2 Bit Palomino- Like an aged wine...

An expectant crowd of music lovers spreads out at Bernhardt Winery in Plantersville. 

I had heard Andi and Peter Renfree first as "The Renfrees" at the Corner Cafe several years ago. They came back the next year re-invented as "2 Bit Palomino," with a new guitar picker and keyboardist, and unveiled their new songs... But being in transition, I chose to reserve my judgment and wait for more input before writing about them... Then a mutual friend invited me to see them at Bernhardt Winery in Plantersville.

2 Bit Palomino is a veteran threesome of Houston-based singer-songwriters who have found an original sound and written some catchy, solid songs. These are songs that make you remember those things in your sub-conscious that have been pushed aside by the tyranny of the urgent; things we need to hold on to.  

They were named the Vocal Group of the Year in 2011 and 2013 by the Academy of Texas Music. My favorite song is an epic song they sing, made famous by Chris LeDoux, and written by Andrea C. Renfree, Willie McCullough and Clay Canfield, called The Buffalo Grass. I promise, it sounds better than... it sounds... Anyway I'll bet this song had something to do with the fact that Howlin' Dog Records just signed them to a contract. The three are quite pleased with their new situation and looking forward to cutting the new album. Persistence and excellence have paid off.

Andi Renfree strolls among her crowd at Bernhardt Winery before she performs. With casual, down to earth ease, she explains how far her faith was stretched, how far she had to step out on faith, before the band was seemingly "instantly" rewarded with milestones of success in their respective careers.  Now they are going to enjoy the coming journey with appreciation that has been fermented like a fine wine. 

Bill-       Andi-      "Ren"

Bill Ward, the songwriter- guitarist and keyboard player, explains that he just performed in front of the Alamo. Now THAT is a Texas moment. He is doing his second performance in as many days, with a grueling drive in between. And the real work is just beginning. Only talent and commitment and down-right hard-headedness would have gotten them this far. And now, almost running on empty, they generously give us, who sit casually in our lawn chairs, an evening to remember...

Peter Renfree

2-Bit Palomino sings about No cowboys in Dallas, buffalo grass... and even about a whore. Bill sings a protest song. He finds no comfort that everyone agrees with his protest, that there is no more middle class in America. So it must not be a protest song... he explains, if everybody agrees with him... Their sensitive, sincere message strikes a chord with the audience. America is changing right before our eyes. The songs hit us where we sit; regular folks seeking a measure of peace and serenity in the middle of somewhere. And for just a moment,  remembering.

As in the days of yesteryear, songsters are the voice of our social conscience- and our consciousness. And for the moment, there is music, and friends, and Grimes County wine.

It has been a perfect evening. Too perfect. Native Americans would intentionally place a random bead in their bead work, a concession that only God can make perfection, and to keep themselves humble. I looked around and found the Bernhardt's "random bead"... a little light bulb had gone out.

You probably wonder about their name... it is also the name of one of their great songs... about that mechanical rocking horse we all begged to ride for a quarter as children, in front of the grocery store... Meanwhile 2 Bit Palomino has grown and matured into a promising act, and will be away, more than ever, on the road or in Nashville or whatever, and we are fortunate to have had an evening with them. And now they can get rested up for the challenges ahead. Good luck to them, and God Bless! And thanks for refreshing my memories!

Confessions about BERNHARDT WINERY, Plantersville, Texas.

I have prided myself in covering most music venues and anything worth knowing about in my neck of the woods... but I will confess to avoiding the woods. 24 years ago when my little family left Plantersville, after calling it home for around 18 years, it was with the firm conviction that coming there had been the most serious mistake of our young lives. So it will be no surprise that going back... to cover any deserving story, is bitter sweet. Or to be more accurate, choking on crow.

It was a hard pill to swallow, that right across from the Price pasture where I used to hunt and photograph bluebonnets and run my Labrador retriever, is the sign and the road leading to one of Grimes County's prime attractions. Plantersville has enjoyed the upgrade brought by such neighbors as the Bernhardt Winery, as some of us shrugged and shook our heads. "More newcomers... they will never make it..." 

So now you and I can quit ignoring the stunning truth- that Grimes County is now the home of several excellent wineries, and Bernhardt Winery in Plantersville is the flagship of the fleet. Let me demonstrate why...

Natural Beauty.

Bernhardt Winery is situated on county road 204 in far eastern Grimes County, just north of Hwy 105. The surrounding countryside is so pretty that it explains why I moved here... and stayed here in Grimes County over forty years ago. Distant vistas and mammoth trees greet visitors to this oasis, which prides itself on being a site of peace and serenity. And the wine doesn't hurt. Bernhardt offers their award winning wines ice-cold, as you sip and listen to Texas' most celebrated musicians. Shake Russell. Ezra Charles. On this visit we were entertained by the original future hits of 2- Bit Palomino. 

World Class Music. 

A veteran crowd of picnickers congregate on a gentle slope which stops at a gargantuan pecan tree, which protects a small outdoor stage from the sun. It might be Bob Livingston, who has performed in over 30 countries around the world for the State Department, or the best of local talent. This Autumn they plan a series of tribute bands, from the Eagles to Willie to Elvis to the Beatles to Motown. 

And the wine flows. The music fills the valley. The sun goes down... 

And Jerry Bernhardt reads some of his winsome poetry and... all is right with the world. He explains that the place is for getting back in touch with nature... and beauty. If I'm not totally accurate about what he said... I'll blame the wine...And he asks everyone to be quiet and just listen for a moment to the sounds of the country. Cicadas obligingly turn up the volume, and crickets rub their legs with enthusiasm. He makes a toast. I look around. Yes, this is Plantersville. Back when I first moved here, me and my coon hunting, skoal dipping, whiskey sipping buddies would have cracked up at such eloquence.

Delicious Wine.

As I explained to the kind lady offering me a sampling of wine, I'm a beer guy. But the wines I tasted were very rich and refreshing. We bought a blush wine that disappeared quickly. You come. You be the judge. I know music- and they have the best music in Texas, and as our entertainers for the evening joked, the more we drank the better they sounded. And probably the better the whole experience is... or seems. Whatever, Plantersville has more going for it than the Texas Renaissance Festival. Right now it has the two most impressive entertainment venues in Grimes County.

Thanks to the vision of the Bernhardts, time, good taste and financial commitment has rewarded this lovely place with a solid attraction. And hundreds of people are making it a regular part of their lives.  I sure plan to.

But thank goodness, it is still Plantersville.

If you want to more details about Bernhardt Winery, call (936) 894-9829 or go to their website:
www.bernhardtwinery.com

A Lot Has Been Lost

Since I have come to Grimes County. Here are a few sites I was lucky enough to have accidentally photographed BEFORE THEY WERE SUDDENLY GONE. Area country stores seem to have been especially hard hit.

After a terrible misunderstanding, my own father was forced to sell of this wonderful old store, the Keiffel Store in Plantersville. It is now rotting away in Winklemann, Texas.

Once the lifeline for the town of Stoneham, the old Stoneham Grocery was demolished decades ago.

In all the world, if there ever was an icon of American blues music, this building would have been that building; The headquarters and company store for the Tom J. Moore Farm. At least half a dozen blues singers have recorded a version of the Tom Moore Blues. Mance Lipscomb did at least two. Lightnin' Hopkins, Frank Robinson & Guitar Curtis Colter and Thomas Shaw also sang their own versions. When the King Ranch bought out the historic old cotton farm, it was just boards and dirt. It was slated to be sold off and moved away.

Collectors and collecting… Part II

In the seventies we moved to Plantersville in Grimes County, and set up an antique shop in an old mercantile building. “Bluebonnet Antiques.” Hey, in those days, bluebonnets had not yet become such a pervasive thing, but were still a quaint element in our Texas mystique.

The shop did well, and that is where we met another Texas legend to be; Milburn S. Cox, “Stuart” to a few and just “COX” to the rest of us. A long time employee of the TDC, he would swagger up on his unreliable, polio ridden legs, in his gray uniform and wacky-bent straw cowboy hat, smiling from ear to ear. Stuart would go out and shmooze with the poor black folk in the country and buy whatever he could from them, then try to sell the stuff to my mom. She would tell him the kinds of things she wanted, and he would find them. Cox had a happy, country demeanor, and a disarming charm, that served him well in buying and selling. Of proud German decent, he was somewhat of a craftsman with wood, and had an impressive wood shop in his garage. There is no telling how many warehouses you could fill with the great stuff he scavenged over the years.

Cox and I shared an interest in old saddles, spurs and other western memorabilia, and he sold me some of my most prized possessions… stuff I love too much. He kind of tricked me into repairing some of his broken and cracked stoneware, which led me into that field through the back door. He contacted me about it, since I was making pottery on the potter’s wheel at the time, and he thought his vessels could be repaired with clay. That was over my head, but I could repair them convincingly with epoxy, and about half the time the repairs turned out quite satisfactory. It felt good to give the old cracked pots new life, wholeness and beauty again.

It never occurred to me that anyone would see this as something contemptible. All of my life, my mother and I had refinished and repaired furniture, paintings and figurines. Collectors actively restored old cars, motorcycles, coke machines, juke boxes, radios and whatever. But I found out soon enough that there are those that hate restoration, and vilify those who do it. And this is understandable, as it makes collecting anything more complicated, when you have to watch out for that, as it affects the value.

Over the years I have taken up collecting barbed wire (really!), early soda bottles, old advertising signs, daguerreotypes and other early images, cowboy memorabilia, waterfowl decoys and of course Texas stoneware. As cute little boys, my brother and I got treated like young princes, as the antique dealers encouraged us, gave us incredible bargains, and indulged us like grandchildren. But invariably, whenever I entered a market as an adult into one of these areas of specialty, I encountered arrogant, territorial, ruthless, cliquish, condescending gatekeepers that did not want me there.

I’ll never forget the first time I presumed to sell some of my restored decoys on eBay. I ran into a hornet’s nest of Yankee wizards of waterfowl who attacked my credibility and intelligence based on the fact that they did not know me. How dare I show up in their little pond and offer my wares? Their restorers of choice had already been crowned. I was new to the whole thing, very excited about my projects, and very disappointed, foolishly hoping I would meet a bunch of cool sportsmen who were glad to share the hunt. What I found is what I have always found; little boys being ugly in the sandbox. Bullies playing king of the mountain.

Too many collectors I see are just self-serving hunters after a prey, predators gobbling up bargains, competing like big game hunters for the big trophy… for what? To prove their superiority, and so they snag the latest find and go stuff their garage with yet another thing they have no real use for. In most cases, it will lay there dead to mankind, its story lost upon the next generation who will dispose of it at an estate sale. I meet so many trophy hunters in this business, the antithesis of everything I believe in, who never the less are my best customers. Like wolves on the hunt, they hustle into my shop with that hungry look on their faces, ready for that fix, wanting a deal on a real trophy, scanning the room like the Terminator, barely able to make conversation. “Can you make me a deal on this?” They sigh, feigning boredom and detachment. It is their game and they think they are good at it...

“No…” I hesitate…

“Hell no,” I say,

“I’ve got way too much in that!”

Way too much… like fifty years hunting, purchasing, cherishing, educating and dealing with such junkhounds, who want desperately, and on top of that need to win to get their fix, and that means beating me in the process. It is a clash of titanic wills, theirs to acquire and mine to find worthy stewards. Instantly I recall all that relentless hounding at my doorstep as a kid… and then I bristle. Ain’t gonna’ happen!

I’d rather sell it for less to somebody who has less greed in their eyes. And that is my demon.

So now having revealed my collecting, selling, tormented inner soul, I am going to do a magnanimous thing for a "dealer". Before the wolves lap up all the remaining great stuff for glory or profit, I’m going to share all kinds of antique info, which I used to imagine was a precious commodity: My knowledge. Knowledge that could equip you in your own search for the truly unusual, historic and iconic. I’m hoping to help fire up a whole new bunch of collectors… for the right reasons of course.

Look forward to a series on Texas antiques, and collecting them, where I will attempt to explain the soul of it. The yeng and the yang of it. I’m hoping this series will interest anyone who wants to know more about Texas, her history, her peoples and products, her charm and her complexities. I have found that it is through the things of this culture that we learn and tell our stories, and pass them on from one generation to another.

You see it is not the things that are so important. It is the lives and stories they illustrate.

So I will introduce you to some of those treasures which speak volumes, if you know the language…

Next time, on the Navasota Current.

The Bluebonnets of Navasota... and Plantersville!

Yes, even when the bluebonnets do not show up around the state, cut by perhaps 90% due to drought and late frosts, we still have a few here in Grimes County. In fact the best in the region, which, I think means the best in Texas!

Although the wildflowers in general are half of their usual strength, they are still magnificent. And the best pasture? In Plantersville, the place where I first saw these wonderful flowers forty years ago.