Sengelmann Hall

A while back we enjoyed some live music at Sengelmann Hall in Schulenburg. This old hall has long tables like one would expect in a German-style dance hall and has an overall good vibe. Folks like Hayes Carll, Billy Joe Shaver, and Junior Brown have played there. This place is the real deal.

http://sengelmannhall.com/welcome

Crooks

We recently had the privilege of seeing this fantastic Austin band play in Fort Worth. According to Texas Monthly, Crooks' music can be described as "a rueful, hard-edged, and authentic country sound that also flirts with bluegrass, garage, Tejano, mariachi, and Southern rock." We bought a copy of their new CD, "Wildfire," at the show, and I think I listened to it four times in a row before I finally took it out of the CD player. 

http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/listen-austin-outlaw-country-band-crooks-with-flaco-jimenez/#sthash.5f0d9nAB.dpuf 

Here is a link to "Fork in the Road" from Ray Benson's Texas Music Scene.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I0_IPmCg9I

National Humanities Medal: Larry McMurtry

The great Larry McMurtry recently received a National Humanities Medal at the White House. Not too shabby for a fellow from Archer City, Texas.

http://news.rice.edu/2015/09/03/rice-alum-author-larry-mcmurtry-receives-national-humanities-medal/

Big Tex

After eleven months of well-deserved slumber, Big Tex is standing tall in Fair Park. He's looking great considering that in 2011 he did his best imitation of Burning Man. Of course, we all know that you can't keep a 52 foot tall cowboy down.

                                                                                                   

Menger Hotel

One of my favorite places to stay in Texas is the venerable Menger Hotel in San Antonio. The Menger is situated across the alley from the Alamo, as the Bob Wills song goes. Famous guests include Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Sam Houston, Babe Ruth, and Bob Dylan. Teddy Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders in the bar.

I stayed at the Menger a while back and was given a free "upgrade." That's right. I was placed in the King Ranch Suite. The suite, of course, is considered to be the most haunted place in the hotel, and, considering that the hotel was completely booked, it looks like the person who had booked the suite was too afraid to sleep there. Captain Richard King of King Ranch and Santa Gertrudis cattle fame died in that very room. In fact, he died in the very bed where I slept. The bellman, to his credit, assured me that the mattress had been changed. That is reassuring considering that Captain King died in 1885. 

I will not pretend that I slept particularly well in the King Ranch Suite, and I will not lower my credibility by relating a tale of what some would consider supernatural weirdness and others merely a psychosomatic manifestation of a theatrical, overactive imagination. Nonetheless, if you have never stayed at the Menger, I highly recommend it. The hotel is truly a Texas treasure.   

Hometown by Handlebar

In the past, I lived in plenty of fascinating places and history was everywhere. While teaching in the Czech Republic, if I had a three day weekend, I would hitchhike to Vienna, spend a couple of days in Prague, or take a trip to the ruins of a robber baron castle a few kilometers from my home. There was always something new to learn. These days I am back home in Fort Worth, and I focus my attention on Texas in general and my immediate surroundings in particular.

A blog that I really enjoy is Hometown by Handlebar. When I first starting reading it, little did I know that it was written by former Fort Worth Star-Telegram writer Mike Nichols. When I was kid, I always loved reading his humor column after getting home from school. In fact, it was probably Nichols' tutelage through that column that landed me at the UIL state journalism competition my senior year of high school. Here is the link to Hometown by Handlebar.

http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/

Carolina Chocolate Drops

This morning we enjoyed listening to the Carolina Chocolate Drops while we ate bagels and lox. The Carolina Chocolate Drops share a wealth of knowledge about traditional music (and African-American string band music in particular) in their liner notes. Their musical influences are broad, and their erudition is impressive. They have even recorded a Tom Waits tune and played with the Chieftains.

Here they are playing "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine." It'll put a smile on your face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjyw-nW0D90