By Emily Banks Wooten
[email protected]
The Livingston Lions Club received an unexpected surprise Wednesday when they were treated to a live performance by Musical Artist Wade Tanner. Tanner was the guest of Thom Bruning, owner of Across the Tracks, a live music venue located at 309 N. Jackson Ave. in downtown Livingston.
A variety of musical artists regularly play at Across the Tracks, but Tanner is one of the most popular and sought-after. For the Lions Club, he performed a cover of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up.”
Bruning provided the program, sharing his passion for music and the story behind his venue.
“Across the Tracks is a live music venue located downtown across the tracks from the courthouse. To give a little history, the building was built around 1925-26 and started out as a grocery store with a dentist office upstairs. At some point, the grocery store closed down and when I was growing up here in the 70s, it was NAPA or Jimmy’s auto parts,” Bruning said.
“I bought the building in 2004 because I wanted to use the second story for an art studio/man cave. My wife at the time and I loved live music, always going into Houston or over to Austin to catch shows, so we decided to create a live music venue right here in Livingston. In 2005 we had plans drawn up and then life happened, and our son was born, so that put the music thing and pretty much everything else on hold,” Bruning said.
“Fast forward to 2014 and my ex and her sister decided to open a retail shop in the front half of the downstairs. For the grand opening we had Laci Kaye Booth standing in the corner singing and playing guitar. Well that reminded us about the music venue and not long after that, we cleared out the back room of the downstairs, bought a bunch of tables and chairs and Across the Tracks Music was born. The first show was Laci, and she sold out the room with about 50 or so folks. It was a great show, and we were off,” Bruning said.
“We didn’t know any local musicians so we asked Laci about others, and she gave us a short list of folks she knew and when they came in to play, they would tell us about other musicians and so on. Most, if not all, of the musicians I have play at Across the Tracks come from word of mouth from some of my regular musicians and customers,” Bruning said.
“I guarantee all my shows. If you don’t like it, you get your money back. I’ve never had to give anyone their money back, however. I currently do one or two shows a month. I limit seating capacity to around 50, but occasionally bump that up to 60 or 65 when there’s high demand.
Ticket prices are $15, and the venue is BYOB and non-smoking/non-vaping.
“The shows generally run an hour and a half, but if everyone is having a good time they can run longer. We have all genres of music from old school country to a full-on classic rock cover bands and everything in between. I don’t sell alcohol or food, but folks just bring in what they want. All I do is provide a great place for people to appreciate amazing musicians doing their thing,” Bruning said.
Tanner is slated to play at Across the Tracks Saturday, along with Daniel Lynn. Doors open at 8 p.m. It is recommended to call ahead at 936-329-4160 to reserve a table.
Comment
Comments