Cattle Country Festival delivers with star-studded lineup as thousands attend

Thousands of people got their money’s worth and then some when country, rock and red dirt music came together at the Cattle Country Festival in Gonzales this past weekend, April 10-12.

A lineup led by heavy hitters like Parker McCollum, Nickelback, Tanya Tucker, Clint Black, Clay Walker, Midland, Gretchen Wilson, Aaron Watson and others made for a symphony for the senses for those lucky enough to get tickets.

The festival, held at an iconic ranch at 1630 County Road 348 known as “The Boot” for its unique shape with three miles of Guadalupe River frontage, celebrated three days of great music, camping, cuisine and the beauty of the river in what is the cradle of the Texas Revolution.

Things ran smoothly with Sheriff Keith Schmidt reporting just three public intoxication arrests and a few minor fender benders taking place. Otherwise, the crowd was there not to fight, but to party and hear great music and enjoy great eats inspired by Chef Jason Dady and his crew.

Artists like McCollum and The Ransom Brothers were impressed by what they saw at Cattle Country, too.

“Oh, man, you can't compare them when they're in Texas,” McCollum said when asked to compare this festival to others he has played. “It doesn't matter what it is, if it's in Texas, it's probably better than anything else and tonight's no different.”

Sean McHargue, lead vocalist of The Ransom Brothers noted it was his band’s first time playing a major music festival and called it a “Top 5” experience in his lifetime.

McCollum was surprised to learn the name of the festival comes from the area’s deep connection to the cattle industry, with Graham Cattle serving as a major feed lot for nearly all the animals that appear at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo each year.

That same rodeo saw McCollum performed before 74,000 in attendance — a larger number than Cattle Country, but doubtfully a crowd as eager as the one Saturday night when he headlined the festival’s final night.

McCollum was born in Conroe, but spent a lot of his youth working on ranches with his grandfather, who would sell cattle at the Hockley livestock auction barn in far western Harris County off US 290.

“He ran a big old operation and me and my cousins just grew up kind of lawless, not a lot of supervision, and we spent a lot of time working for him,” McCollum said. “I’ve got a song on my new album coming out that’s a lot about those days and because I miss them very, very much and I know they’re never coming back.”

McCollum said he plans to raise his own child the same way because “I’d like for him to be very, very, very handy. It doesn't seem to be super common nowadays, so I’d like to try to switch that trend to the other way.”

Familiar with Gonzales from trips through the Golden Crescent to go turkey hunting near Victoria, McCollum is enchanted with the “pace of life” that living in a small town like Gonzales affords.

“I think that, what I do for a living — and probably any job in the world, any business in the world — if you really have a crazy work ethic and you go, go, go non-stop and you’re relentless in your pursuit of what you want out of your career, it'll wear you down, man,” McCollum said. “And that's where a small town really can be beneficial. And I think naturally, maybe even people that grew up in the city ¸— hyper successful, hyper overachieving people — probably get to a point in their life where they realize how nice the slow pace of life is in a small town. Man, I miss it all the time when I'm on the road.”

McCollum shrugged off comparisons the press has made to Charlie Robison, the country star from Bandera who sadly passed away at the age of 59 in 2023. Robison and his brother, Bruce, would collaborate on projects for each other and infused the sense and sensibility of small-town Texas into their music.

“There's no comparison,” McCollum quickly said. “I was a massive Charlie and Bruce fan as a kid because my older brother listened to them so much when I was such a little kid and there's no comparison. Those guys have songwriting abilities that are miles beyond what mine will ever be.

“I looked up to him for a long time. Rest in peace, Charlie. I actually think about him very often. I think it's very crazy that he's gone. And I think of Bruce often. Me and my brother also are very close. My brother's a great songwriter, so we've always, in a much less talented way, thought of ourselves like them a little bit. We both had a lot of respect for them growing up. I love their songs. They still take me back to a time in my life that I miss much. I wish I was that good!”

The Ransom Brothers, who opened Day 2 at the festival, formed when McHargue and Daniel “Sal” Solis met in 2019 and played a few frat party gigs in College Station. They actually changed their name because their original one, Good Springs, was considered “pretty vanilla” and had been inspired by a sign at one of the frat houses.

“Our producer said, ‘You’ve got to get rid of that name because it’s terrible,’” McHargue said. “I went home and was watching ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.’ It’s a Western and the main protagonist in the movie is named Ransom Stoddard. I thought that was pretty cool, so I called the producer back up and said, ‘How about Ransom Brothers?’ and he said, ‘Sold! Done!’”

Originally, the band was influenced by some of the mainstays of Southern rock, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, Marshall Tucker Band and others. As they continued to perform, they began adding Little Feat, Grateful Dead and Jackson Browne into their repertoire, McHargue said.

“It’s kind of like a modern country sound and a jam band sound,” McHargue said. “We don't want to just kind of do the same three minute and 30 second song. We want to have space to jam and we bring that into the mix.”

Band members said they were interested in hearing 49 Winchester, Midland and Ty Myers perform at the festival, with McHargue adding that the eight-year-old version of him “can’t wait for Nickelback.”