This is a FREE family friendly, all ages, and alcohol free event. Saint Mark's Episcopal Church is also 100% accessible for those with mobility issues. 

It's a donation ran series! There is no cover charge. 

We open the doors at 5:30 We serve complimentary munchies at 6:00. We have yummy queso, chips, snacks, and more! The show starts promptly at 7:00. There's a Q & A between the artist and the audience at 8:00 and the entire event usually wraps up at 8:15 

Join the OYOU for one of our concerts, workshops, or events, and stay the night or make a weekend of it! We're located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. We're conveniently located between Austin and San Antonio. The beautiful San Marcos river is nearby as is a multitude of shops and restaurants. The OYOU is a proud member of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and appreciate you shopping, eating, and staying local during your time with us! 

The OYOU is committed to paying its teachers, artists, and performers. We are also committed to outreach within our community, celebrating diversity, and providing an artistic outlet to those with disabilities. 

The entire industry of the performing and visual arts has been turned upside down due to advances in technology and a massive shift in how people consume music and view the arts. We provide a source of income to artists by giving them an audience in which to perform and or teach. 

The OYOU creates and atmosphere where those that create and make their living in the arts can not only survive, but thrive, in both education and performance. 

Our classes are small. We also provide scholarships for those who would otherwise be unable to attend, and we also work with those with disabilities — often one on one.

Please considering donating to the OYOU so that we can pay our teachers and performers a reasonable wage for their hard work and creative efforts. 

Michael Hearne’s destiny has been tangled in wire and wood since he first laid his hands on a guitar at the age of seven. With a natural ear for harmony and an aptitude for picking, it wasn’t long before a young Michael Hearne was a fixture at parties and local events in his childhood hometown of Dallas. By the age of sixteen he had honed his skills on the guitar and, without a doubt in his mind about his destiny, he hit the road as a touring musician.

Michael’s career over the next few decades would take him across the southwest and beyond. Calling the mountains of northern New Mexico home for many years, Michael shared his talents as a singer, songwriter, and picker in bars, listening rooms and dance halls throughout the region. In the 1980’s, he toured as a member of Michael Martin Murphey’s band, recording on Murphey’s 1982 self-titled album for Liberty Records. Hearne has penned songs for Jerry Jeff Walker and Gary P. Nunn (“Lesson to be Learned from Love”) and his New Mexico anthem, “New Mexico Rain,” was recorded by country music legend Johnny Rodriguez as well as by his uncle and aunt, Bill and Bonnie Hearne. Michael has also co-written with Mentor Williams, Andy Byrd, Shake Russell, Keith Sykes, and many others.

Making a name for himself in his chosen hometown of Taos, New Mexico – Michael’s signature sound on the guitar and beautifully distinctive voice became an integral part of any two-stepping event in the area. Still a local favorite and a multi-time winner of Taos News ‘Best of Taos’ award for performer and singer – Michael wrote and recorded some of his best work during his years at the feet of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Recording countless albums both with his band South by Southwest and as a solo artist, and writing such classic tunes as the fan favorite “New Mexico Rain” and “High Road to Taos,” Michael found endless inspiration in the culture and natural beauty of the area. 

After hosting years of informal barn dances, Michael officially began his Big Barn Dance Music Festival in 2003. Now a three day event featuring the best songwriters and performers in Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Singer-Songwriter and everything in between, the event draws music aficionados from across the United States. Throughout the event, Michael is found either on-stage – adding his signature sound to the music of his friends and peers, or just to the side- soaking in the music and preparing to introduce the next talented act to his enraptured audience. 

After recording several albums in the early 2000s – including the critically-acclaimed concept album Sight and Sound: Songs Inspired by the Fine Art of Northern New Mexico (winner of seven awards at The New Mexico Music Awards), Michael made his way to Nashville, Tennessee. There, he wrote and recorded 2011’s Life in America – after surviving the historic Nashville floods in 2010. The album not only showcased some of Michael’s best songwriting to date, but the talents of producer Mark Fain and some of the top pickers in Music City, including Bryan Sutton, Stuart Duncan, and Andy Leftwich. 

With this new album in hand, Michael packed his bags for the nation’s other country music mecca – Austin, Texas. There, he teamed up with renowned Americana songwriter Shake Russell, touring throughout the year and recording a duo album as well as another solo album, Red River Dreams, in 2016. Still occasionally found performing with South by Southwest – made up of long time members Carmen Acciaioli, a musical master of the steel guitar, fiddle, mandolin, dobro, and hammered dulcimer; and the extremely talented Zeke Severson on stand up and electric bass – Michael makes a point to spend some time in his New Mexico homeland as well. 

Now with many miles behind him and countless stages beneath his feet, Michael has amassed a dedicated and ever-expanding fan base. After many busy years of touring, recording, and promoting his Big Barn Dance Music Festival, Michael Hearne still has no doubt in his mind about his calling. Whatever he might be doing, Michael is sure to be found with a guitar in hand, his destiny intertwined as ever in wire and wood.

“Michael Hearne’s record [High Road to Taos] embodies all that I love about New Mexico. Between his whiskey velvet voice, the evocative songwriting and gorgeous musical production, I found myself profoundly aching for my favorite place in the world” – Eliza Gilkyson

“Once in a while there comes a recording I never tire of playing. ‘My Funny Valentine’ by Chet Baker comes to mind. ‘Come Away With Me’ by Norah Jones is another. It’s like they were recorded only yesterday even though it might be years since they were first released. In January of 2008, I heard Michael Hearne’s High Road To Taos and I knew from the second or third time I played it, and that’s been a lot of plays ago, that this was one of those records I’ll always play and every time I do it will be as fascinating, alluring and inspiring as the first time I played it. It’s a very real classic and it’s my hope it gets the wide audience it so richly deserves.” – Keith Sykes

Michael's Website 

"Laugh as much as possible, always laugh. It's the sweetest thing one can do for oneself & one's fellow human beings." - Maya Angelou

"A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

"There is nothing like a gleam of humor to reassure you that a fellow human being is ticking inside a strange face." - Eva Hoffman

Al Barlow Website TBA

"Al Barlow is one of the most gifted songwriters around and it's easy to see why some of his more famous friends (e.g. REK and Todd Snider) claim his influence. Al deals in universal truths but still has an obtuse, interesting way of seeing the world. There's something in Al Barlow's songs for everyone: from the young to the old, saints to sinners. You'll find yourself laughing out loud at some of his subject material but touched by what he's trying to say...and singing his lyrics later at the top of your lungs." — Chris Edwards 

There is no scientific way to prove it, but Al Barlow may very well be the happiest man on the face of this big ol' goofy world. You think this when you see him from across a room, when you listen to any of his songs live or on your home stereo, even when he’s just a big, sunny East Texas voice twanging on the other end of a phone line. Any way you encounter him, Al Barlow is pure, unadulterated and relentless Happy personified. And he knows it. "I’ve never met anybody in my life that I would consider a happier person," Barlow readily concedes. "I’ve met a lot of happy folks but I don’t know anybody more blessed than me. I’ve had my share of heartaches and grief, but I’m not gonna let that part of life dominate me. But not only am I gonna be happy, I’m gonna make damn sure that I try to make everybody else happy that I come in contact with." He chuckles. "It’s just one of my mental problems." Who, you may ask yourself, is this mental, happy man? He’s a 46 year-old, married father of two grown daughters. He’s a twenty-seven-year veteran with the Southwestern Bell telephone company (customer service), a loyal employee and dues-paying union member. And he’s one of the best not to mention the funniest -- American singer-songwriters you’ve likely never heard. You’ve certainly never heard songs quite like his before: quirky, mischievous little ditties about matchbooks and empty peanut butter jars and fishing and nosy co-workers that come on silly but rarely go on their merry way without goosing the heart by surprise. And Al Barlow’s been writing them his entire life. "I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t making up a little song of some kind," he says. "I remember I was a little kid and how surprised my mother would be whenever I would come in and say ‘I wrote this poem I want you to hear.’ I just kept on doing it, because something would come to me and I just had to put it down in writing. And it was fun." The only time the happy songs stopped coming to Barlow was during a rough stretch in his teens, after the suicide of his mother threw him into a five-year depression. It wasn't until a cousin fresh from a tour of duty in Vietnam helped him put his sadness in perspective that he snapped out of it. "He helped me realize that I don’t have to be sad, that other people have it worse, and that maybe I could use my experience with tragedy to help somebody else." The songs came back, but Barlow never got around to singing them for anyone but his extended family until the phone company transferred him from Pasadena, TX to San Antonio sixteen years ago. Barlow moved his family to nearby New Braunfels in the Texas Hill Country, and shortly thereafter a fortuitous, uncharacteristic visit to a songwriter’s circle at Cheatam Street Warehouse in neighboring San Marcos sealed his fate. His songs were a hit, he went back a second time, and next thing he knew, he was a Hill Country sensation. His picture was in the local papers. Fellow Texas singer-songwriters Robert Earl Keen and Terri Hendrix began singing his praises and sharing their crowds with him, with Keen memorably once personally asking his rabid fans to shut up and listen to Barlow’s songs. His songs are now on the radio, both locally and in locales as far flung as Alaska, and they’re in the homes of his own growing family of fans, preserved for the ages on a trio of independently released, homespun Texas classics: The Original Al Barlow, The Adventures of Al Barlow and now the epic At Home With Al Barlow. Think of the last produced by Lloyd Maines and recorded live before a small gathering of family and friends not at Al’s home but rather at his sister’s right across the street -- as Al Barlow’s Greatest Hits. It’s just Al, his guitar and two dozen of his best songs, some new ("The Peanut Butter Jar"), lots of oldies but goodies ("I Once Was a Seed," "Cypress Creek Elixer") and at least one bonafide Al Barlow anthem, the blue collar workin’ man’s battle cry, "Painting Stripes on the Highway." And in keeping with Barlow’s mission in life, every one of ‘em will cheer you up, except for the occasional curveball like "Hunting Squirrels," which might make you cry, and the poignant "Col. Travis’ Slave," which will change the way you remember the Alamo for the rest of your life. As for Al Barlow, he’s just counting the days down to two years’ worth until he can retire from the phone company and take up his real passion full-time. "I’m really not retiring in the truest sense of the word because I’m certainly not retiring from what I love to do best, and that’s entertaining," says the guy who’s still got the check stub from his first paying music gig in his "Al Barlow Museum" in a front room of his house. "I don’t care about being a rich, famous, top of the charts guy. I just wanna be able to eke out a living by singing and making CDs and entertaining. That’s just something I’ve loved to do ever sense I was a little kid. It’s part of who I am. There’s nothing that cheers me up more than cheering up somebody else." Consider it a done deal.

— Richard Skanse (Lone Star Music) 

“If Roger Miller and Shel Silverstein had had a baby, it would be Trigg”.    

— J.Chesnut (former staff writer at Acuff-Rose)                                      

“I was laughing so hard I had to go in the house.”  

— P.Lewis - Rancher and B&B Owner

Mike Trigg’s first real live gig was in a storefront on Broadway in Times Square, New York, piped out onto the sidewalk and on-the-air for the live weekly radio broadcast of “The Real Radio Show”.  That’s not an easy place for a fella with tier one stage fright to start.  The show’s hosts had listened to a download of Trigg’s new album, “Cowboy Logic by Trigger And Some Dudes Named Roy” which was intended to be a one-off keepsake kind of project with no intent for live performances…ever!  So “The Real Radio Show” calls Texas and says, “You guys gotta come up here and play this stuff on our show.”  So there ya go.  He went, played, sang, people laughed.  Some months later, he got an invitation to come back and play solo in the main studio for New York’s morning drive time. Yikes!

But before all that…..

Trigg had lived in Brownwood, Texas for most of 30 some odd years and he was minding his own business.  He’d never played a guitar and never written a song, but Glen Campbell’s long time bass player, Bill C. Graham, moved in next door.  That just sounds stupid, but it’s what happened.  There were now songwriters running loose all over and they were interesting.  Trigg got a guitar and three chords and wrote a thing called “Why Are Cowboys Stupid”.  The real musicians thought it was hilarious, but assured Trigg it would be dangerous to play it inside the Brownwood City Limits.  

Since all that, there’s been a whole lot of stories and a sack full of songs.

So now what?  Trigg’s new album?  That thing is funny!  The album title is “I See Naked People”.  Sometimes he does and he seems to believe everybody else does too.  

"Your performance Friday night was by turns whimsical, uplifting, jaw-droppingly brilliant, hilarious, deeply moving." – Fan Email

Innovative musicians/dancers with a quirky neo-trad soul, Oakland, California-based Evie Ladin & Keith Terry throw down original folk songs and deep interpretations of old songs, with the kinetic thrill of percussive dance.

Ladin sings and plays infectious clawhammer banjo, while Terry is a master percussionist. It was Appalachian string band music pared to the absolute minimum of accompaniment, but packed with an orchestra’s worth of rhythm. — Music City Roots, Nashville

A prolific singer-songwriter, percussive dancer and square dance caller, the polyrhythmic heat of Evie’s clawhammer banjo has been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Celtic Connections, Lincoln Center to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. She can write, she can sing, and she pulls back from the saccharine brink with wit – a sharp intelligence. –Grant Alden, No Depression

Trained as a jazz drummer, Keith Terry brings tonal percussion to stand-up bass, is a renowned percussionist/rhythm dancer, the founder of the International Body Music Festival, and a collaborator with a host of inventive performers from Bobby McFerrin, Tex Williams and Robin Williams, to Turtle Island Quartet, Charles “Honi” Coles and Bill Irwin. Mr. Terry in action is like visiting an anatomical carnival, where hands, feet, fingers, engage in a musical ballet. – Wall Street Journal

Evie & Keith perform for all ages, and are skilled educators, often offering workshops and in-school activities while touring, from elementary through professional level training on a host of topics. In 2019 they celebrate the release of the fourth CD of original music, "Caught On A Wire!"

Evie Ladin and Keith Terry Website 

“The Austin-based quartet curates a unique sound connecting the music they grew up with sounds from around the world, inspired by their travels. Imagine blues, folk and soul done through a global, multi-lingual perspective. That’s the magic right there.”  

— KUTX AUSTIN MUSIC MINUTE

“Su música es un camino en donde van apareciendo paisajes sonoros de distintas naturalezas. El mar se hace presente…y vemos como se van escribiendo los versos en la arena. Ley Line rompe las fronteras a travéz de su ritmo y su palabra, como aves que multiplican su voz para atravesar los cielos. [El grupo] se refleja un mensaje de amor que florece en los anchos y sagrados caminos de la tierra, caminos hechos para encontrarnos y abrazarnos como humanidad.” 

“Their music moves you through a variety of soundscapes and nature. The ocean is present, and you can see their lyrics written in the sand. Ley Line breaks down borders through rhythm and lyric, in the way that birds sing together to travel the skies. They share a message of love that flowers along the wide and sacred paths across the Earth, paths on which we discover and embrace our humanity.”

— PEDRO MORALES OF MONTERREY, MX

Four voices coalesce, rooted in rhythm. Raised on the North American traditions of blues, folk, and soul and inspired by their world travels, the four women of Ley Line transcend genres and languages. Ley Line creates a global soundscape; blending influences from Brazil, Latin America and West Africa. Dynamic harmonies run like a current through textures of stand up bass, guitar, ukulele and world percussion. With strong ties to world folklore traditions, Ley Line’s multilingual compositions evoke the beauty of the human experience through our connection to nature and each other.

 Ley Line is the musical merging of two duos. Austinites Kate Robberson and Emilie Basez met twin sisters Madeleine and Lydia Froncek at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2013. Since reuniting in Austin in 2016, Ley Line has been weaving together their individual journeys into a collective vision to unite audiences around the world. Their eclectic music explores balance and harmony between the unique perspectives of the four songwriters and instrumentalists.

The band’s debut album “Field Notes” released in 2016 is a compilation of original songs and world folk songs from Brazil. In the summer of 2017, the women of Ley Line returned to Brazil to further explore the roots of their musical inspiration. Over the course of three months, they traveled over 3,000 miles playing shows and capturing video footage and inspiration for their upcoming album. The visual album to be released in the spring of 2020 will incorporate original music and imagery inspired by the natural beauty, folklore and rich musical traditions of Brazil.

Spring of 2019 marked the beginning of a tremendous year for Ley Line. The band was invited back to Old Settler’s Music Festival and as a main stage act at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Meanwhile in Austin, they supported great acts like Austin’s own Superfónicos at Antone’s Night Club and Billy Strings at The Mohawk. In June, Ley Line performed alongside Bonnie Paine of Elephant Revival on the main stage at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and later added to the Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup.

Ley Line Website 

2018/2019 Season Three

Stringtown Texas

Tish Hinojosa

Georgia Parker & Big Cedar Fever 

Alan Munde and Billy Bright 

2017/2018 Season Two

Kevin Carrol 

Adam and Chris Carrol 

O' Marlarkey

Tracy Weinberg & Friends 

2016/2017 Season One 

Johnsmith

Susan Gibson

Los Texmaniacs

The Revs