Album release party for Chicago Bound: Honoring Muddy, Cliff & Blue, featuring performances by Lurrie Bell, Anson Funderburgh and other blues artists at Antone's Record Shop.
Antone's Nightclub is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the release of Chicago Bound: Honoring Muddy, Cliff & Blue, a new album that caps off half a century of the club serving as Austin's home for the blues. The release party is on Thursday, September 24, with Lurrie Bell, Anson Funderburgh, and Young Rell Davenport leading the bill. It's the final piece of a long anniversary run that follows the Antone's: 50 Years of the Blues box set from 2025.
The album itself is a collection of ten live-to-tape recordings produced by Jacob Sciba and Zach Ernst. The whole thing started the night John Primer cut a duo version of Jimmy Rogers's "Chicago Bound," and from there it grew into what Ernst calls a "road trip record" or a "truck stop cassette." It traces a spiritual route from central Louisiana, Clifton Chenier's home, through Houston, Austin and Memphis, and finally up to Chicago.
The lineup on the record reads like a who's who of the scene: Billy F Gibbons and the BFGs on "Hangin' on a Cliff," John Primer, Doyle Bramhall II, Kim Wilson & the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Anson Funderburgh, Lurrie Bell, Lavelle White, Kam Franklin with Rodd Bland, and Ivan Neville & CC Adcock with Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Jimmie Vaughan. The cover art is by longtime club illustrator Diana Ray. There's also an interlude where Clifford Antone, who died in June 2006, reminds listeners that "the blues is so big that no one person could ever learn it in a lifetime."
Every week we pick 🏆 the 5 best 🏆 things to do in Austin and send them to your inbox. Just one weekly email, no spam.
By submitting your email, you accept our Privacy Policy
If you want a preview before the party, there was a listening session at Antone's Record Shop back on August 25 from 6 to 7 PM. The album release party is on September 24 at Antone's Nightclub in Austin.
