Yes, this area has some outstanding country musicians. I tend to neglect them because I think country music has natural advantages in the Texas entertainment market, and I'm often trying to shed light on other, less popular genres. BUT, I was raised on country and always love a good country band...
When Ray Hadaway put together the Westernaires, his goal was simple. Assemble the best Brazos Valley country artists that can lay down good old classic country... to play CLASSIC country made before the eighties. And that is what they do. Great Texas swing dance music, the kind our parents loved and we tried to learn as kids, long before John Travolta ever came to Texas and made Gilley's famous with Urban Cowboy and country music gradually went into a tailspin.
Ray and his gang of veteran performers do right by Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, and one of my old favorites, Johnny Bush, and many others. As the song goes, "If you wanna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band," and the Westernaires have two. Contrary to the sound of their name, they are not the house band. Saturday evening they made their second appearance at the Western Club, to the delight of scores of serious dancers. Hoofers would plop down exhausted and then another great song would begin and they would jump up for "just one more." This is a solid Texas dance band that will keep the floor bouncing and make you remember what it was all about before country got so citified.
When Ray Hadaway put together the Westernaires, his goal was simple. Assemble the best Brazos Valley country artists that can lay down good old classic country... to play CLASSIC country made before the eighties. And that is what they do. Great Texas swing dance music, the kind our parents loved and we tried to learn as kids, long before John Travolta ever came to Texas and made Gilley's famous with Urban Cowboy and country music gradually went into a tailspin.
Ray and his gang of veteran performers do right by Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, and one of my old favorites, Johnny Bush, and many others. As the song goes, "If you wanna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band," and the Westernaires have two. Contrary to the sound of their name, they are not the house band. Saturday evening they made their second appearance at the Western Club, to the delight of scores of serious dancers. Hoofers would plop down exhausted and then another great song would begin and they would jump up for "just one more." This is a solid Texas dance band that will keep the floor bouncing and make you remember what it was all about before country got so citified.
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The Westernaires get an A+ for doing the dancehall/traditional music, but for an even better example, come back to the Western Club for the likes of Jake Hooker, Jody Nix, Bobby Flores, and others. Especially Jake; he and his band set the bar real high, for what a TX dancehall band should sound like (both vocals and music).
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