Texas Music Magazine
Editor’s Note: The Saxon Pub in Austin celebrated its 30th anniversary in March. This story, written just prior to the pandemic, was scheduled to run in our Spring 2000 issue, but COVID prevented publication of that issue. We’re running the piece now so readers can appreciate the venue’s history and longevity. The Saxon Pub has been closed to audiences since mid-March but has hosted some of its artist friends for livestream performances. Follow them on
for updates on how you can support the venue and the Austin music community.
It’s a cool February afternoon at Austin’s Saxon Pub, and all is quiet, save for the venue’s founder and manager, Joe Ables, pawing through a large storage case. In that container sit three decades worth of Saxon-related documents he’s saved—for reasons he’s never quite been able to articulate.