“From the opening pages of AUSTIN BLUES, Gary Keith’s engaging characters tell a masterful story of a magical place, the legendary ‘old Austin’ everyone wishes they’d lived in (and a few fortunate souls have), as well as the Austin that’s been growing and changing over the past several decades. It’s a story of an Austin with a legendary music scene with dives, honkytonks, and jazz clubs, side by side with political intrigue and academic shenanigans, where old hippies mix with entrepreneurs and empire-building wannabees. It’s a great ride and a great read and you’ll be glad you came along.”

In Austin Blues, Gary Keith writes with wit and insight about his city. The novel’s rollicking mystery showcases Austin in all its musical, political, and off beat glory. The characters stroll off the page and pull up a barstool, ready to talk records and uncover corruption. The plot moves like an album, each chapter another track, and Keith hitting all the right notes.

Austin in the 1970’s, much like the music of the “Cosmic Cowboy” era, resonates like a foggy dream with many people in Texas and around the nation. Gary Keith’s Austin Blues is an uninhibited coming of age story of baby boomers finding their way in Austin in the fast changing times of the second half of the 20th century.

Musicians Sanders Eden and his longtime friend John Dewey experience many ups and downs on the roller coaster of life. Known as Sandy and Dude, they experience life with its ever changing dilemmas and opportunities. The two meet at the iconic Armadillo World Headquarters in a fog of marijuana smoke and alcohol that never quite seems to dissipate.

Throughout the story, readers are introduced to many people in Austin representative of the times and culture. Musicians, attorneys, professors, students, and politicians come alive in this multidimensional look at the era and life in Austin, the City with the Violet Crown.

Enjoy the ride and the read and don’t be surprised if some of the characters in Austin Blues seem very familiar to you.

A Vietnam War veteran dives into Austin’s burgeoning music scene while pursuing a law career
in Keith’s novel.

After recovering from an injury sustained fighting in the Vietnam War, Sanders Eden attends
Texas Tech on the GI Bill. He doesn’t quite fit with the crowd in Lubbock, so when it’s time to
choose a law school, he heads to Austin. What really excites him is Austin’s music scene; it’s the
’70s, and the venues are scrappy, loud, and amazing. Sanders (Sandy to friends) lives it up at
Antone’s, Liberty Lunch, Hole in the Wall, Armadillo World Headquarters, and other local spots.
Bar fights, meeting girls, the amazing array of musicians—it’s a whirlwind of blurry, drunken,
and memorable nights. Fatefully, Sandy eventually meets Bev, a young academic. She later
recalls, “I got to Austin in 1986 and eventually found Sanders, another breed of southern
man—one fiery, physical, intellectually alive, and with a modern social conscience.” They
marry, and as Sandy’s law career takes off, a personal injury case keeps his name in the papers.
But it’s a whistleblower that really puts Sandy in the middle of Austin’s combustible political
scene as an explosive ethics case hits close to home and tests Sandy and Bev both personally
and professionally.

Keith’s boisterous, rollicking story starts with a bang and never really slows
down. The protagonist is pursuing a legal career, but that doesn’t stop him from jumping into
the middle of the whiskey-fueled action, whether at a honkytonk or in a courtroom. The
descriptions of the Austin of yore, with its myriad musicians and nightspots, feel earthy and
real, striking a strong note of authenticity. The novel is not perfect—the chapters are told from
different perspectives, and they are not always labeled, causing confusion. The second half of
the narrative is more about legal and political issues, and the plot can get lost as the writing
bogs down in related details. A scrappy, exciting, liquor-fueled journey through Austin, Texas.