San Antonio Current - February 18, 2026

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in this issue

Issue 26-04/// Feb 18 - Mar 3, 2026

09 Peas in a Pod

Trump isn’t alone in destroying U.S. political discourse. Texas leaders deserve plenty of blame too

07

News

The Opener News in Brief

Priming an Exodus?

As Texas leaders threaten school takeovers, look to San Antonio’s South San ISD to see the devastation that brings

19

Calendar

Our picks of things to do powerful

23

Arts

Curmudgeon Lite

Auditor’s Certification:

SNL and Joe Dirt star David Spade returning to San Antonio’s Majestic Theater

25 Screens

Swimming with the Shark

Former child actor Jeffrey Voorhees reflects on Jaws ahead of stop in San Antonio

27 Food

Chandeliers and Chardonnay

King William Wine Co. offers toplevel service, atmosphere even if some food falls short

Rise and Shine!

United We Brunch Returns for 10th Year at The Rock at La Cantera

32

Music

Victory Lap

Talking with Heart’s Nancy Wilson as the band tours behind 50 years of Dreamboat Annie

Seeking the Open Source

Jam band wunderkind Daniel Donato rides the vibes in search of the timeless song

Critics’ Picks

On the Cover: This week’s cover story examines Texas leaders’ embrace of Donald Trump’s scorched-earth political rhetoric and what that means for civil discourse in our country — and our state. Cover design: Ana Paula Gutierrez.

That Rocks/That Sucks

Texas families pay an average of nearly 11% percent of their monthly incomes to cover health insurance premiums and deductibles, according to a new analysis by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund Texas is one of 19 U.S. states where premium contributions and deductibles for employer-sponsored insurance plans take more than 10% of median family incomes. It also has the nation’s highest rate of uninsured residents.

North East ISD and New Braunfels ISD both unanimously rejected adopting policies that would have set aside dedicated time for prayer in their schools. Senate Bill 11, passed during last year’s legislative session, gives all of Tcxas’ public school districts until March 1 to decide whether they want to implement daily prayer time. NEISD trustees noted that the district already allows students and faculty to pray on their own time during the school day.

Texas’ mid-decade redistricting and issues with the state’s voter registration system have caused a two-month delay in the state sending out new voter registration certificates. Per state law, the certificates should have been issued by Dec. 6 — well in advance of early voting in the state’s primary, which opened Tuesday. The certificates, which have information on a voter’s polling place and districts, can be used as a legally required proof of identification at the polls.

UT-San Antonio has a Super Bowl champion. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen became the first alum from the school to win a Super Bowl when the Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots in California just over a week ago. Woolen, a native of Fort Worth, was a standout for the Roadrunners from 2018 to 2021. He’s a free agent this offseason and will be able to negotiate a new contract in Seattle or elsewhere starting in March.

— Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

“I will not allow Snapchat to harm our kids by running a business designed to get Texas children addicted to a platform filled with obscene and destructive content.”

—TexasAttorneyGeneralKenPaxtononwhyhe suedthesocialmediaplatform.

Driving the clown car off the cliff with Texas’ GOP attorney

general hopefuls

AssclownAlertisacolumnofopinion,analysis and snark.

If Texas Republicans wanted to reassure the public that the attorney general’s office might someday return to the boring, adult work of enforcing the law for everyone, they spectacularly failed.

The GOP contenders to replace outgoing scandal magnet Ken Paxton have clambered into a ratting, shuddering, a-hooga-ing clown car of a primary where the reddest MAGA-branded nose wins and the Constitution gets shredded under the wheels.

Take Texas Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, whose record suggests he’s less interested in being Texas’ top lawyer than its top troll. This, after all, is the guy who delighted in sponsoring Texas’ “bathroom bill” and declared his intent to put “God back in government.” While he does hold a law license, a recent Texas Tribune report revealed Middleton worked exclusively within the oil company he inherited from dear old Dad. In TV spots, he calls himself “MAGA Mayes Middleton,” clearly displaying his lack of original thought, not to mention a spine.

And then there’s former Trump Justice Department lackey Aaron Reitz, who brings the resume of a true culture-war bureaucrat. In other words: a talent for turning the law into a billy club to swing at whatever group Newsmax is next to target. In case anyone overlooked Reitz’s bigoted bullshit, he’s the candidate who last week claimed, without offering a lick of evidence, that Texas House Democratic leader Gene Wu, who’s Asian American, should have his citizenship revoked for lying during the naturalization process.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, has tried to present herself as the primary’s “rules follower” — a quiet conservative eager to return law and order to the Texas Attorney General’s office. While she’s certainly not the most bombastic of the current

crop of GOP candidates, Huffman’s toxic legislative record reads like a culture-war checklist: policing bodies, stripping power from municipalities and treating civil liberties as a nuisance to be managed. Hard pass.

And looming over it all is U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-San Antonio, the former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz who’s doggedly determined to be an even bigger dick than his former boss. Roy’s fondness for grandstanding — shutdown threats, purity tests, laughable hearings about the encroachment of Sharia law— suggests he’d turn the AG’s office into a permanent grievance factory, churning out lawsuits better suited for coverage in the far-right blogosphere than courtroom wins. Gosh, how nifty!

What unites the pathetic souls crammed into this clown car isn’t legal acumen or a desire to do right for Texans — except those who vote in the Republican primaries, or course. No, it’s knuckle-dragging bigotry shrouded in a purported shared desire to espouse the virtues of small government, all while weaponizing government against marginalized groups.

None of these assclowns talks much about protecting Texans from fraud, corporate abuse or corruption. Instead, it’s bathrooms, classrooms and Sharia law. If this is the field, Texans shouldn’t expect a top cop, they should expect a full-time culture-warrior with subpoena power. — Sanford Nowlin

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is asking the city’s congressional delegation to reject any funding for a new ICE detention center planned for the East Side. In a letter addressed to Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and five U.S. House members, Jones said it was “insulting and inaccurate” to frame the new facility as a jobs creator. “We do not want this ICE facility in our community and ask that you please not fund it,” Jones wrote.

Five members of City Council filed a memo last week to censure Mayor Jones, whom they accused of engaging in “repeated instances of unprofessional conduct.” The previous week, Jones reportedly swore and yelled at Councilwoman Sukh Kaur following a debate over a vote to close the down-

town club Bonham Exchange over a fire code violation. Jones characterized the censure attempt as unnecessary. She’ll face a censure vote following the completion of an independent investigation into her actions.

Activists are urging Congress to protect wildlife refuges and cultural sites in the Rio Grande Valley as it negotiates a new funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. A number of those sites are imperiled by President Donald Trump’s border wall, which was funded to the tune of $46.5 billion last summer and is currently slated to cut through places including the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. — Abe Asher

Peas in a Pod

Trump isn’t alone in destroying U.S. political discourse. Texas leaders deserve plenty of blame too

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

Remove the attribution from some of the most inflammatory quotes coming from politicians on a given news day, and it can be impossible to tell whether they were spouted by President Donald Trump or one of his state-level acolytes.

Take Gov. Greg Abbott, for example. Late last year, and without reasonable justification, Abbott declared Muslim civil rights group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “foreign terrorist organization.” Subsequently, he bullied a North Texas school district into cancelling an all-ages sports competition for Muslim athletes because of its ties to the group.

And, early this month, after an adult man was charged with assaulting a teen girl participating in a school walkout in Kyle protesting Trump’s immigration policies, Abbott fired off a tweet praising the arrest of students who fought back against the alleged assailant. Beyond that, he threatened to yank funding from schools that allow protests.

“It’s about time students like this were arrested,” Abbott said, adding, “Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune for criminal behavior.”

Abbott’s not alone in lobbing incendiary words, though. Texas Republican officials have increasingly emulated the coarse, divisive rhetoric popularized by Trump, calculating that cultural grievance and combative language play well with the GOP primary electorate.

To be sure, Trump’s brand of norm-shattering bombast has filtered down from national politics into statehouses, county courthouses and school board meetings. In Texas, leaders such as Abbott, along with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton,

regularly lean into rhetoric that casts political opponents not as colleagues who disagree but as existential enemies.

The political payoff in low-turnout primaries may be real. But the broader cost to governance, public trust and civic peace is enormous, political scholars warn.

“We’ve already had coarseness in our state politics, but it’s been ratcheted up to stratospheric levels during the Trump era,” UT-San Antonio political scholar Jon Taylor said. “They have created a high degree of distrust toward politics and toward government in

general. I would hope that they’d feel at least some sense of remorse and regret, but ain’t holding my breath.”

In the campaign leading up to his 2016 election, Trump demonstrated the power of provocation. His language about immigrants as invaders, his branding of political rivals as treasonous criminals and his frequent attacks on the legitimacy of elections reset the boundaries of acceptable political speech.

In Texas, Abbott has repeatedly echoed the racist language of “invasion” in describing migration across the southern border. In doing so, he frames

a complex humanitarian and economic challenge as a quasi-military threat.

Meanwhile, Patrick has warned of “radical leftists” bent on destroying Texas values, often portraying Democratic legislators as saboteurs rather than partners in lawmaking. Not content with the racist dogwhistles of old, he’s resorted to a megaphone — making the fact-free claim in 2021, for example, that Blacks bore responsibility for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Paxton, who’s running for fellow Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s seat, has built much of his public persona

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around firing off headline-grabbing lawsuits against perceived progressive enemies. Almost always, those legal disputes are wrapped in culture-war language that suggests Texas itself is under siege from evil and immoral forces.

The political logic is straightforward. In Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994, Republican primaries are dominated by the party’s ideological zealots, the ones who reliably make it to the polls. In such an environment, sounding bilious and uncompromising can be an asset.

“Abbott and the others know that the Republican primary is 2-to-1 in favor of social conservatives,” Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson said. “So, they want to be sure they have that social conservative claim and that no one is getting to their right. You may embarrass yourself, you may lose a little support in the general, but you’re still counting that once you get through the primary, you can win the general.”

Gridlock and stalled policy

Candidates who promise to “fight” rather than to negotiate are rewarded. Moderation is framed as weakness. Nuance becomes suspect. The result is a rhetorical arms race where officials compete to prove who’s most willing to own the libs, flip the bird at Washington or treat migrants as subhuman filth.

But governance isn’t a primary campaign. When the language of existential conflict becomes the norm, legislative bodies bog down. Lawmakers who constantly accuse one another of treason, tyranny or moral degeneracy become less and less likely to sit down and hammer out policy compromises, according to political observers.

The nation’s broken immigration system is case in point. The last time Congress passed comprehensive reform was nearly four decades ago — back when Reagan was in the White House in case you need a reminder how long ago that was.

Yet all we see from Capitol Hill is continued deadlock on the issue. Meaningful reform would require cooperation between federal and state leaders, Republicans and Democrats, business interests and labor advocates, immigrant advocates and those worried about too-porous borders. Instead, border policy has become a stage for po-

litical theater — Abbott shipping buses of migrants to blue cities and stringing razor wire as a symbolic barricade — while lawmakers remain paralyzed.

The same dynamic threatens efforts to confront emerging challenges such as AI-driven job displacement. Automation and artificial intelligence are poised to reshape labor markets in profound and damaging ways, and addressing the disruptions will require guardrails, not to mention investment in education, workforce retraining and social safety nets.

Health care affordability offers yet another example. Texas has the nation’s highest rate of uninsured residents. Expanding coverage, stabilizing rural hospitals and lowering prescription drug costs are pragmatic goals that affect millions.

Yet when political branding revolves around slogans that best fit on a sticker slapped on a F-150 window below its Punisher decal, compromise becomes politically risky. Any deal can be portrayed as surrender.

Here’s the bumper sticker version of that risk, according to political scientists: “As rhetoric coarsens, policy stalls.”

Eroding trust, encouraging violence

The damage extends beyond legislative gridlock, however.

Trust in institutions erodes when leaders repeatedly question the credibility of courts, elections and law enforcement agencies — especially when those institutions deliver unfavorable outcomes.

When public officials suggest that electoral defeats are the product of fraud rather than voter choice, or that prosecutors and judges are inherently corrupt if they rule against them, they chip away at the foundations of democratic legitimacy.

Citizens who hear constant claims that the system is rigged may conclude that participation is pointless — or that threats, violence against elected officials or even mass shootings are justified, experts argue.

“The major concern I have is that if you lose faith in dialogue, constructive disagreement and debate, you create frustration in people about the inaction that’s going on, the paralysis,” said Trinity University professor Mike Fischer, author of the text How Books Can Save Democracy. “Some people become tempted to use undemocratic actions to solve their problems and advance their goals.”

The spillover from inflammatory

Mrhetoric into political violence is no longer hypothetical. The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol followed months of false claims by Trump that the 2020 election had been stolen. Across the country, election workers and public health officials were subjected to threats and harassment.

Certainly, Texas isn’t immune to political violence. Most notably, 21-yearold Patrick Crusius entered an El Paso Walmart store in 2019 with an assault rifle and targeted Latino shoppers, killing 23 and injuring many others. He vowed in an online manifesto stop the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” echoing rhetoric still invoked by Abbott and others Texas Republicans.

While not every harsh word leads to violence, a steady drumbeat of dehumanization lowers the barrier for those prone to lash out.

Despite its utility in turning out the party base, degradation of political discourse remains unpopular with mainstream voters. Recent polling shows large majorities of Americans — including many Republicans — are

news

exhausted by partisan rancor and want leaders to work across the aisle.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans in a December Gallup poll said the Republican Party and Republicans have gone too far in using inflammatory language, a 16-percentage-point increase from 2011. Meanwhile, 60% currently believe that applies to the Democratic Party and Democrats, nine points higher than in 2011.

And the backlash to Trump’s scorched-earth rhetoric has spilled into the streets.

The “No Kings” protests that have drawn massive crowds in San Antonio and other U.S. cities are, in part, a response to what demonstrators decry as the president’s strongman style and the willingness of other GOP officials to mimic it.

In the Alamo City, anti-Trump rallies regularly feature chants of “Fuck Greg Abbott,” a blunt expression of anger at a governor protesters see as embracing Trump’s brand.

“It makes me wonder if these [Republican Texas officials] are living in such echo chambers that they think what they’re saying now isn’t going to resonate negatively with voters in November,” UTSA’s Taylor said. “This is a president who’s not only unpopular nationally, but unpopular in Texas. He may not be unpopular with Texas Republicans, but he’s unpopular overall in the state, decidedly so with Democrats and Independents.”

Coming retribution?

Americans are exhausted.

They’re tired of cable news shouting matches, tired of social media feeds saturated with outrage, tired of lawmakers more interested in trolling than problem solving. And the fatigue isn’t confined to Washington. It trickles down into the Texas Capitol and the state’s city halls, shaping how citizens view their local representatives.

When state leaders adopt the harshest elements of national political rhetoric, they also import the shit-slinging dysfunction.

Predictably, many politicians calculate that short-term rewards outweigh the long-term risks. In safely drawn districts and low-turnout primaries, appealing to the most rabid slice of the electorate is the front-of-mind strategy, as SMU prof Jillson pointed out. But general elections, demographic

shifts and generational change tell a more complicated story. Younger voters, independents and members of the growing number of marginalized groups targeted by the GOP are fed up.

“This is the election cycle for the Muslim community to make it clear that there is a political price to pay for picking on Muslims,” said Imran Ghani, director of CAIR Texas’ Houston chapter.

“Here in Texas, as with other states, we are very focused on voter mobilization at the local level, at the state level. Because, at this stage, American Muslims have seen that we can make a difference in local elections and even state-level elections and at the national level.”

The organization recognizes there’s strength in numbers, and it’s building coalitions with groups such as NAACP, LULAC and the ACLU, which have overlapping objectives, Ghani said. Indeed, when Abbott issued his proclamation declaring CAIR a terrorist organization, more than 60 groups and politicians joined in a statement blasting the claim.

If the backlash builds, politicians who have embraced the coarsening of discourse may find themselves on the receiving end of voter anger.

Political brands built on outrage can be brittle.

The pendulum swing against Trump is proof of that.

UTSA’s Taylor points to the cratering of the president’s numbers as his mass-deportation push extended to aggressive police actions in U.S. cities and led to the deaths of Minneapolis residents Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Captured on video and inescapable in U.S. media, those moments of brutality have become symbolic not just of Trump’s immigration policy but his larger effect on U.S. politics.

“It’s almost a Vietnam War-like moment in that public sentiment on the war started to shift when the body bags started coming home,” Taylor said. “The visuals were on TV, and the visuals were on TV every night. We may be seeing that right now with Trump.”

Even so, Taylor’s not holding his breath to see the pendulum swing end the careers of some of Texas’ most entrenched Republican political leaders. Strident segregationist Strom Thurmond continued to serve in U.S. Senate until 2003, even after he led a filibuster to stop passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

“I’d love to see people actually face some consequences for hardening and coarsening our politics in general, but history being a guide, that won’t necessarily happen,” Taylor added.

Of course, the shift won’t come overnight, but some observers see signs of long-term change. Trinity’s Fischer, for example, points to the proliferation of courses on his campus and others focused on reasoned discourse and finding common ground through political disagreements.

“I’m in a more optimistic mood right now about where this is headed,” the professor said. “I don’t know that I can fully justify it, but I do see signs of interest in having more constructive dialogue.”

Whether a restoration of civility actually takes root depends on voters as much as politicians, though.

The current moment suggests that many are hungry for a politics that lowers the temperature and avoids outright racism, conspiracy mongering and perpetual punching down. If that sentiment continues to grow, those who have ridden the wave of divisive rhetoric may discover that the backlash is not only real — it’s painful.

Priming an Exodus?

As Texas leaders threaten school takeovers, look to San Antonio’s South San ISD to see the devastation that brings

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

Gov. Greg Abbott issued a stern warning to school districts statewide this month, threatening to take over those that “encourage” students to participate in walkouts protesting White House

immigration enforcement operations.

“Today, in classrooms across Texas, tomorrow’s leaders are learning the foundational, critical thinking skills and knowledge necessary for lifelong learning, serving as the bedrock for the future success of our state and nation,” the Texas Education Agency said in a

recent press release.

“It is in this spirit that school systems have been reminded of their duty and obligation to ensure that their students are both safe and that they attend school, with consequences for students for unexcused absences.”

The threat hasn’t stopped the pro-

tests. Hundreds of students walked out of East Central High School on Feb. 13, and pupils from 50 San Antonio schools plan to march to the Alamo on Feb. 16, according to a recent press statement.

While these walkouts have been short-term affairs, Abbott and the TEA appear eager to intervene regardless of whether they signal any real district dysfunction.

Historically, the TEA only seized districts over severe issues like plummeting student performance. Recently, though, the agency has threatened to replace elected boards with state-ap-

pointed bureaucrats for relatively minor issues—such as North East ISD’s allegedly lax enforcement of the state’s new cell phone ban.

The state’s saber rattling coincides with the rollout of Abbott’s signature school voucher program, which uses taxpayer money to subsidize private education for up to 100,000 children. Opponents argue the program drains resources from already underfunded public schools, especially those in rural districts.

The timing isn’t lost on former South San ISD teacher Ruben Garcia.

“This is all part of an attempt to try to get as many experienced teachers as possible to leave … to replace them with inexperienced teachers who are then not going to be able to have the experience or knowledge to push back against administrators or provide a real, effective education,” Garcia told the Current. “That way, when things get bad enough, they can push for privatization, because I think this has a lot to do with the vouchers push that Greg Abbott had.”

Garcia left teaching this year after the state seized his district. He admits South San ISD faced legitimate issues — it was mired in a $12 million deficit and nine superintendents went through its revolving door in 13 years. Still, he said the TEA takeover has been devastating.

“I don’t want anybody to get the impression that I’m suggesting things were perfect or great before [the takeover],” Garcia said. “What I want to make clear is the current leadership has made things so much worse.”

Neither South San ISD or the TEA responded to the Current’s requests for comment on this story.

Crisis at South San

Garcia isn’t alone in his assessment of the situation.

Just 3% of district teachers say morale has improved since the takeover, according to a 2025 survey by the South San Antonio AFT union. More alarming, 71% said they have considered quitting the teaching profession entirely.

At a December board meeting, teachers and union reps identified the primary culprit: state-mandated micromanagement. Garcia, another faculty member and AFT President Tom Cummins alleged the state-appointed District Educational Improvement Council (DEIC) illegally eliminated the

mandatory 45-minute daily planning period for teachers.

“Our concern is that the process used to justify removing this right appears fundamentally flawed,” Cummins said. “Specifically, there was no formal vote by the DEIC, the agenda did not clearly identify the specific topic to be discussed, teacher representatives were given no opportunity to take the issue back to their campus, which has delegates, and they were obligated to do so.”

Without planning periods, teachers are forced to develop lesson plans from scratch using vague TEA outlines, according to Garcia.

The goalposts move constantly, he added, suggesting the DEIC appeared to want teachers to fail, quit or both.

“We were being threatened with write-ups and disciplinary action if we didn’t have two weeks of lesson plans laid out in advance in super-hyper detail,” the former teacher said. “Even when we did turn them in, we would get constant comments, threats of write-ups. They’d say ‘Oh, well, how are you supposed to do this?’ or ‘how are you supposed to do that?’”

The restrictions extended beyond curriculum. Popular learning platforms such as Kahoot were banned without explanation, and teachers were

required to get approval for any video two weeks in advance.

“Well, if I don’t know what I’m teaching two weeks in advance, exactly how am I supposed to know what video I’m going to show two weeks in advance?”

Garcia asked, rhetorically.

“It was almost like getting videos banned without banning them.”

Garcia said he and fellow instructors were hit with new rule changes almost weekly. The DEIC even dictated classroom lighting and desk organization.

Classroom inexperience

The final straw for Garcia came when a DEIC official wrote him up for using an unapproved platform, despite noting in the same report that he did a “great job presenting the material.”

“I’m somebody who loved teaching up until this year. I was one of those,” Garcia said. “I was not planning on leaving the profession at the beginning of the school year.”

Garcia, who resigned as a 9th grade social studies instructor, said he’s worried he and others are now being replaced by far less experienced staff.

Last year, South San ISD laid off nearly 40 teaching personnel. At the time, state-appointed Superintendent

Saul Hinojosa told KSAT the move was necessary to bring in better-qualified personnel.

“In order for kids to achieve, they have to have quality teachers in front of them,” Hinojosa said. “When teachers are not performing, then it’s our job to go find quality personnel to play a big difference [for] our kids.”

Yet, the district recently entered a five-year partnership with Teach for America, which places recent college graduates — often uncertified — into classrooms of inner-city schools.

“The teachers that Teach for America sends are not certified teachers, so they contradicted themselves within months of those statements,” Garcia said.

South San ISD is one of seven districts statewide now under TEA control, with four more takeovers planned this year. In those four districts, more than 80% of students are low-income, and the majority are Black or Latino.

Garcia warns that these districts should expect a culture of fear and a mass exodus of veteran educators.

“It’s just paperwork, micromanagement and threats,” he said.

Meanwhile, as public school morale craters, more than 87,000 students have already signed up for Texas’ new voucher program.

| 02.21

SAAACAM AT LA VILLITA

Highlighting the 100th anniversary of the inception of Black History Month, The San Antonio African American Community Archive & Museum (SAAACAM) is celebrating Black art and artists in Southwest Texas. Current SAAACAM exhibitions bring narratives and legacies of the past to the fore, honoring the people and movements that helped shape our contemporary cultural landscape. In addition to the art exhibitions on view, expect vendor booths, music and take-home celebratory keepsakes. Free, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., SAAACAM at La Villita, 218 S. Presa St., (210) 724-3350, saaacam.org. —

TUE | 02.24SUN | 03.01

MUSICAL

ABEAUTIFULNOISE: THENEILDIAMONDMUSICAL

Beyond selling 120 million albums over a career that’s spanned seven decades, there’s no denying singer-songwriter Neil Diamond is responsible for some of the most memorable tunes in the American songbook, from “Sweet Caroline” to “Solitary Man.” His suave, sometimes schmaltzy, showbiz persona may not have aged well for some folks, but there’s no denying the staying power of the music he created. Little surprise then that Diamond would eventually get the Broadway treatment. A musical memoir akin to the hits Jersey Boys and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical weaves the tale of a kid from Brooklyn who blossoms into a rare talent then a full-fledged star. Naturally, an abundance of Diamond’s classic songs transport the audience along the way. $52.65 and up, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Sanford Nowlin

THU | 02.26

SPECIAL EVENT

FORGOTTEN SOULS: THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST TUSKEGEE AIRMEN BY

CHERYL W. THOMPSON

The San Antonio Book Festival, in partnership with Alamo Colleges District, Texas Public Radio and SAAACAM will present author Cheryl W. Thompson and her new book, Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen Thompson, an investigative journalist with NPR and the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman, documents the lives and legacies of the 27 Black pilots who went missing near the end of combat on the European front defending a country that treated them as disposable before, during and after World War II. Registration is recommended and an author signing session will follow the reading. Free, 6:30-8 p.m., Malú & Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater at Texas Public Radio, 321 W. Commerce St., (210) 750-8951, sabookfestival.org. — AG

SAT | 02.28 - SUN | 03.01

SPECIAL EVENT

RODEO ROUNDUP 2026

Enjoy the perks of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo without the extravagant price tag, endless lines and nosebleed seating. Historic Market Square’s Annual Rodeo Roundup rounds out the 2026 rodeo season with this free, family friendly event. Rodeo clowns? Check. Mechanical bull rides? Got ‘em. Petting zoo? Of course! Also expect two days full of musical entertainment, artisan shopping, games, crafts and puro San Antonio bites. The musical lineup offers a little something for everyone — rock, alt-rock, Americana, Tejano, conjunto and, of course, country. Free, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., The Pass at Historic Market Square, 514 W. Commerce St., (210) 207-8600, marketsquaresa.com. — AG

SAT | 02.28

DEL CORAZÓN: AN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Oral history is as American as fry bread. However, capturing its profundity is another thing altogether. Join sound artist Armando Estrada for an immersive workshop celebrating San Antonio’s culture and heritage. Through discussions and hands-on activities, participants will learn basic audio recording techniques and explore the process of collecting and archiving oral histories. Estrada will later share recordings during his 101.5 FM radio program, TheEmpowerHouse, or a community listening party. Due to popular demand, this workshop is only offered on two other dates in addition to Feb. 28 — March 18 and May 16. Slots are filling up fast, and registration is required. Free,1-5p.m.,CentralLibrary-LatinoCollection&ResourceCenter,600SoledadSt.,(210)207-2519,mysapl.org.— AG

TUE | 03.03

LATINA SPRING: FEMME FRONTERA SHOWCASE

Celebrate Women’s History Month with Latina Spring, a selection of films by Latina and Indigenous women directors. Kicking off this series is the 9th annual Femme Frontera Showcase, featuring work by filmmakers from the U.S.-Mexico border diaspora and border regions around the world. Latina Spring is presented in partnership with UNAM San Antonio and the Austin Film Society. The Femme Frontera Showcase is presented in partnership with the San Antonio Public Library, The Mexican American Civil Rights Institute and MonteVideo. RSVP requested. Free, 7 p.m., UNAM San Antonio, 600 Hemisfair Plaza, (361) 247-0575, montevideo210.org. — AG

Curmudgeon Lite

SNL and Joe Dirt star David

Spade returning to San Antonio’s Majestic Theater

BY VALERIE LOPEZ

If you’ve ever been lightly annoyed by the same things everyone else is too polite to mention, there’s a good chance David Spade has been your guy for more than three decades.

Although he seldom reaches Larry David levels of annoyance, the comedian and actor’s grievances and self-deprecating nature are hilariously intertwined, assuring you that it’s perfectly OK to find yourself bothered by life’s minor inconveniences.

Now, Spade is bringing his signature curmudgeon-lite energy to San Antonio with back to back shows Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Majestic Theatre.

The Saturday Night Live legend is on his I Got a Feel for It standup tour, a name born from one of the his most-memorable TV moments. During the star-studded 50th Anniversary SNL special, an over-the-top sketch got so chaotic that Spade disappeared from the stage and walked back to his seat in the audience.

When John Mulaney asked from the stage why he left, Spade’s deadpan response? “I got a feel for it.”

That’s Spade in a nutshell — dry, unbothered, and somehow the funniest person in the room because of it all.

A performer who has been in the limelight for most of his life, the still youthful-looking Spade comes across as the same insecure yet permanently sarcastic guy from SNL’s classic “Buh-bye” and office assistant sketches. Those bits cemented his acting path, but don’t mistake laid-back for low energy — he’s surprisingly lively on stage. If you only know Spade from movies and TV, his standup will recalibrate everything you thought you knew about him.

Spade’s onscreen career has been prolific, spanning his five-year run on SNL alongside Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, the Emmy-nominated role of Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me, the cult classic Joe Dirt and the Grown Ups franchise.

So prolific, in fact, that people often forget where it all began: standup. Spade’s comedy specials, dating back to 1998, are solid insights into what he thinks you should find hilarious — and it’s not always what you’d expect. His everyman persona on stage makes you feel like you’re exchanging tales while hanging out in a comfortable living room.

Spade’s most recent special, 2025’s Dandelion, proves he hasn’t lost a step. In it, he riffs on cultural news, the absurd logistics of performing with a wired microphone on a massive stage and a McDonald’s trip gone awry, not to mention the occasional name drop. The comedian delivers everyday observations as someone who has spent decades watching the entertainment industry from the inside, yet he’s eager to remind you that he likes his Chicken McNuggets and porn as much as anyone.

Despite the uneven history of SNL cast members jumping to the big screen, Spade’s amassed a staggeringly good run. Tommy Boy and Black Sheep with the late Chris Farley cemented one of comedy’s most beloved partnerships — and earned the pair a 1996 MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo.

The Wrong Missy became peak pandemic viewing in 2020, bringing Spade back to live-action screens after years deep in the animated Hotel Transylvania franchise. It also cast him for the first time as the lead in a rom-com, albeit one decidedly more com than rom.

Then there’s the Grown Ups films, The Benchwarmers, Dickie Roberts, Rules of Engagement — the man’s resume reads like a guided

tour through more than three decades of American everyman comedy.

Beyond the screen, Spade has become a podcasting force alongside fellow SNL alum Dana Carvey via the pair’s Fly on the Wall, which launched in 2022. The show has evolved from SNL deep dives into something bigger — alternating between guest interviews and cultural commentary that feels refreshingly un-newsy. That same energy made his short-lived Comedy Central show Lights Out with David Spade worth watching, and it’s exactly why the podcast works so well.

Spade’s last San Antonio appearance was in 2022 for his Catch Me Inside tour — and yes, that title is exactly the kind of cultural reference he loves to make his own.

For many comedy fans, Spade’s been a near-constant onscreen presence who’s made us laugh since the “buh-bye” days. The fact that he’s still touring, still sharp and still finding new ways to be annoyed by the world is a gift. There’s a good chance you’ll walk out quoting him for weeks.

$43-$227, 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21,  Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com.

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

Swimming with the Shark

Former child actor Jeffrey Voorhees reflects on Jaws ahead of stop in San Antonio

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

Alex Kintner was just 12 when he paddled into the Atlantic Ocean on a yellow raft to enjoy the weekend on Amity Island with his mother.

It was June 29, 1974, and the summer day was like any other. However, the peaceful morning turned into an unimaginable nightmare when a great white shark emerged from the shallows and tore the youth into chum.

Although Alex didn’t survive the attack, actor Jeffrey Voorhees, who played the ill-fated boy in Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller Jaws, did.

Now 63, Voorhees, who still lives on Martha’s Vineyard where Jaws was shot, looks back at his experience on the set with fondness, although he initially tried to stay out of the spotlight for years.

On Feb. 21-22, Voorhees will visit San Antonio for Children of Horror, an event at Wonderland of the Americas mall that celebrates the child actors who starred in some of the scariest movies in cinematic history.

During a recent interview with the Current, Voorhees talked about landing the small albeit memorable role of Alex Kintner in Jaws and why he thinks he contributed to the mechanical shark’s frequent on-set malfunctions.

You were initially just going to be an extra in Jaws before you were selected for a bigger role. What led up to that?

We had just moved to Martha’s Vineyard that year. Word got out that they were making a movie and needed a lot of extras. I got a call from [Steven] Spielberg, and he wanted me to go down to this hotel … [and] read these lines. I filled out all this paperwork … to join the Screen Actors Guild because they were giving me a speaking part. I didn’t even know the name of the movie! I just knew I was going to get eaten by a shark. I guess it pays to die.

I read that in the years following the release of Jaws, you hid from the fact that you were in the film. When did you decide to embrace your role in what is now considered a cinematic masterpiece?

I’ve been living on the Vineyard since they filmed the movie. People would come in and ask for my autograph. But I was too busy working and managing a seafood restaurant.

People wanted me to go to [conventions] to sign photos. About eight or nine years ago, I said, “I’ll try it once!” I had a good time, and I made a few dollars doing it. People are so happy to see you, so you get a little high from that too. So, I thought, “I can do these events three or four times a year.”

Did it ever strike you as ironic that you became famous for becoming shark food and later managed a seafood restaurant? It was funny. For years, we had an Alex Kintner burger. It was a fish sandwich with a bloody red sauce on top.

Is it true that you reunited with the actress who played your mother in Jaws (Lee Fierro) at your restaurant?

Yes. One day, I looked out and saw Lee there. I hadn’t seen her in years. I went to her and said, “Can I ask you an odd question? Do you believe in reincarnation because I think I died years ago, and you look like my mother in my previous life?” Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she’s like, “Oh my God, I had a son who … was eaten by a shark!” She got up and hugged me.

It’s well documented how much trouble the mechanical shark in Jaws was on set. Did you experience those issues shooting your scene?

It’s funny because me and some of the other kids knew where they stored the shark, and we used to break in and climb all over it and wiggle the teeth. I was doing a Q&A with [production designer] Joe Alves once, and he was talking about how the shark broke down a lot. I told him that we used to break in and climb all over that shark at night, and maybe that’s why it didn’t work. He looked at me

CHILDREN OF HORROR

Free, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 21-Sunday, Feb. 22, Wonderland of the Americas, 4522 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 785-3500, kingsofhorrortexas.com.

like he wanted to kill me.

Speaking of death, you know that a lot of Jaws fans honor your character’s death every June 29, right?

Yes, every June 29, I get all these messages telling me, “We’re thinking of you!” I’ll even do videos for people on the beach where I get eaten. You get some strange requests. My website is thedeadalexkintner.com.

Nobody remembers Pipit though, the dog who’s eaten before you.

The real Jaws fanatics will point out that I’m actually not the second victim in the movie. I’m the second human victim, but most of them are like, “What about Pipit?”

Did you shoot an even more graphic version of your death scene?

Yes, but it was with a mannequin that looked just like me. But when the mechanical shark bit the mannequin, its head would spin in the air, and the arms and legs would go in every direction. They were like, “If we show this in a movie theater, people are going to get up and leave!” So, instead, I would swim out to this barrel full of blood and lie on top of it … and these two guys in wetsuits would lift me in and out of the water before the barrel exploded. I was freezing my little ass

Chandeliers and Chardonnay

King

William Wine Co. offers top-level service, atmosphere even if some food falls short

BY RON BECHTOL

If you pull up King William Wine Co.’s website, you could be excused for thinking it’s all about the vino.

The spot’s wine club, wine lockers and memberships all get headline status before any mention of food — with the exception of its bubbly and bacony brunch. Look carefully in the lower left corner of the site, though, and you’ll find a “View menu” button. What comes up is a bare-bones affair, mostly meant for online orders.

Which is both a little misleading, yet kinda true at the same time. The misleading part is that the menu does indeed have a measure of ambition, gilded though it may be by luxurious caviar service.

The kinda true part is that the wine deserves its emphasized focus.

Jill Arreguin, who co-owns King William Wine Co. with husband Juan, is in charge of the wine program, and her passion and knowledge are made manifest on a wine list that’s broad and deep enough to encompass both the zippy and minerally Etna Bianco that accompanied one evening’s dinner and the lush, white Burgundy served by the glass another night at the handsome, underlit bar.

Let’s introduce the cuisine component with the dish that accompanied that last wine: a “velvety, sherry-kissed” lobster bisque. Though an attentive waiter added drops of sherry, the texture was more grainy than velvety. Then there was that strange slice of untoasted baguette, apparently meant only as a raft for some sizzled, “sweet morsels from the sea.” A simple, small knob of poached lobster would have better bolstered the classic flavor of lobster shell embodied in the bisque.

In this amicable coupling, the Burgundy came out on top.

You can order pretty much anything from the menu at the bar, but if intent on branching out into such niceties as bread service, pâté trios and mustard trilogies, a seat in the intimate dining room is more in order. Not only is there more room to spread out, it offers the best spot to appreciate the business’ darkly moody, chandelier-chic atmosphere.

I’d caution, though, that the rustic country loaf is nothing special given its $9 charge, and the

accompanying butter was both too cold and its flavoring with orange and dill was odd. I’m not sure what the mustards are meant to be served with, but the selection of walnut, tarragon and stone-ground varieties is thoughtful and fun regardless, and the presentation’s stunning.

The trio of pâtés — not of the sturdy, sliced kind — is similarly attractive. The Alaskan salmon version is bright with lemon and dill, the mushroom merely woodsy, but the seductive foie gras truly is “silky” as described and only elevated by a drizzle of balsamic accented with warm spice.

Main dishes are priced from $28 to $64 and run the gamut from sage ravioli in brown butter and Basque suckling pig to beef osso buco and butter-poached lobster tail — not groundbreaking, but all good-sounding.

One out of the two I sampled delivered on that promise.

Spoiler: it wasn’t the baked acorn squash stuffed with sage sausage, pecan and dried cranberry. Somehow, the squash itself was bland, and the stuffing needed something — even bread crumbs — to hold it all together.

But the coq au vin, a hearty Burgundian dish, may have over-delivered.

To begin with, it was a generous half chicken — easily enough to share. The meat was moist and fell effortlessly from the bone. The inim-

itable Julia Child’s rendition with its bacon, mushrooms and red wine may be even more winter-worthy, but the white wine used here, along with a tumble of fried Parisian potatoes, made the dish especially friendly with the menu’s three suggested wine pairings.

To be honest, all the sommelier-selected wines were a tad pricey, hence our pivot to the volcanic Etna white at a very reasonable $48. But the confidently financed should not hesitate to accept recommendations.

Mine for dessert is the almost-ethereal Saffron Espuma of Crema Catalana. This is really a crème brûlée by any other name, its torched crust sugary and brittle, its interior silky — that word again — and lightly hinting of saffron. It ended the evening on a high but subtle note.

Which brings up the following: despite feeling that the food — prepared in a “flameless” kitchen on induction burners — failed to inspire on some counts, I left King William Wine feeling that I had been well-treated by an exceptional staff, that the carefully curated space is appropriate to what the owners are trying to achieve, and that I would happily return for a modest glass of wine or cocktail at the bar.

Or perhaps even for the order-ahead and unabashedly extravagant whole suckling pig. Price not mentioned.

Main course food prices: $28-$64

King William Wine comes across as almost snobbily exclusive and wine-centric. Half of that, the wine part, is true. But here, in this dark and chandeliered retreat, the wine serves as a springboard for the cuisine: sherried lobster bisque, white wine coq au vin, stuffed acorn squash. Some dishes are more successful than others, but you’ll likely leave wellserved and content.

Find more food & drink news at sacurrent.com

Rise and Shine!

United We Brunch Returns for 10th Year at The Rock at La Cantera

BY KAT STINSON

San Antonio’s premier brunch festival is back.

United We Brunch, sponsored by the Current, returns Saturday, Feb. 28, celebrating its 10th year with what organizers promise will be its biggest and boldest event yet. The gathering will take over the new Frost Plaza at The Rock at La Cantera, home to the San

Antonio Spurs’ training facility. The annual 21-and-up event brings together some of San Antonio’s top restaurants and bars to serve their best brunch bites and breakfast cocktails. Guests can sample a wide range of offerings — from creative dishes with an international flair to bloody marys and mimosas — all while enjoying live music, DJs and a local vendor marketplace.

A highlight of United We Brunch is the competition among local chefs and

dining spots. This year, contenders will battle for coveted titles including Best Brunch Bite and Best Bloody Mary in San Antonio.

Participating restaurants and bars include Tributary, Primo’s, Summer Moon Coffee, Jason Dady Catering and Events, Roca & Martillo, the Social Spot, Sugar Clouds Cotton Candy, Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, 375 Kitchen, Whiskey Cake, Sweet Paris Creperie & Cafe and more.

Onsite vendors for this year’s marketplace will include Kendra Scott, Linked Visions, SA First, Trinket Amor, Happy Mama Designs, Renewal by Anderson, Valentina Paloma by Angelica, Vibrant & Free Boutique and many others.

In addition to showcasing the city’s

culinary talent, United We Brunch serves a charitable purpose. Proceeds benefit United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, which works to build a diverse and thriving community where all residents have the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Tickets for the event are on sale now. Although advance VIP tickets are sold out, $65 general admission tickets remain for purchase. Each ticket includes entry into the event at noon, unlimited brunch bites, beverages, a photo booth, DJ station and access to check out all participating vendors.

The event will go on rain or shine.

$65, Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 28, Frost Plaza at The Rock at La Cantera, 1 Spurs Way, unitedwebrunchsa.com.

music

Victory Lap

Talking with Heart’s

Nancy Wilson as the band tours behind 50 years of Dreamboat Annie

BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN

Heart’s debut album Dreamboat Annie, released 50 years ago, changed rock ‘n’ roll forever.

Not only did it charge onto the sonic landscape with the galloping force of a runaway Mustang, it rewrote hard rock’s very DNA. Guitarist Nancy Wilson and her sister Ann showed the world that women can rock, creating countless female shredders in their wake.

Truth is, the word “no” has simply never occurred to the Wilson sisters, who continue to lead Heart, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee that’s sold 50 million albums worldwide. Even a recent health scare wasn’t enough to stop them.

The Current caught up with Nancy Wilson ahead of Heart’s Tuesday, March 3, performance at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre. The band’s current tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of the album that changed it all.

You’re getting back into the swing of things after a little hiatus, right?  That’s right. We’ve done 72 shows this year, including our postponement while my sister Ann was doing some cancer treatment, therapy stuff, and it didn’t really stop her. She kicked the ass of cancer. And we came back out on the road since last spring, and we’ve been just rolling through the country having a blast with these shows. Right before we started back up on the last run of this tour, she fell and really seriously shattered her elbow. So she’s just being able to get to start back to playing her flute again.

So, I don’t want to make all these questions about the fact that you are a trailblazing band for women because of course, I just want to

talk to you as a musician. But the fact does remain that you’re considered the first hard rock band fronted by women to achieve commercial success. What does that feel like?

Well, it feels very cool. I think one of the reasons we never focused on our gender was that we started at such a young age. I was nine when I started playing guitar. And we were just tomboys when the Beatles came out. So Ann, being a little older, was already in junior high or high school. But we never thought “women can’t do that or are not supposed to do that.” We just did it, because we wanted to be that. We wanted to be in a rock band. We wanted to be the Beatles. Instead of trying to be girlfriends of the Beatles, we wanted to just be them — to do what they do.

And so later on, in the MTV era of the ’80s, when it all became about imaging and sexuality, that just wasn’t how we were thinking about it as originally [being] tomboys that just picked up instruments. We were punks in a way. We were little gangster girls. And still, when I go out on stage and I get to play big loud guitar, just turn it to 11 and blast big power chords, I feel like I’m channeling the guys that were my

influences, like Jimmy Page, the Beatles, Deep Purple, Bad Company and rock bands that were all guys. There were girls when we were growing up, but they were more rhythm and blues, like Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin or Janis Joplin. And Fleetwood Mac was kind of a soft rock band, not really a hard rock band like Heart can be, though we do a lot of romantic ballads too.

I kind of channel my guy instinct when I’m up on a big stage rocking out. People like Sheryl Crow have said, “You’re really one of my influences to pick up a guitar and be kind of muscular about music.” So, that kind of transformed into more of a female conversation after our initial conversation was a male conversation influencing us. Now we got to influence more girls along the way, which is one of the coolest things of all.

Since you paved the way, who are some fellow female shredders today that you admire?

Well, there’s some really good shredders out there and there’s a lot of really good singer-songwriters coming up, like the girls from boygenius and Courtney Barnett. Grace Bowers is just a class A shred-

der. Orianthi has been out there for a long time being an amazing shredder. And so it’s really good to see a lot of women stepping up. Chappell Roan, for instance, is another one. She’s a pop musician, she’s not a hard rock player at all. Except when she does “Barracuda,” she kills it.

You’re from Seattle, and you’ve called the grunge bands that originated there your “Seattle brothers.” You even did a tribute to Chris Cornell at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, performing Soundgarden’s “Fell on Black Days” with his daughter Toni. Were you close with him, and how did you all originally connect with the grunge guys since you’d already left for Canada, LA and world fame by the time they came along?  Yeah, when we got back, it was after the MTV ‘80s era. It kind of imploded upon itself when the grunge era started. The Seattle explosion happened right at the turn of the ‘90s. So we were happy about it, because we weren’t real naturals living behind the image-making video culture of the ‘80s, which was kind of more of an ego-driven, cocaine-driven time than where we came from, which

was more of a mind-expanded late ‘60s and mid ‘70s time.

So, we got home to Seattle thinking that the new kids in town — the Nirvana guys and the Pearl Jam guys and the Soundgarden guys — were gonna hate us, because we were so shallow and so corporate — ‘80s video, big hair — that we’d sold out our souls to the whole imaging of it all. But when we came to town, we got back to Seattle, where my best friend Kelly Curtis was managing a band called Mother Love Bone. And Andrew Wood was the lead singer, who ODed right about that same time. And so, because I was the manager’s friend, we all showed up at the house of the memorial for Andrew Wood. And that’s where I met Stone Gossard and Jerry Cantrell, all the guys from Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Chris and Mike Inez .… So, it was a really terrible situation, but it was like meeting the entire rock scene in one night, where we had all of our dogs with us to try to cheer people up, and we all got to know each other and everybody started hanging out together.

It sounds like you all used to have some wild parties. You had a ranch outside of Seattle and you had a New Year’s party and Jerry Cantrell and your sister got real crazy and gave champagne to a horse. Can you tell me more about that?  (Laughs.) Yeah, it was a New Year’s Eve party with a lot of Pearl Jam guys. Everybody had too much champagne. Nobody could drive home

that night. So everybody got sleeping bags. We had Eddie Vedder sleeping in a sleeping bag in the basement. But Jerry and Ann stayed up until the morning light. Jerry got a ride home. I woke up and I came down in the kitchen and everybody was still either asleep or gone. But I saw a note in the kitchen with a little tin wind-up toy of an elephant riding a bicycle. The note that said, ”Thanks for having us, look at the elephant, and sorry if we gave the horses some champagne.”

I had a stable of horses and they were sipping champagne with the horses. The horses were fine, you know, everybody was cool.

There have been talks of a dramatic film about Heart. What’s the latest on that project?

Yeah, we are getting what probably is going to be our final [screenplay] draft handed to us for the Heart film from Carrie Brownstein from the band Sleater-Kinney and the show Portlandia with Fred Armisen. Hopefully we’ll start casting for that soon. Plus we’re looking at making a Heart album and a Heart documentary at the same time. So we kind of have couple years left in us probably to do a 2027 farewell tour.

And you also plan on scoring the dramatic film about Heart, right?

Oh yeah. You couldn’t keep me away from that project because, you know, I have a lot of instruments. I’ve got a lot of instrumental stuff that’s not just songs with lyrics and singing.

You have experience scoring films such as “Jerry Maguire,” “Vanilla Sky” and “Almost Famous.” I know that was tied in with your marriage to Cameron Crowe. When you reflect on those projects, is it bittersweet or are you able to look back on those times fondly?

That marriage was a really productive collaboration with Cameron Crowe for many years. And all of the films I worked on were his wellknown films, and it was only a pleasure to work on that stuff. It’s right in my wheelhouse to just be a musician and pull out all kinds of wacky instruments and get the mandolin going and play percussion and keyboard stuff. The relationship part of the marriage was painful when it ended, like any marriage ever is. But it was a beautiful part of my growth as a musician, as a person, to be able to do that work.

I know you’ve always been inspired by Led Zeppelin in particular, and it’s part of why you brought your love of the acoustic guitar into Heart’s sound, but when you first saw Led Zeppelin play, you walked out on them. Why?

Oh, yeah. They were a baby band in Seattle opening for a youth festival [in the ’60s]. I can’t remember the exact year. They were just playing a few songs before, I think, the Fifth Dimension. And we were not expecting like a raunchy, sexy guy with low slung jeans. We were shocked because I was probably 12, 11, and you know, Ann was maybe 13, 14 or something. And we were like, “Oh, goodness, look how suggestive.” And even though the girls around us were just screaming, we didn’t get it yet. So we walked out, because it was a little too lewd.

Ann joined Heart first and you joined later. Did you feel like you had something to prove to the guys already in the band?

Totally. I’d never done big, loud PA column-type shows before. I was a coffee shop solo artist and played with a couple of little folky type rock bands around the area when I was going to college. So, I had a huge learning curve, and I was just getting my legs under me as an electric guitar player more than I ever had before too. So, I was nervous and I was just 19. But they were patient, and I got it pretty good pretty fast. I got myself right in there and made the album, which came out in 1975.

Dreamboat Annie, you mean?

Yeah, Dreamboat Annie. It regionally started to be a hit and we were off to the races.

That must have been a cool feeling when it started to take off.

Oh yeah, it was a million thrills to be acknowledged, and 50 years later, we’re looking at a victory lap at this point.

$182 and up, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, Majestic Theatre, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com.

Find more music coverage every day at sacurrent.com

music

Seeking the Open Source

Jam band wunderkind

Daniel Donato rides the vibes in search of the timeless song

BY MIKE MCMAHAN

It’s hard to believe a rising star on the jam band circuit was born in 1995, the same year the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia died. After all, in a genre that embraces virtuosity and group interplay, well-journeyed musicians tend to rise to the top.

But Nashville-based guitarist-songwriter Daniel Donato is quickly earning his stripes.

And — appropriately or ironically, depending on how you look at it —he got his start obsessed with the classic shredtastic video game Guitar Hero.

Donato and his band Cosmic Country will make a stop at San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on Thursday, Feb. 19, as part of their current tour.

Donato has appeared on hallowed stages such as Red Rocks Amphitheater, and he’s shared the stage at different times with the late Garcia’s bandmates, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, the latter two also recently departed.

For the initiated, the word “jam band” needs no explanation. For everyone else, the Grateful Dead and Phish defined the genre, which stitches together an eclectic array of rock and country styles with a jazzy, improvisational spirit. The concerts tend to feature lots of hippies and extended jams — both of the psychedelic and traffic variety.

Donato and Cosmic Country belong to a wave of acts that brought the genre more mainstream interest than it’s enjoyed in a couple of generations. Most prominent is bluegrass monster Billy Strings, who’s selling out arenas and winning Grammys with his brand of jammy Americana, and with whom Donato has also appeared onstage.

Donato’s playing has elements of all of these sounds, but he adds his own spin via an emphasis on songwriting. Howev-

er, he’s also capable of unleashing guitar pyro that may singe the eyebrows of even the most jaded live-music vets.

We spoke to the grounded, personable Donato by Zoom from Nashville about what makes timeless songwriting, when it’s OK to shred and his connection with the Dead.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jam band music is hard to describe but easy to identify for people that are familiar. How would you describe your music for somebody that maybe hasn’t listened to much outside mainstream rock or country?

I would say the songwriting blends traditional country songwriting with dance and rock ’n’ roll musicality.

How does that happen? Because using “rock,” “dance” and “country” in the same sentence may not be an obvious combination for most people.

There are a lot of genres in America that are proprietary to this country. Rock ’n’ roll being one of them via Chuck Berry,

country being one of them via Jimmy Rogers and Bill Monroe, and improvisation being one of them through jazz legends like John Coltrane and Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner and so forth. We kind of blend a lot of the American influences and just amalgamate and bring them into one. And that is Cosmic Country.

In some ways, the name answers the question.

As with the biggest questions … (Laughs.)

You just need it on the business card, right? When somebody asks the question, the motto, it’s right there in the name.

I like that. That’s something that is becoming increasingly clear to me, that Cosmic Country [is] a frequency approach and the music is a fruit from that, much like a branch from a vine. It’s a natural extension of the source itself.

When you talk about nature metaphors, I think of timelessness. And I would say that a good song is timeless. But what gives a song that quality, and

how do you know if a song has it? [Some people] believe they know the answer, but if that were the case, I think there would be a lot more timeless songs than there are. So, I don’t know. I do worship the fact that it happens. And I believe it can happen. And you can definitely feel it when a song is timeless — i.e. “Country Roads” by John Denver or “In My Life,” “Yesterday,” all those timeless songs. And there happen to be themes and tropes that are common denominators between all those songs spanning out through different genres. A Bob Marley song might have the same chords as a Hank Williams song, the same three or four chords.

Much like how stories in movies, even though Hercules might be different than Happy Gilmore, it’s still a hero’s journey. And there’s still a protagonist that needs to be faithful and go conquer and bring light to the dark unknown and then return back home transformed, liberated and stronger. I think there are themes and perhaps vibes, frequencies that denote something as timeless. But I don’t know. I think maybe at best we’re 50% responsible for it on the human side.

All these old traditional American songs are so true that the transient ownership of one singular author has dissolved through time. So now they become public domain. And then the true gift of having received a song — like you said, a timeless song like that — is that it gets to become everybody’s, it gets to become quote unquote, open source.

My dad’s a software engineer. And when he first told me about the concept of open source, that was right when I was starting to study Bob Dylan, specifically the early era of Bob, when he moved to New York and all the Woody Guthrie inspiration was happening. And I think American music, if the song is good enough to become open source, you know, that’s a really great thing. I would love to write a song that could be open source.

And so, they’re everybody’s songs and you can take them and do what you want with them. Every time I played with Phil [Lesh] or Bill [Kreutzmann] or Bob [Weir], it was always that. I remember sitting in Bill’s garage and we were about to play [the Grateful Dead’s] “Franklin’s Tower,” and he looked at me and said, “How does it go?” I had to stop and think for a second. It was like, you’re not actually asking me how it goes. That’s a faith question. Like, “You start it, son … young man.” Bill Kreutzmann knows how “Franklin’s Tower” goes.

How do you deal with it, growing up with the Dead and then playing with them? “Oh, you know, Bill Kreutzmann is telling me to start off ‘Franklin’s Tower.’” Is it surreal? Yes.

What do you do?

I view that as a moment to receive. The reason why I like the concept of receiving is because there is a certain text out there that suggests that once you’ve received something, so shall you freely give it. And so that means that you don’t have to go through the niceties of portraying a humbleness. You don’t have to go through the niceties of suggesting that there’s an imposter syndrome. Because really, if you’ve received something, that’s only half the story. It’s, like, now you have to give it. You’re on a mission to give, you’ve been called to give because you have received. The very act of receiving is a delegation cosmically.

Playing Jerry Garcia’s parts has to be

sort of both an honor and a burden, if you know what I mean. And I don’t mean a burden in a negative sense, but it’s a lot to live up to.

Yes. I always ask for that though. I’ve always been on that. I’m that kind of a person where it’s like, build it and they

you know, let’s cut the ice on the river on Christmas morning and take this boat and go kill them Redcoats. Let’s go!” We need some of those people. (Laughs.)

You mentioned storytelling, the hero’s journey, plot frameworks. I wonder how that plays into the show. Can you tell me about how you write setlists?

I think the thing that makes a good set list to me is very different than what makes a good set list to someone who is on show three or five that they’re following us to see. What’s good to me is not objectively true, it’s only subjectively true. I’ll answer from that perspective. I look at our set list as acts and sequences, and it’s usually about two to three songs per act or sequence. It’s the same story, but it’s a new story every day. But the deal with Cosmic Country is when we’re playing on stage, I’m playing for my life on stage, and so is everyone in the band. What that allows us to do—which can be very painful and existentially disorienting—is to treat every gig as the first and last.

There’s often criticism of guitar players that their playing is more technical than soulful. … When people talk about “soul,” if they’re saying, “That guitar lead doesn’t simulate the human voice singing,” well, OK. Steve Vai has overdubbed, seven guitars at once, each a half step apart. And at a million miles an hour. So, you’re correct, that doesn’t simulate the human voice. On the other hand, it’s something that’s interesting and engaging and makes me feel emotional. It’s just not the same emotion that David Gilmour’s solo from “Comfortably Numb” gives me. So where’s that line? How do you know “now’s the time to tear it up” versus “now’s the time to break everybody’s heart?”

will come. And I voluntarily will, you know, and not everyone’s like that. And thank God, you know, because that would probably be a much more chaotic place to live in. But I think I am in that small percentage of people that are going to go out there and be like, “Well,

Oh, right on, brother. You know, that’s an attunement. That’s a dynamic attunement that I’m humbly progressing at in small increments, more and more. Just like when you’re driving a car, how do you know to get into the right lane or the left lane? Because when I go to dinner later with my father and my sister, I don’t know when I’m going to get in the left lane to pass the truck, but I will when I get there.

$34.97, 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com.

critics’ picks

Thursday, Feb. 19

Fragile Rock

Punk emo puppets? Tell me more. It may be tempting to dismiss the Jim Henson-inspired puppet band Fragile Rock as a gimmick, but these puppets pack a punch and have even made their way into the national consciousness with an NPR “Tiny Desk” concert. The nine-piece collective released its latest album, aptly titled album Microfamous, last September. $12.21, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Danny Cervantes

Friday, Feb. 20

Wax Tailor

Wax Tailor is an electronica DJ, producer and general multi-hyphenate star who’s coming to town to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut solo record, Tales of the Forgotten Melodies, which became a surprise hit both here and in his native France. It’s classic early 2000s electronic trip-hop, combining samples, old film soundtrack vibes and a dusty aesthetic. $29, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Bill Baird

Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas

New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band are bringing the raucous Big Easy Vibes to the Alamo City. The award-winning group’s infectious blend of blues, zydeco, soul and R&B has kept the spirit of brass bands alive over the decades. Since forming in the ’70s, the ensemble has toured the world while releasing new material on its own and in collaboration with artists such as Elvis Costello, Norah Jones and Modest Mouse. Jazz is best experienced live, so this is a can’t miss for fans of the genre. $30.93-$59.08, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — DC

Wednesday, Feb. 25

Skajects, Spies Like Us, Rat King Cole Nineties nostalgia is running rampant in pop culture, which means ska is once again having a moment. This lineup features a trio of San Antonio ska bands led by supergroup the Skajects. This might be your chance to catch the early edge of the long rumored fourth-wave ska while hearing SA musicians’ take on the sound. $42.18-$98.50, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall. com. — DC

Daisychain

Music is music, but it’s always nice when women bring their energy to a male-dominat -

ed subgenre. That’s the case with Chicago’s Daisychain, a trio specializing in heavy psychrock in which two members are women. The group’s excellent new All in a Name LP was produced by the legendary Sylvia Massy, who’s twiddled the knobs for Tool, Johnny Cash and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. $15, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB

Friday, Feb. 27

Yacht Rock Revue

It’s rare that we recommend cover bands and tribute acts, but this seems like a notable exception. Yacht Rock Revue offer a full tribute package for a much-maligned soft rock sub-genre, and they do it well. And why not, considering our city had a hand in creating yacht rock, since one of its progenitors, Christopher Cross, is an SA native. Expect to hear Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, maybe some Doobie Brothers. Is this music “cool?” Hell no, but it’s a lot of fun. $38, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com.  — BB

Saturday, Feb. 28

Descendents, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls

The Descendents emerged from the late-’70s

LA punk scene to create their own music hybrid: melodic hardcore. A more reductive term might be pop-punk, but let’s forget titles, because these guys definitely aren’t on the wimpy side of that subgenre. Their debut album is a total classic. Drummer Bill Stevenson even did time in Black Flag during the early era. Opener Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls have all the drive and vitriol of a classic punk band but – gasp – Frank plays acoustic guitar. No matter, it’s melodic pogo music with a folk-punk vibe. $58, 6 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com.  — BB

Sunday, March 1

bbno$, Jungle Bobby

Over the past decade, Vancouver-born hiphop artist bbno$ has blossomed into a certified superstar. The breakout was his 2019 collaboration with Y2K on the single “Lalala,” and 2021’s “Edamame” built an even bigger following for his brand of irreverent hip-hop. The artist’s seventh album, which dropped in October, further showcases his clean lyrical style underpinned by danceable electronica. Expect to see the SA crowd jumping. $91.82 and up, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s, (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre. com. — DC

“Letters Across the Atlantic”--just the last one. by Matt Jones

© 2026 Matt Jones

Across 1. 70-Across’s U.S. equivalent

4. Newspaper section

10. Latest craze

13. Walk off with 14. Northern lights phenomenon

15. Indignation

16. Where words are formed letter by letter in dreams?

18. Pro hoops gp.

19. Words with “on TV”

20. Woeful sound

21. Japanese wheat noodles

22. Charlie Brown outburst

24. Hamilton bills, slangily

26. “I see it now!”

29. Droplets of water

31. “Galloping Gourmet” Graham

32. Football party entree, often

34. Long-standing

36. AL and NL divisions

39. Bored feeling

40. Sm¯rrebr¯d bread

41. Party game with a similar concept to “The Traitors”

42. Laundry day target

43. ___ Leppard

44. Perfect places

45. Diner orders

47. Butter-and-flour sauce thickener

49. “___ Kapital” (Karl Marx work)

50. Solvent in nail polish remover

53. Smooth-talking

55. Bank (on)

56. Number that’s its own fourth power

58. Odd

62. Not so well

63. Menswear delivery for Danson or Lange?

65. Pub provision

66. Lip overgrowth, slangily

67. Very, in Versailles

68. Lawn repair roll

69. Artist known for optical illusions

70. 1-Across’s U.K. equivalent (and inspiration for this puzzle)

Down

1. Sticks in the microwave

2. Somehow manages (with “out”)

3. Lamprey lurer

4. Musician Buffy ___-Marie who retired from live performance in 2023

5. Knock-knock joke, usually 6. Assns.

7. Bender, for example

8. “From the Alex ___ Stage ...”

9. Dejected

10. Hide-and-seek players being provided snacks?

11. Shady garden spot

12. Academic heads

13. Screening org.

17. Provides a segue for

21. Like emails with bold headers

23. “The Princess Bride” weapon

25. Hatch location

26. Leaves amazed

EMPLOYMENT

27. Little help

28. Romance author Monaghan took over?

30. Comparatively cunning

33. Culpable

35. Remove condensation from

37. “Bob’s Burgers” daughter

38. Mouthy lip (or lippy mouth)

46. Pig noses

48. Donegal’s province

50. Opera selections

51. Yo-Yo Ma’s instrument

52. Supercomputer first unveiled over 80 years ago

54. Teen doll line since 2001

57. Ingrain indelibly

59. Raison d’___

60. Pull up dandelions, e.g.

61. NFL rushing units

63. Quito-to-La Paz dir.

64. “All That ___ Wants” (1992 Ace of Base hit)

Answers on page 25.

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