The Great Divide performing Friday at Tumbleweed

Nov. 2—Among the first nationally popular Red Dirt bands from Stillwater, The Great Divide is returning Friday to the Tumbleweed.

"The Great Divide helped set the Red Dirt scene," according to a recent press release. "The band was playing 200 shows a year and released five albums together, they signed a record deal in Nashville and Garth Brooks recorded one of their songs.

"To say they made a mark is putting it lightly — if you were to poll musicians making music in Oklahoma and Texas at the time, it's likely The Great Divide was on their list of influences."

The Great Divide launched a tour earlier this year, which took them through central Oklahoma in July. It was the first time they had played Oklahoma City in a very long time, according to frontman Mike McClure.

The newest album, Providence, comes 20 years after the band's last album together and several singles have landed on Texas Music charts.

"It's helpful to understand the road it's taken to get here: When frontman and songwriter 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," the release said. "McClure moved on, releasing nine albums on his own, and for anyone who knew of their turbulent end, it was easy to assume the band would never reunite, let alone restore faith in one another."

"Providence," which was released in the fall of 2022, deals with time.

"It asks how much time we have left in our lives and how we want to spend the remaining years," McClure told the News Press in July. "Through this album, there's a lot about setting down the blame, trying to get back to some sense of humanity and unity. I spent a lot of my life focusing on the negative and writing and singing about it, and now, I push myself in my personal life to focus on the positive, so that bleeds into my music."

The band has added keyboardist Bryce Conway, who is credited with helping get the band back together.

"I look over and see these guys next to me on stage, and I am blown away by the fact that we are still singing these songs together 30 years later, and people are still coming out and getting excited about it," McClure said.

Friday's show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door.