Austin faces a high stakes choice
on funding parks over I-35,
with city leaders split over how to
move forward.
We'll hear more about that from
transportation reporter Nathan
Bernier.
Plus some great music came out of
Austin in 2025.
KETX's Ryan Wen highlights his
favorite song of the year.
Also, we catch up with longtime
musician, Robert Earl Keane,
who's gearing up for his Christmas
shows right here in Austin.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Miles Bloxson.
KUTX's Maile Carballo checks
in with the latest music news.
And guess what?
Christmas is right around the
corner. I know time flies, so
if you're like me and you still
haven't finished your holiday
shopping, don't worry,
we've got some ideas just for you.
All that and more coming up right
here on the Austin Signal.
Hi there, Austin!
It's Thursday, December 18th.
I'm Miles Bloxson.
And can you believe it's exactly
one week until Christmas for those
who celebrate the holiday?
So what does that mean?
Time is running out if you
still need to do some holiday
shopping. I know I still have
a few things to pick up, so you are
not alone in that.
But don't worry, we'll have some
ideas on where you can go later on
in the show.
This is The Austin Signal.
A quick headline before we start the
show... Leander ISD has
voted to close an elementary school
for the 2026-2027
school year.
The move was considered as a
cost-cutting measure since the
district is facing a $12.8
million budget shortfall.
We have more on this story at
KUT.org.
And a looming decision over the
construction of parks above I-35
is forcing Austin City Council
members to weigh two risky paths
forward. As KUT's Nathan
Bernier reports, They're beginning
to split.
Over which one the city should
actually take.
This fork in the road centers on
a deceptively simple question.
Which highway decks should the city
commit to paying for?
Council members already approved the
broad footprint of the project
in May.
As amended is adopted.
That vote committed the city to
paying TxDOT more than $100 million
at some point in the future,
likely around the year 2030.
And that money would pay for the
support columns that would hold up
these giant parks over the
highway after TxDOT tears
down the upper decks and sinks the
main lanes.
So where would these park decks go?
Here's where they're putting the
support column, from Cesar Chavez
to 7th Street, From 11th
to 12th Street and then a couple
smaller 300-foot-wide
decks that could go in near the
Hancock Center.
So now councilmembers have to decide
which of those park decks they'll
have the money to pay for over the
next eight years or so.
The price tag on those is
unclear.
The full package, just the decks,
nothing on them, would be more than
$300 million.
But something changed since the
council took that first vote in
May on the support columns, And
that is...
The city now says it has a lot
less time to lock in the
best price on those park decks
before the cost is guaranteed
to go up.
We do understand that
TechStot is kind of
moving timelines now.
Christine McGuire is with the City's
Economic Development Department.
It's really not a November of
26 hard
decision that they really need more
clarity from council in
May of 2026
for future commitments for
CAPTEC.
So took
all the oxygen out of the room.
I can proceed to the other
slide.
Having to make the decision by May
instead of November puts the city
in a more risky financial situation,
city staff say.
They were expecting more detailed
cost estimates before having
to commit, because the city has
to pay if anything goes over budget.
TxDOT says it does not need a
firm commitment by May, only
a general idea of which
caps the city wants to build.
City staff say they
can't even make a ballpark
estimate. Without a
formal City Council vote.
I know, I'm a downer, I am a
buzzkill, nobody invites me to
meetings anymore, but that is from
financial services point of
view, the city's risk
profile has increased.
And that brings us to this fork in
the road.
Make a commitment in May to which of
those caps the city will pay for
without knowing exactly how much
they'll cost, or wait until
they have a much better idea of the
price tag, knowing it will
definitely cost more.
And that's the question that is,
again, dividing the city council.
On the one hand, you have council
members like Chito Vela, who are
all in on building parks
over I-35.
There's no question that this
project is going to cost a lot.
The reality is though when it's done
it will have huge economic
benefits in terms of additional
property tax revenues that are going
to be brought in to the
city and that's the money
that we get to pay for our
emergency services to pay for our
parks and our libraries and our
quality of life.
On the other hand, you have council
members like Christa Lane, who voted
against the plan in May to pay for
those support columns.
She says the financial risks
have only increased since then.
We need to make sure that we have
enough capacity for the needs of the
city, given the very significant
revenue constraints.
And the more that we
do not acknowledge the actual
level of risk in these costs,
the greater it could really
hurt us as a city.
Then there are council members like
Paige Ellis, who's somewhere in
between.
She supports signing up the city to
pay for a smaller package of parks
over the highway, specifically just
the 11th to 12th street cap
and the smaller 300-foot-wide
decks near the Hancock Center.
But she's skeptical of this
whole timeline.
I don't see a scenario where I'm
supportive of let's just continue
to say we will
find money later when we don't
know where we're going to find it.
I feel like we're being put in, you
know, in between a rock and a hard
place for numbers that
are flexible.
They're moving around.
And if we didn't hate I-35
enough, this is definitely
adding fuel to the fire.
There's also option number three,
do nothing.
And after the I-35 expansion is
completed around 2033,
TxDOT will impose a 10-year
moratorium on any construction
on I- 35.
Then the city could come back around
2043 and talk
again about building highway parks.
Because no matter what, they have
already committed to paying for
those support columns that would
hold them up.
I'm Nathan Bernier in Austin.
You're listening to the Austin
Signal.
Hello, I'm Ryan Wen, and I'm
a host and producer for KUTX.
One of my favorite songs out of
Austin this year is called Julia by
Boomer Shack.
Julia says
the moon on
high Same
one as yesterday
I love hard-swinging down-tempo
music, and as much as I
may outwardly profess my love for
things like funk, Quiet Storm R&B,
and bluesy doom metal, I also
secretly, terminally
love sad-boy Americana.
With all I
could give up
To be honest, Boomer Shack is a bit
of an enigma, which is kind of hard
to be today, but typically the best
musicians are really bad at
marketing themselves.
But what I can glean from the little
information that exists about them
is that the primary songwriter is
named Dan Perez, and
the material that eventually led to
this song and their debut EP
originated from a drawer full of
demo cassettes and eight-track
recordings Perez had written and
recorded over the course of a
decade.
Nail by nail,
side by side
I see Evelyn
and you'll
Anyways, while I love the
footstopping, honky-tonk sound,
it's all about those vocals for me.
That raspy voice, swinging melody,
and all the longing, frustration,
and self-loathing a sad song-enjoyer
could want.
Add a few simple yet tastefully
placed backup harmonies, and man,
this is the stuff.
I'm a fool,
every time I'm
winning, I'm on
my own
Dead in water,
that's nothing
It's vaguely like a honky tonk take
on the Beatles' Oh Darling, which
in and of itself is kind of
derivative of an old school southern
style of R&B.
Well, I don't think Boomer Shack was
consciously pulling from these
places, but this is all to say,
they get it.
I was hooked within seconds of
hearing this song, and immediately
texted like five of my friends to
listen to it.
I know that the sun
will rise
Let's bet
The vibe is, it's
a Tuesday and you're on your 12th
Lone Star at the hole in the wall
when a band nobody has ever heard of
steps onto the front stage and
immediately reminds you why you
moved to Austin.
I just pray
that you're right here
with me With
all I can give
her I...
I'm Ryan Wen, and I'm a host and
producer at KUTX,
and you can find out all of our
favorite songs from 2025 over
at kutx.org.
This is Austin Signal.
This is all I can give up,
can't give up on
you This is All
I can Give Up You
know I'm
a Sheep And I'm
Winning
There's more Austin Signal coming
up after this.
Stay with us.
Oh
This is the Austin Signal, I'm Miles
Bloxson.
A box of Tampons,
a Marlboro Line
Yeah, everybody say
cheese Merry
Christmas from the family
Merry Christmas from the family by
Robert Earl Keen has become a
Christmas staple beyond just Texas
households and for years Keen's
annual Christmas show has captured
that same enthusiasm and love
for the holiday.
Freshly back on the road from
retirement, the legendary Texas
singer and songwriter will be in
Austin for his shows Friday and
Saturday.
He's much for talking with us
today.
Hey, thank you for
tracking me down, Miles.
I appreciate it.
Of course.
How many years have you done a
Christmas tour?
I think it's about 14.
I wrote the song quite a while
ago and then it turns out that
people
just wanted to hear me play the song
during Christmas time so we started
putting these Christmas shows
together. That's how that came
about.
Yeah, so what inspired that song
that that some would say
is more realistic portrayal of
holiday celebrations
I grew up in Houston, Texas and
I was writing some songs
for another record and kind of wore
myself out trying to be real
serious.
It was just about Christmas time and
I thought, you know, I don't have a
Christmas song.
I don't know what chestnuts are
and sleigh
bells and the whole thing.
So I decided I'm just going
to write my own Christmas song and I
didn't really intend to
even record it ever.
Finally the next time I talked
to a producer.
That they were asking what the
producers always do.
Well, do you have any more songs?
And I said, yeah, I have this one.
And I played that and they said, oh,
you gotta put that on record.
I said okay, so I did.
I
Well, this year, the holidays will
be tough for those families impacted
by the devastating floods that
hit curville, you know, the hill
country in central Texas in July,
you did a benefit concert in August
for those who were impacted.
Can you tell us about the experience
of doing that concert?
Well, I was slated to
play Kerrville on the
river on 4th of July,
and as everyone knows, that's when
the flood happened.
And so that was
the beginning of our tour in the
summer, and my manager
Kelly Thomas and I sat around
and said, well, we've got to do
something.
So we decided to immediately put
all our money that we
raised from our merchandise went
to benefit the
community foundation for the Texas
Hill Country.
And then we said, well, we got to do
more. So we put together this
concert at Whitewater and
ended up with having over
40 acts and eventually
raised over $3.2
million.
That's amazing.
And you know, the Hill Country is
your home.
So what has that area been like
since July?
It has improved
greatly,
actually, as far as the mess
that the river was in.
They came in there with an army
full of trucks,
and I'm talking about giant trucks
as big as apartment complexes.
They were giant.
And they hauled away
a lot of the trees and all
the debris that was
washed down and
I'll have to say, it looks now
more like a state park than
a devastation,
so they've done a really good job.
The families that
lost family and
property, they're still hurting,
yes.
Yeah, that's something that, you
know, that something that's hard to
get over.
You meant to retire a
while back, but when it came down
to it, you saw it
and you said, hey, I don't want
to retire.
So what made you continue to
decide to work?
Well, mainly, Miles, I just
didn't have anything that
I knew how to do at all,
other than perform and
write songs. And I didn't want to
learn how to anything new.
I had some interests in other
places, but I just, you know, when I
started messing around with them,
when took some time off,
it just wasn't working for me.
So this is
what I love to do, I just continue
at this.
After I played a few shows, I found
people really wanted me to come
back. I kind of felt a little
bit of shame that I was,
you know, going back on my
promise that I'm going to
retire, but everybody seemed to be
happy about it, so I'm happy back.
When they asked me if I'd
like to stay I said, I'm
coming home to you
I'm, coming home
Baby, in my mind that's what I'm
gonna do Can't
love nobody on the telephone
I'm comin' home to
You
It's hard to put down what you love,
right? You gotta keep picking it up.
So what is your favorite
part about touring?
The performance itself,
I love performing, being
on stage has always come
very naturally to me,
and now that I have just
a huge bushel basket of songs,
I don't ever run out of anything to
talk about or sing about,
so it's about the performance.
Yeah, in Texas, you know, this big
place, this place we call home.
How did the audience in Texas differ
from the audiences in other places?
I would like to think we're the
best, but what do you think?
Well, no, there's a
certain enthusiasm and
wildness that go on with Texas
audiences, but it is surprising
that we can go from Portland,
Oregon, to Portland, Maine.
And audiences respond pretty
well to us because we're
out there to entertain people and
we're out there have fun, and that's
it.
That's really the goal.
And we do play well,
and I have great, great musicians
in my band, but we're
out there to entertain, so
we get a response
from people that are like, God,
I didn't know what I was going to
get when I got here, and this is
really fun, so it is.
Well, that's amazing.
We've been speaking with musician
Robert Earl Keane.
His Christmas show, Robert Earl
King Presents The Greatest Christmas
on Earth is in Austin this Friday
and Saturday at ACO Live at
the Moody Theater.
We'll have a link to more in today's
podcast show notes.
Robert Earl keane, thanks so much
for joining me this afternoon on
the Austin Signal.
Thank you, thank you, thanks.
A mistletoe.
When Santa Claus came
knocking,
he looked like Uncle Joe.
Someone put the
coffee on and
find the Tylenol.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Happy Holidays
to you all.
Well, it's been a big week for
music news here in Austin,
and KUT's Syeda Carrillo
sat down with KUTX's Maile
Carballo and asked her
to catch us up.
There's a lot of things happening this week.
A little bittersweet week on
the flip side of that though.
It is the 50th season of the
Armandillo Christmas Bazaar
and it's super cool.
It was started by the Armadillo
World Headquarters.
Of course, world renowned in
Austin here. They've been doing a
lot of great stuff recently kicking
back up the brand.
But celebrating the 50-th season of
this little art bazaar and music
collaboration is super cool.
It's kind of one of those few
places, very Austin thing
to do, where you can grab a
beer, buy a painting, and
also see an Austin artist
all at once.
You can do that in a lot of places,
but this is the place to go
for Christmas shopping, Kind
of similar to the Blue Genie, but
supporting music as well.
Yeah, it seems like a great
one-stop shop to support
local artists and also other types
of creators, and hard
to believe it's been 50 years
already that it's been around.
For folks who are not familiar,
could you kind of tell us what to
expect when you're visiting for the
very first time?
Absolutely. So there's a small entry
fee when you enter.
It is at the Palmer Event Center
from now through December 21st.
And when you go in, you'll hear
music playing.
They have live musicians, local
musicians playing all day.
And you can just shop around
different artisan booths and
see what's what, what you want to
get for the family or for your
friends.
But actually today, currently
right now, Austin's
very own The Point is playing at
art bazaar.
As well as Como Las Movies
later on at 4 and Madam
Radar at 7 p.m.
So two KUTX artists
of the months in there It's pretty
cool
Very cool.
Yeah, great opportunity to check out
some local acts and how
long is the is the bazaar
open?
Yeah, it's open now from
now until December 21st,
every day at 11 a.m.
To 9 30 p.m at the Palmer
Event Center downtown.
Well, still some more time to
check that out if you haven't been
to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar's
and Austin Institution.
And Maile, catch us up on some other
big music news that happened this
week.
Yeah, absolutely.
So on the more bitter side of
things, yesterday it was announced
that Joe Ely and Jim
Stringer passed away.
It's been a really hard week for
celebrity passings all around, of
course, with Rob Reiner as well.
But this week we're remembering two
kind of country roots musicians,
those guys.
Joe Ely was really a cornerstone
of Texas music for over the past
50 years, is
a founding member of the Lubbock
Mafia.
A lot of people in Austin called him
the musician's musician which I
think is a really
great quote.
Jim Stringer as well was also a
mainstay for kind of Austin Roots
and Rockabilly for over 30
years.
He was the leader of the A.M.
Band and yeah, just wanted to
send out a big old cheers to these
two guys and love and
prayers to their family because
they really helped to find the
light.
Music Capital of the World.
Absolutely.
Well, Maile, thank you for catching
us up.
And we do have a great look at Joe
Ely's legacy over on kut.org
for folks that want to learn more
about him and take a look back at
his impact on the Austin music
scene.
Maile Carballo is with our sister
station at KUTX.
Thank you, Mile, for catching up on
Austin Music Headlines.
Thank Thank you.
Well, that's it for us here on the
Austin Signal. Thanks so much for
hanging out with us today.
Rayna Sevilla is our technical
director.
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
producer. Thanks for doing all that
you do.
We got more about the show in
our podcast Show Notes at
KUT.org slash Signal.
I'm Miles Bloxson and for my buddy,
Jerry Quijano, Austin Signal is
back tomorrow.
Talk to you then.