XL Music:

AM/PM: All that's missing at the Oaks is you

By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, April 20, 2006

Longtime Austin music scenester Steve Dean, who brought live music to South Congress Avenue in 1978 when he opened the Austex Lounge at the current Magnolia Cafe location, has big dreams. And the Oaks, the juke joint/ampitheater he opened last month on FM 973, two miles south of Manor, promises enough potential to make them come true.

It all hinges on a simple question: Will Austinites drive almost to Manor to hear live roots music in a rustic setting?

Austin has a bad habit of shucking its distinctive live music spots for office buildings and parking lots. Is there anyone out there besides Kirk Watson who still thinks CSC for Liberty Lunch was a good trade?

The Armadillo, Club Foot, Soap Creek: all bulldozed in the Live Music Capital of the World.

The Oaks could very well be that rare magical venue born after the period of time when Sandra replaced Bob as Austin's leading Bullock. With a big, covered stage, bleachers from Manor Downs, corrugated metal walls and enough space under the trees to comfortably fit a thousand folks (or 200 zydeco dancers), the Oaks is well worth the 20-minute drive from downtown. Inside feels like a honky-tonk, with pool tables, old wooden booths and bartenders that look like country singers Rosie Flores and Jessie Lee Miller.

Omigosh, they really are Rosie and Jessie Lee!

How different is the Oaks from the standard downtown music club? There's a fishing pole in the sound booth, so the audio engineer can make with the bait for a little angling in Gilleland Creek, 25 feet behind him, during down times.

If the Oaks were downtown, there would be lines each night. Bob Schneider would grab him a day. Seventeen critics from the Austin Chronicle would be on the guest list every time a buzz band from Canada was on the bill. The bloggers would race to be the first to dub the Oaks the place to be.

But if the club were less than a $10 cab ride from anywhere within the city limits, it wouldn't feel the same. You can't just drop that downhome country ambience in the middle of Trendy, TX. When's the last time you went to Stubb's and noticed Waller Creek? The only fishing done there is when the cops pull a homeless guy out of the muck.

Dean first noticed the Oaks when he lived nearby and the club was called Jimbo's Last Resort. Give Jimbo all the credit for the club's design and construction. The previous owner put a lot into giving South Manor a first-class venue. But the club never could draw enough patronage from out of town and it closed about a year ago.

The Oaks debuted March 19, the Sunday of South by Southwest, with such longtime Dean associates as Flores, James Hand, Rick Broussard and James Intveld attracting a crowd of about 350, many from overseas. That's been, by far, the biggest crowd at the club, which recently drew about 100 for zydeco great Rosie Ledet.

Dean realizes that the Oaks' longevity relies on changing the time and travel perception of Austin music fans, just as the Backyard did a decade ago. Now that the once-bucolic Bee Cave amphiteater has been forced to be part of an ugly shopping center (a name change to "Backyard, Bath and Beyond" is in order), the Oaks is as scenic as the scene can get.

Dean and partner Deborah Fleming have had their beer and wine license less than a month, which has made them scramble to fill the schedule while the weather's so conducive to outdoor music. But such friends as Marcia Ball (April 29), Hand (May 4) and W.C. Clark (June 3) have offered their services to get the ball rolling. Dean says he hopes to eventually book Tejano music every Sunday afternoon; he's in talks with Los Tres Amigos (Little Joe, Ruben Ramos, Roberto Pulido) to kick off the series.

Way down the road, Dean hopes to convert a chunk of the surrounding 100 acres into a campground and RV park so the curved ballcap crowd, with its shortage of designated drivers, will flock to the Oaks, then flop in their sleeping bags.

Destination venues Gruene Hall and John T. Floore's Country Store in Helotes are the role models for the Oaks, Dean says. "Everybody who comes out here says, 'I can't believe how cool this is,'" says Dean. The only thing the Oaks lacks is more people. (And consistent food. Don't come hungry, unless you're up for mediocre barbecue from a trailer that's sometimes open for business.)

The Derailers and Roger Wallace play an 8 o'clock show at the Oaks tonight. Django Walker plays there Friday, and new South Austinite Rosie Flores trades her bar towel for her guitar on Saturday.

mcorcoran@statesman.com; 445-3652