by Phil Houseal | Jan 23, 2019 | All Articles, Events, Food, History, Music, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Jan 23, 2018–Over the next couple of weekends, legions of adventurous spirits will arrive in the Hill Country to interact as knights, jesters, maidens, and other denizens of Middle Age European villages at the Kerrville Renaissance Festival. What makes our neighbors...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 20, 2018 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Venue
Dec 19, 2018–I know it’s Christmas. But here’s a tale of Easter. My wife and daughter have opened a shop that happens to be housed in a historic Fredericksburg home known as Easter Haus. I was curious about the provenance of the white building on Auguste Street. So I...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 13, 2018 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Dec 13, 2018 “Go outside and get the stink blown off of you.” This is the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever gotten. And it came from my mom. There is a rich vein of ore to be mined in this one simple sentence. At the basic level it means “get out from underfoot.” Mom...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 21, 2018 | All Articles, Events, History, Music, Philosophy, Venue
“America is the most Christmas-loving country in the history of the world.” An audacious statement by Michael Martin Murphey, but one he can back up. After all, he’s been performing his Cowboy Christmas Show for 25 years, and the singer/songwriter is bringing it to...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 7, 2018 | All Articles, Education, Events, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Nov 7, 2018–My first exposure to “fine art” growing up was the work of Charlie Russell. My dad, who raised horses, loved the way Russell rendered them in his paintings, as well as the unadorned representation of the life of the cowboy that ironically emphasized the...
by Phil Houseal | Oct 31, 2018 | All Articles, Events, History, Music, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy, Venue
Nov 1, 2018–Confession: When I first played in a Texas dance hall, I didn’t get it. Everyone ignored the band. I was used to being on stage in clubs and bars where the band was the show; the dancing was incidental. This was the opposite. Ray Benson, founder of the...
