Road to Austin chronicles how Austin, Texas became the Live Music Capital of the World, dating from 1835 to present day. The film highlights early 1800s Austin, the psychedelic movement, Armadillo World Headquarters, and numerous iconic musical inflection points that shaped the American musical culture of today. Vintage photos, rare posters, and never seen before video footage are presented with a soundtrack that truly inspires and reveals why Austin is such a magical epicenter of music. This feature length documentary builds to a climax as the storyline weaves its way towards an all-star live concert. On May 19, 2007 an unprecedented event called the Road to Austin was unveiled to an audience of 20,000 people in Austin, Texas. Led by internationally acclaimed musical director and Grammy award winning producer, Stephen Bruton who lost his battle to cancer in 2009. Bruton served as Kristofferson’s guitar player and closest friend for over forty years.
The lineup was developed to include multiple genres of music, including poetry and opera. The production attempted to blend and blur this artistic diversity in ortder to deliver many never-seen-before collaborations. The panoply of celebrity headliners (including Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Joe Ely, Ian McLagan, Eric Johnson, Bobby Whitlock & CoCo Carmel) heightened the impact of the evening’s apex and afforded Austin’s local artists an opportunity to have these legends accompany them during their performances.

The vision was to create a unique live musical showcase of 50+ local and world-renowned artists that are deeply rooted to the Austin music scene legacy and capture every moment of it in 5.1 surround sound and multi-camera footage. The release will include the documentary, interviews with pundits and performers, and the full thirty-eight-song celebrity driven concert. Kris Kristofferson dedicates this film to Stephen Bruton.