Photo by Andrew Sherman.
Edwin Cabaniss may be opening a music venue “a little late for a rock and roller,” but he isn’t starting from scratch.
Cabaniss, who owns the Kessler Theater and the Heights Theater in Houston, can now be credited with saving the Longhorn Ballroom from the threat of demolition.
On the morning of the venue’s reopening, Cabaniss told the media his goal was to preserve what has become a “long forgotten place” in South Dallas. After his remarks, Cabaniss cut a red ribbon outside of the ballroom’s entryway, signaling the next chapter for the storied concert hall.
“Today is the ‘What if’ day,” Cabaniss said. “This is about our community, it’s about the culture in our community, and really it’s about preserving Texas’s most historic music venue.”
And preserving the history of the venue Cabaniss has.
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- Photo by Andrew Sherman.
Anyone who may have gone to a Longhorn Ballroom show in the venue’s glory days will likely feel transported back in time stepping into the hall now. The bones of the place — the cozy stage and intimate seating areas — have been polished to perfection and maintain the tight-knit feel the venue is known for.
And of course, the signature longhorn statue stands guard outside of the venue, a beacon to music fanatics and Western lovers across the city and state.
What has been added to the venue is a museum-like homage to the Ballroom’s past.
In the ballroom’s entry way is a tribute to Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys, the group that inspired the venue’s opening, filled with memorabilia, photos and video of the group.
The collection is just a preview of what lines the opposite side of the ballroom.
Over a dozen memorabilia anthologies are encased in glass and create a walking tour through the Longhorn Ballroom’s history on the backside of the hall.
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- Photos by Emma Ruby.
The collections have been curated by Warwick Stone, a music memorabilia curator and collector who is known for designing numerous Hard Rock Cafe locations and for his expertise in the TV show Pawn Stars.
Of the dozens of collections, Stone said “they’re all perfect,” but that the final case — a tribute to local legend Stevie Ray Vaughan who played the ballroom in 1988 — is his favorite.
Stone said each collection anchors the viewer to a different moment in the ballroom’s history, from Jack Ruby’s ownership in 1952, to the infamous 1978 Sex Pistols show.
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- Photo by Andrew Sherman.
Thursday night will mark the triumphant return of The Longhorn Ballroom with Western Swing torchbearers Asleep at the Wheel set to take the stage.
Old Crow Medicine Show with East Dallas native Joshua Ray Walker (Advocate profile here), will kick off Friday night’s show, and Morgan Wade will close out the weekend on Saturday.
Later in April, legend Emmylou Harris will play back-to-back shows, and Polyphonic Spree is one of the summer shows that have begun to trickle onto the calendar.
The ballroom may have once been named one of Preservation Dallas’ “Most Endangered Historic Places,” but on Thursday morning, the “What ifs” seemed a thing of the past.
The Longhorn Ballroom is back.
