Cheatham Street Warehouse

The small tin shed beside the railroad tracks, across from the burned out shell of a feed store, is bigger inside than you'd expect. A weathered, hand lettered sign over the door says " beer joint". Inside, a small stage is "set" with two neon beer signs, a Texas state flag which takes the spotlight, and in case you forget where you are, a green street sign stating "Cheatham Street Warehouse". 

The low ceiling reflects the glow of a dozen other neon signs, most of them sporting some version of the Texas state map or state slogan. Humble indeed - BUT - we didn't come here for the decor. The Cheatham Street Warehouse is renown as the starting place of many world famous country and western entertainers. George Strait and his Ace in the Hole band played their first 50 or 60 shows here, with other performers and writers too numerous to mention also on the list. It's really the writers that this place was created for, back in the early '70's. We came to see a musician we'd only heard on the radio, Jason Boland.

The warm-up act was Jordon Minor. If you check his MySpace page you'll see he's a busy guy. . .His forte is writing as far as we could tell, and we really liked his songs. He was accompanied only by his bass player, and the two of them put on quite a show.

Jason came on at 11 PM, and keeping in mind we're old folks, it's saying something that we didn't even think to look at the time when he finally finished up at 1 AM. What a great show - he left the Stragglers (his band) at home and performed only with a fiddler, a friend he "talked in to" accompanying him. The friend was Brady Black, fiddler with the Randy Rogers band, which was a nominee for this year's best vocal category for the Academy of Country Music awards. What a show! It was hard to know which of the two to watch, as each put on such a great performance. Jason's lyrics reflect the region, so the folks in the crowd were happy to join in with a lot of the songs they know and identify with. We had a table right up front, closer than we've ever been at a live performance before, so caught all the action (including the groupies!) All for $15.00 a person (plus cheap beer in long neck bottles or a mason jar).

Another great addition to the evening, while waiting in line before the Warehouse opened, we met Machelle Dunlop, a live-music photographer and writer for the Examiner. She knows the venues and entertainers in the area and was a wealth of information and idea for future performances to watch for.