ALAMOSA – Society Hall is presenting a rare double-header of shows the weekend of Aug. 16 and 17, with Colorado treasure Jon Chandler bringing great western songs on Friday, followed by the high energy Tex-Mex honky-tonk of the Tejas Brothers on Saturday. Both shows will be at 7:30 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.
“We try not to have our shows too close together, or to have too many in general for our audience to attend, but sometimes we have the opportunity to present an artist on a certain date, and we just can't pass it up,” says board member Don Richmond. “We hope folks can make an effort to come out and support both of these great artists – you don't want to miss either one.”
Chandler is a big man with a big voice and big stories to tell, embracing the scope and grandeur of the American West, both past and present. Both an author and a singer-songwriter, he is a three-time winner of the prestigious Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.
“Linwood,” his moody examination of Doc Holliday’s life won the Spur for Best Song in 2009, while his tribute to Wyoming’s Hole in the Wall country, “Morning Star Moon,” received the award in 2012. His novel “The Spanish Peaks” received the WWA’s Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (Spur Award) for Best First Novel, and he was named True West Magazine’s Best Western Musician. “Wyoming Wind, A Novel of Tom Horn,” was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award.
A seventh-generation Coloradan, Chandler’s music and stories reflect his heritage, and his eight CDs, two novels, two non-fiction works, and myriad short stories and nonfiction articles are collected by western lifestyle aficionados worldwide. He hosts the iconic monthly concert series America’s Soul Live at the Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor in Arvada. “Homage,” his new recording of cover songs that have influenced his writing and singing, was released in Summer 2019.
The Los Angeles Daily News dubbed Denver native Chandler the “...best western songsmith since Ian Tyson,” while Texas’s Country Line Magazine exclaimed, “Thank God for Chandler and his gang of musicians.” That about covers it. There’s not an ounce of stereotypical Gene ‘n Roy retro-cowpoke, Lazy Z Chuckwagon faux-western schtick in his music, voice or prose.
Chandler writes and sings of the historic and contemporary West - not particularly cowboy songs and stories, although they tend to show up with frequency. His songs owe more to Larry McMurtry, Elmer Kelton, Robert Service and Mark Twain than they do to anyone in a band that ends with Wranglers or Ramblers. Simply put, his music and his writing are reflections of his heritage.
"Jon Chandler is part Wallace Stegner, part Jack Schaefer. He’s part Bruce Springsteen, and part Rambling Jack Elliott. He’s part William F. Cody, and part Cole Younger. Yet he’s distinctively original, a poet laureate of the American West of past, present and future."
And then the Tejas Brothers are coming back to Society Hall on Saturday. Society Hall board member Richmond remarks, “I’ve seen these guys several times, and the main thing you come away from a Tejas Brothers show is that they are an incredible amount of fun. And they have this amazing cross-cultural reach in their music, from corrido to country to rock, all seamlessly blended, making the listener realize that it’s all just a big outpouring of the human spirit in slightly different forms. But you’ll mainly remember the fun.”
Tejas Brothers front man and accordionist David Perez echoes this sentiment, "Music is supposed to be fun. They can't put you in jail for combining Tex-Mex music with Honky Tonk music, or an accordion with a steel guitar, so why not do it?" "Mama loves George Jones and daddy loves Freddy Fender," he continues.
With influences from all different styles of music, the audience might find it difficult to describe a live show. Most of them say, "I don't know what to call it. I just know it's good."
The closest description that the band has been able to come up with is Tex-Mex Honky Tonk. A typical trip through a Tejas Brothers medley might start out as a jumpin' tejano polka, hop into steam-engine country train song, and then drop you off into a twisting blues rocker.
As their website says, “If you are one of those people who has all but given up on the music of today, don't worry... there are still some bands putting out the good stuff! If you come to a show, just make sure you can see the stage!”
Tickets can be bought for both at the Society Hall website at www.societyhall.org or at the Green Spot, 711 State Ave., Alamosa. Both concerts will also stream live on the Society Hall Facebook page and You-Tube channel. Tickets for either show are $20.
