This is Where the Music Happens

Surely you've heard the old saying, "this is where the magic happens." Right before our three-day music festival last year it came to us: "Red River - this is where the music happens." We've known for decades that Red River is a musical place. Hundreds of singer/songwriters have gathered inspiration in these hills: Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, BW Stevenson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Rusty Weir, and Gary P Nunn just to name a few. Heck, Neil Young even spent a few weeks here (though that was quite a while ago). These days Red River is home to some of the most creative musicians in the region, and second home to quite a few too. On most nights of the week you can find Mike Addington & Paul Gatton at the Lost Love Saloon. Typical weekends are filled with music as the Highway 38 Houndogs play at the Bull, with either the Naughty Pines or the Damn Band across the street at the Motherlode. Sunday afternoons are laid back with either Fagan & Fritz or Philip J. Brooks at Mountain Treasures, and special occasions are even more special with the melodic sounds of Mandy Buchanan and Ben Butler or Rick Fowler. The Community House is home to weekly music showcases throughout the summer with guest bands from around the southwest, and these days it's not uncommon to find live music at the Lift House or the Lonesome Pine Pub. Top that off with guest appearances by Larry Joe Taylor, Joe Ely, The Rifters, South by Southwest, Asleep at the Wheel, Leon Russell, Suzzy Bogguss, Michael Martin Murphy (still plays at Bobcat Pass), Band of Heathens, and others, and you have one tiny mountain town with HUGE talent!

We're getting pretty close to that three-day music festival again, "Hot Chili Days, Cool Mountain Nights," August 13th-15th. This annual event combines music at some pretty cool venues (on top of the mountain & along the Red River) with a chili, BBQ, and green chile cook-off in the park on August 15th. If you're a music lover (and who isn't?) this is the event for you. If you can't make it up that particular weekend, any weekend will do. The music calendar has just been posted and things in Red River are looking pretty darn entertaining to us.

Busy, busy, busy!

When we first created a blog the intention was to update once or twice each week. It has been so busy around here that we've been told we're slacking (not that we didn't see that coming)! So here it is - our sixth official blog entry!
The Fourth of July was an incredible success. The town was packed with people from all over Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas (with a few others sprinkled here and there). The Red River Chamber registered 70 floats for the parade and, with the exception of a dispute between a horse and a fire engine, everyone had a great time (we know now that all horses need to be placed behind the sirens). After the parade there was plenty to do in Red River: free games & entertainment at the Community House, live music and a BBQ in the park, the shoot-out at Frye's Old Town, the Red River Valley Charter School's Duck Race, and Cowboy Evening at Bobcat Pass. It was so great to see so many smiling faces and happy families in town! Quite a few people made the drive over to Eagle Nest to watch the spectacular fireworks; we haven't seen pictures yet but we know they'll be in the paper this week.
So what's coming up in Red River? Michael Martin Murphey has a few more dates at Cowboy Evening, the Community House continues with their great line-up of FREE activities, Vanilla Pop has a show at the Bull o' the Woods, and the rest of us gear up for "Hot Chili Days, Cool Mountain Nights" Music Festival and Cook-off! Larry Joe Taylor announced nine bands today for "Hot Chili Days, Cool Mountain Nights," including Joe Ely, Michael Hearne, South by Southwest, Keith Sykes, Richard Leigh, Josh Grider Trio, and Jed Zimmerman. This is just one of the many fantastic events we have over the summer and we'll tell you more about it in an upcoming post (which hopefully won't take two weeks to write)! In the meantime we hope you're having a great summer and we hope to see you in Red River real soon!