That Red Dirt fanbase is built different.
While there are many subgenres of country music, ranging from bluegrass, folk and y’allternative to pop country, neotraditional and everywhere in between. For better or for worse (mostly worse) genre lines are bending now more than ever. While country fans as a whole are fantastic and ride or die for the artists they love, and while country artists know that their fans are amazing, Shane Smith is speaking out about one subgenre that beats the others.
The Texas-based band Shane Smith & the Saints got their start by touring heavily in the Texas and Oklahoma country scene, truly building their base one fan at a time. Because they put an emphasis on perfecting their live shows and making connections with any fan who approached them after their early shows, their fanbase is beyond loyal now, extending beyond the Texas and Oklahoma scene.
Although they have fans all over the nation and Europe now, Shane Smith recently spoke on how special the fans from the Red Dirt scene are to them. Shane and their fiddle player, Bennett Brown, recently sat down with Fred Minnick for an interview, talking about all things country while sipping on some nice whiskey and bourbon.
During the interview, Shane and Bennett talked extensively about their tour bus fire in 2019. Their tour bus caught on fire on the way to a show, and they lost everything.
Shane Smith said that without the community of fans they had built leading up to this moment, they would have thrown in the towel and not rebuilt everything they had lost.
“The time spent getting to know these fans and creating a community is kind of what pulled us out of it.”
While Shane Smith and his band members are beyond grateful for their fans who helped them get back on their feet, Shane later said in the interview that Red Dirt fans are unlike any other fans in country music, which their fanbase falls into.
Shane said that because of how tight-knit the community is, fans knew about their fire long before they hit the stage that night in their underwear. They still showed up and performed even though fans would have understood why they canceled.
“Everybody knew what happened, it was like the word got out… In Texas, there’s a very interesting, really cool community of music fans.
A lot of people call it Red Dirt music or Texas country or whatever you want to call it. I don’t think you can call it Texas country because some of the best musicians in that scene are from Oklahoma and from surrounding states. You know you got like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours, and all these guys that came out of Oklahoma, and so Red Dirt, I think, is more fitting.”
After Shane opens up this point of conversation, the men all talk about some of the historic places in this scene they have played, touching on Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater, Oklahoma. But after a few moments, Shane gets back to his point, talking about how this special fanbase was there for them during their bus fire.
“But what I was getting at was there is this community, which you’re obviously familiar with, and in Texas, there’s this big fanbase that’s really unique. We’ve toured all over the United States, and I can personally say I’ve never seen a fanbase that compares to this, like a community of fans that compares anywhere close to what you see on an independent level to give independent musicians a leg up.
As a result of that fanbase being there, you have these radio stations that are dedicated to that audience that are like Red Dirt stations.”
Shane said that when their bus caught on fire, these Red Dirt stations caught wind of their tragedy. Afterward, they began heavily streaming their music and telling their listeners about what was happening. In a short amount of time, people from the Oklahoma Panhandle began driving down to their scheduled show in Lubbock, and their ticket sales tripled as fans showed up to support them in a time of need.
“The community is everything. We wouldn’t be here anymore if it wasn’t for our community.”
Red Dirt fans and early supporters of Shane Smith & the Saints need to pat themselves on the back after hearing that. The country music community would be at a loss without this band in the space.
Red Dirt and Texas country listeners are the real deal and support many independent artists, unlike the typical country fan out of Nashville or the fair-weather fans who fire up the genre during the summertime. Once a listener likes an artist, they are backed by their loyalty for a lifetime, and that’s something not every artist can say about their fans.
God bless this fanbase.
Shane and the boys have a good amount of dates already announced for this year, so head over to Vivid Seats and see when they’re playing near you. They put on an absolutely incredible show, plus Vivid Seats is the only platform that gives you free tickets just for going to see them, pretty good deal, right?
Check out the whole interview while you’re here.
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