Bandera has gathered quite a reputation for being a live music town where we have lots of young and not so young musicians and song writers performing songs in local venues. I still recall earlier times when some of the the bigname Nashville stars were performing at the Cabaret while some of the local talent would be at the Purple Cow, Silver Dollar, Mansfield Park as well as the American Legion Hall.
During my early years I remember Arkey Blue and Lou Colburn were working as wranglers at dude ranches in Bandera. Included in their job was playing their guitars and singing on hayrides or around campfires to entertain the dudes. Not the modern day so called 'dudes', but the old style dudes.
About that same time there was a young aspiring song writer by the name of Jim Foster making the rounds and leaving his mark on Bandera before heading to Nashville. There he made a living for many years before retiring to Florida. I have been staying in touch with him as I have come across bits of Bandera music history connected to him. I learned that his retirement now at age 87 involves still working. Many of us oldtimers have similar stories after reaching our golden age.
There have been many songs written about Bandera or the life experiences of growing up here. While Arkey Blue was singing about the backstreets of Bandera it may have inspired Jim Foster's Bandera resident nephew Jeff Moseley to write his song about one of Bandera's worst kept secrets of back in the day. He shared it with me one night but I'm not sure if he ever came up with a title or if what I remember was something that just popped into my head while listening. The Ballad of.....?
Charlie Robison sang about his hometown and life while growing up here with his musically talented sister Robyn and award-winning songwriter brother Bruce. Their dad and I have been close friends for fifty years and if he has any musical talent that he could have passed down he keeps it well hidden.
The list of music stories associated with Bandera keeps getting longer. Some are coming to light as together with my son we have collected recordings by Bandera folks from the past. Included are some well-known recognizable names while others still remain obscure or unknown.
While growing up in Bandera I was aware that Bud Merca was associated with The Purple Cow but until I came across a 45rpm vinyl I didn't know he was also a recording artist. Then there was a popular local jukebox song from back in the day about the moon and Medina Lake which still carries a mystery about the artist known as Fast Buck.
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