I’ve always liked songs that mention real places.

Give me a song with a town, a river, an old highway or some little spot out in the middle of nowhere, and sooner or later I’m probably going to wonder what’s actually there.

Sometimes you hear a place in a song so many times, you finally have to go see what all the fuss is about.

That’s pretty much how I ended up in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Blame Jason Boland

I was up in Edmond, Oklahoma recently and realized Guthrie wasn’t all that far away.

Now, most normal people probably look at a map and think about restaurants, museums or tourist attractions.

I looked at the map and thought:

Jason Boland sang about that place.

That’s apparently how my brain works now.

Jason Boland & The Stragglers are one of my favorite Red Dirt bands, and Guthrie gets a mention in their song “Gear and Dust.”

I’d heard that song enough times that Guthrie had become one of those places I knew without actually knowing anything about it.

So I figured, why not?

I had some time.

I had a vehicle.

Guthrie had a road leading to it.

That’s really all the planning a good road trip needs.

Looking for a Ghost

There’s a line in “Gear and Dust” about folks seeing a ghost along a roadside up in Guthrie.

Naturally, I kept an eye out.

Never saw him.

Of course, I was there during the daytime.

Maybe Oklahoma ghosts work nights.

Or maybe he saw the Texas plates and figured he’d leave me alone.

Either way, I made it through Guthrie without any paranormal incidents that I’m aware of.

That’s generally how I prefer my road trips.

Guthrie Has Some Character

Once I got there, I started looking around.

Guthrie is one of those towns that immediately feels like it has some stories in it.

Old buildings.

Historic downtown.

Antique shops.

Places that look like they’ve been standing there long enough to remember things nobody else does.

I like towns like that.

You can walk around without feeling like everything was built last Tuesday.

There’s something about an old downtown that makes you want to slow down and look around.

I could easily see going back and spending a weekend there just wandering through antique stores and seeing what I could find.

Of course, antique shopping is dangerous at my age.

Half the time I walk into an antique store and see something I had when I was a kid.

That’s a humbling experience.

Nothing makes you feel old quite like seeing something from your childhood with a little tag hanging off it that says VINTAGE.

A Stop at Guthrie Brewing Company

While I was there, I stopped by Guthrie Brewing Company.

I had a non-alcoholic beer and spent some time talking with the guy behind the bar about Guthrie and the area.

That’s one of my favorite parts about wandering into a new town.

You can read websites and tourist brochures all day long, but if you really want to learn something about a place, sit down and talk to somebody who lives there.

They’ll tell you the stuff that doesn’t make the brochure.

Later, I also heard from a new follower from Guthrie who filled me in a little more on the local music scene.

Apparently, there’s plenty of musical talent around there.

The problem is finding consistent places for everybody to play.

That sounded familiar.

She told me Guthrie Music House had recently opened, there’s an International Bluegrass Festival coming up, and she even hosts a local outdoor market where she brings in entertainment when she can.

Unfortunately, a couple of bars that had been offering live music recently closed.

That’s tough.

Because a music scene needs musicians, but it also needs somebody willing to give them a place to plug in and play.

Different Town, Same Problem

It got me thinking about the music scene back home in Central Texas.

We’ve got quite a few places offering live music.

The problem is we’ve also got a whole bunch of musicians.

That’s a good problem to have if you’re looking for somewhere to hear music.

It’s a slightly different problem when you’re the guy trying to get the gig.

There are only so many Friday and Saturday nights to go around.

So Guthrie has talented musicians looking for more places to play.

Back home, we’ve got quite a few places to play and enough musicians to form a small army.

Different problem.

Same result.

Everybody’s looking for a stage.

Songs Put Places on the Map

The whole trip got me thinking about how many places I’ve known first through music.

Country and Red Dirt songs are full of real towns, rivers, highways and little corners of the world.

Corpus Christi.

Amarillo.

Luckenbach.

Lubbock.

Fort Worth.

Houston.

The Guadalupe River.

And now, Guthrie.

You hear those names enough in songs and they start becoming part of the scenery in your head.

But something changes when you actually go there.

The next time I hear Guthrie mentioned in “Gear and Dust,” it won’t just be a name in a song anymore.

I’ve driven the streets.

I’ve seen the old buildings.

I’ve sat down and had a drink there.

I’ve talked to somebody behind the bar.

I’ve met somebody from there who cares about keeping live music going.

I’ve got a picture in my head now.

And that’s pretty cool.

The Song Sent Me Somewhere

A few days ago, I wrote about the songs we carry with us and how certain songs can take you back to people, places and moments from years ago.

This trip was almost the opposite.

Instead of a song taking me back to an old memory, a song sent me out to make a new one.

I like that.

Music has taken me to a lot of places without ever leaving the room.

But every once in a while, maybe we ought to actually get in the truck and follow it.

See what’s down that road.

Cross that river.

Visit that town.

Walk into that old bar.

Talk to somebody you’ve never met before.

You never know what you’ll find.

Maybe you’ll discover a cool little town.

Maybe you’ll make a new friend.

Maybe you’ll find an antique you remember buying brand new.

And maybe you’ll finally see that ghost Jason Boland’s been telling everybody about.

I didn’t.

But I’ll keep looking.

Go See What’s in the Song

That’s another reason I love country music and Red Dirt.

The songs don’t always take you somewhere imaginary.

They’re filled with real places and real people.

Places with history.

Places with stories.

Places where somebody fell in love, screwed something up, left town, came home or wrote a song about it.

Sometimes all five.

So the next time you’re listening to a song and hear the name of some little town you’ve never visited, look it up.

If it’s close enough, go see it.

Take the back road.

Stop somewhere local.

Talk to somebody.

Look around.

Make your own story.

Because sometimes a song doesn’t just give you something to listen to.

Sometimes it gives you directions.

And every now and then, I reckon you ought to follow them. 🤠🎸