I know it’s early to make resolutions for 2026, but here’s one you might want to consider. If you’ve not yet attended a Stars Over Wimberley concert, make it a point to do so.
This well-curated concert series brings exceptional performances by well-known and up-and-coming artists to Wimberley audiences. Last week’s concert featured two acts from headliner The Tejas Brothers and Dawn & Hawke.
Opening for The Tejas Brothers, the entertaining Dawn & Hawke duo of Miranda Dawn and Chris Hawkes, was introduced by radio host Coach Smith from KWVH’s “Over Easy with Coach” program. Coach called them “a power couple” playing “outstanding music.”
The Austin singersongwriter couple performed memorable songs from their albums including “Yours and Mine” and “Light Inside.” Dawn introduced the song “Corina,” as a love song written for another girl, by Hawke which elicited good-natured comments from the crowd. At the end of the song Hawke introduced his guitar to the crowd saying, “This is Corina.”
The playful, intimate performance showed off the pair’s solid musicianship: Hawk’s masterful guitar licks and Dawn’s delicious vocals. As the session wound down, they played “Yours and Mine,” a song from their “Yours and Mine” album introduced by Dawn as “a love song we wrote for each other.”
The lyrics “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine” explored the couple’s meditation on making their togetherness legal. In the middle of the song Dawn quipped, “We’re talking about my student loans. . .” which brought laughs from audience.
When The Tejas Brothers took the stage, lead singer and accordion player David Perez introduced John Garza on upright bass and Derek Groves on guitar. Absent was drummer Beau Johnson.
They launched their set with “Red, White and Blue” from their 2013 album “Live a Little More,” followed by “Don’t Be So Mean,” displaying their unique blend of Tex-Mex Honkeytonk, blues, conjunto and other genres in English and Spanish.
Perez, a warmhearted, happy, enthusiastic performer and front man, told the story about his father, born in 1934 and a migrant farmer worker, who Perez said was “the happiest man alive.”
Although he was far from being a rich man, he knew the value of love, loyalty and family. Perez immortalized the gentle, kind man in the song, “Rich Man,” from their 2023 album of the same name. “The love of my life is right here by my side,” the band sang.
Perez told the audience that after some prompting by the family about what he might like for his 75th birthday, his father shyly said he’d like a birthday party. It seems that during his long life he’d never had one. Perez and his siblings enthusiastically sent out 140 invitations to family and friends who all responded by attending. “Every last one of them,” Perez said proudly.
After his father entered hospice care, Perez visited him daily and on one occasion, his father asked him to sing something for him. A bit at a loss, Perez told his father that he didn’t have his accordion with him, to which his father replied, “Good.” Instead, his father asked him to sing something “acapulco.”
Throughout the evening’s performance Perez displayed tremendous heart and love of life and culture through his songs and comments. He and the band covered “Qué Pasó” by the Texas Tornadoes, Jambalaya by Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” in Spanish. They played a number of originals, including the classic blues number, “That’s the Way Love Goes” with superb guitar licks from Derek Groves.
As their performance drew to a close, Perez became thoughtful and said, “For all the bad things that go on in the world, there are millions of good things,” after which he launched into Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” In very fine “Satchmo voce” he sang Armstrong’s powerful anthem to the world, opening every heart in the audience before changing the last line to, “Wimberley, I love you.”
The Stars Over Wimberley concert series is a project of WimberleyArts in conjunction with the Wimberley Players. Proceeds support the Robert Moreman Scholarship Fund for graduating seniors in Wimberley.
