Live music is a way of life in Austin. You really can’t escape it. You want migas for brunch on a Sunday morning and chances are there will be an acoustic trio persevering their mid-morning hangover and setting up in the corner of the restaurant. You will be surrounded by live Afro-Latin beats and dancing bodies while watching the sunset at Lake Travis. Live music is in every crevice of Austin.

I have a close friend who lives in New York and is an ardent music lover and a collector. When I pick him up from the airport his question to me is, “Do we have time to run by Waterloo Records?” My first thought is “Why? Are there not amazing specialty record stores in New York?” Yet, it took a New Yorker to set me straight.

Waterloo has many benefits. If you spend time in Austin you will probably end up wondering where you can pick up more tunes like the ones you have been
hearing all over town. Waterloo is a Texas music haven and an Austin icon. They have lists of the top-selling Austin musicians coordinated with racks of the artist’s CD’s. They have the same list for the top Texas musicians coordinated with those CD’s. Its similar to a Google search but in real life. You “Google” one Texas artist you’ve heard of and the next thing you know you have 10 other amazing artists to listen to and you are walking out the door with 10 CD’s. Like the blues originating in the lower Mississippi and Memphis, Austin has given birth to it’s own sound. If you ask a local to describe the music they will be stumbling around with words like layered, big, inspired, improvised, a little country, rock and roll, blues, folk. If there is a term to sum it up, Progressive Country is probably most accurate but that can give the wrong impression. Progressive Country= a lot of fun. It is not Pop Country or “bring you to tears” Country. Check out Alejandro Escovedo for one minute facet of the multi-faceted gem that is Austin music. (Although this is nothing like seeing him and his band play on stage in person, whoa!)

Back to Waterloo. Discovering the Waterloo Texas music selection is akin to that rapturous feeling of unraveling cotton candy piece by piece and letting it melt
in your mouth for the first time.

Now on to three other Waterloo perks. They practice what they preach. Their in-store performances are intimate, inviting and a great way to meet the musicians. Oh, the range, the talent, the amazing musicians that have played on that tiny stage, Ben Harper, Alexi Murdoch, Willie Nelson, W.C. Clark, Marcia Ball, Sonic Youth and the list goes on and on.

Waterloo Records has put together a staff that exudes musical knowledge at a minutiae level. Sometimes they can be a little too much in their heads (so much that you have to signal for help). Yet they are always great at pointing out new music, cross-referencing genres, finding the musician you are thinking of with the tiniest scrap of information you can remember and general customer service. I’d imagine one would have to be a certifiable music nut to work there (in a good way.)

The other final Waterloo perk, the one that brings my friend from New York over every time is the DVD music selection. Volumes and volumes of live concerts that just aren’t available in many places. You might be thinking, “Yea, so?” That is what I was thinking. These are rare performances. Many are rare Austin performances. These are DVD’s my friend can’t find in New York. That has got to be worth something.

Check them out. www.waterloorecords.com.