After Tragic Death of Owner, Dosey Doe Fights to Stay Open

There are few venues as unique as the Dosey Doe in The Woodlands, Texas, just north of Houston. There’s even fewer in Texas that have played such an important role in fostering the careers of country music performers, both in the early incarnations of their career, and in their twilight. With a capacity of 420 people, serving food as well as entertainment, Dosey Doe has been a fixture of the Texas music scene ever since it was opened by its owner Steve Said in October of 2006.

A 19-year-old venue might not sound that legendary or historic. But that’s not where the story of Dosey Doe begins. When Mr. Said wanted to open a new business, he decided constructing some modern, prefabricated building didn’t seem very cool. So instead, he purchased an old tobacco barn in Kentucky originally built in the 1850 that was carefully deconstructed board by board, loaded it up on a flatbed truck, and shipped it down to Texas. Now it resides on the service road of Interstate 45 and serves as the area’s most beloved mid-sized music venue.

The Dosey Doe Big Barn was the first place that Parker McCollum played a real show while growing up nearby. Cody Johnson also performed at the venue on his way up. The Red Clay Strays also used Dosey Doe as a spring board to their now major career, and there are many other similar stories. As an independent-owned venue not beholden to bigger entities, Steve Said could take a chance on local artists who would often return the favor by coming back even when they’d reached a bigger capacity.

The Dosey Doe Big Barn also plays a big role by offering a location for country legends to perform. Upcoming shows include The Gatlin Brothers, Gene Watson, The Bellamy Brothers, along with important emerging acts like The Castellows, The Wilder Blue, and John PayCheck. Wynonna has been a regular there, even though she could play much larger venues. BJ Thomas was one of the venue’s first performers.

The Dosey Doe Big Barn was so successful, it became the hub of a bigger business empire operated by Steve Said. He originally intended to open a coffee shop. But once the barn was constructed, it seemed a natural fit for music. Coffee is still very much part of the concept though, with multiple signature blends offered under the Dosey Doe label, as well as a signature BBQ sauce.

There was also the smaller Dosey Doe Breakfast, BBQ, & Whiskey Bar owned by Said that included music in a 150-capacity venue, as well as the Dosey Doe Coffee Shop at 8021 Research Forest Dr. in The Woodlands. At one point Dosey Doe was also partnered with the High Horse Saloon in Texas City south of Houston putting on bigger shows at the 26,000 sq. ft. venue.

Steve Said was also one of the major promoters for 2023’s “Big As Texas” Festival—a three-day megafest with headliners Billy Strings, Dierks Bentley, and Thomas Rhett. As an independent venue owner and promoter, Steve Said was helping to to support Texas music in Texas so artists didn’t have to run off to Nashville and sell their soul to get a start in the business. Beloved throughout Texas music and a dear friend to many of the artists, Said was considered a saint for what he’d cultivated at Dosey Doe.

But a tragic and and almost inexplicable set of circumstances over the last few years led to a downward spiral for Steve Said’s business, health, and well-being, putting Dosey Doe at risk like so many of the smaller and mid-sized venues throughout the United States. On September 28th after a string of tragedies, Steve Said decided to take his own life at the age of 72. In the aftermath of Said’s passing, the future of Dosey Doe has been left up in the air, putting everything Said worked for in peril.

Trouble first started for the venue during the pandemic, just like it did for many music venues and independent businesses throughout the United States. “That was the beginning,” says David Clements, Dosey Doe’s house photographer, and one of the guys leading the charge to keep the venue alive after the passing of Steve Said.

The second major factor was trying to throw the Big As Texas Festival at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in May of 2023. “Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, and the customer base around here didn’t cooperate,” explains Clements. “It just didn’t do what it was expected to do, and it became a financial burden.”

As Saving Country Music commented at the time, the curation of the Big As Texas Festival—along with a handful of other Texas festivals—was quite curious. Trying to incorporate performers like Billy Strings, Dwight Yokam, Tracy Byrd, and 49 Winchester with mainstream country stars like Thomas Rhett and Colt Ford didn’t really work. But even if the festival had been curated better, wet weather deterred some from attending. Even with an estimated 20,000 attendees over the three days, the endeavor lost money. It’s also important to note that 10% of proceeds from the fest were pledged to suicide prevention efforts.

But the real calamity occurred on Monday, July 8th, 2024 during Hurricane Beryl. Steve Said was driving home, parked in his driveway, and saw that a tree next door had fallen. As he started walking toward the tree, Said got hit in the back of the head with another very large falling tree. “He got hit so hard, it knocked his shoes off,” explains David Clements. “His shoes ended up in a tree, to give you some idea.”

Steve Said suffered a broken skull, broke his back in two places, broke his shoulder, his sternum, ribs, and shoulder. There was fear that Said would not pull through. He spent 90 days on a ventilator in the ICU. He couldn’t speak during this time, and could only barely scribble notes. Even when he finally made it out of the ICU, Said still had to endure months of rehabilitation and followup surgeries.

“It was such an onerous thing he was dealing with physically, on top of the financial impacts of Covid, the festival, of not being able to pay attention to his business, you put all that together, and it took its toll,” Clements explains. “Between the physical pain, the emotional pain, the financial pain, the stress of trying to deal with it all, it was more than he could cope with.”

One of the first signs of trouble is when the smaller capacity Dosey Doe Breakfast, BBQ, & Whiskey Bar shut down. Then the High Horse Saloon in Texas City that had been promoting shows as “Dosey Doe Presents” abruptly shut its doors on August 7th. Doesy Doe was handling all ticketing for the venue, and had to issue a rash of refunds for shows.

Then the news came down about Steve Said’s death on September 28th, shocking Houston’s country music community.

“I lost my friend, Joan lost her husband, Dosey Doe lost the guy at the helm,” says David Clements. “I haven’t even really mourned Steve’s passing, because I’ve been so focused on trying to help the family and keep the venue open. At some point, I’ll need to really step back and mourn my friend’s loss.”

While the family tries to keep the business and venue afloat, David Clements has taken the initiative to start a Go Fund Me campaign to help the venue, raising nearly $70,000 in donation from some 330 individuals at the time of this post.

“He’s got a beautiful, smart wife and a son that is engaged with the business,” says David Clements. “And we’re looking under every single stone, trying to make sure the venue stays open while the owner (now Steve’s widow) contemplates a new owner, or a new partnership. My role is simple. I want to keep live music alive. Dosey Doe can’t go under. So everybody who loves live music or Dosey Doe is pitching in to keep things going so we don’t lose the venue to a high rise.”

One thing that has frustrated David Clements is how few musicians and people within the music industry have been willing to step up to help. “How do you motivate the music industry to help this kind of venue when they’re having a rough go of it? You don’t want to subsidize them forever. But why wouldn’t the industry come to the aid of Dosey Doe? Why do I have to beg artists to do something?”

But for David Clements, songwriter Kyle Hutton, and all the fans of Dosey Doe, allowing the venue to shutter is not an option.

“I just can’t imagine life without Dosey Doe,” Clements says. “That might sound a little dramatic, but there’s really no other alternative that meets and does what Dosey Doe does. It’s kind of like Gruene Hall, the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. It’s a special venue. It has to stay.”

Contribute to the Dosey Doe Go Fund Me

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