The Yankee Native with a Texas Soul, Submitted by Dan Cuomo
I’m a Yankee and I love Texas Country music. I don’t own a pick up truck. I don’t chew tobacco. Hell, I don’t even live in the country. I grew up 15 minutes from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I live in a suburban subdivision of Pittsburgh today. I don’t think I fit the mold of what most people think the “average” country music fan resembles. But Texas Red Dirt music is one of my passions. I listen to it every day for hours a day.
I’ve always been a fan of classic rock. My first musical love was The Beatles. From there I moved on to 80s rock like Def Leppard, Van Halen and Guns and Roses. Never interested in country at all. That is until one day when I was 22 my car was in the shop and I had to borrow my older brother’s car to get to work. I was a mile or two down the road before I realized the radio station be had on was the local country station. Normally I’d change the station right away to rock, but just as I was reaching for the dial to change it, my ear picked up the sound of a voice of an angel. My hand stopped halfway to the dial and I listened, really listened to the song. It was Trisha Yearwood singing Walkaway Joe. This would have been around 1996. I’d never heard a voice so warm and clear. I was captivated. The rock and roll guy discovered country music for the first time and I was blown away.
From there, I started listening to country if not exclusively, at least 50 percent of the time. I started to learn the different artists of the day: Clint Black, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, etc. Saw my first country show a year or two later. It was Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. It was great. I remember really getting into country concerts after that and would get the season concert pass to all country shows each summer. It was called the Y108 Country Roundup. You got 6 shows for $50 or something. All the big Nashville stars would roll through town. Kenny, Tim, Keith, Toby, Brooks & Dunn, all of them. And I loved it. I’d go with friends, or I’d go alone. Not only did I like the music, I’d meet other fans, especially the ladies. Lots of ladies.
Time went on. Eventually I got married. Bought a house, had kids, etc. I still listened to country but I noticed it didn’t really ring for me like it used to. I was older now and the Bro country scene was just starting. Rascal Flats was starting to come in. It was okay, I guess but I wasn’t feeling it like I used to (except for George Strait).
One day, probably around 2004, I saw the video for Charlie Robison’s El Cerito Place. It blew me away. I found Charlie Robison Live CD at my local library. I put it in my Walkman, started walking and listened to the whole thing. It was a game changer for me. Incredible. It was like I was there, in this little dive bar called Gruene Hall, drinking beer and listening to a local bar band. I was captivated. The stories Charlie told on the CD, the music, the crowd singing along. I’d never heard any album like it. And the music. Indescribable. Unbelievable. It was like I Saw The Light. I had to have everything Charlie ever recorded.
More time went by and I still listened to Top 40 country, but I was (and still am) obsessed with Charlie Robison music. I bought Beautiful Day as soon as it came out back in 2009. I listened to it every day for months.
More time went by. I’d watch Charlie Robison videos on YouTube and to the right of the little screen, there were recommendations. Out of curiosity I clicked on some of them, and the doors to Texas Red Dirt Music officially swung open.
I started watching videos of Pat Green, Cody Jinks, Randy Rogers, Chris Knight, Whiskey Myers, Adam Hood, Jason Boland, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Wade Bowen. It was as though the flood gates had opened. Now I was obsessed. This was the music my soul had always longed for. People living real lives, dealing with real problems, playing real instruments. This was music I could relate to. Music that seemed to reflect my life, my goals, my memories, my ideals. I’d come home.
Being in the Northeast, the Texas Red Dirt artists I love rarely venture out this way. Every now and then Ryan Bingham or Chris Knight will roll through. But it’s not the same, not nearly the same as the South or better still, the state of Texas. I knew, if I was ever going to see Charlie Robison, I’d have to go to Texas to see him. So in 2013, I hopped a plane to a Houston to see a show. It was my first time in Texas, too. I loved every second of it. I wish it could have lasted longer. Charlie Robison was fantastic. I got to see him do El Cerito Place live. I managed to get backstage and get a picture with him and for him to sign my High Life shirt. It was an incredible weekend all around and I long for the day I can get back to Texas for more shows.
Since then, I’ve traveled to see other great bands. Whiskey Myers, Cody Jinks, Jason Eady. But there are so many other great artists I’ve not seen that I need to see. Among them are Randy Rogers, Flatland Cavalry, Cody Johnson, Quaker City Nighthawks, REK, Jerry Jeff, Pat Green, Reckless Kelly, Mike and the Moonpies. The list is endless.
I’ve discovered that the music of Texas and Oklahoma, the culture of that area, the food, the people, the history, all of it speaks to me. It’s as though I was meant to be there.
I’m a Pennsylvania guy. I’m established here. My house is here. My kids go to school here. My parents and in-laws are here, so here I will stay. But a part of me will always long to be Texan, and I hope to visit that great state many times in the future and visit the great dance halls like Gruene Hall, Blaine’s Pub, Billy Bob’s, Stubbs’s, Floores.
Until then, this Yankee has the online community, YouTube and the occasional band that comes my way.
