Saxon Pub

History

Joe Ables and Craig Hillis opened the Saxon Pub in June 1990 at 1320 South Lamar Boulevard, a building that had already been the Boss' Office, the Living Room, and Madison's. The name recalled an earlier Saxon Pub on the Interstate 35 frontage road, open from 1971 to 1974. It started as a singer-songwriter room, with Steve Fromholz among the early acts, and later booked blues, country, and rock, including Monte Montgomery, Hayes Carll, and W.C. Clark. A rent jump nearly forced a move in 2014, until Keller Williams co-founder Gary Keller bought the building in November 2016 so the club could stay. The roughly 150-seat room is the subject of the 2019 documentary Nothing Stays the Same.