CULTURE

LISTEN Capps will play Aug. 20 at The Lonesome Rose garretttcapps.com

San Antone Sound

Unconventional year leads to new albums from Garrett T. Capps

BY VIVIAN PHILLIPS

T

hough Austin has long been known as the live music capital of Texas, Garrett T. Capps is proud to be from San Antonio. In fact, much of Capps’ music focuses on just that. “Born in San Antone,” Capps’ most popular song with over 400,000 Spotify plays, is an anthem of his pride.

“When I first started playing outside of San Antonio, I didn’t want to play ‘Born in San Antone’ because I thought it was just for the people of San Antonio and that only the people of San Antonio would like it,” Capps says. “But people love that song all around the world. I started playing it in the honky tonks in Austin and it became how people knew me—they knew I was the guy from San Antonio amongst that dense scene in Austin and I kind of just ran with it.”

Capps says San Antonio’s music scene has become increasingly active in recent years thanks, in part, to venues like Paper Tiger and the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Capps worked to contribute to that growth both as a musician and a supporter by co-establishing The Lonesome Rose in 2018.

“I’d been booking bands around town for a few years before it all organically came together,” Capps says, of The Lonesome Rose. “I needed a place to book all of my friends’ country bands and I heard future business partners were opening a honky-tonk on the St. Mary’s Strip. The rest is history.”

Despite the last year-plus being unconventional for the local music scene, Capps still found ways to reach his audience, aside from Spotify, where he has 14,000 monthly subscribers. In collaboration with Texas Public Radio, Capps dreamt up a telethon that raised over $6,000 in 2020 and over $10,000 in 2021 for the Luminaria Artist Foundation’s Individual Grants Program. The rest of his time in quarantine was spent working on and completing three new albums. The first of which, I Love San Antone, comes out Aug. 20.

“I think that after this year, we all need something to celebrate,” says Capps, who played an Echo Bridge concert held in June (see sidebar) and has album release shows planned Aug. 20 and 21. “When you have a concert to go to, it adds a certain presence to the moment that cannot be replaced. [Booking concerts] is awakening an energy inside of me that I had forgotten existed.”

REVERBERATIONS

ECHO BRIDGE APPRECIATION SOCIETY BRINGS MUSIC TO THE SOUTH SIDE

A bike ride nearly 20 years ago is to thank for a series of Sunday concerts that launched quietly this summer on the city’s South Side under the Mrs. Frank W. Sorrell Bridge.

Known as the Echo Bridge Appreciation Society, the concerts are hosted by a group of artists looking to support local musicians while also building a unique outdoor concert space akin to the Arneson River Theatre. The spot is one they identified years ago after marveling at how long a fellow cyclist’s “hooting and hollering” reverberated off the concrete bridge when they rode under it.

With limited space for seating under the bridge, guests are required to RSVP and provide a small donation to support the night’s featured artist. After the sun begins to set, the musicians set up on the opposite side of the bridge from the small crowd to perform. Garrett T. Capps, Bob Livingston and Austin Leonard Jones are among those who’ve played thus far, relying on the echo of the bridge rather than a complex sound system to deliver their notes across the water.

The bridge is located just down the hill from the coffee shop and bar Tandem San Antonio and across the street from the Space C7 contemporary art gallery, affording the chance for a pre-concert drink or exhibition tour.

Organizers say they launched earlier this year just to see if their idea could work and have been surprised by the positive reaction from locals, who turn out in larger numbers each month. Follow them on Instagram @echobridgeappreciation society for updates.—KP