Red River’s connection to Texas music, Dallas and Austin in particular, has been well documented over the years. Ray Wylie Hubbard, Michael Martin Murphey, Steve Fromholz, Rusty Wier and the Original Cosmic Cowboy Bob Livingston paid dues in the mountains before becoming Lone Star music icons. That connection is still alive and well today.
Colin Brooks heard about Red River from an Austin friend, Kelley Mickwee, and thought it sounded like his kind of place. He spent the summer of 2016 in Red River, working as a do-it-all kinda guy for Steve Heglund at Texas Reds and the Motherlode. He’s good with his hands and once built a house for himself.
He also could be found many nights performing with Mike Addington in TRs Lost Love Saloon. It was music that brought him to Red River. He is well regarded as a singer/songwriter and blues-rock guitarist and dobro player. He enjoys Red River and will be the guy playing slide guitar at the Lost Love this winter.
He cites his father, who played guitar, and his grandfather as the biggest influences in his life and he sayshe’s always had a guitar around the house. He learned 4-part harmony through his mother’s connection to church.
A native of Michigan, Colin has been calling the Lone Star State home since moving there in 2002.
“I lived in Taos in the late 90s,” Colin remembers. “Pretty much got my act together and was headed for Austin. I had half a record done and there was this guy, a friend of a friend, who played with this women – I can’t remember her name – who lived in Woodstock NY. He had a studio. I went up to Woodstock and I thought I was going for three weeks to finish the record. Well, he didn’t have anything set up and we were trying to put it together in a cold garage. To make a long story short, I spent three years in New York and finally made it to Austin!”
He did complete the record, his first album entitled Chippin’ Away At The Promised Land released in 2002.
In 2002, Colin initially went for the South By Southwest festivals and conference in Austin – “I got down there with no money!” – and fell in love with the town.
“I was trying to be a rock & roll star, I guess. I hadn’t planned on being a singer but when you write songs that no one else is singing… ”
He wasted no time, despite having no contacts in the Live Music Capital of the World. He won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriter contest in 2003.
In 2006 he shared a stage with individual songwriters Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi at Momos on Austin’s 6th Street and the Heathens evolved. They went on to release three studio albums as Band of Heathens – the name addition was a matter of copyright – and in 2009, the band was nominated for a “New Emerging Artist” award by the Americana Music Association. In 2010, the band was again honored by the Americana Music Association as nominees for the “Best Duo/Group of the Year.”
He left the band in November 2011 shortly after recording the double live album Double Down – Live in Denver. There were four singer/songwriters – what else needs to be said. “I felt constrained. Plus when you’re on the road that long… They are still going. Doing well, too. I love those boys. They’re still my brothers.”
