Bo Phillips is a good country songwriter and performer, but he might be an even better teacher. The Oklahoma State University grad turned high school ag teacher turned professional musician considers his little brother as his star pupil. “I taught him to play guitar while we were growing up,” Phillips said of his star sibling, […]
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Bo knows
Bo Phillips is a good country songwriter and performer, but he might be an even better teacher. The Oklahoma State University grad turned high school ag teacher turned professional musician considers his little brother as his star pupil. “I taught him to play guitar while we were growing up,” Phillips said of his star sibling, […]
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The Damn Quails — Down The Hatch
Showcased front and center amid a backing band circus that includes John Fullbright and Joe Hardy, White and Marshall confidently steer their way through 14 songs set in smoky bars, busted-up relationships, bluegrass towns and even the pokey. Despite their relative youth, the pair boasts many years’ experience, and it really shows in the strong […]
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Terra Lightfoot — Terra Lightfoot
It’s a far, more pleasant cry from the rough-worn, truth-saying voices of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and the usually sparse, simple arrangements that accompanied them. Terra Lightfoot is one such contemporary. The artist from Waterdown Canada has also played with country band The Dinner Belles. Here we have her solo debut, which calls upon […]
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Various Artists — The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
Now unearthed, some genius (not sarcasm) at Columbia thought it’d be a great idea to recruit a handful of singers indebted to Williams for the purpose of recording an album that simultaneously acts as tribute and debut. None of these songs were ever recorded, according to Columbia. Who finished writing them, we don’t know, but […]
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Stoney LaRue — Velvet
The song opens Edmond resident Stoney LaRue’s second studio full-length, “Velvet,” six years after “The Red Dirt Album.” At times, LaRue and his band (which features CMA favorite Randy Scruggs on guitar) kid themselves with the limited singer’s range, but they really nail the dark, smooth feeling suggested by the title, with soft-rock guitar fills […]
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Divided no more
After years of dealing in the music business and playing with The Great Divide left him jaded, ornery Red Dirt musician Mike McClure is happy with his freedom. So why’s the band getting back together to headline at Stillwater’s College Days? “Money and whores,” he said with a wiseass chortle. “Naw, I honestly thought that […]
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Hero worship
9 p.m. Friday VZD’s Restaurant & Club, 4200 N. Western VZDS.com, 524-4203 $5 When Brooklyn native Rich Russell decided he wanted to be a country singer after years of drinking up indie bands in hip, New York City neighborhoods, he knew the perfect place to go: Texas. “Austin is a really hip, indie-oriented city, but […]
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Kernel records
The television series’ uniquely rural comedic style had an impact on the South, which is why the Oklahoma History Center has devoted an exhibit to the show and one of its stars with “Pickin’ and Grinnin’,” on display through May 2012. “Hee Haw” aired from 1969 to 1992, surviving in syndication for its last 20 years. […]
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Reckoning
Surprise, surprise! Alternative country rockers Reckless Kelly didn’t have much of a following when they first formed in Bend, Ore., just hours outside of crushingly hip Portland. It’s not that the guys didn’t have the talent; the grunge-happy Pacific Northwest just didn’t have enough avenues to showcase them. “We didn’t have a lot of gigs,” […]