George Strait, the early years revisited

Mary Jane Farmer | October 31, 2012

Ace in the Hole Band with George Strait Debut at Cheatham Street Warehouse, 10-13-75. Courtesy of Terry Hale.

“Ace In The Hole” debut at Cheatham Street Warehouse, Oct. 13, 1975. Photo courtesy of Terry Hale

By Kent Finlay, Cheatham Street Warehouse owner for more than three dozen years. George Strait is currently on what he calls his “final tour” and it reaches Lubbock on Jan. 18 and Oklahoma City on Jan. 19

October was a mighty important time at Cheatham Street Warehouse, (in San Marcos, Texas) and indeed, in the world of music in general. On October 13, 1975, a new, unknown five-piece band played their first show. They called themselves Ace In The Hole,

Inscription on George Strait CD to Kent Finlay

and the band came to be centered around the vocals of a young fellow named George Strait. That first show was free, and a few dozen folks showed up. That first show turned into a weekly gig for George and the guys, and they played every week at Cheatham, getting better and better with time and practice, and they gradually started getting shows in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and other Texas cities, also.

George made his first trip to Nashville in 1977, We went in the Cheatham Street cargo van. (We still had to go to Nashville back in those days to do music business.) Anyway, George kept on getting more and more attention, and finally Erv Woolsey, who worked at MCA Records, got the powers that were there at the time to take a chance on George — and of course, you know what happened. George Strait and his Ace in the Hole band became the most successful country act in history!

By 1982, they were so busy out there on the road that they were hardly ever home, so the weekly gig at Cheatham Street came to an end, (But then, that was what we were working toward — We love it when one of the acts we are helping gets too big for us).

THANK YOU, GEORGE STRAIT, FOR NOT MAKING A LIAR OUT OF ME . . . YOU ARE MY HERO, AND YOU ARE STILL MAKING ME FEEL PROUD! CONGRATULATIONS! THIS IS OUR 36TH ANNIVERSARY!

AN INTERESTING ASIDE NOTE: George and the Ace in the Hole Band were still playing once a week when Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble started playing every Tuesday in the early 80’s. So for a couple of years we had Stevie Ray and George Strait both playing every week.

MARY JANE’S OWN SIDE NOTE, laughing at myself still for this one: One night during this time, about 1977 more or less, and during my drinking days when I was living in Wimberley, I drove to the Cheatham Street Warehouse to hear Ace In The Hole — like Kent said, it wasn’t even George Strait & Ace In The Hole then… Parked, got out, went inside, and was having fun with the people and the music. Suddenly, the band stopped, and Tommy Foote, then the drummer, had George announce: “Mary Jane, the train has stopped but wants to go on, will you please move your car?” I had parked it on the railroad tracks.

UPDATE: March 2, 2015. The last time Kent and I talked (Feb. 9, 2015), he said he wanted to write another story for Scene In Town, and asked when I was going to trek back to San Marcos. But, he cautioned, “Don’t park on the railroad tracks!” — I loved that man.