Friday Follies Happy Hour 2011.07.22

I was saddened to see an obituary in the paper for Jon "Bubba" Littrell. He was one of a vanishing breed - musicians that played at Texas dance halls scattered around the state.

He and his long-running band, the Melody Mustangs, were fixtures in venues including the Melody Ranch, the Hi-Ho, the Farmer's Daughter, Texas Star Inn, the Junction, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and in dance halls across South and Central Texas.

It wasn't that long ago that we lost Johnny Lyon, another dance hall performer and owner of the Melody Ranch in Waco.

Lyon owned the Melody Ranch, now operating as El Rancho, from 1983 to 1999. During that time, it became one of the city's biggest and busiest dance halls, drawing a lot of A- and B-listers in country music while providing a strong local venue for Waco-area country bands. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard played there and the club's popular college night on Thursdays in the '80s proved the starting rungs on Deryl Dodd's career ladder.

He was a performer, too, leading the Country Nu-Notes band, and a champion of tried-and-true Texas honky-tonk music. In recent years, he teamed with country veteran Johnny Bush, opening for him at shows across the state.

I've boot-scooted to both of them, and I've been to most of the places they played. The Texas music scene is better off for having them, and lessened now that they're gone.

I couldn't find videos of either Littrell or Lyon, but I managed to dig up this one of another classic honky-tonk performer, Johnny Bush.

I think Bubba and Johnny would approve...