It's no mystery to me why  my son, Rick Riordan turned out to be such a wonderful writer - his stellar career and contributions to literature and literacy speak for themselves. Fifteen years ago, Rick won both the Shamus and Anthony Awards for his first novel, Big Red Tequila, featuring Tres Navarre and starring San Antonio as the book's unique setting. Following that good news, Rick won the Edgar Award in New York for his second mystery novel, The Widower's Two-Step. His breakthrough came with his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, a world-wide favorite and New York Times best seller. I still clip newspaper articles about Rick and delight in reading about him - in one of his book dedication, Rick says I was his "first editor and fan." Thanks, Rick, I am so proud of you. Visit Rick's website to learn more about his books and his thoughts on writing, publishing, and educating. Read updates and details on new books, including the new Camp Half-Blood series, on Rick's blog. Our family supports independent book stores, and one of the best in San Antonio is The Twig Bookstore in the Pearl Brewery complex - what a great new space for the Twig!

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MUSIC AND THE MEDINA MUD BAND Join Us for Quihi 2010!! Some Previous Years:  Quihi '05 is history - and we helped out Inner City once again! Quihi '04 is history! What a great time! Quihi '03 is history! Check it out! The Medina Mud Band returned to Quihi for the 2002 Inner City Benefit and Dance on Feb. 2, 2002 - click here for the invitation for your collection! It was a great success. (requires Adobe Acrobat)

L to R: Rod Enloe, steel and lead guitar, Don Stephens, keyboard and lead guitar, Brother Dave Williams, harmonica and vocals, John Burke, drums, Lyn Belisle, vocals and occasional guitar, Bill Kurtin, lead guitar, lead vocals, Larry Adamson, bass, and Gene Dowdy, blazing fiddle.

Music has always been important to us, perhaps because our family has always loved music as much as we love books. I have played in a Country Western band myself for the last 25+ years. We are the Medina Mud Band, and we play at fund-raisers, bar mitzvahs, funerals, fiestas - we are as eclectic in our music as we are in our gigs. Most of us are teachers, professors, or plain old corporate day-job folks who thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie that the band gives us. One of our favorite gigs is our annual fund-raiser for Inner City Development. We play this gig at the Quihi Dance Hall, the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas, every year in late January or early February.

Band Album: History and Highlights

A MMB Trip to Foxfire, Fall 2001 The QUIHI 2000 Tour The Pictures The Invitation & T-Shirt See pictures from the annual Medina Mud Band Farkleberry Festival at Bastrop State Park More Old Family Music Notes, Friends, Cats Obviously, music is a family tradition. Rick helped pay his way through college playing in a band called Cheyenne. You can't live in South Texas and not be a fan of the music scene. Austin, just up the highway, has many good bands and places to hear the best in country, folk, blues, alternative - you name it. One of our favorite places was Threadgill's, where Champ Hood and the Threadgill Troubadours played on frequent Thursdays. Champ, and our friend, the late Walter Hyatt (along with David Ball) made up Uncle Walt's Band. They were awesome, brilliant in their rhythm and harmony. Hear their music on the  Amazon website. Our cats, Walter and Champ (who died several years ago), were named after these guys. Lyle Lovett pays some good tribute to Walter Hyatt as well as other Texas musicians on his CD, Step Inside This House. We learned recently that Champ Hood had passed on also - he will be missed, as is his namesake. But we now have Max, who is one of the funniest cats on the face of the earth. By the way, here's a great website if you get stuck for country lyrics - we use it a lot. Check it out - it's called COWPIE. And here's a fairly new site for Texas music info and ordering - I saw it just recently for the first time and was impressed - Lonestar Music. The Texas Monthly website has a lot of information for everybody, natives or visitors, about Texas music and - yep, culture!

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