THE GREAT DIVIDE

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 – whether it was their own show or as part of a festival 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 left for a solo career in 2003, marking the end of the band

as its original lineup—McClure, bassist Kelley Green and brothers Scotte 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 starting point in moving past the chaotic time surrounding the band’s breakup.

Fast forward another decade, and they’ve added a new member, keyboardist Bryce

Conway, and in 2022 they released their first new studio album in 20 years.

If you were to talk to virtually anyone making music in the Red Dirt scene in the early

2000s, The Great Divide was on their list of influences. They weren’t just one of the first

bands to forge their way down this path; in many ways, they were some of its

originators.

“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 Stillwater that

artists still follow to this day…multiple generations have come and gone without

realizing the significance of the four-piece ensemble.” That list includes Wyatt Flores, Turnpike Troubadours, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Jason Boland to name a few.

“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 bottle after

bottle at the mainstream monolith”

Within the 10 tracks on Providence, The Great Divide leans on pillars the band was built

on 20 years ago: a reverence for masterful, relatable songwriting and a lack of interest

in following the rules—though this time, the rules they’re circumventing seem to center

more around the idea that anything and anyone outlaw-adjacent can’t also be happy,

seek balance and want more from their lives and legacies.

“There is a coming full circle aspect for us as a band; as performers and people,”

McClure says. “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. “This

new album brings with it a certain hope.”

In the last few years, TGD has continued playing to audiences new and old, with sold out shows throughout Oklahoma and Texas, including being a part of the famed “Boys from Oklahoma” events that began in 2025, in Stillwater, with sold out stadium shows that marked Cross Canadian Ragweed’s reunion.

In April 2026, TGD released a new song to radio, titled “Hard Time Moving On.”