Rome Inn (1970s) Austin, Tx. Home of the Blues tee

ROME INN From 1975 to 1980 the Rome Inn was a fabled music venue; Austin's hottest blues spot of the time.  Sunday night was The Triple Threat Revue, with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lou Ann Barton. Paul Ray’s Cobras had Tuesdays, but the hottest night was “Blue Monday,” with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. An Italian restaurant built in the former Shipwash Grocery building at 29th and Rio Grande, the Rome Inn brought live music to mid-’70s Austin with acts like Balcones Fault, Alvin Crow, Rusty Wier, Billy Joe Shaver and Doug Sahm. Bob Dylan stopped in to see Sahm in May of '76 on a day off from the Rolling Thunder tour.  But the joint really found its identity later with the blues; music that integrated Austin well before the Civil Rights Act. After the Rome Inn closed, the club on 29th Street had a brief resurrection as punk club Studio 29. It was also a bookstore for a couple years before becoming Texas French Bread.  From grocery store, to restaurant, to blues club, to punk rock venue, to F