With a bellowing voice and masterful piano playing, Mercy Dee Walton emerged as an early influence in rhythm and blues not only in Waco but across the country. Towering figures such as Ma Rainey and Fats Domino are rightfully remembered as foundational for the blues and later rock n’ roll, but artists with less recording opportunities, like Walton, also shaped the country’s music scene in the early twentieth century.

Walton grew up on the water. His parents, Fred and Bessie Walton, worked on a small farm on the banks of Brazos in Waco and welcomed their son on August 30, 1915. Though a young Mercy Dee Walton worked the corn and cotton fields, he found himself captivated by local music. Aspiring musicians traversed Texas, performing on stages and in homes for little to nothing. Thirteen-year-old Walton listened, soaking in soulful vocals and rhythmic instrumentals. The blues artists he heard told stories of hardship and of love to steel guitar and striking barrelhouse piano arrangements. Searching for his own voice, Walton began to play piano and sing the blues at ten-cent house parties, where locals could pay a dime to hear the young artist hone his skills.

Waco’s own musicians influenced Walton’s sound. Unrecorded artists, such as Pete the Grey Ghost and Delois Maxey, impacted his style and song. Though many blues artists of the early twentieth century never recorded albums, their artistry formed other musicians. When Walton witnessed Maxey’s piano expertise at house parties, for example, he modeled his own playing after him. Others also influenced his sound, including Waco and Marlin piano players Son Brewster and Bob Jackson. Though labels never captured their talents, their inflections remained present in the work of later blues musicians.

Audiences certainly understood the talent of these rising artists. As Walton grew in popularity, he moved from intimate venues to larger crowds in Fort Worth. In the early 1930s, he took the stage at the Dixie and Bryson Taverns. Other emerging musicians, such as Pinetop Shorty, joined him. After playing the Texas circuit, Walton decided to move westward to an up-and-coming music metropolis, Los Angeles, in the late 1930s.

While playing around Fresno, Chester Lu, an executive at a smaller recording label called Spire Company, heard Walton’s talent. Walton recorded his first song “Lonesome Cabin Blues” with Spire. Though the song rose to the top ten on R&B charts, Walton’s performances and albums did not result in financial prosperity. As he sang about his troubles on stage, they persisted in his life as he continued to labor for little pay. For instance, at one venue, Walton performed for a few dollars and a hot meal. Agricultural work provided supplemental income as Walton continued to pursue his musical career, and he often performed at bars where Black farmworkers gathered to listen to lyrics that illustrated their experiences. 

After reaching number seven on the charts with “Lonesome Cabin Blues,” Walton cut a record with Imperial Records. The songs never charted, and Walton did not record any more songs with Imperial. Things changed when Walton joined Specialty Records. He recorded his hit song “One Room Country Shack” in May 1952, and garnered national attention. He briefly toured with the popular Jay McNeely Band, whose smooth saxophone sound skyrocketed the group to the top of the Billboard charts. A long way from the Texas circuit, Walton traveled across the country, singing popular tracks, such as “Roamin’ Blues” and “Romp & Stomp Blues,” in auditoriums for large crowds. One song that captured fans’ attention was “Rent Man Blues,” which featured Walton’s wife, Thelma Walton, who received the pseudonym Lady Fox on the record.

Walton cut more records with Specialty, but none accumulated extensive recognition. Notably, payola, the practice of bribing radio hosts to play certain songs to increase an artist’s popularity and a label’s success, ran rampant throughout Walton’s career. Though he recorded with two small labels, Rhythm and Flair, in the mid-1950s, his albums did not reach previous heights on the charts. He moved to Stockton, California, where he continued agricultural work and played music on a smaller scale.

Though Walton’s recording opportunities seemed to decline over time, in 1961, record producer and blues fan Chris Strachwitz began to record with Walton on his newly founded label, Arhoolie. With his remarkable barrelhouse piano style, Walton put down multiple tracks with Strachwitz. Tragically, as his career seemed to be resurging in the recording studio, Walton died suddenly in December 1962. Though his recordings remain few, his conceptions of rhythm and blues live on, shaping artists in Waco and beyond.

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Music producers generally work behind the scenes garnering little public recognition. Some, like Phil Spector and Quincy Jones, earned acclaim outside the industry; however, others faded into obscurity. Tom Wilson, one of these overlooked figures and a contemporary of Spector and Jones, matched them in influence. A musical alchemist who coaxed new sounds out of legendary musicians, Wilson spearheaded innovative directions for jazz and rock and roll in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

Church music and education undergirded the Wacoan family into which Tom Wilson Jr. was born on March 25, 1931. His father served as the choir director at New Hope Baptist Church, where his grandfather, a college professor, was a founding member. Though he only played the trombone, choir participation and family jam sessions nurtured in the young Wilson a love of music. These musical mash-ups often occurred at his educator grandfather’s rug laundry, where Wilson also learned to work hard. It was this family belief in achievement that propelled Wilson from Fisk University to Harvard where he graduated in 1954 with a degree in economics.

While in Boston, Wilson dove into its jazz scene. He deejayed for Harvard’s radio station, WHRB, where jam sessions and his involvement in the Harvard New Jazz Society helped cultivate a love for the experimental genre. Working at WHRB, Wilson later stated, was the job that most greatly influenced his later success. Jazz was undergoing an evolution, and Wilson wanted to capture it. So after graduating, he started the aptly named Transition Records. Wilson possessed an ear for pioneering sounds, locating unknown artists like Sun Ra who pushed the boundaries of jazz. Over four years at Transition Records, Wilson recorded over twenty albums with musicians like John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor. Wilson’s involvement in all aspects of album production and positive reviews didn’t, however, translate into financial success, so he sold the label in 1957.

He worked for several labels in artists and repertoire before landing at Columbia in the early 1960s. It was at Columbia that Wilson left an indelible mark on the music industry. Though a novel practice at the time, Wilson took the initiative to locate new talent. This practice led him to a struggling folk duo by the name of Simon and Garfunkel. They recorded with Wilson but broke up until the producer’s surreptitious addition of electric instruments on “The Sound of Silence” brought them massive success and contributed to the development of folk-rock. Wilson also worked with iconic troubadour Bob Dylan on several of his albums, notably Bringing It All Back Home. On that record, Wilson encouraged a more electric sound, and with songs like “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” helped launch Dylan into a new phase of his career. The legendary track “Like a Rolling Stone” was also a Dylan and Wilson collaboration. Wilson then rode this wave of success into a job at Verve/MGM in Los Angeles.

In his new position, Wilson continued to experiment. His initial signing was the eclectic sound of Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention. To his collection of artists Wilson also added the Velvet Underground. The band’s psychedelic tone and graphic lyrics meshed well with Wilson’s penchant for testing musical limits. Wilson went out on his own in 1968, launching a production company which accompanied his short-lived radio program “Music Factory” and two publishing companies: Terrible Tunes and Maudlin Melodies. Such a move made sense for a man at the forefront of the 1960s music scene.

Tom Wilson embodied the 1960s. A 1968 New York Times feature on Wilson described his clothing and interior design as encompassing the smoothly audacious style emblematic of the period. Wilson managed to be “far out” with his artists and productions, but kept his personal life and habits more private. His wife and children, while spending some time around the studios, remained a distinct entity, apart from his work. Music, he told his son, creates a “respite” from the demands of life. Journalists described Wilson, a study of contrasts, as “enigmatic” and a “master dissembler.” He was a man who had his finger on America’s musical pulse but also seemed to hover above it.

By the 1970s, however, Wilson produced less. The music he did develop didn’t sell as well, so he turned his attention to creating music for movies. Earlier Wilson had produced a jazz version of the West Side Story soundtrack (Bossa Nova) and Dylan song on the soundtrack for Easy Rider. Wilson remained in the music industry but pursued this new direction. He died at age forty-seven of a heart attack, a complication of his Marfan syndrome, on September 6, 1978. Only in death did Wilson return to Waco where he rests in the Doris Miller Memorial Park. Wilson was shrouded by his brief career and notable contemporaries, but current efforts like Producer Tom Wilson and Invisible Icon seek to posthumously recognize Wilson for his musical impact.

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Beginning in 1945, the sounds of big bands, the blues, and rock blended on the dance floor of East Waco’s Walker’s Auditorium.

Continually looking for ways to serve his community, African American entrepreneur Herbert Walker founded the club. Prior to opening the venue, Mr. Walker provided his neighbors with leisure and transportation through his taxi stand and stables. Later he added a BBQ pit and apartment buildings to his business portfolio. As the only establishment of its kind open to blacks, Walker’s Auditorium served as a prominent social spot for Waco’s African American community. Its pea green, maroon, and grey interior was complemented with elegant furnishings, a sizable dance floor, pool tables, and a mirrored bar that offered patrons drinks and entrées. Mr. Walker told a local paper he envisioned the spot as offering “Wacoans a good place to go for amusement.”

Walker’s Auditorium operated as part of the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a cross-country touring route used by black entertainers prevented by segregation from playing in white-only locations. A network of black-owned and -patronized businesses, the circuit created an opportunity for African American artists to freely express themselves and their experiences. By being a stop on this route, Walker’s Auditorium connected blacks in Central Texas to national trends in African American social and cultural life. It fueled creativity but was a grueling lifestyle. Musical acts such as Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, B.B. King, and Etta James, all of whom would go on to greater success, played Walker’s Auditorium for gigs of a night or two when they traveled through Texas in the 1950s and 60s. They went on to other clubs, but some of the talent drawn to Waco by Walker’s Auditorium decided to stay in the area.

In 1963, Herbert Walker invited Louisiana-born blues musician Classie Ballou to lead his house band. Ballou played music all across the world, but his growing family made Walker’s invitation of localized work appealing. As often as six nights a week, Ballou provided the soundtrack at Walker’s Auditorium. When business diminished for Walker’s Auditorium and the rest of the Chitlin’ Circuit, Ballou chose to remain in Waco playing regular gigs around town.

Outside its primary function as a music venue, Walker’s Auditorium hosted holiday parties, debutant balls, parades, and various celebrations. Fraternities and sororities like Alpha Phi Alpha used the club for dances and gatherings. In 1953, it held a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. Civic clubs and organizations also used the space for business functions and teas. Walker’s Auditorium provided Waco’s African American community with a multipurpose venue suited both for amusement and formal meetings.

The patrons of Walker’s Auditorium, however, were not exclusively African American. White Wacoans, and many Baylor students, also frequented the club. “Mingling” between whites and blacks occurred more frequently by the 1960s, than in previous decades of the club’s operation. This shift resulted in broader acknowledgement of the club by all Waco’s citizens. Community members, like state senator Murray Watson, met with Mr. Walker and held him in high esteem. Additionally, local and student newspapers, whose racialized reporting on Walker’s Auditorium early on tended to revolve around petty crime, now increasingly carried advertisements and other news about the establishment in the 1960s and early 1970s. It is in this era that it became a community institution, expanding Mr. Walker’s vision to its fullest extent.

The advent of the civil rights movement, the closing of James Connally Air Force Base, and competition from other entertainment eventually hurt Walker’s Auditorium. Like many venues on the Chitlin’ Circuit, it fell into disrepair. In 1977, Walker’s Auditorium came under new management, but only a year later it ceased operating. By the 2000s, nothing remained where the legendary venue once stood. Through over three decades of operation, Walker’s Auditorium gave Wacoans, particularly its black citizens, a place to relax and celebrate.

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Founded in 1951, the Word label helped spark the multimillion-dollar genre of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM). And it was sportscaster and ministry student Jarrell McCracken who gave it a voice.

McCracken was working in radio to finance his graduate education when someone approached him and asked that he use his broadcasting expertise to reach youth by combining ministry and sports. Overcoming his initial reluctance, McCracken warmed to the idea and recorded “The Game of Life”—a fictionalized football match between good and evil—using his resources at KWTX. His play-by-play of the supernatural clash for radio station WORD proved a hit with area youth groups. Each spin of the record brought McCracken requests to purchase copies of it. The only problem was he didn’t have any. So McCracken pulled together the funds to finance the pressing of one hundred copies. Through their popularity the young man sensed a market for sacred records. He started Word Records in Waco to meet that demand.

Initially, McCracken ran Word out of his apartment, bringing his friends Henry Sorelle and Ted Snider in to help him run the company. During the 1950s few labels produced religious music, and Word found ways to edge out the competition. In its early years it signed artists like Frank Boggs, got into production and distribution, and used record-of-the-month clubs to disperse music. Outside of religious records, Word sold sheet music, Christian literature, and educational resources. The label soon outgrew McCracken’s apartment and, after brief stints at other locations, moved in 1960 to its longtime headquarters at 4800 West Waco Drive.

The year before its move, Word hired Kurt Kaiser as its Director of Artists and Repertoire. Trained in piano and composition at Northwestern University, Kaiser’s ear and desire for outreach diversified Word’s offerings, charting a new trajectory for Christian music. Kaiser signed gospel juggernaut George Beverly Shea in 1975, and also worked with Ralph Carmichael to write a folk musical for youth titled Tell It Like It Is. Cooperating with secular musicians who wanted to produce sacred music also provided Word an opportunity to expand its audience. In the 1960s and 70s, it acquired the smaller Canaan and Myrrh labels. Its publicity and distribution operations grew as well. As it entered the 1980s, Word’s multimedia approach continued at the forefront of CCM as the genre developed.

For the first thirty years of the company, Word immersed itself in the Waco community. When McCracken first started Word, Waco businessmen provided the young entrepreneur with capital and connections. Word later returned the community’s gesture, offering college scholarships to local high school graduates and providing jobs to many Baylor students. The label drew musicians such as Ken Medema to perform in Waco, in addition to sponsoring many community events featuring the Christian arts. Word held a reputation in town as a respectable company that felt like a family. It invested in cultivating the support of Wacoans, many of whom endorsed its mission. Word’s business and community commitments reaped dividends.

The label grew exponentially alongside CCM. In 1974, ABC purchased the company, eventually moving it near Fort Worth. Leaving Waco meant that Word sacrificed some of its communal feel. The transition also led to Jarrell McCracken departing the company in 1986. By the 1990s Word was in Nashville and the label housed popular artists like Sandi Patti and Amy Grant. Still one of the leading producers of Christian music today, the label retains its initial ministerial goal. Word went out from Waco and aided in the development of Christian music. Its impact still reverberates in the city and Christian music industry.

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In the 1960s and 1970s, the taste of pizza and the sound of Dixieland jazz went hand in hand for Wacoans who frequented Shakey’s Pizza Parlor. Shakey’s, the nation’s first franchise pizza chain, would become famous for pioneering a winning combination of casual dining and live music in hundreds of restaurants nationwide. The Waco Shakey’s provided a relaxed atmosphere for food and fun at 1420 North Valley Mills Drive until its closure in 1978.

In 1954, friends Sherwood Johnson and Ed Plummer opened the first Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Sacramento, California. After having suffered a case of malaria during World War II, Johnson earned the nickname Shakey. When the time came to open their first restaurant, both owners decided to name the franchise after Johnson’s playful moniker. Both owners dreamed of creating a restaurant in which families could not only eat, but one that offered vibrant live music reminiscent of a bygone era. During a time in which live music and sit-down dining remained largely separate in public establishments, the culinary experience that Johnson and Plummer created stood out. Dixieland jazz bands and banjo players combined with costumed staff to create a lively atmosphere of 1890s frivolity. Johnson, a banjo player himself, encouraged subsequent parlor owners to offer live banjo-infused tunes as well. Indeed, for decades to come, old-timey piano melodies and banjo strums offered a lively backdrop for pizza outings.

The second Shakey’s opened in Portland in 1956, followed soon after by dozens of new outlets throughout the United States. By 1967, the chain boasted more than 272 locations. Shakey’s began an international expansion the following year. As the nation’s first franchise pizza chain—which would later be emulated by chains such as Pizza Hut—Shakey’s charted new territory in the American restaurant world. The restaurant offered pizza, beer, and live music—a formula that proved as successful as it was simple. Restaurants in decades past had catered to wealthy fine-dining elite and road travelers. But as automobiles became more ubiquitous and families moved out of cities and into suburbs, the 1950s saw the rise of franchise dining and, later, of family casual dining. Waco was no exception. When Shakey’s opened in Waco in 1966, the restaurant offered a whopping twenty-one varieties of pizza as well as several Bavarian beers. The Waco location also catered to its university population with a designated Collegiate Room, geared toward the town’s young adult crowd.

While Shakey’s remained a local favorite for the next decade, the chain began to suffer after both Johnson and Plummer sold their shares to the Colorado Mining and Elevator Company in the late 1960s. The closure of Waco’s Shakey’s in 1978 mirrored a national trend. By 2010, the restaurant claimed only fifty-eight restaurants in the United States.But while Shakey’s locations in the United States struggled under new ownership and the shifting tastes of the American public, the franchise found much success internationally. As of April 2019, the chain boasted five hundred stores globally, the majority outside of the U.S. To this day, Shakey’s remains a bright spot in the memories of many patrons, evoking memories of lively music and lighthearted dining.

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Elvis Presley is a name that hardly needs explanation. The king of rock-and roll stands as a cultural icon to this day, but few people know of his connection to Waco and Central Texas. In 1958, at the ripe age of twenty-two, Elvis joined the United States Army and moved to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, for basic training.

Elvis had been to Waco before, doing what he knew best—performing. In 1956 he graced the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum and performed in front of a full house. But when he came back two years later, his calling was much different. Though Elvis had been part of the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) at Humes High School in Memphis, he could have easily avoided combat military service when the time came. Having already achieved a good level of fame with his hits “All Shook Up,” “Hound Dog,” and others, Elvis could have been excused from military service or served in a non-combat role. But his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, thought that serving in the army infantry would boost Elvis’s career and paint him as a true American, not just as a hip-gyrating, rock-and-roll youth. Elvis, being the humble man that he was, agreed and was assigned to a tank division at Fort Hood.

Luckily, when Elvis arrived at Fort Hood, he already had a friend close by. In the early 1950s, when Elvis was just trying to break into the music world, he met a Dallas radio DJ named Eddie Fadal. In 1956, Eddie lived in Waco and went to Elvis’s show at the Coliseum to see if the star remembered him. After navigating around a crowd of fans and convincing Elvis’s bodyguards to tell Elvis a man named Eddie Fadal had come to see him, Elvis welcomed him with open arms. Eddie offered to have Elvis over after the show for a midnight snack, and he took him up on the offer. Elvis and the band rolled up to Eddie’s house—located at 2807 Lasker Avenue—late that night with their instruments strapped to the roof of their car, and a surprised Mrs. LaNelle Fadal scrambled to serve the boys a delicious meal. Little did the Fadals know, that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Though a willing soldier, Elvis disliked life at Fort Hood, maybe because he could never be just one of the guys. For that reason, he left the base whenever he could and drove to Waco to spend time with Eddie and his family. The Fadals’ home quickly became his home away from home, and they began to expect Elvis every weekend. They even built a den and stocked it with records and music equipment for Elvis to enjoy during his stays. The den was of course painted pink and black, Elvis’s favorite colors. He usually stayed up late into the night listening to music and would sleep most of the day, truly relaxed around the Fadal family.

Soon enough Elvis also decided to rent a home in Killeen for his parents to stay in while he was in Texas, so Vernon and Gladys Presley became regulars at the Fadals’ as well, along with Elvis’s girlfriend Anita Wood. Gladys even taught LaNelle how to cook Elvis’s favorite foods, including burnt bacon, purple-hull peas, and sliced tomatoes. Eddie would also pick up cream pies for Elvis from the Hickory Stick or Toddle House, and Elvis would claim a whole pie for himself in one evening.

But Elvis’s presence did not go unnoticed around town. Word sometimes spread quickly if a neighbor caught a glimpse of a black Cadillac pulling up to the Fadals’ home. Kids would come from all over town demanding to see Elvis, sometimes even climbing the roof and threatening to break in. Other times people would camp out on the lawn and refuse to leave or threaten violence until they got to see the young Presley. Elvis did not want to cause his friends any trouble, so he would go out and talk to crowds of people and spend time with them until they were satisfied and left of their own accord. Eddie quickly had to unlist the family’s phone number.

Yet Elvis’s courteous response to these crowds did not mean he welcomed them. He was by nature a shy, simple man who just wanted to spend time with his true friends. He always sought to fly under the radar and spend quality, private time at the Fadals’. He would not even allow Eddie to have any family over during his visits. In fact, Elvis hated the idea of surprise visitors so much that when he arrived at the Fadals’ he would take a quick lap around the entire house to make sure no one was hiding and waiting to see him. It became his ritual, after entering through the back door. This behavior stemmed from Elvis’s fame, but also his constant fear that his friends might be using him for his status. In fact, the only family member of Eddie’s that Elvis liked was his brother Louis, because Louis had ignored Elvis the first time they were in the house together, passing him by to go speak with his brother. This fear of being used was strong in Elvis, but Eddie proved himself a true friend and a father figure to the young star.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck while Elvis was at Fort Hood. Gladys Presley went back to Memphis for medical treatment, and Elvis received a call that things were not looking good for his mother, from whom he was inseparable. When Gladys passed away on August 14, 1958, Elvis was crushed. After being granted a month of leave from the army, he and Eddie spent time in Memphis grieving. For the rest of his life Elvis would often sing gospel songs in the quieter moments and remember his mother.

Elvis returned to Waco and shipped off to Germany soon after. He cried the night he shipped out, as he would not only miss his friends and family, but he feared his fans would forget him while he was gone. Of course, that did not happen. But regardless, Elvis’s time in Waco had come to an end. Eddie remained his faithful friend, even when they went their separate ways in the coming years. The Fadals still refer to those months in 1958 as the “Elvis days,” and tell even more stories of their time with him.

Eddie’s son Dana still owns the house where Elvis stayed, and his sister Janice manages the property. It can be rented on Airbnb, so Elvis fans from near and far can come experience the home. They decorated the home in mid-century style reminiscent of the 1950s and recreated the pink and black den Elvis spent so much time in. Janice has also put together a book of her father's writings about those times called "Elvis Days." To order a copy of the book or see photos of the house, check out the website theelvishouse.com. Since many remnants of 1950s Waco that Elvis enjoyed have closed down, the house remains one of the last testaments to Elvis in Central Texas.

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“The King of Western Swing,” the “living root of country music.” Henry William “Hank” Thompson became a western swing and country music star right from his hometown of Waco. Hank was born in Waco on September 3, 1925 to German-Czech immigrant parents Jule Thomas Thompson and Zexia Ilda Wells Thompson. Though not musical themselves, Hank’s parents recognized their son’s innate talent when he mastered the harmonica by age ten, so they purchased for him a four-dollar used guitar. It quickly became Hank’s instrument of choice.

Hank’s musical talents gained recognition when he joined the Kiddies Matinee at the local theater, almost always winning the Saturday morning talent competition on the show. From there he was picked up by local radio station WACO and had his own morning show, “Hank the Hired Hand,” where he played popular tunes before going to class at Waco High School (pinned on map below). Among his favorite artists to play were Gene Autry, Ernest Tubb, and Jimmie Rodgers.

As for many young men in the 1940s, childhood ended with high school graduation. For Hank it was no different; with his parent’s approval he enlisted in the US Navy in January of 1943 at the ripe young age of seventeen. Though trained as a radio operator and technician, he also dabbled in songwriting while enlisted, and that would prove to be his true calling. After continuing his technical education briefly at Princeton University, University of Texas, and Southern Methodist University, in 1946 he moved back to Waco to pursue a career in radio. Local station KWTX gave him a fifteen-minute slot at 12:15 p.m. each day to perform with his guitar. Also during this time, he set about to form an accompanying band, what would later become the Brazos Valley Boys.

His radio exposure plus his songwriting days in the navy proved to be his path to fame. A Waco businessman connected Hank to his first record label, Globe Records, and he recorded a few of his navy songs in Dallas in August 1946. Among these first recordings was “Whoa Sailor,” which soon became a regional sensation and one of Hank’s greatest hits. This led Dallas DJ Hal Horton to introduce Hank to the famous Tex Ritter. Ritter immediately signed Hank to Capitol Records and cut his next big hit, “Humpty Dumpty Heart,” which would reach No. 2 on the Billboards Country Music Singles chart and stay there for thirty-eight weeks.

After marrying Dorothy Jean Ray in April 1948, the young couple moved to Nashville, home of country music. After a few short radio stints, Hank joined the Grand Ole Opry, the pinnacle of country music performance. But unfortunately, on top of poor pay, the Opry did not look approvingly on Hank’s style of music. Hank wanted to go with a more western swing sound, a combination of jazz, country, and blues known for the incorporation of amplified string instruments like the steel guitar. The Opry disliked this kind of branching out, so Hank left Nashville and headed back to Texas.

Hank then set about to refine his sound and form an official band of his own. Biographer Ronnie Pugh called Hank’s established style, “less jazzy than Bob Wills, less orchestral than Spade Cooley, and different and distinctive from Leon McAuliffe and Merl Lindsay.” The more dance halls Hank played, the more he saw a need for a great western swing accompanying band, and that is exactly what he formed. One of the first additions was guitarist Billy Grey, who helped Hank recruit the rest of the Brazos Valley Boys. He and the Brazos Valley Boys soon moved to Oklahoma, where their audience was bigger and more receptive. Hank thought of himself as the main singer of the band, but the band developed a reputation on its own as well, sometimes even recording instrumental tracks without Hank.

The year 1951 brought further nationwide acclaim for Hank with the release of “The Wild Side of Life,” which stayed at No. 1 on the country music charts for fourteen weeks. The song contained the famous line: “I didn’t know God made honky-tonk angels.” This song would turn out to be one of thirty top ten songs and seventy-nine charted hits Hank would boast by the end of his career, along with selling 60 million albums. He was also the first country star to appear on national television, have his own color TV show, travel extensively abroad, and record the first live country music album in 1961, “Live at the Golden Nugget from Las Vegas.“ He was also known for advancing music and lighting technology to enhance his shows on the road. Additionally, the Brazos Valley Boys alone would be named the best western swing band fourteen years in a row.

As his career progressed, Hank moved away from the western swing sound, as he chose to travel with a smaller band and let the Brazos Valley Boys do their own thing. He also experienced a change in his personal life, divorcing Dorothy Thompson in 1970 and marrying Dallas local Ann Williams. Hank and Ann were married for almost forty years until Hank’s death in 2007. At the age of eighty-two, he was still performing. In fact, he was on stage less than a month before his death in his hometown of Waco. He sang at the Heart O’ Texas Fair as part of his Sunset Tour on October 8, and was then diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer on November first. He canceled the rest of his tour and passed away just five days later on November 6, 2007.

Hank lives on in the Country Music Hall of Fame (1989) and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1997). In 2005 he released a record called “Seven Decades,” and he was one of few who could boast a career of that length. He was known for making music that “pleased him first, crowds second.” Fortunately, the crowds were never ones to complain about his honky-tonk hits, and Thompson is credited with bringing country music to life and inspiring the sounds of later legends like George Strait. But he never forgot his roots, saying, “Waco gave me my start. I cut my first record while I was still living there. It was my launching pad. I had to leave eventually, but everybody does, no matter if you are from Los Angeles or New York or Waco. If you’ve got the music, you’ve got to get out among the people and travel and play it.”

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During the early 1970s, the rhythms of Austin's much-acclaimed music scene reverberated through McLennan County from Bellmead's Abraxas Club.

Until the club's founding, Waco had remained relatively closed off to the music culture that thrived ninety miles to the south in Texas's live-music capital. That changed, however, when Roy Delgado, Steve Espinoza, Jesse "Jay" Ortiz, Arthur Ramos, and Pete Saiz set out to open a nightclub of their own, one which would bring some of Austin's best blues, rock, and Tejano performers to McLennan County listeners. The co-owners dubbed the new venue Abraxas, a nod to Carlos Santana's 1970 album of the same name.

As news of the up-and-coming venue spread, the Abraxas Club succeeded in attracting a growing number of talented artists. With help from Austin-based booking agent Charlie Goodnight and musician Jimmie Vaughan (older brother of the famed Stevie Ray Vaughan), the venue went on to book such performers as the Allman Brothers Band, Freddie King, Ruben Ramos, Paul Ray, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Wet Willie, and David Zychek. While the weekly lineup at the Abraxas featured musicians from a variety of genres ranging from blues to boogie to Texas rock, the club's Tejano flavor quickly emerged as one of its most defining qualities.

In addition to cultivating a space for Tejano music to thrive in Central Texas, the Abraxas Club played a part in the growing Chicano movement of the early 1970s. The club's owners were eager to lend resources and support to their fellow Mexican Americans in the struggle for social, political, and economic empowerment. The founders worked to solidify the movement in the Waco area by offering their club as an organizing space to activist groups such as the Chicanos Unidos, Mexican American Youth Organization, and the political party La Raza Unida. During its four-year lifespan, the Abraxas Club also served as a center for community discussion groups on the Chicano experience. In this way, the club's impact extended far beyond its weekly audiences, contributing to a much broader revival of Mexican-American consciousness in the early 1970s.

Although many were drawn to Abraxas's countercultural, activist vibe, the venue's association with drug use kept many in the area from patronizing the establishment. Several of the club's owners and patrons recalled frequent police raids, in which officials searched the premises for illicit substances, underage drinkers, and AWOL military personnel fleeing the draft in the closing days of the Vietnam War. Financial setbacks associated with these raids and steep booking-agent fees ultimately took their toll on Abraxas. The club often could not afford to entice would-be musicians with competitive compensation, and eventually ceased operation in 1974 following a drug raid led by local police.

For some, the club's closing was a victory in the fight against societal vices. For others, it proved an ill-fated end to a beloved musical and cultural community. Despite the Abraxas's checkered legacy, the club's life provides an illuminating glimpse into several significant cultural, social, and political impulses in 1970s Texas, and as such remains a valued piece of Waco history.

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The Waco Symphony Orchestra is a music organization that brings enrichment to the Central Texas community. The Waco Symphony Orchestra Association, Incorporated, as we know it, began its concerts in 1962. However, an orchestra conducted by Max Reiter began in 1939 as an experiment that laid the foundation for the Waco Symphony Orchestra's classical performances today.

Born in Trieste, Italy, in 1905, Reiter began his musical career as assistant of the Opera of Berlin, and conducted orchestras in other musical centers of Europe. Fleeing from Hitler’s inferno, Reiter went to New York City in 1939 with a dream to land a job as a conductor. After denial from jobs in New York, Reiter collected contact information from musicians in Southern cities, purchased a bus ticket, and headed south. 

Waco was a scheduled stop on Reiter’s bus. While waiting for his connection to Fort Worth, Reiter wandered along the nearby streets and noticed a sign that read, “H. Novich, China.” Recognizing the name from his list of contacts, Reiter introduced himself to Miss Mary Novich, stating that he wanted to start a symphony. At once, Mary and her sister Rae put together a list of local patrons of the arts. Patrons of the arts assured that the Baylor University School of Music faculty and students would support his endeavors, and the university offered Waco Hall as a performance venue.   With much enthusiasm, the new symphony orchestra set the date of its debut performance for April 20, 1939. In the weeks leading to the opening, Baylor faculty and students and local and amateur musicians practiced to play as a single unit. Excitement was in the air. On the evening of the debut concert, Reiter gave the eager audience a bow and raised his baton to bring ninety musicians to attention. Reiter’s orchestra gave their all as they played through four pieces of music that demonstrated the musicians’ disciplined sound and dynamic range. The final piece, Johann Strauss’s Tales from the Vienna Woods, left the audience with a lighthearted touch that rounded out the evening perfectly. At the end of the final piece, well over 1,500 people remained to cheer, yell bravos, and give their approval for the work of the symphony and to plea for continuation of the organization. 

The establishment of a permanent symphony was quick in coming, as local patrons of the arts successfully harnessed the momentum of the opening concert. On May 2, 1939, the Waco Symphony Society was born. Reiter led the symphony to perform for four splendid evenings a year for eleven seasons. In 1950, Reiter relinquished his role as conductor and left forthcoming seasons unplanned.  In 1961, after a decade of no symphony performances in the city, members of the Chamber of Commerce met with Daniel Sternberg, dean of the Baylor University School of Music to speak about reintroducing a symphony. On April 24, 1962, the Waco Symphony Association, Incorporated, was established. Patrons of the orchestra enjoyed the first season of the Waco Symphony as it put on three concerts, including a successful performance by Texas pianist Van Cliburn. Maestro Sternberg led the Waco Symphony Orchestra to success, putting on classical as well as pops concerts, accompanying musical guests, and leading the local debut of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Sternberg conducted with energy until the end of the orchestra’s twenty-fifth season. For his farewell concert in 1986, Sternberg put on an all-Beethoven concert.  To build on the success of Sternberg, principal second Stephen Heyde, stepped in as conductor. Heyde pushed the musicians to their potential by adding extra rehearsals, and added more local musicians and faculty, and students of the Baylor music school to create an ensemble of which Waco could feel a sense of ownership. While under Heyde’s leadership, the Waco Symphony Orchestra founded the Waco Symphony Youth Orchestra to give young musicians of Central Texas opportunities to perform. Heyde led the Waco Symphony through their fifty-fifth season and continues to lead a group of musicians that breathe life into pieces of music.  Over the years, the Waco Symphony Orchestra has attracted world-class talents such as Frank Sinatra Jr., Art Garfunkel, and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to perform for the community. Many years of sold-out shows, holiday concerts, and subscription season performances have brought beauty and tranquility to audiences, and the ensemble continues to serve as a fixture in the cultural life of the community.

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Dan “Uncle Dan” McLennan was born in 1849 as a slave to Neil McLennan in what would a year later become known as McLennan County, named for his master. Uncle Dan became a beloved member of not only the McLennan family but of the Waco community as well. He is best remembered for his fiddle playing, carrying his instrument around town with him in a flour sack.

Life on the frontier provided a variety of challenges for Uncle Dan and his family. Uncle Dan’s father, Alf, also lived as a slave of the McLennan family and lost his ear when Native Americans attacked the McLennan farm. Uncle Dan himself, living as a slave in the backwoods of Texas, experienced several encounters with Indians, though all peaceful. As a boy, he learned to fish as well as hunt squirrels, raccoons, possums, and even deer, helping the family survive on the frontier.

Even after gaining his freedom at the end of the Civil War, Dan remained closely connected to the McLennan family. He was especially loyal to Catherine McLennan Davis, the daughter of Neil McLennan. According to Uncle Dan’s daughter, Mrs. Davis took Dan under her wing, becoming a mother of sorts to him. Catherine taught him to read and write, a rare skill for a born slave. In 1870, on Catherine’s farm, Dan married Ann, who would come to be known as Aunt Ann. They had twelve children, six boys and six girls, in their fifty years of marriage.

On a few occasions, Dan went on cattle drives with the McLennan/Davis family. He rode up to Kansas, bringing cattle down with him. Though he worked for a time on Davis land, Dan became a successful farmer in his own right, working his own farm. The family grew subsistence crops to live off of, as well as cash crops such as cotton.

Living in China Spring, Uncle Dan and his family frequently made the slow journey to Waco by horse-pulled wagon. Often the family would return home the same day, leaving at sunset and finding their way back in the dark. Several of Dan’s family members lived in Waco, and on occasion the family stayed overnight with one of his brothers who owned a saloon in town. In Waco, Uncle Dan was in high demand due to his great talent for fiddling. He often found himself hired by white families to play at picnics, reunions, and other celebrations. These festivities were large, all-day affairs, complete with music, singing, dancing, and piles of food. Sometimes Dan’s sons, also musically inclined, would accompany him, playing guitar alongside his fiddling.

Uncle Dan died in 1919 at the age of seventy-one. During his lifetime, he witnessed a monumental amount of change. Waco and McLennan County were founded, and Waco blossomed from a village into a thriving city with nearly forty thousand residents. Born a slave, he experienced emancipation, dying a free man. He lived during a time of great transformation and the strife which came with it. Though a great deal of racial violence and tensions occurred during his lifetime, he was much loved by both whites and blacks in Waco and McLennan County. Uncle Dan and Aunt Ann are buried in unmarked, concrete-covered graves in a corner of the L. R. Davis Cemetery (as marked on the Waco History map) in China Spring.

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Pauline Pipkin Garrett studied music at Baylor in the 1920s, but then the family business came a-calling. Under her leadership, W. P. Pipkin Drugs became one of the Southwest’s largest independently owned drugstore chains.

After graduating from Baylor University in 1923 with a BA in music, Pauline’s interests turned to the family business—W. P. Pipkin Drugs located at 418 Elm Avenue. Seeking to one day take over the business from her father, Pauline enrolled in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, where she excelled. The Waco News-Tribune on December 21, 1924, reported that she made the “highest grades in her class in a competitive examination.” The article also stated that the college had three thousand men and only one hundred women enrolled at the time.

In 1926, Pauline received a BA in pharmacology, became a licensed pharmacist, and joined her father in his business. William Pipkin was the first drugstore owner in Waco to hire women. In a recollection published in the May 26, 1957, Waco Tribune-Herald, Pauline recalls a customer asking, “‘You reckon that’ll do—a girl selling cigars?’ He [W. P. Pipkin] said, ‘They’ll do better than some of these jelly beans.’ They called the boys ‘jelly beans’ in those days.”

Pauline worked in several departments, including the soda fountain where she washed dishes. In doing so, she got to know more about her employees and work practices. This would help in later years when she took over management after her father’s death in 1935, and full ownership when her mother, Irene, died in 1953. After Pauline took over full operations, the Pipkin chain then grew from three to seven stores and was recognized nationally as an award-winning seller of Rexall products—Pipkin’s main product line.

Life wasn’t all about work for Pauline—she did maintain her love for music. While in pharmacy school, according to the December 1924 Waco News-Tribune article, “She made several vocal and cello records for the Victor Company at Camden, N.J.” Back at home, she played the cello in various Waco orchestras. In 1930, she was given the opportunity to go to Europe and play with a symphony.

Pauline married Waco attorney Barney Garrett on January 15, 1936. They purchased one of Waco’s most distinctive homes, the Cottonland Castle at 3300 Austin Avenue. She dedicated one of the rooms to music, filling it with a grand piano and several string instruments.

 Pauline passed away at home in 1963. Her husband sold Pipkin Drugs to a firm in Garland, Texas, and it became a Rexall drugstore. By 1967, all but one of the former seven Pipkin stores had closed, with the last location at 3900 Bosque Boulevard.

In an age where business opportunities for women were limited, Pauline Pipkin Garrett became a successful pharmacist and expanded her father's modest drug store business into a thriving enterprise with seven locations throughout Waco.  

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Julius “Jules” Bledsoe’s extraordinary musical talent transcended racial discrimination of the nineteenth century and established him as a pioneer in American music.

Bledsoe was born on December 29, 1897, to Henry and Jessie Bledsoe in Waco. Even as a young child, he loved to sing. Bledsoe first performed publically at the age of five at New Hope Baptist Church, a church founded by his grandfather in 1866. In 1914, Bledsoe graduated from Central Texas Academy as valedictorian, and travelled to Marshall, Texas, to study liberal arts and music at Bishop College. After graduating magna cum laude in 1918, Bledsoe served as a civilian chaplain for an ROTC program at Virginia Union University in Richmond from 1918 to 1919.

In 1920, Bledsoe began his graduate study of medicine at Columbia University. After taking voice lessons with notable musicians such as Claude Warford, Luigi Parisotti, and Lazar Samoiloff, however, his career plans began to shift. He made his professional music debut on April 20, 1924, in the Aeolian Hall in mid-town Manhattan. Sol Hurok, a twentieth-century American impresario, sponsored Bledsoe’s first performance. Over the next several years, Bledsoe performed in various capacities around the city. He received his first leading role in an opera in 1926, when he performed the baritone role of Tizan in Deep River. Following one of Bledsoe’s New York performances, a critic from the New York Morning Telegraph praised Bledsoe as the star of the cast who could “pick the heart right out of anybody.”

Yet it was Bledsoe’s portrayal of Joe in a 1927 production of Jerome Kern's Showboat which launched him into the spotlight. His interpretation of the tune “Ol’ Man River” became a classic in American music. He later starred in the 1929 film production of Showboat as well. Bledsoe quickly earned international renown. He performed both in the United States and in Europe, and was praised for his command of several languages, his impressive vocal range and control, and a power to communicate ideas and emotions through music.

During this time, racial discrimination prevented African Americans from performing with major opera companies. Yet Bledsoe’s talent and renown earned him the right to perform with distinguished organizations such as the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the BBC Symphony in London, the Royal-Dutch Italian Opera Company, and the Cosmopolitan Opera Association in New York.

Bledsoe did not confine his career solely to the performance of music, but also composed many pieces. He wrote several spirituals and patriotic songs, such as “Pagan Prayer” and “Ode to America.” The Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam performed his African Suite, a set of four songs for voice and opera. Bledsoe also composed an opera titled Bondage in 1939, based upon Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.