Texas Tradition - Action Magazine

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Billy
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Article page 6
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• DEPARTMENTS •
Sam Kindrick...........................................4
Everybody’s Somebody..........................9
Scatter Shots.........................................10
• FEATURES •
Editor & Publisher..................Sam Kindrick
Sales........................................Action Staff
Photography.............................Action Staff
Distribution............................Ronnie Reed
Composition........................Dan Cardenas
Volume 39 • Number 1
Billy Mata.................................................6
Barbara Wolfe.........................................8
Jartse Tuominen.....................................12
Action Magazine, January 2014 • 3 •
This column is about finding a kidney donor for
the late Ron Houston’s widow Sheryl.
Her kidneys have conked out as the result of a
diabetic attack that almost killed her, and she needs
help.
Her husband was my best friend. My wife
Sharon and I were with Sheryl two years ago when Ron
Houston was posthumously inducted into the Texas
Radio Hall of Fame.
Houston was the radio legend I worked with on
the outlaw rock station KEXL FM during the late 1970s.
He and I had been close personal friends long before
that.
At Sheryl’s insistence, I stood up and accepted
Ron’s award on her behalf.
Radio Hall of Fame
“You and Ron were always doing the talking,”
Sheryl said, “and I know he would have wanted you on
the microphone for his induction into the Texas Radio
Hall of Fame.”
She was using a walking cane when we attended the ceremony, result of nerve damage caused
by the debilitating diabetic attack which struck her on
February 24, 2009.
That harrowing attack left her partially paralyzed and stone blind, a condition which has improved
to blindness in only one eye today.
Ron was at her side in their Blanco home when
the attack felled her.
“He said that my eyeballs had rolled completely
back into my head,” Sheryl recalls. “I can’t remember
any of it.”
Just a little more than 7 months after Sheryl’s
attack, her husband dropped dead of a massive heart
attack on October 7, 2009.
“it was simply unreal,” Sheryl said. “To say that
I was unprepared would be an under statement. Ron
was my life and I was completely lost without him, crying and frightened out of my wits.After my mom’s death,
Ron insisted that I get checked out, so I went to the
family practitioner who pricked my finger for a blood
sample which they told me turned out to be negative. I
remember I was overjoyed to find out that I didn’t have
diabetes. I remember calling Ron to give him the good
news. So when I started feeling ill five years later, the
• 4 • Action Magazine, January 2014
possibility of me having diabetes never entered my
head.”
Sheryl and Ron were in their Blanco home
when the diabetic attack occurred.
Flu-like Symptoms
“It started with something like flu-like symptoms,” Sheryl recalls. “I was tired at first. I could hardly
get in and out of bed. We were watching TV. I recall
asking Ron to help me get to the bathroom. I do remember being terribly thirsty. My legs wouldn’t work.
When he got me into the bathroom, I fainted. And that’s
when Ron said my eyeballs had rolled completely back
into my head.
“Ron called EMS, and one of the medics knew
right away what was wrong with me. They took a fast
blood sample and found my blood sugar count to be
through the roof. It was 434. Something like 120 is considered normal. They took me from our house in Blanco
and rushed me to North Central Baptist Hospital. I do
recall the EMS technician asking me simple questions
which I could not answer. What day it was? Who was
the president of the United States?”
For 12 days, doctors at North Central Baptist
filled Sheryl with fluids in vain attempts to get her kidneys working. But they were gone, and after 12 more
days of rehab at Northeast Methodist Hospital on Topperwein Road, Sheryl learned that she would be put on
dialysis for four hour treatments three days a week, a
schedule she adheres to religiously and without fail
today.
“I started crying when I learned that I would be
put on dialysis,” Sheryl said, “and that’s when Ron told
me that we were in it together, and that he would never
leave my side. And he was true to his word, but you and
I both know that he eventually became over-protective.
I had to have a driver during the summer following the
attack because I went completely blind. An eye specialist in Austin helped me regain some of my sight, but that
didn’t matter to Ron. He still wouldn’t hear of me driving,
and I hadn’t been behind a steering wheel until his
death.
Pronounced Dead”
After his heart attack, Ron Houston was airlifted to Northside Baptist where he was pronounced
dead. And it was a spokesman from that hospital who
called the widow to break the sad news.
“They had his dead body on a table at the hospital,” Sheryl said, “and they told me that if I wanted to
tell him goodbye I needed to get right down there. I hadn’t driven anything in over seven months, but I got in
our van and drove it to the hospital.”
She now drives from Blanco to San Antonio
three times a week for her four-hour dialysis sessions.
She has always been quiet, shy, humble and unassuming, and one of the sweetest spirits I have ever known.
It’s not that she is embittered over the loss of
sight in one eye. She is truly grateful to have sight in
the eye that works.
My friends Augie Meyers and Jerry Clayworth
have both been fortunate enough to receive donor kidneys, and I got to thinking. Why not Sheryl? She has
been on the transplant list 4 1/2 years, with 2 1/2 to go
before she might be considered for a transplant.
Match Sought
Her blood is type O, but I have no idea what
other criteria might be brought into play if a matching
kidney is to be found. Most donors, I have learned, are
between the ages of 18 and 65, with excellent health a
requirement. But there are probably exceptions. And I
know that other factors must be figured to find matching
kidneys. Sheryl is 59, well below the age limit cutoff for
transplants.
Augie got his kidney from a Dallas donor who
had heard Meyers’ son Clay appealing for a kidney on
radio. Clayworth maintained a website in search for his
donor.
Sheryl has no connections. She doesn’t even
own a computer. And she had nothing to do with my
seeking help on her behalf. She would never do it for
herself. Her only response when I told her what I was
up to was a teary-eyed, lopsided grin.
I don’t know much about kidney hunting, but
anyone with a kidney to spare could call me at 830-9807861 or email at samsaction@gvtc.com, and I would
make sure that the proper connections were made on
Sheryl Houston’s behalf.
I have never begged anyone for anything, but
I’m doing it now. For my friend Sheryl Houston.
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Action Magazine, January 2014 • 5 •
Billy Mata stays true to his Western Swing Roots
By Sam Kindrick
With one of the premiere western
swing bands in Texas and the entire
Southwest, San Antonio’s Billy Mata
hasn’t forgotten much of his life trip.
“I started playing music in the early
1970s,” Mata said, “and I can distinctly
recall you interviewing me for Action
Magazine in 1979. It was my very first
time to be interviewed by anyone, and I
have never forgotten it.”
A graduate of Sam Houston High
School who started blocking cowboy
hats at about the same time he started
making country music, Mata was 22
when we met.
“I’m 56 now,” Mata said. “And I’m celebrating more than a quarter of a century with my band, The Texas Tradition.
Hard to believe, but we are still going
strong and having a lot of fun in the
process.”
Billy Mata has been piling up awards
and recognition over the years, and his
sights are now set on completing a 3volume trilogy recording which will pay
tribute to the late Tommy Duncan.
“I have released the first two volumes,” Mata said, “and now we are
hunting sponsorship money to finish the
third volume and the project which I believe will have a good shot at a Grammy
nomination.”
Mata is a two-time Academy of
Western Artists Western Swing Vocalist of the Year and a one-time winner of
the academy’s Entertainer of the Year
Award.
His recorded albums from start to the
present, include Then and Now, a compilation
of old 45 singles; Made In Texas; Keeping the Tradition: a Tribute to My Heroes; Traditionally Yours; The Domino
Effect, featuring western swing piano
legend Floyd Domino; volumes 1 and 2
of This Is Tommy Duncan; and the latest album, By Request, a compilation of
Billy Mata sings Tommy Duncan Country.
• 6 • Action Magazine, January 2014
tunes most requested by the Billy Mata
audiences.
The first Tommy Duncan volume was
released in 2008. It included guest appearances by some western swing legends, and the cd was awarded the
Western Swing Album of the Year by
The Academy of Western Artists.
“Most members of my band have
been with me a long time,” Mata said.
“We tour all over the country, but mostly
in Texas and the Southwest. We have
appeared in Canada, and even in
Poland.”
Last month (December 5), Mata and
the Texas Tradition appeared in concert
with country music artist Georgette
Jones, daughter of legends George
Jones and Tammy Wynette.
The event, billed as a tribute to
Tammy Wynette, took place at Kerrville’s Cailloux Theater with Guich
Koock acting as master of ceremonies.
“You know my roots,” Mata said. “I
grew up on Johnny Bush, Mel Tillis, Lee
Harmon, Darrell McCall, Ray Price, and
those musicians who revered Bob
Wills, Tommy Duncan, and Bob’s Texas
Playboys band. These guys were my
early idols, and, through them, I became a student of the Bob Wills band
and the Tommy Duncan voice.
“The western swing thing just came
naturally to me. I call it a shuffle rhythm
with a walking bass. It came from Wills
and Duncan. They all adopted it..Price,
Bush, McCall, Tillis and the late Lee
Harmon. I loved Lee Harmon, and I
cover a lot of Johnny Bush stuff in every
performance we put on.”
Western swing music will always be
Mata’s main focus, while the blocking of
cowboy hats is a craft he has grown up
with.
“I learned to block hats when I was
15,” Mata recalls. “My first job was at
the Big Tex Western Wear on the East
Side. “The manager there taught me to
block a cowboy hat.”
From 1981 until 1986, Mata blocked
hats full time for Abe Cortez at San Antonio’s historic Paris Hatters on Broadway, and he fills in today at the
third-generation Cortez store.
“Abe and his family are wonderful
people and the absolute best employers in the world,” Mata said. “Like
everyone I have worked for, they have
respected my need to go on the road
with the band.”
Mata also blocked hats at one time
for the late Herb Carroll when Herb had
the Stockman’s on South Loop 410,
and his love for the Carrolls, Herb and
wife Pat, was evident in November
when he played the China Grove Lions
Club’s annual benefit at Martinez Hall.
Pat now runs Herb’s Hat Shop on
Rigsby after the pickup truck crash that
killed her husband a year ago, and the
China Grove Lions Club has always
been a first love for her and her late husband.
“No finer people in the world,” says
Mata. “I have been blessed with some
fine friends.”
One thing the late traditionalist Herb
Carroll liked about Billy Mata’s band was
Mata’s insistence upon formal dress.
“Band dress got pretty loose in the
1980s,” Mata laughed. “T-shirts and tennis shoes were the norm, and I made a
decision to stick with old tradition. I figure
if people are willing to pay ten, fifteen, or
twenty dollars to come see and hear you
play, then you shouldn’t look like some
guy who was just out working in their
yards. I started out with band members
wearing jeans, white shirts, and colored
bandanas. Now we wear black suits and
a variation of colored ties.”
Billy Mata is proud of the talent as well
as the longevity of his storied band, The
Texas Tradition. The members hail from
this section of Texas, and to a man, they
are dedicated to the old timey brand of
western swing that Bob Wills and Tommy
Duncan made famous.
Texas Tradition members include
Mata from San Antonio, lead vocals;
Richard Helsley of New Braunfels, fiddle
and harmony vocals; Robert Sabo of
San Marcos, fiddle; Roger Edgington of
San Antonio, steel guitar; David Waters
of Victoria, lead guitar; Ric Ramirez of
San Antonino, upright bass; and Rocco
Fortunato of Brackettville, drums and
harmony vocals.
Three of these musicians have been
with Mata for over 20 years.
Now single, Mata has had three
wives, and the prides of his life are the
three daughters who came through two
of these
unions--Emily, Shannon, and Sonora.
“They are all doing incredibly well,”
Billy said. “They have made me mighty
proud.”
Of his trilogy recording project, Mata
elaborates just a bit:
“A number of people through the years
have heard Bob Wills recordings without
being really aware that the voice on the
records was not that of Wills, but Tommy
Duncan. Bob was a fiddler and master visionary who introduced country vocals to
electronic instrumentation, but 95 percent of the vocals on his recordings were
by Tommy Duncan.
“This is what the Tommy Duncan triology is all about. The first volume focuses
on Duncan’s early years with the Wills
band--from 1935 until 1948 when Duncan left the band for the first time, that
area from 1948 until 1960 when Duncan
was on his own, and the time after Duncan reunited with Wills in 1960. Volume
3 will include tunes like Heart to Heart
Talk and Ida Red.”
While Mata didn’t elaborate, the cause
of Duncan’s breaks with the Texas Playboys band were directly related to Wills’
excessive whiskey drinking, and there
were too many people out there who
never really gave Tommy Duncan his
due.
That’s what Mata’s trilogy project is all
about.
“I want the finished product to be educational history,” Mata said. “I want people to know who Tommy Duncan really
was and what he did for country music.”
Billy with Herb’s Hat Shop owner Pat Carroll.
Texas Tradition Band members are (left to right) Roger Edgington, Robert Sabo, Richard Helsley, Billy Mata,
Rocco Fortunato, Ric Ramirez, and David Waters.
Action Magazine, January 2014 • 7
Death of Barbara Wolfe
lamented by musicians
she always paid in full.
By Sam Kindrick
It wasn’t supposed to end this way
for Barbara Wolfe.
She was truly an altruistic lady who
always put the music first.
Barbara slipped away from us last
month, the victim of a returning cancer
that hit too hard and too quick for any
of us to comprehend.
With husband and business partner
Steve Silbas, Barbara Wolfe operated
what was actually the longest running
non-profit live music venue in Texas.
Barbara and Steve didn’t exactly
plan on a non-profit when they took
over old Casbeers on Blanco Road,
replicating the famed cafe’s “truck stop
enchiladas” specialty, and bringing in an
ever-expanding lineup of top flight
Texas musicians.
“We became a non-profit for the love
of the music,” Barbara laughingly recounted. “Steve and I always felt that
the really talented musicians were
never really appreciated for who they
are, and most of them have never been
paid what they are worth. We vowed to
support these wonderful musicians in
every way we could.”
Some of the talent Barbara and
Steve booked into old Casbeers on
Blanco Road, and later at their Casbeers at the Church which became San
Antone Café and Concerts before its
closing in May of 2011, was enough to
boggle the mind.
Wolfe and Silbas lost money on
many a prime act, but not because they
were uninformed or ignorant of the live
music culture in which they dwelled.
They knew what they were doing,
and they did it anyway.
“Barbara and Steve just loved the
music and the musicians,” said Express-News music columnist and band
leader Jim Beal. “Some of the touring
acts they booked were far too expensive for the size of the venue they had
and both of them knew it.”
On many occasions, Beal recalled,
Barbara and Steve agonized over the
price of some act they really wanted to
bring in. In some instances, the odds of
a certain tour act producing much of a
gate profit were slim at best.
“They went right on and pulled the
trigger anyway,” Beal laughed. “They
had a true passion for the music and
the musicians. Supporting the music
scene meant more to them than the
• 8 • Action Magazine, January 2014
money.”
The rapport between Barbara Wolfe
and the musicians was unique. She established a close personal relationship
with so many.
Pickers known
locally and across the land of Texas
who had a special home at Casbeers
included Sisters Morales, Shelley King,
Joe King Carrasco, Jim and Neesie
Beal (Miss Neesie and the Earfood Orchestra), Terri Hendrix, Augie Meyers,
Michael Martin, Marcia Ball, Claude
(Butch) Morgan, Mitch Webb, Kinky
Friedman, Hector Saldana, and on and
on.
Johnny Bush performed un-plugged
for the first time at old Casbeers, wowing the crowd with his new, lower register sound.
Eclectic and super talents which are
obscure to the masses were favorite
features for Barbara and Steve. They
presented the incomparable Tom Russell, Pine Top Perkins, Gurf Morlix, and
Canadian cult figure Fred Eaglesmith,
to name only a few.
Steve Silbas has a photographic
memory for music and musicians. He
can rattle off the history of most any musician who has ever mounted a stage in
this part of the country.
There are givers and there are takers
in this old world, and Barbara Wolfe
was one of the givers.
Although she never had children of
her own, she was active in the St. Paul
Luthern Child Development Center,
serving on its board of directors for four
years.
And who would ever forget the annual Toys for Tots programs that Wolfe
and Silbas conducted ever Christmas
for needy kids?
She would organize an appreciation
party for damn near anyone at the drop
of a hat. She even threw an appreciation party at the old Casbeers for me
and Action Magazine. And I might add
that Barbara and Steve maintained their
ad in Action Magazine until they left the
business in 2011.
They will always be remembered as
the “Casbeers couple,” although they
were to relinquish use of the Casbeers
name in a dispute with the Blanco Road
property owner. When they left the original property for an old church building
in the King William area, the venue became Casbeers at the Church, and as
the name dispute escalated, Barbara
Barbara and Steve in happier times.
and Steve eventually opted for San Antone Café and Concerts.
With Steve’s health faltering, and
with her own strength flagging, Barbara
started waiting tables at Big Bob’s Burgers on Hildebrand
when they closed their business.
Up until her untimely death, Barbara
had been serving as a care giver for her
husband. In addition to being on the kidney transplant list, Steve suffers from
various and sundry other maladies.
Bob Riddle, owner of Big Bob’s on
Hidebrand and a second Big Bob’s at
Houston and Santa Rosa streets,
stepped forth after Barbara’s death, organizing and hosting a benefit show at
the Houston Street restaurant which
featured a number of local musician
friends of Barbara and Steve.
Riddle donated the venue, and every
single employee donated their time for
the shindig.
“The idea was to get something for
Steve, and to honor Barbara,” Riddle
said. “At first, I thought we would be
doing good to raise $2,000, but we went
well over that.”
Barbara’s first brush with cancer
came shortly after she and Steve took
over the original Casbeers.
She survived that bout with breast
cancer, making a light-hearted game of
hat collecting when the chemo had temporarily taken her long, brown locks.
Then, just a couple of months ago
when I stopped by Big Bob’s on Hildebrand, Barbara said, “My cancer has returned. Keep me in your prayers.”
This last cancer was of an internal
nature, and Barbara told me that both
chemo and radiation treatments would
be in the offing.
Her death was sudden, and while I
profess no qualifications in the practice
of medicine, I wonder if Barbara wasn’t
just too weak for the treatment prescribed.
Claude (Butch) Morgan said Barbara
never interfered with any of the musicians she booked.
“If she liked you, she always danced
when you played,” Morgan recalled.
Barbara did a lot of dancing. I
watched her dance, and I watched her
pay off a musician or two when I knew
the place had lost money for the night.
I choose to believe that she is dancing now.
Action Magazine, January 2014 • 9
Bill Spence dies
We lost a friend last
month, and the world lost
one of the most talented
artists who ever painted a
portrait or captured the
beauty of life with a camera.
There was only one Bill
Spence, and there will
never again be one like
him.
Bill died after a fall at
his mother’s San Antonio
home just before Christmas. He was 60.
Debi Aznar, the love of
Bill’s life and his constant
companion for almost all of
the past 35 years, con-
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Bill Spence
tacted us via email from
her home in Hawaii, the
tropical paradise where
she and Spence both lived
until last March. It was on
March 9 that Debi helped
Spence board a plane for
San Antonio,
hoping
against hope that he might
somehow conquer his personal demons and get his
life back on track.
In a subsequent telephone conversation we
had with Aznar, she said,
“Bill was a light-hearted
fellow with some heavy issues. He pushed the envelope to the max.”
Those “heavy issues”
referred to by Debi were
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1/19 Miss Neesie & The Earfood
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• 10 • Action Magazine, January 2014
1/21 Open Mic with Niko Laven 7:30p
1/22 jazz Quintet 8p
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1/24 Melissa Ludwig 6:30 / The
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directly related to a heavy
drinking problem, but Bill
was talking about possibly
sobering up shortly before
his death.
Debi Aznar said: “This
is what I was told actually
occurred. Bill and his
mom Kaye were both up
late at night talking. He excused himself for a potty
break and left the living
room. Kaye heard a loud
‘thump,’ and followed the
sound to the bathroom.
The door was ajar, and
she could partially see
Bill’s collapsed body on
the floor, but couldn’t gain
entry with his weight blocking the door, so she called
911.”
At this point, we haven’t
learned the exact cause of
death, and there has been
no word on an autopsy
being performed.
Word is that a memorial
service will be held at Bill’s
aunt’s ranch near Bul-
verde after cremation of
his body. But that’s all we
knew as our press deadline neared.
Back during Action’s infant years of the late
1970s and early 1980s,
Bill Spence furnished all of
the spectacular photo art
published in Action Magazine, including the popular
Lone Star Ladies series
which featured monthly
photos of a foxy San Antonio damsel.
Spence and Lone Star
Brewing Company public
relations and marketing
executive Jerry Retzloff
were tight in those days,
and Spence was doing a
lot of photography work for
the brewery.
Bill
also
supplied
“naked lady” artwork for a
Texas Girl Magazine feature on Willie Nelson
which was penned by Action editor-publisher Sam
Kindrick.
Promoted as Texas’ answer to Playboy, the Houston-based Texas Girl
sported a page one photo
of Willie with a barebusted redhead hanging
around his neck.
Western artist Clinton
Baermann and graphics
creator and printer Joe
Cardenas were with us for
the Willie/Texas Girl camera shoot at Nelson’s Pedernales Country Club and
recording studio digs, an
event appreciated by almost everyone but Nelson’s wife Connie.
Karen Dittman, a San
Antonio artist who now
lives in Dallas was a friend
of Bill’s who also hung out
with him and Aznar in
Hawaii for a couple of
years.
“He was just such an incredible talent,” Dittman
said. “I wanted him to
sober up so bad. I prayed
for him. His artwork was
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stunning...world
class.
The detail was unbelievable. I always called him
Suspence because we
could never be sure what
he was going to do. I cry
for Bill and Debi both. The
loss is just gut-wrenching.”
After Spence’s return
to San Antonio in the
spring, we talked of doing
a full-length feature on his
artwork. He told Action he
was going to sober up,
and he even suggested
we resume the old Lone
Star Ladies feature in Action.
A heartsick Debi Azar
emailed us some Spence
artwork that we were unable to publish in this
issue of Action, mainly because of space limitations
due to the late timing of
his death.
One piece of artwork
was a scan of a portrait
Bill painted of Aznar in
1985.
“He (gulp) (blush)
called it ‘ My Masterpiece
of the Masterpiece’,”
Aznar wrote. “and we had
some great adventures together. Sailing off the
coast of Venezuela. Peering into the blue, blue,
calm eye of Hurricane
Gilbert in the Yucatan.
Meeting a freely roaming
4-year-old
elephant
named Bupa on Martinique Island. Our African
Grey parrot Coco went almost everywhere with us.
Bill adored her.”
Debi said Spence
came by his artistic talent
honestly.
She elaborated: “Bill’s granddaddy,
Cecil McEntire, was a retired minister who used to
hold Bible chalk talks, il-
lustrating his sermons
through sketches on a
chalk board. This may be
where Bill inherited his
artistic talent.”
Aznar also noted that
Grandpaw McEntire was
credited with creating the
famed Mobile Oil Red Pegasus.
“Somewhere in the
early 1930s, McEntire and
some other Mobile workers felt they had been
treated unfairly, and made
the pegasus image as a
sarcastic jab. The company took it and ran, and
the grandfather never received a nickle.”
Aznar captured the Bill
Spence persona with a
bull’s eye quote which
said it all: “Bill was nonjudgemental. What ever
people wanted to do, it
was okay with him. He
never put another human
being down.”
In addition to Azar and
his mother, Kaye, Spence
is survived by sisters
Krissi and Karen, and a
brother, Steve Spence.
Gibbons Visits
Highlight
of
last
month’s Teen Canteen
fest was an impromptu
visit from ZZ Top legend
Billy Gibbons.
It was a fitting reunion
for both Gibbons and Teen
Canteen originator Sam
Kinsey, who was also celebrating his 75th birthday.
Occasion for the gathering was a new exhibit at
the South Texas Popular
Culture Center, featuring
Kinsey’s storied Teen
Canteen.
Titled “Teen Canteen:
Two Decades of S.A.
Rock & Roll,” the exhibit
opening featured live
music from some of the
regular garage bands of
the Canteen’s heyday,
along with visits by a number of the now-graying
musicians.
Gibbons’ visit was especially meaningful since
the ZZ Top founder and
lead guitar player was
given his first gig by Kinsey at the old Teen Canteen.
The fledgling trio was
an offshoot of Gibbons’
Moving Sidewalks, a top40 band that was venturing into the world of
original music.
Veteran rock jock
Bruce Hathaway was
there when the teen music
was happening, and he
was on hand for the exhibit opening and birthday
celebration for Kinsey.
In an article in the Express and News, musician/writer Hector Saldana
said: “Singer songwriter
Mike Nesmith, who went
on to achieve fame with
the Monkees, played at
the Teen Canteen. So did
Mike Post, who went on to
become
the
multiGrammy winning theme
music composer for Law
& Order and many other
TV shows.”
The exhibit notes the
Teen Canteen’s history at
its varied locations from
1961 to 1977. It will be
open weekends from 2 to
4 p.m. through February
23. The South Texas Popular Culture Center is located at 1017 E. Mulberry
Avenue next to the Planet
K store.
Benefit at Max’s
Rhonda Field of Spring
Branch says the big
Fisher House benefit held
in November at Max’s
Roadhouse will be an annual event with the second
annual
show
tentatively set for November 23, 2014.
We got late notice of
the blockbuster event that
raised $49,575 which
goes toward programs to
assist military families
through the Brook Army
Medical Center Fisher
House charity.
Country recording artist
Randy Rogers headlined
the event which also included live music by Alli
Mattice, John Reeves,
Texas KGB, and Cameron
Nelson.
Wrote Rhonda Field: “I
would greatly appreciate
you publishing a story to
give Max’s Roadhouse
here in Spring Branch
some publicity for the
benefit. Max Bordelon donated his facility for the
event, his employees donated their time, and the
bands who entertained
donated their services, including
country
star
Randy Rogers.”
Bordelon’s nightclub is
the relatively new showcase facility on Highway
281 in the Spring Branch
area. The big and spiffy
sports bar and entertainment facility is also a new
distribution point for Action
Magazine.
Hopefully, we will be
able to give the next benefit blowout the advance
coverage it deserves.
Italy, Giulia has settled in
Austin after touring Italy,
Germany,
Holland,
Switzerland and the U.S.
She is a multi-talented
folk artist with three highly
acclaimed cds on the market--Giulia and The Dizzyness, Dropping Down,
and Dust and Desire.
Giulia Concert
Fans of European
acoustic music sensation
Giulia Millanta will have
the opportunity to hear
and see her up close and
personal at San Antonio’s
Jackson Ranch on January 5 from 3 to 6 p.m.
Giulia is a whiz on both
guitar and mandolin. She
has a beautiful voice.
The Jackson Ranch
venue is located at 8910
Callaghan Road. Tickets
are $10 and reservations
are advised. The contact
number is 210-344-8910.
A native of Florence,
Giulia Millanta
Giulia has performed at
New York City’s Arlene’s
Grocery, Goodbye Blue
Monday, and the Nightingale Lounge. In May of
2010 she received the
Carisch New Sounds of
Acoustic Music Award at
the Acoustic Guitar Festival in Sarzana, Italy.
At the San Antonio concert, she will perform her
Cont. page 14
HANGIN’ TREE SALOON
The Fun Place to Relax. A Real Authentic Texas Saloon
Billy Gibbons with Neka
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John Hernden’s
San Antonio Home Buyers
We Pay Cash For:
Homes
Commercial
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OPEN 10AM DAILY • NOON SUNDAY • BRACKEN, TX
We take credit cards
Book any type of party you want to have.
Just call John or Debbie for information.
JANUARY BAND SCHEDULE
Jan 3 Friday Geronimo 8-12pm
Jan 10 Friday The Countrymen 8-12
Jan 17 Friday TBA
Jan 18 Saturday The Whoosits will play from
2-5pm with Tim Morgan joining in with his banjo.
Marys' kitchen will be opened from 1-6pm with
burgers & nachos.
Jan 24 Friday Two Way Street 8-12pm
Jan 31 Friday The Cowboy Lunch from 12-5
(rodeo) follows the Cowboy Breakfast 5-9am.
GERONIMO will playing from 1-5pm. No cover
Now that you’ve found Luckenbach,
where the heck is Bracken?
Action Magazine, January 2014 • 11
Finnish guitar wizard
Jartse Tuominen set to
showcase new band.
Jartse Tuominen
MON-SAT 11AM-2AM • SUN 12PM-2AM
Come check out our new loction
4422 Walzem Rd. San Antonio, Tx 78218
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• 12 • Action Magazine, January 2014
POOL &
DARTS
good.
It is no accident that German rock
magazine Rock/Metal Heaven nominated Tuominen as one of the top
guitarists in Europe.
Nor is there any surprise around
here that local musicians like Augie
Meyers and Jimmy Spacek have
welcomed Tuominen with open
arms. The Finn has also toured with
Joe Satriani, Jackson Browne, Doobie Brothers, Status Quo drummer
John Coghland, Ian Moore, and
many more.
Jartse has worked on over 100
cds as a musician, composer or producer, completing four cds of his own
and starting on his current project
with bassist Brady Muckelroy, drummer Brannen Temple, and Pekka Siistonen on keys.
Temple and Muckelroy will be appearing with Tuominen at the Sam’s
DARTS • POOL • SHUFFLEBOARD
JAN. Live Music
NO COVER - 9:30 - 1:30 am
JAN. Band Schedule
1
3
4
9
10
11
16
Guitar aficionados and at least
one major label scout are sure to attend the Jartse Tuominen Group
showcase at Sam’s Burger Joint on
January 9.
A native of Finland and a world
renown guitar slick, Jartse was first
introduced to us in 1997 by percussionist friend Urban Urbano, who discovered the Finn while banging his
drums somewhere in the frozen
north.
Since that day, Tuominen has settled in San Antonio where he has become a powerful force in the music
community, both as an innovator on
the guitar and as a recording artist
with producer abilities as well.
Jartse has got a swift set of fingers, and while many local guitar
slingers have found his style hard to
grasp at first, they have all agreed to
a man that he is good...damned
FRI
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Burger Joint show.
“We will be doing songs from the new album,”
Jartse said. “We are hoping to get as much attention as possible for this project. I’m sure that
there will be at least one major label person at
the show, and we are hoping for more. It should
be a real showcase for the Jartse Tuominen
Group.”
Jartse last appeared at Sam’s for the Sylvia
Kirk cd release party. His production work on
Sylvia’s record is as good as you will find anywhere in the world, and you can bet that Tuominen is standing ready for a second Sylvia project
Brannen Temple
when Ms. Kirk again gets the recording bug.
Tuominen would like his friends and fans to
know that his supporting cast in the group is of
blue ribbon
quality as well.
After years of percussion-related studies with
the intent of becoming a band director, bassist
Brady Muckelroy turned his attention to the bass
guitar.
Muckelroy found his voice as a solo bassist.
Since 2001, he has released two recordings-Brady Muckelroy Live and Too Much Coffee.
As a soloist, Muckelroy has toured throughout
the U.S. and has performed at bass events such
as BassUp and the Bozeman Bass Bash.
He is currently a resident of San Marcos
where he teaches privately.
The Jartse Tuominen Group drummer, Brannen Temple, has awe-inspiring credentials.
He is a versatile drummer, composer, and producer who has put out eight cds on his own
bands--Hot Buttered Rhythm and Blaze.
He is currently writing for and performing with his
band Temple Industries.
Temple was on the faculty at the University of
Texas Butler School of Music in the jazz studies
department.
And Temple has played with everyone from
Janet Jackson and Eric Johnson to Alejandro Escovedo and Chris Duarte.
Jartse Tuominen’s most famous bands have
been the Takala Project (progressive jazz) and
the current outfit which specializes in his own
brand of jazz/rock fusion.
Tuominen founded the GTS-tour in Finland in
2005. Since then, these sold-out festivals have
gathered together the finest Finnish guitars and
musicians the country has ever produced.
What has always impressed us about the Finn
is Jartse’s unselfish nature and willingness to
help local pickers with their own special projects.
His fine work and guitar playing on the Sylvia
KIrk cd is just one of many examples.
Brady Muckelroy
Herb’s Hat Shop
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Action Magazine, January 2014 • 13
Scatter Shot continued...
original music in English,
Italian, Spanish, and
French.
On her second album,
Dropping Down, Giulia
presents only one cover
song--Black
Sabbath
Paranoid.
Goodbye Joe
This is a belated
farewell to our friend J.D.
(Joe) Winningham II, a
singer and songwriter who
worked various San Antonio area venues during the
early 1990s and early
2000s.
Joe Winningham II
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We just learned that
Joe died July 28 in
McAllen at age 51. In the
San Antonio area, he
worked most frequently at
Specht’s Restaurant and
Saloon in Bulverde.
His lone cd, Full Moon
Night, was produced a few
by Lloyd
years ago
Maines and Bob Livingston in Austin. The
record received spotty air
play in the United States
with its best recognition
coming in Italy. It is a
good recording of some of
Joe’s original music.
His regular day job was
work as a tree nurseryman.
Winningham is survived by his wife, Sara, a
native of the Rio Grande
Valley who attended
school at Harlingen.
What
What Katherine
Katherine
Dawn,
Dawn, leader
leader of
of
the
the Texas
Texas LadyLadybugs,
bugs, has
has to
to say
say
about
about Action
Action
Magazine
Magazine
'I've loved Action Magazine from the first issue
in 1975. My first interview for publication was
with Action, and the magazine has been a consistent read to discover all that is happening in
our parts about music and so much more. Take
Action and you're prepared, and we all know
success without preparation Ain't! And that's
no Bullshi$$ with a double T!'
Ladybug Katherine "Dawn Davis," recording artist
• 14 • Action Magazine, January 2014
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Action Magazine, January 2014 • 15