The CELLAR Story

The CELLAR
was THE jazz, blues and rock institution in Texas from 1959 thru 1973. Seven nights a week, from 7PM until dawn, live music could be heard there,at least two and sometimes three different acts, every night, depend on it!
They didn't sell alcoholic drinks, but customers could carry in a bottle of liquor and buy ice and mixers.
Beer and wine was not allowed.

The pay wasn't great, but a musician could work 6 nights a week,
and be paid, IN CASH, every day at closing time, for months at a time, and management did not care what was played, as long as there wasn't much dead air between songs! It was,therefore, a great place to work out original music, which is what many did. The format was stark black and white, with sayings on the walls, such as: "You must be weird or you wouldn't be here" or: "Evil spelled backwards is Live!". No cover charge week nights; one dollar on Friday and Saturday, entertainers, musicians and stag ladies always admitted free, no dress code, free drinks for musicians and only one rule: have fun, BE POLITE! What more could one ask, you ask? Read on!
The waitresses, all lovely young ladies, worked in their underwear! Yes, I mean they would come in, strip to bra and panties, pick up a tray and go to work! You might think there must have been a lot of grabbing, fondling, pinching going on, but that's because I haven't told you, yet, about the bouncers! Officially titled "Floormen" these hulking young men in black t-shirts blended into the walls and watched over the girls, waitresses and customers alike. If anyone was rude enough to touch a girl offensively, he'd find himself snatched up and thrown out the back door, still conscious if he was lucky! The keyword at the Cellar was courtesy. "Have a good time, raise hell, but be polite and courteous at all times" , everyone was told. "Don't make trouble and there won't be trouble!" Well, there were always troublemakers,but they were in the minority and there were always crowds of folks having a general good time. There were plenty of girls chasing the musicians, and, of course, the musicians were always chasing the waitresses and the floormen tried to keep track of them all, but that was all "family" fun. Many of the musicians and bands who honed their chops at the Cellar went on to become well-known, sometimes world famous rock acts, a case in point being ZZ Top,whose bass player, Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard worked the Cellar with a group called the "American Blues" for several years before ZZ Top was formed.
Legendary Rockabilly artist Johnny Carroll made the Cellar his home, was known as "The Choir Director" and was responsible for and in total command of everything and everyone on the Bandstand.
(It wasn't called a stage, it was always "The Bandstand" as in "waitress to the Bandstand, please!")
Speaking of the Bandstand(always capitalized) I helped Johnny develop it between '62 and '64, at 10th and Main. Starting with the piano against the wall, the longest coffee table, about six feet long, was found and set beside the piano. Johnny hung a red and a blue light over it. Then he found a gutted console TV cabinet, broke the legs off it and set it behind the table, put a wood cabinet with a 12" speaker inside that TV cabinet and set his Maestro echo unit on top along with a 3-channel no-name amplifier. One day I came in early and wired in a foot switch to the red and blue lights so they could be turned on and off separately. Johnny liked that, and the "arms race" of Bandstand improvements was on, until, when the Cellar moved upstairs on Main Street, in 1964, the format had solidified to what it would remain from then on: Solid 2'x20' knee-high table in front(for the dancing girls) and house lights, amps and instruments: full drumset; Fender Dual-Showman bass amp and Fender Precision bass; Stratocaster guitar; three Fender Concert amps; Dual Showman-powered PA system;lights, red and blue, a strobe and (6) individual performer spotlights, all controllable from a stage box.

Johnny had his back-room repair shop and his mandate: The Music must Never Stop! 7 nights a week, from 7PM 'til 5AM, for fifteen years, Johnny Carroll made sure that it never did.

Many people have heard the Cellar name in connection with the Kennedy Secret Service agents. I was there that night, and also a few nights previous when an NBC camera crew did some filming there. If you've seen a 6-part documentary titled "The Men Who Killed Kennedy", You've seen me. I am the guitar player you saw for 3 or 4 seconds as the camera panned past the Bandstand. (along with, on bass, CB Oliver; on drums, Felix Vasquez)

If you worked for the Cellar, you have stories. Contact me and let's talk about old times

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