Author: admin

“A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed anything you told me about tonight,” Cody Canada, Cross Canadian Ragweed’s co-founder and frontman, told the crowd at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., on April 13. “Now look at you. You have made Oklahoma music history.”

Ragweed’s set was the last in a four-night concert series called The Boys From Oklahoma, which the quartet co-headlined with the Turnpike Troubadours. What was originally planned to be a single event — which also featured more than 50 other Red Dirt bands, including Okie favorites The Great Divide, Jason Boland and The Stragglers, and Stoney LaRue — quickly became four sold-out shows. And with a total of 180,000 tickets sold, it’s now the state’s largest musical event ever.

While Ragweed’s reunion was a big selling point for The Boys From Oklahoma (the group has been on hiatus since September 2010), the event’s success is evidence of Red Dirt music’s growing prominence. Since beginning as a local songwriters’ scene in Stillwater more than 50 years ago, Red Dirt has spent most of its history as a regional scene in Oklahoma and Texas. Recently, however, the scene has found exposure far from those states and become one of country music’s most in-demand subgenres.

Cultural attention on the scene, through new and traditional media, has helped fuel this surge. Wyatt Flores and Josh Meloy found breakthroughs after success on TikTok; Ken Pomeroy saw her music featured in the FX on Hulu series “Reservation Dogs”; both Flores and Pomeroy were featured on the Twisters soundtrack. And three notable moments occurred in June 2025 alone: Turnpike opened a series of major concerts for Zach Bryan in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Southall made their Grand Ole Opry debut, and Kaitlin Butts saw her song “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To be Dead to Me)” go viral. 

As Red Dirt’s popularity soars, dig into the genre’s history and the essential artists, songs and albums to know.

The scene boasts a range of sounds — leaning country but blending in rock, blues and folk influences — around lyrics and melodies that give it an almost spiritual tie to the lifestyles and landscapes in its Oklahoma home. The moniker “Red Dirt” can be traced to Steve Ripley, who eventually enjoyed a touch of mainstream country success with the Tractors. But in the 1970s, Ripley fronted an independent band called Moses, and he created a label called Red Dirt Records. Around that same time, a stream of songwriters moved to Stillwater and made names for themselves playing acoustic shows in the college town home to Oklahoma State University.

Gene Williams, Greg Jacobs, the Red Dirt Rangers, and their contemporaries found the bars in Stillwater provided enough fans to keep the bills paid. A patch of land outside of town they called the Farm became a gathering place and proving ground for local singers and songwriters throughout the 1980s. Today, the Farm stands as a monument to Red Dirt and is considered the spot the genre was founded.

The two most influential songwriters to ply their trade at the Farm were the late Bob Childers and Tom Skinner. Childers was a free-spirited songwriter who viewed himself as following the musical path of another Oklahoman, Woody Guthrie. Skinner was a well-traveled air force brat with an affinity for jokes and an observational songwriting approach who found Oklahoma particularly inspiring. 

In the mid-1980s, both men were essential in boosting the career of Garth Brooks, himself a local artist singing in bars around Stillwater. Skinner was part of the band Brooks took to Nashville that ultimately landed him his initial deal with Capitol Records. At that time, Childers had moved to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career. He let Brooks crash on his couch on that same visit, and he also introduced Brooks to a songwriter, Stephanie Brown, who in turn introduced him to Bob Doyle — Brooks’ manager to this day. (“If Bob Childers is not in Nashville then, Garth Brooks is not in Nashville today,” Brooks recalled in 2020.)

But their impact is not limited to Brooks’s rise. Childers and Skinner both returned to Stillwater in the 1990s, becoming mentors to a generation of artists who shaped Red Dirt. Medicine Show, Monica Taylor, Brandon Jenkins, and the Red Dirt Rangers all enjoyed enough success across Oklahoma to sustain their careers — and made inroads into Texas in the process. They also heavily influenced the songwriting of Great Divide frontman Mike McClure at that time. When The Divide enjoyed Red Dirt’s first major-label breakthrough, releasing two albums on Atlantic Records in the 1990s, the only cover songs they put on those records were written by Childers (“Wile E. Coyote”) and Skinner (“Used to Be”).

The Great Divide would go on to be the pioneering act for all the artists who elevated Red Dirt since — from Ragweed to Turnpike to Wyatt Flores.

When Cody Canada was a teenager in the Oklahoma City suburbs, in the early 1990s, he took an interest in country music. A friend told him he should visit Stillwater, an hour to the north, and check out The Great Divide; after doing so, Canada nearly immediately moved to the college town and started writing songs. Mike McClure soon became a songwriting mentor, even floating the idea of Canada joining The Divide. Instead, Canada formed Cross Canadian Ragweed with his childhood friends Grady Cross, Randy Ragsdale and Jeremy Plato in 1994.

A pair of songs made Ragweed a hit not just in Stillwater but in college towns across Texas. “Carney Man,” an ode to the circus that Canada and McClure co-wrote, was one. The other was “Boys From Oklahoma,” which eventually became Ragweed’s signature number. 

The Divide had already built a strong fan base in Texas, even hosting an annual July 4 festival in Stephenville that drew more than 5,000 fans each summer. But Ragweed became bona fide superstars in the Lone Star State by the mid-2000s, which helped them land a label deal with Universal South. In turn, Ragweed gave a platform to up-and-comers like Jason Boland and Stoney LaRue, all of whom got their starts in Stillwater in the late 1990s. The juxtaposition in sounds among the three artists — Ragweed a rock band, Boland a honky-tonk act, and LaRue a mix of country and blues — helped the scene win over a broad swath of fans away from Texas and Oklahoma.

Those artists ultimately took Red Dirt into uncharted territory as a genre. Ragweed had a Top 40 hit with “Fightin’ For,” and they took on mentor roles outside of Red Dirt. Both Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen — now major Texas country acts — were once openers for Ragweed. LaRue saw his breakthrough when he recorded Mike Hosty’s swampy “Oklahoma Breakdown” on his Live at Billy Bob’s Texas record; the tune became the No. 1 selling single in Texas music for all of 2007. About that time, Boland happened upon another up-and-coming Red Dirt band and invited them on the road to open his shows, The Turnpike Troubadours, who would soon become the scene’s next big thing.

Turnpike’s swampy, swinging songs about drinking, gambling and lost love appealed to dance hall crowds and college fans across Oklahoma and Texas — right at the time Ragweed went on hiatus. On the heels of their second album, 2010’s Diamonds and Gasoline, Turnpike quickly became a club and theater headliner.

Diamonds and Gasoline also established The Divide’s Mike McClure as a seminal producer in Red Dirt. McClure had produced all five of Ragweed’s Universal South studio albums, as well as Whiskey Myers’ Road of Life, but Diamonds and Gasoline caused Turnpike’s popularity to soar, and a wave of young artists sought McClure to produce them. He turned the knobs for the debut albums of the Damn Quails (2011’s Down the Hatch) and Kaitlin Butts (2015’s Same Hell, Different Devil).

While Turnpike continued its rise — becoming a regular headliner at major venues like Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater and Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom, and landing an opening spot on The Bandwagon Tour with Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town — the scene hit a lull. Stillwater, in particular, did not see another artist rise to prominence until 2015, when Read Southall started playing the bars in town. The rock-edged Read Southall Band had an independent hit with “Why” in 2017 and built a strong following in Oklahoma and Texas. Today, the band is rebranded as Southall, and “Why” is now certified platinum by the RIAA. 

Eventually, Turnpike took a three-year hiatus, from 2019-22. When the band returned, the demand for its music had exploded. Now, Turnpike regularly headlines arenas and amphitheaters, with artists such as Old Crow Medicine Show, The Red Clay Strays, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, and the Avett Brothers all joining Turnpike tours as openers.

After nearly 50 years as a niche genre, Red Dirt now has a foothold in mainstream culture. Part of this can be traced to Zach Bryan creating a new appeal for stripped-down songs and intensely personal lyrics. These are hallmarks of Red Dirt, and after Bryan’s rise in 2022, country music cast a spotlight on the scene’s array of country and folk artists writing introspective songs.

Bryan himself is a native Oklahoman and grew up heavily influenced by Turnpike, but he rarely gets associated with Red Dirt because his fast, social-media-fueled rise happened while he was on duty in the Navy. He only played a handful of times in the Oklahoma bars associated with Red Dirt before becoming a superstar. His approach, though, provided a blueprint for a wave of artists who followed, including Wyatt Flores.

Flores grew up outside of Stillwater, with a father who had once played in a band with Great Divide members Scotte Lester and Kelley Green — both of whom became parental figures to a young Flores. A 2017 trip to see Turnpike at Cain’s Ballroom inspired Flores to take music seriously, and in 2020, the then 19-year-old dropped out of college to move to Nashville. Not long after, he’d write “Please Don’t Go,” the song that launched Flores into nearly every conversation about who could be country music’s next big star. In 2024, Flores brokered invitations for The Great Divide to play both the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium for the first time, insisting that his mentors get to share both revered stages with him.

For the first time, though, Red Dirt has a whole host of artists poised for breakthroughs rather than one-offs. Southall spent 2022 as openers on Whiskey Myers’ Tornillo Tour, gaining national exposure ahead of their self-titled Southall album in 2023. On June 25, they too celebrated their Grand Ole Opry debut.

Since 2023, Butts has toured with Morgan Wade, Dierks Bentley and Flatland Cavalry (she is also married to Flatland leader Cleto Cordero, and her 2016 duet with Cordero, “A Life Where We Work Out”  that Flatland released, is certified gold). Along with Flores, she was nominated for emerging act of the year at the 2024 Americana Awards, and she received an Ameripolitan Award for “Honky Tonk Female​” from the Austin-based organization.

Josh Meloy parlayed a viral buzz over his 2022 song “Porch Light” into a fast-growing fan base and a string of high-profile shows. This year, he has made his debut at Red Rocks as an opener for Shane Smith and the Saints, and he will join Whiskey Myers’ tour in July to open a string of major shows at venues such as Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater.

There are other Red Dirt artists poised to make names for themselves, too. J.R. Carroll — who plays keys for Zach Bryan — just finished a national headlining run of mid-sized clubs. Lance Roark, a songwriter from Tahlequah, Okla., has had two songs covered on Turnpike Troubadours albums in the past three years, 2023’s “Chipping Mill” and 2025’s “Ruby Ann.”

Essential Red Dirt Albums

Bob Childers and the White Buffalo Road Show, Nothin’ More Natural (1997)

The mix of folk lyrics and country twang made this a bellwether album, and one that heavily influenced The Great Divide, Ragweed and Jason Boland early in their careers. Three songs off this record were later covered by those very artists, “Wile E. Coyote,” “Headed South” and “Woody’s Road,” respectively.

Farmboy, Farmboy (2003)

Tom Skinner, one of Red Dirt’s forefathers, fronted Farmboy in 2003 and released a self-titled record that mixed Skinner originals and covers like The Band’s “Up on Cripple Creek” and Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” as well as Bob Childers’ “Restless Spirits.” Among the Skinner-penned tunes is “Skyline Radio,” a lament of the cultural and political landscape that prevailed in Oklahoma around the turn of the millennium. 

Cross Canadian Ragweed, Soul Gravy (2004)

Ragweed’s second major-label album is considered their signature record, and to this day remains their biggest chart success, reaching No. 5 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums tally. The blend of garage rock tunes (“Number” and “Hammer Down”) with ballads (“Lonely Girl” and the Lee Ann Womack-featuring “Sick and Tired”) and the country storytelling of “Alabama”  showcase Ragweed’s musical range — and by extension, that of their Red Dirt background. After the band’s 2010 split, Cody Canada formed another band, The Departed; in 2022, he asked his fans to choose one Ragweed album for The Departed to remake, start-to-finish, and Soul Gravy was a landslide winner.

The Turnpike Troubadours, Diamonds and Gasoline (2010)

While Turnpike released their first album in 2007 (Bossier City), the group claims Diamonds and Gasoline as their debut record. And despite the fact that their next three studio albums landed in the Top 10 of Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart (which Diamonds never even cracked), Diamonds and Gasoline is widely regarded as their strongest. Eight of the 12 tracks on the record are still featured regularly in Turnpike concerts — both because it’s a fan and group favorite. As frontman Evan Felker asserts, Diamonds songs still get the biggest response out of any in the band’s catalog, and while they were making it, “it was like lightning struck… it was very much magic.”

Wyatt Flores, Welcome to the Plains (2024)

At age 23, Flores rebounded from a mental health struggle — brought on by his sudden rise to fame and the deaths of multiple close friends and family members — by writing and recording the 14-track Welcome to the Plains. He also moved back to Oklahoma to release the album after living four years in Nashville, and he dedicated it to his Red Dirt roots. Songs like “Stillwater” and “Little Town” and the title track were written about Flores’s life in Oklahoma, the same way Turnpike, The Divide and Childers had done before him. The support of a major label (Island) helped the album gain traction in mainstream country, but the essence of the album’s Oklahoma inspiration makes it a must-listen for those new to Red Dirt.

Essential Red Dirt Songs

“Used to Be” (The Great Divide, 1998)

“Used to Be” was written by Tom Skinner and the Red Dirt Rangers’ Bob Wiles about a series of forgotten landmarks and sites along Route 66 in Oklahoma. The Great Divide included it on their Atlantic Records debut, Break in the Storm, in 1997 and had Jimmy LaFave — who got his start in Red Dirt before becoming a mainstay in the Austin scene — sing one of the verses. Its lyrical content combined with its ties to Skinner and LaFave have made it one of Red Dirt’s most enduring anthems.

“Boys From Oklahoma” (Cross Canadian Ragweed, 1999)

The Gene Collier-penned song about marijuana was covered by nearly every Red Dirt artist in the 1990s before Ragweed included it on 1999’s Live and Loud at the Wormy Dog Saloon. From then on, it became Ragweed’s signature tune and one in which the band routinely invites guests on stage to sing or ad-lib a verse about boys who “roll their joints all wrong.” Ragweed frontman Cody Canada often jokes during concerts that the song is the anthem of Stillwater.

“Outlaw Band” (Jason Boland and The Stragglers, 2008)

Bob Childers wrote “Outlaw Band” about the musical community of the 1970s that ultimately became Red Dirt. He drove the point home with the line, “Out in the country, in the heart of the land/ Stood a restless kid, guitar in his hand/ He found him some others who had the same dream/ All of them loners, but somehow a team. They were an outlaw band from Oklahoma.” Shortly after Childers’ 2008 passing, Jason Boland and the Stragglers recorded the song on a pair of records, including their 2010 Live in the Rockies album as the closing track, which Boland dedicated to Childers.

“Good Lord, Lorrie” (Turnpike Troubadours, 2012)

Diamonds and Gasoline may be Turnpike’s signature album, but their 2012 follow-up, Goodbye Normal Street, provided what would become their signature song. This is the tune that brings their crowd to full attention from its drumroll opening to its refrain of “Good lord, Lorrie, I love you, could it go more wrong?” Turnpike fans on social media continue to give the song attention to this day with theories and speculation as to who the character “Lorrie” could be based on.

“Red Dirt Town” (Brandon Jenkins, 2016)

In “Red Dirt Town,” Brandon Jenkins sings of leaving life in Oklahoma behind for greener grass in Hollywood, but he also paints a picture of the culture and landscape that inspired Red Dirt as a genre — much like “Used to Be” and “Outlaw Band” did for their respective writers. A prolific songwriter and collaborator in Red Dirt, Jenkins died in 2018, but “Red Dirt Town” endures as essential listening as a representative tune for the genre. Plus, Jenkins’ pleading vocals serve as a reminder of his appeal before Red Dirt made its mainstream inroads.

“Porch Light” (Josh Meloy, 2022)

In the current crop of breakout Red Dirt artists, Meloy stands out by eschewing the idea, saying he’d rather stay a mid-sized act and make enough money to support his family. Ironically, “Porch Light,” a song about missing his wife and child while on the road, stands to make that impossible. The popularity of the song on social media and streaming sites has made Meloy one of the most in-demand artists in the genre, and the song is the crescendo of his concerts. His heartfelt lyrics and gravelly delivery have been hallmarks of Red Dirt from the outset — and what’s helping the genre resonate more widely than it ever has.