![BALLADS AND BLUES: Sophomores King Perez-Cude and Joaquín Frazier, from the student band Red River Trucking Company, play a set of country-rock tunes, including traditional bluegrass tunes, Chris Stapleton’s “Midnight Train to Memphis” and an original song called “Ballad of an Outlaw Fugitive” at the Mr. Myers send-off concert. “We’re a rock band usually, but we have a lot of old school country and blues elements, so we decided to go acoustic,” Frazier said. He describes their style as complicated. “We’re kind of all over the place, but I would say blues or southern rock with some serious country and psychedelic influences,” Frazier said. Although he never met Mr. Myers, Frazier wanted to perform in honor of him. “[I] never got to know Mr. Myers, but I’ve heard great things he had done for our friends, and we wanted to play in honor of him,” he said. “We put together a short set together the night before and decided to go for it.” Reporting by Lucy Marco.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/51931221575_ee6e3fd1a4_c_51954485537_o.jpg)
Sophomores Joaquín Frazier and King Perez Cude had been pals since the dawn of time, but it didn’t dawn on them to start a band until they connected through music during the pandemic. Thus, Red River Trucking Co. was born.
In this episode of Feedback Loop, Evelyn Griffin and Julian Magee are here to unravel the band’s history and where they’re headed.
“King was always at a higher musical level than me,” Frazier said about the band’s origin. “Over the pandemic we finally got to the point where we could jam together near the same level. We bonded over stuff like The Black Keys and went from there.”
BLUEGRASS ON THE OUTDOOR STAGE: After playing a cover of Chris Stapleton’s “Midnight Train to Memphis,” Red River Trucking Company members King Perez-Cude and Joaquín Frazier played a seldom-played original song entitled, “Ballad Of an Outlaw Fugitive.” Still photo by Xel-Ha Montejano. Video by Dave Winter.
According to Frazier, their name doesn’t have any real meaning. “We both have family from Oklahoma, so we just thought about the Red River,” he said. “We probably should come up with a cool origin story for that.”
You would be hard-pressed to place a label on Red River’s sound. Both agree that their music doesn’t have a traditional genre.
“I grew up on classic rock, country, blues, but we’re really all over the board,” Frazier said. “Usually, I want to draw inspiration from whatever I’m actively listening to. You can tell, because our music is all over the place.”
“I was raised on Slayer, Miles Davis, John Coltrane,” Perez Cude said. “My drumming is mostly derived from listening to ungodly amounts of Nirvana bootlegs and marching bands.”
The two, while performing as solo acts, still manage to write a few ditties from time to time.
“Joaquin will usually come with the basics, and I’ll help flesh it out into something big,” Perez Cude said.
Looking into the future, the duo seems content with continuing to do what they’re doing.
“We just want to write as many songs as we can, and perform them live,” Frazier said. “Maybe we’ll eventually have enough to record an album. We just like music, so we wanna do stuff, y’know?”
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0830Kf8lF1EEhW9Z7llTmX?si=f307a82b06c24de2
This story was originally published on The Shield Online on May 16, 2022.