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Picture this
Carrollton photographer’s pictures featured in book
By Senitra Horbrook, Staff Writer
Guy Rogers III spent 10 weekends visiting some of Texas’ most legendary music venues and watching performances from artists like Willie Nelson, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Robert Earl Keen.
“Our whole deal was we wanted to tell a story n a day in the life of the dance hall. We would get there when people were setting up,” said Rogers, who has lived in Carrollton for three years and works at an ad agency. “We wanted to capture all that from when they set it up and tear it down at night.”
Rogers travelled with friend and author Luke Gilliam, who he met a few years ago while working for Texas A&M’s football magazine.
“We traveled the state going to A&M football games and became pretty good friends,” Rogers said.
Gilliam knew Texas singer/songwriter Pat Green back when he was playing bars for free and when Green decided he wanted to make a book about the small dance halls where many artists get their start he recruited his old friend. The book is called “Dance Halls and Dreamers” as a nod to Green’s first album in 1995.
“Every place we went everybody was very open, willing to talk to you,” Rogers said. “Everybody was proud to be a part of the dance hall.”
In Feb. 2006, Gilliam and Rogers set out on the road visiting The Bandera Cabaret in Bandera (near San Antonio), Luckenbach Dance Hall in Luckenbach (near Fredricksburg), The Coupland Inn and Dancehall in Coupland (near Austin), Schroeder Hall in Goliad (near Victoria), Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Stubbs Bar-B-Q in Austin, Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth, John T. Floore’s Country Store in Helotes (near San Antonio), Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas and Saengerhalle in New Braunfels. They completed their weekend trips in Dec. 2006 and spent 2007 working on the book which was published in Feb. 2008.
“One of the more memorable ones was definitely the one in Dallas,” Rogers said. “It’s run by a fraternal order. It’s all run by volunteers. It’s a really small, intimate setting, only holds a couple hundred people upstairs. It’s a great place to watch an acoustic show.”
Rogers described the dance halls as “quintessential Texas.” Four of the dance halls Rogers and Gilliam visited made the list of significant things in Texas culture and history on the brink of extinction.
“You go to these places and you look at them and say this is what Texas is supposed to be,” he said. “A lot of these dance halls they were some of the first places that were built … they have a lot of German and Czech influences.”
For more information, visit dancehallsanddreamers.com.
Contact Senitra Horbrook at 972-628-4074 or shorbrook@acnpapers.com. Comment on this story at scntx.com.
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