Riffs, Roams and Raves uncovers the creative, noteworthy and accomplished in the Wimberley Valley and beyond with tips on who to hear, where to go and what to see from managing editor Teresa Kendrick.
Riff: Bobbie Nelson and Amanda Shires
Last year in March, Bobbie Nelson, older sister to Willie Nelson, died at the age of 91. She was an accomplished pianist and member of the Willie Nelson band from 1957 through 2021.
After a chaotic start in life in which both parents abandoned them, the siblings were raised by their grandparents who put them on the road to music. Willie credits Bobbie with grounding him and providing him the direction he needed throughout his life, both personally and professionally.
On stage she was a lovely and equable presence, by all accounts, with her signature long hair and wide brimmed black hat.
Willie credits Bobbie with being “. . . the real musician in the family.” The two played together for more than 80 years, 64 years professionally, with Bobbie forging many elements of Willie’s sound. Her influences were gospel, Bach, Gershwin, Hoagie Carmichael and others, and reviewers called her playing “immaculate.”
In Austin in 2021, Nashville fiddle player Amanda Shires paired up with Bobbie to record the album “Loving You.” Their collaboration produced an album of enduring songs that were Bobbie’s favorites, such as “Always on my Mind,” “Summertime,” (from the 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess”) and eight others, including the title tune, an acoustic number that Bobbie wrote that showcases her long communion with the piano.
At Gruene Hall last weekend, Shires, with superstar Ray Benson and his band, Asleep at the Wheel, paid tribute to Bobbie in a performance dedicated to her.
Precisely at 8 p.m., Benson and “the Wheel” cranked up and inaugurated the tribute with his enduring brand of Western Swing. At six foot seven inches, his robust baritone and engaging showmanship coalesced a hot, sweaty audience into a jubilant love letter to the genre with “Miles and Miles of Texas,” “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” and “Hot Rod Lincoln.”
When Shires came on stage with her fiddle, she told the crowd, “This concert is a tribute to Bobbie. I first saw her playing when I was 16 . . . Much of my path seemed possible because I saw her making a career in music.” Photos of their collaboration show the two embracing warmly with apparent affection.
In no time, the audience was singing along with “Waltz Across Texas” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” both songs from the album. Later, as I left the Hall for cooler air in the courtyard, I could hear “Summertime” drifting through the screen doors and into the street. Amanda’s vocals, reminiscent of Dolly Parton’s, helped create a perfect collision of music, place and time that seemed to be a fitting homage to the late Ms. Nelson.
Roam: The Testicle Festival The tiny town of Castell, of which there are no more than six to eight permanent residents, hosts a most unusual festival each spring.
At the wide spot in the road just 20 miles west of Llano on FM 9522, RR 152 West, hundreds of visitors converge in May for the Testicle Festival at Castell’s General Store. The brainchild of the unofficial master of ceremonies, Randy Leifeste, the one-day event forks over fried bull testes to anyone willing to give rein to an old west tradition.
Leifest purchased the general store in 2000. To stave off the town’s decline into an hones t-to-goodness ghost town, he adopted the idea of serving up tendergroins from a cowboy who told of huge parties in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Canada that celebrated the practice. He embraced the nutty idea and single- handedly turned Castell into a tourist destination. This year’s festival marks its 15th year.
Known as swinging beef, prairie oysters, cowboy caviar and other less mannered names, the alleged delicacy is the severed jewels of young bulls. After the outer membrane is stripped away, the tender insides are soaked in beer before being dredged in a wet batter and deep fried in oil. Chefs have tinkered with the basic recipe, but for a smooth $20 bill in Castell, you could get them, cowman style, in a flat box with French fries and a shake or two of hot sauce.
If calf fries didn’t trip one’s trigger, visitors could buy crawfish, corn dogs or a tame chicken sandwich and wash it down with plenty of ice-cold beer.
More fun perhaps than the dish itself, were the jokes, smirks and general titillation that came with chomping on bull bits and uttering the word “testicles” in mixed company. Event signs and t-shirts proclaimed, “Castell’s Testicle Festival – Where Everyone Has a Ball” or “The Testicle Festival – Nuttin’ but Fun.” Aside from a couple of rough-talking cowgirls, guys seemed genuinely amused by the concept. More than a few of them brought first dates there.
Music and bar games were also part of the fun. Aeryk & The Smokin’ Nuts took to the stage and serenaded guests as they sampled and sipped throughout the afternoon.
Bar games that included the entertaining balancing beer contest kept the mood light as competitors tried to drink a beer suspended from ropes on a pulley contraption that they wore on their shoulders. Adroit winners were able to lock a lip and sip until the contents were gone. Although it sounds simple enough, it posed a real challenge for most contenders.
Families with kids, couples in fancy western gear, bikers and the curious indulged for several hours, with breaks from time to time to visit the Chick Shack next door and to peruse the vendor tables set up across the street. The sale of t-shirts with colorful slogans were brisk. Everyone, it seemed, wanted something besides a belly full of nether nuggets to commemorate their walk on the wild side.
Rave: Oro Bianco Creamery in Blanco If you haven’t had the occasion to stop at the Oro Bianco Italian Creamery in Blanco, drop everything and go. This creamery makes homemade gelati and sorbeti – Italian- style ice creams and sorbets – and rises straight to the top for quality. Their gelatos are made with water buffalo milk, a superrich milk that contains 8.5 percent butterfat, more than twice the butterfat of cow milk at 3.5 percent. Not only is the taste ultra-creamy, but the milk is lactose friendly for people with sensitivity in that area. The buffalo come from a herd, 400 strong, that lives at the Peeler Farm in Floresville. The animals are milked each week and the milk is driven to Blanco where it is pasteurized at Oro Bianco at low temperatures – but not homogenized.
The operation is the brainchild of lawyer Phil Giglio and Chef Fiore Tedesco. Together they launched the creamery in 2020 and went on to produce water buffalo mozzarella cheese. Tedesco is the chef and owner of the L’Oca d’Oro restaurant in Austin.
While Americans aren’t generally familiar with water buffalo milk, it has many benefits over cow’s milk. For one thing, it doesn’t contain a protein found in cow’s milk to which many people are allergic. It also has 43 percent less cholesterol, 58 percent higher calcium and high levels of the natural antioxidant, tocopherol, than cow’s milk. It is also high in conjugated linoleic acid.
CLA is a compound that has some benefits in lowering cancer and diabetes risks and supports bone and weight maintenance. Buffalo milk is an important ingredient in Southern Italian cuisine and is considered a superior foodstuff.
During my visit, I talked with creamery partner Adam Thompson who made me an “affogato,” a gelato with espresso poured over it. It was, hands down, the best ice cream dessert I’ve ever tasted. To say it was smooth is an understatement. To learn more about the only water buffalo creamery in Texas, go to orobiancomilk. com.
