Around Cowtown: Ginny Mac at the Amon Carter Museum

Back in December 2014, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art began a renovation project. While the museum remained open, parts of it were inaccessible.

On Saturday, that renovation was finished — and to celebrate, they threw a party. I got to the museum about 5:30 p.m., and as I walked up to the building, I could hear someone announcing the epically talented Ginny Mac.

If you haven’t had the pleasure, Ginny Mac is a lady with a voice the size of Texas who plays an accordion in a way that actually makes you want to listen to accordion music. A few months back we told you about Mac playing with Keegan McInroe. This time she was on stage with her own band, featuring her brother, guitarist Glenn McLaughlin, along with bassist Nathan Phelps and drummer Chris Holmes.

Mac took the stage wearing a skirt with cowboy boots and an accordion that seemed bigger than she was. She gave us a good variety of covers ranging from Gypsy jazz to Texas swing, including Django Reinhardt’s Douce Ambiance and Bob Wills’ Texas Blues.

But it was the originals that really set this thing off. We only got a few — three by Mac and one by her brother — but I’d rather listen to a talented songsmith doing her own music than covers no matter how well executed.

“I love doing originals,” Mac told me the next day. “But for something like that event, I thought I’d do more traditional and peppy-swingy stuff.”

The people on the lawn were feeling it. People danced on the sidewalks, and families lounged in the grass enjoying the music, the cool breeze and the view of the Fort Worth skyline. Just to the north were food trucks from Bellatrino, Central Market, Gypsy Scoops, JBirds Chicken, Steel City Pops and Taco Heads. There was a silk screen booth and even a vintage VW microbus with a photo booth in the back seat.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is a great place to experience art of all kinds inside the newly renovated building, and a great place to listen to music on the lawn. Let’s hope they don’t wait until the next construction project to do this again.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Around Cowtown: Ginny Mac at the Amon Carter Museum."