A week brimming with live music large and small, local and international, all prior to CenTex’s second major musical gathering of the year: Old Settler’s Music Festival – coming Thursday to an alternative weekly and Dripping Springs BBQ joint near you.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.