MUSIC CITY TEXAS

Steel was still scarce in the 1940’s after World War II, but carpenters knew well how to work with wood when Linden citizens contemplated the need for a community center.

And so, in 1950, the American Legion’s community center got built as if it were a wartime airplane hangar. Its brick walls and tall ceiling with arching wooden trusses might have housed a fighter aircraft.

The Legion voted a $25 bond that Linden citizens would purchase to raise funds to build the building. It was not something they really expected to see a return from. It was something to help the town, and citizens volunteered their time to build the hall as well.

The building was a success as a community meeting hall. It was home for the Linden Lions Folly, Miss Linden Pageant and high school dances when it would be filled with people from all over. The musical group Four Speeds with Don Henley, later to be of The Eagles fame, first began playing here on Friday and Saturday nights.

When Legionnaires shrank in number, the building declined in disuse. It became a church and then a blue jeans factory for awhile. Its magnificent wooden ceiling had long been covered up.

Then, in the 1990’s, another group of interested citizens became enthusiastic for a music festival to promote the town. A lumberjack festival had been tried without much success.

Business was depressed, but Linden knew it had a musical heritage. Perhaps that could be used to pull people into town, and so Music City Texas Inc., a non-profit 501-c3 was formed.

The non-profit received $5,000 from the Lions Club and a $20,000 loan from the Linden Economic Development Corporation and set about to remodel the American Legion Hall.

When the promotors removed the low ceilings, they found the spacious and bowed wooden ceiling and realized it could be something special. Leave the beams open, they decided. The look and quality of sound produced by the design would be a blessing.

The promotors also used wood from the high school gym seats which had been replaced to make the bathrooms as designed and built by the late artist Brad Attaway who also made beautifications to the interior.

When the first ticketed performance was given in 2003, the promotors began to realize how challenging their task would be. Then, Don Henley and others stepped in to bring in powerful performers such as Jackson Browne who came twice in 2004 without charge. Finally, Don Henley came himself for two performances also in 2004, and suddenly Music City Texas found itself with money in the bank and a goal of continuing to bring first class entertainment to the area.

Performers and audiences now come to be close to each other while sitting in a unique building that has its own personality If one looks at the ceiling lights, for example, they seem to be upside down musical drums, and that is correct. They are. Don Henley had one of best drum makers to make them as real drums first, ceiling lamps second.

The facility also has received donated stage lighting worth thousands of dollars. And beneath the stage is a dining room in which home-cooked southern meals are served for the guests, entertainers and crew. In all, it makes everyone feel more at home even when they are on the road.

The performers say they give the entertainment all that much more and better.