Many a visitor to the great state of Texas has visions of experiencing an authentic evening at a dance hall. The lilting sound of country fiddle, the couples gliding effortlessly across an old wooden floor, and the seeming trance that onlookers fall into when the sound of Western Swing kicks up, and they haven’t found a partner to put things into high gear with – those are the sights and sounds that an authentic Lone Star State dance hall produces any given weekend. Although there aren’t as many Texas dance halls as there used to be, Austinites Martin Buehler and sons have got your choices covered and categorized with the click of a mouse.
Lifestyle
Waltz Across Central Texas with a Dance Hall Directory
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Photo: Facebook/SKYROCKET!
As development becomes the norm for urban Texas, rural communities and dance halls are slowly disappearing. But true cowboy culture is an integral part of life in this state, and there’s no denying that a good dance hall is a component of that. With a reputation for good times and great music, Buehler wanted to develop a website that compiled all of the possible options for folks to experience these real-life Texas dance halls that were loaded with Lone Star State character.
Photo: Facebook/Tom Sefcik Dance Hall
Honkytonktx.com was designed and development by Buehler and his sons to provide the end-user with a complete list of dance halls, history, legends, and the music that made them what they are. Spending a little over a year to travel through the central part of the state and document the honky-tonk culture of Texas, Buehler launched this labor of love on the encouragement of his friend James M. White, who owns the Broken Spoke in Austin. The result was a comprehensive website that included blurbs on approximately 40 dance halls (most of which were located in Central Texas), complete with phone numbers and directions.
Photo: Pinterest/Southern Living
Although there are components of the site that haven’t been updated in a while, the most valued piece of the puzzle, for the purpose of this article, is the actual listing of honky-tonks. A quick click will soon show you whether a business is online anymore, and a call to a number that Buehler has lovingly listed as an access point to some of these generations-old, wooden-floored denizens of dancing history will tell you whether they’re in business anymore. You’ll find profiles, hours, and as much detail as one would need to map out a plan of dancing the night away in true Texas fashion. That, coupled with his work on highlighting honky-tonk stars, memorabilia, and the genre as a whole, has made Buehler a homegrown hero in the eyes of any Texas dancehall newbie that just needs a leg up on where to shake a leg. Check out Honkytontx.com to plan a night out at an authentic dance hall, two-stepping around a worn wooden floor that’s seen many a generation before you start a flame or simply waltz across Texas.
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