About this tour
Cross the Colorado River from downtown and Austin's music changes character: the guitars slow into two-steps, the rooms fill with songwriters, and the cosmic-cowboy spirit of the 1970s still hangs in the air. This drive links the two South Austin music corridors — South Congress, known as SoCo, and South Lamar, sometimes called SoLa — through the venues that give them their sound. It hits the last of the old wooden dance halls, a beloved songwriter bar, a 1950s club that never really closed, a soul-and-roots room, and the record store that ties the whole scene together. It's a short loop by miles but a long one by history: this is where Austin learned to be a country town and a bohemian one at the same time.