Sunday Jam at Crack in the Matrix

08/28/2026

📣Announcing the Inaugural Buddy Flett Emerging Musician Award

The Highland Jazz and Blues Festival is proud to announce the inaugural Buddy Flett Emerging Musician Award, honoring the life and legacy of beloved musician and friend Buddy Flett. This new award celebrates the next generation of talent by recognizing an outstanding student guitarist from Caddo, Bossier, or DeSoto Parish who embodies the passion, dedication, and soulful artistry Buddy brought to every note he played.🎸

This award is open to student musicians in grades 6–12, the award invites applicants to share their musical journey — how long they’ve played, the styles of music that move them, how they’ve honed their craft, and the instruments that help them find their voice. A letter of recommendation from a teacher or mentor rounds out the application, reflecting the same spirit of mentorship and community that defined Buddy’s own musical life.

The winner will be announced at the Highland Jazz and Blues Festival on Saturday, September 19, immediately following the Tribute to Buddy Flett performance, and will be presented with a brand-new guitar donated by Shreveport Music Co.🎶

This award isn’t just a recognition — it’s a continuation of Buddy Flett’s legacy, ensuring his influence lives on in the young musicians who pick up a guitar and dare to make it sing.

💻To submit the application, video, and letter of recommendation, visit here: https://forms.gle/xHUomEHPcxETfrLt8

❓For more information, visit https://www.highlandjazzandblues.org/buddy-flett-emerging-musician-award

08/27/2026

In 1970, Austin was a state capital and a college town with a modest music scene. Then a group of people leased a derelict National Guard armory on Barton Springs Road and opened a music hall in it. 🎸

Armadillo World Headquarters was not much to look at — a concrete floor, cinder block walls, homemade murals, and a beer garden out back. What happened inside it changed the state's musical map.

The key was that it booked everything. Country, blues, jazz, rock, and the new songwriters coming out of Nashville who did not want to be in Nashville. Willie Nelson had left Tennessee and moved back to Texas around 1972, and when he started playing the Armadillo, something unexpected happened: the longhairs and the rednecks showed up on the same night and got along.

That crossover became a scene. Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, Doug Sahm, and Asleep at the Wheel all worked those rooms, and the outlaw country movement got much of its energy from that audience. The poster artists working in Austin at the time produced a visual style still copied today.

The building was torn down in 1980. The scene it started did not go anywhere. Did you ever get inside the Armadillo?

08/26/2026

08/26/2026