The Great Divide - Legendary Red Dirt - Cactus Theater Debut!

Friday, October 10, 2025

Doors: 6:50 pm • Showtime: 7:30 pm

If you were remotely invested in the roots music scenes in Oklahoma and Texas in the early 2000s, you knew who The Great Divide was and likely had seen them play a time or two – whether it was their own show or as part of a fes􀆟val lineup. The band was playing 200 shows a year and released five albums together; they eventually signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in Nashville and garnered some chart success. Garth Brooks even recorded one of their songs.

When frontman Mike McClure leftfor a solo career in 2003, marking the end of the band as its original lineup—McClure, bassist Kelley Green and brothers Scote and JJ Lester on rhythm guitar and drums—the break seemed definite. McClure moved on, releasing nine albums on his own, and for anyone who knew of their turbulent end, it was assumed the band would never reunite, let alone restore faith in one another.

Fast forward a decade, and The Great Divide found themselves playing shows together again, a star􀆟ng point in moving past the chao􀆟c 􀆟me surrounding the band’s breakup. Fast forward another decade, and they’ve added a new member, keyboardist Bryce Conway, and are releasing their first new studio album in 20 years.

“Few chapters in Red Dirt history are as important as The Great Divide’s…” Josh Crutchmer’s 2020 book, Red Dirt asserts. “The band blazed a path out of Stilllwater that artists still follow to this day…multiple generations have come and gone without realizing the significance of the four-piece ensemble.”

There are musicians playing tonight…who are marketing their show as Red Dirt—a label that can instantly multiply atendance by factors of two, three or ten—without realizing that the rock they’re leaning on was placed there with the blood and sweat of The Great Divide,” he continues.

"If anyone ever cares to study the lineage of Red Dirt music, it will need to be separated into two distinct eras: pre- and post-Great Divide,” fellow Red Dirt pioneer and Oklahoman Jason Boland says. “Their impact on the alt-country scene cannot be overstated. They continually blazed up in the halls of convention, and hurled botle after botle at the mainstream monolith.”

Since releasing their newest record - Providence - in 2022, The Great Divide has toured extensively and reunited its audience while reclaiming its perch as one of the finest touring bands in the southwest.

“There is a coming full circle aspect for us as a band; as performers and people,” McClure says about Providence. “Everyone is bringing their best to the table for the first time in years, and when that happens, The Great Divide is a force,” he says.

Catch The Great Divide in their historic debut at the Cactus Theater on Friday, October 10!

Opener to be announced closer to show date.

Reserved Tickets:

Floor, first 6 rows (A-F)…..$35

Floor, last 6 rows (G-M)….$32.50

Standard balcony………...$30

Balcony Box* (includes concessions)….$60* Box ticket holders pick up wristband at the box office and present at lobby when ordering.