The first of our two Texas concerts will kick off this week in Austin.

The rules are as follows:

In voting for this week's HEADLINER, voters have 10 points to distribute among as many artists as they like, with a maximum of 6 points for any one artist. The artist with the most points will be the HEADLINER while the runner-up will take the position of OPENING ACT.

In voting for this week's SET LIST, voters have 25 points to distribute among as many songs as they like, with a maximum of 12 points for any one song. The top ten songs will be played at this week's show.

Remember that the artists or songs that you choose should be associated with Austin or locations nearby in some way.

The most acclaimed artists of/connected to Austin and locations nearby according to Acclaimed Music (with their all-time rank in parentheses) are:

Buddy Holly (84)
Roy Orbison (139)
Janis Joplin/Big Brother and The Holding Company (141)
Spoon (212)
Willie Nelson (269)
13th Floor Elevators (448)
Okkervil River (561)
Steve Earle (569)
The Mars Volta (719)
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (733)
Nelly (799)
Butthole Surfers (868)
Bobby Fuller Four (916)
Stevie Ray Vaughan (922)

There's no hard-and-fast rule about where Austin stops and where next week's concert, Houston, ends, so vote where you think a particular artist/song is most appropriate. I have included West Texan artists among the most acclaimed list above, and I think this would be a good week to vote for any artists from New Mexico.

Some acclaimed songs about Austin and its surroundings:

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - New San Antonio Rose
Jimmie Rodgers - Blue Yodel (T for Texas)
Marty Robbins - El Paso
Waylon Jennings - Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)

You may of course vote for any artist or song you like provided they have some connection to Austin or somewhere nearby. Songs can be about Austin, they can be written by an artist from Austin or any other link you can draw to the city.

Voting will end at 11:59 PM on Sunday, July 17, 2011.

This week's venue is the host to the Austin City Limits festival (this year's headliners: Stevie Wonder, Kanye West and Arcade Fire) and a series of summer concerts; it's none other than Downtown Austin's Zilker Park. With 350 acres of space, it's the AMWT's largest and most populous venue thus far, despite the fact that Austin is the smallest metro area visited thus far.

A few notes:

- Since this game seems to get buried by mid-week, I'm going to post reminders so people remember to vote. The past two rounds had people vote for artists but never got to songs though they expressed a desire to vote, so I think a reminder would help.

- The number of voters is really tied to the strength of the city. I really don't think there's anyway to counteract that, but if anyone has ideas I'd like to hear them.

Now, my vote:

Spoon (4)
Roy Orbison (2)
Buddy Holly (2)
SRV (2)

I'm punishing Roy and Buddy for not being true Austinites.

Songs:

Spoon - The Way We Get By (7)
Roy Orbison - Crying (5)
At the Drive-In - One-Armed Scissor (5)
SRV - Pride and Joy (3)
Spoon - You Got Yr Cherry Bomb (2)
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue (2)
Nelly - Hot in Herre (1)

ARTISTS:

Buddy Holly - 5
Spoon - 4
Fastball -1

SONGS:
Band Of Horses - Laredo - 8
Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law - 7
Buddy Holly - That'll Be The Day - 6
ZZ Top - La Grange - 4

First date in the south...
Hope a few roots artists will pass

Roy Orbison (6) top ten artist for me
Steve Earle (2)
Bo Wills (1) one of the best prewar musicians and a great influence for rock'n roll (he was the first to blend country and black rhythms)
Willie Nelson (1)


My strategical 6 points for Roy left only crumbs for the others, but let me mention other artists I love from West Texas

Asleep At The Wheel (excellent western swing revival band), The amazing Bad Livers (alternative bluegrass), The Flatlanders, Willis Alan Ramsey, George Strait, and a special mention for all the Tejano scene in San Antonio.


Songs

Flatlanders - Tonight I'm Gonna Go Downtown (8)



PS : does the grooveshark link work in the US ? If it does, it's great news


George Strait/Asleep At The Wheel - Amarillo By Morning (4)

Bob Wills - New San Antonio Rose (4)

Roy Orbison - In Dreams (4)

Bad livers - Shit Creek (1) the video is a good glimpse of these crazy guys

Valerio Longoria - El Canoero (4)

i'm gonna do the Houston post right now, so it'll be ready for next week; it's best to post early in the week.

I'm bumping this thread because it'sa great game, so please don't forget to play and chose artists and songs from Austin (and don't forget pick some country )

I wondered what the venue would be. Zilker’s a good choice, although the archetypal Austin live music venue would be a bar. There are many possibilities, but the best choices are probably either the Continental Club or (the sadly defunct) Liberty Lunch. The original Austin City Limits TV studio would also have been appropriate.

Still, that’s a great shot of ACL! And it’s from the last year or two, based on the downtown skyline. I’m in that photo, somewhere…

ARTISTS

Spoon: 2
Stevie Ray Vaughan: 1
Buddy Holly: 1
Willie Nelson: 1
Roy Orbison: 1
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: 1
Darden Smith: 1
Ghostland Observatory: 1
At the Drive-In: 1

There’s just a pile of great artists associated with Austin, so I’m going for breadth rather than giving Spoon six points. Buddy and Roy really deserve more points, but neither of them is actually from Austin.

SONGS

5 points apiece to:

Spoon, “The Way We Get By”
Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Pride and Joy”
Bob Wills, “New San Antonio Rose”
Waylon Jennings, “Luckenbach, Texas”
Buddy Holly, “That’ll Be the Day”

Favorite sports team from this area: Hook ‘em Horns!

***

Alex, I’m curious to see what venue you pick for next week. Let me know if you want any consultation…I might have one or two thoughts about that…

4: Lucinda Williams
4: Janis Joplin
2: Okkervil River

10: Passionate Kisses (Lucinda Williams)
5: Pay Close Attention To This (Lucinda Williams)
5: Piece of My Heart (Janis Joplin)
5: Black (Okkervil River)

From allmusic.com bio:

"Williams performed around New Orleans as a folk artist who mixed covers with traditional-styled originals. In 1974, she relocated to Austin, TX, and became part of that city's burgeoning roots music scene; she later split time between Austin and Houston, and then moved to New York."

You forgot one!

BTW, does my Grooveshark player work (especially in the US) ?

BTW, does my Grooveshark player work (especially in the US) ?[/quote]

It works in the UK.

Roy Orbison (4)
Buddy Holly (3)
Spoon (2)
Steve Earle (1)

Roy Orbison - In Dreams (10)
The Flatlanders - Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown (9) [Favourite new discovery of this game so far]
Buddy Holly & The Crickets - That'll Be the Day

Alex, I’m curious to see what venue you pick for next week. Let me know if you want any consultation…I might have one or two thoughts about that…[/quote]

I have one idea, but I would like to hear yours too...

At the Drive In (6)
Buddy Holly (2)
Willie Nelson (1)
Roy Orbison (1)

Alex, I’m curious to see what venue you pick for next week. Let me know if you want any consultation…I might have one or two thoughts about that…[/quote]

I have one idea, but I would like to hear yours too...[/quote]

My ideas on the venue for Houston? Sure.

Probably no major American city is worse at preserving its heritage than Houston. Some venues, like the Music Hall and Emo’s (saw Nirvana there in 1990), don’t exist anymore. There are some arenas for which I have fond memories, like the Summit (The Police in 1983, but it’s now a megachurch) and the Astrodome (U2 in 1991, but now a decrepit shell best known for an uncontrolled population of feral cats). My very first concert (Oingo Boingo, and stop laughing) was in a field behind our amusement park, Astroworld…that’s gone too.

My favorite venues in town currently are the Continental Club (but that originated in Austin) and the Last Concert Café (great Mexican food and a lot of history). There’s also Fitzgerald’s, but that’s mostly local acts now. For bigger acts, there’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (where I’ve seen Wilco, Pixies, White Stripes and Liz Phair). For MUCH bigger acts, there’s the Toyota Center (U2, Coldplay).

I also love going to Houston’s only surviving great record store, Cactus Music, which has at least one, and often up to four, in-store performances almost every Saturday. With free beer! The best one I’ve seen was Janelle Monae last year.

But my suggestion is a slightly left-field one: Numbers. It’s a club in the Montrose area which I illicitly visited very, very often when I was in high school, and I still go there occasionally. At my age, I will admit that it’s actually fairly skanky, but they’re one of the city’s longest-running (since 1979!) rock venues.

R.E.M. played their first two Houston shows at the original Numbers location…they returned for a third show in 1984, not having been informed that it had burned down. Numbers Mark II was the one I frequented, and in the 80s, it was the place to see the Cult, New Order, Faith No More, Iggy Pop, Love and Rockets, Ministry, Depeche Mode, the Cure and so on.

So, for a combination of reasons – quality of bands, longevity, being a local institution, having personal significance, and just being a good encapsulation of my rollicking, steamy, slightly ramshackle city – my pick would be Numbers.

Artists

Spoon - 6 pts
Willie Nelson - 2 pts
Buddy Holly - 2 pts


Songs

I had trouble getting songs about Texas (or enivrons) that I actually liked.

12 pts. - Nanci Griffith, "Trouble in the Fields (Live)" - "Most of my mother's family came from way out in west Texas in a little town called Lockney, which is somewhere close to Lubbock, but not too close to Lubbock, nobody likes to be too close to Lubbock."

12 pts. - The Kinks, Oklahoma, U.S.A. - "But in her dreams she is far away/In Oklahoma U.S.A./With Shirley Jones and Gordon McRea"

Don't forget the deadline is tomorrow at 11:59 PM forum time!

Voting has closed!