Luckenbach Hug-In

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The Luckenbach 45th annual Hug-In is a Valentine's Day event held on the weekend closest to Valentine's Day. This year Friday was the 14th and Dale Watson had a dance in the old dance hall. We have tickets to see Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis on the Saturday.

Luckenbach is a small hill town, population 2, made famous by the Outlaw, Cosmic and Gonzo Country music of the 1970's. You may have heard the song "Lluckenbach Texas" (1977) by Waylon Jennings or the 1973 "Viva Terlingua" live album by Jerry Jeff Walker recorded in the Luckenbach dance hall. It's the kind of country music we like and one of the main reasons for coming to Texas.

We've been to Luckenbach a few times over the years but haven't been back since the 2013 Hug-In where Gary P Nunn played. The first time would have been back in the 1990's -- Cindy was with us then as well. We've been a number of times for the Hug-In but have only made it to the dance once. This year is no exception.

Luckenbach is about an hour and a half west of the city in the hill country. It's near Fredericksburg (made famous by those Austin Lounge Lizards for the Chester Nimitz Oriental Garden). Between Johnson City (yes that Johnson, the ranch is nearby) and Fredericksburg there's quite a few wineries springing up. Most get there grapes elsewhere -- often the Llano Estacado area in the Texas panhandle. We stop at the Signor Winery on our return that afternoon where I have a lovely glass of Pinto Noir made with Oregon grapes, the ladies try the Chardonnay. There are some grapes grown locally but not a lot.

Ps. for the town Llano you say "lano", for the Llan Estacado you say "yano". Spanish pronunciation is hit and miss in Texas.

Anyway we arrive in Luckenbach around 1:00pm and my how things have changed. There's still the old general store/bar, the dance hall and feed lot. But there's a lot of new structures -- like a fully functional washroom outbuilding (the old pisser by the creek has been turned into another beer service bar), several stages with live music (in the old days pickers and grinners would just gather under the trees and play pick-up tunes with one another). But everybody is somebody in Luckenbach and beer is still beer, "I'll have a Lone Star thank you, mam". Kate and Cindy are refreshed with some Chardonnay from Becker Vineyards (a local winery) bottled up as half bottles with a Luckenbach label. We've brought some lunch with us but end up have some hot food from the Feedlot. There's a pretty extensive menu at the Feedlot by comparison to when "Big Daddy" ran it years ago -- back then you could have beans, weiners, or beans with weiners and a slab of white bread.

The weather is windy and cool, too cool for our taste. Jimmie Lee Jones is playing country classics on one of the stages -- there used to be a washer pit there for plunking washers (a game somewhat like horseshoes). We come inside the small bar for a while and warm up by the wood stove. Even with our lawn chairs and blankets it was just too cool outside. We end up going home early while it's still light and stop at the winery on the way out.

Our tickets to the dance? We leave with the nice lady who is controlling entry to the parking field. Perhaps someone arriving later can use them.