Honky-Tonk Heaven: Bandera, Texas
Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon on Main Street in Bandera, Texas, has a long and storied history. The legendary establishment reflects that history and the spirit of the Texas Hill Country and Texas country music and Western culture. In a recent online article in Authentic Texas, contributor and Bandera County local Bob McCullough aptly writes that “altogether, it’s honky-tonk heaven in the heart of Texas.” How right he is.
Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar Saloon, Bandera, Texas
Arkey Juenke, Founder and Owner, Arkey Blues Silver Dollar Saloon, Bandera, Texas
The saloon has been integral to Bandera's lively main street for decades. It's housed in the basement of a building dating back to the 1920s, which initially opened as a nightclub called The Fox Hole. In the 1940s, the dance hall became The Silver Dollar Saloon, and in 1968, the name Arkey Blue’s was added to the name when local singer-songwriter Arkey Juenke took over operations.
Arkey Blue's is renowned not just for its rustic, authentic saloon atmosphere but also for its vibrant music scene. Arkey Blue himself, a musician known for his classic honky-tonk style, often performed at the saloon with his band, Blue Cowboys, and the venue also hosted now-famous musicians like Willie Nelson and George Strait in their early years, alongside countless other up-and-coming acts over the years. The saloon remains a haunt for country music lovers and local cowboys (and cowgirls) alike.
My first of many visits to Arkey Blue’s in the early 2000s remains seared into my memory. The history and spirit of the place were palpable the moment I opened the red front door and descended the narrow stairway into the bowels of the building where the bar is located. I was immediately greeted with the scent of beer, cigarettes, and sawdust. Further down the steps and once my eyes adjusted to the dim interior, the old swinging doors at the entry, the low ceiling, the clutter of over a half-century of music memorabilia and eccentric collectibles, and the original wood-planked dance floor came into focus. The antique neon sign over the bar flickered in the back and drew me further in. I could have sworn that the scrape of a fiddle, the strum of a guitar, and the distant voices of patrons from long ago began to swirl, and I felt as though I was entirely transported back to another era.
Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar, the oldest honky-tonk in Texas still in operation.
It was time for a beer. I sat at the bar, took out my notebook, and began frantically scribbling. This place had to be in the novel, one of the larger canvases upon which the story of the Anderwald family would be painted. This honky-tonk heaven was Bandera. This was Texas.
About the Author
J. E. Weiner is a writer and novelist based in Northern California. Her debut novel, The Wretched and Undone, a searing Southern Gothic tale set in the Texas Hill Country and inspired by real people and actual events, is forthcoming from History Through Fiction on March 18, 2025. The book manuscript was named a Killer Nashville Top Pick for 2024 and a Claymore Award Finalist for Best Southern Gothic. Weiner’s previous work has appeared in the literary journals Madcap Review, Five Minutes, HerStry, and Chicago Story Press, as well as the recent grit lit anthology Red-Headed Writing (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024). Weiner is a founding member of the Pacific Coast Writers Collective, and while living and writing in blissful exile on the West Coast, her heart remains bound to her childhood home, the Great State of Texas.
A Claymore Award Finalist…
Heralded as "a genre-bending thrill ride through Old Texas," with "characters so well-crafted they crawl off the page," The Wretched and Undone was named a Killer Nashville Top Pick for 2024 and a Claymore Award Finalist for Best Southern Gothic.
