Here is a little history on how this footage came to be. Leon Russell, at the time one of the biggest rock acts in the world, sent his newly formed video company ShelterVision to Austin to shoot musicians in clubs and outdoors. ShelterVision's footage was edited into the Lone Star Cross Country Music Hour, a music series sponsored by Lone Star Beer that aimed to air on eleven Texas television stations in 1975. (I have a ton of footage posted from that show) Each special was broadcasted [regionally by ABC] in 10 (and later 12) ADls - or areas of dominating influence - which included San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Houston, and other areas. Shot in different venues all over Texas and hosted by Willie Nelson, the series featured Asleep at the Wheel, Greezy Wheels, Jerry Jeff Walker and the Lost Gonzo Band, Rusty Wier, Jimmy Buffett, Ray Wylie Hubbard, B.W. Stevenson, Tracy Nelson, Willis Allan Ramsey, Bobby Bare, Steve Fromholz, Larry Hosserford, Kenneth Threadgill, Doug Kershaw, a short guest appearance from Waylon Jennings and of course Nelson and his band. But funding for the series fell short, and all the episodes did not air. The NBC television network filmed portions of Willie Nelson's second Fourth of July Picnic in 1974, airing segments on their Midnight Special music program hosted by the radio personality Wolfman Jack. All this music-video development had not gone unnoticed by producer Bill Arhos at KLRN, the Public Broadcasting System educational television channel for San Antonio and Austin. (Arhos would become the producer of Austin City Limits a year later in 1974) Mike Tolleson and other Armadillo staff had already talked Arhos into supplying a crew and production gear to videotape a performance of the Armadillo Country Music Review roadshow starring Willie Nelson, Michael Murphy, Billy Joe Shaver, Greezy Wheels, D. K. Little, and Diamond Rio at the Armadillo World Headquarters. The performance aired on KRLN and was simulcast on FM radio stations in San Antonio and Austin. With all that being said, here is a short unseen clip from that TV special. The folks over at Armadillo WHQ have a documentary coming out this year, along with a ton of unseen footage from that TV special. Within a few months we will have a ton of footage from this event. STAY TUNED :)
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- Willie Nelson
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