Quality Americana

This guest article and video was produced by David Bridwell with additional support from our staff at Quality Americana.

The Redbird Listening Room is one of the top listening rooms in Texas, bringing a unique musical experience to the city of New Braunfels. In addition to their ticketed events that feature top acts like Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jason Eady, co-owner and songwriter Dallas Burrow hosts a weekly songwriter night that opens up the intimate setting to a long line of folks who show up to put their name on the list.

After a few years, the Redbird Songwriter Nights have continued to grow into a family, with the list getting longer and longer with crowds showing up to watch. For the performers, the Redbird Listening Room serves as a place to hone their craft, make friends and talk shop.

A few months ago, Redbird regular Patrick Sullivan came up with the idea of a Redbird Road Trip, where we could all take the trek down to Port Aransas and share our songs near the beach, the breeze and the palm trees.

“That’s where it came from really,” Sullivan said, “just wanting my parents to hear some of my friends play music down there without having to drive up here.” 

Raising Awareness for Artists

Sullivan’s friends jumped at the opportunity to hit the coast, and Burrow contacted President of the Cheatham Street Music Foundation Missoula Slim to raise awareness as the event started to take shape. The Sullivan family hosted travelers for a late night dinner and song circle and the Port Aransas Strum Bums got on board to raise money for aspiring artists.

Sullivan and Stum Bums Founder Father James Derkits have a long history in youth ministry, and worked together before Derkits took over duties at the Trinity by the Sea Episcopal Church.

“Our relationship over the years just sort of rekindled,” Sullivan said. “I wanted to add the local element into that and see if I could help to bridge the two groups of songwriters. They were instrumental in helping a lot of people after Hurricane Harvey.”

In addition to local outreach, the Strum Bums accept donated instruments and acquire guitars and lessons for aspiring artists in Port Aransas.

Week after week, Patrick quietly announced the event at songwriter nights, seemingly unsure how it would all play out. 

“I was taken aback,” Sullivan said of the outpouring of support on the day of the event. “It just felt surreal to me, just finding a community that I’ve been longing for for a long time.”

On the day of the event, I hopped in a car with Missoula Slim and Andrew Blanton to make the three hour drive down to Mustang island, the home of Port Aransas. It was my first visit to the small beach town.

We arrived to find ourselves at the coolest bar on the beach, The Gaff, surrounded by dozens of regulars from The Redbird. Songwriters from the local area showed up too. It was a great day of drinking and eating and listening to live music from afternoon through sundown. 

“The sheer outpouring of love and camaraderie that occurred in the name of music and goodwill was incredibly beautiful, and is hard to quantify,” Burrow said. “Over the last few years, the Redbird family has grown into an ever expanding, tight knit, wonderful group of like minded singer/songwriters from every walk of life and musical style, all bound by a love of songwriting. ​​This community has exemplified inclusion and the sincere encouragement of any and all singer/songwriters at any stage of their songwriting journey, and has also produced several budding artists who have begun to take steps toward performing publicly in a more serious way, as well as given a platform to many who simply want a place to share their songs. I can’t overstate how proud I am of each and every member of this community, but I do want to express my sincerest gratitude for the richness and fulfillment that these folks have brought to my life.”

The event raised over $2600 for the Port Aransas Strum Bums and the Cheatham Street Music Foundation, and an autographed poster was generously purchased at auction by the Sullivan Family and put on display at the Redbird Listening Room.

“Huge thanks and recognition to Patrick Sullivan and his incredible family for helping to organize and host this event, and for opening your home up to a bunch of wandering musicians. Patrick brought this idea to us and if it weren’t for him and his family, none of this would have been possible,” Burrow said. “Thanks to Kip Shannon and all the amazing staff at Gaff Bar for providing a venue for this incredible event. The whole thing turned out bigger and better than we could have dreamed and the funky island charm of the Gaff was the perfect setting.”

Check out the first YouTube video below for a glimpse of the live music from our day at The Gaff and check out the other video to learn about this cool beach town called Port Aransas.

This video contains brief explicit language.

Learn more about Port Aransas:

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