It's the First Annual Monsters Ball of Salado, and none other than Kinky Friedman, Texas' best-known author, songster, humorist and wicked political gadfly, will host.

Joining Kinky on stage will be Texas Music Awards' Entertainer of the Year, Pauline Reese. Festivities, including a high dudgeon costume contest, a reading and brief performance from the Kinkster, and a sensational door prize, begin at 7 p.m.

The Monsters Ball, a Halloween tradition throughout the world, will be the grand opening event at the brand-new Salado Springs Music Hall (200 Royal Street, Salado, TX), the area's hottest new first-class restaurant and top-shelf bar. Sitting on fourteen acres on Salado Creek, the Music Hall is already considered the finest dance- and music-hall complex in Central Texas. No less than Jenna Bush held her wedding party on the property, which also includes an outdoor grotto, a B&B and a cigar bar. There will be a buffet with food service and a full bar at the Monsters Ball.
The costume contest will be judged by Kinky himself and several of Salado's most prominent monsters, with an eye toward the ghoulish, the weird and the . . . well, kinky. A hefty cash prize should bring out the very eeriest of the eerie, the goriest of the gory and the funniest of the funny. And there will be great costumes, too. To make this Ball an even more amazing event, none other than Willie Nelson has donated a personally signed guitar as the killer-bee door prize. In other words, for a mere 20 bucks, everyone has an even-steven chance at owning a guitar played and signed by a true Texas hero, in fact a legend.

Kinky Friedman will be sliding into Salado on the heels of an awe-inspiring appearance at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, at which he performed for nearly two hundred thousand adoring fans. The Kinkster also played to sold-out houses in over a dozen other West Coast venues on his media-friendly "Go West Young Kinky Tour of 2010," selling out his stock of books and memorabilia in the process. Those books, What Would Kinky Do? and Heroes of a Texas Childhood, are now back in stock and will be available at the event. And new books will be coming soon, one a collaborative effort with Billy Bob Thornton, and the other a co-write with Willie Nelson. Both will be very hot items, for sure. Also for sure: Kinky will sign anything for those looking for an autograph.

Pauline Reese, who recently released her sixth album, Rolling Stone, is among the hottest, and, by the way, most beautiful young singer/songwriters impacting the music scene in Texas today. She can definitely hold her own with Kinky, having graced stages with Willie, Pat Green, Merle Haggard and dozens of other stars. Pauline is the very first woman to receive the Entertainer of the Year accolade from her peers at Texas Music Awards. Pauline and her hot-shot band will rock out a full monster set, then sign copies of her CD for demon fans and walking dead.
The First Annual Monsters Ball of Salado, the event of the early holiday season. Dress scary (or whatever), c'mon down, live it up, and maybe even go home with something really cool. This will be the one gala you won't want to miss this season.

What: First Annual Monsters Ball of Salado hosted by Kinky Friedman with Pauline Reese

Where: Salado Springs Music Hall
200 Royal Street, Salado, TX

214-537-2943