Jerry Jeff Walker’s classic album ¡Viva Terlingua! was recorded live with a remote truck in the tiny hamlet of Luckenbach, Texas (population 3), over the course of a week in August 1973. Like a giant washtub of Jerry Jeff’s famous sangria wine, the album mixes in every ingredient he and The Lost Gonzo Band could get their hands on: bouncy golden-age country, moody ballads, honky-tonk, rock and roll, a pinch of soul and psychedelia, and even a ragged, decidedly non-Texan (or maybe completely Texan, for that matter) attempt at reggae. It’s been called “The Big Bang of Texas Music” for its influence on all that came after it.
“Other albums had been important to the scene – my record Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir was the first to directly address what was happening in Austin. But ¡Viva Terlingua! wiped out everything else.” – Michael Martin Murphey
“The definitive progressive country album.” – Ray Wylie Hubbard
“They … sat down and made the best record that anybody in Texas will ever make.” – Joe Gracey (program director at legendary Austin, Texas, radio station KOKE-FM)
“Among the most legendary of ‘live’ singer/songwriter albums ever released. It’s the Live at the Fillmore East of redneck Texas folk-rock.” – Thom Jurek, AllMusic
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