[Urbannizer]

Push for Texas music museum in Houston revived after plans for one in Austin dashed by Legislature

AUSTIN -- Like Willie Nelson sang in "The Party's Over," a controversial plan by state leaders to build a Texas State Music Museum in Austin had its lights turned out.

Two separate bills that would have established the new museum in the state Capitol complex, in part of a new government office building across from the Bullock State History Museum, died in the Legislature before it adjourned last Monday -- burying a plan endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott and other top officials.

It also ended, at least for now, a push by Austin officials to get bragging rights for the state music museum over Houston. In fact, the death of the legislation is re-energizing supporters of a long-planned music museum in the Bayou City to push ahead with their plans.

It's also seen as a boost by others who operate or support music museums statewide. A group of nearly 40 private music museums across Texas that protested the Austin project say the dispute has spurred them to establish a statewide network to showcase the state's colorful and rich music ways that a single museum cannot.

"This has not been a doomsday. It has been an epiphany for everyone on the value of the music business in Texas," said Stephen Williams, a founding member of the Museum of American Music History, a coalition of more than 50 organizations, private collectors and families who he said has been working for years to get the museum located in Houston.

Williams and others who operate or support the dozens of private music museums in Texas said a meeting is planned in July at the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage to organize those plans. Many of them felt the push for the new Austin attraction was government overreach.