While researching newspapers of the period for a larger project concerning the cultural politics of Texas in the 1970s, I began keeping a log of advertisements and concert reviews of performances at the Armadillo. As this research progressed, the value of that ongoing log in reconstructing the venue's event calendar became clear. It seemed evident to me that, in order for historians to fully understand the Austin music scene of the 1970s, and to be able to separate fact from fiction, it was essential to build a set of substantive, accurate data on which to base further research. So, from those initial advertisements and reviews in the Daily Texan (the University of Texas at Austin student newspaper), Austin American-Statesman, Texas Observer, Rag, and Austin Sun, I expanded and confirmed the calendar of performances through artist contracts, booking calendars, posters, ticket stubs, photographs, and correspondence and conversation with former Armadillo staff.

This effort has not yielded a completely accurate re-creation of the day-to-day activities at the Armadillo, but it is sufficiently comprehensive to identify patterns in the place's history and to check those patterns against some of the most enduring stories related to the venue. The significance of this endeavor lies not only in the minutiae it yields in reconstructing a significant 1970s venue in the larger field of American music but also in its ability to plumb the very strong presence of the Armadillo in Texas's public memory as the "cradle" of progressive country music.

On a technical note, the data are arranged in two formats. First, there is a chronological calendar that shows the order of performances from 1970 to 1980. This calendar confirms the basic rise-and-fall narrative of the venue, in which an early, experimental period as a "community arts laboratory" (1970- 1972, with over 200 performances) helped spawn the explosive progressive country moment that gave the Armadillo a national profile (1973-1976, with over 1000 performances). This was followed by a change of leadership and a settling into a less utopian-minded, but more musically diverse and financially stable, middle age (1977-1980, with nearly 900 performances). By my count, approximately 900 acts played the Armadillo over the course of a few more than 2,000 evenings.

The second format consists of a list of acts found in the calendar, followed by the artists' genre identifications and dates of performance. Correlating these helps track the predominance of any genre at any given time in the Armadillo's history and determines which artists played the space most frequently. With some margin of error, those artists who performed there most often are tabulated in the chart to the right.

Asleep at the Wheel, Freddie King, Alvin Crow, and Marcia Ball may be the names on this list that are most often recognized as being associated with the Austin music scene of the 1970s. The prevalence of Greezy Wheels, Balcones Fault, Too Smooth, and Bugs Henderson may initially surprise some readers. However, with one exception, these are all local and regional artists who could be readily booked to support a touring act or headline a performance in their own right with a built-in local following. Their regular performances went far in determining an aesthetic and identity for the space. To the extent that the Armadillo anchored a scene based on a perceived unity between artists and audiences, these local groups proved extremely significant.

Although local artists structured the day-to-day experiences of the Armadillo World Headquarters, they did not necessarily put on the shows that dominate public memory. Touring acts of national stature generated a great deal of enthusiasm among audiences and created the scene's sense of self-importance by anointing Austin as a significant musical destination. Of those national acts, the chart to the right tabulates those that appeared most frequently.

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen played frequently enough that they often came to be considered local, despite the fact that they hailed from Michigan via the San Francisco Bay Area. Commander Cody, too, had a significant influence on the aesthetics of the local scene. He recorded his 1974 album Deep in the Heart of Texas (with its evocative Jim Franklin cover) live at the Armadillo. Cody also encouraged other West Coast musicians to relocate to Austin, including Asleep at the Wheel and Cornell Hurd.

In addition to Commander Cody, the remaining artists on the list suggest that the progressive country scene in Texas did not necessarily sustain itself with frequent visits by nationally touring country artists. To the extent that it gestured toward a larger trend, Austin's progressive country aligned itself with California country-rock (the Flying Burrito Brothers, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and artists indebted more to the albums Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Nashville Skyline than to the more traditional country represented by Nashville's Grand Ole Opry) and Southern Rock (Charlie Daniels, Wet Willie, Little Feat, the Marshall Tucker Band, Ruby Starr of Black Oak Arkansas, and most of the roster of Georgia's Capricorn Records).16 Even those artists with established country roots (Doug Kershaw, Doc Watson) performed for Armadillo audiences in somewhat of a folk vein.