The Motel Cowboy Show plus Red Dirt: The Back Lounge Bundle

Orders will ship in real time, subject to inventory.

If you missed the 2020 release of Red Dirt, this is your chance to get both of Josh Crutchmer's books about independent music at one special price.

The Motel Cowboy Show is not a book — it’s a journey. From the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho, where phone service does not always reach, to the bustle of Austin, centerpiece of the Texas Music Scene, the influence of mountain roots music is real, lasting, and chronicled by Josh Crutchmer. This highly-anticipated sequel to Red Dirt: Roots Music, Born in Oklahoma, Raised in Texas, At Home Anywhere follows the threads from mountain originals like Pinto Bennett to cowboy poets like Baxter Black and Chris LeDoux, and traces their trail down every highway and back road they chose. The rise, heyday and pending touring retirement of Reckless Kelly is covered extensively, bouyed by the humor and introspection of Willy and Cody Braun, their musical upbringing and the larger-than-life influence they forged wherever they made music. The book also puts you in the seats at the venerable Red Rocks Amphitheater for the 2022 comeback concerts by the Turnpike Troubadours, supported by Reckless Kelly and Shovels & Rope. You’ll also get the complete story of the Braun Brothers Reunion and its lasting impact on the community of Challis. The wry humor of Micky and Gary Braun shows up when they share the way Micky & The Motorcars forged their own legacy, boosted by Texas icons like Cross Canadian Ragweed. Throw in one-of-a-kind insight from Shane Smith and Wade Bowen, who contributed the intro and final word, and The Motel Cowboy Show will inform as much as it entertains. And it will leave readers casting eyes toward the stages and studios of the American West.

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Red Dirt tells the story of a roots music scene that grabbed a foothold in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and spread across the country. The scene took roots in the late 1970s as an outlet for college-town hippies. The scene gave rise to Garth Brooks, who credits it with helping his early rise to prominence. Later, The Great Divide, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland and the Stragglers and Stoney LaRue rose from the scene to become regional stars, including a major record deal for The Divide and Ragweed. They were followed by the Turnpike Troubadours, who carried the scene to its highest heights in the late 2010s. Using exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to the artists themselves, Red Dirt tells their story. The book also explains how key relationships with non-Red Dirt artists like Reckless Kelly, Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen helped Red Dirt gain acceptance and immense popularity across Texas, which claims a burgeoning original-music scene of its own.

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