Closing of Coupland Dancehall Speaks to Deeper Concerns in Music

Along with the legendary Luckenbach, TX just west of Austin, and Gruene Hall just south of Austin, The Coupland Dancehall in Coupland, TX about 25 miles east of Austin is one of the legendary spots where so much Texas music history has been made. Though it’s a short drive from the Live Music Capital, it’s a world away in the rural town of Coupland with a population less than 300, sitting just beyond the expanding sprawl of A-Town.

It’s not just a dance hall. For many years the property also housed a restaurant, along with a bed and breakfast, and has a history going all the way back to 1904. Open on Saturday nights, Coupland Dancehall has been a mainstay of Texas music for decades. But that legacy is about to come to a close as the current owner Abbey Road is donating the property to a non-profit after years of dwindling revenue, sagging interest, skyrocketing costs, and insurmountable challenges brought on by major shifts in the music business.

For fans and friends of the dance hall, the announcement on August 7th came as a shock. For the next 10 weeks—from August 9th to Oct 11th—Coupland would be celebrating what it’s calling the final season of the dance hall’s legacy. “It’s the end of an ERA, or two or three… A true-blue Texas honky tonk. A two-step back in time. After decades of boots, beer, heartbreak, and hell-raising, Coupland Dancehall is calling it ‘Last Call,'” the announcement said.

For Coupland, it’s not gentrification or development that’s threatening its future like so many other historically significant locations. In fact, it’s not one specific issue, but a host of them. And the story of Coupland is not entirely unique. It mirrors the challenges many mid-sized music venues are facing all across the United States.

“My main focus is to make sure we could honor the legacy of this dance hall. And we’re being able to to that by putting together some really awesome shows over the next 10 weeks,” Abbey Road says.

Abbey Road got into the Texas scene right as it was exploding with its original slate of big stars. At that time, many of them rarely left Texas, and didn’t need to in order to make a living. This included Robert Earl Keen, Reckless Kelly, Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Roger Creager, and others who would play Coupland on a regular basis. Abbey Road previously worked as the music coordinator and talent buyer for Luckenbach, TX from 2006 to 2014. Then she worked at the legendary Threadgill’s in Austin until that historic property was phased out. Around that time is when she purchased the dance hall.

“When I bought the building, the dance hall in 2016, it was old owners, and they had no connections, and couldn’t get any bands in there except for local honky tonk bands. So I came in and put everybody and their mother in there. Charlie Robison has always been my bro, and he was always coming to my rescue. And he opened Coupland with me. And we were doing great, and growth was happening.”

(Editor’s Note: Charlie Robison was not a business partner in the Coupland Dance Hall. He helped draw crowds the the dancehall by performing after Abbey Road took ownership.)

But the Texas Music scene and music in general has been going through some dramatic shifts over the last couple of years. “Those guys are in their 50s, 60, and sometimes 70s now (and some have passed on like Charlie Robison), and so the Texas/Red Dirt scene that we all were incredibly blessed to have is no longer. The new wave gets famous on TikTok, go get a deal in Nashville, and skip the ground. You don’t have to amass a following at a dance hall, so they’re bypassing us. So there’s no middle-of-the-road economic music anymore,” Abbey Road explains.

Abbey says it’s easier if you have a bar in downtown Austin or Fort Worth where there’s millions of people. But Coupland is on the outskirts. Even when people do make the commute, they don’t always want to drink. “You’ve got to get people to drive, and the customers who all understood what those dance halls were for, they’re now also in their 60s and 70s, and they’re drinking water. That’s great, but I can’t pay my light bill with water.”

The first building making up the Coupland Dancehall property was originally built in 1904, and became known as the Coupland Drug Company, and later Albers Drug Store before becoming the present day restaurant. The Coupland Tavern was built in 1910, and previously operated as a hardware store and a grocery store before being converted into the 7,000 square foot, 600-capacity dance hall.

Along with hosting some of the biggest names in Texas country music, the space has been the backdrop for numerous films and videos, including the legendary Lonesome Dove. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hayes Carll, Pat Green, Kevin Fowler, Brennen Leigh, Asleep at the Wheel, and more have filmed videos at Coupland. In fact, it was a film production that helped the dance hall make it through the pandemic. They were shut down for 14 months, but HBO came in and used it as a location for their miniseries Love & Death, which helped keep the dance hall afloat.

“After the pandemic, people were really ready to get out of the house, so we came back really strong for about a year,” Abbey Road explains. “And then all of a sudden, it was an election year, the economy started tanking, the TikTokkers started exploding, people quit eating, and I couldn’t find staff. Booking agents started saying the people who needed to be playing in a 600-person venues were now looking at 1,000-person or 1,500 person venues, and it didn’t matter the ticket price, because volume is what everyone was looking at for record labels.”

“This is putting the middle-of-the-road venues out of business,” she continues. “But to be fair, booking is just one part of it. You have to go back to the consumer, because they’re not coming to a venue to see if they can find a new artist. My last growth artist was Randall King. We had 80 people. Then we had 120. Then 200, then 300, and then we sold him out and never looked back … I love growing artists. Growing artists was my favorite thing to do.”

Similar to the concerns raised about TikTok by Cody Jinks and others recently, the rise of the app’s power means that performers are skipping important steps in their development. As opposed to growing audiences organically while seasoning themselves on stages like the Coupland Dancehall, they can circumvent it all and move straight into 1,500-capacity venues or larger. But that instant success comes with the repercussions of lacking experience and not building a loyal fan base, along with putting important venues like the Coupland Dancehall at risk.

“Cody Jinks and Reckless Kelly will have a career as long as they want it because they’ve been pounding the pavement their whole life. They have equity. They have loyal fans,” Abbey Road explains.

Another issue has been the massive Two Step Inn festival in nearby Georgetown, promoted by Austin-based C3 Presents, which is partially owned by Live Nation. “They put 160-day radius clauses on any artist that’s playing that festival. I wouldn’t say the festival is the biggest problem, but it hasn’t helped because artists I would normally have play were on that festival and I was blocked.”

Coupland Dancehall also faces challenges compared to the other legendary spots in Texas.

“We’re closer to Austin than Gruene Hall. But we don’t have a river running through us,” Abbey explains. “Then there’s Luckenbach. Willie and Waylon made that famous. We’ve all played the same players though. We’ve all had the same history. But Coupland never had the merch sales. If we had the merch sales, we would be fine. Also, the alcohol sales have really trailed off. It’s a lot of water, and a lot of non-alcoholic beverages.”

Food sales trailed off too, and since Abbey Road was running the kitchen by herself, she was forced to close the restaurant down in May. Though Saturdays have continued to feature live music, she says it’s really been private parties that have kept the business afloat for the last 18 months.

“I’ve had the building for sale for 2 1/2 years. Many people have considered buying it, including Live Nation. But despite it only being a 600-capacity Dancehall, it’s a 16,000 sq. ft. building with the restaurant, and bed and breakfast. And banks are not lending on hospitality and venue situations at the moment.”

Recently, the math for Coupland Dancehall has just become impossible.

“When the interest rates started climbing, my mortgage notes were due to roll over, so they went from 4 1/2% to 10%. And then my property taxes tripled. And then the insurance … I don’t even know if I would be able to get insurance next year. I had to cut back all coverage to limited liability because I can’t pay for anything else. It went from $8,000 a year to $28,000 a year.”

Abbey Road has run the dance hall with the philosophy that all ticket and door money should go to the band, and the venue only makes money off of beer, liquor, food, and venue-branded merch sales. “I believe that’s why people have played for me all of these years,” she says. But as all of these revenue streams have trailed off, it’s put the business on perilous footing.

“Since we couldn’t sell it to anybody, I had to make a decision if I would personally commit so heavily that I would go bankrupt, or whether I was going to cut my losses, get all my bills paid off, and move on with my life.”

She tried to donate the building to the city, but the city doesn’t have the resources to do anything with it, and this would run the risk of the historic property falling into disrepair. So then she tried to donate it to music-related non-profits, reaching out to Austin City Limits and others, and couldn’t find a taker since so many of these organizations’ funding has been cut, and they wouldn’t be able to operate the venue. So eventually Abbey Road found a recovery and wellness non-profit who is willing to take the building over.

“The recovery and wellness foundation is interesting because it’s kind of timely if you think about it,” she says. “If you look at our bar sales, people haven’t been drinking, or slowed down immensely. Every other day when you look on social media, there’s another artist saying, ‘I’m five years sober. I’m seven years sober.’ So if you wanted to spin it, you could say we’re fixing what we broke over the last 50 years.”

The new owners will be using the 600-capacity space for their meetings and fundraisers, and as office space, but also are open to exploring using the space for other non-alcoholic events that honor the history of Coupland throughout the year.

“I’m so thankful for the way this thing is ending,” Abbey Road says. “My whole intent for the next 10 weeks until October 10th is to honor the legacy and memories of this dance hall. This was Gary Stewart’s home back back in the ’70s through the late ’80s. When Johnny Rodriguez died, William Beckmann was playing that night. William has Johnny’s old bus and bus driver. Johnny was in Houston when they said, ‘This is last call for Johnny.’ So William sent the bus down to Johnny to take Johnny to San Antonio for one last ride on his bus. That gives me chills.”

Though some of the final shows have been announced, others are coming. Abbey Road is hoping to bring back many of the greats who cut their teeth on the Coupland stage up to the final day.

But the problems that the Coupland Dancehall faced aren’t ones that will end when the final show is played. Mid sized venues all across the United States are facing similar challenges that might only be exacerbated as TikTok, AI, and other technological encroachments that continue to present new challenges to the music industry, and especially the live music space.

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