Kenny Dorham's Backyard

09/13/2026

Balledjo American Social Guild and East Austin Creative Coalition are all about community and supporting local businesses.

Please join us for the first East Austin Farmers Market at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard on Saturday 09/19/26 from 11am-5pm.

Local Vendors, Farmers and Producers from all over Central Texas are coming to provide the East Austin community fresh homegrown and healthy produce straight from the source.

Come check out our market!

Interested in Joining as a Vendor, please DM Us.

09/07/2026

🎶 LABOR DAY PARTY - BLUE MONDAY TONIGHT! 🎶

🎸 Every Monday night at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard
⏰ Doors at 7:17PM | Show 7:45-8:15PM | Jam 8:15–10PM
📍 1106 E 11th St | Austin, TX | 78702

HAPPY LABOR DAY! Come celebrate tonight with the Blues! The Blue Monday Blues Jam is a generations-old tradition of coming together to share in the gift of music! Everyone is welcome - players, singers, and dancers alike! Bring your instrument!

Blue Monday is hosted by the Assorted Chocolates ( ) with Willie Johnson on guitar ( ), Damien Greene on drums ( ), Trevor Villwock on keys ( ), Vinnie Limón on sax ( ) and Harold McMillan ( )!

Our nonprofit organization, East Austin Creative Coalition, which manages the Backyard and puts on the weekly Blues jam relies entirely (100%) on grassroots community supporters. The Blues legacy of East Austin is able to survive because our neighbors and community members show up to make it clear that Black artistry is valued in this city.

So come by tonight and help keep it live on the East Side, support the artists on stage, and enjoy an evening of Blues under the stars!

09/07/2026

Another hit from the Blues Family Tree archives! The Dynamic Duo Band live at the 311 Club with Blues Boy Hubbard, Matthew Robinson, Donald Duck Jennings, Pat Patterson and Ural Dewitty (filmed by Michael Emery).

The Blues Family Tree Archives came together in the 90’s through the production of live music performances and oral history interviews with the last generation of East Austin’s Black Blues Masters, musicians with direct ties to Austin’s founding Blues community, long before the opening of Antone’s. The project served to create a documentary trail and a living record of a core creative community that was slowly vanishing.

This record of East Austin’s blues legacy is still alive, still growing, and still fueling the creativity of musicians working today. East Austin Creative Coalition is hard at work to preserve and publicize these archives, so that in 100 years, if you’re standing on East 11th St, you’ll know where you are.

Every week, on Monday evening, we celebrate this legacy and fill the streets with the sound of old school music, carrying forward a tradition of blues fellowship and community.

Join us tonight at 7:30PM for Blue Monday hosted by the at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard! Dust off your instrument, drop your name on the sign up list for the jam, and come be part of the legacy!

To support our efforts in the digital and physical preservation of the Blues Family Tree archives, get in touch with us, make a donation at our Zeffy link in bio, or invite friends to come out for our weekly programming that honors the cultural roots of this neighborhood.

“Old Blues ain’t bad, the Blues is alright!”

08/17/2026

🎶 FEELING BLUE? 🎶

🎸 Every Monday night at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard
⏰ Doors at 7:17PM | Show 7:45-8:15PM | Jam 8:15–10PM
📍 1106 E 11th St | Austin, TX | 78702

Come on out tonight and celebrate the history of East Austin! The Blue Monday Blues Jam is a generations-old tradition of coming together to share in the gift of music! Everyone is welcome - players, singers, and dancers alike! Bring your instrument!

Blue Monday is hosted by and the with on guitar, on drums, on keys, on sax and on bass!

Photo of by at Blue Monday Winter Season 2026 at

08/13/2026

INFORMATION REQUEST • IMPORTANT!! • INFORMATION REQUEST
If you happen to be part of our musical extended family or just a fan or friend, please read below:
Do you know Our Brotha-Friend, colleague, great musician, parent, and stand up comedian—

KIKO VILLAMIZAR

Have you heard from him, have you contacted him, do you know where he is and how he and his daughter are doing?

If you know him, I don't need to give you a bunch of public details here. If you know, you know.
Got some info or response from him, DM me/us here.
It's important.

If you know what's up, contact me direct.
If you don't, please just ignore this and don't ask a lot of questions. His privacy is important, too.
Thanks!!

08/10/2026

🎶 BLUE MONDAY BRINGS US TOGETHER 🎶

🎸 Every Monday night at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard
⏰ Doors at 7:17PM | Show 7:45-8:15PM | Jam 8:15–10PM
📍 1106 E 11th St | Austin, TX | 78702

Come on out tonight and celebrate the history of East Austin! The Blue Monday Blues Jam is a generations-old tradition of coming together to share in the gift of music! Everyone is welcome - players, singers, and dancers alike! Bring your instrument!

Blue Monday is hosted by the Assorted Chocolates with Willie on guitar, Damien Greene on drums, Trevor Villwock on keys, Vincent Limon on sax and Harold McMillan on bass!

Photo of Willie by Rhad Photography at Blue Monday Winter Season 2026 at King Bee

08/10/2026

Do you operate a food truck or mobile retail vendor? Get in touch with us and set up shop in the heart of Central East Austin.

This location is a hotspot for local retail, food, and entertainment with great foot traffic. Right down the street from Franklin’s Barbecue, next door to Victory grill.

We also host live music events once a week (at the very least) with hungry evening audiences!

Come be part of the legacy!

Reach out to us with an email about your business to [email protected]

08/03/2026

Another clip from the Clarksville West End Jazz & Arts Festival 1998 featuring a latin version of Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues by the band Salango with Dina Hollingsworth on flute, Mark Towns on guitar, Paolo Castagnoli on drums, Anibel Ambert (who passed away in 2020) on bass.

We haven’t stopped jamming since! Join us for another musical communion tomorrow night at Blue Monday Blues Jam hosted by Harold McMillan and the Assorted Chocolates !!

Blue Monday is a chance to express whatever your heart desires. Bring your instrument and join us onstage - players, singers, dancers and everyone in the community is welcome!

Doors: 7:17PM
Show: 7:47-8:17PM
Open Jam: 8:17-10PM

Help us keep the East Austin music scene alive! We are a nonprofit organization that has been serving the East Austin creative community consistently for over three decades, and the work of cultural production and preservation, this living record of history, only grows more important with time.

You can directly support East Austin artists, musicians, civic advocates, archivists and preservationists by pitching in to the work we do at East Austin Creative Coalition via the zeffy link in our bio.

Come be part of the legacy!

07/27/2026

🎶 BLUE MONDAY IS BACK 🎶

🎸 Every Monday night at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard
⏰ Doors at 7:17PM | Show 7:45-8:15PM | Jam 8:15–10PM
📍 1106 E 11th St | Austin, TX | 78702

Come on out tonight and celebrate the history of East Austin music! The Blue Monday Blues Jam is a generations-old tradition of coming together to share in the gift of music! Everyone is welcome - players, singers, and dancers alike! Bring your instrument!

Blue Monday is hosted by the Assorted Chocolates with Willie on guitar, Damien Greene on drums, Trevor Villwock on keys, Vincent Limon on sax and Harold McMillan on bass!

Photo of Damien Greene by Rhad Photography at Blue Monday Winter Season 2026 at King Bee

07/27/2026

🎶 BLUE MONDAY IS BACK 🎶

🎸 Every Monday night at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard
⏰ Doors at 7:17PM | Show 7:45-8:15PM | Jam 8:15–10PM
📍 1106 E 11th St | Austin, TX | 78702

Come on out tonight and celebrate the history of East Austin music! The Blue Monday Blues Jam is a generations-old tradition of coming together to share in the gift of music! Everyone is welcome - players, singers, and dancers alike! Bring your instrument!

Blue Monday is hosted by the Assorted Chocolates with Ivan Wallace on guitar and vocals, Willie on guitar, Damien Greene on drums, Trevor Villwock on keys, Vincent Limon on sax and Harold McMillan on bass!

Photo of Damien Greene by Rhad Photography at Blue Monday Winter Season 2026 at King Bee

07/13/2026

07/13/2026

An excerpt from East Side Blues documentary film (1992) featuring The Thrill is Gone by Blues Boy Hubbard & the Jets with Hubbard on guitar, Martin Banks on trumpet, George Walker on bass and Ural Dewitty on drums and vocals.

Join us tonight (July 13th) at Blue Monday and help carry on the legacy of the Blues right where it started in Historic East Austin! These Blues jams are a generational heirloom and a decades-old traditional of coming together Ural community hosted by Harold McMillan and the Assorted Chocolates with Ivan Wallace on guitar and vocals, Willie on guitar, Damien Greene on drums, Trevor Villwock on keys and Vincent Limon on sax! Doors at 7:17PM, show from 7:47-8:30PM, open Blues 8:30-10PM

Start your week with soul tonight and come be part of the legacy!

In this clip, Blues Boy Hubbard also shares his experience of building a music career in Austin with gigs at Victory Grill and Charlie’s Playhouse in the 50’s and 60’s, and how much the cultural production of Black East Austinites contributed to the city’s artistic development.

This performance was produced as part of the Austin Blues Family Tree Project, a series of concerts, interviews, and documentary and research production that aimed to create a living record of the stories and music of aging African American jazz and blues musicians who were directly connected to the pre-integration community of Black East Austin. The underlying notion was to beg the question of, “what happens to an urban Black Community’s cultural core when it gives way to gentrification and displacement?” This work began in the late 1980s because of a forward-seeing vision of where Black East Austin was headed, even then.

As part of our mission at EACC, we are working to support visible and audible African American culture in East Austin and ensure that this history is not erased.

When you’re standing on E. 11th St., you should know exactly where you are. Austin Blues started right here and it’s not stopping any time soon.