When you grow up in Stillwater, Oklahoma and your uncle is a musician who played with two of the later members of Great Divide, red dirt is your trademark.
Wyatt Flores is very young, but he is already leaving an important mark on the history of American music in his State and beyond.
After two excellent EPs (2023 and 2024), he debuted last year with a truly excellent album (“Welcome to The Plains“), helped in the production by one of the best producers around, Beau Bedford.
An album that had a significant echo and that showed off all the talent of a boy influenced by the Turnpike Troubadours and all the legendary bands of his city.
Precisely by getting noticed by that world, Wyatt had the honor of playing in the comeback concert of the legendary Cross Canadian Ragweed, held right in Stillwater in April and which went beyond all expectations of success and beauty: the Boys from Oklahoma.
Before that legendary event, Flores had amazed with the confidence and furious talent with which he had shaken the boards of the stage of the most legendary location of the red dirt: the Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK.
Wyatt Flores was keen to point out that these 18 songs are the perfect photograph of some of the most unforgettable nights of his life.
The album is an energetic explosion, a river that flows impetuously through the plains of his land and the opener Welcome to The Plains is all of this.
His voice, his guitar, his lyrics: everything tells of a boy with boundless talent who risked losing himself, but luckily found himself just in time.
The audience participates as if he were an artist with a very long history, but his fan base is already a compact block: his hits like the splendid Life Lessons, are sung at the top of their lungs.
The beautiful and ironic Wildcat is inspired by the “sports” life and the “Friday night lights”.
Red dirt mixed with rock and blues in an explosive mix like we haven’t heard in a long time: guitars, violin and harmonica in a fun and crazy vortex.
The rock ballad Stillwater, dedicated to his city, is exciting and powerful and he sings it with the character of an expert musician despite his 23 years.
The band is pure power and quality, but the audience is an official member of the band: maybe it’s because the location is “hot”, but Flores really commands it as if he were a new Evan Felker.
The lyrics of When I Die are powerful as are the confessions it contains, the song is an emotional ballad crossed by a rising rhythm and guitars that slowly take the stage.
Guitars that whip the air also in the beautiful Oh Susanna, one of the most successful singles from the album released in 2024.
The melody at the service of songs intertwined between country and rock: here, the red dirt is really all there is, simple and direct.
The cover of Ringing in the Year, a song by the Turnpike Troubadours, pays a beautiful tribute to those who with their music and their energy have marked a generation of musicians from Oklahoma: a music that in theory had regional appeal, but has broken down barriers and borders, reaching all over the world.
The fantastic concert ends with perhaps the most beautiful and famous song by Flores: West of Tulsa.
Guitars that scratch the air, devilish rhythm and the audience that seems to be on stage with Wyatt. A song that is pure red dirt as if it had been written and performed by Cody Canada or by that genius Mike McClure.
Wyatt Flores is very young, but with a mastery worthy of the great inspirers of his sound, he gives us a live with crazy energy: exciting, fun, engaging.
We are at the beginning of a career that will leave its mark, but let’s not look too far into the future and enjoy his music, his talent, his poetry and his red dirt madness.
I can only thank my American connections for the suggestion: without you I would not have discovered a fantastic artist who deserves to be discovered by lovers of quality music.
God bless Oklahoma.
Enjoy,
Trex
