Austin Shines with Annual Music Showcase

" With more musicians per capita than any other American city and a legacy that includes Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson and Joe Ely, Austin has good reason to be proud. "

Ross Gohlke

Like Memphis, Austin, Texas, is a music town. With more musicians per capita than any other American city and a legacy that includes Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson and Joe Ely, Austin has good reason to be proud. And every day the burgeoning river city deep in the heart of Texas is getting better at turning that pride into national exposure and community dollars.

In recent years the city's efforts to promote itself as a music capital - coupled with the industry's sudden interest in all things independent - has paid off, drawing visitors from the four corners to roam Sixth Street and see Stevie Ray Vaughan's memorial statue, and building a serious cult following with the live music show Austin City Limits.

Perhaps more than any other single promotion, the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) has put Austin on the map. Spanning four days every Spring (March 14-17 this year), the festival brings together 600 bands from around the world and countless industry types, both big and small. Every club in town is booked solid. Record labels not officially involved find ways to throw parties in conjunction with the event. Fans drive for days to see it. Bands plot for months to get in to it. For the week of SXSW, motel vacancies don't exist.

It's the kind of conference that causes logistical nightmares for the organizers and the community. But this year the entire thing was carried off, seemingly, without a hitch.

The daily operation and coordination is manned almost exclusively by volunteers. Shows begin and end on time. The posted schedule stays amazingly accurate. Both the Austin Chronicle, the alternative newsweekly, and the Austin American-Statesman, the daily newspaper, devote plenty of editorial space, simplifying a visitor's schedule planning.

Much like Memphis' own Crossroads festival, which was largely modeled on the SXSW concept, SXSW was started as a way to get unsigned bands national exposure. In conjunction with the nightly live music, there are seminars, expos and forums during the day where attendees learn how the industry works, and how they can get in on the action.

But SXSW has grown into an event anticipated by virtually every aspect of the music industry. These days most of the bands that play have some form of recorded music put out by some label. The most anticipated acts represent the cream of the crop in independent music. This might sound like a bummer for the musicians it was originally intended for - the unsigned ones. But for the city itself the festival is an economic boon and a national attention-getter. And the Austin community has truly risen to the task. Restaurants, shops, clubs and cultural centers put their best foot forward.

Austin is a city that knows how to accommodate its visitors, from making parking simple to serving a hot plate of mouth-watering Tex-Mex food fast and efficiently. Austin is a city that has facilitated SXSW to the end of making it an enjoyable, easygoing event. And the festival has returned the favor by shining a spotlight and bringing in revenue on its Lone Star home.