Country, soul and dominoes

Country, soul and dominoes mix with libations for fun Friday nights at VFW Post 6968 in Linden, Texas, with DJ Yogoman and Bongo Jac spinning the tunes. (Submitted photo)
Country, soul and dominoes mix with libations for fun Friday nights at VFW Post 6968 in Linden, Texas, with DJ Yogoman and Bongo Jac spinning the tunes. (Submitted photo)

LINDEN, Texas-Country, soul and dominoes mix with libations to make for fun Friday nights now at VFW Post 6968 in Linden with DJ Yogoman and Bongo Jac spinning the tunes.

Yogoman is Jordan Rain, while Bongo Jac is Jacqueline Rae, who lived in Linden as a youngster. As a couple, they're vinyl deejays and musicians with a passion for music.

Based for a long time in Bellingham, Wash., Rain as Yogoman has shared his love for soul and other musical genres from the 1960s and earlier during more than 20 years in music.

Now he and his wife bring Dominoes, Dance and Drinks to Linden.

"I'm a little bit old school in my taste in general," Rain said, noting that includes music from the 1920s, '30s and even earlier-as he sees it, "the musical integrity seemed to be a bit higher to me." He's well-versed in Jamaican music, vintage reggae from the '60s, and ska. Rhythm-and-blues and New Orleans brass are other loves.

Last year Rain and Rae shared various genres during Friday night dances at the VFW, and this go-round they'll focus on country and soul from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Friday night there. Snowbirds who live in Linden part of the year, the rest of it in Washington, they plan to keep Dominoes, Dance and Drinks running through April.

"This year we're starting it up again with a slightly different take," Rain said. And that means dominoes are included, too, for patrons to play. "They have a full bar, so they're able to get drinks."

Rain's passion is live music, and even with his full band (Yogoman Burning Band) they aim to bring people together through the connections music makes.

"I'm a musician, and I aim to play for the most part positive, fun, kind of uplifting dance music," Rain said, noting much of his main musical influence is African-based. While here in East Texas, he's been learning about boogie woogie, and he says he'd like to start a ska-boogie woogie revival group.

Rain hails from Seattle originally, while his wife is from here. Once when he and the band toured all the way down to New Orleans, they stopped in Linden on the way back.

"I just fell in love with the place as far as how peaceful it is," Rain said, noting the idea of Linden as a "music city" gives something to build on for the future.

Now, as DJ Yogoman and Bongo Jac, they have a venue where they can share this love for music: the VFW.

"We appreciate that they've opened their doors and kind of sponsored us," Rain said.

Learn more about DJ Yogoman at yogoman.com.

(Admission: $5. VFW Post 6968 is located at 1300 Club Lake Road in Linden. More info: Check out the Yogoman page on Facebook, or call the VFW Post at 903-756-7076.)

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