The Permian’s Midland and Delaware basins have seen their share of midstream success stories the past few years — many of them privately backed efforts to gain a foothold and then expand into the big time. Navitas Midstream Partners (later sold to Enterprise Products Partners) comes to mind; so do Oryx Midstream and Brazos Midstream. Now comes Vaquero Midstream — vaquero, of course, being Spanish for cowboy — the scrappy developer of a gas gathering and processing network in the Delaware. As we discuss in today’s RBN blog, Vaquero recently announced plans to build a new high-pressure pipeline that will double the capacity of its gathering system and a new processing plant that will give it a total of 600 MMcf/d of processing capacity with a slew of interconnections to key gas and NGL takeaway pipelines.
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First, an explanation of our song title and why it fits today’s topic. “Rhinestone Cowboy” may conjure up images of country music’s Glen Campbell duded up in fancy, gem-encrusted attire, ”riding out on a horse in a Star-Spangled rodeo.” But the song’s lyrics reveal it’s really the story of a determined, hard-working singer with a dream who won’t give up ’til he’s “where the lights are shining on me ... like a Rhinestone Cowboy.”
That’s also the story of Vaquero Midstream, which over the past nine years has been operating and expanding a network for gathering rich, NGL-packed associated gas in the West Texas part of the Delaware and shuttling it to a processing complex where it is separated into residue gas and mixed NGLs. That network, which we first discussed in 2017, currently includes more than 200 miles of low- and high-pressure lines (dark-green lines in Figure 1 below), plus two 200-MMcf/d gas processing plants at Vaquero’s Caymus complex (magenta star) just over the line in Pecos County, near the all-important Waha gas hub (magenta circle; more on that in a moment.) Caymus I came online in 2016, and Caymus II started up in 2018.
Figure 1. Vaquero Midstream’s Gas Gathering and Processing Network. Source: RBN
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About the song
“Rhinestone Cowboy” was written by Larry Weiss and appears as the first song on side two of Glen Campbell’s 28th studio album, Rhinestone Cowboy. Weiss wrote and recorded the song in 1974 for his Black & Blue Suite album. It was released as a single for Weiss in 1974 and went to #24 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Singles chart. The song is an autobiographical take on the struggles of a country music singer/songwriter trying to make it in the music business. The “Broadway” that Weiss refers to could just as easily be Lower Broadway, the downtown Nashville street lined with honky-tonk bars, as it could be a nod to the famous thoroughfare in Manhattan. Glen Campbell and Capitol Records executive Al Coury heard the song and were sure it could be a hit for Campbell. His version was released as a single in August 1975 and went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts. It has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), became a signature song for Campbell, and has appeared in many motion pictures, television shows and TV ads.
Personnel on the record were: Glen Campbell (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Dean Parks, Ben Benay (electric guitar), Fred Tackett (acoustic guitar), Scott Edwards (bass), Michael Omartian, Dennis Lambert (keyboards), Ed Greene, Dave Kemper (drums), Brian Potter, Gary Coleman (percussion), Sid Shane & the Boogie Symphony Strings, Paul Hubinon, Chuck Findley, Don Menza. Jerome Richardson, Tom Scott, George Bohanon, Lew McCreary, Dalton Smith (horns), and Julia Tillman Waters, Maxine Willard Waters (backing vocals).
The album, Rhinestone Cowboy, was recorded in early 1975 at Sound Labs in Hollywood and produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. Released in July 1975, it went to #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and #17 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It has been certified Gold by the RIAA. Two singles were released from the LP.
Glen Campbell was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host and actor. He began his professional career as an in-demand session guitarist and member of the legendary “Wrecking Crew” of session musicians in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Campbell released 65 studio albums, seven live albums, four soundtrack albums, 127 compilation albums and 116 singles; had nine #1 hit singles; and sold more than 45 million records worldwide. Campbell won nine ACM Awards, three American Music Awards, three CMA Awards and five Grammy Awards; has a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; and is a member of the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was the host of the Glen Campbell Hour variety show on CBS from 1969 until 1972. He appeared in 10 motion pictures and several TV shows. Campbell died in Nashville in August 2017 at the age of 81.
