(l-r): Michael Ramos, Shirley Zhu (Fuvk), Anastasia, Eliza Gilkyson, Nina Diaz, DJ Chicken George, Tori and Tiffany Baltierra (Tiarra Girls), and Scott Free (Worm Suicide) (By Zeke Barbaro / Getty Images. Photos courtesy of the artists.)
On Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 10:10am – all area schools having shut down suddenly March 13 due to the spread of the coronavirus – I emailed an Austin Music Awards multiple Band(leader) of the Year winner and media progressive: Hey man, how are you? I wanted to start checking in with some musicians – get a window into individual situations through short Q&A s. Mind if I send you a few questions?
Austin Music Awards, held at the
Moody Theater on March 11, turned out to be the final show I attended in 2020. That also proved the last time I dressed up with a tiny purse, saw those friends you only run into at shows, and went out on the patio to talk shit about Austin music. While the 40th annual
Austin Music Poll can t account for such nuances, it addresses the ongoing pandemic head-on.
Detailed last week in The Austin Music Poll Got COVID-19, (Music, Jan. 8), the ballot winnowed down to 20 categories and the
Hall of Fame as spearheaded by the coronavirus-specific new categories including Best Livestreaming Artist, Best 2020-Themed Song, and Musician Who Went Above & Beyond. As evidenced by passionate emails for broadening the Best Online Series category, the Poll and the Austin Music Awards they bestow still mean a lot locally after four long decades. A body of 600 homegrown music professionals helped determine the multiple-choice nominees, now online at vote.austinchr
Chencho Flores at Public Hi-Fi Studios in 2013 (Photo by John Anderson)
Chencho Flores, the charismatic accordionista, singer, and emcee who performed all over Austin beginning in the Forties, died Sunday, Jan. 10, at the age of 91. Friends say he’d been in hospice after contracting COVID-19.
Born on June 2, 1929, “between the Bastrop and Travis County line” by his own account, Flores began an eight-decade career playing guitar alongside Manuel “Cowboy” Donley, who died June 28, 2020, and Domingo Villarreal in the trio Conjunto Cielito Lindo. The group put out a 78rpm record on San Antonio’s Corona label, which featured Flores-led bolero “Te Amare.” Their earliest performances consisted of shyly entering cafes and bars on Sixth Street and going from table to table playing for tips.