Photo: Josh Huskin

Growing up in the suburbs of a city known for the Alamo, the Riverwalk, mariachis, the Spurs, and its military culture, I felt that familiar tug between the comforts of home and the vibrant chaos of the city that shaped me even before I knew what I was becoming. The city’s music culture cannot be denied. Though one of the great alternative country music scenes in the country, if not the world, is just north of us in Austin, there’s this stubborn underdog pride that perseveres. Augie Meyers, Flaco Jimenez, and Doug Sahm, were like me, born in San Antone. San Antone is a trope in so many notable country music songs: “Is Anybody Going to San Antone,” “San Antonio Girl,” “San Antonio Rose,” “Home in San Antone,”--that’s just the start of the catalog, and I’ve added a few songs of my own.

The city’s honky tonks of the past like the Farmer’s Daughter and Texas Star Inn brought Johnny Bush and Willie Nelson to audiences in my hometown. Ozzy Osbourne pissed on the Alamo. The Butthole Surfers formed here.  And the city has long extended a warm welcome to heavy metal and punk artists of all stripes. 

I had a band in high school called the Boy Scout Cookies. We were suburban kids in San Antonio that all lived in the same neighborhood and loved rock n roll. I was the drummer and my stage name was Mr. Concept. We started playing the rock clubs as soon as our parents would let us, sharing bills with metal core and emo-ish bands. We didn’t sound like them and they didn’t like us but we jammed together anyway.

Our singer would emerge from a coffin at the beginning of the show. We had songs about monsters and gremlins and we covered Black Diamond by Kiss. One time we shot gummy worms out of a cannon that went into the stage lights and started melting on the crowd. We were goofy as hell but unique and kinda good. 

That’s how it started. Now I’m co-owner and talent booker at The Lonesome Rose, the oldest honky tonk in Condo Canyon (if you’re local and know about the massive developments on the St. Mary’s Strip in recent years, you know). Sometimes people tell me it reminds them of Taco Land, a dirty urban favorite that provided a stage to bands like The Dead Milkman, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Yo La Tengo and just about every genre of music. I tour with my band NASA Country, sometimes as far as Amsterdam, where San Antonio music culture is recognized and celebrated. Honky tonk has a home in San Antone – it always has. Jimmie Rodgers played the grand opening of the Majestic Theatre in 1929, while The Carter Family spent their winters living and recording in Monticello Park through the 1930s and 40s. Hell, even Doug Sahm’s brand of Tex-Mex swagger launched the Alamo City onto the scene during the 1960s, 70s, and beyond. 

Beyond the rock club or honky tonk, beyond San Antonio or Austin,  music can be whatever you want it to be. For me it’s as spiritual as it is ridiculous and fun. I learned a lot about living for music in my young days as a stucco punk. And how to make a gummy worm cannon.