www.mysanantonio.com
by John Goodspeed
Sure, Reckless Kelly, the Scott Wiggins Band and Charlie Robison are nearby this week, but Johnny Bush’s 75th birthday celebration is worth the drive up Interstate 35.
“To me it’s another day, but there’s going to be money made on this one so that changes things,” Bush said in his usual wry humor.
The show will be at 8 p.m. Saturday at Willie Nelson’s Night Life Theater at Carl’s Corner, the truck stop on I-35 near Hillsboro. Artists on the bill include Johnny Rodriguez, Johnny Lyons, Leona Williams and Heather Myles.
Bush recently released an album of duets with Rodriguez, “Texas Legends,” with new songs in Bush’s traditional country style, along with a Tejano tune called “Vamoose Vamanos” and a western ballad about a broken heart, “The Rio Grande Runs Red.”
“When Johnny Rodriguez sings that last verse in Spanish, it just kills me,” Bush said.
Bush, of course, is the longtime friend of Nelson, who wrote “Whiskey River.”
Nelson will not be at the show. “I told him to stay away,” Bush said. “He’ll take credit for the crowd.”
Check it out at www.williesplacetheater.com.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/84698822.html
“Brash country performer and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Bush, a one-time star who penned Willie Nelson’s classic “Whiskey River,” recounts the early days of Texas honky-tonk in this raucous autobiography. So poor he and his brother went to school without shoes, Bush’s rough early years in Houston took a change for the better after his parents divorced and he moved in with his uncle, “Smilin'” Jerry Jericho. A well-liked veteran of the local music scene, Jericho took Bush under his wing and brought the boy into a world of living legends like Gene Autry and Lefty Frizzell. Fans of live music will get a kick out of Bush’s fond but brutally honest memories of life on the road, playing gigs with Willie Nelson and Bush’s idol Ray Price, performing behind chicken wire while fights rage on the dance floor, indulging in one-night stands and abusing plenty of drugs and alcohol.” — Publisher’s Weekly.
You can purchase it for $25.00 (and $3.00 for shipping) by sending checks payable to Johnny Bush, to:
Johnny Bush
5807 Babcock Ste. 236
San Antonio, TX 78240
