The tradition of live music in Red River runs deep. Santa Fe Kate, Professor Marmaduke, the Oklahoma Playboys and Three Faces West were crowd favorites in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, while modern stages reverberated with the sounds of The Great American Honky Tonk Band, Valentino and the Sirhan Express and South by Southwest.
Today the tradition is still alive and well, literally in the hands of such talented entertainers as the Damn Band picker supreme K. Bolan who shares the Motherlode stage with songbird Mandy Buchanan, blues guitar wizard Cullen Winter and bassman extraordinaire Paul Gatton.
Young country is represented in town by Michael David Smith whose cowboy ballads and pure country repertoire have been a regular summer fixture at the famous Bobcat Pass Cowboy Evenings for the past three seasons. He's got a new CD out, too. Look for MDS at venues like The Bull, Texas Reds and on the concert stage of the Red River Conference Center, as well as many other places that like this high country minstrel.
If you lean towards Americana, veteran troubadour Fritz Davis (right) is making the rounds, with appearances at TRs Lost Love Saloon scheduled this winter playing Country, Folk, Blues, Rock & Roll, OHS (Old Hippie Crap), and his own tunes.
Keep an ear out, too, for Rick Fowler, who has put new strings on his guitar while writing and performing new and crowd favorites at Chubbies.
When road warrior Jeff Fagan set up his keyboard in Red River nearly ten years ago, the walls began to shake and the plaster rattle with his rollicking variety of barrelhouse piano artistry. Look for him at Chubbies, the Bull and the Lonesome Pine Pub Long-time Red River favorite Michael Martin Murphey will be in town this winter, too, with performances tentatively set for the Red River Inn and the Conference Center.