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Music of Oklahoma

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Music of the United States

While the music of Oklahoma is relatively young, Oklahoma has been a state for just over 100 years,and it has a rich history and many fine and influential musicians.

Songs of Oklahoma

For complete list see List of songs of Oklahoma.

Official state songs

  • Official state country and western song: (adopted in 1988)
  • Official state children's song: (adopted in 1996)
    • Oklahoma, My Native Land, Martha Kemm Barrett

Other songs

For a more complete list, see the Wikipedia List of Songs About Oklahoma.

Categories

American Indian

Because of the federal government's policy in the 19th century of moving groups of American Indians westward, Oklahoma has the most diverse collection of American Indian musicians in the world. This rich collection of traditional music is performed in pow-wows all over the state. Additionally, the music is enriched by Indian musician’s exposure to other tribe's songs through the many intertribal meetings in the state. The American Indian Exposition at Anadarko is the oldest in the nation bringing tribes from over the west to perform. The Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, in a less traditional, more modern setting, has also become very popular.

49s, the first modern original American Indian music style, originated in Oklahoma among the Kiowa Indians in southwestern Oklahoma and quickly spread to other tribes through the American Indian Exposition at Anadarko. The name comes from a burlesque show that toured the area in the 1920s called the "Girls of '49" for its California gold rush theme. A 49 (or forty-nine) is a gathering following a pow-wow and the songs are usually love songs, mostly in English, with repeated refrains of nonsense Indian language syllables.[1]

Country

The traditional Appalachian folk ballads brought by new settlers from the South infused Oklahoma with a music about the lives of everyday people. Much of the music was overtly religious as the rural communities revolved around their churches. Another distinctive type of country music grew out of the dance halls and roadhouses, especially in the oil boom areas of eastern Oklahoma. This honky-tonk style music from Oklahoma and the surrounding states became a staple of American country music for years.

Gospel

Oklahoma has had a long tradition of Gospel music. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Steal Away To Jesus, standard Gospel tunes, were written by Wallis Willis, a former slave in the old Choctaw Nation of southeastern Oklahoma. Alexander Reid, a minister at a Choctaw boarding school after the Civil War, transcribed the words and melodies and sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers then popularized the songs during a tour of the United States and Europe.[2] Albert E. Brumley, a Spiro, Oklahoma native, wrote a number of Gospel classics that have become a standard in Gospel singer's repertoirs. His best known compositions include I'll Fly Away, Jesus Hold My Hand, and Turn Your Radio On. These songs are commonplace in many church hymnals today.

Jazz and swing

The territory bands of the 1920s and 30s brought a new style of music to Oklahoma. Many of the well-known swing musicians tuned their skills and styles touring with these regional bands. These bands brought the big-band orchestras to many communities never visited by the more popular groups from New York. Perhaps the most famous of the Oklahoma based territory bands were the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. The Blue Devils were the foundation for Count Basie's orchestra. The Al Good Orchestra, also from Oklahoma City, began playing in the Oklahoma area in the 1940's and continue to play after his Al Good's death in 2003. In addition, a number of prominent jazz musicians came from Oklahoma; these include Oscar Pettiford, Don Byas, Cecil McBee, Sam Rivers, Don Cherry, and Jay McShann. Although most of these self-identified as African American, many (including Pettiford) were also partly of Native American ancestry.

Rock and roll

One of the hot spots for rock and roll in Oklahoma during the 60's was Ronnie Kaye's "The Scene" in Oklahoma City. It featured local garage rock and psychedelic bands. Musicians such as songwriter J. J. Cale, Elvin Bishop, and Leon Russell have ties to Oklahoma (see The Tulsa Sound), and Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom has become a notable small-venue club for touring bands. After the success of cult icons The Flaming Lips, under-the-radar act Starlight Mints, and 90's alternative groups Chainsaw Kittens and The Nixons, Norman has become a hotspot for local and nationwide indie music. Pop-rock band Hanson, who had a string of hits in the mid-90s, hails from Tulsa; alternative-rock band The All-American Rejects was formed in Stillwater; and post-grunge band Hinder, notable for their hit "Lips of an Angel" hails from Oklahoma City as well as other local favorites such as: XIT27, Stone Cold Sober, Aranda and Violence to Vegas.

Western or cowboy

Prior to Oklahoma's opening for settlement, cowboys pushing cattle from Texas to the railheads developed a style and subject of music that became known as Cowboy or Western. As they settled on the ranches they continued their traditional style of singing. The romanticism of the cowboy in the popular culture brought a wider audience to the music. Although the writers of these traditional Western songs are mostly unknown, Dr. Brewster Highley, author of perhaps the most famous of the cowboy ballads, Home on the Range, followed the frontier into Oklahoma where he died in 1911.

Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys were the first nationally popular cowboy band. Formed in 1924 by William McGinty, Oklahoma pioneer and former Rough Rider, the band performed on radio and national vaudeville circuits from 1924 through 1936. Otto Gray, the first "Singing Cowboy", and all of the band members were recruited from Oklahoma ranches.[3]

Western Swing

Oklahoma was a center for the development and spread of Western swing. Performers playing the traditional western music, influenced heavily by the territory bands, added fiddles and steel guitars to the their orchestras to produce a new and very popular type of music. Bob Wills, and His Texas Playboys, based in Tulsa, influenced this music for more than a generation. One of the more distinctive early Western swing bands from Oklahoma was Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band, a family group of Choctaw Indians, who performed out of Wichita, Kansas, during the 1920s, and who were recorded by H. C. Speir of Victor Records in 1929.

Venues

Live performances

Paul had a little string band and sometimes I would chord with them over at George's Pig Stand near Maud. These were 'outside performances' and most of the people sat in their cars to listen to the music. A lot of horn-honking showed approval for a particular rendition of a song. Sometimes couples would dance on the little concrete slab at the side of the building.

Mildred Dennis, Maud, Oklahoma, 1943[4]

Music in Oklahoma has been played, sung, and heard in the Indian villages of the earliest Americans; around the campfires of the cowboys and traders; in the churches, theaters, and dancehalls of the territorial days; and in concert halls and at music festivals, pow-wows National Guard armories, and school gymnasiums of the present day.

Recently, Americana Unplugged established a house concert-type venue in downtown Davis, Oklahoma featuring folk and Americana musicians.

Radio

In 1922, WKY began broadcasting in Oklahoma City. Other stations followed and soon, anyone with a radio could hear music previously unavailable to them. Still, many radios broadcast local music. KVOO in Tulsa aired Western swing from Bob Wills for more than twenty years.

In 1958, KOMA, a 50,000 watt radio station in Oklahoma City, began a format of playing Top 40 recordings and Rock & Roll. Its signal strength allowed many young people across the Great Plains and Western states to listen to music not available from their local stations and influenced many of their local music markets.

Oklahoma currently supports many radio stations. Most play music that ranges from classical to hip-hop. Much of their content, however, is taped and the same programs broadcast over several stations throughout the U.S. Very little local music is aired. (See List of radio stations in Oklahoma)

List of live venues

Native Oklahoma musicians and composers

Oklahoma bands and choral groups

Musicians and bands with Oklahoma ties

Endnotes

  1. ^ Velie, American Indian Literature, page 89 Kiowa "49" Songs.
  2. ^ Savage, Singing Cowboys, page 5.
  3. ^ Savage, Singing Cowboys, page 34.
  4. ^ Dennis, It's Gonna Be OK, page 86.

Bibliography

  • Dennis, Mildred. It's Gonna Be OK: A Lease-Child's Legacy. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2004. ISBN 1-4208-0305-0
  • Moore, Ethel, and Chauncey O. (compilers). Ballads and folk songs of the Southwest: more than 600 titles, melodies, and texts collected in Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.
  • Savage, William W., Jr. Singing Cowboys and All That Jazz: A Short History of Popular Music in Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8061-2085-1
  • Velie, Alan R. American Indian Literature: An Anthology. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8061-2345-1

References

  1. ^ COOLEY, DONNELL CLYDE "SPADE" (1910-1969)
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