Day Trips
At the Camp Street Cafe & Store, the music gets started in the afternoon on Saturdays and goes until the last guitar slinger is standing
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Dec. 14, 2007
Camp Street Cafe & Store proves that Crockett, Texas, is one happening place. The music often starts in the afternoon on Saturdays and goes until the last guitar player is standing.
A town of more than 7,000, Crockett wears its Southern charm with a distinct East Texas accent. Stately mansions serve as a welcoming committee to the town square. The entire area is surrounded by tall pine trees on the edge of the Davy Crockett National Forest. The town has lots of soul.
The Old San Antonio Road (TX 21) links Crockett with Nacogdoches to the north and Madisonville to the south. David Crockett passed through here on his way from Tennessee to the Alamo. A spring at the base of the hill under the courthouse was once a popular campground for travelers. Today, a drinking fountain marks the site.
The courthouse reminds me of an art deco nod to Roman architecture. The gray walls look out over a business district that includes several restaurants and a movie theatre. It was a block off the southeast corner of the town square where the African-American business district once thrived. Musicians like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lightnin' Hopkins could easily draw a crowd on the street corners.
During segregation, the Camp Street Cafe & Store was a hub of activity. By day the store sold groceries and haircuts; at night the moonshine and guitars came out. The music had faded from the pine floors of the sheet-metal building when Guy and Pipp Gillette restored the place in 1998 as a music venue.
The brothers inherited the building along with a ranch that their grandfather began in 1912. The boys were more accustomed to the canyons of New York City than the cattle pens of East Texas, but they were not entirely greenhorns when they took over in 1983. Both had grown up working with their grandfather.
Their mother left the family ranch in Lovelady, about 14 miles south of Crockett, to go to school in the northeast. She met the boys' father when Yul Brynner quit the busboy's job, which her future husband would acquire, at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. After working as a busboy and an actor, Guy Gillette Sr. became a noted magazine photographer. The couple still lives in Yonkers, N.Y.
As with many teenagers, seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 inspired the brothers' musical talents. From 1968 until 1983, the pair played at folk clubs on the eastern seaboard, including a stint in a band with a young singer named Diane Keaton.
A love for the community and its musical legacy led the brothers to restore the old building. They also helped finance a bronze statue of Hopkins that looks across the street into the front door of a place he often played.
The Camp Street Cafe & Store is a misnomer in every way. Years ago the city changed the name of the street to Third Street, the only food available is a variety of candy bars, and the store is a gift shop selling an assortment of books, T-shirts, music CDs, and bird decoys carved by Pipp.
The name painted on the red tin siding may not be entirely accurate, but the character of the room is authentic. A small stage cuts the hall in half. Folding chairs and tables fill nearly every available space. On a recent Saturday afternoon, the David Crockett Dulcimer Society's class turned into a jam session filling the rafters with foot-tapping music.
The stage has hosted an impressive list of traveling and regional musicians over the years. Texas troubadours like Eric Taylor, Michael Fracasso, and Ruthie Foster play there often. Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Geoff Muldaur, and Don Edwards have also made appearances. And of course, the Gillette Bros. make regular appearances.
The Camp Street Cafe & Store is at 215 S. Third St., a block east of TX 21. There is music almost every Saturday night and sometimes on Friday night. For information, call 877/544-8656 or go to www.campstreetcafe.com.
For a list of lodgings, restaurants, and recreation in the area, call the Chamber of Commerce at 936/544-2359 or go to www.crockettareachamber.com.
858th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips" 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
