Texas Dance Halls
Episode 4 | Floore’s Country Store, and Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar
Special | 26m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, and Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar in Bandera
We travel out on Bandera Road into the Hill Country, with stops at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, and Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar in Bandera.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Texas Dance Halls is a local public television program presented by KLRN
Support provided by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation.
Texas Dance Halls
Episode 4 | Floore’s Country Store, and Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar
Special | 26m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
We travel out on Bandera Road into the Hill Country, with stops at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, and Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar in Bandera.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Texas Dance Halls
Texas Dance Halls is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
This program is supported by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation.
Hey folks, this episode of Texas Dance Halls takes us right to the edge of the Texas Hill Country, Helotes, Texas.
Now, most of the dance halls we visited started out as community centers, but this dance hall started out as a grocery store servicing travelers who were driving from San Antonio to Bandera.
Yep.
Back then, this was out in the middle of nowhere.
The jaunty floor.
He had plans.
Big plans.
And that's what made Flores country store bigger and better today.
The opening of Floore’s Country Store in 1942 was a perfect fit at the time, but John T floor his background.
He was a former manager of the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, so he knew a thing or two about entertainment venues.
In the early 50s, he noticed a couple dance halls here in the area that were doing pretty well.
So he changed from groceries to musicians.
And by the mid 50s, Flores Country store was doing great guns.
They had great musicians coming, such as Bob Wills and Ernest Tub.
And by the 60s, it was the home base for Willie Nelson.
That's right.
Daniel.
This is Daniel Rosen.
He is the entertainment director of Flores Country Store.
Do you have a minute to chat?
Let's do it.
All right.
Come on in.
A lot of people would say that Flores country store was the birthplace of Willie's career.
But tell me about the business arrangement that John Flower had with Willie back then.
There was a Willie Nelson music company that jaunty Flower and Willie were a part of together.
I think also his drummer, Paul English, may have been involved as well.
And, you know, I don't know the financial details of he was an investor, just, you know, they all kind of came together and decided to form this company.
But I do know that, John, the floor was a part of it with Willie.
And part of the reason Willie played here so often is as a stipulation of John T's involvement.
He said, hey, Willie, that's fine, but you got to play fours on a regular basis.
Yes.
Well, the sign out front says Willie plays every Friday night.
Yeah.
Saturday.
Saturday night.
Saturday night.
Yeah.
So he was playing for regularly fairly often back in the day.
Was that.
How did John Floor acquire this place.
So floors at store actually started in a building down the street here.
And there's also a little old dance hall that's now a private event space.
But he saw all the traffic going in this little dance hall next to his grocery store.
And there was this open land where Flores store is now.
And he thought, you know, I could do a bigger and better dance hall and live entertainment spot.
So he bought the land and built it.
Well, the grocery store was not here.
It was down the road.
The original store was down the road.
And then he had a little store kind of in the back here.
But when he opened this spot, it was very much more like a bar, you know, music venue, food kind of spot with a few groceries.
Now, Mr.
Floor.
Do you know when he passed away, he kind of like.
He kind of like passed away, I guess.
Right?
Right.
As Willie started to get moving to Austin and get the kind of peak hippie vibes going on, along with the country stuff, and who took over at that point, a family called the Algeciras, and they actually had it.
So before Flor died, maybe like a year or two before he actually sold the business.
But he continued to live on the property in a room in the back that's now like the backstage green room for the bands.
And there's been some movies made out here.
The two that I know of was it was like a made for TV movie that featured Johnny Cash in the late 70s.
It was called Thaddeus Rose and Eddie.
And so he comes in here and he does a crazy kind of fight scene where Johnny Cash gets an argument with a band, and all these tables get thrown over.
It's pretty entertaining.
It's not, you know, it's not going to win the Oscars, but.
And then there was a film called eight seconds in the 90s, but that was kind of like that was a bigger actual, you know, movie that went to theaters and everything like that.
You know, it started off as country music, but these days you have kind of a diversity of music.
Yeah, I would say, you know, it's 90% of what we do here is if it's, you know, it's not necessarily straight country, but kind of country adjacent or influenced by straight country, but may have more of a rock or may have more of a blues feel.
But, you know, we we're diversified a little bit like we've had Joan Jett and Styx play on the big outdoor stage.
But, you know, the night before there could be traditional country like Dale Watson on the indoor stage.
So we we try to still respect the roots while also being able to branch out.
You're getting a wider audience that way.
Yeah.
Again, there are still bands that will come here and they'll play a Sunday dance and cover Hank Williams and Webb Pierce and, you know, Lefty Frizzell and all the classic stuff that people danced to here in the early 50s as well.
Have some of them recorded their concerts here while they're playing?
You know, there's the only two that I know of that released a live record from here was Robert Oken, recorded a record called Live Number Two Dinner Here in the late 1960s.
And Randy Rogers Band has released a live record from here as well.
Well, The Legend of Willie out here and quite a legend Willie is.
And this is a huge part of that.
Yeah, him and John T were good friends, from what I understand.
So it's it's cool that we have that connection to Willie Nelson because he was such a pillar of Texas music.
And I like to think that maybe not a pillar, but we're close to it.
Maybe.
You know, it's it's such a cool, unique place.
And it's cool that Helotes has this historic music venue.
Flores is interesting because.
You know, we do a lot of super modern country stuff, like we'll do some poppier country stuff from Nashville, and then it's like one night you could have asleep at the Wheel or Willie Nelson.
The next night you could have a major, you know, poppy country Nashville band.
The next night you could have a classic rock band.
So I think it's for is unique in the sense that we we try to hold on to the roots, like we're not trying to just get rid of our history, but we try to branch out and do different things as well.
And I think that keeps floors relevant.
And in the conversation on a bigger scale than maybe it would be if we had just stayed like super straight ahead country dance hall.
And there's nothing wrong with that either.
You know, like, I go, I go to sometimes I'll go to an Holt or twin sisters and like, that's, that's the vibe that they kind of stick to.
And I think it's awesome.
We're just a little bit different in that sense.
You know, it's kind of a busy area here, especially in the ceiling.
Sure.
But you hang all those things up there.
I did not do that myself.
Those those have been added over the years.
And what's interesting is I've seen pictures, you know, in here from like the at least like the 50s and 60s and it looked exactly like this.
So I'm sure stuff has been put up, taken down, moved around.
You know, there's newer stuff up here, but it's always I think we on maybe John C4 just got locals to say, hey, bring your boots and your saddles and your hats and your and your igloo water cooler.
Or just hang some stuff up here.
Let's make it funky.
Now, this is a great stage inside, but you've got an even bigger stage outside.
Oh, yeah, we've got a large stage outside.
Can you show me the grounds?
Let's go check it out.
So here's the big outdoor stage.
Yeah, it's just brings back memories.
Yeah.
This is where it gets a little wild sometimes.
No.
It's great.
Well, so you got food and vendors?
Yeah.
So we've got, you know, we've got kind of our VIP areas here and over there that's more, you know, that's the backstage.
Depending on the show, sometimes we'll do a bunch of seats on this concrete area and then standing in the back, sometimes it'll just be one big free for all standing room only, you know.
And then there's a dance area.
Sometimes people will be dancing up front, you know, and then we've got the bars everywhere.
And so many generations have been out here.
Yeah.
I've got I've seen a crazy picture where it's almost like from right here looking out, and there's a bunch of couples dancing, and the fence is just, you know, a cedar post and barbed wire.
But highway 16 isn't built yet.
It's not there.
It's not there.
And those houses up on the hill aren't there yet.
The good old days.
Yes.
Well, when he started this grocery store out here, this was out in the middle of nowhere.
Yeah, it's it's still a little bit out here, but it's it's the city is coming to it, you know, congratulations.
Because you're managing the entertainment.
You're part of the of the great things out here.
We're going to try and keep it going for another hundred years.
It's been great to learn more about the rich history of Flora's country store.
I mean, you could almost say that Flores was the birthplace of Willie Nelson.
Maybe I'd like to ask him someday.
Did you know that Willie lived in Bandera, Texas, for a spell?
It was 1971, and he wanted to get away from the Nashville music scene.
So it's only fitting that we're going to head up 16 to Bandera to the next dance hall.
See ya’ll we Have arrived in Bandera, Texas, just up the road from Flores Country Store.
Bender is also known as the Cowboy Capital of the world, but we're here on Main Street, and it's almost hidden with all these storefronts.
But there's an old, worn wooden door that is the entrance to the well renowned Aki Blues Silver Dollar Saloon.
So if you go down the stairs, down to the basement, it's like you're going back in time.
Nothing has changed since really, 1968.
Come on.
We'll find out more about Aki's.
We're going to be speaking with Vivian Schmidt.
She has been by Aki side for decades.
And there she is.
Hey, Jake, I've got all kinds of questions for you.
Right.
We're ready now.
Aki blue.
That's not his last name, is it?
His given name is German from Fredericksburg.
Okay.
And that just didn't work well on a on a 45.
He was recording, and the producer told him Aki just wasn't going to work.
It upset his parents a lot, but he changed it to blue.
The reason being, the guy told him all his songs were sad and blue.
Suddenly, yes.
So he their country songs and things like that.
So he became Aki Blue.
So he formed a band and called it Aki Blue and the Blue Cowboy's Blue Cowboy.
When he was a teenager in Fredericksburg, he was on the local radio station over there.
NAF had a little show on on there on Saturday mornings, spun some records and did that as well.
So.
And sang his songs, promoted his own words.
He did some other songs.
Yeah.
Very smart.
Yeah, yeah.
So he did that for a little bit too.
So but then he came to Bandera for the entertainment, nightlife and to be a Wrangler, and mostly he thought he was going to entertain everybody at the pool and just play his guitar.
One more rocket.
Say you just been writing songs for a long time, ever since he was probably a young man.
Teenager probably.
Yeah.
And we did a t shirt that commemorated all of his songs, and it was 100 that we had published.
That's not the ones that were thrown in the trash in that type thing.
So yeah.
Yeah.
So well over 100 songs he's written.
On the jukebox over here, a 45 year old, his songs, the 45 has mostly all of our songs on it.
Yes.
Oh 45 and we had someone write a song about it and gonna buy me a bar and put me on the jukebox.
It was Tommy Alverson.
He passed away last year, I believe so, and then we still have the old CD jukebox to I bought this place in 1968 68.
That's correct.
His buddy worked at the bank and he heard that this was for sale.
The president of the Bank of across the street.
And I think somebody that had it maybe the story is wanted in a poker game, so I don't know.
But anyway, he told Aki, hey, that basement bar over there is for sale.
And how many beer joints have you played in and won every night?
So he said, well, I think that would be a good thing for you.
So he said, let's check it out and see.
So that's what he did.
He helped Aki and encouraged Aki to maybe purchase this or, you know, and dust it.
But it started in 21.
1921 is when the lot was bought and they started building the building and the basement, which we're in now, and I think it was finished in around 1923.
What was it in the beginning?
In the beginning, it was a confectionary also offered, I believe, sandwiches and cigars.
And then it moved up theirs and housed a restaurant.
And the confectionery still moved up there.
And then the local paper had their equipment here for a while as well.
And then I believe it was leased to the American Legion for a while.
And then we kind of lost track of it for about 20 years.
I think it probably just ended up just being here.
And then I we found some articles, I think 1947, they opened it and it was The Foxhole, which makes sense during the war days and that type of thing.
Still at that time, serving food, barbecue, sandwiches, fishing tackle, cigars, still, that type of thing.
Then it changed to the Sportsman Club, I believe, and that lasted about a year.
And then I think in 48 it was named the Silver Dollar.
I don't know when they really started doing more of the dances.
It would have been from 50s on the dances and the beer in that type thing.
The ad for I think the Silver Dollar had free, free, free beer that day for their for their opening.
And so anyway and then of course bought it in 68, added Archie Blues to the Silver Dollar name.
Sure.
But he was kind of a regular, I guess, before he bought it.
He worked at one of the local dude ranches, Lost Valley Dude Ranch here, brought people down here, and also to the cabaret, which was the big dance hall in Bandera during that time.
This is we're considered a honky tonk.
We're more intimate, smaller, not the big dance floor, that type of thing.
Sawdust.
This is our dance floor.
Saw this on the dance floor?
Yes.
So.
And still was entertaining at that time, but worked at the dude ranch as a wrangler.
Also entertained the guests with his music and that type of thing, and took trail rides out.
And you always said it was the happiest ten years of his life.
He worked there ten years.
He was a singing cowboy.
He was a singing cowboy.
We put that on the day of the American Cowboy.
We have pictures of our king.
We always put, he's our singing cowboy.
There's been some famous folks here.
Yeah.
And we've had through the years, you know, Johnny Bush, Daryl McCall still performs for us.
Robert Earl keen was one of our favorites.
Wrote about this a couple of times.
What was the name of the song?
Feeling Good Again?
Feeling Good Again is about Archie Blues.
Yeah.
Walking down.
Yeah.
Sitting across the street looking at Mr.
Blues.
He was at the OST looking over here and wrote that song about coming back home.
So it's a good song.
And of course, Charlie and Bruce, our band Air Boys always, always come in, you know, would always come in and see Archie and and Charlie when he was really big in Nashville, they did a thing.
Stars favorite bars.
And Charlie picked Band Air and picked Silver Dollar.
So we did a big filming down here with Charlie and everybody performed.
That was a real cool day.
Show me around a little bit.
Okay, so this is the bandstand where Aki's always performed.
We've got his guitar up here, which we gave him on his 25th anniversary.
Down here, it's pearl inlaid with his name on it.
So it's days there.
So that's it's home.
And then we've got just pictures around of Aki when he was younger and just different things.
But a lot of people have performed.
There is a fan of Elvis, Aki's.
Aki's idea of good rock and roll is Elvis, as you can see with all the posters up there.
And I think we've got a velvet somewhere of him too.
So yeah, I mean, there's all kinds of things everywhere.
Everywhere you look, there's there's all kinds of nostalgia.
Someone told me Aki needed a museum, that we should have a museum.
And I go, what do you think this is?
This is Aki's museum.
Well, there's an old, old acoustic guitar on the wall there.
I think that could be one of Aki's first guitars.
I think he got a Sears and Robot guitar.
And when he started learning to play.
So the story is that that might be it.
And then here's your 45, 45, 45 jukebox, nice and dusty from the sawdust.
But yeah, me, some of the other, other things.
What stands out to you here?
Well, we've got our old jukebox that everybody thinks is old, but we still think is new.
But now this corner looks very interesting.
It is.
The table came from the cabaret, the big dance hall in band area.
Years ago.
Hank Williams senior played there and he carved his name in it.
One night, people that had the cabaret brought it to Aki.
And it's been here ever since.
Hank Junior has seen it.
He told Aki.
Leave it here.
Don't send it to my museum.
I want it to stay here.
It's where it belongs.
So we have that.
And then Aki.
When he hit his 50th anniversary, we had all of this from the governor that came down from the Texas Music Association, presented a flag from the Capitol, and we had this presentation.
We also made the cover of Texas Monthly was supposed to be Aki's picture, but the writer decided he wanted his him in the picture.
But anyway, it's our jukebox and everybody recognized it.
The painting a friend did that.
She had it commissioned by her from her cousin, and it was for an auction for our local, one of our local nonprofits.
And the gentleman that bought it gave it back to Aki because he saw it belonged here, not in his house.
And then these are just some friends that we've lost.
And Aki and James.
James had the 11th Street for a long time.
They've been buddies for forever.
So they were presented a special award from the city for in the county for doing entertainment.
Yeah.
You know, we've got some things over here I'll show you to.
So this is another fun corner here.
Yes it is.
We have all these photos.
These are when he worked as a wrangler at Las Valley, feeding calves and taking out trail rides and entertaining the guests.
And some of this cool old car there and everything.
And we've got one of him here still on his horse, and then one racing the plane.
The famous one.
Racing assessment.
Rest?
Yes.
On his horse.
Will he be good?
And he said he won.
Sure he did.
Sure he did.
Of course he did.
What else have you got here?
Let's see.
Just.
These are just collection of things that people bring down.
We have the same people that set in these booths all the time.
So they have their little pictures here and there.
And then these awards were different ones that are Music Hall of Fame here in Bandera has presented to you through the years the stars.
Now, before I forget, they filmed a movie or a couple of scenes from the movie they did.
Aki was in it and a couple of his songs were in the movie.
It was race with the devil.
He played pool with Loretta Swit, and also Warren Oates was in it.
Did you know Aki at that time?
I knew who he was.
Okay, but you were in the 70s.
But you weren't in the movie.
I was not in the movie.
Now they missed me.
Well, this has been a fun trip down memory lane here.
And.
And meeting Aki was such an honor.
So I thank you for your time.
And I'm going to get a quarter.
I want to play the Dolly Parton.
Okay.
Everybody loves Dolly.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Hello, Dolly.
Yes.
Yes, ma'am.
Oh, here we go.
This is how I got through college.
It's an honor to meet you and talk with you.
You're a living legend.
You know, across Texas and especially in Bandera.
We've owned the place, and you've been able to play your songs here, right?
With your cowboy hat.
Blues cowboy band.
How old were you when you bought the place?
18.
Yeah, but you're only like, 25 now.
That's right, that's right.
Yeah, right.
You're like Mr.
Bandera about that.
And you were.
You were a cowboy before you got into the music business, right?
Yeah.
Rachel worked at.
Worked on ranches.
My dad's ranch stated.
Okay.
And roping and branding and things like that.
You know, that into modern day and ranch.
My pickup trucks.
Yeah.
Okay.
Easier to run a truck.
And his horse will probably stick shift truck.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that's a great experience.
They had a famous people here.
Willie Nelson, hack Williams junior, I hear.
Yeah.
He went hunting with this couple of times.
Did you do better than he did in the hunting I think I did you.
Good for you.
This is a wonderful place.
It hasn't changed, I don't think, since 68, when you bought it.
Yeah.
That's right.
And when you.
When you bought it.
What was your vision for the place she was born.
So you come here and.
And you.
I think you heard Ernest Tubb play here before you bought her.
Yeah.
And and so it seemed like a perfect place to for the cowboys to come.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's true.
And I hear there's been a movie married here.
Were you in the film?
Yes.
With little Red or Swift?
Rose from ash.
Right.
I play pool with her and the table.
Well, she's very pretty back then.
She still lives.
Who are some of the musicians you liked a lot?
You ever steel player, he should write a book, actually.
Have you written a book about this place?
I tried to, but I gave up on it.
Thank you very much, sir.
It's been an honor.
Really.
Welcome.
The history of blues is just really amazing.
And it's no surprise that the city of Bandera dedicated this street to him.
So we're going to sign off.
Got a run?
Thanks for coming with us.
This program is supported by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation.
Support for PBS provided by:
Texas Dance Halls is a local public television program presented by KLRN
Support provided by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation.













