“There is a legend that John Wayne hung his boots up here and never marked which pair so they wouldn’t get stolen,” John T. Floore Country Store managing partner Mark McKinney told Garden and Gun. He was talking about the rafters at his Texas destination just outside of San Antonio, which is celebrating its 75-year anniversary.
Nearly every corner of the Country Store tells a story. Hand-painted signs that have never been taken down since the 60s read, “WILLIE NELSON EVERY SAT. NIGHT” and “WORLD’S BEST HOMEMADE TAMALES” (in all caps, too).
“Bands come here and tell me they’ve played venues all over the country and there’s no place like Floore’s,” McKinney told the magazine. “I don’t have an easy answer for what the magic is.”
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It may be that the music-celebrating venue is Texas right down to the nails on the wall. It’s pasted together with passion and culture.
Aside from being known as the birthplace of Willie Nelson’s career, John T. Floore Country Store offered a venue for once-young artists like Elvis Presley, Dwight Yoakam, BB King, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams.
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The store’s website describes the atmosphere as “Texccentric,” which is likely why so many artists flock to the place.
Opened in 1942 by John T. Floore as a dance hall and café, the Country Store served homemade bread and tamales and was a cultural center for great music, flowing drinks, and dancing Texans and visitors alike.
If there’s a place to visit in 2017, it may be John T. Floore Country Store. It’s not just busting at the seams with music history — it remains a mecca for modern musicians. The venue is planning events all year long to celebrate 75 years of business; upcoming acts at the Country Store include Mario Flores & the Soda Creek Band, Jason James, and John Baumann.
In a culture that is seemingly more polarized than ever, perhaps a little “Texccentric” energy is exactly what the world needs.
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