Contact

 

Contact Riley Epperson

Thank you for visiting.

I welcome serious messages related to:

  • Texas honky-tonks and dancehalls

  • Public relations

  • The Keep ’Em Coming Back book series

  • Interviews and media inquiries

  • Articles and guest contributions

  • Podcast appearances

  • Speaking opportunities

  • Venue and industry research

  • Cultural preservation

  • Reader feedback

  • Professional collaborations

Email

rileyeppperson tx @ g mail .com

Media and Interview Requests

For interviews, podcasts, articles, or other media requests, please include:

  • Your name

  • The publication, program, or organization

  • The subject you want to discuss

  • The format of the interview

  • Your proposed deadline

  • A link to your previous work, when applicable

Book Questions

For questions about the Keep ’Em Coming Back series, please identify the volume or topic you are asking about.

Book purchasing, availability, and format information can be found on The Books page.

Venue and Industry Messages

Owners, managers, bartenders, musicians, dance teachers, dancers, and other industry professionals are welcome to reach out.

Please understand that a short message may not provide enough information to evaluate a complicated venue situation. Include the relevant background while protecting private employee and customer information.

Reader Feedback

Reader feedback is welcome, especially when it includes:

  • A tactic you applied

  • What happened after you applied it

  • A lesson that worked differently in your room

  • A question that deserves further discussion

  • A correction supported by a reliable source

The goal of this work is to serve real rooms and real people. Useful feedback helps make future articles and books stronger.

Social and Author Links

Amazon Author Page

Riley Epperson

Public Relations Strategist. Texas Honky-Tonker.

Popular posts from this blog

Behind the Bar: How Bartenders Became the Unofficial Ambassadors of the Honky-Tonk

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Walk into most honky-tonks, and the person who actually shapes a first-timer's experience isn't the band or the door staff — it's the bartender. Long before anyone talks about influencer marketing or brand ambassadors, Texas honky-tonks had already figured out that the person behind the bar is often the single most important connection point between a venue and its regulars. The Bartender Knows Everyone's Name — and Everyone's Story A good honky-tonk bartender isn't just fast and accurate with an order. They remember who's celebrating a birthday, who just went through a rough breakup, who's been coming in every Friday for the last three years, and who's walking in nervous for the very first time. That kind of attentiveness turns a transaction into a relationship, and it's a huge part of why regulars keep coming back to a specific venue rather than whichever bar happens to be closest. Word of Mouth Starts at the Bar Long before social media, h...
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Open Mic vs. House Band vs. Featured Act: Picking the Right Music Night Format

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Not every honky-tonk needs the same kind of music night, and one of the most common mistakes new venue owners make is copying a format they loved somewhere else without asking whether it actually fits their room. The three most common approaches — open mic, house band, and featured touring or local act — each build a completely different night, with different costs, different crowds, and different long-term payoffs. Open Mic: Low Cost, High Variance An open mic night is the cheapest format to run and the easiest to fill a weekly calendar slot with. There's minimal booking overhead, and it doubles as a farm system — a place where local talent gets discovered, and where a venue can quietly audition future house acts without any pressure. The tradeoff is consistency. An open mic night can be electric one week and dead the next, depending entirely on who shows up. It also tends to skew toward a listening-room crowd rather than a dancing crowd, which matters a lot if the whole point o...
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What Makes a Great Honky-Tonk Music Night, According to the People Who Run Them

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Walk into any Texas honky-tonk on a good night and you'll feel it before you can explain it. The floor is full, the band is locked in with the room, and somehow a hundred strangers move like they've been two-stepping together for years. Ask ten different venue owners what makes that happen and you'll get ten different answers — but underneath all of them is the same handful of truths. Music nights are the heartbeat of the honky-tonk. Not the building, not the neon, not even the beer — the music night is what turns a bar into a dancehall . And after years of watching this culture up close, from behind the bar and out on the floor, a few things separate the nights people talk about for months from the ones nobody remembers. It Starts With Knowing Your Room Every honky-tonk has its own personality, and the music night has to match it. A converted feed store outside a small Hill Country town is not going to book the same act as a big-room dancehall built for six hundred peop...
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