Texas Two-Step

With a city changing around them, six landmark music venues in Austin refuse to bend to the tide and share why they are important to each other.

- Adam Moroz

For as long as I can remember I haven’t been a fan of country-and-western music. The worst part about that statement is that I have never had a good a reason for why I had no interest in the music that defines the culture of Texas and the South. My dad would sing Willie Nelson songs on long road trips only to be interrupted by the whining protests of an eight-year-old boy who didn’t know what he liked, but knew it wasn’t that. Was it the music or was it my dad’s breathy, slightly off-key voice that irked my clearly developed sense of taste? As a teenager my opinions didn’t change much. I found myself listening to Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. I readily dismissed the genre of country as the music of my parents’ generation who I wrongly thought had none of the aggressive anger of ’90s grunge. And they clearly had never gone through anything like I was going through.