Our own Music Fogger Chris Walsh asked me for a definition of Red Dirt Music last trip. We were deep in Oklahoma, and the heat was knocking us back a tad. I explained that it was a pure Oklahoma thing, although it gets lumped into becoming Texas-Red Dirt in lots of people's minds these days. And although both movements look in a similar direction for inspiration, and draw from a similar passion, they are really different entities. Red Dirt is epicentered in Stillwater, which is the home of Oklahoma State University. There was a two-story, five-bedroom, funky old place called The Farm that acted as its home. The Red Dirt Rangers started hanging out there as a band in the late 1980's. But years before that, Ben Han, John Cooper, and Brad Piccolo became an integral part of the Farm’s musical brotherhood; first trading songs and licks with folks like Jimmy LaFave, Tom Skinner, and Bob Childers. Later, with the next generation; Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland & the Stragglers and Stoney LaRue.
The Rangers represent all the musicians who honed their chops in that living room, front porch, garage (aka The Gypsy Café) and campfire-dotted acreage of the Farm, where the sheer joy of creating music with friends transcended everything else. As Rangers' mandolinist-vocalist John Cooper has noted, "The Farm was as much an attitude as a physical structure. It allowed a setting where freedom rang and all things were possible. Out of this setting came the music." The physical structure burned down in 2003. But the music, and the Red Dirt Rangers are still going strong.
We caught up with the trio at the main stage at WoodyFest, and asked them to come see us the next day. And so it was, as they brought us new songs and tales of enigmatic Red Dirt Godfather and guiding light of The Tractors, Steve Ripley. Look for him to produce their next CD, as he did the last album, Ranger Motel released in 2007. "Without My Baby" will likely be on the new one, which is set to be recorded soon! Meanwhile, enjoy the very first recording of this song, and witness the early stages of what should be a Red Dirt Rangers classic.
- Jessie Scott
