The crowd at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin on New Year’s Eve 1980 was bigger than the venue’s 1,500-person capacity. Plenty of music fans, it seemed, knew a doorman or could talk their way backstage. For a night nobody wanted to happen, it seemed nobody wanted to miss it either. Country rocker Commander Cody was the headliner, with supporting acts Asleep at the Wheel, Maria Muldaur, Kenneth Threadgill, and Turk Pipkin also performing on the Armadillo’s final night. The idea was to celebrate what had happened over a decade at the unlikely home of both blues and ballet, the forum where peace was brokered between the rednecks and the hippies. But the heartbreak of what would be lost was also present on that chilly night. It…
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