Finding Red Dirt

By Cole Burns

Just like most people from the great state of Oklahoma, I was raised on George Jones and Merle Haggard. I went through my rock phase and tried out different music, but nothing ever made me feel as whole as when Jones was singing a sad song.

I may be a freak but nothing beats a sad song. A sad song is the truth of a person's pain flowing out and it is beautiful. The radio just never cut it for me, these people singing about pickups and girls didn't have the substance I needed from my music. 

Going to the Calf Fry festival in 2015 in Stillwater saved my life. I saw Turnpike Troubadours, Whiskey Myers, William Clark Green, and so many amazing artists. I was hooked. I started going to a show every weekend. Any chance I got I was there. I met a lot of people going to shows, but one person has really been a friend to me, The Scarecrow Dylan Stewart.

After Stewart would play in some bar where I was the only one who knew any of his songs we would sit and talk. He would talk about this artist and that artist and I would take notes and look them up later. After about a dozen shows he invited me to a venue called The Basement in Oklahoma City for a show. This is where I met Bryon White. The man that will one day stab me. That's a story for another day. 

Bryon White may be the weirdest guy I have ever met. He always wears a suit jacket. In that suit jacket could be anything from confetti to a dolls head. You just never know. This is not to mention the staffs he is always whittling. 

When Stewart and Bryon are together the conversations can go anywhere. I've learned more listening to them bull shit than I did in college. They will come up with the dumbest songs in just minutes and have you in pain because you will be laughing so hard. These two guys may be assholes but they are red dirt through and through.