Not Just Another Pretty Place

What Folks Are Saying About Cheatham Street Warehouse

When the annals of Texas Music are finally written, I have no doubt that Cheatham Street Warehouse will be compared to Washington-on-the-Brazos. It’s where Texas Music began. A humble little shed by the railroad tracks, it has nurtured, raised, and showcased the greatest musicians this state has had to offer for the past three decades. While folks like George Strait, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Terri Hendrix, who’ve graced its low, creaky stage have gone on to achieve success in bigger and larger venues, the funky beer joint has somehow managed to persevere, same as it ever was, reminding us soul can neither be bought nor manufactured, and reassuring us there is really still is a Texas like the one Cheatham Street resides in.

No matter how much money you spent, you could never recreate the magic of a big engine train rumbling behind the stage, shaking the whole room, while the band played on. You couldn’t import the crazy-ass wild crowds that packed the place and drove the temperature beyond the sweat-soaked sauna boiling point, either.

Of course, the building would be just a building, nothing more, if not for the man who made it what it was, Kent Finlay. If my memory serves me well, no one ever paid a band more slowly or purposefully after a show as Kent did ‘way back when.’ I can close my eyes and still see him peeling off twenty dollar bills in slow motion. Normally such deliberate actions would have driven a hyper band manager like me crazy. Lost in a beer haze, impatient, and tired, I was ready to drive the band back home, not sit and visit.

But Kent was that rare ol’ boy you wanted to hang around and listen to and soak up ‘til the break of day.

I teased him a few years back when he took over Cheatham again. He’s taken time out to raise his family, relax, and watch the river flow by his place in Martindale. But he just couldn’t stay away. It was a hard life running a club, I reminded him, a lot harder to make ends meet now that it was when he started out. The hours were long, the clientele too often ungrateful, and the economy sucked more than ever, as it always seems to do in clubland.

But Kent made it clear he knew exactly what he was doing. Cheatham Street was in his blood. And his blood was still all over Cheatham Street. Last I checked, it still is. You can hear it in all the music that’s been made in the hallowed halls of the Cheatham Street Warehouse and is still being made on this very night.
Joe Nick Patoski
Texas writer

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The Cheatham Street Warehouse, along with the Too Bitter, were where I went to school at night to learn how to appreciate Texas music. The teachers were excellent, the classrooms authentic, and both stayed open later than the SWT library. The Too Bitter is gone, but Cheatham is still there, pumping out educated students of a timeless artform. Long Live Cheatham Street!!
Casey Monahan
SWTSU student, 1977-1980
Director, Texas Music Office
Office of the Governor

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Cheatham Street Warehouse and Kent Finlay are synonymous with the history of Texas Music. “The Art Gallery for Texas Music,” stands as a landmark source for original live music and has quenched our thirst as music lovers for nearly 30 years. Kent Finlay has showcased thousands of our Lone Star musicians who have given us some of the fondest memories.
Kent has launched many a career for which we all owe a great debt.
Charlie Gallagher, Director
New Braunfels Museum of Art and Music

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The mere fact that George Strait and Ace in the Hole Band played their debut gig at Cheatham Street Warehouse in 1975 is impressive enough, but the legendary place’s importance in Texas music history goes far beyond that.
For over 30 years, Kent Finlay’s steady, unselfish, and patient devotion to nurturing music has made Cheatham Street Warehouse a cultural fountain from which an endless number of great Texas musicians have come to drink.
For those who appreciate the craft of songwriting, in particular, Kent’s “Songwriter’s Circle” and song-swap nights showcase a real master at his craft, a true songwriter’s songwriter.
Gregg Andrews
Assistant Director,
Center for Texas Music History
Texas State University