Camozzi stumbled upon a pickin' party in a room at the Driskill Hotel in the wee hours of one Jerry Jeff birthday celebration past. Less than a dozen folks watched and passed a bottle of Jim Beam around as Walker, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Todd Snider filled the air with sweet music.

Jerry Jeff's also all about Austin, Susan Walker reminds us. First he was instrumental in raising bucks through benefit concerts to keep the Paramount Theatre afloat in leaner days and to renovate the State Theatre next door. Now the Tried and True Foundation has established a scholarship to send a deserving budding musician to Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts. That's the same school their  son Django attended when not dribbling down court for the rough-and-tumble European Basketball Association. The long-range goal is to open a sister school in the U.S. "He's chosen to live here and give back to the community," Susan Walker said of Jerry Jeff. And his fans will tell you that gift is all about the music, and the moments. Like the time the time Camozzi stumbled upon a pickin' party in a room at the Driskill Hotel in the wee hours of one Jerry Jeff birthday celebration past. Less than a dozen folks watched and passed a bottle of Jim Beam around as Walker, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Todd Snider filled the air with sweet music. Camozzi says it all comes down to one Jerry Jeff verse: "Letting it roll/Let the high times carry the lows."

This article originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman. Copyright is retained by the author.

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