Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine

January 15, 2025
An atmospheric slice of the 1970s Austin music scene, with reality-adjacent characters and settings. Based on extensive research, Collins' debut novel breathes life into a scenario that occurred before her birth, but is within memory for a healthy chunk of her book's likely audience. Set at the Rush Creek Saloon, which mirrors the long-gone Soap Creek Saloon, its central character is Doug Moser, modeled closely on the late country-blues musician Doug Sahm, who lived for a time in a house in the woods behind the bar, as does his namesake character. Other places and people, notably the Armadillo World Headquarters and Joe Ely, appear without aliases. Over this historic scaffolding, Collins has wrapped a novel in the voice of three characters: Doug; Deanna, half of the couple who owns and tends the bar; and Steven, a very in-your-face 19-year-old fan whose intrusive presence drives the most dramatic plotline. Unfortunately, Steven's story is not the most successful aspect of the book, though little can be said about it without spoilers. A more effective subplot focuses on the attraction between Doug and Deanna, both of whom are married--sizzling, though unresolved. Also intriguing is the relationship between Doug and Joe Ely, whose success Doug simultaneously envies and tries to leverage. The daughter of a drummer who was part of this scene back in the day, Collins writes well about music and does a fine job of bringing the bar to life in all its detail, from the plugging-in of the neon star out front to the clipping of the Fritos onto their display stand. "We'd leave the back door wide open, and the side door too, and people would cluster around them frenzied, burst out into the parking lot like herds of animals, trying to catch any kind of breeze." She does not romanticize the excessive drinking and drugging that was endemic to this scene, and the nasty bar fights they led to among a half-redneck, half-hippie crowd are here in force. Though the book is generally true to its period, a nitpicker must note that the wordjanky, used several times, was not common slang until almost 1990. The scent of spilled beer and overflowing ashtrays practically wafts from the pages. Just tell your phone to play Doug Sahm.

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February 1, 2025
Collins' debut follows three lost souls in Austin in 1975. Deanna and her husband Wallace are the owners of the failing Rush Creek Saloon. Desperate to find a way to attract customers, Wallace seeks out a country western band to play at the saloon. He offers the guitarist, Doug, and his wife and son a house to stay in, one that Deanna's father built decades ago from a Sears catalogue kit. The band's arrival proves to be the boon Wallace and Deanna had hoped for, drawing in large and often rowdy crowds, but it still doesn't prove to be salve for their floundering marriage. Deanna finds herself drawn to Doug and senses the feeling may be mutual. Into this powder keg of an environment walks Steven, a young man desperate to find a place to belong and people who will accept his sexuality. Even as the Rush Creek Saloon proves to be dangerously unwelcoming, Steven becomes fixated on enigmatic Doug. A meditative and atmospheric yarn that feels both specific to its era and timeless.

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