About 300 people packed into the Hidden Valley Inn Sunday to see the Sons of the Pioneers in their final Tucson show.
After 23 winters, the legendary Western band is leaving Tucson β a victim of what some say is the slow death of the area's Western culture.
"We're sad to go. We're sad that we had to go out the same time Hidden Valley Inn did," said Dale Warren, the group's longtime trail boss. "That's part of the culture of the whole town. It seems like the Western element is fading."
Hidden Valley Inn, which closed Sunday night, was one of only a handful of Western-themed restaurants left in the city, which not long ago hung its marketing hat on the culture of cowboys, horses and the Old West. Today, the area's marketed more for its luxury resorts, health care and golf courses.
The city that some credit with keeping the spirit of Western music and culture alive β among the historic footnotes: the Western Music Association was founded and is still headquartered in Tucson and Sons of the Pioneers founding member Bob Nolan wrote his famous ode "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" while attending Tucson High School β seems to be losing interest in all things Western.
"There's just no place for us to play. There's no venue for the Sons of the Pioneers like the Triple C or Hidden Valley," Warren, 80, said Tuesday, a day after his fellow band mates left Tucson for their home base in Branson, Mo. Warren, who owns a home here, said he will leave in mid-April.
"We're losing (our Western culture), there's no question about that," said Dean Armstrong, band leader of the Arizona Dance Hands, one of Tucson's few remaining Western bands. "You don't see cowboy hats any more hardly. The Western stores, a lot of them have closed. . . . There's a certain amount of people that will always stay with it, but it is drifting off to the side."
The Sons of the Pioneers were formed in the 1930s and recorded many songs with western movie legend Roy Rogers. The group performed 20 winter seasons from January through early April at the old Triple C Chuckwagon before it closed three years ago. The 72-year-old group then moved to Hidden Valley Inn, where Warren said they found an enthusiastic audience. But the audience wasn't enough to sustain the 65-year-old restaurant, which had struggled in recent years.
Tucson now has only a couple of Western-themed restaurants left, and only one β Pinnacle Peak at Trail Dust Town β can lay claim to being a full-service Western entertainment venue. The restaurant hosts live entertainment regularly, including its 13th annual Cowboy Traditions Festival this weekend, said Debbie Backous, CEO of Pinnacle Peak parent Agro Land & Cattle Co. Inc. The company also owns El Corral steakhouse.
Backous said she remembers when Old Tucson, Hidden Valley Inn and Pinnacle Peak topped the list of visitor activities. Today, she said visitors still include Pinnacle Peak in the top three or four activities, right after golf and a visit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
"Times are changing too quickly," she said. "It's unfortunate. It's part of our history"
Warren said Sunday's final concert was an emotional affair.
"It was very sad. There were tears. People were choked up because they've been watching the Pioneers for 23 years here," he recalled. "We have a big following you know, not just from people from Tucson but from people who come in for the winter months."
"The Sons of the Pioneers is the foundation of Western music and to see them leave Tucson is a devastating blow for the community," said John Payne, president of the Home Ranch Hands Chapter of the Western Music Association.
The Sons of the Pioneers will continue their annual Branson run, which starts in late April and continues through early December. Come January, when they usually settle into Tucson, the group will head out on the road for its first tour in more than a decade.
"This is not going to stop the Pioneers by any means," Warren said, noting that the band he has led for 53 years will continue on long after he's gone. "We'll go out and bring the music to the people instead of having the people come to us. We might even come through Tucson."
