A “songwriter’s songwriter,” Texas Music great Tommy Alverson has died of cancer at age 74. Perhaps best known for his 1999 hit “Una Más Cerveza” — an ode to thirsty gringos and the only Spanish they need to know should they find themselves south of the border — he also founded the Texas Music Family Gathering, an annual festival that ran for 20 years starting in 1998.
Over a career spanning three decades, he released nine albums and performed all over the state and even as far away as the Festival Country Rendezvous in Arzon, France, sharing the stage with Texas legends like Willie Nelson, Gary P. Nunn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Dale Watson, and many more.
Following the success of “Una Más Cerveza,” Alverson could afford to quit his job at Miller Brewing and realize his dream of writing and performing full time. Alverson was an accomplished guitar player complemented by an ace backing band that included his son Justin Alverson on lead guitar, steel and Dobro player Ray Austin, drummer Ron Thompson, Jerry Abrams on bass, and fiddle players Thurston Selby and Heather Woodruff, as well as a more recent lineup up with Justin, Austin, Eric Holmes on drums, Justin Lightfoot on bass and vocals, and Selby on fiddle. Having a hit enabled them to build a following, and along with the popularity of his Family Gathering festivals and regular appearances at Larry Joe Taylor’s Texas Music Festival, Alverson became a prominent, vocal advocate for independent artists.
Alverson was a huge fan of songwriters like Doug Sahm and Mickey Newbury. On his 2007 album Country to the Bone, he performed songs by both, and while he found his biggest audience with songs fitting within Texas Music’s rock ’n’ roll-leaning, whiskey-celebrating aesthetics, the influence of the Outlaw Country scene founded in 1970s Austin is a theme throughout his songwriting — the kind of unapologetic humor and tight, laid-back grooves that Willie, Waylon, and Jerry Jeff were known for.
That scene was also known for the camaraderie among its cast of characters, a spirit Alverson brought with him wherever he played and what he set out to build with his Family Gathering. When you listen to songs like the Gulf-and-Western party ballad “Welcome to Paradise,” about having a great time in the parking lot with his fellow Parrotheads at a Jimmy Buffett concert in Dallas, you can tell that hanging out and playing music with his buddies brought Alverson a lot of joy, as did singing about Texas.
In a November 15 post, SavingCountryMusic.com said, “Tommy Alverson’s songs were of Texas, from Texas, and for Texas. Well before it became cliché for Texas artists to sing about Texas, Tommy Alverson was doing it. One of the reasons Texas bands sing about Texas is because they all want to be like Tommy Alverson. … His heart, his sound, and his spirit [were] always true to the Lone Star State.”
