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“Archiving The History of Austin” with Leea Mechling

“Prosperity doesn’t always mean dollar signs. Sharing music and sharing art really expands your heart.” (Leea Mechling)

Leea Mechling grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, where her earliest music experiences ranged from Czech dance halls to an Ike & Tina Turner backstage pass at age 11. After moving to Austin to attend UT, Leea fell in with the crowd at the Armadillo World Headquarters, where she worked from 1974 until its 1980 closing. She shares vivid stories from those years: the push to get women onto the main floor bar, and Henry Gonzalez’s tireless creativity building stage sets and preserving posters. After the Armadillo closed, Leea worked with Asleep at the Wheel, Gregg Allman, and Stevie Ray Vaughan before channeling her passion for Austin music history into founding the Austin Museum of Popular Culture (AusPop) in 2004. What started on two folding tables next to Planet K on South Lamar has grown into a celebrated archive and exhibition space, with partnerships at the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Wittliff Collections, and the Bob Bullock Museum. Leea sees AusPop’s mission as essential in a rapidly changing Austin: not to recreate the past, but to inspire newcomers and young artists to build something authentic of their own.

Guest List: Leea Mechling, Founder, Executive Director and Curator, Austin Museum of Popular Culture

Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts
Austin Roots on Spotify
Austin Roots on YouTube
Austin Roots on iHeartRadio

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“Austin’s Early Art Scene” with Danny Garrett

“The San Francisco posters sort of resonated with everybody and I mean everyone across the country, across the world. Of course, there was a very strong connection between Austin and San Francisco. There was direct feedback from that, from what was going on in San Francisco, especially with Gilbert (Shelton) and (Jack) Jackson out there.
There was a resonance, but it wasn’t the same thing. Approaches were very different anyway. I think the success of the San Francisco posters sort of drove the other poster scenes here and elsewhere.”
Danny Garrett

Danny Garrett, a central figure in Austin’s music poster art scene, joins Eddie Wilson and Dr. Jason Miller to discuss his journey from Vietnam veteran to iconic poster artist. The conversation covers his work with the Armadillo World Headquarters Art Squad, his deep relationship with Clifford Antone and the blues scene, and his iconic posters for Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Garrett also shares stories about the transition from counterculture to tech industry, his teaching career in New Zealand, and the evolution of Austin’s music venues from the 1970s to today.

Guest: Danny Garrett, visual artist, author of Weird Yet Strange: Notes from an Austin Music Artist

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/austin-roots/id1880873432

Austin Roots on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2FJNnTjQgbTwkaGYOuqo9g

Austin Roots on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF7MZXTkAV9mJR1xCaQ0K961ZgkamXCw

Austin Roots on iHeartRadio
https://iheart.com/podcast/324014396

“The Contemporaneous Armadillo” with Woody Roberts

What does a Top 40 DJ, the Armadillo World Headquarters, a failed but ambitious TV and radio show project, within Austin City’s limits, have in common with Horse Racing? The city’s original influencer in media, Woody Roberts. 

Guest List:  Woody Roberts - Author, Horse Racing and Rock and Roll: How America’s Live Music Capital Tripped Out, Cowboyed Up and Shook the World

This episode of Austin Roots features Woody Roberts, a veteran of Texas radio and the Austin music scene, discussing his career spanning from Top 40 radio’s golden age through the Armadillo World Headquarters era to Maynard Downs and the Austin Music Network. 

Woody Roberts shares firsthand accounts of how radio integrated American culture, Willie Nelson’s first 4th of July picnic, the development of Austin as “Live Music Capital of the World,” and his work with artists like Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The conversation reveals the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that transformed Austin into a major music city.

Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/austin-roots/id1880873432

Austin Roots on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2FJNnTjQgbTwkaGYOuqo9g

Austin Roots on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF7MZXTkAV9mJR1xCaQ0K961ZgkamXCw

Austin Roots on iHeartRadio
https://iheart.com/podcast/324014396

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“Keeping the Heart in the Music Community” with Emma Little

“I think I learned that a lot of the guys who were successful generally had a woman backing them up at home, helping them out. That’s the thing is you have to have somebody, and I think that that’s where the women came in most… they could also run anything. We were the invisible matriarchy.” (Emma Little)

Guest List: Emma Little - Key figure at Armadillo World Headquarters

Emma Little shares her unique perspective on Austin’s cultural history, from growing up in Travis County to becoming a key figure at the legendary Armadillo World Headquarters. She discusses her rural upbringing near Lakeway among political elites and astronauts, the vibrant hippie community on 33rd Street, and her multifaceted role at the Armadillo including poster distribution, hospitality, and print shop work. The conversation explores overlooked artists like her late husband DK Little and blues legend Denny Freeman, examines the “invisible matriarchy” of women who powered the Austin music scene, and discusses the founding of the Austin Museum of Popular Culture to preserve this cultural legacy.

Available on:

Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/austin-roots/id1880873432

Austin Roots on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2FJNnTjQgbTwkaGYOuqo9g

Austin Roots on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF7MZXTkAV9mJR1xCaQ0K961ZgkamXCw

Austin Roots on iHeartRadio
https://iheart.com/podcast/324014396

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

Austin Roots, a podcast. Episode 8 -
“The Underground Comix Movement” with Dave Moriaty

“The cartoons never made any money, in my opinion… we became the default printer for the revolution from the beginning. We printed family dog posters, we printed straight theater posters. I still have all the pamphlets that we did for the Berkeley Revolution, various types and, we also printed lots of pamphlets and books for people that were frankly either schizophrenic or bipolar, that were very amusing, even though somewhat confusing.” (Dave Moriaty)

Guest: Dave Moriaty, founder of the Underground Comix, Ripoff Press, and key figure in the paper, the Austin Sun.

This episode of Austin Roots features Dave Moriaty, a key figure in the 1960s-70s Texas counterculture who bridged Port Arthur, Austin, and San Francisco. Moriaty co-founded the influential Underground Comics publisher Ripoff Press and later became managing editor of the Austin Sun newspaper. The conversation explores his journey from Port Arthur’s surprising cultural scene, through University of Texas Austin’s early counterculture, military service during Vietnam, founding Ripoff Press in San Francisco with fellow Texans, and his return to Austin to work on the Austin Sun. The interview reveals the interconnected web of Texas creatives who shaped both coasts’ counterculture movements.

Available on
Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/austin-roots/id1880873432

Austin Roots on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2FJNnTjQgbTwkaGYOuqo9g

Austin Roots on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF7MZXTkAV9mJR1xCaQ0K961ZgkamXCw

Austin Roots on iHeartRadio
https://iheart.com/podcast/324014396

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder 
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian 
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson 
Producer, Renee O’Connor 
Producer, Sandra Wilson 
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music 
Production assistant, Miles Muir 
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“The Real Deal in Austin Food” with Hoover Alexander

Guest List: Hoover Alexander - Native East Austinite, fifth generation Texan, proprietor of Hoover’s Cooking (2002 Manor Road)

In this deeply personal conversation, Hoover Alexander shares his journey from East Austin neighborhood kid to restaurant proprietor, weaving together stories of food, culture, and community. Growing up in a “small village” within Austin, Hoover describes a tightly-knit East Austin where everything was within bicycle distance - from Thompson’s Grocery to Rosewood Park, from barbecue joints run by relatives to the Harlem Theater.
His career in restaurants began almost accidentally at Nighthawk Steakhouse in 1973, where he learned under the legendary Harry Akin - a trailblazing restaurateur who integrated his restaurants during segregation and served as advisor to LBJ. The Nighthawk became Hoover’s “parallel training ground” where he mastered every aspect of restaurant operations.
Hoover eloquently describes how food serves as a prism for discussing culture, history, and heritage. His menu at Hoover’s Cooking honors the “smoke culture” of Texas barbecue, the Tex-Mex influences from his Catholic school days, and the farm-to-table traditions of his family’s roots in Elgin, Texas. He sees his restaurant as continuing Nighthawk’s legacy of bringing diverse communities together across the table.
The conversation also explores the transformation of East Austin, the entrepreneurial spirit of pre-integration Black businesses, and how the restaurant industry provided opportunities - and created lasting memories and relationships that transcend the challenges of the work.

Available on all Podcast platforms

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“The Austin/San Francisco Connection” with Travis Rivers
From underground publishing to music management to technology adoption, Travis Rivers’ life exemplifies counterculture entrepreneurship. “I’ve remarked that my entire life’s career has been noticing a need and filling it.” (Travis Rivers)

This episode of Austin Roots features Travis Rivers, a pivotal figure in the Texas-California music connection of the 1960s. Rivers discusses his Austin upbringing, his role as a co-founder of the San Francisco Oracle newspaper, and his catalytic influence on Janis Joplin’s career with Big Brother and the Holding Company. As manager of Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth, Rivers helped pioneer the country-rock movement by recording in Nashville, reducing touring costs and opening the city to West Coast artists. The conversation traces his journey from Austin bookshops and UT libraries through the Haight-Ashbury scene, explores the cultural shift from community-building to commercialization, and concludes with his transition to the early computer industry and Adobe Photoshop.

Guest List: Travis Rivers - Cultural entrepreneur, San Francisco Oracle co-founder, music manager for Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“Early Folk Singing” with Powell St John

Powell St. John (September 18, 1940 – August 22, 2021) Episode recorded in 2020
 
Wednesday night hootenannies, Pe**te, and Janis Joplin, brim the surface of Powell’s contributions to folk music and Texas songwriting.

This episode explores the vibrant Austin folk music scene of the 1960s through the eyes of two key figures: Powell St. John and Eddie Wilson. Powell St. John was a harmonica player and songwriter who performed with Janis Joplin in the Waller Creek Boys, wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators, and later pioneered country rock with Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth. Eddie Wilson became the impresario who brought folk legends to the Armadillo World Headquarters stage. Together with host Dr. Jason Mellard, they paint a vivid picture of Kenneth Threadgill’s legendary venue - Threadgill’s Place, the University of Texas folk scene, integration of blues artists like Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins, and the meteoric rise of Janis Joplin from local folkie to rock icon.

Guest List: Powell St. John - Harmonica player, songwriter, founding member of Waller Creek Boys with Janis Joplin, songwriter for 13th Floor Elevators, pioneer of country rock with Mother Earth.

Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/austin-roots/id1880873432

Austin Roots on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2FJNnTjQgbTwkaGYOuqo9g

Austin Roots on YouTube
https://youtu.be/Sh8DGq7e8oE

Austin Roots on iHeartRadio
https://iheart.com/podcast/324014396

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

Content created during the global pandemic, on computers with zoom.
CW: adult themes, references to violence and drug use, offensive language

Bank burglaries, prostitution, and gambling, the hidden layers of Austin history. “Everybody knew who all the tough guys were... every couple of years there was a new super bad guy.” - Eddie Wilson

In this episode of Austin Roots, hosts Eddie Wilson and Dr. Jason Mellard sit down with Jesse Sublett to explore the hidden criminal history of 1960s Austin.

Sublett, a musician-turned-author, discusses his research into the Overton Gang, a notorious criminal organization that operated in Austin during the 1960s, and the colorful underworld characters who shaped the city’s darker side. 

You can find Austin Roots on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

Connect with Jesse Sublett visualart
- JESSE SUBLETT - May 9-10

If you have not read Eddie Wilson’s memoir, Armadillo World Headquarters, what are you waiting for?
Get your copy at Threadgills.com