Monty Tipps and Mainstreet at Red Rooster IceHouse

The band

Monty Tipps and Mainstreet is a traditional country band based in Sulphur Springs, and frontman Monty Tipps has deep roots in the region. Before music became his second calling, he spent six years with the Hopkins County Sheriff's Department and 24½ years with the Sulphur Springs Police Department, retiring as an investigator. For close to two decades he has been a regular performer at the Reilly Springs Jamboree in Hopkins County, one of the region's storied country gatherings, playing the old-school catalog that audiences there expect. Booking a band like this at Red Rooster means a night of steel guitar, fiddle, and two-stepping, played the straight-ahead way.

The venue

The Red Rooster IceHouse in Hawkins has become one of the busiest live music rooms in the region, booking country, Americana, and rock bands through the year. It sits on North Beaulah Street about 30 minutes south of the property, a casual roadhouse with a big outdoor stage and a dance floor that draws crowds from across Titus, Wood, and Smith Counties. Saturday nights are reliably live, and a January booking like Monty Tipps is exactly the kind of cold-weather show that warms the place up.

The drive from the property

County Road 1070 to Hawkins is about 30 minutes via US-80 and US-271. A mid-January evening in East Texas can be cold and quiet, which makes a warm, loud icehouse with a full band all the more appealing. For anyone weighing the property as a home or weekend retreat, a live music calendar this close is a genuine quality-of-life advantage.