Oh, what a time that would have been.
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Oklahoma was cooking up what is now known as Red Dirt country music. Pioneers with groups like Cross Canadian Ragweed, The Great Divide, Jason Boland and the Stragglers, and more, the music these artists created would later inspire some of today’s biggest Red Dirt acts, like Wyatt Flores, Koe Wetzel, Southall, and more.
While Red Dirt music has a distinct sound that, in theory, can now be created from any region, the roots of the country’s subgenre are thickly tied to Oklahoma. Even more specifically, Stillwater, Oklahoma.
In the small college town where students were going to classes, rushing fraternities and sororities, or doing research in one of the land’s grand university’s crop fields, there was also a musical magic brewing. The story of the Red Dirt scene is not only important for our musical history books, but it also shows the power of the genre and how it’s grown as one of the Red Dirt originators, Cross Canadian Ragweed, is reuniting at their old stomping grounds in the spring of 2025. They are bringing along their friends for the four-night sold-out Boys from Oklahoma event.
Given that other big names like Garth Brooks and Wyatt Flores are tied to the small college town, it brings up the point that maybe Stillwater, Oklahoma, is the Music City of Oklahoma. On a recent episode of the Ten Year Town Podcast, author Josh Crutchmer told his story about being a student in Stillwater during this time and how incredible it was.
“In Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 2000, that was the era of a yellow house just south of campus where a bunch of musicians lived. Those musicians happened to be Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland, and the Stragglers who lived there, and Stoney LaRue. They were the latest generation of waves of artists who lived there in Stillwater. And they played every night around town.
You would walk down the street to a different bar, and on Tuesday night, the Flaming Lips would play for free, and on Wednesday night, the All-American Rejects would play for free. So, I didn’t know that I was living through lighting in a bottle, but I kind of thought it was something special.”
Crutchmer wondered if he was living through an era that people would later talk about, and he decided to start documenting what he witnessed.
“I decided in college to write about the artists surrounding me the way I would write if I were a veteran journalist, but I was putting them in the college newspaper.”
As an Oklahoma State alum, I am kicking myself that I was not following in Crutchmer’s footsteps. I witnessed Wyatt Flores play at dive bars on the strip before anyone knew his name and spent too many nights at the Tumbleweed Dance Hall listening to Southall play. Granted, I was an Animal Science major, so any passion for writing was comfortably on the backburner then.
However, his words show how powerful the artists he was covering would influence the country music genre as a whole. There’s a reason Koe sings about missing Ragweed. They were that band from the early Red Dirt days and are still a powerhouse in the genre. Not everyone can take a 15-year break and then sell out four nights of stadium shows.
Oklahoma has pushed out some of country music’s greats: Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, and many more. While the state is one of the top producing authentic country artists, Stillwater plays a massive role in developing one of the genre’s most popular subgenres.
Red Dirt music is Stillwater, Oklahoma’s baby. If you ever find yourself on Washington Street hit up a few of the bars, you never know what next big name might be playing an acoustic set.
@tenyeartown @Rolling Stone contributor Josh Crutchmer on the rise of Red Dirt country #countrymusic #reddirtcountry #joshcrutchmer #troycartwright #tenyeartown ♬ original sound – Ten Year Town Podcast
While you’re here, fire up “Boys from Oklahoma.”