Bandera, Texas

Everything Bandera is known for

23 songs mention this city 3 artists from here

Bandera, Texas, known as the "Cowboy Capital of the World," has a rich connection to music, particularly country. This Texas Hill Country city is home to country artists such as Bruce Robison and Charlie Robison. The town's musical identity is also reflected in songs that bear its name, including "Bandera Texas" by Kix Brooks and "Bandera Waltz" by Bruce Robison.

With 17 songs in our collection mentioning Bandera and three artists calling it home, the city's influence on music is evident. Live country and acoustic music can be found nightly year-round in Bandera.

Music in Bandera

Songs About Bandera

Bandera Texas
Kix Brooks
83%
"Bandera texas a lifetime ago"
Bandera Waltz
Bruce Robison
81%
"They called it Bandera, the Bandera Waltz"
Bandera
Willie Nelson
80%
"Song about Bandera"
BANDERA
HUMBE
80%
"Song about Bandera"
Bandera
Porter
80%
"Song about Bandera"
Bandera
Kamakazi & Mexicano 777
80%
"Song about Bandera"
Bandera
Control Machete
80%
"Song about Bandera"
Bandera Baby
Mayeux & Broussard
79%
Bandera Waltz
Slim Whitman
79%
"They called it Bander-er-er-era"
Banks Of The Old Bandera
Willie Nelson
77%
"On the banks of the old Bandera where roams the barefoot child"
Waterbill
Red Shahan
55%
"I broke an axle in Bandera"
Banks of the Old Bandera
Rodney Crowell
55%
Bandera Waltz
Texas Top Hands
55%
My Brother And Me
Bruce Robison
52%
"Take the boy out of Bandera, not the other way around"
Desperate Times
Charlie Robison
51%
"He drove off to Bandera, 'cause that was his hometown"
The New Bandera Waltz
Easy Adams and The Texas Top Hands
50%
Bandera Style
McKay Brothers
50%
Heaven
Kevin Fowler
30%
My Hometown
Charlie Robison
25%
"Around my hometown"
all my ex's live in texas
george strait
10%

Showing top 20 of 23 songs

Artists From Bandera

B
Bruce Robison
country Pop: 50
C
Charlie Robison
country Pop: 46
S
Stryker Brothers
country Pop: 15

Rivers & Roads in Song near Bandera

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Bandera.

Guadalupe River 17 songs Interstate 10 32 songs US Route 90 8 songs Interstate 35 42 songs Frio River 13 songs Chisholm Trail 7 songs

Musical Heritage

Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar RoadyGoat

This place started life back in the nineteen-twenties under a rougher name — the Fox Hole. By the forties it had cleaned up into a dance hall and taken the name it still wears: the Silver Dollar. Then in 1968 a honky-tonk singer named Arkey Juenke — you know him as Arkey Blue — bought the whole thing. And here's the part that makes it rare: he never left. Some Saturday nights, Arkey Blue and the Blue Cowboys are still up on that stage, and the rest of the time you walk over to the jukebox and pick your own. Folks around here will tell you it's the oldest honky-tonk in Texas still running. Oldest or not, there aren't many places where the man who bought it in sixty-eight is still the one doing the singing.

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Bandera RoadyGoat

Bandera calls itself the Cowboy Capital, and it's got the papers to back most of it. The name traces to a San Antonio newspaper in 1948, and it's grounded in real ground — this was a staging area for the Great Western Cattle Trail, and it's rodeo country, home to Toots Mansfield, the 1938 world champion calf roper. The town holds the trademark and a historical marker. Now, up the road, Stephenville will fight you over the title — so in 2025 the Legislature split the difference and made Bandera the Cowboy Capital of Texas, official. History runs deep here: back in the 1700s, Apaches and Spanish troops clashed at Bandera Pass. These days it's dude ranches, Saturday gunfight shows on Main Street, and Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar keeping the honky-tonk lit. An hour from San Antonio. Worth the drive.

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History of Bandera

Bandera, TX RoadyGoat

Bandera wasn't always the Cowboy Capital of the World, though stepping onto Main Street today, with its hitching posts and saddle shops, you might think it sprang fully formed from a Western movie. It began much more humbly, a rough-and-tumble settlement nestled in these rugged hills. The name itself comes from "bandera," Spanish for flag, marking a boundary line between territories. Imagine those early days – the 1850s – a few families carving out a life where the Medina River bends, the air already clear and dry at this elevation. What drew them here? Opportunity, mostly. The promise of timber. Bandera was a crucial processing and staging area for cypress shingles harvested along the Medina River. Those shingles helped build homes and businesses across the region. It wasn't easy. Life was hardscrabble, facing the elements and the ever-present threat of raids. But they persevered, and Bandera grew, slowly, steadily. Even the whispers of a lost Spanish silver mine somewhere in these hills couldn't distract them from the hard work of building a town, a community, a life rooted in this beautiful, unforgiving land where live oaks and juniper stand sentinel.

Bandera, TX RoadyGoat

Bandera proudly wears its nickname, the Cowboy Capital of the World, and it's more than just a catchy phrase. It's woven into the very fabric of the town, stemming from its history as a staging ground for the Great Western Cattle Trail. After Bandera was established, right on the edge of the Hill Country, it became a vital point for cowboys driving herds north. They'd rest, resupply, and let their cattle graze on the abundant native grasses carpeting the area before continuing on. The open range might be gone, but the spirit endures. You can still see it in the saddle shops lining Main Street, now officially State Highway 16. The drier air, the rolling hills dotted with live oak and juniper, it all contributes to the feeling that you're stepping back in time. Local ranches, some dating back generations, continue to raise cattle, passing down the traditions and skills of horsemanship that made Bandera famous in the first place. That history isn't just a story — it's a living part of the community, celebrated in rodeos, dances, and the everyday lives of the people who call this place home.

Bandera, TX RoadyGoat

Bandera, sitting high in the Hill Country where the air thins and sharpens, owes its character to a mix of hardscrabble practicality and a healthy dose of romanticism. Named for a boundary marker, a "bandera," it was a frontier outpost from the start, a place where the promise of the open range and maybe even a lost Spanish silver mine, whispered about in hushed tones, drew folks looking for a fresh start. The Medina River carved its way through the landscape, providing lifeblood, but also reminding everyone of nature’s power — something the devastating flood of '78 underscored with brutal force. What makes Bandera different from other Hill Country towns? It's that grit mixed with the undeniable pull of the cowboy mystique. Highway 16, the Cowboy Capital of the World's Main Street, isn't just a road; it's a stage. Tourists come for the dude ranches, the horseback riding, the chance to imagine themselves as characters in a Western. And sure, they're drawn to the nearby beauty of Lost Maples, the vibrant fall colors a stark contrast to the usual greens and browns of live oak and juniper. But if you ask a local why people really end up staying, why they make Bandera their home, they'll tell you it's something deeper. It's the peace, the slower pace, the feeling that you're part of something real, something timeless, under that big Texas sky.

Bandera - Cowboy Capital of the World

1853

Bandera was a major staging point for cattle drives on the Great Western Trail. The town claims the title Cowboy Capital of the World.

Pilot's Lounge at Bandera Airpark

1945

Colonel John Henry "Jack" Lapham (1885-1956) was a son of a co-founder of the Texas Company (later Texaco). He was living in San Antonio by 1920 and had many business interests. Jack, his wife, Julie Edna (Capen), and their four children all had pilots' licenses and were known as "The Flying Laphams." Jack's second wife, Lucy Jane (Thomas), was also an accomplished pilot. Jack Lapham, a WWI and WWII veteran, was a retired Army Air Corps colonel with a dream to create the first "dude ranch airpark" in the United States. In 1945, he bought a 486-acre ranch near Bandera from Dr. J.O. and Ethel Butler and established the Flying L Ranch. By late 1946, the site featured an airstrip, villas, lounges, a pool and flight training school for WWII veterans. From the air, the villas were designed to appear as planes flying in formation. The Pilots' Lounge was designed as a two-story concrete block quonset hut trimmed with handmade oak arches and cedar siding with a concrete roof. The second story has a horseshoe-shaped balcony with wooden floors and handmade oak railing and stairs. A large southeast-facing window provided a view of the landing strip and grounds.
 A May 1947 "Fashion Rodeo" at the Flying L Ranch was featured in several magazines, including an article in LIFE. Photographer Cornell Capa captured the event with more than 100 pictures of the fashion show hosted by Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus. Col. Lapham's dream of establishing a series of similar properties never materialized, and he and three others were killed in a 1956 plane crash near the airpark. Several national brands including Coca-Cola and aircraft manufacturers have filmed commercials here and guests have ranged from families to celebrities. Western movie star John Wayne stayed at the ranch when he was filming The Alamo near Brackettville in 1959-60. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2016

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Bandera, "Cowboy Capital of the World"

1874

The tradition of the Texas cowboy originated from northern Mexico with the vaqueros, individuals mounted on horseback who herded livestock, mainly cattle, through the open prairie. These men became legends in Bandera County. The City of Bandera became known as a cowboy town for recreation and obtaining supplies. Boys learned how to ride horses and drive cattle at a young age to earn wages on the ranches. The Western Cattle Trail extended from Mexico through Texas and up to the Canadian border and from 1874 to 1894, it is estimated that thirty thousand cowboys drove seven to ten million longhorns and one million horses through the trail using Bandera as a staging area. Local rodeos began in the 1920s when cowboys who worked the ranches started exhibiting their skills during roundups and on cattle drives. Bandera had its first rodeo in 1924 at Mansfield Park, where rodeos have continued through the years. The Buck and the Bruce ranches took in summer guests holding rodeos as entertainment. Others that followed were the Dixie Dude, Bennie's U-Bar, and the Twin Elm ranches. Bandera cowboys became famous by earning world champion titles and being inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 1938, Toots Mansfield was Bandera's first world champion in calf roping, earning this title on six additional occasions. He later became the first president of the National Rodeo Cowboy Association which was organized in 1945. In 1948, a San Antonio newspaper referenced Bandera as the "Cowboy Capital of the World." Since then, this title has been mentioned in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the world. (2013)

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Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon

1921

Located at 308 Main Street in downtown Bandera, Texas, this nightclub has hosted a number of local and national artists, including Robert Earl Keen, Willie Nelson, Charlie Robison, Johnny Bush, and Jay Hooker. The building was constructed in 1921 and opened as a social establishment called The Fox Hole. In the 1940s the dance hall became The Silver Dollar. In 1968 the venue was purchased by singer-songwriter, Arkey Juenke, who was born in nearby Gillespie County. After Juenke graduated from Fredericksburg High School, he began performing at Lost Valley Ranch, located east of Bandera. By 1968 Juenke had changed his name to Arkey Blue and bought the Silver Dollar Saloon where he still performed with his band, the Blue Cowboys, in the 2010s. Arkey Blue also has had several of his own songs featured in movies, including "Daddy's Sick Again" from the cult classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and "Living on Credit" and "Misty Hours of Daylight," from the 1975 Peter Fonda film Race with the Devil . In 2005 Arkey Blue was the first person to be inducted into the Bandera Music History Project Hall of Fame and he was named its Songwriter of the Year in 2011. The Hall of Fame proclaimed Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon to be a "Legendary Venue" in 2012. Named one of the top three honky-tonks in the state by Texas Highways magazine, the saloon celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar Saloon in 2018 and has remained a popular live music venue for locals and tourists into the 2020s.

Tsha Handbook →

Bandera County

1853

Bandera County is twenty-five miles northwest of San Antonio in the Edwards Plateau region of southwest Texas. It is bordered by Kerr and Kendall counties on the north, Bexar County on the east, Medina and Uvalde counties on the south, and Real County on the west. The county seat and largest town is Bandera, and the center of the county lies at 29°45' north latitude and 99°11' west longitude. The county is crossed by State highways 16, 46, and 173 and Farm roads 187, 337, 470, and 1283. Bandera County comprises an area of 793 square miles, with elevations that range from 1,200 to 2,300 feet. The western part of the county is drained by the Sabinal River and the eastern part by the Medina River. The alkaline and generally shallow soils overlie limy subsoils. The vegetation consists primarily of grasses such as bluestems, grama, buffalo grass, winter grass, and wild ryes. Along the many streams of the county grow cedar, post oak, Spanish oak, live oak, pecan, and cypress trees. Deer and turkey are plentiful, but there are no large predators. The climate features dry and mild winters and warm summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low of 36° to an average high of 69° F, and in July from 69° to 95° F. The average annual rainfall is twenty-nine inches; the average relative humidity is 76 percent at 6 a.m. and 45 percent at 6 p.m. There is no significant snowfall. The growing season averages 235 days a year, with the last freeze in late March and the first freeze in mid-November. The region has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Archeological artifacts suggest that the earliest human inhabitants arrived around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and settled in rockshelters. Lipan Apaches and, later, Comanches subsequently drifted into the area. The first Europeans to set foot in what is now Bandera County were the Spanish, who probably explored the region in the early eighteenth century. Bandera is Spanish for "flag," and there are a number of colorful accounts as to how the county was named. One has it that a Spanish general named Bandera led a punitive expedition in the area against the Apaches after the Indians raided San Antonio de Béxar. Another relates that after pursuing the Indians to Bandera Pass the Spanish left a flag or flags to warn them against future raids. And a third legend claims that in 1752 (or 1732) a council was held between Spanish and Indian leaders, during which the Spanish pledged never to go north of the pass if the Indians agreed to cease their raids in the south, and a red flag was placed on the pass as a symbol of the treaty. Though it is not clear if one or any of these accounts is true, the name was in use by 1842, when a group of Texas Rangers under the command of Col. John Coffee (Jack) Hays defeated a large party of Comanches at Bandera Pass. In 1852 John James , Charles S. DeMontel , and John J. Herndon entered into a partnership to acquire land "in and above the mountains, commencing ten or fifteen miles above Castroville." Their purpose was to establish a town on the Medina River with a sawmill in order to cut the huge cypress trees that grew there for shingles. In 1853, James and DeMontel surveyed and platted the town of Bandera, and in early 1853 A. M. Milstead, Thomas Odem, P. D. Saner, and their families camped along the river and began making cypress shingles. By the fall of the same year the firm of James, Montel and Company built a horse-powered sawmill and opened a commissary store. In March 1854 a group of Mormons led by elder Lyman Wight reached Bandera. The colony, numbering approximately 250, eventually settled a few miles below the town at a site known for many years as "Mormon Camp," which is now covered by Medina Lake. For a time the Mormons manufactured tables, chairs, and other furnishings, which they sold in San Antonio. But Wight died before the colony was fully established, and many of the colony moved on to Utah or set

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Things to Do in Bandera

historical 19.6 mi away
The Nueces Massacre

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The Treue der Union Monument

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The Freethinker Colony

Comfort was founded in 1854 by German intellectuals fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848. They were freethinkers -- educated liberals who opposed slavery and…
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The Town With No Church

Comfort's German freethinker founders were so committed to separation of church and state that the town had no church building for its first forty years. They…
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The Bald Cypress Tunnel

The Guadalupe River near Comfort runs through a tunnel of ancient bald cypress trees so thick the canopy blocks out the summer sun completely. Some of these…
historical 19.7 mi away
The Fachwerk Buildings

Comfort has the most intact collection of fachwerk -- German half-timber construction -- in Texas. The settlers used the same building techniques their…
food 0.2 mi away
OST Restaurant

Old Spanish Trail, on Main Street in Bandera — the Cowboy Capital's town cafe since 1921. Chuckwagon breakfast bar, mounted longhorn over the door, and a John…
quirky 19.4 mi away
The Antique Capital of the Hill Country

Comfort's main street has more antique shops per capita than arguably any town in Texas. The old limestone and half-timber buildings that line High Street have…
day trip
Day Trip to Bandera 🐴 (FULL EPISODE) S9 E9

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Bandera

169 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Bandera on the Map
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