Like a lot of local musicians, Steven Battles has grazed the floors of Norman’s Opolis for as long as he can remember. The Pink Pony ringleader has seen countless musicians at the venue, even cutting his teeth as a doorman at one point. But no matter how vital the place has been in the booking […]
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Reunited
Oklahoma City musical duo Adam and Kizzie Ledbetter’s story is like something out of a romance. Classmates at Classen School of Advanced Studies, they went their separate ways after graduation, until 2011, when fate drew them back together. “We were both going through some pretty heavy transitions in life, going through our depressions, so when […]
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Rock the Brick
Ali Harter Photo: Mark Hancock Friday nights this summer, the streets of Bricktown are louder — but in a good way, as the outdoor summer concert series known as Lower Bricktown Live returns to rock the public and, hopefully, drive more commerce to the area. That’s been the plan since the series’ inception in 2010. […]
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Various artists — Woody Guthrie at 100!: Live at the Kennedy Center
One look at the artists featured on Woody Guthrie at 100!: Live at the Kennedy Center — a concert album/DVD recorded on what would have been his 100th birthday — and his far-reaching impact is clear. Who else could influence both Old Crow Medicine Show and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello to the same […]
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Better off Red
Nathan Cross of Grady’s 66 Pub Photo: Mark Hancock However, as many artists are wont to find out, the music remained in his blood. And that’s how Grady’s 66 Pub, 444 W. Main in Yukon, was started. “I wanted to still be involved in the music business, wanted to still be surrounded by the music […]
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Songs of the South
The Kamals Photo: Stephen Carradini Taking place March 12-17, the event’s switch from the single-story Friends Bar to The 512, a two-story location, allowed for two stages without too much noise interference, which is almost always a problem at SXSW. The open-air upstairs stage had a bit of peripheral sound invasion, but even during Samantha […]
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Out with a Bang
Photo: Doug Schwarz Oklahoma City punk-rock outfit The Boom Bang is headed to the big glass house in the sky, exiting this world in a blaze of smoke bombs, cheap beer, broken glass and partial male nudity. Pizza cookers, firework vendors and local music fans alike mourn the loss of one of the greatest live […]
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Webb fluid
Few songwriters have reached the stratospheric heights as that of Jimmy Webb. By age 16, he was working for Motown Records. At age 20, he wrote “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” which later was a smash for Glen Campbell and would become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. With […]
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Street cred
In grade school, a lot of us were too busy playing Nintendo and sipping Capri Sun to even think about attempting anything artistic. But not Jabee Williams, aka Oklahoma City rapper Jabee. “I wrote my first rap when I was 7. That’s when I started,” Jabee said. “It just went on from there. I went […]
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Jump street
Photo: Clayton Elder Electronic bands face an uphill climb in the Sooner State, which boasts a proud musical heritage long defined by the obvious (country), the unassuming (folk rock) and, more recently, the brash (garage and punk). Oklahomans like their guitars — for good reason — and the instrument’s reign atop the state is unlikely […]