Inaugural Cattle Country Music Fest shines bright, thanks to star power

The city of Gonzales was on display on a worldwide stage with the first annual Cattle Country Music Festival held Friday, April 12 through Sunday, April 14.

The festival had many country and southern rock music lovers gathering for three days for a star-studded line up from Koe Wetzel, Whiskey Myers, Eric Church, Tracy Lawrence, Tanya Tucker, Randy Rogers Band, Colbie Caillat, The Glorious Sons, KALEO, Sublime with Rome and more.

Many traveled from both in Texas and outside the state to see the festival, including Joe Pierce of Manteca, Calif., who was excited to see his favorite band Whiskey Myers.

“It started about three to four years ago. One of my neighbors moved down and I knew nothing about Whiskey Myers. As we were working on the fence, he introduced me to Whiskey Myers and I loved the music and follow them,” Pierce said. “We’d never been up here [to Gonzales, Texas] before and Whiskey Myers is playing and we decided to make a big weekend out of it. So, me and the wife came up here to see Whiskey Myers perform.”

Pierce flew down with his wife to Austin and then San Antonio and a made a five-day trip out of it, he said.

Pierce and his wife attended the festival for one day, but he said they were going to travel and visit Gonzales and read about the local history.

Pierce was impressed with how the festival turned out, especially being held in a small town like Gonzales and being a farm boy himself.

“This is my country, so coming out here and doing and seeing this, it's been awesome. I've been to a lot of concerts, but in the city, but being out here among nature and seeing this so far is awesome,” Pierce said.

The festival also showcased local Texas groups, including San Marcos’s The Cameron Sackey Band.

Lead singer Cameron Sackey said the festival has been great with the warm and sunny weather and he was excited to hear other great music.

Sackey’s genre of music is wide ranging, and he said they can’t put a finger what genre they are.

“So I would just say that good music is good music. And if you like what you're listening to, we always try to spice things up,” Sackey said.

Sackey was excited to get an opportunity to perform at a big festival like Cattle Country, especially seeing his favorite artists.

“That's the perks of being an artist, you get to hang out with some of your favorites you may have listened to. So that's always cool to do whenever you get to shake some hands,” Sackey said. “Just seeing all the great vendors that they get out here, you know, you get to meet them. And then turns out they like your music, so you swap some merchandise, and the show goes on and you have a great day.”

One of Sackey’s favorite artists he got a chance to see was Sublime with Rome, and he said he is a huge fan of reggae music. He also loved seeing Koe Wetzel top the festival on day one.

Sackey is originally from Corpus Christi and the beach vibes influenced his music. He later moved to Texas State University and started playing Texas country and blended both styles of music, he said.

Sackey’s band has new music coming soon — the day before the festival he was in the recording booth for their new album.

“Just got out of the studio yesterday. I gotta go back for a couple more days to record some vocals. And we're really excited for this next album. I think it's going to be some of our best work,” Sackey said.

The Cameron Sackey Band can be found on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play.

The festival closed out Sunday, April 14 with Eric Church; Church played his classic songs, including “Springsteen,” “Drink in my Hand,” Talladega” and more.