Blue Rose Café spent about two and a half years, from 1974 to 1976, touring throughout Oklahoma, Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana and Arizona, usually for week-long gigs, and developed a devoted following throughout the south and southwest.

As an early influence on the country-rock scene popular at the time, these five young Oklahoma musicians threw elements of folk, swing, jazz, bluegrass and blues into the mix, thus creating a sound that would help  lead to today's Americana/alt-country genre, and form a powerful and lasting influence on Kevin's writing for decades to come.

In 2003 Pat Long passed away and the remaining members got together to pay tribute in a concert to their late friend. The concert brought people from all over the country, including a few who used to sit in with the band on occasion back in the '70s: John Hadley, the band's mentor who wrote many of the songs Blue Rose Café performed, fiddler Mark Dulac and mandolinist Nick Rorick. They were joined by Pat's brother Mike Long on banjo and friends John Arnold on vocals and guitar and lead guitarist Bob French. In front of over 200 fans, friends, and family, they played the songs Pat wrote and the ones he brought to the band. That emotional performance is captured on the live CD, Blue Rose Café: A Reunion and Tribute to Pat Long.

This wonderful CD, called "an exceptional and exceptionally moving tribute" by the Oklahoma Gazette, was recorded live at the reunion and contains all the songs Blue Rose Café played that night, including several that Pat wrote, plus songs by Willis Alan Ramsey, Kinky Friedman, John Hiatt, Woody Guthrie, Bill Caswell and John Hadley. Kevin Welch and John Arnold trade off lead singing duties and it all comes together beautifully.   Copies of the CD, on Oklahoma-based Big Medicine Records, have been sold across the United States and in nine other countries.

You can hear clips, read reviews, and purchase the CD, which is also a benefit for Pat's daughters, on CD Baby.  

A DVD of that evening is also available.  This two-DVD set is a lovingly crafted family album, featuring home video footage of not only the reunion concert itself but also a behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together during the band's one rehearsal after a 27-year separation.  Watching as the old friends and bandmates work out the solos and the harmonies for various songs (and try to remember 30-year-old arrangements) is a fascinating insight into how truly professional musicians work. The DVD set, conceived, edited and authored by Bo McCarty, features opening performances by Kevin Welch, Libby Harding and Gary Johnson, and George and Linda Barton with Mike Long, as well as a slide show with a large number of wonderful, touching pictures from Blue Rose Café's past.  Several audio tracks of Pat singing are included as well.  It's a really wonderful package that captures both the history and the present of Blue Rose Café. Pat's daughters will also receive the profits from sales of the DVD set.   You can purchase it easily through Paypal using the upper button at right if you are in the US.  Shipping  and handling in the U.S.  is included in the $24.95 price; in other countries, please choose the lower button which will add an additional $2 in postage. New!!  We've just added a Blue Rose Café memorabilia store where you can buy Blue Rose Cafe T-shirts featuring a beautiful hand-tinted shot of the entire band onstage in the '70s...once again, the profits benefit Pat's daughters.

US orders Non-US orders

Where Are They Now? Kevin Welch moved to Nashville along with Pat Long shortly after Blue Rose Café split up.  He is a successful  songwriter, and has put out several albums, first on Warners and now on Dead Reckoning, which he co-owns with Kieran Kane.  Kevin continues to perform worldwide. Gary Johnson left Oklahoma for California with Fast Fontaine, and has worked with a wide variety of performers from Del Shannon to Robben Ford to his current band, Conjunto Jardin.  He's also produced several records for Sabia, Word of Mouth and Conjunto Jardin. Steve Grunder has played bass with The John Arnold Band for much of the last 22 years, as well as in many other Oklahoma-based bands, including Quartermoon with John Hadley and Mike McCarty.  He's also involved with running Big Medicine Records. Mike McCarty performs occasionally with Terry "Buffalo" Ware's band, The Shambles.  After Blue Rose Café, he played with several bands and artists including Quartermoon, The John Arnold Band, and Ray Wylie Hubbard.  He is currently an exhibits technician at The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History where he works with exhibits, multimedia and video.

You Could've Seen Them! Blue Rose Café toured the south and southwest, first in a van and an old pickup truck named Phyllis, and later in a bus called Oscar.  Surviving everything from being accidentally tear-gassed when a fight broke out on the dance floor in Tulsa to being lodged in a trailer so cold their breath turned to ice on the ceiling in Steamboat Springs to finding half the road had fallen down the mountainside on a shortcut to Ft. Collins, the band was on the road almost constantly  for its entire existence. Arizona The Yavapai Lodge, Grand Canyon Arkansas New Orleans Hotel, Eureka Springs The Swinging Door, Fayetteville TGI Friday's, Little Rock Colorado The Depot, Breckenridge The Gables, Colorado Springs Cripple Creek Inn, Cripple Creek The Dillon Inn, Dillon Farquahrt's, Durango The Little Bear, Evergreen Jack's, Ft. Collins The Colorado Bar, Oak Creek The Mishawaka Inn, Poudre Canyon The Buffalo Chip, Steamboat Springs The Chalet, Steamboat Springs   Kansas The Wagon Wheel, Dodge City Louisiana Judah P.'s Backyard, New Orleans Oklahoma The Prancing Pony, Lawton The Blue Onion, Norman E. J.'s Club, Norman High Horse Tavern, Norman The Bar Ditch, Stillwater The Nine of Cups, Tulsa Whiskers, Tulsa