Cooder Graw at Gruene Hall

Doors: 8pm

Opener: Charlie Shafter 9pm

Cooder Graw: 10:30pm

Cooder Graw barreled out of the gate in 1997, amidst a ferocious stampede of Texas artists including Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Roger Creager, on a trail blazed by legendary Texas musicians turned national stars like Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green and Jack Ingram, in the heat of the uprising Texas and Red Dirt music revolution. From modest beginnings playing covers at the Golden Light Cantina in Amarillo, the band – including lead singer/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Matt Martindale, lead guitar Kelly Turner, and Paul Baker on bass guitar – quickly earned a loyal fan base and in 1998 released their debut album, Home at the Golden Light, which credits Matthew McConaughey, a fraternity brother of Martindale, as executive producer. The live offering led to opening shows for such renowned country artists as Willie Nelson, Alabama, Dwight Yoakum, Robert Earl Keen and Asleep at the Wheel, among others. In 2000 came their debut studio release, the self-titled Cooder Graw, co-produced by multiple Grammy Award-winner Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel and Hayden Nicholas, nine-time #1 country songwriter and guitarist for Clint Black. The sophomore effort made itself at home on the national radio charts for 13 straight weeks and delivered classic favorites like “18 Wheels of Loving,” “Dirty Little Hometown Girl,” and “My Give a Damn is Broken.” In early 2001, Cooder Graw issued their second live album, Segundo, which mixed previously unrecorded tunes with renditions of favorites from their debut, and spawned the group’s first top 10 hit on the Texas country charts with “Willie’s Guitar.” A second 2001 offering, the studio album Shifting Gears, scored two more top 10 Texas hits with “New Dress” and “Better Days”. In 2004, the Panhandle band released their sixth album, Wake Up, featuring the chart friendly single “Lifetime Stand.” After a six-year hiatus, the group came together in 2012 for what was expected to be a short reunion tour but the Cooder fan base is as fervent as ever. With the 2016 release of Love to Live By, a six song EP, the Panhandle band marks the beginning of a new chapter. Produced by Rich Brotherton and recorded at The Congress House Studio in Austin, the long awaited seventh album release is a sweet taste of all that fans love about Cooder Graw. The chart-climbing lead single, “Heart of Breaking Up,” delivers with Martindale’s signature down home lyrical style and the good-feeling, loud country sound that fans know and love. With the return of drummer Kelly Test, and the addition of Carmen Acciaioli on fiddle and Danny Crelin on pedal steel, the momentum continues to build for Cooder Graw, blazing a new trail and leaving their unmistakable mark in Texas music history.

GEN ADM: $15