Special to The Tribune
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - A few miles north of here, off I-35 that takes you to Austin and Dallas, sits a cavernous dance hall that could, if it wanted to, host indoor football or one of those monster truck bashes. Cowboy's Dance Hall will afford you all the Conway Twitty and Jerry Jeff Walker songs you may want to hear, plus throw a bikini contest here and there just to get you away from the frilly cowboy garb.
They may be rockin' in open-range Lubbock to electric Buddy Holly tunes and rap music in Dallas's Deep Ellum, but Texas is still a veritable Cowboyworld. Glances to the left and right as you motor up or down some major or rural highway always brings yet another glimpse at the one thing most associate with the Lone Star State - a freakin' side-of-the-road bar, some looking as if all it took to build it was $400.
Every region has its flavors, is what area chambers of commerce will tell you. South Texas has Tejano rock, El Paso its Marty Robbins and West Texas its Lonely Boys. The coast is for Selena and Janis Joplin and the panhandle for, yeah, christian rock. Thrown together, it's one weird mix that can also readily be seen as the state's We Are The World effort. Johnny Rodriguez hasn't stolen a goat in decades, but he's still around, last seen at a joint called Stagecoach in Fort Worth, where he sails off into midnight with his Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone anthem. And what college student of the late 70s doesn't remember dancing a crazy-boot tune like Ray Wylie Hubbard's Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother? I do. Over at Billy Bob's Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards, where the night included a bone-rattling ride aboard the mechanical bull and a cavalcade of eye-balling the frosted-haired chicks from Weatherford and Burleson and Denton arriving in brightened halters and tight jeans.
It's all still out there.
Yeah, I've been gone from cowboy music too long...
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15 comments:
Priceless. I recall my days at UT and Willie's music and smoking and drinking and chasing weemin and living for the night. Still married to the woman I met on 6th Street in Austin. Thank you!
San Antonio is a great music town. lots of great clubs and festivals, like conjunto. Good story.
I was big on Urban Cowboy nights. Loved the movie, the music and the mood. bring it back!
ANONYMOUS:...Well, we do remember Urban Cowboy night in Brownsville, back when that Studio 5 club lived and died over by old Amigoland Mall, when the likes of Nacho Garza and his wife joined then-Police Chief Andy Vega and anyone who was anyone in town for the partying. That was the year I wrote for the Herald... - Editor
Yeah, that movie was filmed at Gilley's in Pasadena. Used to go there when I lived in Houston. Too much beer though
Way back in the 70's, I remember as a senior at a Catholic high school, we sang a version of "Up Against the Wall MF" during dinner while on a religious retreat, no less. We all got an extra day tacked on at the end of the year for that one but they didn't have anything for us to do, so we sat around and hummed the song. Ah, the memories. If I remember correctly, we also sang it at prom, dressed in our formals. Oh, the memories. M
Exellent article. Everyone likes a good country song. THat's right.
Interesting. I thought country was dead. Johnny Cash is dead, right?
Been to San Antonio, and danced a the large dance floor at Cowboys. Around 11 pm they had a big screen and a camera walking around and you could see yourself in the big screen. Partied one night untill closing time, then tooka cab home. I got kind of messed up.
Gruene is something else, big old dance hall, went with two other couples, had a great time. Lots of good dancing.
Good article Patrick, brings back lots of memories, plan to go back to San Antonio in Feb. Valentines day and take the wife dancing. She will enjoy it.
What a good article, used to live on Merida Street many years back in S.A., moved to the Valley, but I am thinking about moving back. This crazy Valley, has nothing but cheap rest. and lousy streets. It is 25 years behind the rest of the world.
Anon, (25 years back) you couldn't have said it better. El ejido este, es purito salvage, as a state health inspector use to say. No ay nada, pura jente al estilo Toni Chapa, Y mama chapa, de honduras, nicaragua, el salvador, y de Mexicaly.
Y el myharlingennews blog es puro alarido, el viejo que escribe los articulos, esta todo sonso.
The last time I was at mi Tierra Restaraunt in San Antonio, they had mariachis, at $25.00 a song. They use to have them on Friday Nights. Good place to eat.
Pretty good times and memories, were kepted from good old S.A.
ANONYMOUS:...Mariachis still stroll Mi Tierra, and, if I may so without offending Brownsville, they are better dressed these days. We sat alongside couples and families, but our eyes were drawn to a booth in an aisle that led to the kitchen, where an Elvis impersonator sat putting away his meal. He looked like a very old thin and Sammy Davis, Jr.-like Mexican man, but were told he's actually Black. Later, we saw him "being the King" and posing with tourists out in the Mercado mall. San Antonio is full of great vistas and places to eat, Riverwalk especially... - Editor
Good Post, really good. Keep up the good work, let us know all about the Hill Country. Many of the readers of this blog, have some familiarity with those areas.
A little bit of depressing news, though, el aplastao de Chapaneco is still blowing his tutu about his blog out of 7 comments 5 are his.
And a cyber punk, who was a janitor with some agency, is still insulting people.
"M', just ignore the punk, that is all he is. Papa Chapaneco and his punk errand boy.
Thanks for the posting of the Power Ball, bought forty tickets paid $40.00, no luck, maybe next time.
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