Texas Country Live Postponed

UPDATE: Opening weekend for the Texas Country Live series will be postponed due to travel concerns caused by Hurricane Ike, according to producer J.R. Ramirez. Tickets for this weekend will be honored at the rescheduled concert dates for Stoney LaRue and The Jackson Taylor Band, both set for November. The concert series will begin September 20 with Mark McKinney.

There's a country music world beyond Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley and the Rascal Flatts, and one local producer is hoping a new concert series will show South Texas the very best of the lesser knowns.

Texas Country Live will debut September 20 with Mark McKinney at Las Palmas Race Park, located at 7509 N Taylor Rd in Alton. The series will feature a concert every Saturday until late November.

The series' producer J.R. Ramirez said he hopes fans of Texas country music enjoy this new outlet to the genre.

"Texas Country, Red Dirt, whatever you call it, they don't get played on Clear Channel," he said. "On Saturday night KTEX plays (it) ... but for those who don't listen Saturday night, they don't know what they're missing."

Ramirez said because they don't want concertgoers to choose between music and football, they will have an area where concertgoers can watch college football games on big screen TVs. There will also be washer tossing, a dance floor and a moon jump. Accommodating all age groups is part of the "family atmosphere" they were trying to create, Ramirez added.

"Rather than a concert here and there, we thought it'd be best to create a venue," he said.

Scheduled artists include: Rich O'Toole, Bleu Edmonson, Reckless Kelly and Aaron Watson.

Tickets are available at Cavender's in McAllen; the first 100 will be free. Concertgoers can also pay at the door, with special promotions going on every weekend that could result in free admission at certain times, Ramirez said.