Almanac Music: Col’s USA Trip – Back to Basics Festival Luckenbach Texas

October 18, 2022 by Colin Ritchie Leave a Comment

Back To Basics Festival – Luckenbach Texas

Approaching Luckenbach

After an overnight stay in Austin we picked up our hire car and drove to Fredericksburg our base during the Back To Basics Festival in Luckenbach.

Plenty of shade on a sweltering day

Col outside the Luckenbach Post office

Weather was again very hot, thankfully in Luckenbach there is plenty of shade on the perimeter of the festival area. However, if you wanted to be close to the stage you were in the open sun until the night sessions.

Sign says it all

Luckenbach’s population is 3. With a General store, bar, a dancehall, it is well known for country music. It is a pretty setting though very dry and dusty. The town’s motto is ‘Everybody’s Somebody in Luckenbach’. Old wooden buildings dominate the site.

One of the many wooden buildings on the site

Looking into the bar at a performance

Performing in the bar

More buildings, and thankfully, shade

The stage

Luckily Brian and myself found a base for the day close to the bar, well shaded by one of the many trees surrounding the town, and an excellent spot to watch and hear all the acts performing.

General store

Except for the headliner act The Flatlanders, most of the acts throughout the day obviously were Texan based and had many keen followers in the audience judging by their reactions to individual acts. Once again it was noticeable, and I’ve mentioned it many times, the sound quality was superb highlighting the leaps and bounds made in sound technology in recent years.

The people here are friendly and make you feel most welcome. They enjoyed chatting with a couple of Aussies.

Texas Rangers on patrol

As night approached it brought some welcome relief from the heat of the day.

Cooling down

Night stage

The supporting acts were good but I was looking forward to The Flatlanders. I’m a big fan of Jimmie Dale Gilmour, and along with his two partners in music Joe Ely and Butch Hancock to finally see them live in such a beautiful and intimate setting I eagerly awaited. They have been performing together for over fifty years as The Flatlanders and also have individual careers as well.

Jimmie Dale Gilmour

The Flatlanders – Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmour, and Butch Hancock

They did not let me down. With Jimmie Dale Gilmour’s distinctive vocals leading most songs, together with their terrific harmonies and fantastic guitar playing made their performance a most memorable one indeed.

A fabulous festival.

A Flatlanders playlist