San Antonio

[Forrest Culpepper]

I'm curious...how many of you guys & gals are from the San Antonio area? I'm just now getting back into the business after not playing for close to 40 years (used to play with Moe Bandy). I've managed to get together with a fairly good little band, but they're a youger group of guys & we just don't do a lot of the older stuff. What's going on in San Antonio? I know Texas is becoming a mecca of country music (of some kind??). Is there any way to revive the "old stuff" (Ray Price,etc.)?

[Les Anderson]

Forrest, reviving the classic country sound is the easy part. The tough part is getting people to come and pay to listen to it.

[Brendan Mitchell]

Good for you Forrest .
I played in a band of much younger guys a whils back and it was one of the most satisfying periods of my musical life .

[Greg Stasny]

Rick Price (plays with Jake Hooker), Roger Edgington (plays with Billy Mata), and Kenny Grohman (plays with Rocky King) are all in the San Antonio area, and their bands play the traditional / Western Swing music (and often to great crowds). The steeler gets a real workout at their gigs.

[Mike Ester]

From New Braunfels here, Forrest. Gigs are there. But in my experience, economics dictate that a lot of groups keep it down to four-piece.

I've been lucky in my case. I'm not exactly A-team caliber, but I manage to keep my picks warm. For me, it's been a mix of classic and modern. It just depends on which band I am with.

[Bill Moran]

Forrest, reviving the classic country sound is the easy part. The tough part is getting people to come and pay to listen to it.

Les, People would come out but getting home is the problem. States are broke and every DUI help's pay the bills.
I hear Texas is leaving the union. I'm selling out and moving there . LOL

[Herb Steiner]

I know Texas is becoming a mecca of country music (of some kind??). Is there any way to revive the "old stuff" (Ray Price,etc.)?

You HAVE been away awhile. Here's my somewhat cynical take on it, based on 40 years here.

It sounds like you got out of playing at exactly the wrong time. Texas WAS a mecca for country music from the 60's (and before) through the 80's. In the 90s it began drying up and there's a lot fewer gigs nowadays than there used to be. Population growth from out-of-staters caused the real estate values in the cities to become too pricey to afford keeping a honky-tonk where a condo can be built, plus folks coming from all over (especially California) has homogenized the entire Texas culture. Add to that the fact that the traditional country music audience has been gradually aging and audiences have been getting smaller through attrition, DWI laws, etc. And like Mike Ester said, economics means that large bands work less than small combos.

Yeah, there's still gigs and such, but the era of the large dance halls is dying and Austin has become the "Tip Jar Capital of the World." Somehow guys still come here thinking it's the 1970s and then get a dose of reality/disappointment.

I'm comparing today to the time (1970-1990) when I could work full-time (20+ gigs a month) and make a living doing so. I now know of very few senior steel players making a living playing; most have day gigs or are retired from day jobs and have working wives.

If you want to work 4 to 8 gigs a month, there are traditional bands with senior players that do that, but they have to travel to other cities generally. Which is what Billy Mata and Jake Hooker do.

Just my vision of things. Other players here may work more than that, so maybe they'll share their jobs with you.