar.

After a fairly unsuccessful gander at analyzing our Beethoven score assignments, Bryce and I then resolved to make the best of the remaining 20 minutes we had left before midnight and make a beer run to the gas station down the street before we headed back to the apartment.

Being the homebrewing beer geek I am and also knowing that Austin has a thriving microbrewing community, I took a good look at the beer my colleague had selected. The beer he had purchased was a six pack of pint-cans of IPA from a local brewery in the same area of Austin we were staying. It was called TPA ("T" is for "Texas") from South Austin Brewery with the tag-line "liquid Austin soul" written near the top with a descriptor on the side of the can making a reference to the music culture of Austin. Best of all, there was a guitar pick hidden beneath one of the sections of the cap holding the cans together. 

Though I didn't realize it after a full day of driving and a night of drinking kava, there was a surprising amount of information on that six pack revealing of the local culture.

- It is likely that Austin is a community in which both music and brewing are valued.
- It is evidenced that the brewing community values interpersonal relationships and community cohesiveness
- It is evident that pride is taken in the independence of the beer and brewery and value is placed on individual identity and creativity

I am looking forward to what I find tomorrow.

Introduction

If you had told me five years ago that I was going to be able to do research on my Master's thesis on open mic nights in Texas... well, actually, I  probably would've believed you. I knew I wanted to research American music and rock and roll in high school; I just didn't realize I would really get to do it and find the incredible support of my colleagues, mentors, and a network of musicians, organizations, and communities of people interested in seeing such a project through. 

My name is Jake Reynolds and I am a Master's candidate in the Musicology department at the School of Music of Texas Tech University. My specialties are in American vernacular music and music of the Caribbean. The blog you are reading is an ongoing compilation of field notes and reflections that will ultimately culminate in a Master's thesis document. 

So far, I am in the preliminary stages of gathering materials to begin my thesis document. As part of this phase, I am taking the opportunity to travel to Austin, TX - known through out Texas and apparently the rest of the US for live music - to get information on the locations make contacts within the Open Mic Night culture of the city. 

In another post, I will discuss my current understanding of the role the Open Mic Night plays in the creation of music, community, and cultural identity in the United States. For now, though, the plan is to travel to several metropolitan areas in Texas and report my observations and conclusions on the sociological and musicological role of the Open Mic Night phenomenon on this blog until I have done enough research to compile them in a thesis document.