Posted by: hbrand - 08/19/09

By Eddie Farrell, BRAND Staff Writer

He’s a wandering minstrel of the old-school variety, playing wherever fate lands him, and catching a fair share of abuse along the way.

Dean Strickland is currently one month shy of completing his fourth consecutive year on the road, and every day of it has come at the mercy of Good Samaritans who see to it that Strickland gets to the next off-ramp, town, or venue on time.

He calls himself “The Hitchhiking Guitarman,” and he just might be playing a gig near you … if he doesn’t get mugged, his guitar stolen, or banned from a town as he recently did in legendary Luckenbach, Texas when  he was accused by a former host of identify theft and found himself nearly run out of town on a rail.

Rather than dwell on it, Strickland did what any good musician would do: He turned it into a country song.

The first story Strickland laid out Friday during a drop-in visit at the Hereford Brand – was prefaced with “I ran into a predicament …” and it doesn’t take long to understand most of Strickland’s tales are based upon one set of misfortunes or another.

That’s not to say Strickland goes around asking for trouble, trouble just seems to have a way of finding him.

Even his $400 felt hat has been known to be the cause of insults, a notion that he still admits to being one of the greater puzzlers he’s had to deal with.

Strickland claims the hitchhiking is done “out of necessity,” yet he clearly possesses enough talent – a lot more talent than is typically on display on Country Music Television – to at least buy himself a more reliable mode of transportation that his thumb on the side of the road.

Actually, Strickland is quick to note, hitchhiking, particularly on an Interstate, is illegal, so most of his traveling is spent toting 70 pounds of gear, a classic Martin guitar, and a laptop computer down the side of the roadway without the generic thumb-in-the-air posture.

“The music business for me is a tough business, but I do it because I love it,” Strickland said Friday, accompanied by a friend, Steve Lamb, whom Strickland met on one of his several Internet sites, and who helps out with rides whenever Strickland is in the Panhandle region of Texas.

Lamb, who sports a grisly gray beard and long hair  – he’s a dead ringer for actor Sam Elliot and appears identical to about half the roles Elliot has ever played – who formerly operated the Internet site “The Texas Redneck Review,” which Lamb said was dedicated to Texas servicemen and women serving overseas.

After hearing some of Strickland’s music, Lamb made it a point of sharing Strickland’s nomadic tales on his now defunct website.

Strickland claims to have learned the guitar at age 6, when his father handed him a six-string acoustic and the toddler was able to pick out the classic intro to Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” the first time he ever touched a guitar.

Well, that’s the way the legend is recounted in yet another of Strickland’s many tales.

A traveling troubadour, everything begins and ends with a story in Strickland’s life.

He estimates he’s received 1,200 rides from passing motorists, and over time learned his current clean-cut appearance does seem to have a positive factor in attracting rides.

“But there have been a couple bad incidents …” Strickland said, citing the time an apparently drug-crazed driver pulled a gun on Strickland threatening to shoot him unless Strickland gave up “something” the gunman wasn’t willing to clarify.

Then there was the time the motorist started to drive off before Strickland could retrieve his Martin from the trunk of the car.

“I was dragged down the highway for 30 or 40 yards before I eventually jumped into the trunk with the guitar,” Strickland recalled.

The motorist seemingly had no reasonable explanation for the incident when Strickland was able to crawl out of the trunk with his guitar safely in hand.

Strickland didn’t say it, but the incident has to have been recorded in one of his many self-penned tunes.

Then there’s the “getting barred from Luckenbach” story … yes, the Luckenbach of Waylon, Willie and the Boys fame.

Seems Strickland took a ride from a motorist, and began talking about his website, www.deanstrickland.com, and accepted an invite to stay the night with the motorist and his wife.

“Now, I did a few things in my younger days that I’m not exactly proud of, but that was a long time ago, and I definitely didn’t do what he said I did,” Strickland recounted Friday.

What the motorist claimed is that Strickland stole a credit card, and since the motorist knew Strickland was on his way to Luckenbach to play a show, he called ahead and warned the good Luckenbach residents that he was the victim of identity fraud.

“I was met with, uh, a lot of hostility there,” Strickland recalled upon arriving in Luckenbach.

The incident has a prominent role in Strickland’s latest tune, “A Cowboy Standing Up for Himself.”

The same song includes a verse about being assaulted by an Amarillo club owner, and includes a less-than-flattering phrase that Strickland said he incorporated into the song to “turn it back on” the club owner whom Strickland said he pressed charges upon.

The chorus of the song says a cowboy “doesn’t like to unnecessarily fight but loves to stand up for himself.”

It’s a catchy phrase, but weakens somewhat when Strickland admits that he “cleaned up” the song for a live, on-air performance on KPAN Friday prior to visiting the Brand – turns out the radio station has an advertising deal with the punchy club owner, according to Strickland.

An “uncut” version of the song, however, earned Strickland a standing ovation by the Brand employees who hovered near to hear the tune.

So, for now, Strickland is relying on personal tenacity and the good intentions of motorists to carry him to the next gig, wherever that might be.

“Sometimes I wonder,” Strickland replied when asked why he continued to risk life, limb and his music by traveling in such a dangerous way.

“But sometimes I think there’s something going on that I just don’t understand. I don’t know if the Lord has some underlying meaning for my life, but sometimes I feel I’ve been called to do this.

“The Lord has guided my steps. I’ve asked him to help me, and here I am safely. I believe the Lord speaks to me in answered prayers.

BRAND/Tyler Jameson
Dean Strickland, right, and his sidekick Steve Lamb.

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