"I'd died & gone to Heaven!"

Yes, dear reader, that's what I was saying during and after a certain Saturday night event. "I felt like I'd died and gone to Heaven!" The event involved a trip with my brother Patrick to a local institution of fame, Texas dance hall Floore Country Store in Helotes, northwest of San Antonio.

But no, the "heavenly" feeling didn't involve any two-stepping or waltzing on my part or "baby" brother's. Rather, the pleasure came in listening live to one of my favorite country-pop singers, the great Ray Price. Now, if you return to my postings in August 2006, you'll read how I won a certificate for free admission for two to Ray Price's previous concert at Floore, courtesy KKYX-AM 680. But then I couldn't find anybody who'd go with me and thus give me a ride. (Before I moved to S.A., the bus company, VÍA, had a route going out Bandera Road into Helotes, but during my time VÍA gets no closer than several miles inside Loop 1604 on Bandera Road.)

Well, early last week I again won admission for two, to this year's concert. And yeah, buddy! it sure helps to have kinfolk with wheels living in town! I just wish the admission had been for three or even four (like KKYX's ticket prizes to Missions baseball games). That's because my sister-in-law LaRae knew who Ray Price is and likes his singing. Brother Patrick, on the other hand, wasn't familiar with the legendary singer, whose biggest pop hit was probably "For the Good Times" in the Sixties. They felt they couldn't afford the cost of an additional admission to make it a threesome. So just Patrick and I went out to the small town that's home to John T. Floore's dance hall.

When we entered the grounds I found out that the whole concert would begin an hour later than I had thought (the certificate didn't have a time, just the date). But this gave time to just relax and enjoy the atmosphere and to explore the grounds. During the roaming I noticed that KKYX-AM 680 had set up a tent; I went over and thanked the radio station's employee for the free admission which allowed Patrick and me to attend the concert. He divulged that Jerry King was present, near one of the outdoor bars. So I walked over there to chat with my "old friend". Jerry, weekday morning deejay on the classic country music station, is renown for being the first to broadcast a George Strait recording. In the past five years he's been inducted into the country radio deejay Hall of Fame, located inside Opryland Hotel next to the broadcast booth of WSM, home of the Grand Ole Opry. Later this night he served as Master of Ceremonies for 20 seconds -- long enough to introduce the star of the concert. If there were such a thing as a "Jerry King Fan Club" I reckon I would be President!

The "store" really is a tavern, with a small dance floor as well as seating and a small performance area. But Ray Price and his Cherokee Cowboys band, and warm-up act Texas Sapphire, would be performing outdoors, behind the building. That area, about half the size of a football field, maybe, featured a large concrete slab for dancing, with a permanent stage on the east side, the store on the south side and several rows of picnic tables for seating, under a few live oaks, on the west side. Texas Highway 16 runs along the north side, but the tall wooden fence surrounding the grounds keeps out the noise of traffic.

As opening time for the concert's warm-up approached, this space filled up. Most folk were my age or older -- folk who were around when Price was a hit-making singer. Almost all of us were Anglos; some women wore outfits one associates with older country music fans of the female persuasion. And a majority of the men wore Stetsons and other western wear. Actually, I surprised myself in grabbing one of my caps rather than my own cowboy hat. Patrick remarked that he, too, was surprised at my choice of headgear. At least I sported blue jeans and a Western-cut shirt (with "pearl" snaps). And like most of the men I drank a couple of beers during the evening -- my taste for brew running to Lone Star Light.

Let me tell you, the whole atmosphere of Floore Country Store is quintessentially Texan!

The warm-up act, Texas Sapphire, was a brother-sister duet from Austin. They sounded pretty good, and seemed to be singing mostly original songs in a range of musical styles, to include traditional country with steel guitar accompaniment, in their performance of about an hour. But we were here to hear (and see) Ray Price! Well, after several "dead" minutes of nobody being on stage Ray Price's band members came out and began preparing instruments for performance. Then I noticed that several dozen folks, mostly men, had gathered in front of the stage. I remarked about them to both my brother and a woman sitting at the same picnic table. She replied that they were "groupies". Considering myself a Ray Price "groupie" of sorts I decided to saunter over there, myself!

After four songs led and sung by Ray's guitar-playing son, the great singer himself stepped out, beginning things with "San Antonio Rose". This was appropriate, since the formerly remote Helotes has been bumped up against by the ever-expanding San Antonio! After a few words of greeting, Ray went into the second song. And I "died and went to Heaven"!

That song is "Crazy Arms". Working at the ticket center at Opryland in 1991 and again a couple of years later, daily I was listening to a set of a few dozen country hit recordings that were played over and over in that area at the entrance to Opryland and the Grand Ole Opry House. Such hits as "Satisfied Mind" by Porter Waggoner, "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks and "Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind" by George Strait. Country-music lover that I am, I never tired of these songs. My very favorite came to be "Crazy Arms" by Ray Price! Being early Ray Price (before he eased into a more "Nashville Sound" pop-music style such as "For the Good Times"), it's a traditional country song about unrequited love with traditional accompaniment, including a great pedal-steel guitar. That steel guitar has a concluding slide that simply "sends me" whenever I hear it!

Now I was hearing Ray Price himself singing "Crazy Arms"! Wow! I made my way back across the dance floor, now filled with dozens of couples "cuttin' the rug", and announced to my companions that "I feel like I've died and gone to Heaven!" And I quickly added the explanation.

On a later song Ray actually stopped singing to let the fiddles, etc., do an instrumental rendition of the great Bob Wills classic "Faded Love". Why he chose to not sing the lyrics I don't know, but the fiddles alone were okay. Traditional country music connoisseurs speak of "twin fiddles"; Ray went further and had quadruple fiddles in his band! Oh, and I ought to mention that one day in the 1980s I was listening to WSM-AM 650, home of the Grand Ole Opry, when the station had a listener call-in poll of our favorite country songs of all time. George Jones' song "He stopped Loving Her Today" topped this poll, but the one I called in, "Faded Love", placed high. This was a few years before I began to work at Opryland and fall in love with "Crazy Arms" and before George Strait released "Love Without End, Amen" which continues as my fave.

Well, "baby" bro Patrick is even less of a night owl than I, so we didn't stay for the whole concert. I reasoned that after all, what could be better than "San Antonio Rose", an instrumental "Faded Love" and that wonderful "Crazy Arms"? As we walked back to bro's car, he did say that he'd recognized some of Price's songs. He's more into contemporary-hit country music (and thus probably enjoyed Texas Sapphire more), but I sensed that he had enjoyed the whole evening. And I had the satisfactions of having "died and gone to Heaven" when Ray sang that song, and of having introduced my brother to that characteristic Texas institution, the dance hall. Yep! I've "Texanized" my bro!