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Red Dirt Rangers will host the 19th annual Red Dirt Christmas on Dec. 20 at Cain’s Ballroom. Founding member John Cooper (mandolin, percussion, vocals) chats with The Tulsa Voice about the spirit of the annual event, this year’s new faces, and the legendary venue it calls home.

The Tulsa Voice: 19 years in a row at the Cain’s is pretty special. What has contributed to the longevity of this thing?

John Cooper: One thing we’ve always tried to do is make it different, and I think that’s why it has kept going. What was “Red Dirt” music when we started, and what it’s become since then is really different. And that’s kind of what it’s all about. The reason we started calling it Red Dirt music is that, when people asked what kind of music we play, we got tired of saying “Rock ‘n’ Roll-blues-country-bluegrass-jazz-funk-Western Swing-Tex Mex-Cajun.” [Laughs] Finally we just started saying, “We play Red Dirt music.”

To me, the term itself is a conglomeration of all the different kinds of music we grew up loving and listening to, and we’ve always wanted to reflect that every year in the Christmas show. 

We’ve had everybody from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey to the Byron Berline Band, a straight bluegrass band out of Guthrie, then kind of the Red Dirt regulars—Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Stoney LaRue, Brandon Jenkins. But we’ve tried to keep it diverse and open. It’s just music and musicians we like, and that we know will put on a good show.

TTV: I’m excited to see Tea Leaf Green. How did that come about?

JC: We’ve known [Tulsa native and Tea Leaf Green bassist] Reed [Mathis] a long time. He’s one of the most phenomenal musicians I’ve ever known. And just talking with him recently, he said he hadn’t been back to Tulsa with Tea Leaf Green—they’ve never played here. So I asked if they’d want to do the Christmas show and he said, yeah, let’s do it. So we worked it out with their management, he told them how incredible Cain’s Ballroom is and that he wants Tea Leaf Green to be able to play there. He’s really excited about it. 

And [Mike] Hosty, too. Hosty has never played Cain’s before, which is kind of unbelievable. So it’s two bands that have never played there. That’s another thing we’ve always enjoyed doing with this event is bringing in bands that haven’t played at the Cain’s, because I love to see the looks on their faces when they walk into the place, walk down that backstage hall. The place just oozes history. To me, it’s one of the only venues anywhere that is as big as the acts themselves. The fact that you’re in the Cain’s Ballroom means something. It’s not just another venue. Ask Jack White. Ask Jeff Tweedy. You walk into the Cain’s Ballroom, you’re not just at another gig. You’re somewhere that has musical ghosts everywhere.

19th annual Red Dirt Christmas w/ Tea Leaf Green & Hosty Duo
Saturday, Dec. 20, at Cain’s Ballroom
Tickets: $18 in advance // $20 at the door // $33 mezzanine
A portion of the ticket sales for Red Dirt Christmas will be donated to the Red Dirt Relief Fund. For more information on the fund and its mission, visit RedDirtReliefFund.org.

For more from Matt, check out his Best of 2014 booze clues, his Editor's Letter on walkability in Tulsa or his feature on Tulsa Honky-tonk master Jacob Tovar.