Stoney LaRue brings Red Dirt to Cook's Garage on Nov. 14

The veteran Red Dirt singer plays the neon-lit South Lubbock venue a week before his Dallas date.

If you have driven U.S. 87 south of town after dark, you know the glow: dozens of old gas station signs lit up along the highway, marking the spot where a family warehouse turned into one of the South Plains' biggest stages. That is where Stoney LaRue plays on Saturday, Nov. 14, with the show starting at 7 p.m.

Tickets are on sale through Cook's Garage directly. The venue holds 10,000, and the bill is LaRue's.

LaRue has long been tagged as a legendary Red Dirt musician, and the genre fits the room. Red Dirt and Texas country make up the backbone of the Cook's Garage calendar, and LaRue is one of the names that helped build that audience. His catalog runs through records like Us Time, which Saving Country Music covered as he readied it amid a turbulent stretch, and Onward, the album he has been touring behind in recent seasons. He has also leaned on revisiting his own past on record, a move the Dallas Observer framed as a bounce-back after a tumultuous year.

The Lubbock stop is the first of a handful of Texas dates closing out his year. After Cook's he plays Dallas on Nov. 21, then Fort Worth on Dec. 11 and San Antonio on Dec. 12. For West Texas fans, this is the close one.

It began as a warehouse on the lot of a family business.

The venue's story is worth knowing before you go. The Cook family started Cook's Garage in 2017 at 11002 U.S. 87, where the highway meets 114th Street. It began as a warehouse on the lot of a family business and grew, as Lubbock Lights put it, from a restaurant with music on the side into a huge concert space. Today it runs an outdoor concert area alongside a restaurant room that hosts its own shows, and it books car shows and rodeos as well as concerts.

Those signs are the calling card. The collection of vintage gas station and neon signs, visible from the highway, is one of the largest around, and the whole place leans into a vintage-car theme. It is also where William Clark Green holds his annual Cotton Fest, which tells you how seriously the Texas country world takes the property.

Country dominates the calendar, but the room has range: Ice Cube and Nelly have both played Cook's, and punk and rock shows turn up between the Red Dirt bookings. This fall's schedule has already brought Gavin Adcock with Corey Kent and The Creekers, and LaRue slots right into that run of Texas and Oklahoma-leaning songwriters drawing fans from across the South Plains.

A few practical notes: it is a big outdoor-and-indoor property on the south edge of town, so plan your drive and your parking, and bring a layer, since mid-November nights on the Plains can turn cold fast once the sun goes down.

Then find a spot near the stage, let the signs hum behind you, and settle in for a Saturday night of the music this town keeps coming back to.

Sources: Legendary Red Dirt musician to perform (TWU Lasso) (twulasso.com); Amidst Turmoil and a Short Turnaround, Stoney LaRue Readies the Release of “Us Time” (Saving Country Music) (savingcountrymusic.com); Stoney LaRue Looks to Bounce Back From Tumultuous Year by Revisiting His Past (Dallas Observer) (dallasobserver.com); Stoney LaRue live at Jack's Backstage (Discover Ruidoso) (discoverruidoso.com); How Cook’s Garage grew from restaurant with music on the side to huge concert space (Lubbock Lights) (lubbocklights.com); Lubbock live music round up (Visit Lubbock) (visitlubbock.org); Cook's Garage (cooksgarage.us); Stoney LaRue at Cook's Garage (JamBase) (jambase.com)