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.
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