3023 GUADALUPE ST.

FORMER LOCATION OF: EMMAJOES

HEYDAY: 1981-83

“The night we closed the AlamoLounge (400 W. Sixth St.) on Nov. 13, 1981, we had Butch Hancock, Jimmie Gilmore and Joe Ely, and the very next night we opened emmajoe’s with Butch, Jimmie and Joe. It was a continuation in spirit of the Alamo, but emmajoe’s was even more like home for the musicians. Butch even built the bar, and all the Alamo regulars like Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith and Bill Neely had some input on where the stage should go and what kind of sound system we would have.

We emphasized two things at emmajoe’s: We were looking for original songwriters and we insisted that the crowd was quiet. Every once in a while Jerry Jeff would play and it would get boisterous, but for the most part people came to hear songs. That was what emmajoe’s was all about.”

TESTIMONY FROM: Bobby Nelson, who owned emmajoe’s with then-husband Martin Wigginton.

FOOTNOTE: That the owners were politically involved was spelled out when they named their club after activists/organizers Emma Goldman and Joe Hill.