"Six Strings over Texas"
Page Under Construction- Will highlight instrumental Texas Blues, Country Western music, and Belgian Ale-type beer in The German-Hill Country of Texas including Gillespie County and Austin.. The apogee of the festival is the 'South-by-Southwest' music festival in Austin.
The title "Six Strings over Texas" comes from the theme park "Six Flags over Texas". The six Texas flags were Spanish, French, Mexican, Republic of Texas, Confederacy, and United States.
The Spanish flag includes Burgundian Lions because Spain, like Burgundy, was a part of the Habsburg empire. Therefore Flanders, Burgundy, and Texas were all parts of the same empire at various times. Interestingly, two of the other five Flags of Texas were also among the "Flags over Flanders"! (French, and briefly U.S.. during the two World Wars).
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| The Spanish Flag that flew over Texas (as part of the German Habsburg Empire) includes Burgundian lions! |
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| Although this is the seal of Manhattan, it could equally be the seal for Austin. |
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| Austin and the adjacent "German Hill Country" have much in common with Manhattan, including a strong Germanic/Dutch language influence. The Seal of Manhattan could be copied to be the Seal of Austin. (Eboraci, or 'York', means 'Place of the Cedars') and a signature tree of the 'German Hill Country' is the 'Mountain Cedar'. Dutch and German windmills were essential to the colonialization of Texas.. The German/Cherokee treaty of Fredericksburg was one of the few treaties that was kept, and settlers were on good terms with the indians. The date on the seal just needs to be changed from 1625 to 1825.
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In addition to the Blues and Country Western music, the festival is meant to honor two of the worlds "Dozen best guitar players"-Stevie Ray Vaughn (from Austin) and Django Reinhardt (from Brussels in Flanders)
The festival also celebrates "sweet melancholy", or a yearning for things that could have been or have been irrevocably lost. There's a famous American joke that goes: "What do you get when you play a Country & Western song backwards?" Ans. "You get your job back, your truck back, and your wife back."
The English/Scottish saying 'Auld Lang Syne' come from the Old English/Dutch "Old Long Ago', or 'Yearning for Times Gone By'. A similar High German phrase is "Hätte, Sein, Können", "Things that could have/would have/should have ben".
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| Wall Mural in Austin. The five musicians at the top of the muralare, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, Townes van Zandt, and Roky Erickson |
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| The shadow of the great Stevie Ray Vaughn, grows longer with the years. Statue by Ralph Helmink. |
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| The ultimate goal of the festival is to circle the globe with blues/country guitar music and Ale-type beer- starting with the Flemish Beer Capitol of Leuven. (InBev Brewoing Headquarters).
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The proposed world-girdle of Dutch speaking "hotspots" would include: Flanders, Holland, Manhattan, the ABC Dutch-speaking islands of the Carribean plus Suriname, Austin, Silicon Valley, Hawaii ("Home" of Father Damian"), Japan (which features the yearly 'Ten Bosch' festival), Australia (previously 'Nieuw Holland'-pending), and South Africa (Afrikaans).
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| Luckenbach |
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| 'Austin City Limits' advertisement |
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