Lockhart's music scene grows, city recognized as 'music-friendly'
LOCKHART, Texas (KXAN) --- The city of Lockhart, known for its taste in food, was recognized for its taste in music.
On Friday, the Texas Music Office designated the city as a “Music Friendly Texas Certified Community."
"With this recognition, I think we'll have a lot of people coming into Lockhart and just checking out what we have here, which is really exciting," said Lockhart Public Information Officer Tatiana Salazar.
Some of the local musicians aren't Lockhart natives, but instead moved to the area.
"What drove people, especially musicians and different types of artists, to come down to Lockhart, is our affordability," Salazar said.
As of November 2024, the median sales price for a home in the Austin metro as a whole was $435,000, up 2.4% year-over-year. The median sales price is highest in the city of Austin itself, at $573,400, and lowest in Caldwell County, at $286,000.
One of those musicians was Steven Collins.
"My project is called DEADMAN. I've been here in Lockhart since 2007," Collins said. "I had my studio up the road, but I was looking to get closer to Austin. Even at that time, Austin was starting to become pretty expensive."
Collins said over the past three to five years, he's seen more artists migrate to the area. He's interested to see if that impacts the music coming out of Lockhart.
"When musicians gather because of affordability or a place to live that they can create without a lot of overhead, then you get a synergy that happens when they start to work together," Collins said "That's exciting, because you can find a sound out of that."