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108

Armadillo World Headquarters Baby Grand Piano

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:12,500.00 USD Estimated At:25,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Armadillo World Headquarters Baby Grand Piano
All items sold as is where is. See photos for condition, email info@burleyauction.com or call 830-629-9280 (Prior to sale day) if you have specific condition questions.
Historic piano the has been played by every great musician to play the Armadillo from Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino (who belly bumped it across the stage during his finale), Floyd Domino / Asleep at the Wheel, to Count Basie. All the great that played the AWHQ played Beulah's baby grand piano. Eddie Wilson's mother gave lessons on the piano long before it became part of one of the most influential music venues in Austin history. A museum worthy piece. The following was written by John Schulian for the Bullock Museum while it was on display as part of a Texas music exhibit, & run in their newsletter. Beulah Wilson was as proper as a church supper, which is to say that under normal circumstances no piano of hers would have ended up in a honky-tonk, no matter how hallowed it was. But the honky-tonk in question was Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters, and it happened to be the brainchild of her son Eddie. Of course Beulah never stopped calling him Edwin, and she really wasn't that comfortable with the fact that the 'Dillo would gain a reputation as a place where cheap pot could be had as readily as cold beer and great music. In its early days, however, when disaster lurked around every corner, her Edwin wouldn't have had anything going for him except prayer if she hadn't given him that Mason Hamlin baby grand.

The old brick pile had no air conditioning, a fact that was duly noted by the rednecks, hippies, and unlabeled music lovers who showed up on a sweltering opening night in August 1970. Come winter they discovered there wasn't any heat, either. Nor did AWHQ have stage lights, curtains, or a sound system. Things were no better behind the scenes, where there was no furniture, no office supplies, and too often no money. And yet Beulah's boy continued to book acts that inspired the Dillo's famous posters - big acts from the worlds of rock, country, blues, and jazz. There were sitar pickers, too, and dancers and comics. But what there may have been more of than anything else was piano players: Count Basie, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave Brubeck, Phil Woods, Mose Allison, Leon Russell, Earl Poole Ball, Randy Newman, Marcia Ball, Bill Evans, Donald Fagin, Floyd Domino, Fats Domino. And that's not half of them, but you get the picture.

When Beulah bought the piano that ended up in the Armadillo, it was, her Edwin says, "old but beautiful." He was 12 then, and his mother's idea was that he would play it well enough to take his place among the world's great ivory ticklers, or at least entertain visitors at home. Alas, Beulah, like many a mother before and since, vastly overestimated his talent. He walked away from his weekly lessons, and after that, the only hands that were laid on it belonged to his mother's mother, dear old deaf Granny Risher. She tortured it daily, banging out favorites from the Broadman Hymnal that assaulted the ears of listeners like so many crooked nails.
Then the piano sat quietly, tucked away at Beulah Wilson's Day Nursery School, on Avenue B, in Austin's old Hyde Park neighborhood. It was as if it was waiting for the night when Eddie Wilson, seeking nothing more than a private place where he could relieve his bladder, stumbled into the abandoned armory where the inspiration for the Armadillo struck. The need for Beulah's piano arose not long afterward.

Over time the 'Dillo would shake off its rough edges and replace them with good acoustics, a huge curtained stage, a kitchen staffed with hippie girls, and bars everywhere. There was a tiered seating system of risers that gave every ticketholder a clear view of the stage. Radiant heat warmed the winter nights, but there was still no air conditioning in summer. Miracle of miracles, the crowds came anyway, earning them Wilson's praise as "the loosest, sweatiest music fans in America, if not the whole world."

At the heart of AWHQ's magic was Beulah Wilson's grand piano, all five feet, eight and one half inches of it. Every time Robert Shaw, Austin's king of barrelhouse boogie, finished playing it, he would lower the cover respectfully and pat it. "I'm used to banging on dilapidated uprights," he'd say. No one, however, gave more of his heart to that piano than Fats Domino did. Eddie had fallen for the Fat Man's music as a kid, when Laveda Durst (AKA Dr. Hepcat) played it on his "Rosewood Ramble" radio show. The first chance there was to book Fats at the 'Dillo, Eddie jumped at it. Here was the kind of national star on whom he wanted to build the joint's reputation, and Fats responded with a show that had the crowd going crackers from the first chords until the last chorus. Fats said thanks by belly-bumping Beulah's baby grand all the way across the great wide stage, and they called it love. PLAYERS of the ARMADILLO PIANO (dates below):
Count Basie (1980), Ray Charles (1974), Dr. John
Leon Russell (1972), Jerry Lee Lewis (1972), Grey Ghost, Robert Shaw, Fats Domino, Tom Waits
Randy Newman, Earl Pool Ball, Mose Allison, Marcia Ball, Billy Payne, Barry Manilow, Floyd Domino, Commander Cody, Merle Saunders, Taj Mahal, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Donald Fagin, Riley Osborn, Lyle Mays, Warren Zevon, Steve Winwood, Joan Armatrading
Andy Pratt, Karla Bonoff, Jan Hammer, Eumir Deodato, Rickie Lee Jones, Rod Argent, Egberto Gismonti
Jeff Lorber, Bernie Worrell, Ralph Towner, Jay Ferguson
Art Neville, Patrice Rushen, Josef Zawinul, Cat Stevens
David Paich, Randy Newman ( 4/25/1976)
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