T he impassioned tones that washed over Austin Blues Fest at Waterloo Park in May were an onstage benediction. Blues music bares the soul and braces the spirit. It pleads, yearns and testifies. It’s a genre that articulates the American struggle — a point of origin that branches to other subgenres.
This year’s Austin Blues Fest was an Antone’s Nightclub family reunion that honored the life of the venue’s patriarch, Clifford Antone. The Port Arthur native opened Antone’s Nightclub on July 15, 1975. Six locations later, the club celebrated its golden anniversary at the festival. But it’s not over yet — Antone’s will stage one more anniversary bash Tuesday at Blues on the Green in Zilker Park.
“People would ask (Antone) about the blues and he’d say, ‘I didn’t pick the blues, the blues picked me.’” his sister Susan Antone told the Statesman this year.
Antone started his own club to host the musicians he worshiped. He shipped in Chicago blues kingpins like Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon and B.B. King to Austin for weeks of shows. He championed roots artists from the Mississippi Delta like Eddie Taylor and Texas pioneers Lightnin’ Hopkins and T.D. Bell.
He recruited young guitarists Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan in an onstage crash course, playing alongside electric blues legends Jimmy Rogers, Albert King and Freddie King during the late ’70s and ’80s…