The Live Music Isn’t Only Happening On Austin’s Sixth Street

Austin, Texas is called the “Live Music Capital of the World,” and rightfully so. With its hundreds of live music venues, you have more choices for music than you can possibly take advantage of on any given night of the year. And, while a great many places are on Sixth Street and various other streets and areas downtown, there is plenty of live music going on at other places all over the hill country.

A good example is the Deli Werks, located on the north shore of Lake Travis in Lago Vista. Deli Werks is a popular spot for both lunch and dinner, and offers patrons the choice of either sitting outside, or in the open but covered bar area. It’s a casual and friendly place with a lot of old pictures and other items hanging on the walls. And, for some reason, country music legend Willie Nelson’s old houseboat sits on dry land in the lot out back. The food is good, the drinks are cold, and it provides a nice intimate atmosphere to watch live music with the locals.

This past Saturday night, Austin’s very popular blues band, Mike Milligan and the Altar Boyz, provided the live music. The band’s lead is Mike Milligan, who supplies both vocals and harmonica. The other very talented musicians include Scott Unzicker on guitar, Leland Parks on bass, and Dave Novak on the drums.

This is one impressive band. Mike Milligan’s vocal ability is really very good, and his vocal talent was consistently good on every song. Scott Unzicker loves playing guitar, and that was quite apparent as he showed his wide range of talent as the night progressed. And, while Leland Parks, the bass player, and Dave Novak playing drums, were a bit more in the background of the performance, their musical talent surely wasn’t. You could tell that this band is composed of true professionals, who enjoy performing.

This prominent Austin band describes its music as “Texas Blues with Louisiana Attitude,” and plays a great many gigs in Austin itself, or at venues on the Texas Gulf Coast. It’s nice to have a band of this caliber come out to perform in the more relaxed atmosphere at Deli Werks. For folks living on the north shore of the lake, Deli Werks provides opportunities to see excellent bands, like Mike Milligan and the Altar Boyz, without having to make the long drive into downtown Austin. What could be better than that?

Angelina Eberly

There is a statue of a woman firing a cannon on downtown Austin’s main street, Congress Avenue, which probably confuses the thousands of visitors coming to Austin for conventions, to party, and in the local parlance, to help keep “Austin Weird.”

Austin is the capital of the state of Texas, and was once the capital of the Republic of Texas. But, it almost lost that distinction in 1842, had it not been for the courage of a lady who ran a boarding house in Austin.

As the story goes, there was a lot of contention about where the capital should be located. Sam Houston, the first president, felt it should be located in, you guessed it, Houston. Others thought it should be in a more central location in Texas. This was the view of the second president, Mirabeau B. Lamar, who had the capital established in Austin.

When Sam Houston was again elected president, he attempted to relocate the capital to Houston by ordering over 20 men to covertly remove the archives from Austin. They nearly pulled it off, but they had not figured on one woman added into the mix, Angelina Eberly.

Hearing the noises of men loading the archives into wagons, she ran out and fired the town cannon. The cannon ball slammed into the land office building across the street. The town awoke, and those attempting to flee with the documents were quickly apprehended.

Today, Austin is a city of over a quarter of a million people. In addition to being the state capital, it is also the “Live Music Capital of the World,” and home to the University of Texas.

When Mrs. Eberly fired the town cannon, Austin’s population was less than 700 people. I often wonder, had that vigilant woman on that December night in 1842 not fired that weapon, how Austin would have fared. My guess is that Austin would not have a population of 750,000 people today and not have all that music downtown on Sixth Street.

Anyone care to disagree?

I thought not, otherwise, you’ll have to take it up with Mrs. Eberly. Good luck with that.