For the people who didn’t grow up in Texas and Oklahoma in the 90’s and 00’s, and the people who have flocked to Texas country and Red Dirt recently because of Turnpike and Cody Jinks, it might be hard to imagine just ow prevalent Red Dirt music was here in those days. You can still go to Texas and find stations just playing Texas music, and others that play Texas country and Red Dirt right along with mainstream stuff, and for those looking to Americana to become a viable alternative format to mainstream country, Texas has already done that, with its own charts and festivals and fans that have sustained these artists’ careers for years. In Oklahoma, it was much the same before corporate radio, before iHeart and Cumulus dictated everything from on high–I grew up with Jason Boland and Cross Canadian Ragweed on my radio dial right beside Tim McGraw and Keith Urban. One of our local country stations had a show called Red Dirt Nights and played this music with pride. My divorce from country radio had as much to do with the sudden blacklist of Red Dirt music from the airwaves as it did with anything else.
Understand, then, that to see Jason Boland, Cody Canada, and Mike McClure onstage together is a legendary experience in the world of Red Dirt, akin to hearing three mainstream stars, or the Red dirt equivalent of what people would like to see with Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Chris Stapleton. These three are all legends in their own right in the landscape of Oklahoma music, and it’s great to see any one of them live. To see all of them together doing acoustic songs and swapping stories is a different kind of experience, and one that is just as special for Red Dirt fans.
It was that experience that I got to witness Friday night, (6/22_, at Oklahoma City’s historic Tower Theatre. This venue has welcomed me now for several events during my 2018 concert series, and I looked forward to this one because this would be unlike anything I’ve covered or will cover in 2018. I’ve seen these artists at Medicine Stone, and I certainly enjoy them live with a full band. That’ll be a great experience come September, but this was different, it was intimate. It was three friends onstage together, taking turns playing their songs and trading stories in between. They’ve named this tour “Yellow House Revisited” after a house they lived in in Stillwater, and it’s just so interesting to hear stories from those early days of Red Dirt music. It’s great to hear the story of how Cross Canadian Ragweed’s “Seventeen” was written after a conversation between Cody Canada and Jason Boland; it was Boland who said, while they tried to avoid the cops, that “you’re always seventeen in your hometown.” Canada and McClure’s ill-advised trip to Nashville turned into an even more ill-advised trip to Panama City, Florida, and with virtually no money to get back home, Canada decided the only thing he could do was write a song, and “Alabama” was born.
All that underscores the way that artists in the Texas/Red Dirt scenes are like a family. Mike McClure sang “The Funeral,” which many will know as a Turnpike Troubadours song, and if you’re at all familiar with Red Dirt, you’ll recognize that as a common practice. These artists record each other’s songs and sing on their albums and support each other. It was mentioned by one of them onstage that they’d been told Oklahoma’s music was different from Texas music, and the difference was the loyalty. I believe the whole scene is loyal, but there is something about three Oklahoma musicians traveling around singing each other’s songs that just wouldn’t happen anywhere else. That makes songs like “If I ever Get Back to Oklahoma” all the more special, and songs like “Boys from Oklahoma,” the perfect choice for an encore, all the more fun. I will never get tired of hearing either of these songs in a live setting because the kinship with the artists and the fans is something irreplaceable.
It’s that kinship, and that commitment to live music, which makes Red Dirt music a special thing. all three of these artists embody what makes this music important to our state, and further drive home the point that we should never have cast it off our airwaves. If you’re not that familiar with this subgenre, a show like this is a great introduction, and a case for what the elusive term “Red Dirt” actually means. If you’re already a fan of this music and these artists, this is a show you go to to see them in a different light, to hear those old songs reimagined, and to get that camaraderie between artists and fans that only exists in Oklahoma music.
Best Live Songs: “Fightin’ For,” “If I Ever Get Back to Oklahoma,” “Pearl Snaps,” “Boys From Oklahoma”