Head over to Wolfmueller's Books and Records on the corner of Water Street and Sidney Baker to purchase your tickets to the Johnny Nicholas Big Band Bash in Fredericksburg on Saturday, November 15. For $65 you can be a patron, eat a fine meal early with the performers and have a reserved table. For only $20 you can experience a tradition in the Hill County, a rocking concert featuring a host of celebrated performers. I love the people who participate in this event! Johnny Nicholas has the Hill Top Café, located about ten miles from Fredericksburg on the Mason Highway. Not only can you get great meal, but you can experience some of the blues, played on piano or guitar, that Johnny Nicholas can dish out. Ben Beckendorff played a Saturday lunch blues gig there over the summer. Always a surprise in this house of delicious treats.

Marcia Ball, playing music off her new Alligator CD, will be on stage with Cindy Cashdollar, a flashy and veteran steel guitar player. Ernie Durwawa, a drummer whom I met first when he recorded with Doug Sahm, will keep the beat for everyone. Jimmie Vaughan will make his first appearance at the event, and Floyd Domino, keyboardist extraordinaire, will return. Stephen Bruton, producer and performer, brings his own rhythm to the stage. I love CD he produced for Raul Salinas, a spoken word piece with musical accompaniment that speaks of many forms of resistance.

This is the sixth annual, with the first four also showcasing the high school jazz bands in Fredericksburg and raising money for music in the schools. Johnny lost his son, Reno, two years ago, and Reno had played this event. Now we pay tribute to this young man at each show.

Also ahead, on November 22, is a performance by the Kevin McCormick Ensemble at the Hill Country Youth Ranch, another great cause in the Hill Country. Formed in 2000, this ensemble plays music rooted in the traditions of both classical composition and rock. "The repertoire is music of intent-breathing in open spaces and stirring the soul." Now I love that description!

Ned Ragget, in a review of the 1999 release, "Squall," said, "At his deft best, McCormick recalls a partially symphonic, partially man-and guitar take on the late-night moods of, say, Miles Davis as seen through the filter of Bark Psychosis-mysterious but not inapproachable, suddenly intense but never overbearing."

Born in my own hometown of Ft. Worth, a hometown that inspired me to barrel race and rodeo, Kevin had his own path to follow. You might have seen him at Francisco's, tastefully adding guitar music and mood to your special dinner there. You might have been at the Tobin Tilley house concert, where Kevin sat in front of huge windows opening out to a view of valleys and trees, playing his music. He serves as guitar teacher to several doctors in the area, as well as to my own eye doctor, Tobin Tilley.

Bill Ellis, in the American Record Guide, says, "The light side of the moon." David Lynch in the Austin Chronicle says of the band, "…Together they paint an aural watercolor of emotional intensity." Sound interesting yet? These descriptions support my own experience of the music, which I am playing right now in my cabin on a high plain west of Kerrville. The morning is gray and wet, a perfect silent backdrop for this music to flow through my very small house.

The show November 22 begins at 8:00 p.m. in the Turner Black Box Theatre at the Hill Country Youth Ranch, located on Highway 27 toward Mt. Home, 1 mile west of the Y at Ingram.

Also ahead on November 29, is the 6th edition of The Country Christmas Ball, held at The Farm Country Club near Bandera. The Almost Patsy Cline Band will play, and for a $20 ticket, you can enjoy a prime rib buffet, a great country dance and unique Christmas decoration. A table for 8 is only $150. Make it the office party. Call 830-589-2276 for tickets now.

The November coffeehouse, featuring Patricia Vonne, ended the fall series with a bang. Vonne, with her husband accompanying and harmonizing started the evening by picking up her castanets and delivering a song in Spanish. The crowd for the evening had more Schreiner students than ever before, and the International club stayed afterwards, talking with her more. As professor/producer, I was thrilled at the interaction. And she visited my writing class the next day. Go to her website and get her cd, www.patriciavonne.com The spring series begins the first Wednesday in February with a poetry slam (competition) led by Gary Mex Glazner from Santa Fe.

It's Native American Heritage Month. Free Leonard and down the road.