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Inspirations

burTON WILSON

Thank Heaven for Burton Wilson! This talented photographer and dignified New England gentleman saved a big chunk of Central Texas' musical heritage. The late 1960s through the early 1980s was a supercharged artistic period in Austin, so supercharged in fact, that many of the scene's survivors don't necessarily remember all the "cultural details."

Not so with Burton, however. When he began shooting in the mid-1960s, he had a well-established career in the fine arts and enjoyed a level of maturity unknown to the aesthetic aspirants of the day. Equipped with a fatherly presence, a 35mm Nikon, a wonderful attitude and an abundant reserve of skill, Burton chronicled the visual essence of the era.

Burton came to photography through his avid appreciation of music. "I have been interested in hot jazz and blues ever since I was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1930s," he recalls. Accordingly, he amassed a huge collection of vinyl recordings that he eventually donated to The University of Texas after he and his Dallas-born bride moved from New England to Texas after his combat service in WWII.

Burton had always been interested in new aesthetic avenues, and when UT offered a series of photography courses taught by the distinguished practitioner, Russell Lee, Burton signed up. After four intense semesters, he completed the program and sought out opportunities to shoot some of the classic blues acts traveling through Austin in the late '60s. This took him to the Vulcan Gas Company, the hippie headquarters and concert hall on Congress Avenue. There he photographed Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Mance Lipscomb, Sleepy John Estes, Jimmy Reed, Big Mama Thornton, James Cotton and a younger wave of blues performers like Johnny Winter, Tracy Nelson and super-star-to-be, Steve Miller.

Thus the photographic odyssey began, and when the Vulcan closed in 1969, he followed the scene to the Armadillo World Headquarters where proprietor Eddie Wilson gave Burton free reign to photograph the action at Austin's hottest music venue of the '70s. Burton's portfolio is a timeless treasure that depicts one of Austin's most creative eras.