Riffs, Roams and Raves: A Weekly Column

Riffs, Roams and Raves uncovers the creative, noteworthy and accomplished in the Wimberley Valley and beyond with tips on who to hear, where to go and what to see from managing editor Teresa Kendrick.

In 2016, the Texas Music Office created the Music Friendly Community Program, the only program of its kind in the U.S. Now known as Music Friendly Texas, the program has grown into a network of more than 50 certified communities across the state. On April 29, 2022 Wimberley was certified as a Texas Music Friendly Community in a ceremony at Blue Hole Regional Park. As part of the designation process, an advisory board was created that consisted of local music community stakeholders. On the board is the Wimberley Valley Live Music Calendar author Carl Rabenaldt, who is the new president of the Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance.

Roams: Coupland Dance Hall My roam this week took me to Coupland to visit the legendary Coupland Dance Hall. The town, whose population tops out at a little over 300 people, lies north and east of Austin on State Highway 95 between Elgin and Taylor in Williamson County. Pronounced “co-plund” with a long “o,” the town peaked in the 1920s and ‘30s and is home now to little more than the dance hall and one elementary school. Lest the town’s few assets deter you from visiting, the Coupland Dance Hall is an impressively huge, if rustic, enterprise.

Built in 1904, the building became the Albers Drugstore in 1948 where, according to historical records, three doctors practiced medicine with the help of a hand-powered x-ray machine. Today’s dance hall is an amalgam of several former businesses — the drugstore, the Coupland Tavern and a newspaper. It houses a homespun restaurant and, until last summer, seven rooms upstairs for overnight guests. In the past year or so, ownership passed to new owners and then back to the previous ones. After a visit from the fire marshall, the upstairs rooms were closed until repairs can be completed.

On any Saturday night with a known musician on the gig poster, the dance hall can hold as many, I estimated, as 450 people. My $20 ticket got me in to see classic country musician Josh Ward on a blustery January night where people standing in line outside stomped their feet like cold horses trying to stay warm. Two nights before the performance, every ticket was sold out for VIP tables, the Chicken Fried Package with dinner, and the standing- room-only general admission. At 7:30 p.m. the warm up band was in full swing, bringing dancers to the dance floor while people filed in the front door. The headline act came on stage a full 90 minutes late and the excellent warm-up band had the thankless task of keeping the crowd happy.

By 9 p.m. it was shoulder to shoulder in the big hall. At the larger of the two bars, a software snarl slowed service to a trickle and people stood seven deep to buy a drink. While people waited, their eyes inevitably drifted up to a large painting overhead of a reclining woman clad in shin-high boots. Her feet and lower limbs were the only things left to the imagination. The rest of her was pretty well spelled out.

Despite the wait for drinks, people were uniformly well mannered, which was a heartwarming testament to their upbringing and the fact that liquor had not yet flowed.

Music from the band allowed conversation and I loud-talked with middle-aged couples, animated foursomes working on a memorable Saturday night, and guys and gal pals dressed to the nines in boots, rhinestones and good-looking cowboy hats. One gentleman, who could have passed for the Marlboro Man, told me he’d been showing up every Saturday night for the last 20 years — evidence of the enduring appeal of Texas’ honkytonks and dance halls.

By 10 p.m. it was harder to work one’s way through the crowd to the dance floor. For a hall this size, it was smaller than I expected but the dancers made good use of it anyway. When Josh Ward finally took the stage, all eyes turned in his direction and the dance floor filled with standing devotees pointing their phones in his direction. The mood changed to more of a concert vibe and the merchandise tables began selling t-shirts and camouflage hoodies at a pace that made the tattooed roadies hustle.

By 10:30 p.m. I grew tired of a cramped niche by the soundboard booth I had found and began to move through the throng to the door. By this time, the crowd was louder and less inhibited but generally peaceful and behaved. I noticed empty bottles of Maker’s Mark and Crown Royal lining one end of the bar and 33-gallon trash cans filled to the brim with empty longnecks. It was the shank of the evening; the crowd had another 90 minutes before the party officially shut down. Despite sharing the place with hundreds of “east of I-35” neighbors and new acquaintances, I became a fan of the Coupland Dance Hall and added an overnight stay upstairs to my personal bucket list.

Raves: “72 Hours” is on the Air KWVH’s “72 Hours” radio show debuted on Monday at 6:00 p.m. with veteran radio host Mike Crusham at the microphone. His guests included the VFW’s Tim Tempfer who is the Committee Chair of the Emergency Preparedness Team, Kate Sowell, Executive Director of Barnabas Connection and Wimberley Mayor, Gina Fulkerson.

Next Monday, Crusham will interview EMS’s Ken Strange who will provide his insights into the wisdom of having preparations in place for 72 hours from the point of view of emergency medical service personnel.

Each week the show will have a theme. Themes will include fire, power outages, children, pets, home, food, medical, school, separation and reunification, mental health, emergency kits and the upcoming April 8 eclipse. The show will air each Monday until April 1.