When Drive-By Truckers went into the studio at the end of July 2021, it was coming off releasing an unintentional trilogy of albums rife with socially conscious messages—2016’s American Band, 2020’s The Unraveling and The New OK. The band plays The Jones Assembly March 21. All three albums were overflowing with trenchant musical observations about […]
Music Features
Posted inMusic
Crossing the Rio Grande
A popular fixture in the music scene since the late 1980s, Ian Moore is known for his hard driving, bluesy, Jimi Hendrix-style of shredding. Moore, with Jeff Plankenhorn sharing the stage, will play Auditorium at The Douglass March 10, and at the T-Town Git Down & Midnite Choogle at the Tulsa VFW Post 577 March […]
Posted inMusic
Drinking Anthems
Flogging Molly are celebrating their first quarter century as a band by heading out on a headlining tour to support their new album, Anthem. Singer/guitarist Dave King and fiddle player (and future wife) Bridget Regan formed the band and, 25 years later, having survived the pandemic, these veteran Irish rockers are ready to roll into […]
Posted inMusic
Co-op makes the dream pop
“I don’t know that any one of us could be doing this ourselves,” Sarah Reid said. As a music scene mainstay, kitchen worker, and part-time venue booker, Reid knows as well as anyone about the behind-the-scenes hustle that goes into assuring that musicians have a stage and a community in Norman, and it’s only been […]
Posted inMusic
Label makers
For a couple generations of musicians raised on brutal public disputes, scene veteran horror stories, and way too many episodes of Behind the Music, it’s often felt like record labels were the enemy. In an age loaded with hyper-indie sentiment and a prevailing DIY mentality bolstered by social media and YouTube, the question, “Why do […]
Posted inMusic
Alien invasion
In the decade since St. Paul & the Broken Bones came out of Birmingham, Ala., the eight-piece outfit has made a name for itself as a horn-driven neo-soul act fronted by singer and namesake Paul Janeway. And while the pandemic kept Janeway and company from touring, the creative juices continue to flow. The result is […]
Posted inMusic
Suave Stiles
“I can hold a mean grudge,” Ace Stiles said. The 18-year-old Tulsa singer-songwriter has seen some rejection. While that may not be a rare experience for most young adults, few can say they’ve been turned down in front of millions of people. Stiles progressed to the televised audition rounds of American Idol’s 19th season. Despite […]
Posted inMusic
For the record
It might not be the same iconic Double Stop Fiddle Shop that stood as a cornerstone of Americana for a quarter century, but the spirit of Byron Berline filled the music hall on a Saturday night in November. The Hunt Brothers Band — now the shop’s house band — recorded a live performance there which […]
Posted inMusic
Machine learning
Nathan Wright worries about technology. The social media plague corrupting our brains. The cold, impersonal algorithms dictating our daily lives. Even the recent pushes into AI-generated art. But as a musical artist in the modernized world, you either figure out how to embrace it or you get crushed beneath the wheels. “There’s a sort of […]
Posted inMusic
Strange days
“There are times when I’m just like ‘Oklahoma, I love you,’” Bartees Strange said from Washington D.C. He’s been reminiscing about cheap Norman apartment complexes, sadly departed OKC indie venues and the surprising wealth of musical styles and identities in the local scenes, but it was a mention of Oklahoma’s pink evening skies that got […]