On October 20, 2024, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Cheatham Street Warehouse. It still exists because Randy Rogers bought it a few years ago so it’s not a vape store or a Sac and Pac or a parking lot. Randy started his career there, first on songwriter nights then later when he put his band together. The anniversary celebration benefited the Kent Finlay Legacy Endowment and the Tommy Foote Memorial Scholarship Fund at Texas State.
I met Tommy Foote in the summer of 1976 when I moved to San Marcos to play with Joe Bob’s Bar and Grill Band. We played a gig with another little local band, the Ace in the Hole Band. They had started in ‘74. When I met them the band was George Strait singing and playing rhythm guitar, Mike Daily (still in the band) on pedal steel guitar, Terry Hale (still there) on electric bass, Ron Cabal on lead guitar and Tommy Foote on drums.
I was new to playing real country music so in addition to learning and performing country songs with Joe Bob, I spent many, many nights hanging out and listening to Ace in the Hole at venues like Cheatham Street, Gruene Hall and other defunct venues in the area like the old Cheyenne Social Club. It was a great education hearing Ace in the Hole. George was singing the Texas dancehall songbook of the time: Johnny Bush, Johnny Paycheck, George Jones, Merle of course, and many others.
So the ‘70s rolled along and Ace in the Hole were playing bigger and better dance halls and venues in Texas. In recounting this time I’m trusting my memory for how these events unfolded. I’m guessing that it was late 1980 or early ‘81 when I walked into Herbert’s Taco Hut one day and George and Tommy were there. I asked what was new and George said that he had signed a record deal with MCA Records in Nashville. Incredible news. I congratulated them and George said something like, well, we’ll see what happens.
It takes a little while to get a record going for a new artist so Ace in the Hole continued to play gigs. I remember being at the old Skate Skeller in San Marcos, out on 123, that would have bands sometimes on weekends. They were playing to a very small crowd but it was always fun hanging out and knowing that a record would be coming out pretty soon.
At the time there was a small dance hall on the loop in New Braunfels called the Crystal Chandelier. I’m guessing it could hold maybe 500 people. My band would play there about once a month and so did Ace in the Hole. We’d both have maybe 100 people in there on a Friday or Saturday night. They were playing there one night and the first single, Unwound, had just been released, maybe that week, and there were a hundred or so people there. A month later they played and it was pretty full! Very exciting. A month later I was there, they played and they had to turn away hundreds of people ‘cuz it sold out. Amazing! I think this might have been when they first got a bus. It was really happening after years of driving all over Texas in two pickup trucks pulling a little trailer.
Around this time they played a Saturday night at Gilley’s in Pasadena, right down Spencer Highway from La Porte where I was visiting my mom. This was before Urban Cowboy. Gilley’s was the real deal. It held around 5,000 people. A Houston country music radio station would broadcast the Saturday night shows. I went over in the afternoon to hang out. They were sort of hoping they would have an ok crowd because the place was so big. It was packed. Unbelievable! As the momentum built it was obvious that the band was on track for huge success.
Around this time Tommy left the drum throne and became the road manager, the job he would hold for the next forty years or so. I was at the first gig where Tommy was not the drummer and it was surreal for him, after doing that job seven or eight years, or however long it was. It just got bigger and bigger. Soon I was going to see them in huge venues and the band got bigger too.
Again, forgive my vague notion of an actual timeline, but as it was growing many musicians came into the fold, many of whom continue to play with Ace in the Hole. Ronnie Huckaby came in on keyboards, Benny McArthur on guitar, fiddle and vocals, Rick McRae on lead guitar, and Gene Elders on fiddle. These were high level musicians that had a huge impact on the band. Eventually the amazing Mike Kennedy joined on drums and John Michael Whitby on keyboards. Other great musicians have been part of the band. Another key piece was Erv Woolsey, George’s manager. None of this probably would have happened without him.
In 2018 Mike Kennedy passed away. His powerful playing was a huge part of the live sound. I got to play with Mike a couple of times and, as a bass player, it was remarkable how effortless it felt to play with Mike. I’ve had the same experience playing with the current drummer, Bobby Jarzombek. In 2024 both Gene and Erv passed away and then, soon after, Tommy left us. There are no words to express the feelings. My heart goes out to the family and friends of these remarkable people.
Tommy was a huge supporter of musicians and helped a lot of us. In 1989 Terry Hale and his wife Toni were having their first child and I was asked to fill in on two gigs in Cheyenne, Wyoming at the Frontier Days Rodeo (the daddy of them all). What an incredible honor and a great experience. All the guys were so welcoming, including the great Paul Rogers. That is one of my fondest musical memories.
Robert Keen and I played with Ace in the Hole at the Hurricane Harvey benefit in San Antonio. A great night for an important cause. In 2019 the REK band, along with Lyle Lovett opened the show for Ace in the Hole at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Another amazing night. What was really impressive was watching George and them soundcheck for a really long time and how great they sounded. They were playing so good and the singing was fantastic. Of course their performance was stellar.
So at the Cheatham Street 50th Anniversary celebration it was a real treat to hear the Texas Jamm Band close out the outdoor stage. Up there was Mike Daily (who also played with me for my set), Benny McArthur, Ronnie Huckaby, Bobby Jarzombek and the wonderful John Michael Whitby. I cherish the memories I have of those early Cheatham Street days and love having been witness to a remarkable career. I love those guys.
Written by Bill Whitbeck, 2024