Rockabilly Renaissance

Greasers, gear heads, rockabilly revivalists and classic car aficionados will descend from all points into Gonzales over the next 24 hours to take part in Saturday’s car show to be held on and around Confederate Square.

If you like the smell of a carbureted 350, 351, 426 — or if you are some other mechanical freak, this is the place to be.

Event promoter and cultural enthusiast Joel Gammage of Hat Rod Productions promises more than just shiny metal and raw horsepower, though.

“We’ve got lots of new faces that are coming to the Gonzales area,” he said, anticipating a diverse crowd that usually comes along with events like these.

Gammage is a relative newbie to the car show scene but no stranger to success. He is a part of the family business, Texas Hatters out of Lockhart, and has grown a simple parking lot hootenanny into a major business venture.

About five years ago, Gammage booked a well-known rockabilly band to perform in front of the hat shop as part of a concert series he was promoting. A few friends wanted to bring their custom rides—somehow chrome cars and rockabilly music decided way back to hang out together—and before long word got out that everyone was invited.

To pay for the event, Gammage decided to get a large barbecue pit to sell a bit of food and changed the billing to a “car show.” He ended up with 99 cars and 500 people from all over Texas and as far away as Kansas and Missouri.

He figured he had a hit and kept going with the idea. Now, his Lockhart show is up to 385 officially entered autos with over 500 showing up in town just to be a part of the festivities. Not surprisingly, other businesses started piggybacking on his success.

“Walmart had their own car show, HEB had their own car show,” Gammage said. He predicts the same sort of scenario may just happen here.

His success in Lockhart is what prompted Templin Saloon owner Doug Phelan to search the young visionary down and get him to bring his brand to Gonzales. After reading an article in the Austin American-Statesman, Phelan journeyed to Lockhart to find his man.

After he heard the pitch and had a look at the downtown layout, Gammage was excited to try his luck here with an auto event.

“I wanted to bring something to the community and bring something to Gonzales,” Gammage said. “They really reeled us in on this, to come in and make this possible. I think this has the potential to bring an audience to Gonzales.”

Judging from his prior successes, about 150-200 cars should show up for the weekend here. Many car owners have booked hotels beginning Friday night in order to take in the town and enjoy the kickoff to the Summer Concert Series.

This should mean a larger bottom line for businesses as these car geeks are expected to drop some dollars while in town. If you think about it, a person that has thousands of dollars to spend suping up a car surely has a few more to spread around town during their stay.

But Saturday is the big day. Cars are expected to roll in around 8 a.m. and will begin to fill up Confederate Square and the streets directly surrounding it, minus St. Lawrence Street. Expect classics, hot rods, rat rods, trucks, muscle cars and more.

A special stage will be erected at the corner of St. George and St. Joseph streets that caters to the rockabilly outlaws in attendance. Performing for free will be Ruby Dee and the Snake Handlers, Deuce Coupe, The Danger Cakes and Rick Broussard’s Two Hoots and a Holler.

If that’s not enough, more than 20 vendors will be setting up shop on the square and a flyover by the Commemorative Air Force will take place at noon, honoring the June 6 anniversary of the Allied D-Day invasion of France. There will even be a car parade from the entrants through the streets of town.

And Gammage may have coined a new phrase, calling this a sort of Rockabilly Renaissance fair of sorts for Gonzales. Folks will get to see all kinds of greased hair and tattoos—which are common sights at these types of shows—perhaps even from their neighbors.

For the uninitiated, rockabilly refers to a type of music combining elements of country, rock and blues that fits well with the Frankenstein-esque creations that hot rod shows feature. Some more famous bands from that genre are the Stray Cats, Brian Setzer Orchestra, The Reverend Horton Heat and Wanda Jackson.

Gammage relates to all of this because these custom cars that will be visiting town this weekend are much like the custom hats that his family creates—they are hand-crafted and made to last, right here at home.

It is more than showing off or winning a trophy, it is about preserving a heritage from when America really made cars. And all will be on display Saturday.