The Adventures of Dooley and Me Part 4 - Texas/Houston

The Adventures of Dooley and Me Part 4 – Texas

My dad always told me, “Son, some of the nicest people in the world live in Texas, but that state has a whole lot of ugly country.” He spent some time in Texas, near San Antonio, as a flight instructor for the Air Force. I have found his words to be entirely correct.

Texas is green and flat in the east, hilly and scrubby in the middle, desert in the west, and cold and flat in the north. Most Texans I know agree, the Hill country is the prettiest part of Texas. My response is, “that ain’t saying much!”

Texas music is awesome, and Texans, (in my world) are great fans, that appreciate original music. If you don’t know I have spent 25+ years going to Texas for music. Primarily going to The Kerrville Folk Music Festival. I have made countless friends there from all over Texas, and the country actually. I could do an entire series of stories about Texas, maybe I will. For now, I’ll just cover this trip with Dooley.

Houston

Southpaw Guitars: You would have to be a left handed guitar player to understand. Imagine walking in to a guitar store with hundreds of right handed guitars but only 2 or 3 of them for lefties. Southpaw guitars = Lefty heaven! It’s the only place of its kind in the USA, as far as I know.

JP Hops house: Songwriter Beer Joint, I’ve played there a few times, met some great people there. It burned down this past summer. I think/hope they’re rebuilding.

Brian Kalinec: a songwriter I have known about and met some years ago, at a SWRFA (south west regional folk alliance) meeting a few years ago. I met him at JP Hops house, again last September. We had dinner together, this trip and I got to know another excellent human being. He’s just finished a tour in Europe. I learned a lot from him. He’s an awesome musician, and a great songwriter. He’ll be releasing his new project, The Beauty of it All, this spring. I’ll post a link. Here’s a song from it. https://youtu.be/6jur6XiyLeA  This one’s called Redwood Fence.

Café Benedicte: An excellent family run place , with some crafty cocktails and great food. It’s a few blocks away from a Pet friendly Hyatt Regency. I highly recommend this place.

Next up, … Austin: Keep it Weird!