As someone who cut his teeth growing up on the sounds of power trios like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Warren Haynes always knew the blues was as important an underpinning of that musical style as the hard-rock riffing of those outfits. Blues has been a major part of Haynes’ musical expression, whether it […]
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When PiGs Fly
“I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew,” Dylan Swindell says with a laugh, not overlooking the food pun for a second. “I can admit that.” Swindell is the co-founder and head organizer behind Wellston, Oklahoma’s very own new mid-sized music festival, PiGFest, a weekend-long celebration of homegrown music covering a […]
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Soundcheck: Alison Sloan – Fate
With wine bottle, cellphone, guitar and more sprawling out from her being in swirls of Blue Willow china inkwork, a hand-drawn Alison Sloan rests comfortably on the cover of her new album. If her eyes were open, she would be looking directly at the viewer, but her mind is elsewhere, finally finding an inner peace […]
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Violent delights
The continually exploding guitar effects pedal industry – which has something of a surprising epicenter in Oklahoma City with some of the world’s biggest and most respected manufacturers based here – has a long and lucrative history of major artist collaborations. Superstar guitarists and aficionado heroes alike regularly partner with pedal builders to create loads […]
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As the Crowes fly
When Chris and Rich Robinson made the November 2019 announcement that The Black Crowes were reuniting, it represented a reconciliation between the siblings after the band was blown up in 2015. The plan was to launch a lengthy reunion tour in 2020 commemorating the 30th anniversary of the group’s 1990 debut album Shake Your Money […]
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Sounding off
While the lineup is comprised primarily of women for the Bans Off Our Bodies fundraiser show, it wasn’t by design. “We were like, ‘Is it weird that it’s all women? It’s fine. Let’s just do it,’” co-organizer Kris Dahlgren said. “That was not intentional, but it is all kind of very accessible, nice, fun, kind […]
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Therefore he AM
There is another pandemic coming hot on the heels of the ongoing one we’ve all come to know and loathe. A pandemic of doubt. In addition to the tragic and continuing toll that COVID-19 has taken on our world, it’s also left a number of lingering and demoralizing questions in its wake, especially for artists […]
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Subculture sanctum
Like a flower blooming from a cracked sidewalk, Oklahoma City’s DIY scene has always found a way. The last few years have seen a pandemic decimate the live music world, and when compounded with the usual punk community struggles (house venue regulation crackdowns, threadbare economics, etc.), OKC has been a particularly inhospitable place for a […]
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A little help
In the world of stringed instruments, the four-string ukulele has a small and kitschy niche that was associated with the likes of the late Tiny Tim and vaudeville. More recently, it’s gotten a slightly cooler image as artists ranging from actress Zooey Deschanel to musicians Nellie McKay and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder have been using […]
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Still Stoopid
When guitarists/singers Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald started Slightly Stoopid in 1994, they were out front of a second generation of bands that wanted to build on the reggae-rock sound that was starting to take hold thanks to the success of groups like Sublime, 311 and, to a lesser extent, No Doubt. Now some 28 […]