News

Harvey Phillip Wise, a contributing photographer for the Texas Polka News, passed away on February 4. He was born on July 14, 1951 in Cameron, Texas to William Jasper Wise and Ruby Elizabeth Hunt. Harvey grew up and attended school in Cameron, Texas. He was heavily involved in rodeo and was a leather smith at Courts Saddlery while also working at Luza Dairy. He met the love of his life, Helen Margaret Cahill, at the Shell station that is now currently the 101 Bar.

February just passed, which came with such grand celebrations such as Ground Hog Day and National Pizza Day, not to mention Valentine’s Day. Every February Texas Polka News spotlights a married couple who have chosen to share the stage with each other making great music for other dancing couples.

Texas lost three of its major troubadours, Johnny Bush, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Billy Joe Shaver in the latter part of 2020. These three diverse gentlemen represented a wide portion of the beautiful scope of Texas music. Their skills that set them apart was that all three could write and sing eternal songs that influenced hundreds of other future musicians and defined Texas music in the late 1900s and still are today. All three were beloved in Texas and it was because of their abilities to sing from the heart and to tell the story from their personal experiences. Any association with major record labels were short lived and prevented the massive marketing which would have boosted their voices outside the Texas borders. This meant that none of their songs were ever Number 1 on national music charts.