Denton, Texas has been home to a thriving music scene for decades, owing in large part to the consistent stream of talent and creativity which UNT’s music programs have attracted. The stories of many prominent performers are fairly common knowledge, including those of Norah Jones, Pat Boone, Roy Orbison, the One O’Clock Lab Band, and others, but the stories of the venues where they performed are generally much more obscure.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide an interactive platform to tell some of those stories, collecting venue names and locations which are bound together with so many vivid memories of the Denton music scene over the years, including Jim’s Diner, Captain Nemo’s, and the Rock Bottom Lounge.
Clear centers of activity emerge — namely, the UNT campus, the Fry Street area, and historic Downtown Denton. The visual presentation of these venues provides tangible evidence of past and present creative activity in Denton, and shows continuity of the present scene with that of the storied past.
This project remains a work in progress with the discovery of additional former venues and the development of new ones. The continuous growth and change in Denton provides the promise of new centers of creative activity, and new places to make memories that will define the “good old days” of tomorrow.
Maristella Feustle
Music Special Collections Librarian
Paul Baker
Cool Beans, which used to be Benny’s back in the 70’s and 80’s, on Hickory. Next door, back towards Fry St., was the Dew Drop Inn.