DS: Indian Head Ranch Trail Ride 2012

Dal Segno: One

In 2012 I was fortunate enough to be asked along on a beatiful weekend at Indian Head Ranch in northern New Mexico (IYKYK). There was good friends, good music, good horses and good food. And a good amount of whiskey. I'm going to keep this first installment brief, because the video is long, but it's worth the watch...

Please keep an eye out for more content from more signposts from the past.



More content:
New Series: Dal Segno (Introduction)

New Series: Dal Segno

Cody Canada & The Departed 2011 at Gruene Hall

I'm starting a new series where I go back to a particular point in the history of us covering and promoting the live music culture of our area. We will re-release ancient (and hopefully improved) content. Music of New Braunfels started in August 2012, but it was born out of my love for music that was instilled in me by a few specific people's love of music.

First of all, my sister always had interesting music around, and she taught me when I was about 8 that I can listen to music at night when I sleep if I keep the volume low enough that it didn't rouse attention from outside my bedroom, so most of my childhood from that point on included some FM radio playing through my sleep cycles. Of course being in the 70's and 80's I would at times wake up in a panic wondering WHAT THE HECK that noise was, only to find out is was some weird, psychadelic keyboard or guitar riff or something. My sister also introduced me to a few 8 tracks. El Loco by ZZ Top and the Xanadu soundtrack among others.

My dad had quite a few records and a few 8 tracks and even some music on reel to reel laying around, so I would listen to his music, including Herb Alpert, Roger Whitaker, Arlo Guthrie and more.

By the time my grandfather retired, his obsession with music such as Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe (among others) had gone into full force, and he would record certain times of day from the radio onto casette tape so he could go back and listen to songs he loved. I would also frequently watch shows like Nashville Now, Crooke and Chase and The Grand Ole Opry on TV with my grandparents. Oh, and Heehaw which I sort of didn't count as a music show at the time, but looking back, DANG it had some great music on it.

In roughly 2009, I began to listen to KNBT, our amazing, local Americana radio station more often, and my love and appreciation for Americana, Texas Country and Red Dirt music got added to my already highly eclectic musical taste. I also began to develop a love and appreciation for our local music scene, espcially live music.

I would occasionally step out to venues like Billy's Ice, Freiheit, Tavern in the Gruene and others to catch people like Allan Goodman, Wes Nickson, Zack Walther, Jason Allen and others, and I also went to several Roots and Branches of Americana live broadcasts back when it was at Tavern in the Gruene. Tavern in the Gruene is now Gruene Homestead Inn which is basically a Bed and Breakfast and bookable event venue (I think) at the edge of Gruene on Gruene Road.

All of that combined made me want to start posting pictures and videos from these events to let more people know about this greats music scene, because I figured if I'd been living in a hole and didn't know about it, so there had to be others who also needed an education.

So anyway, that brings us to today, and I decided I'm going to bring you this new (old) series call Dal Segno (or DS) which in music notation tells you to go back to a symbol or "sign" earlier in the song. We're going back to random points in time and re-releasing "cleaned up" versions of old videos and photos. The first installment will be out soon!

MercyMe, Zach Williams and Sam Wesley at Freeman Coliseum

Sam Wesley

MercyMe and Zach Williams along with opening act Sam Wesley have been touring America since mid March, and they made a stop in San Antonio on May 3, 2025 on the final leg of their spring 2025 tour. It's worth noting that Sam is MercyMe lead singer Bart Millard's oldest son.

During the evening they showed a teaser for "I Can Only Imagine 2". The original 2018 "I Can Only Imagine" was a story of Bart Millard's childhood and how it shaped his songwriting, his career as a musician, along with the formation of the band MercyMe. The sequel is the story of how Bart's adult life as a husband and parent shaped the co-writing of the song "Even If". This song was co-written with Tim Timmons and a host of other talented songwriters.

Zach Williams

MercyMe released the strangely upbeat single "Oh Death" back in January just ahead of this tour. Also on the newer side was a song "On Our Way" that Sam Wesley (Millard) performed with MercyMe. This is a song that Bart heard coming together and loved the song enough that he convinced Sam to let MercyMe record it after he explained the intricacies of songwriting credit. This was released on the 2021 album "inhale (exhale)", and Sam also had 2 co-writes ("Better Days Coming" and "Heart Beats For Your Good") on the 2022 MercyMe album "Always Only Jesus".

MercyMe

Sam has released 5 singles between 2021 and 2025 and seems to be close to finding his own voice and sound, and in the meantime seems to be actively working on building his own catalog of songs and co-writes. It will be interesting to see where his career goes from here. Sam isn't the only child of the band members of MercyMe pursuing a music career and touring with their dad(s), MercyMe bassist Nathan Cochran's son William plays drums in Sam's band. Look for more to come from this young songwriter and performer, he's definitely on his way.

Zach Williams had an impressive 9 piece band including pedal steel, sax and two GREAT background vocalists. Zach's last studio album "A Hundred Highways" was released in February 2024, but he also dropped 3 singles and en EP in 2024, and his latest "Jesus Loves" dropped back in January. Zach is a busy and talented artist, and is poised to add to his ever increasing mainstream appeal and success.


Here are some videos from this night: