Sense of Place: Step inside Dan’s Silverleaf Bar in Denton, Texas

Denton, Texas, is a fast-growing hot spot for art and music, and in the middle of it all is Dan’s Silverleaf Bar. It’s a hub for musicians, a place to see live music almost nightly and a must-stop for bands touring through town — whether they’re just starting out or big stars like Leon Russell.

Founder Dan Mojica is the bar’s heart and soul. He opened his first bar in 1995, after realizing that his job fueling planes at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport wasn’t really working for him. “I’ve been doing this for 13 years. I either need to quit whining about this job or do something else. So I like bars. So I just decided to cash out my 401(k) and my grandma gave me a couple thousand and I opened up that first bar for $12,400,” he says.

And even then, he wasn’t intending on getting into the music business, but music came for him anyway. Step inside Dan’s Silverleaf in this special Sense of Place: Denton, Texas, session. Listen in the audio player above.