Anthony Enriquez of Texas Country Duo Shotgun Rider Has Died

Anthony Enriquez, one of the members of the promising Texas duo Shotgun Rider, has died, Saving Country Music can confirm. The lead guitar player and songwriter was beloved throughout the Texas scene, and with Shotgun Rider’s debut album in 2018 called Palo Duro, the duo had a national impact.

No cause of death has been revealed, but remembrances from family, and his fellow musicians in Texas and beyond have been pouring in over the last 24 hours as the news has spread. Anthony Enriquez was 36 years old.

Anthony Enriquez formed the duo Shotgun Rider with vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Logan Samford in 2012. Enriquez was five years Samford’s senior at the time, but the two became as close as brothers. Releasing their first EP in 2015, two more EPs in 2016, and their full-length debut Palo Duro in 2018, the duo boasted a sound that sat somewhere between George Strait and the Kings of Leon.

This young and accessible approach to country music garnered them a growing and fervent fan base, and the duo received Texas regional radio play on numerous songs. They were booked by Texas Music/Red Dirt booking agency Red 11 (now part of WME), and were managed by Alex Torrez (Gabe Lee, Braxton Keith).

Anthony Enriquez was originally from Dimmit, TX in the Panhandle, in between Lubbock and Amarillo, population 4,000. He started playing music at the age of 15 when he convinced his parents to buy him a cheap guitar, and started writing songs one day when serving out an in school suspension.

“I wanted to play so bad. I don’t know what it was. I was really good at school, but I didn’t fit in with the sports people, and back in Dimmitt, we didn’t have any musical anything, and I felt like I wanted to do something different,” Enriquez once told the Amarillo Globe- News. “That was me, in small-town Dimmitt, Texas, where everyone farms or plays basketball. I was the kid who would write stories … and get all As in English.”

Enriquez gratuated from Dimmit High School in 2008, and attended South Plains College and West Texas A&M. He would go on to join The Tyler Little Band, a later the band Seven Miles South that released a very successful EP in 2014 that Enriquez was included on, led by the song “West Texas Rain.”

Enriquez had met Logan Samford from Nazareth, TX in 2012 at a show in Lubbock, and the two immediately hit it off. Soon, Shotgun Rider was officially formed. Though they started out playing local club shows, from the beginning, they didn’t want to just be a local or even regional band. They wanted to head to Nashville and have a national impact. Alex Torrez was from nearby Floydada, but had a management company based in Nashville.

After the success of their early EPs, Shotgun Rider’s debut album Palo Duro was a big step up and opportunity for the duo. The album is still strongly beloved by listeners today as a strong work of Texas country.

But in 2019, drama between the two young men resulted in the duo breaking up.

“To our fans. Thank you for giving us 4 years of incredible memories. For letting us chase our dream, we will never be able to thank you enough for your support,” the duo said in a statement in June of 2019. “We have decided our time together as Shotgun Rider has come to an end. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for this incredible chapter in our lives.”

Anthony Enriquez remained active in the music scene both as a songwriter and a guitar player up until about 2022. He started his own publishing company called Five Birds Publishing in 2021, and co-wrote the song “Boots” with Aaron Watson off of Watson’s 2021 album American Soul, which became one of the album’s singles. He also performed in the short-lived duo 35 Drive out of Houston. But Enriquez didn’t seem to find his footing in music fully after the Shotgun Rider split.

In 2024, Saving Country Music received an email from Enriquez that read in part, “I just read this article [about our breakup], late night as I keep my hours, and I really try to not read stuff written about us. It’s been a bit and we’ve had talks about a future.”

But those future plans never came to pass. It appears Enriquez was recently arrested for DWI in Randall County, TX, and might have been suffering through some personal trauma.

Anthony Enriquez and Shotgun Rider left a large impact on the Texas/Red Dirt music scene, and those who love the music well beyond the Texoma borders. His songs and guitar playing remain beloved to this day, with over 60,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone here seven years after the duo’s breakup. The song “Texas Rain” from his previous band Seven Miles South is also considered a regional anthem, with nearly 30 million spins on Spotify.

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