The Legend of Brother Roscoe, Pt. 1 - Preach
It all began one hazy August morning in Dove Creek, Colorado when Preach woke to find his congregation had packed up and left while he was sleeping off a hangover. After spending his whole life on the revival circuit, first leading the hymns for his daddy’s church services, and then taking over preaching duties at the age of twenty-two when his father struck oil on their family ranch in Texas, Preach suddenly found himself abandoned. The congregation had overlooked his nightly binges until he began howling at the moon and talking incoherently in his sermons about having been raised by wolves. Church leadership had simply had enough, so they turned their backs on their leader and left in search of a new one.
In the meantime, his father’s oil strike had come to nothing but mud, and Preach’s father lost his ranch and died alone in a cheap motel room, a fact which continues to haunt Preach. With no job skills to speak of and no home or family, Preach hit the road with nothing but an acoustic guitar and his thumb. A failed preacher and would-be oil tycoon turned Troubadour, he spent years hitchhiking the country, going wherever passersby would take him, sleeping on the ground, drinking heavily, and singing for change or meals from anyone who would listen.
One fateful day, an old beat-up pickup truck pulled alongside Preach, and right there on a backroad in the Texas Hill Country, the paths of the Brothers Roscoe converged. The passenger of that truck introduced himself as Tip and asked Preach where he was headed. Preach responded, “Wherever you’re goin.” Tip told him to jump in the back and off they went with Hawk at the wheel. Later that evening, as fate would have it, the old pickup truck broke down, and the three were forced to spend the night in an abandoned, dilapidated stone building. After setting up camp for the night, Preach noticed Tip seemed rather downcast, so Preach, in his accustomed fashion, boldly asked him about it, and that’s where Tip’s story begins.
It all began one hazy August morning in Dove Creek, Colorado when Preach woke to find his congregation had packed up and left while he was sleeping off a hangover. After spending his whole life on the revival circuit, first leading the hymns for his daddy’s church services, and then taking over preaching duties at the age of twenty-two when his father struck oil on their family ranch in Texas, Preach suddenly found himself abandoned. The congregation had overlooked his nightly binges until he began howling at the moon and talking incoherently in his sermons about having been raised by wolves. Church leadership had simply had enough, so they turned their backs on their leader and left in search of a new one.
In the meantime, his father’s oil strike had come to nothing but mud, and Preach’s father lost his ranch and died alone in a cheap motel room, a fact which continues to haunt Preach. With no job skills to speak of and no home or family, Preach hit the road with nothing but an acoustic guitar and his thumb. A failed preacher and would-be oil tycoon turned Troubadour, he spent years hitchhiking the country, going wherever passersby would take him, sleeping on the ground, drinking heavily, and singing for change or meals from anyone who would listen.
One fateful day, an old beat-up pickup truck pulled alongside Preach, and right there on a backroad in the Texas Hill Country, the paths of the Brothers Roscoe converged. The passenger of that truck introduced himself as Tip and asked Preach where he was headed. Preach responded, “Wherever you’re goin.” Tip told him to jump in the back and off they went with Hawk at the wheel. Later that evening, as fate would have it, the old pickup truck broke down, and the three were forced to spend the night in an abandoned, dilapidated stone building. After setting up camp for the night, Preach noticed Tip seemed rather downcast, so Preach, in his accustomed fashion, boldly asked him about it, and that’s where Tip’s story begins.