Garrett T. Capps is many things. He is a born San Antonian and the owner of the popular Lonesome Rose “honky tonk” bar. He is a reasonably locally famous musician with an unique online presence who has achieved relative success in Holland and wants to scale his reach even further.
He is a 34-year-old man, friend to Flaco Jimenez, and a prolific event thrower trying to keep San Antonio cool.
Capps has just completed a month-long artist residency at his own bar. Nearly every night in August, the musician and frenetic figure behind the St. Mary’s Strip bar, took the stage to perform for all the Lonesome regulars. Some might call it Elvis-esque insanity, Capps calls it “a fun thing to do.”
He always seems to be doing something, never quite able to stop. Some days he’s touring, or throwing ambient concerts at the Japanese Tea Gardens with artists like Claire Rousay, who credits him as being “one of the most thoughtful and creative presenters in town.” Other days he’s hosting community events and playing DJ sets for the burgeoning local meme account Deco Memes District.
Usually he’s maintaining his bar’s own calendar with big names and newcomers. Often he’s keeping aging conjunto musician Santiago Jimenez booked and busy.
His residency at his own bar was at once a creative exercise and also a vehicle to raise money for women’s reproductive rights after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Capps is donating the several thousand dollars he raised to places like the ACLU.
“I usually keep politics out of my world when it comes to music and stuff. But yeah, I mean, I figured taking money at the door would be the least I could do to give a purpose to this whole insane thing,” shares Capps, who is typically on the cusp of another venture.
Garrett. T Capps photographed in Lonesome Rose with a Rambler sparkling water.
Courtesy of Garrett T. CappsLatest venture
This month and into October, Capps is throwing a series of album release parties for People are Beautiful, an album recorded with his band, Nasa Country, in December 2020 at the Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso.
Capps’ last full-length release, I love San Antone, was a concept honky tonk album, chockfull of features and songs lionizing his hometown. It was a project that sent him and his band on several trips to perform in the surprising country music hotspots of Europe.
This new album however, officially releasing on October 21, is something different. People are Beautiful exists somewhere between cosmic and kraut country genres, and is for fans of “everyone from Townes to CAN,” according to Capps.
“It’s the best representation of us so far, and I think its really unique and progressive” he says, whose band is comprised of a lot of guys who like jazz music, synthesizers, and John Prine.
If you’re really curious, there’s a music video out for the titular track that the band recorded at local mid-century furniture purveyor Period Modern.
The first free event, preceding the actual album release by a month, will be thrown down the road from Lonesome Rose at the Paper Tiger on September 10. It will kickoff at 5 p.m. and feature performances by Filthy, Sunjammer, Heatwave Berler, The Shut Ups, and Nicky Diamonds. More shows will follow at the same venue on September 24, October 15, and October 27.
Find it: Paper Tiger, 2410 N St. Mary’s St., San Antonio, TX 78212
Perfect setting
It’s only natural that the shows will take place at Paper Tiger. At the venue’s inception back in 2015, Capps reached out to owner Chad Carey and expressed interest in helping book shows. A few years later in 2018, he opened his own bar and small venue down the road, mostly as a place for himself and other smaller acts with twang to cut their teeth. Since then, the wood paneled Lonesome Rose has quickly begun to build its own mythos, hosting everyone from local punk and indie outfits to Charely Crockett and the legendary Doug Kershaw.
In a way, Lonesome Rose is singular in San Antonio, or at the very least, on the St. Mary’s Strip.
“It’s definitely a sort of venue that we needed. The idea of a 200 capacity venue that could book a lot of non-mainstream, up and coming sort of country music acts, that kind of didn’t really exist,” shares Carey, who has since become a friend to his fellow venue owner. “I think that’s the sort of place that, you know, can be open in 30 years and be an institution.”
While he’s happy with what its grown into, Lonesome Rose doesn’t seem to be enough for Capps, who loves to perform. After his band’s upcoming album drops, he doesn’t intend to rest on his laurels.
Sure, he loves San Antone, as his most popular song suggests, but his appetite for growth is apparent.
“I’m not satisfied to just sit back and take whatever comes up, I want to go kick up some dust and, and do some more work. I think next year I’m going to like be busier outside of town, ” he shares. After the roadblock of the COVID-19 pandemic, this means more tours, particularly more international tours, building off the momentum that he has already stirred.
“I’m never really satisfied. To a fault sometimes,” Capps adds.
“I think the world of Garrett, and it’s borderline, saccharine, but San Antonio is really lucky to have a guy like him doing what he’s doing,” shares Carey.
If you’re not satisfied with waiting for the live shows, you can now preorder People are Beautiful from Garrett T. Capps and Nasa Country.
