I saw JJW over 100 times. I've always dreaded this day and it's just as tough as I thought it'd be. His music means so much to me. I love him. Godspeed Scamp Walker. They'll never be another.

For a brief period of time Jerry Jeff had a TV show called Texas Connection which filmed in Austin at the PBS station. My best friend was a student at Texas, and one of his fraternity brothers worked on the show, so he let us know early it was happening and how to get in for the general admission tickets (which oddly enough were on the floor directly in front of the stage; the reserved seats were on the perimeter of the room). So we ended up being the first in line, hours before anyone else. When they opened up the doors we hustled in and were able to get front row seats, not 3 feet from the stage. Jerry Jeff came out with his band and played first for about 30 minutes. Then the had an intermission (side story: my buddy and I took advantage of the break to try to find the restroom since we had had several beers while waiting in line. While running around trying to find the facilities, we ended up going downstairs two floors for some drunk "it made sense at the time" reason and when we went to go back up to the studio we entered through a different stairwell where we came across Fingers Taylor warming up with his harmonica on one of the landings, which surprised us almost as much as it did him. We said our obligatory inebriated "holy ah/t! You're awesome, man!" or something similar (we may have also asked for directions), went up the next flight of stairs and tried to make it back to our seats as calmly as possible).

After the intermission, Jerry Jeff and Jimmy came out and told some stories and played songs. At one point my sister got to get up on stage with them and sit next to Jimmy because they were going to play "Gypsies in the Palace" and Jimmy could not remember what he called the "iambic pentameter" that the song started with and she was trying to help him, whereupon Buffet says "You want to come up and do it?" and invites her up on stage and she sat next to him throughout the song. They played for a little more than an hour, which they then cut down for the 45 or so minutes of the show (my sister did not make the cut). The whole evening was amazing. The guy that worked for the show made an audio recording of the whole show for us, which is pretty amazing. Best seats I've ever had for any show ever.

I'm in the white t-shirt down front when Fingers comes out.

Yikes this one hurts. What an icon, and the embodiment of an entire genre. If someone asked me what typified "outlaw country", before playing Willie or Waylon, Viva Terlingua would always be my first choice.

Grateful that I saw him play a few times.

Went on our second Hunnymoon to Vail Co. Noticed a small pub had a sign saying JJW was playing there that night. Turns out he was getting a good deal at the resort if he played a couple nights.

20 people in the bar. We came late and they asked us if we minded sitting at the band's table.

Fabulous.

Harry Lime said:

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You've probably seen it, but if anyone wants to relive (or just live) the 4th of July at the World Speedway in 1974, the documentary film is online.

Daily Motion part 1
Daily Motion part 2

Enjoy those hippy tiddies and try not to imagine what they might look like today.

Best part is seeing that Willie was not, in fact, wearing pigtails at all. It's funny how time can morph memories.

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Thanks for posting those links! I've seen little bits and pieces but have never seen what you've linked me to here. Just sent them to my Moses Hall roommate/buddy who was with me!

He and I are from the same hometown and planned our freshman orientation to coincide with this. The orientation finished right before the 3-day concert started. We camped at some "campground" near TWS. It was really just some land that a landowner charged a few bucks for. After a couple of days we were pretty grubby. We had stayed in Moses for our orientation, and decided we could go back up there and take a shower without anybody being any wiser. Which we did. Man did we feel better after that.

Chicken Oil Company had a poster of that concert and I asked to buy it once. No luck.

I was negative 11 years old when that picnic took place. Watching it now, and oh what a time to be alive! It takes me back to my days at chilifest which couldnt hold a candle to that. Jerry Jeff is hands down my favorite singer/ song writer of my life and always will be. I shed tears Saturday even though I knew this day was coming sooner than later. I was in 9th grade the first time I saw him and will always remember it particularly because I was sober!

I've been listening to my 61 song Jerry Jeff Walker playlist on a continual loop since the day he died.
RIP Scamp Walker