Lubbock: Stubb’s Bar-B-Q

C.B. “Stubb” Stubblefield opened his Stubb’s Bar-B-Q on East Broadway in Lubbock in 1968, and within a few years the smoky joint had become one of the most improbable music venues in Texas. The Sunday night jam sessions at 108 East Broadway drew an extraordinary lineup for a small barbecue pit — Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Tom T. Hall, and Muddy Waters all played the cramped stage tucked behind the pit.

Stubb himself was one of the most generous figures in Texas music. He fed musicians whether or not they could pay, opened the stage to anyone who showed up with something to play, and created a genuine community spirit on East Broadway that helped define the Lubbock sound at its peak. The Sunday sessions became so legendary that the venue hosted the “Great East Broadway Onion Championship of 1978” — a community cook-off that spilled out onto the street and drew the whole neighborhood in.

The original Lubbock location closed after financial difficulties, but Stubb’s name lives on through the iconic Stubb’s Amphitheatre in Austin at 801 Red River Street, now one of the premier outdoor music stages in Texas. The East Broadway address is gone, but its legacy as the room where the Lubbock sound found its voice remains intact.