Boxoffice Insider: Randy Rogers Band’s Strong Ties In Regional Markets

For artists prominent in a regional music scene like the Texas country music tradition, the road is their lifeblood and backbone. More than just the way they pay their bills, it’s the root of their strong connection to fans. Even if record deals or some level of national media attention are part of the mix, it’s still a 200-date year that tends to be the common thread among those with strong regional ties. These regional ties may play a big part of the reopening of the concert business as well, as certain markets open before others and in various capacities. 

Such is the case for the Randy Rogers Band from San Marcos, Texas, located between Austin and San Antonio. The six-member Texas country group has operated for two decades from the Central Texas area, traveling to cities and small towns all around Texas, the American Southwest and all parts of the country. During 20 years of active touring, Pollstar has chronicled a rich history of concert activity for the band including venues that are longtime, traditional destinations.

One of a regional act’s biggest strengths is its connection to a specific venue and market, and for the Randy Rogers Band, the venue that has hosted them more times than any other can be found not too much further than their own back yard. The Pollstar database shows 18 headlining performances reported at Whitewater Amphitheater, located just 30 miles from San Marcos in New Braunfels, Texas. Among those 18 shows, the band’s most successful box office gross at the 5,600-capacity outdoor venue was recorded just last year. On Sept. 1, 2019, the group grossed $176,121 from 5,000 sold seats, the highest gross on record for the band at the amphitheater. Their top attendance was set eight years ago with 5,644 tickets sold on Sept. 2, 2012.

2019 also marked the eighth consecutive year that the group has performed at the New Braunfels shed at least twice in the same year. Prior to last September’s event, they had previously headlined a show there earlier in June with a crowd of 3,228.

Texas country music is often closely aligned with Oklahoma’s Red Dirt music genre, named after the color of the soil found in the state – particularly the city of Stillwater that was home to the late Bob Childers, considered the father of Red Dirt music. It’s in Oklahoma – specifically Tulsa – where the Randy Rogers Band has its second-highest show count at a single venue. The group had 14 concerts reported at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa between June 2005 and August 2018. The best-attended of those shows was a Feb. 11, 2017 event that drew a capacity crowd of 1,702.

Back in Texas, Corpus Christi’s Concrete Street Amphitheater is the site for nine concerts by the band with the top attendance count reaching 9,270 for a sold-out performance on March 18, 2017. The show, dubbed “Spring Break on the Coast” featured Rogers and his band co-headlining along with fellow Texan Cody Johnson. 

The appeal of the Randy Rogers Band stretches beyond the Southwestern states, however, as the archives also show nine appearances by the band at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club – two as an opening act and seven as headliner. Knitting Factory clubs in both Boise, Idaho and Spokane, Wash., have also hosted the band for multiple dates, and in Nashville, both Marathon Music Works and the historic Ryman Auditorium have brought in the band more than once.

New York City’s Terminal 5 has reported six events with the Randy Rogers Band – three as a headliner and two as an opener for San Antonio-native Pat Green. The band also appeared at the Manhattan venue with Green for the eighth annual Salute to Texas Independence Day on March 5, 2016. Joining them on the bill was another Texas country/Red Dirt artist Wade Bowen and the Texas-based Casey Donahew Band.

Looking ahead for the Randy Rogers Band, the group does have future dates booked as of press time including a handful of shows this summer, but, like many artists, their schedule starts to fill out in October.