Freiheit Country Store, Freiheit, TX
The Chevy rolls out into the plains, and with a sigh of relief, leaving Texas Hill Country with it’s crests and hills behind only to be seen in the rear view mirror. The journey goes south along Freiheit road with extensive corn fields on both sides and at a safe distance...
Read More
James Hand talks about Honky-Tonks
“I started in this business when I was 12 years old and I’m 56 now. A honky-tonk to me is where people go that don’t have the money or even the want too, to go somewhere where people look down on them. Think about a honky-tonk. Everybody is at the same level. If you are...
Read More
Club 21, Uhland, TX
We never intended to go looking for a ghost town but standing at the crossroads in Uhland I find myself in a place that appears to be totally uninhabited. One of the last outposts, something profound that easily goes by unnoticed if you don’t know to look behind the ragged...
Read More
Circleville Store, Circleville, TX
The old gas pumps in front are all out of use. With the big chains selling cheap gas in the nearby town they are no longer worthwhile. Despite the fact of having no gas, this place has a lot to offer. There’s hardware supplies, fishing bait, groceries, hunting stuff and...
Read More
Leon’s Store, Rockne, TX
Most every time I put my foot here, something is going on. Today we’re just rolling dice. I’m not much of a dice player, but Gary slips me a couple bucks under the table to throw in when I’ve lost my last pot. It still ends with me losing the game. Just simple fun for an...
Read More
Steve’s Place, Thorndale, TX
We gassed, braked and steered our way through the backroads of Milam County. With Olle reading the map and Chris keeping the pick-up steady 65 at the wheel, we soon found ourselves in Downtown Texas, Texas. We’re on the hunt for a little-known honky-tonk that we’ve...
Read More
The Broken Spoke, Austin, TX
I look out the car window into the emblazoned world that the neon along South Lamar Boulevard paints up. Many treasures are hidden in the shadows of the alleys. While some of them are hard to find if you don’t know where to look, some are more well known–and for good...
Read More"I yearn to hear some Hank, but don't have a dollar to command his lonesome whine"
The Devil’s Backbone Tavern, Fischer, TX
As we drive slowly into the deep valley, we cross the Guadalupe River more times than I can remember. Featured dizziness and concrete cap to spite it’s a pleasant trip in the shadows of the large oaks. My imagination meanders when I see the landscape. I gaze at the narrow hollow between the mountainsides and the river pulling up from the bottom like a snake in the shining sun. Along the narrow road lies a spread of houses. Some are bigger, more luxurious creations with their own piers, but most of them are simple cottages made of wood with roofs made out of corrugated tin.
Nancy Talks About Giddy Ups, Austin, Texas
This bar is my living room – my actual residence is not large enough to have all of these great folks over – so they come to my living room at Giddy Ups. Sometimes when we have younger folks come in and they start to act up – I just say “hey, would you do that or act like that in your Mom’s living room, this is my living room and you cannot act like that here”, and a lot of folks do call me Mom. I have zero tolerance for rude and vulgar behavior and most everyone knows this.
Red Steagall Talks about Texas Culture.
“I’ve been in country music and western music for over 40 years. And I’ve written a lot of country songs. They are primarily talking about the working man and the society of the working man. And we call them honky-tonk songs and western swing. So I did that for a long, long time. Then I started recording something that I always loved and that’s cowboy music. And that talks about a particular people, a particular group of people during a particular period in the history of mankind.