“Old Miss Virgy tended bar at this shack out in the hills…” -Todd Snider- The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern
October 5, 2019
“Old Miss Virgy tended bar at this shack out in the hills…”
-Todd Snider- The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern
I think I have been traveling to Austin for about the past
15 years or so to attend the ACL (Austin City Limits) Music Festival. I love
the festival and I really love the city of Austin, it is one of my favorite
places in America to visit and there is just so much happening there and an
overall great vibe in the capital city of Texas. The many visits have offered
the opportunity to experience a lot of what Austin has to offer, so in the past
few years I have taken to spending some of the time of my visit exploring the
outskirts of the city and this year I arrived ready to spend some more time in
the famed Texas Hill Country.
This year upon my arrival in Austin, I was on my way
directly from the airport to the nearby small town of Lockhart. Known as the
BBQ capital of Texas, which basically means the BBQ capital of the US, Texas
style barbeque is what the town is known for as some of the best bbq joints in
America can be found there. Having to decide on which of the famous places was
tough, but really you could not go wrong and I ended up selecting Black’s BBQ.
Black’s BBQ is the oldest major BBQ restaurant and has been
run by the same family continuously since opening in 1932. They have expanded
and now have multiple locations, including in Austin but the original is in
downtown Lockart, a block up from the town square and the beautiful historic
Caldwell County Courthouse. The food was terrific as advertised and the town is
a great little side trip only about 30 miles south of Austin in Texas Hill
Country.
I spent some time walking around downtown Lockhart, then
headed to the small, quaint Lockhart State Park where I took a short hike. The
park features a golf course, swimming pool as well as a smaller but nice
natural area with hiking trails where I took a leisurely stroll through the
woods before hitting the road and heading to nearby San Marcos, Texas where
there were a couple of places I wanted to see.
San Marcos had been listed as one of the ten best small
cities in America and it is easy to see why. The San Marcos and Blanco Rivers
flow through town and much of the city is focused on riverside activities. The
city is also home to Texas State University, giving it a hip college town vibe
like a smaller more manageable version of Austin.
One of the places that I really wanted to see was the famous
Cheatham Street Warehouse. The famous music hall/ dive bar was built in 1910 as
a railway warehouse and in 1974 was transformed into the bar and music venue
that it remains today. The Honky Tonk is
known for giving the musical careers of both George Straight who played there
while attending college in San Marcos and the legendary Stevie Ray Vaugh who
once had a regular Tuesday night gig there before rocketing to superstardom.
Virtually everyone who is anyone on the Texas music scene
has played at the Cheatham Street Warehouse which has hosted such acts as Willie
Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Charlie Sexton, Gary
P. Nunn, Asleep at the Wheel as well as many, many up-and-coming Texas artists
such as James McMurtry, Hayes Carll, Sunny Sweeney, Randy Rogers Band, and Todd
Snider.
I also wanted to take n some of the craft beer scene in the
area and ended up having a beer at three area breweries, stopping by AquaBrew,
the Middleton Brewery and what was my favorite, Roughhouse Brewing. Roughhouse
is actually probably located closer to Wimberly, Texas than to San Marcos and
is located on a beautiful ranch and is an incredible and beautiful setting for
the brewery that just opened in January of this year.
As awesome as the location is, the beer is even better and
you can tell the love and quality that the family that owns and runs this
brewery. It is well worth a trip from Austin and I cannot wait to return. I
know Jester King gets all the well-deserved accolades as the best Farm House
style beer in Central Texas, but Roughhouse is a tremendous new contender and
well worth checking out.
While I was having a beer at Roughhouse, I realized that
another legendary Texas roadhouse bar, the Devil’s Backbone Tavern was only a
short drive up the Devil’s Backbone Highway from where I was. Celebrated in one
of my favorite songs, Todd Snider’s, “The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern”,
I had to check out the place where Snider once played every Friday night and
where the long passed Miss Virgy served up cold beers.
It was just about what I expected and as described in the
song, a dive bar roadhouse that was full of a rowdy, fun and very friendly
crowd of Texas patrons on hand for a fun Thursday afternoon. The two bartenders
were both new and did not seem to know the history of the place, but the
t-shirts they sell have a quote from the song on them so of course I had to
have one.
I wish I could have stayed longer but I had already planned
on taking on a Texas high school football game back in Austin that night
between the hometown Austin High School and their opponents from Del Valle,
Texas. Having read “Friday Night Lights” and always ready to enjoy a football
game. The game was held at House Field a 6000 seat capacity high school football
stadium of the type only found in Texas. It was not full, but there were probably
4000 on hand to watch the home team take a beating. The game itself was
standard high school football, in fact the quality seemed a little less than
what I see in Key West, but the band, halftime show and theatrics were well
beyond anything I had seen on the high school level.
The halftime lasted 40 minutes as bands and drill teams from
both schools performed full, intense and huge performances that made one almost
forget that there was even a football game going on. It was crazy but well worth
seeing and I am glad that I got to experience Texas high school football.
posted by Michael and Kathy @ 11:27 AM
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