Southern Fryed has a taste of Texas Red Dirt

Later this month, Southern Fryed will be bringing a taste of Texas Red Dirt to the Parco-Sinclair Theater. The concert will be a preview of what they have in store later this year for other Carbon County venues.

Southern Fryed was founded in 2008 by frontman Russ Brown. Brown, a native of North Platte, Nebraska, retired from the US Air Force after 22 years of service before moving to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

He fell in love with his new town and Wyoming and Brown knew it was where he wanted to make his new start.

Brown has a deep love for music. His favorite type of music genre is country outlaw and he was influenced by outlaw legends such as Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, George Strait and Dwight Yoakam. It was not until the late 1990’s and early 2000’s that Brown discovered another music genre called Texas Red Dirt Country.

For a short period, Brown was a member of another band which did not work out for him. He started his own band and teamed up with bassist Andy Wood who was originally from Wheatland Wyoming and now lives in Cheyenne. Brown and Wood are two of the originals since the band started 16 years ago.

“I was looking to come up with a name for our band and I was talking to a friend,” Brown said. “I told him the music we are doing is Southern Rock, Old Country, New Country. He said ‘Man, that just sounds Southern Fryed.’ I said, ‘Oh shoot, that’s the name right there.’”

Brown said Southern Fryed’s music developed its roots based on the Texas Red Dirt Music scene from bands and music artists such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Randy Rogers and William Clark Green.

“This is how we developed our sound and the way we write our songs,” Brown said. “We have been going at it for 16 years. For the last five to six years, we hit it hard on the road. We had the opportunity to play a lot of shows throughout the region and we have been putting out some great music each time we do our recordings in Nashville.”

Brown’s musical background comes from growing up in his hometown of North Platte, starting with his uncle playing in a band.

“My uncle played in a band back in the 1970’s and early 1980’s,” Brown said. “He played that Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings style of music. His son toured in a rock band in the South, South West back in the early 1990’s.”

Brown said he started getting into music back in the 1990’s where he joined different choirs throughout school. He said it was just the start of what it would lead him to.

“(A) lot of my family had musical talent whether it be piano or guitar,” Brown said. “I started out singing in swing choirs and different choirs throughout school. As the years kept going I started doing different singing contests and things like that.”

Brown soon had a deep interest in starting his own band. Before he started Southern Fryed, he ended up becoming a self taught musician. He said from there on out his dream became a reality.

“I really did not have a thought of starting a band until I was introduced to a band I started with,” Brown said. “From there I just had the bug and started writing my own songs. I had to teach myself to play guitar when I was 25 years old and I started my band when I was 30 years old.``

Since Southern Fryed began, Brown made it his goal to work and develop a great show, product and band. He said his goals all add up in giving a great show to his audience each time his band performs. This will be Southern Fryed’s second visit to Sinclair.

“Our band came to Sinclair about six years ago,” Brown said. “We opened up for Chancey Williams for the 95th anniversary celebration for the Town of Sinclair. Unfortunately It got rained out for Chancey when he went up.

Whenever Southern Fryed is out on the road, a majority of their shows are done in Brown’s home state of Nebraska. The band has also traveled to other parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas and Iowa. Last October, Southern Fryed made their first trip to Texas where they performed at Howdy’s Dance Hall in Houston, a popular venue where Texas Red Dirt artists perform.

Southern Fryed will perform at the Parco-Sinclair Theater in Sinclair at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, and make a return to Carbon County to perform in Baggs on June 1 The band will be making its first trip to the Platte Valley with their first stop in Encampment for the Woodchoppers Jamboree on June 14. Southern Fryed will make a stop in Saratoga for Saratoga Days on July 6 which will be headlined by Lita Ford.