Luckenbach, Texas

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Luckenbach Texas, where everybody is somebody....

Took an early morning bus tour of the LBJ Ranch, o­n the Perdanales River, just west of Johnson City. We are liking the Texas hill country more and more: rolling grasy meadows with big live oaks and colorful wildflowers everywhere. We spent the afternoon under a tree catching up o­n paperwork and doing a few minor repairs.Toward evening we drove to Luckenbach, TX. A "town" that was o­nce for sale,"lock, stock and dancehall," it has become a country legend and a "Texas state of mind."While it has become a tour bus stop, and not a place where Willie or Waylon might just show up to play, the beer is just $1.50 during happy hour, and talented pickers and singers come every night to sit under the 500-year-old live oaks to entertain whatever crowd may have gathered, and each other.The old country store has a beer bar in back and a deck behind that where the musicians gather. The Older dancehall is across the road. They still hold dances there o­nce a month, and fill the place.It didn't take us long before we were making comparisons between Harley's and Luckenbach. Clearly, o­ne was a model for the other. It's good to know where things come from. Outside under the stars and the ancient oak musicians came with their guitars and sat o­n stumps of less fortuniate trees.Sounds of metal strings, harmarnicas and voices filled the air. A feeling of something special comes over us. Something of a serendipity. Then we realize that this place is like Harley's, our favorite little country store with live music in South Texas. Both are country stores with a flare for the unusual. Both have live music to draw in the crowds from near and far. And a flavor of Willie and Waylon drift through the air and fill those that come with a sense of something special.

Later, the parking lot seemed a long way off; but, somehow, we made it. And nobody ran us off before morning.

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