Sale!

The Broken Spoke: Austin’s Legendary Honky-Tonk (John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, sponsored by the Center for Texas)

Amazon.com Price:  $19.32 (as of 03/05/2019 00:44 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

James and Annetta White opened the Broken Spoke in 1964, then a mile south of the Austin city limits, under a massive live oak, and beside what would sooner or later change into South Lamar Boulevard. White built the place himself, beginning construction on the day he received his honorable discharge from the United States Army. And for more than fifty years, the Broken Spoke has served up, in the words of White’s well-worn opening speech, “. . . cold beer, good whiskey, the most efficient chicken fried steak on the town . . . and good country music.”

White paid thirty-two dollars to his first opening act, D. G. Burrow and the Western Melodies, back in 1964. Since then, the stage on the Spoke has hosted the likes of Bob Wills, Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, Marcia Ball, Pauline Reese, Roy Acuff, Kris Kristofferson, George Strait, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Asleep on the Wheel, and the late, great Kitty Wells. But it hasn’t all the time been easy; over time, the Whites and the Spoke have withstood their share of hardship—a breast cancer diagnosis, heart trouble, the building’s leaky roof, and a tour bus driven through its back wall.

As of late the original rustic, barn-style building, surrounded by sleek, high-rise apartment buildings, still sits on South Lamar, a tribute and remembrance to an Austin that has almost vanished. Housing fifty years of country music memorabilia and about a thousand lifetimes of memories on the Broken Spoke, the Whites still honor a promise made to Ernest Tubb years ago: they’re “keepin’ it country.”

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Specialty Boutique » New, Used and Rental Textbooks » Humanities » Performing Arts » Music » Musical Genres » Country » The Broken Spoke: Austin’s Legendary Honky-Tonk (John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, sponsored by the Center for Texas)

Recent Products