Location of proposed state music museum stirs passions in Senate hearing

Ray Benson frontman for the western swing band Asleep at the Wheel Ray Benson frontman for the western swing band Asleep at the Wheel Photo: Brio Yiapan Photo: Brio Yiapan Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Location of proposed state music museum stirs passions in Senate hearing 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN -- An emotional fight over plans to build a new state music museum in Austin flared anew Wednesday as big-name icons of Texas music, from Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson to Freddy Fender's daughter, showed up to take sides.

Benson told the Senate Business and Commerce Committee that he supports locating the museum in Austin, "in the state capital where people come, where it should be." Tammy Huerta-Fender, the daughter of the late Tejano star Freddy Fender, was just as adamant in her opposition.

"This is something that towns across Texas should be allowed to compete for, to participate in," Huerta-Fender, of Houston, told the committee during the standing-room-only hearing. "This is not a fair process."

Under Senate Bill 1147, the State Preservation Board -- an agency originally established to restore and maintain the State Capitol that now oversees the Bullock State History Museum -- would create a new private foundation to create the Texas State Music Museum.

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The new museum would be located on a few floors of a new 14-story state office building to be builtacross from the Bullock and the Blanton Museum of Art, in what local officials say would create a cultural destination for tourists.

The museum would be operated by the foundation, which would raise private donations to cover all expenses. "No state money would go into this," said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, a sponsor of the bill.

Benson told the committee that the Austin museum should be a first-class operation to showcase the rich music history of Texas. The nationally known recording star drew laughter when he introduced himself as: "I'm Ray Benson, and you're not."

"You wouldn't be elected if you were me," he laughed.

Just as adamant in their support for the Austin site were Gilbert Velasquez, a San Antonio recording industry icon and 14-time Grammy winner, and Gary Hartman, director of the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University in San Marcos.

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"There needs to be a central museum. There is a huge well of interest by collectors" of Texas music memorabilia in a state museum, Hartman said.

Clay Shorkey, co-founder and president of the Texas Music Museum, a privately-run venue about a mile from the proposed Austin music museum site, said he has come to support the bill with some sadness. "It's bittersweet for me and our board to support this . . . It may be an end to our Texas Music Museum," he said.

Stephen Williams, a founding member of the American Music History in Houston, told he committee that his planned Houston museum received state designation several years for the project that Austin is now in line for under the bill.

The state never turned over the $10 million in federal funding required to get the project off the ground, however. Nonetheless, he said the group has about $50 million pledged for the Houston museum, and may make an announcement on a site in the coming months.

"This is about the state reneging on its promise to Houston. This is about the state competing against private museums," he said. "This is about Austin wanting to get something through a law that it couldn't get through a statewide competition."

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Thomas Kreason, founder of the Texas Musicians Museum in Irving, said the proposed bill will hurt and perhaps run out of business dozens of private music museums across Texas such as his, by diverting private donations and artifacts.

"On something this important, we should have a statewide competition rather than give it to Austin that doesn't need any economic help," he said.

The hearing closed with a guitar-and-flute serenade by opponents Rickey Ford, with the Jazz Heritage Society of Texas, and longtime Austin musician and songwriter Gustavo Rodriguez.

Afterward, the committee left the bill pending -- likely a prelude to being brought up and passed at a subsequent meeting. Nonetheless, the more than two dozen opponents who packed the meeting claimed an initial victory and pledged to derail the bill and an identical measure pending in the Texas House.

"There are so many other music museums in Texas, and to arbitrarily select one city over the others for this state museum is unfair -- unfair to the people who have been involved in making this history, and unfair to the people of Texas who don't live in Austin," said Jim O'Cherry, president of the Houston-based Texas Music Library and Research Center.

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