What started as a small, honky-tonk bar in San Marcos is now a celebrated venue that music lovers flock to experience the magic of songwriting.
Kent Finlay, musician and business partner, and Jim Cunningham, San Marcos Daily Record writer, leased Cheatham Street Warehouse in June 1974. The 50th anniversary party was held Oct. 20 to honor the legacy of Kent and the bar.
Kent founded the Cheatham Street Music Foundation in 2005, which supports new artists through classes and concerts. It also sponsors “Kent Finlay’s Songwriter Night,” a weekly event where musicians display their talent with their voice and a guitar. The non-profit started sponsoring Songwriter Night shortly after Kent died from cancer on March 2, 2015. According to the foundation’s website, Kent kept Cheatham Street Warehouse open because of the event.
Kent’s legacy lives on through Songwriter Night, inspiring young artists to step into the spotlight and share their music. Gregg Andrews, distinguished professor of history emeritus, said he would have never pursued music if not for Kent’s encouragement.
“Kent had a wonderful way of taking the grunginess of the world and making it pretty,” Andrews said. “He had an ear for spotting authentic music that came from the heart.”
Andrews developed as a songwriter after attending Songwriter Night in 2005. He drew a lot of his inspiration from growing up near the Mississippi River, so his music has a swampy feel to it.
“[Songwriter Night] still has that feel,” Andrews said. “It still inspires creativity among writers. But when it comes down to it, I think Kent [Finlay], he was a unique creative force that inspired people, but all we can do is pass it on. We can’t live forever.”
In 2005, George Gilbert, the owner of Cheatham Street’s building, decided to sell to a local realtor who planned on bulldozing it. Andrews and his wife decided to save the building. They took out a mortgage and kept it going for five years before Randy Rogers, lead vocalist of the Randy Rogers band and the current owner of Cheatham Street, took over.
Rogers got his start on the Cheatham Street stage, playing original country-folk songs. He had a close relationship with Kent even after his music gained popularity.
“[Rogers] never forgot who helped him there,” Andrews said. “I know a lot of people, they might move on and become big and all that kind of stuff, and then they don’t have time for the people who helped most. That’s not the case with Randy.”
John Gillian, known by his stage name Missoula Slim, is a board director for the Cheatham Street Music Foundation. In 2004, he started attending Songwriter Night and began writing and performing music the following year. Slim played at Cheatham Street for eighteen years, playing happy hour or what Kent called “the early show.”
“You can find any old dive anywhere with crappy carpets and dirty bathrooms, but this place has that magic because of its history,” Slim said. “And more than the history, what’s still going, it’s still happening. It’s not dead. It didn’t die. We’re keeping it going.”
Sterling Finlay, professional musician and Kent’s son, played his first songs on Cheatham Street’s stage. Growing up with late nights listening to artists and falling asleep on the pool table, Sterling was a professional songwriter for three quarters of his life, and said music is the only profession he is truly qualified for.
“Cheatham Street celebrates my dad’s memory and legacy every Wednesday night and every time one of our artists comes home to play,” Sterling said. “Randy [Rogers] has done so much to preserve what dad built here, and it’s getting better all the time.”
