Old-fashioned guitar

MABLE FALLS — The legendary Johnny Bush and Tommy Alverson will pull up stools and join in an old-fashioned guitar pull during a weekend matinee at the Uptown Marble Theater.

The matinee is 2 p.m. Sunday at the theater, 218 Main St.

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door and are available online at www.uptownmarble.com; at the R-Bar & Grill, 904 Third St.; and by calling the theater at (830) 693-9996

With acoustic guitars in hand, the audience will see the pair sit side-by-side to sing and play a “bucketload” of the songs Bush has written or recorded over the years, organizers said.

Famous as the writer of “Whiskey River,” the little song that Willie Nelson transformed into country music’s best-loved anthem, Bush has been an integral part of the Texas music scene for the past 50 years.

Bush said he has no plans to retire anytime soon.

“Retire from what? Breathing? People only retire from jobs they don’t like. Performing is not a job—it’s what I do and what I love,” Bush said.

Bush and Nelson both broke into the country music scene in the 1960s as part of Ray Price’s legendary band the Cherokee Cowboys. Bush’s subsequent rise through the Nashville ranks was meteoric, music historians said. 

With a number of top-selling albums and sold-out shows behind him, Bush’s career came to a halt when his voice mysteriously gave out.

In 2002, Bush found an effective therapy to help him regain the powerful vocal range that decades before had led him to be dubbed “the Country Music Caruso.”

He also got his speaking voice back. 

In 2003, Nelson inducted Bush into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.