Take Exit 268 off Interstate 35, head east on FM 972, make a pair of 90-degree jogs past mobile homes and rolling farmland, and suddenly you’re in Germany. Well, the German settlement of Walburg, formerly known as Concordia.
The Williamson County community, about 40 miles north of Austin, was founded in 1881 by Henry Doering, a German immigrant. The following year, Doering opened the Hy. Doering Co. mercantile store. Doering eventually changed the name of the community from Concordia to Walburg, his German birthplace.
Today, instead of groceries, dry goods and hardware, the shelves of the former general store are now filled with more than 200 beer steins.
Iconic flags of Bavaria hang from the high ceiling, with matching blue and white tablecloths in the dining room. Of course, there’s a cooler full of imported German beer. And opposite the buffet table and kitchen is a stage where Ronny Tippelt and his band, the Walburg Boys, play Friday and Saturday nights. Tippelt is also co-owner of the venue, which is now called Walburg German Restaurant & Biergarten.
Tippelt, founder of the band, was born in Munich. He learned to yodel at the age of 7 from his “vocal hero,” Franzl Lang, a world-renowned Jodlerkönig, or Yodel King. Lang was an expert in Bavarian alpine yodeling.
Humans have yodeled for tens of thousands of years, mostly for calling livestock, but across Switzerland and Bavaria (a state in southern Germany), the calls began to be incorporated into songs, accompanied by accordion, in the 19th century.
Some Native American cultures yodeled, Liz Tracy writes in No Depression magazine. Then cowboys picked up on the custom. “The yodel is used as a call to herds across lonely landscapes; the pastoral, solitary life of cowboys made them a prime conduit for the yodel,” Tracy writes.
By age 12, Tippelt was learning accordion. At 16, he won a Bavarian yodeling competition in Munich. By then, he had started a musical group called the Lerchenauer Baum with some friends and had been playing Oktoberfest in Munich—the largest and oldest such German festival in the world.
In 1982, Tippelt was 23 when his band was at Oktoberfest. “After the show, I went over to a table of cute American ladies, and I ended up marrying one of them,” Tippelt says. “She was a Braniff Airlines flight attendant from Austin, Texas.”
Ronny Tippelt and the Walburg Boys entertain in the Bavarian style.
Erich Schlegel
They moved to Texas that year, and though the marriage didn’t last, Tippelt stayed. He opened his restaurant a few years later. “I just thought Texas was the Wild West,” Tippelt says. “I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t like the movies.”
He started a duo called the Bavarian Boys. They’re now a five-piece band featuring, in addition to accordion and yodeling, a keyboard, guitar, saxophone, bass, fiddle and drums.
When he performs, Tippelt wears traditional lederhosen with beautifully embroidered scrolls stitched in and a T-shirt with the Bayern—the German name for Bavaria—state coat of arms. He plays a chromatic accordion with keys like a piano.
He typically sings in German, flowing smoothly from German lyrics into yodeling and back. “When I play and yodel,” Tippelt says, “I feel pride in representing my homeland. People get to hear a true German music style.”
Another Texas musician who plays in the Bavarian style is Alan Walling, leader of Metroplex band AlpenMusikanten, a friend of Tippelt’s and a self-taught yodeler.
“I met Ronny at a Fredericksburg German festival in 1990,” Walling says. “He’s a fantastic yodeler in the Bavarian style. The best yodeler in Texas and perhaps in the United States.”
In 2019, Walling and Tippelt organized their own festival, Walburg Fest, which became an annual event over Labor Day weekend.
About 35 years ago, the boys were playing one of the stages at Austin’s former Aqua Fest. Tippelt came up to the headliner and introduced himself. “Hello, I’m Ronny Tippelt from Germany. Who are you?” he said.
“Well, I’m George Strait from Texas,” answered the famous country singer.
Ronny Tippelt from Texas now covers a handful of Strait’s songs, with Amarillo By Morning being a favorite.
And that isn’t his only foray into the country realm. He’s especially proud to sing Merle Haggard’s sentimental hit Silver Wings. Tippelt ends it with his signature yodeling.
