Austin, Texas

Graeme Thomson soaks up Austin‘s impressive live music scene, shoots the breeze with its laidback locals and tries the curious local speciality – chicken-fried steak.

Thank your lone stars for Austin. In a state which still possesses the itchiest trigger finger in America, and where comedy villain JR Ewing was long ago replaced by the infinitely more sinister (and powerful) Dubya, Austin remains Texas’s laid-back country cousin, incorporating old-time Southern civility; cutting-edge technology (Dell is based here); a gentle but persistent brand of eccentricity; and perpetual music.

It’s a pretty, easily navigable city which still pretends to be a town, and the real pleasure lies in simply soaking up the atmosphere. Downtown is eerily quiet in daytime, in the way that only an American city can be; perfect for a lazy stroll down Congress Avenue and west along Colorado river, leading to the open serenity of Zilker Park, where you can swim outdoors, picnic or simply people-watch to your heart’s content.

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Nightfall, however, tells a less drowsy tale. Austin brands itself ‘The Live Music Capital of the World’, a tall claim which comes close to being justified, especially during the South By Southwest festival in mid-March. All year around, however, the music rarely lets up, and Warehouse District and Sixth Street are the places to be. The latter – home to the legendary Antones and countless others – is brashly tourist-orientated these days, not to mention on the rowdy side, but the standard of the music remains impeccably high.

For those who bunk down before midnight, never fear. Even on a sleepy Sunday afternoon on lovely South Congress, you will hear sharp, hard-nosed country swaggering out from the Continental Club, Mexican mariachi coming from the El Sol Y La Luna restaurant across the road, and a jazzy acoustic four-piece playing at Jo’s alfresco sandwich bar. There are few better ways to spend a day, especially if you’re bunking down at the Austin Motel, an unfussy, slightly kitsch ’50s-style motel which is cheap, friendly and safe, as well as being within earshot of all the above and some fine shops and restaurants to boot.

Austin is well placed for touring. San Antonio is a mere hour south while the pretty, European-influenced towns of Wimberley, New Braunfels and Fredericksburg are easily accessible. Austin’s Mexican influence is less overt than San Antonio, but it still adds a huge amount to the city’s culture – and cuisine: the wonderful coffee in Las Manitas on Congress arrives devilishly spiced with cinnamon, while almost everything else comes with tortillas and tacos. Mexico itself is too far for a day trip, but if you’re in Austin for a while then a few days south of the border is recommended. Be warned, though. Many border towns are industrial, rough and – in stark contrast to laid-back Austin – often verge on the downright dangerous.

Venture into other parts of small-town, central Texas (s’long Killeen, may we never meet again) and you’ll encounter the stereotypical Bush-Cheney stickers, army fatigues and ‘Freedom Don’t Come For Free’ baseball hats, but Austin feels a long way from all that. Partly this is due to the University of Texas. Amazingly, almost one in every ten of Austin’s 700,000 residents attends UT, and while other parts of Texas may still struggle with the concepts of vegetarianism, homosexuality and agnosticism, Austin takes such matters in its stride. The campus area around Guadeloupe Street is definitely worth investigating for its shops, cafés and the UT tower, 307ft of solid Texan braggadocio which glows orange to mark sporting successes and can be climbed for spectacular views. The impressive State Capitol building nearby is also worth a peek, if only to see the life-size portrait of Davy Crockett.

One other must-see is the Broken Spoke, a genuine roadside honky-tonk from way back which affords a glimpse of Texan musical history. Anyone who has ever hootered, hollered or hoe-down’ed in country music over the last 40 years has played here, not to mention chowed down on its legendary chicken-fried steak (don’t ask). If you turn up at the weekend, owner James White may well be on hand to guide you through the maze of memorabilia, taking in everything from Willie Nelson’s Stetson to Ernest Tubb’s half-smoked cigar, dating from 1939. Even if you miss White, you can still see him – Zelig-like – clinging to the arm of Clint Eastwood, or George Jones, or Lyle Lovett, on the photos that crowd the wall.
Like almost everywhere else in Austin, the Spoke’s patrons and staff are friendly and endlessly accommodating – and make a royal fuss of children. Indeed, it’s hard to return home without experiencing a partial thaw in that fiercely cultivated Euro-cynicism many of us hold so dear. My advice? Give it up gladly.

Where to stay
The Austin Motel
Found on fashionable South Congress, the Austin Motel is a treat for those who don’t mind a few rough edges.
The Austin Motel, 1220 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas (001 512 441 1157/www.austinmotel.com). Doubles from £30.

Getting there
BA (www.ba.com) flies direct from London to Houston. Prices start from £295. There are numerous daily flights between Houston and Austin, roughly 35 minutes in duration.
Prices from £66.

Graeme Thomson
Time Out London Issue 1824: August 3-10 2005

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