 he Knot has been servin' up cold beer and fun in the Heart of
the Hill Country since August 2, 2003. Located in the beautiful ghost town of Eckert
near Willow City we ain't on the Famous Willow City Loop -- dubbed one of  the most scenic drives in Texas -- but from Fredericksburg you gotta go
past us to get there.
Part Saloon, part Wild West-O-Rama, from the
moment you walk in the down home feeling and friendly people will get you set just right.
Wander around, check out the walls, the rafters,
toss a dollar on the ceiling... It's all so rustic/eccentric, tong in chic, it's a
feast for the eyes. So stop by, sip a cold one and have fun.
MY GIFT TO YOU
(An excerpt)
by DAWN DONALDSON
...I
had been coming out of my hermitage and mingling with my friends all this week. It started
out with a venture out to Eckert (near Willow City) to the Knot in the Loop Saloon to hear
my friends the Cosmic Dust Devils sing for some big city record producer folks last
Friday. Barbara Maltese and Kevin Higgins of the band had summoned "local color"
to come and add moral support.
I figured that term applied to me. I was colorful
even when I was conservative. And I was conservative a long time ago.
So there I was last Friday night, sitting on a bar
stool drinking a Coke while all my friends danced and drank with their new boyfriends. I
got a little vicarious thrill out of all the smiling going on. I can’t help but want
good things to happen to these wonderful lady friends of mine.
I took a turn around the Knot on the Loop, looking at
all the eclectic decorating. My favorite observation was the gallery of photographs of
Indians and gunfighters:
Geronimo (Apache), Two Hatchet (Kiowa), White Belly
(Sioux), Lone Elk (Sioux), Many Arrow (Navajo), Utse tah wah tianka (Osage).
 Wild Bill 1876, Bat
Masterson 1883, John Wesley Hardin, Jesse Woodson James 1864, George Maddox of
Quantrille’s Raiders, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Real Wild Bunch.
Dalton Brothers 1892…dead with their rifles
across them. Three Youngers. Texas Rangers 1878. "I am a shootist"…Clay
Allison 1878.
They watched the Mexican boys playing pool with cool
warrior eyes.
A book sat atop the old piano, under the Declaration
of Independence for the Republic of Texas. "Deuthsche Sprachlehre fur
Auslander". German Grammar for the Outsider or something like that. Need a German
dictionary.
Kokopelli’s portrait hangs right next to James
Dean. How apropos.
Under the old tools and bottles and antlers and
feathers and horseshoes above the stage, the Dust Devils tore it up. They sang all their
standards they’d written. Then Barbara had me screaming and wiggling around on that
bar stool when she belted out "Been a Long Time (Since I Rock and Rolled). Damn, that
woman can sing.
"Been a long time, been a long time, been a
long, lonely, lonely, lonely time." Yes, it has. But I feel my passion through the
music, through my friends, through the writing, through the healing work I do. Some people
don’t even have that.
"Everything is not enough, and nothing is too
much to bear."
I found another of my old friends through Wayne, the
owner of the bar. I said I’d probably write a story about the night, especially since
it was Wayne’s birthday that night. He gave me an email address to send it to that
turned out to be for my old friend from San Marcos college days, Ira Kennedy.
Ira was already out of school when I worked with him
on his underground newspaper "Rumors, Gossip, Lies and Dreams" in the late
1970’s. As close as I recall, we were located upstairs at the club the Too Bitter,
which contributed greatly to our missing many deadlines…and to my not exactly
remembering the location to this day.
Ira is a mix of Cherokee/Irish. The Cherokees were
open to intermarriage of races, so there are many mixed bloods among them. Ira wrote and
illustrated a magazine about Enchanted Rock from nearby Llano a few years ago, but
I’d lost touch with him since then. His return was the first of many birthday
presents..."
EXPERIENCE
THE KNOT IN THE LOOP
|
830-685-3591
Open at noon Tuesday - Sunday -- sometimes earlier...
'Till midnight -- sometimes earlier.
Check out the Wild West-O-rama & Cowboy
Museum
Pool, Jukebox and Sometimes Live Music.
Camping by Request.
What's up with all those dollar bills on the
ceiling? And how'd they do that?
Coming Soon:
•
Knot the Biggest Butt Contest
• 1st
Annual Turd Wackers Wackoff
and (as usual)
• THunter's
Paradise with the Annual Knot the Biggest Buck Contest.
Close to all Fredericksburg and Llano deer leases. |
