Regarded by many of his fans and musical contemporaries as one of Oklahoma’s very best songwriters, Oklahoma City musician Joe Baxter has been a fixture in the Oklahoma music scene for a long time.
Joe came of age in the “Folk and Country Rock” culture of the early 1970’s, and was influenced throughout the years by great singer songwriters such as John Prine, Guy Clark, John Hiatt, James McMurtry, Steve Earle and Townes VanZandt, Joe is a prolific writer, with eleven original albums from 1994 to 2019. After fronting a working rock band for fifteen years, Joe got tired of hauling equipment, and decided to shift his talents to acoustic music. He began hanging out in the Red Dirt music and bluegrass crowds at festivals and venues in Stillwater, Tulsa, Tahlequah and Oklahoma City. Today, he plays bluegrass, roots, red dirt, honky tonk and original acoustic music at every opportunity. Joe continues to write and record. He released his last album, “Arcadia” in 2020, and is currently working on a new recording project.
Today, Joe coordinates and hosts free weekly and monthly benefit music programs for the Route #66 landmark Round Barn in Arcadia, Oklahoma. He plays weekly Saturday Morning music Session shows at the Barn with his labor-of-love string band, The Round Barn Ramblers. Joe often teams up with violinist Andrea MacMullin and continues to schedule shows in his favorite music spots around Oklahoma. He has been a musical guest at the Bob Childers Red Dirt Gypsy Cafe, and the Tom Skinner Skyline Music Festival, and was the winner of the Red Dirt Relief Fund’s Gypsy Cafe Songwriter’s Contest in 2019.
Joe writes a weekly “Ramblin’ Joe” column for the Luther Register online newspaper.