“Let’s Go to Luckenbach, Texas…”
“…with Waylon and Willie, and the boys. The successful life we’re livings got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys”.
One of today’s Facebook posts in my “Memories” feed was from nine years ago. Apparently I was trying to learn a couple of songs for my acoustic repertoire, and one (or both) of them sent me down memory lane to a time some 51 years ago. It was the summer of ‘75 and Terri and I had just left college for the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We worked in the lodges there with hundreds of other college kids from all over the country. When we were not working at our $10/eight hour shift jobs, you could probably find us at the employee pub drinking .35 Budweisers, and singing along with our new friends to Jerry Jeff Walker’s Viva Terlingua. Whether it was “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother” or “London Homesick Blues”, we’d all be full-throated singing the chorus. It was amazing fun.
We bought that record at some point after leaving The Canyon, and found out in the liner notes that it was recorded in the dance hall in this little Texas town called, Luckenbach. For years I didn’t know where Luckenbach was. In the late ‘70s you needed a pretty big paper map to find it. Sometime years later I found the town on said paper map, and that’s probably when it started to tug at me. Tucked away in the Texas Hill Country, I just had to figure out a way to get there. The years went by and we moved several times to six different states, Texas not being one of them. Luckenbach continued to tug.
Hondo Crouch
Luckenbach was founded in 1849 as a trading post by German settlers who were part of the wave of immigrants that shaped much of the Hill Country. The small town thrived for a while but by the 1960s, it was practically a ghost town, with only a handful of residents remaining. Luckenbach's fortunes changed dramatically in 1970 when actor and rancher Hondo Crouch, along with friends Guich Koock and Kathy Morgan, purchased the entire town for just $30,000. Their vision was to create a laid-back gathering place where people could enjoy music, conversation, and a cold beer. They reached their vision quickly when Jerry Jeff recorded Viva Terlingua in the dance hall in August of 1973. The town became internationally known in 1977 when Waylon Jennings released the hit song Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love), written by songwriters Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons. Even though the song made it to #1 and the town became famous, it was still just a post office, general store, and the infamous dance hall. That’s basically what it is today, only with a little more tourist destination feel.
When we began planning SkyDog’s big 2026 trip this past spring, we knew Texas would be a huge part of it. You’re not going to drive your RV to north Dallas for family wedding and then turn around and drive home. Texas is big, and you have to take the opportunity to explore it when you can. I immediately put Luckenbach on the itinerary. Go ahead, type it into Google Maps. It’s out there in the middle of nowhere, where “Everybody’s Somebody”.
Fredericksburg is the closest town of any size that has an RV park that meets our glamping standards. We reserved a couple of nights there and luckily for us it was a weekend with availability. Luckenbach has live music nearly every day, but a Saturday would certainly offer up some seasoned talent. We’d never heard of Tyce Delk but he was the headline that Saturday night in May for a mere $15. He put on an awesome Texas country show that brought the dance hall alive. Picnic tables surround the wood dance floor and everyone sits family style. We can’t two-step to save ourselves, so we sat and watched dozens of couples circle the floor in an almost synchronized dance.
The evening and night was amazing and definitely fullfilled this bucket-list destination. There is more to Luckenbach than just this venue, with a post office and general store. It’s magical, it’s musical, it’s Texas in a nutshell.
