Angela Strehli did not just sing in the Austin blues scene; she helped build it. Born in Lubbock, Texas, in 1945, she taught herself bass guitar and harmonica before ever stepping up to a microphone, then took a 1966 trip to Chicago to see Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy in their electric element. Back in Texas she formed the Fabulous Rockets with Lewis Cowdery, sang backup for James Polk and the Brothers, worked with the band Storm alongside a young Jimmie Vaughan, and in 1972 co-founded Southern Feeling with W.C. Clark and Denny Freeman. When Clifford Antone opened his Austin nightclub in 1975, she took the job of stage manager and sound technician, mixing monitors for visiting Chicago legends and becoming the most trusted musical mind in the building.

This episode follows Strehli from the soundboard to the studio: the 1986 Stranger Blues EP that launched Antone’s Records, her 1987 debut album Soul Shake, the 1990 trio record Dreams Come True with Lou Ann Barton and Marcia Ball, and 1993’s Blonde and Blue on Rounder Records, credited with cementing Austin’s national reputation. It also explores her deliberately sporadic discography, her festival touring from San Francisco and Long Beach to Edmonton and Norway, her move to Marin County, where she and husband Bob Brown took over the Rancho Nicasio restaurant and music venue, and the Blues Broads supergroup she leads with Tracy Nelson, Annie Sampson, and Dorothy Morrison.

• Why learning bass and harmonica first gave Strehli an analytical grasp of the mechanics of electric blues
• How running sound and monitor mixes at Antone’s in 1975 made her the gatekeeper for touring blues legends
• The launch of Antone’s Records with Stranger Blues and the albums Soul Shake and Blonde and Blue
• Long gaps between records, from Deja Blue in 1998 to Blue Highway in 2005 and Ace of Blues in 2022
• Rebuilding a roots music community at Rancho Nicasio and the Blues Broads live CD and DVD from the Throckmorton Theatre