The Lon Austin Project

Many have stories about our friend Lon and his journey through life -his trail marked by the many paths he has crossed and the friendships he has forged along the way. Enjoy these tales, and reach out via our website if you, too, would like to share your own experiences.

About 2010 I moved to the West Valley of Phx. and wanted to start up a storytelling guild which had inactive for a while. My friend and I went to the Glendale main library and asked if we could have a room on a Sat. morning once a month. They obliged and we put out notices The West Side Storytellers were meeting and anyone was welcome. Now, when you do that kind of thing there's no telling who might walk through the door. And pretty soon these people started showing up regularly, bringing with them stringed instruments of all kinds. Most notably amongst them was Lon, but there was also, Andy Hurlbut, Dean Cook, Cliff Hicks; some of the cream of the local folk music scene. And it all came together in my mind, folk music is just storytelling with a strum. And so through Lon and his merry company of musicians, we started attending the Glendale Folk & Culture Festival, giving little storytelling concerts, setting up a table and encouraging folks to tell us a story, or listen to one.