Moved By The ‘Holy Spirit’ and Staying Hungry: The Red Clay Strays Take Big Swings As The Next Big Live Band

It’s easy to live in the moment when the moment keeps coming at you and it’s filled with good things.

Still, Mobile, Alabama-born Red Clay Strays have gone from relative obscurity to marquee headliners in barely a couple of years, thanks to their unabashed energy and soulful and emotional performances born out of hard work, tenacity and belief that the music and message would ultimately take them where they want to go.

Their music is a familiar yet fresh, energetic take on Southern rootsy rock music infused with hard rock energy channeled by frontman and bandleader Brandon Coleman, equal parts Elvis swagger and “yes ma’am” Sunday best, blending the dangerous and comfortable with the chops of someone born to play to large crowds anywhere and everywhere.

 “We’re trying to stay hungry, man,” says Coleman, at 6’6” kneeling in front of his bandmates before soundcheck at Capitol Federal Amphitheater in Andover, Kansas, near Wichita. He’s allowing everyone some facetime during our Zoom interview, including tour manager Juan Rubio. 

“We don’t want the ‘Rocky’ effect — in ‘Rocky 1,’  when he had to fight Creed, he was the hungry one, and then ‘Rocky III,’ he let all the success get to his head, and the Russian came and beat the crap outta him, you know what I mean?” (‘If he dies, he dies,” someone off camera quips, quoting fictional Soviet bruiser Ivan Drago from “Rocky IV”)

“We want to stay hungry, not let the success get to us, and we don’t want any Russians beating the hell out of us.”   

It’s easy to stay hungry when sleeping in a van, affectionately named “The Breeze,” or the living room floor of manager Cody Payne’s house in sleeping bags – “his wife is a saint, dude, she never complained” – but the band, made up of frontman Brandon Coleman, bassist Andy Bishop, drummer John Hall, guitar/vocalist/songwriter Drew Nix, guitarist Zach Rishel and keyboardist Sevans Henderson have had to keep themselves grounded and focused on putting on the best show each night, not taking for granted that fans will show up the next time, or even that there will be next time.

“It was a culture shock, seeing how big it can get,” said Coleman, marveling at the size of major country tours that take out a dozen-plus semis worth of gear, multiple catering trucks and another 10 or 20 tour buses of crew.  “It’s a huge operation that is very overwhelming. I had to do some thinking on that, just, kind of why am I doing this? If this is the end goal, then what is my message? Chasing success and a big operation, is that it?”

Raucous dorm-room energy backstage notwithstanding, Red Clay Strays, after toiling away since their formation in 2016 playing covers and thrilled at the idea of selling 60 tickets to a bar gig, have found themselves as the next big touring band. On Wednesday, they were announced on the second line of the Stagecoach lineup, fresh off two nights headlining Red Rocks after already playing Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs the night before. 

Similar-sized plays on “The Get Right Tour,” which saw some dates added after onsale or venues moved to larger rooms, include two nights at the Salt Shed in Chicago, the Armory in Minneapolis and a high-profile look at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, following up on last year’s highlights including three nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, an opening slot for the Rolling Stones at Gillette Stadium and more. Their dates continue into the end of the year, with a European leg as well.

“Most people don’t see all the hard work that was put in before the ‘blow up’ and viral moment with ‘Wondering Why,’ but these guys have been together for seven or eight years and were doing 120, 130 shows a year before we even started working with them,” says WME’s Kanan Vitolo, who along with fellow agent Alex Collignon signed the band in 2023. Although some of those gigs were three-hour sets at Mexican restaurants and had members driving for Uber between gigs, Vitolo says the band crafted a dynamic, memorable live show and by the time the buzz started building, they were ready to take over the world.

“Finally, they get recognized with ‘Wondering Why’ blowing up, that was the culmination of all those things that they were able to work on that live show for years and incubate it,” Vitolo says. “That’s why once it took off and they got that spark, you see everything moving as quickly as it is now.”

Although the stars eventually aligned with the team fully committed to the band’s success, the initial meetings were not unlike many others in Nashville, a tip to see yet another band trying to make it, and a jaded Music City machine growing weary of late nights at honkytonks to hear cookie-cutter music.

“These two gentlemen were trying to pitch me acts to manage, and said there’s this band called The Red Clay Strays, they don’t have any music out but they’re absolutely phenomenal,” said Cody Payne, who was then working for Conway Entertainment Group, led by respected agent and manager Tony Conway. Raised in Alabama himself, he said the “Red Clay” name was enough to get him intrigued, but he didn’t expect much from yet another industry pitch. 

“They say we got ‘em playing at Kimbro’s Picking Parlor in Franklin, Tennessee, which is like a 200-cap. club, which at the time was about 45 minutes south of my East Nashville home. They said it was a Sunday at 9:30. I did not want to go. I told my wife I would go shake the man’s hand, listen to one song and get out.”

However, Payne, who recently left Conway amicably to start his own All For One Management making the Strays a full-time and sole endeavor, quickly became the band’s biggest evangelist, fully committed and believing in the band akin to a mission from God and guided by The Holy Spirit. 

“I did what I  planned, came there at 9:30, sat in the back, and then moved straight up front and stayed til 2 a.m. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I remember coming back home and waking up my wife, she had school at 5 o’clock but I had to wake her up because I had to tell someone about it.”

Fully converted as a Red Clay fanatic and seeing the band’s need for professional guidance, Payne, a fledgling agent at the time, said his first order of business was to cancel most of a makeshift, 30-date tour of door deals from Texas through the West Coast.

“Basically I came in and said ‘Um, we’re not gonna do that,’” Payne said with a laugh, reminiscing at some of the band’s early ticket counts in the double digits. Still, they had some dates on the books and Payne was committed to making the most of what they could muster.

Officially taking the role of manager around 2022, Payne said the band’s label deal at the time “was basically a scam,” but “we didn’t have any money.” Thanks to an underground following, a crowd-funding experiment brought in $60,000 to go toward recording an album, which, thanks to a little help from the only PR firm (Aristo) that would take such a last-minute project, helped get the word out to release 2022’s Moment of Truth. 

The rest isn’t quite history yet, but chief songwriter, videographer and first official full-time employee Matthew Coleman, brother of Brandon, is documenting all of it.

“Some of the shows, we sold like 30 tickets, and we were just absolutely over the moon, dude,” Payne says. “My goal was to get them out of The Breeze, which they had traveled in for the past seven years — sleep in a truck stop, truck stop showers, breaking down on the side of the road — just kind of building the grit. I’m wise enough to know, though, that if you have a plan to get your band in a bus, you have to have a plan to keep ’em in a bus, or you’re gonna get fired.”

Raising some sponsorship money helped get them in a bus, and then the tickets started moving and things continued to take off, with secondary and tertiary markets booked, eventually Europe and Australia, along with support dates for artists like Elle King, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and even one night at Gillette Stadium as support act for one of the all-time greats: The Rolling Stones.

Their true headliner status was quickly apparent.  “On the ‘Way Too Long’ tour, we had sold out 3rd and Lindsley, a 550-cap. club here in Nashville, and I remember sitting down with Kanan and Alex at Del Frisco’s and I asked them, what’s our next play in Nashville?” said Payne. “They were really fired up to say they think we’re going to do the Brooklyn Bowl next year. I was just like, ‘I think we’re going to do the Ryman.’ Their jaws kind of dropped. I said, I also we’re going to need to hold at least three nights.”

Bolstered by the band’s true organic viral TikTok moment with “Wondering Why” and a new LP released on RCA in 2024, Made By These Moments, the band had two shows booked and a third date held. “It was the best day of my life,” Payne said. “It was so fun. The first show went in 15 minutes on the pre-sale, and we pretty much put all the tickets we could into the pre-sale. I quickly realized we were going to get to that third show today. We had some tequila and I remember we just sat there for like 10 minutes and didn’t say anything. ‘What just happened?’”

While the band itself stays hungry and humble, there are adjustments and growing pains to playing larger, differing venues, with bassist Andy Bishop noting the outdoor elements like heat and wind being a factor, and drummer John Hall concurring, “Bugs suck!” — especially moths. The band agrees it misses the closeness of the stage at smaller gigs as opposed to barricades at large outdoor venues. 

“Next year will be some of the biggest shows that they’ve ever played in their career,” adds WME’s Collignon, who credits WME Nashville leadership including Jay Williams and Joey Lee for support and guidance. “We don’t skip any steps and we’re not going too big, but it’s part of the story. Hopefully, we have a few more plus-ones in there that we don’t expect that will come to fruition. But we can say the rollout will be pretty big and fun and creative. These guys are no strangers to dreaming big, and 2026 is gonna be a statement year for the Red Clay Strays.”

Themes of belief run through the band’s music and ethos, resonating to those looking to support and guide them to greater success, including multiple promoters vying for the next tour deal or festival slot.

“Weston Herbert, our AEG promoter, literally bet the band that if they sold out every single ticket last year on the tour, he’d get a tattoo of the band. He has that tattoo,” Vitolo said. “We sit every single day as agents and make a hundred calls a day to 100 different promoters talking about these acts, but promoters are smart and they believe when you believe it. And when (the band) looked us in the eyes and said, ‘No, we want to play stadiums, we want to be the biggest band in the world,’ we believe them.”

Maybe it’s more than a belief.

“Well, they better believe in it or they’re fired,” Coleman says to laughs from his bandmates. “But we also have another rule that everybody’s on the chopping block, even me. Our team definitely is fired up about us and our message. They’re not just booking us to get money, get a check. They’re booking us because they’re fired up about what we stand for in our message and our music. Maybe that’s what’s gotten us into the mainstream area, I guess, the message that we’ve been putting out. Everybody’s working for the same goal. It doesn’t really matter what your job title is. You’re not just tied to that.”

Next year’s touring plans are still under wraps, but the logical next steps appear to be coming together, and the Stagecoach booking is a good sign of the band’s continued ability to appeal to a wide range of audiences.

“I have been a fan of the Red Clay Strays from the jump and all I can say is that good things come to those who wait,” says Goldenvoice’s Stacy Vee, known as the force behind the popular, long-running Stagecoach festival in Southern California. “The stars aligned and 2026 was the perfect band for the perfect slot at the perfect time. The Strays are unlike any other band, they have truly carved out their own lane musically. They are a fan’s band and a band’s band. Their appeal is wildly universal and I feel their path is uncharted. It will be a privilege to watch from the front row.”

Having to actively refrain from letting the cats out of the bag, there’s no reason to believe in anything other than good news is coming, with an album in the works with noted Nashville producer Dave Cobb. 

“We’re going to be doing arenas, the MSGs and Bridgestones of the world,” Payne says. “I really think if we hit this right, and I’ve got a lot of big plans for this album launch, but I think it’ll be what propels them into their first few stadiums, in the next couple of years.”