Keyboardist Ray Manzarek met his bandmates in The Doors at a Transcendental Meditation lecture, so pioneering 21st-century blues isn’t much of a stretch. Collaborating with slide guitarist Roy Rogers (John Lee Hooker) on the new “Translucent Blues” album, Manzarek serves as co-conductor of a rhythm section that includes bassist Steve Evans (Elvin Bishop) and drummer […]
Rob Collins
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Queen — News of the World / Jazz / The Game / Flash Gordon / Hot Space
For the band’s 40th anniversary, Hollywood Records has reissued deluxe remasters of Queen’s second round of studio albums with bonus EP discs fortifying each release. This batch of five begins with 1977’s “News of the World,” which proceeds regally with the double A-side single “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” Besides these […]
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Cause for alarm
UPDATE: Spencer Tillman issued the following statement to Oklahoma Gazette: “I exchanged messages with Austin’s father. I consider the matter over. They’ve lost a son. Please let the family and the matter rest. It matters little at this point what anyone, official or otherwise, communicated to me. I take full responsibility for what I said. […]
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Badd company
Bryan Abrams is a survivor. And now he’s looking to reclaim his “Eye of the Tiger.” He’s best-known for belonging to the supergroup Color Me Badd. The hip-hop/doo-wop quartet from Oklahoma City’s Northwest Classen High School hit it big in 1991 with “I Wanna Sex You Up,” then followed with two No. 1 singles, a […]
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Bitter pills
The one-page report listed five painkillers — oxymorphone, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxycodone — and the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam as causing “probable mixed drug toxicity,” which led to central nervous system depression, pulmonary edema and aspiration pneumonia. “The chemicals found in his system were not those that had been prescribed by a physician, and we […]
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Death of a Sooner
Burleson said Box just smiled at the joke. “I am hurting,” Box told him. Burleson, a self-described “friend of the family,” relayed the anecdote at Box’s memorial service May 27 at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, where he serves as senior pastor. “I know that some of you have heard or read about his prescription […]
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Color Me Badd reunited (and it feels so good)
The reunited CMB consists of local Badd boy Bryan Abrams, Mark Calderon and Kevin Thornton. Sam Watters, long dogged by Kenny G comparisons, declined the reunion. CMB hit it big with “I Wanna Sex You Up” in 1991. Two more No. 1 singles followed, with the band releasing a triple-platinum debut album and nine Top […]
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Queen — Queen / Queen II / Sheer Heart Attack / A Night at the Opera / A Day at the Races
That’s not the case with most of the latest offerings from the Queen back catalog to commemorate the band’s 40th anniversary. The first of three waves presents the band’s first five albums — “Queen,” “Queen II,” “Sheer Heart Attack,” “A Night at the Opera” and “A Day at the Races” — spanning their 1971 formation […]
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Picture of horror
On May 25, 1911, the lynching of a black woman and her teenage son six miles west of Woody Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah nearly erupted a race war with the neighboring all-black town of Boley. Tension escalated in Okfuskee County when George Loney, Okemah’s Caucasian deputy sheriff, was investigating stolen livestock and visited the black […]
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Getting Kinky
Blue Door audiences catching Kinky Friedman’s solo Saturday-night performance should expect music, political commentary, Q-and-A and a book signing from the singer/songwriter/novelist/failed gubernatorial candidate from south of the Red River. Friedman, probably best-known for his “Asshole from El Paso” cover that parodied Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee,” embarks on his “Springtime for Kinky Tour 2011.” […]