Big Bend Gazette :: Terlingua Palooza Rocks South County, Raises $1200 for Boys & Girls Club of Terlingua

“Honestly, I just wanted to get up somewhere and headline a show,” he says now of the inaugural ‘Terlingua-Palooza’ concert held on July 1st, a concert which raised approximately $1,200 for the Boys & Girls Club and helped send the members of its ‘Torch Club’ to a leadership camp in Fort Worth. “I kind of wanted to make it look not like a fundraiser. I just wanted all the Terlingua people to be able to come out and have a good time, eat some food, drink some beer and listen to some music.”

And more than 150 of them complied. Folks of all ages and musical persuasions nodded their heads, tapped their feet and even danced to an evening of music held in the theater building behind the Terlingua store featuring local musicians headlined by – you guessed it – Hogan and his band ‘The Shots’ playing old standards.

Hey, when you’re 14 years old Aerosmith, ACDC and Pink Floyd are old standards.

“I like ACDC and Aerosmith because of that teenage energy thing,” says Hogan. “You know, it’s just fun. It’s not that, ‘we’re going to do a ten-minute opus and change the face of music’ thing. It’s just really good stuff when you’ve got an audience.”

And speaking of audiences, the one he played to that night came as a bit of a surprise for the young impresario.

“I was expecting about 30 people to show up,” he said, “including 11 of my relatives. I was kind of hoping to raise maybe $500. So when 150 people showed up and we scored $1,200 I was pretty happy.”

He wasn’t the only one.

“It was a huge success,” said Boys & Girls Club executive director Beth Garcia. “The way the community turned out to support us without even knowing what a ‘palooza’ was, I mean that’s pretty impressive. Really, it was just a great evening, especially when you consider that this was the first one. Everyone had a good time and a great attitude. And Hogan, well, he’s a great kid. To be as young as he is and to have so much character, that’s pretty encouraging.”

Hogan, who hatched the idea of the concert and nurtured it from its inception, enlisted the aid of friends, classmates and relatives on the musical side and Beth enlisted, well, just about everyone she could think of on the food and beverage side.

“Oh, my gosh,” she told us. “I’d hate to leave anyone out, so I’m not going to mention all the names. But Larry Brewer did the cooking and Alonzo Aranda was a big help. Carlos and Juanita Mendoza just helped with everything; they watched the kids, which was huge. Our board members, of course, also helped out as they always do.”

‘The Shots’ consisted of Hogan, his classmate from Denton, Trevor Davila on lead guitar, and Hogan’s uncle Hunter on drums. Alpine musician Neil Trammel opened the show and Terlingua stalwarts Micah Parades and Willie Walker Blackstock stepped in to save the day when Hogan had one of his scheduled bands bow out at the 11th hour.

“Those guys were great,” he told us. “They hadn’t played together for months, but when I called Micah up and explained the predicament I was in, he saved me.”

Hunter Sullivan is a well-known jazz singer who has shared the stage with his soon-to-be famous nephew before.

“My uncle Hunter is probably one of my biggest influences musically,” said Hogan. “My parents would bring me to watch him perform in and around Dallas and I can remember him letting me up on stage to sing with him when I was seven or eight. He’s also a great drummer and he’s toured all over the U.S. and Mexico. I’m pretty sure he’s toured in Europe, too. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring drumsticks when he came down so he used metal spoons during the one day we had for practice.”

As it turns out, the one day was enough for the boys to deliver a pretty polished performance. (Hunter did finally acquire a pair of drumsticks.) Hogan, who defers to his friend Trevor as the better guitarist, handled the lead vocals and his front man theatrics generally delighted the crowd. For a guy who only took up the guitar a couple of years ago, he has written “between 30 and 40” songs and takes his music very seriously.

“My favorite band these days is ‘Mars Volta’ from El Paso”, says Hogan. “They have a totally different sound. That’s kind of what my music sounds like. My other major influences are probably Led Zeppelin; they’re not really in a genre. They do blues, acoustic, jazz. I like a lot of salsa. That’s interesting stuff. I listen to classical music every once in a while; I listen to pretty much everything.”

We asked how he arrived at his band’s name, “The Shots.”

“We’ve had like 20 different names,” he told us. “At one time we were ‘Smokin’ Bubble Gum, then we were ‘The Flaming Cone Noses’, then ‘A Couple of Degrees’, and then ‘Black Mesa’. How did we become ‘The Shots’? I don’t really remember.”

And then of course there are his parents, Jack and Jennifer, who have witnessed and borne testimony to Hogan’s many manifestations. They’ve done what they can to bring him along as well.

“The first really big concert my dad took me to was Bruce Springsteen when I was maybe eight,” said Hogan. “I wasn’t old enough to appreciate it at the time. I was disappointed because I wanted to see Smashmouth, which was my favorite band at the time.”

Remember them, music fans?

Of course, being parents to a budding rock star is not without its rewards. Hogan gave a great deal of credit to his folks for not only supporting his musical endeavors but for driving him around when he was putting up the posters for ‘Palooza’.

“And I’d also like to thank them for having the limo ready when I got done with the show,” he said slyly.

And next summer, prepare yourselves for an even more spectacular “Palooza Segunda.”