Quality Americana

Nick Garza brings us a way-too short EP with all of the desert country gold you’d expect from the Hill Country Songwriter.

The atmosphere in “Let’s Ride Once More” feels like a sunset on the open range, with Garza’s wonderful Spanish style leads and a beautiful accordion accompaniment from Jan Flemming.

The theme is about “a love that refuses to quit,” Garza said. “It might not be perfect but they’re still in love, and they’re going to just keep going and make it work no matter what.”

San Antonio Roots

Garza incorporates his love of history into his art, as his family traces back thirteen generations in the region from the Spanish explorers in the 1600’s to the German settlers in the 1840’s. He was raised in San Antonio where his mother played guitar and sang.

“I think she was my music teacher in pre-k,” Garza said, “so that probably made me really interested from the get go.”

His grandmother played piano and his father also played a some guitar around the house. It wasn’t long before Garza was penning his own songs.

Kerrville

Garza moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas and quickly started accompanying other artists in the bluegrass and folk scene with his banjo. He had a big break while applying for the college competition offered by the Kerrville Folk Festival.

“My senior year, I signed myself up,” Garza said. At the time he was part of a songwriting duo with Chelsea Marcum.  “We signed up and we won the little competition at the Cactus Cafe, so we actually both skipped our college graduations to play at Kerrville. The time we were on stage was the exact same time we were supposed to be crossing the stage in Austin. We kind of graduated ourselves midway through our set.”

Get Along

He’s spent the past twenty years in Austin building a name in the countless dancehalls that canvas the Texas Hill Country. His Get Along show first appeared at the historic Devil’s Backbone Tavern in Fischer and also was hosted at the Hole in the Wall, the famous spot on the drag by campus that once hosted Townes Van Zandt and Blaze Foley. 

“It’s an ongoing love of mine,” Garza said. The bar manager at the Devil’s Backbone had an opening and asked Garza if he wanted to perform in the tavern again. He agreed only if he could include some friends and the simi-regular showcase was born. The first night featured David Ramirez. 

“It just has this old Texas charm,” Garza said about the historic bar room at the Devil’s Backbone. “There’s just something about it, you feel like you belong there. It’s super inviting, it’s a lot of history, it’s intimate.”

The songwriters all agreed it needed to happen again, and many have reached out to be a part of the Get Along. Garza said he tries to make it have a living room atmosphere much like the iconic party scene in Heartworn Highways that showed country legends picking around the dinner table. People have traveled from all over the state to hear the magic found on those nights.

Silver to Hold

The tracks included on Silver to Hold focus on similar themes of reflection. “Remembrance Waltz” focuses on the ones you’ve lost, yet still keep close to heart, and “Silver to Hold” is a moment to move forward from what once was and find the courage to keep going.

“I’m a victim of overthinking,” Garza said. “Anything that presents itself, I’ll think of a million reasons why it may not work, or a million reasons why it might, and just get caught in this cycle of overthinking, and then you get stagnant and you freeze. It’s more about saying yes and just doing rather than waiting and letting opportunities pass you by. It always feels good to just get things out and make a definitive decision and just go with whatever happens.”

Garza said that he chose to release a “constant stream of singles” back in the lock down, where there was no ability to promote live performances and personally engage with fans and fellow artists. It was a way to “keep the conversation going” and have something exciting for the troubadours to look forward to as they watched the dust settle on their leather soled dancing boots.

Silver to Hold is his first EP under the Get Along name, and he hopes to add more songs over time to form a full length album.

“I was anxious to get them out, and I feel like those three songs really work together,” Garza said. “It’s more about taking initiative and overcoming self doubt. It’s kind of like a pep talk to myself to keep going, keep making things happen.”

Arrangement

Garza focused on presenting a more stripped down sound, which was perfectly accomplished with the arrangement. It captures that vibe of the early Austin City Limits recordings with Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker where you see a dozen people on stage all carefully waiting to inject another melody. He’s been moving more towards the traditional waltzes and away from the polka inspired singles under his own name.

“I feel like they represent more of what I’m going for sonically, lyrically these days than what I have put out in the past,” Garza said, “which was a mix of more Tejano and Conjunto inspired music, and definitely inspired by early 70’s Austin country. I find myself in a way more reflective, deep, less comical side of songwriting at the moment trying to address just life, the beauty of it, the hard parts of it.”

Garza gets compared to Marty Robbins often, as his music and persona really captures that Southwest aesthetic.

“Ultimately I want to do something original,” Garza said. “It’s definitely based on tradition for sure, and that’s what I guess kind of drew me towards classic country and western was the emphasis was on the songwriting. I would like to be original in a world that’s been around for seventy years, I think probably most of us feel that way. My hope is to create something that resonates with folks.”

Many cite Robbins as the most well known western balladeer, especially for those that heard his hits on the charts in California or Tennessee or New York, but Garza really captures the cowboy sound that was formed from the great migration into Texas as it found its independence, from the melting pot of the indigenous, and the frontiersmen, and the German settlers, and the ranchers that traded songs over campfires for generations.

“They’re not lighthearted songs,” Garza said. “They’re about perseverance, and reflection, and overcoming personal obstacles, and loss and self doubt.”

Support the Artist

Purchase and stream Silver to Hold on Bandcamp.

More information about Nick Garza can be found here.

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