Direction
I don’t know if this will end up on Galleywinter or not. The machine that we’ve created has turned into more of a business than I’d care to admit. What is fit for public consumption these days is a fine line between pissing on the artists and pissing on the fans. Oh well. Maybe as it comes out of my head into words I’ll be able to rebroadcast it so those that have big egos can sleep. I guess after writing it it looks OK. I may tweak it some. What I want to say is “The king of Texas has been recrowned!”
“some people will say I’m crazy… singin out loud like I do here on the street…” Martin Sexton
It’s good to have good direction. At least I think so. When Pat was touring Texas and playing venue’s like Sneed Wheeler’s Texas Roadhouse, there just wasn’t a huge following. As people became drawn to his music and bands like Cross Canadian Ragweed started showing up on the radar, people began to spread the word to their friends and family. Newcomer bands started popping up and more bands starting migrating south from Oklahoma and it was a sweet time. Guys like Pat were starting to see success on a national level and left Friday and Saturdays open to check out new bands. As cool as that was… it left a lot of fans feeling a bit abandoned. Don’t take what I’m saying, wrong. Their success was pure joy for those of us that pushed and pushed to get them heard. But it still kinda left us looking around saying.. “Now what?” As the younger bands starting becoming veterans and filled that gap it always felt to me, like we still lacked the one band that felt like home.
Well that was two or three years ago and time does wonders. I went up to see a bunch of friends at the Red Dirt Roundup, put on by Cross Canadian Ragweed this past weekend. To see a band so ingrained in this music is just awesome. They have really stepped up to do some amazing things over the past few years. It’s not that I haven’t noticed… heck, most of you probably already know what I’m saying. But this weekend, seeing all the great bands play at the Roundup and being a part of a true festival put me into a great mood! And from having Cody Canada onstage playing with a lot of bands to seeing Grady Cross and Randy Ragsdale at a bar late after the whole show singing and cutting up with everyone, reminded me how great it is to have some direction and how things are progressing. This isn’t just a “Let’s Love Ragweed” post but I will say that they are doing great things for this scene and I/We appreciate it.
And the best thing is that there are so many other bands that are doing the same kind of things! Talk about wanting to Rally for the music! Alot of you may wonder why I choose to stick this on the front page and not just throw it in a review somewhere. Well, there is no good reason other than I’m excited and I hope that it gets contagious. This is just one story and one point of view and I’m sure you all have one too!
Tanker
