The Legacy of Jerry Jeff Walker and the Creation of ‘Viva Terlingua’ at Texas State University

A new exhibit at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University transports visitors back to a time and place where one outsider artist captured the very essence of Texas. That artist was Jerry Jeff Walker, and the exhibit highlights the creation of his iconic album Viva Terlingua—a record that is considered by many to define Texas music.

In the opening track of Viva Terlingua, Jerry Jeff Walker introduces himself as “Scamp Walker,” a reference to a time in his life when he might have been a bit of a wanderer—a fitting moniker for a man known for his free-spirited ways. The song was recorded on August 18, 1973, not in a plush West Coast studio but in a sweltering 100-degree barn in downtown Luckenbach, Texas. The rustic, unpolished setting mirrored the spirit of the music itself.

Curator Hector Saldaña, who helped bring the exhibit to life, explains that Walker’s rough-and-tumble persona was no exaggeration. “Jerry Jeff was very much a Ramblin’ Jack Elliott kind of singer—a blend of cowboy grit and the sensitive singer-songwriter vibe of Bob Dylan,” he says.

Viva Terlingua is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums in Texas music history. For Texas music author Joe Nick Patoski, it’s the key to understanding the Austin music scene of the early 1970s. “If you want to understand what happened in Austin during that time, Viva Terlingua is your great explainer,” Patoski says.

Patoski, a seasoned writer who has penned books on Texas icons like Selena, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Willie Nelson, points out that the Texas music scene was still finding its footing in 1973. Though Willie Nelson and Doug Sahm had recently moved to Austin, they hadn’t yet become the cultural forces they would later be known as. “In ’73, Willie Nelson was still largely a Nashville songwriter, not the pop icon he would become,” Saldaña adds.

Before Viva Terlingua, Jerry Jeff Walker had already established an intriguing career. He was perhaps best known for writing “Mr. Bojangles,” a song that became a hit when performed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. But by the early ’70s, Walker was feeling worn out by his life as a traveling troubadour. Patoski recounts a key moment in Walker’s journey when he crossed paths with a man who would become a close friend: Hondo Crouch, the colorful character behind Luckenbach, Texas, a once-abandoned ghost town.

“Hondo had bought Luckenbach, and it was there that Jerry Jeff found a kindred spirit,” Patoski says. Walker was captivated by the town’s charm and decided to record his next album live in Luckenbach. The idea was born to bring a remote recording truck to the town and capture the raw energy of the moment.

Saldaña paints a vivid picture of the recording session: “They went out there to rehearse, hang out, and get high. They used bales of hay to dampen the sound for recording. It wasn’t a polished studio experience, but that was part of the magic.”

Despite the fact that Luckenbach is over 400 miles from Terlingua, the town’s name made its way into the album title. “What makes Viva Terlingua so special is that Jerry Jeff found his voice on that record,” Saldaña explains. “He also found a group of collaborators in The Lost Gonzo Band, who helped bring his songs to life with the perfect mix of energy and soul.”

One of the standout tracks on the album is “The Wheel,” a haunting song that explores themes of loss and grief. Saldaña reveals that the song is deeply personal for Walker, reflecting his experience of witnessing the death of his grandfather in a tragic farm accident.

Walker wrote five of the album’s nine songs, and while only two tracks were recorded live in front of the Luckenbach audience, most of the album is a blend of country music with a rock ’n’ roll edge. According to Patoski, this sound was unlike anything coming out of Los Angeles at the time. “It was a new kind of music—loose, raucous, and uniquely Austin,” he says.

Before Viva Terlingua, many Texas musicians had migrated to Nashville or Los Angeles in search of better opportunities. However, Patoski argues that Walker’s album signaled a shift in this trend. “With Viva Terlingua, Jerry Jeff helped reverse the migration. People stopped leaving Texas and started coming to Texas to make music,” he says. The album’s success symbolized a new kind of freedom for musicians in Austin, encouraging them to do their own thing and be true to their roots.

When Saldaña decided to curate the exhibit for the album’s 50th anniversary, he wanted to give visitors an intimate look at the creation of this seminal record. The exhibit includes handwritten lyrics, instruments, photographs, and even outtakes that showcase the chemistry between Walker and The Lost Gonzo Band. “One of the highlights of the exhibit is 75 minutes of previously unreleased outtakes and rehearsals,” Saldaña says. “It gives visitors a real sense of the camaraderie that existed between Jerry Jeff and the band.”

The recording session that produced Viva Terlingua was far from glamorous. The barn lacked air conditioning, and hay bales were used to absorb sound for the recording. Yet despite the makeshift setting, the album’s raw, authentic sound has stood the test of time. “To me, Viva Terlingua captures what Austin sounded like back then better than any other recording,” Patoski reflects.

Interestingly, the song that became a hit from the album wasn’t even sung by Jerry Jeff Walker himself. Instead, it was “London Homesick Blues,” performed by Lost Gonzo Band member Gary P. Nunn. The song went on to become an Austin music standard and served as the theme song for Austin City Limits for nearly three decades.

Fittingly, Viva Terlingua remains the gold standard for Texas singer-songwriter albums, and Saldaña points out the irony of its creation: “How crazy is it that a guy from New York ended up making the quintessential Texas album, years before the phrase ‘Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas’ became popular?”

The exhibit is on display at the Wittliff Collections, located on the top floor of the Alkek Library at Texas State University in San Marcos, and is open seven days a week.