Luke Gilliam & Guy Rogers III,
Pat Green's Dance Halls & Dreamers

Publisher: UT Press
Year: 2008


(4½ out of 5)

As one of the strongest commercial successes and foremost faces on the Texas music scene, Pat Green has inspired countless music fans with his wistful celebrations of living, longing, and loving. Count author Luke Gilliam and photographer Guy Rogers III among the inspired. Their new coffee table book, Pat Green's Dance Halls & Dreamers, is a beautifully designed waltz through 10 fabled halls.

Gilliam and Rogers take us deep inside the venues with help from the artists who keep them viable. The day-in-the-life approach works nicely, with the narrative providing good insights into the inner workings of each hall.

Gilliam manages some nice colloquial turns of phrase. Describing the Gruene Hall stage, he says it "seems more apt to host a third-grade play than popular music acts." And then there's the imposing booze locker at Billy Bob's Texas, where "[t]he rows and rows of liquor will make your liver hurt just looking at them." As expected of a work by Texans for Texans, there's also a good bit of hyperbolic mythologizing—but never so much as to detract from the real people and places behind the stories.

If the writing is good, the photography is great. Rogers's work is simply captivating. In all, 208 color and 28 black & white photos are packed into 184 oversized pages. A good number of those are full-page shots with layered text, or full-page montages that lend a scrapbook-type, you-were-there vibe. Words can't do justice to the photographs and the overall book design. It's a wonderfully styled, award-worthy package.

The chapters are primarily celebrations of dance halls and, well, dreamers. But their sequencing also serves as something of a warning. Chronological order would have placed the Saengerhalle show first and Coupland Inn & Dancehall last. Instead, though, Bandera Cabaret comes first and Saengerhalle last. Both have closed since Gilliam and Rogers went behind the scenes. Bandera Cabaret closed last year; earlier this month plans were announced to turn the building into a western swing museum. Saengerhalle closed in 2006 after being sold to the local Church of Christ. Gilliam re-interviewed former Saengerhalle co-owner Eric Chase, who warns: "There is a message to send to people and that message is, 'If you like it and love it, then support it.'"

Gilliam and Rogers clearly are doing their best to support the scene. Pat Green's Dance Halls & Dreamers is a splendid book that belongs on the coffee tables and bookshelves of all Texas music fans and photography buffs.

Artists and venues, in chapter order:

  1. Jack Ingram at Bandera Cabaret
  2. Kevin Fowler at Coupland Inn & Dancehall
  3. Cory Morrow at Luckenbach Dancehall
  4. Randy Rogers Band at Schroeder Hall
  5. Pat Green at Gruene Hall
  6. Cross Canadian Ragweed at Stubb's Bar-B-Q
  7. Willie Nelson at Billy Bob's Texas
  8. Robert Earl Keen at John T. Floore Country Store
  9. Ray Wylie Hubbard at Sons of Hermann Hall
  10. Wade Bowen at Saengerhalle

Learn more: Dance Halls & Dreamers, UT Press

Buy: Lone Star Music, Amazon

February 19, 2008