Charline Liu

MUHI 4335

Final research paper

Truck Yard Nostalgia

My paper is going to be on my venue called Truck Yard. I will be focusing on

these three academic music sources: Kun’s Audiotopia: Music, Race and America,

Adorno’s Introduction to the Sociology of Music and De Nora’s After Adorno: Re-

thinking Music Sociology to explain the mutual beneficial relationships between the

business itself, the musicians and the audience.

Truck Yard is a venue that combines many aspects to create the perfect outdoor

venue. It has food from food trucks; specialty drinks such as draft cocktails and of course

lives music on the weekends. Truck Yard harkens back to the wholesome Dallas country

vibe where you can bring your entire family and your pet and enjoy live music along with

your food and drink. Truck Yard according to the owners brings back the good old days

of the 70s and 80s with a modern twist. Being located on Lower Greenville with many

bars nearby, the outdoor music atmosphere attracts a new crowd that is tired of traditional

bars. Like Kun said in Audiotopia, “music functions like a possible utopia for the listener,

that music is experienced not only as a sound that goes into our ears but as a space we

can enter into”(Kun 1), Truck Yard tries to embody this by creating the perfect listening

utopia. Listeners want to be able to eat delicious food, drink craft beer and listen to some

tunes. Truck Yard is a relaxed establishment that allows for people to go enjoy music in

groups in a utopia that would allow the music to transport the listeners into different
worlds. Specific genres are played at Truck Yard to assimilate with the atmosphere of a

laid back outdoor bar.

Truck Yard advertises itself to be the perfect adult playground with tire swings,

tables built into pickup truck beds and a delightful tree-house bar. Its casual, laid-back

vibe attracts crowds even at night. The decorations are eclectic featuring bikes hanging

on the entryway to the marquee lights clearly labeling for its customers. The junkyard

reclaimed feel is highlighted by the three tiered chandelier made almost entirely by lone

star beers. The place however is as family friendly as bars can get, by allowing pets on

their back patio. While I was there I often observed little children running around the

tables or sitting on their father’s laps as the adults socialized and listened to music. The

bulk of their consumer base is made up of hipsters, young families and just regular people

looking for a good time.

In my opinion the owner of the place, Jason Boso of Twisted Root, has made a

conscious effort to bring the affective feel of an Austin food park to Dallas. The owner is

a lover of Craigslist finds and thus many of the decorations including the marquee sign

and trailer were scavenged from there. By adding these little touches to the place, Boso

has successfully incorporated a white trash feel throughout the place, a culture that is

increasingly becoming more popular. Boso stated in an interview with Huffington Post

before Truck Yard’s opening that one of his main inspirations was a little town called

Gruene just outside of the city limits of Austin that had “a lot of outdoor drinking and

dining with some good Texas country music. You can come with your hat on backwards
and wearing that shirt you've had since college that just might be a little stinky. That's my

favorite atmosphere.” In keeping with this Truck yard closes at twelve so it is not a late

night bar but instead is a “Come for dinner, enjoy a live band kind of eat and drinking

environment”. For Boso and his highly selected team of staff who are funky in their own

way, keeping a unique atmosphere is the most important objective and Boso is willing to

go as far as to say that he would only stop when the funk goes away. This shows that

Boso is all about the unique and funky atmosphere, which Truck Yard embodies

perfectly. It is a conscious decision and can be seen throughout the place including the

music itself.

One of Jason Boso’s main goals in opening Truck Yard was to create a safe space

for people to interact. To go along with this he planned early on for truck yards to be the

main source of food at the dive bar. In his opinion, food trucks were more casual and

could allow customers greater flexibility in their choices. Even the one restaurant on site

operates uniquely, like Boso’s other restaurant Twisted Root, the philly cheesecake

located inside next to the bar “is the kind of place where you stand and talk to the cook-

lemme have some peppers and he will make it right in front of you”. This correlates to

Boso’s main goal for the customer to actively interact with either staff and/or musicians

without any hesitation on the customer’s part.

I would say that the patrons of Truck Yard are for the most part not only get but

understand Boso’s vision for Truck Yard. I would say the audience that is there in the

afternoon is exactly the crowd that Boso wanted to attract in the first place. While people
from all walks of life will wander into Truck Yard during their uptown forays, their loyal

customers completely fit the utopia that they sell. From talking with some of the people

nearby while there I discovered that the atmosphere of Truck Yard plays a huge role in

why certain people frequent there. For many of their frequent customers, the search to

find a place that combined basic American foods, hand crafted beer, and live music

turned out to be fairly difficult in Dallas. The crowd that frequents Truck Yard buy into

the notion because it fits the kind of lifestyle they want to portray. Like the owner’s

inspiration of a small town bar in Texas, the regulars flock there because it brings the

listening utopia of small town Texas, something hard to find in the big city.

Even though live music is only provided for a few hours at Truck Yard on the

weekends, there is a palpable difference. During the hours when live music is provided,

the place becomes a livelier place as majority of its customers are enjoying themselves

and conversing amongst each other. Having spoken to the manager briefly about the live

music and how it benefits his business. He states that while the live music is integral to

the image and authenticity of the place, they do not promote the live music unlike The

Rustic.

The bands themselves are always 100% local acts that use this as stage

experience. Many of these bands are just starting out and trying to gain a loyal fan base

by playing at local establishments. The bands are asked to play mostly covers but they are

also encouraged to play original music throughout their program. The booking agents

encourage these bands to play more covers, since covers are by popular artists the

audience is more engaged and the crowd gets larger and more engaged. The bands
themselves are usually 100% local and often play acoustic, folk and rock. They play both

modern popular covers but also play throwback covers to the 70s and 80s, which the

target audience enjoys. Their target audience is focused primarily on the newly graduated

indie rock star. The people that come to Truck Yard are those who are not attracted to the

mainstream and want to head somewhere that is unique.

There is a difference between when the bands play covers and when they play

their original music. Original music while beautiful, can often go unnoticed from the

audience particularly if the band did not wow the listeners with either the choice of

covers or the covers themselves. A lot of times, original music become background music

as the audience is otherwise engaged in their own lives, but the moment popular covers

are played the audience becomes more engaged and sings along to the music. Thus the

bands have to develop their sense of feel. All the bands go into the venue with a set

playlist but like DJ Tolo they must learn to “listen to people’s responses...their mood,

their tone of voice, the interactions among themselves, these things happen in a second

but you must learn to recognize them” (DeNora 151). I have found that while the

majority of the bands are inexperienced, the ones that engage the crowds the most are

constantly looking out into the crowd to see their mood, the interactions. The experienced

ones will then change their songs to hype up the crowds at certain times but also at times

to go with the mood of the place, a chill mellow place where people can socialize and

listen to live music. Some of the bands are there more often and as they become more

popular among the regulars of the place soon even their original music is met with more

attention. Like many young acts, these bands use playing at a venue like Truck Yard as a
way to gain more live experience before they begin producing their own CD’s. Once I got

a quick opportunity to speak to the Redwine Band after they finished their set. I asked

them what influenced their set list and if they would rather play covers or original music.

The lead singer remarked “We want to touch the audience by our words rather than

merely playing what’s already been done. We understand that playing covers is right of

passage but given a choice we would rather play our own music.”

The outdoor venue supports all local bands in the Dallas community by allowing

them the opportunity to perform in front a live audience. The music that is played

encompasses a wide variety of music but primarily focuses on the country and folk genre.

While the bands perform their own songs, they also do wide-known covers of current

music such as “Make you miss me” and “Take Your Time.” Like Griffiths said in Cover

Versions and the Sound of Identity, “ They invite the sociology or cultural studies class to

consider the effect of musical change, and even the extent to which those very terms are

informed by our musical experience. ” (Griffiths 3) The covers performed at truck yard

embody that specific ideology that the popular songs heard on the radio and on iTunes

are being interpreted by the musicians to create a new sound that can create a whole new

music experience. Covers are about connecting to music that is constantly changing,

while still trying to connect to the wide audience. The songs performed are extremely

different than the original song, but it does not make it any less special, if anything it

adds more of a story and sound to it that grabs the audience that is present at the venue.

The different version of the original creates a whole new perspective on the meaning and

revamp it and allows the listener to think.

 Unlike other venues such as The Rustic, which is restricted to adults only, Truck

Yard allows everyone to listen to the local music and enjoy some good company. Truck

Yard enables families to come and allow their kids to come and not only eat but listen to

good music that many have probably heard on the either the radio or TV. They also allow

pets on the patio and one can see dogs roaming around with their owners having a good

time together. The different version of the original creates a whole new perspective on

the meaning and revamp it and allows the listener to think.

These bands also perform covers of older songs, which allows for some of the

younger patrons to learn more about the music of the eras before them. Like Kun said in

Audiotopia, “Music had become an entryway into a boundless social world of difference

and possibility” (Kun 2). This is the same type of mentality as covers from different eras

allow the ears to experience new music every time they go. While the music often enters

a listener’s ear passively, music always changes perspectives however unconscious, like

Kun said, “We always slide back into this world, but, each time we slide back forever

changed” (Kun 3). He continues on to say that unlike Adorno, he does not think there is

only “one, single, all-encompassing, way of listening and that flexibility(opens up to

infinite possibilities” (Kun 17). This is the kind of atmosphere that Truck Yard provides

for its patrons, a place to passively listen to music that may change their lives in ways

unforeseen.

Truck Yard embodies a mutually beneficial relationship between the businesses

itself, the musicians and the audience. The audience’s interaction with the band creates

the atmosphere the business is trying to embody and the musicians gain valuable
experience in working a crowd. The owner has made a conscious effort to create the

perfect atmosphere for customers to spend a late afternoon, early evening with friends,

puppies, and family enjoying good old country music