Radio’s 9th Birthday

Your Austin Music Minute host was introduced to Jack Wilson through music. Surprised? Of course not. Music seems to be a common thread through practically everything in Austin, at least if you’re connected to the scene. After going back and forth between Seattle and Austin, and eventually reestablishing a life here, Wilson continued focusing on his music, clocking endless hours of touring. Wilson’s self-titled LP, re-released in 2012 via Fluff & Gravy Records, was the AMM’s gateway drug to the chamber pop/folk artistry of Spare Key (2013), the two-track demo O, My Dear recorded with longtime friends The Deer (2014), and Kami, Coming To Get Me (2018), Wilson’s reflections on parenthood.

It was around the time before O, My Dear that Wilson began working on a new business that he hoped would become a South Austin meeting spot and a place for occasional live music, following in the footsteps of Flipnotics‘ Monday night bluegrass ragers. Wilson did not set out to make Radio Coffee a Flipnotics replacement. But his appreciation for the connections made through music, and the sense of community, runs deeply. Just pair it all with a damn great coffee. Then eventually, a damn great beer, and now a cocktail, if you so desire.

Radio Coffee and Beer, 4204 Menchaca Rd., is celebrating nine years in the ATX with – naturally – a big birthday show tonight, Saturday June 17, a part of KUTX’s 10th Birthday Concert series. Double birthdays goin’ on here. Doors at 7 p.m., with the sensational Texas String Assembly hitting the outside stage at 9 p.m., followed by a set by Redbud at 10 p.m., and A Giant Dog doing their only summer show of the year at 11 p.m.

In case you were wondering (and I know you weren’t), Wilson named Radio with the ol’ Victrola in mind, though your devious AMM host has for years jokingly insisted to unsuspecting individuals that it’s a KUTX reference. It’s not, darling. But it’s such fun to point to the little tower-looking whats-it on the Radio sign and maniacally scream, “YOU SEE?!”