I’m not a fan of the hot Texas summers, but I do look forward to Austin’s live music during this time of the year. There’s a wide variety of great, mostly-free concerts practically every day of the week. Here’s some of my favorite music events so far this summer….

Concerts in the Park are presented at The Long Center most Sunday evenings in the summer months. Small ensembles from the Austin Symphony perform for about an hour, starting at 7:30 PM. My favorite group is Big Band, with their saxes, brass, percussion, string bass, and even a vocalist. Their toe-tapping tunes get lots of couples up and dancing on the terrace.

The Austin City Limits TV show had several tapings in the past few weeks, with more planned throughout the summer. Ticket winners are chosen through a random online drawing a few days before the taping. In the past month, Bill and I have seen Ed Sheeran and Jeff Tweedy. Both concerts will be edited and then broadcast on the next season of Austin City Limits.

The Wine Down music series is back again this summer, with two significant changes. First, the concerts have moved to every-other-Monday, a good choice for an evening that doesn’t conflict with the other weekday summer events. Secondly—and most importantly—this series has moved from the hot, outdoor balcony inside to the air-conditioned ACL-Live Moody Theater. This season’s opener was Shinyribs, a new band featuring Kevin Russell (formerly of The Gourds). This group will also be playing at Blues on the Green next month.

Speaking of which, Bill and I haven’t even made it to Blues on the Green nor to Unplugged at the Grove yet. So much great Austin music…so little time!

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