Al and I drove through to Fort Worth last night. I had initially thought FW was a district of Dallas (and it took about 40 mins to get there) but it is a huge city in its own right – with a population of 850,000, it’s bigger than any metropolitan area in Scotland.
The guidebook recommended a trip to the famous Fort Worth stockyards, essentially an historic livestock market built and opened in the late 19th century, but which for the past 40 years have housed a few square miles of entertainment and shopping venues exploiting that “Cowtown” image of the city. It’s definitely worth a visit: loads of lovely period piece buildings still in use day and night.
I finally made it to a real, live Honky-Tonk too. I must admit that, despite being an astonishingly irritating Rolling Stones bore, I didn’t really know what a honky-tonk actually was – assuming it was merely a sleazy boozer/bordello.
Billy Bob’s Texas purports to be the biggest honky-tonk in the world, at 125,000 square feet, and celebrates its 35th birthday later this year. It’s hosted gigs by Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings (the latter releasing the album Honky-Tonk Heroes in 1973).
And it’s bonkers. Basically it’s several music stages, a couple of gambling dens, pool rooms, loads of bars, a few steak and hot dogs stalls, a shop, arcade games and – obviously – a rodeo for bull-riding competition.
And stuffed bears.
And people of all ages line-dancing.
All in a massive theatre cum shed. All pretty badly lit, and with a pervasive whiff of (literally) bullshit.
It was magic. They should open one up in Glasgow .
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