Mark Marley’s Go Big or Go Home BBQ Bash will be held on Friday and Saturday, May 5th and 6th, at the Running Water Draw (Kidsville) Park. The event will include a state-sanctioned barbecue cook-off, concerts featuring Cody Canada & The Departed and Cooder Graw and many new events added to the festivities this year.
The State-Sanctioned Barbecue Cook-off begins with a Fiesta Friday themed event sponsored by Xcel Energy and includes a Fajita Cook-off, Hot Sauce Blend-off and Margarita Mix-off. Friday night will also include the Kid’s Q – a cook-off for kids. Lastly, the Steak Cook Association (SCA) Steak Cook-off will be held on Friday night as well. Winner of this event will be a SCA Championship Qualifier as well as a World Food Championship Qualifier – the first year that the Mark Marley Bash has received this designation for the cooks.
Saturday Cook-off includes four categories (pork spare ribs, chicken, pork or brisket) as well as an optional Cook’s Choice category, Jackpot Beans category and a CASI Chili Cook-off. Entry fees for each event vary between $15 – $150 and no association memberships are required to enter. To enter any of the cooking events, contact RaeAnne King at 806.292.3288 or rking@countyserv.com.
“Having a State-Sanctioned Barbeque Cook-off in Plainview draws a great crowd of participants,” said RaeAnne King, event co-chair. “People enjoy participating in our event to not only hone their skills but also to compete for a qualifying spot at the American Royal in Kansas City as well as the chance at the Jack Daniels Invitational.”
Headliners for this year’s event feature Cody Canada & The Departed on Friday night and Cooder Graw on Saturday night.
The Panhandle band, Cooder Graw barreled out of the gate in 1997, amidst a ferocious stampede of Texas artists including Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Roger Creager, on a trail blazed by legendary Texas musicians turned national stars like Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green and Jack Ingram, in the heat of the uprising Texas and Red Dirt music revolution.
Cooder Graw toured relentlessly for most of a decade, playing 200 dates a year. After a six-year hiatus, the group came together in 2012 for what was expected to be a short reunion tour but the Cooder fan base is as fervent as ever and the band is enjoying a relaxed touring schedule without expectations, having a good time playing well-worn songs and writing new ones. With the 2016 release of Love to Live By, a six song EP, the band marks the beginning of a new chapter.
Cody Canada was the lead singer/songwriter of the Oklahoma based rock-country band Cross Canadian Ragweed from the inception in 1998 to their dissolution in 2010. In that time, they sold over a million albums. Cody Canada has returned to vintage Cross Canadian form to take the lead of his four piece band, The Departed, with a newly energized inspiration to get back to his roots.
(Mark Marley’s Go Big or Go Home BBQ Bash)
