The Blues, Episode 11: The Blues Revival

Reporting locale: Austin, Texas

At the start of the 1980s, the future of the blues seemed as dark as the decade just passed.  But a pair of young bluesmen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray, the re-birth of an old one, Albert Collins, and the introduction of the cd, which enabled blues fans to replace their worn albums with shiny discs, fueled a blues revival that carried the music through the ‘80s and beyond.  The base for this renaissance was Austin, Texas, where Vaughan, his brother Jimmie and his band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds held court in clubs like Antone’s and Threadgill’s.  Soon, artists such as Lou Ann Barton, Sue Foley, Roomful of Blues, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers and other white blues acts made Texas the state where blues thrived.  Austin was a logical place for a blues revival.  In the early ‘60s a young Janis Joplin began her career there and old bluesmen played the city’s many blues joints.  Recollections in this episode come from Jimmie Vaughan, Angela Strehli, Marcia Ball, Delbert McClinton, and club owner Clifford Antone.  Harp player Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds provides the musical conclusion.