WRITE IN STYLE

One of the most significant, popular and influential bands in the Red Dirt music scene of the '70s was Norman, Oklahoma-based Blue Rose Café. The band featured lead vocalist/songwriter Pat Long and future noted singer/songwriter Kevin Welch on lead guitar; Gary Johnson played keyboards, and the rhythm section was Steve Grunder, on bass, and drummer Mike McCarty. Pat and Kevin had performed together previously, both as a duo and with the group New Rodeo, which included Mike, a local legend for his work with the Holy Modal Rounders. Shortly after New Rodeo split up, they began putting together another band. Mike and Steve had played together in the Medicine Park All-Boy Derelict Band (which Kevin calls "a GREAT red dirt band, maybe the best of all, ever"), and Gary had just finished up a stint with Mike in La-Z-Boy and the Rockin Recliners, so the band came into place quickly... The official site of Blue Rose Cafe, a pioneering red dirt band from Oklahoma.